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In this haunting and hypnotizing novel, a young woman loses everything—half of her body, her fiancé, and possibly her unborn child—to a terrible apartment fire. While recovering from the trauma, she discovers a photo album inhabited by a predatory ghost who promises to make her whole again, all while slowly consuming her from the inside out.Damian Angelica Walters'work has appeared or is forthcoming in Year's Best Weird Fiction Volume One, Nightmare, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, Shimmer, Apex, and Glitter & Mayhem. She was an associate editor of the Hugo Award-winning Electric Velocipede.

Verena war erst süße 17 Jahre alt als sie sich Hals über Kopf in den smarten Nigerianer Salim verliebte und ihn ein Jahr später heiratete. Doch Salim hat sie getäuscht und sie und ihre Mutter in den finanziellen Ruin getrieben. Viel zu spät hat sie begriffen, dass ihr Mann ein grausames, falsches Spiel spielte..

Margery Kempe. Aemilia Lanyer. Aphra Behn. Lady Mary. Jane Austen. Warned not to write – and certainly not to bite – these women put pen to paper anyway and wrote themselves into history. ‘Smart, funny and highly readable... a tour de force.'A.L. Kennedy Ever since Sappho first put stylus to papyrus, women who write have been labelled mad, undisciplined and dangerous. Funny and provocative, Eve Bites Back offers an alternative history of English literature. Placing the female contemporaries of Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton centre stage, Anna Beer builds a vibrant new canon through Restoration wits, scandalous sensation novelists and medieval mystics. Delving into the lives and work of eight pioneers – Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Aemilia Lanyer, Anne Bradstreet, Aphra Behn, Mary Wortley Montagu, Jane Austen and Mary Elizabeth Braddon – Beer uncovers the struggles and triumphs of these gamechangers, ground-breakers and genre-makers.

“Willy Vlautin is not known for happy endings, but there's something here that defies the downward pull. In the end, Lynette is pure life force: fierce and canny and blazing through a city that no longer has space for her, and it's all Portland's loss.”—Portland Monthly MagazineAward-winning author Willy Vlautin explores the impact of trickle-down greed and opportunism of gentrification on ordinary lives in this scorching novel that captures the plight of a young woman pushed to the edge as she fights to secure a stable future for herself and her family.Barely thirty, Lynette is exhausted. Saddled with bad credit and juggling multiple jobs, some illegally, she's been diligently working to buy the house she lives in with her mother and developmentally disabled brother Kenny. Portland's housing prices have nearly quadrupled in fifteen years, and the owner is giving them a good deal. Lynette knows it's their last best chance to own their own home—and obtain the security they've never had. While she has enough for the down payment, she needs her mother to cover the rest of the asking price. But a week before they're set to sign the loan papers, her mother gets cold feet and reneges on her promise, pushing Lynette to her limits to find the money they need.Set over two days and two nights, The Night Always Comes follows Lynette's frantic search—an odyssey of hope and anguish that will bring her face to face with greedy rich men and ambitious hustlers, those benefiting and those left behind by a city in the throes of a transformative boom. As her desperation builds and her pleas for help go unanswered, Lynette makes a dangerous choice that sets her on a precarious, frenzied spiral. In trying to save her family's future, she is plunged into the darkness of her past, and forced to confront the reality of her life.A heart wrenching portrait of a woman hungry for security and a home in a rapidly changing city, The Night Always Comes raises the difficult questions we are often too afraid to ask ourselves: What is the price of gentrification, and how far are we really prepared to go to achieve the American Dream? Is the American dream even attainable for those living at the edges? Or for too many of us, is it only a hollow promise?

It's 1992. In a small town in Fife, a girl is busting to get out into the world and see what's on offer. And an ad in the local paper declares: BAND SEEKS SINGER.Grunge has just gone global, scruffy indie kids are inheriting the earth, and a schoolgirl from Glenrothes is catapulted to a rock star lifestyle as the singer in a hot new indie band. Touring with Radiohead, partying with Blur, she was living the dream. Until she wasn't.Based on her meticulously detailed, pull-no-punches teenage diaries, this is the true story of Cora Bissett's rollercoaster journey from the girl she was to the woman she wanted to be.

“One of the playwrights our country, and our language, has produced.” – Tony Kushner“Quirky, disturbing, and inexplicably beautiful theatrical poetry.” – Cary M. Mazer, Philadelphia City Paper“Congdon writes like a woman possessed.” – Nels Nelson, New York Daily NewsAn immensely inventive and challenging writer, Constance Congdon is one of America's finest playwrights, endowed with great compassion, keen insight and an unfailing comic sensibility. Throughout the plays in her first collection, she demonstrates a range rare in writers in any age, from a somber meditation on life in the postnuclear age (No Mercy) to madcap social satire (Losing Father's Body), from an epic historical exploration of love and sexual identity (Casanova) to her most popular play to date (Tales of the Lost Formicans), acclaimed by William A. Henry III of Time magazine as “A travel guide to Middle America conducted by aliens from outer space If not the best new play of recent years, surely the most imaginative.”Constance Congdon's plays have been produced throughout the United States and abroad. She has received playwriting fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller and Guggenheim foundations, and is the winner of Oppenheimer/Newsday, W. Alton Jones and L/ Arnold Weissberger awards. Congdon, an alumna of New Dramatists, currently teaches playwriting at Amherst College.

'A Doll's House'by Henrik Ibsen is a groundbreaking and thought-provoking masterpiece that challenges societal norms and explores the complex dynamics of marriage and identity. Set in 19th-century Norway, the play revolves around Nora Helmer, a seemingly content wife and mother, and her husband Torvald.As the plot unfolds, the audience is drawn into a web of secrets, lies, and personal revelations. Nora's journey from a docile, doll-like existence to a woman determined to assert her independence is at the heart of the play. Ibsen's writing skillfully delves into themes of gender roles, societal expectations, and the quest for self-discovery.The play's impact on theater and literature is profound, as it marks a pivotal moment in the emergence of modern drama. Ibsen's exploration of the inner lives of his characters and his critique of the traditional roles assigned to women continue to resonate with audiences today.'A Doll's House'is a gripping and emotionally charged work that invites reflection on issues of autonomy, identity, and the consequences of societal pressures. It challenges the audience to question the roles they play in their own lives and the authenticity of their relationships.Step into the world of'A Doll's House'and witness the power of Henrik Ibsen's storytelling as it continues to provoke thought and discussion on the timeless themes of freedom and individuality.ABOUT THE AUTHORHenrik Ibsen (1828-1906) was a Norwegian playwright and one of the most significant figures in modern drama. Born in Skien, Norway, Ibsen's works, including'A Doll's House,''Hedda Gabler,'and'Peer Gynt,'have had a profound impact on the theater and literature. Ibsen's writing is characterized by its realistic portrayal of human psychology and societal issues. He explored themes such as women's rights, social hypocrisy, and the consequences of personal choices, challenging the conventions of his time. His plays often sparked controversy and debate but also contributed to significant social and cultural changes. Ibsen's legacy extends far beyond his lifetime, as his innovative approach to drama and storytelling laid the foundation for modern theater. His works continue to be performed worldwide, and he remains a celebrated playwright whose influence on literature and drama endures.

A stunning collection of plays from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks that captures the societal rupture of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.On March 13, 2020, as theaters shut their doors and so many of us went into lockdown, Suzan-Lori Parks picked up her pen and set out to write a play every day. What emerged is a breathtaking chronicle of our collective experience throughout the troubling days and nights that followed.Plays for the Plague Year is at once a personal story of one family's daily lives, as well as a sweeping account of all we faced as a city, a nation, and a global community. Parks'groundbreaking new work is brimming with humanity, bears witness to what we've experienced, and offers inspiration as we look ahead.

Texas hill country, 1868. As nineteen-year-old Benjamin Shreve tends to business in his workshop, he sees a stagecoach leave a passenger stranded. The man, a treasure hunter, persuades Benjamin to help track down the coach, drawing him into a drama he could never have imagined. On reaching the coach they discover that its passengers include Nell, a pregnant young woman, and her four-year-old son, Tot, who are fleeing Nell's brutal husband and his murderous brothers. Nell is in grave danger. If her husband catches her, he will kill her and take their son. Benjamin offers to deliver Nell and Tot to a distant port on the Gulf of Mexico, where they can board a ship to safety. He is joined in this chivalrous act by two companions: the treasure hunter whose stranding began this endeavour and a restless Black Seminole who has an escape plan of his own. Fraught with jeopardy from the outset, the trek across Texas becomes still more dangerous as buried secrets emerge. And even as Benjamin falls in love with Nell and begins to imagine a life as Tot's father, vengeful pursuers are never far behind.

Oscar Wilde's'The Importance of Being Earnest'is a timeless comedic masterpiece that combines witty satire, social commentary, and farcical humor in a delightful theatrical concoction.Set in the elegant drawing rooms of Victorian-era London, the play revolves around the hilarious deceptions of its characters, particularly Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing. These dashing young men each maintain a fictitious persona—Algernon has invented a friend named'Bunbury'to escape social obligations, while Jack assumes the identity of'Ernest'to lead a double life in the city.Their elaborate schemes lead to a series of uproarious misunderstandings, as they pursue the affections of two charming young ladies, Gwendolen and Cecily. The play is brimming with sparkling dialogue and clever wordplay, as Wilde skewers the hypocrisy and absurdity of the upper classes.Wilde's genius lies in his ability to craft a comedy that simultaneously entertains and critiques society. Beneath the laughter, he exposes the superficiality of social norms and the penchant for individuals to create facades to fit in.'The Importance of Being Earnest'is a theatrical gem, celebrated for its sharp humor, memorable characters, and enduring relevance. Wilde's satire on societal conventions and the pursuit of love, along with his exploration of the farcical nature of human identity, makes this play a must-read for anyone seeking intelligent comedy and incisive social commentary. Prepare to be both amused and enlightened as you enter Wilde's world of wit and absurdity.ABOUT THE AUTHOROscar Wilde (1854-1900) was a flamboyant and brilliant Irish playwright, poet, and author, renowned for his razor-sharp wit and satirical insights. With his exuberant personality and unconventional style, Wilde became a prominent figure in the aesthetic and decadent movements of the late 19th century. From his famous plays like'The Importance of Being Earnest'to his only novel,'The Picture of Dorian Gray', Wilde's works challenged societal norms and explored the complexities of human nature and morality. He cleverly blended comedy with social commentary, captivating audiences with his delightful humor and profound observations. Despite achieving fame and success, Wilde's life took a tragic turn when he faced public scandal and persecution for his personal life. Despite this adversity, he maintained his eloquence and wit until the end, leaving a lasting legacy as one of the most celebrated literary figures in history. Oscar Wilde's writings continue to be cherished for their timeless charm and their ability to provoke thought, ensuring that his influence endures for generations to come.

In'Mrs. Harter'by E. M. Delafield, readers are drawn into the intricate world of a woman who navigates the complexities of societal expectations and personal desires. Set against the backdrop of early 20th-century England, the novel explores themes of identity, freedom, and the often conflicting roles imposed on women. Mrs. Harter, a character of remarkable depth and subtlety, finds herself at a crossroads, torn between the life she has always known and the tantalizing possibility of something more. As she grapples with her choices, the story unfolds with a keen eye for the nuances of human emotion and social dynamics. Delafield's sharp wit and poignant observations make this a timeless tale, resonating deeply with contemporary readers who continue to face the challenges of balancing tradition and self-fulfillment.'Mrs. Harter'is a compelling exploration of the courage it takes to forge one's own path in a world that often demands conformity.

Obie Award for Playwriting: Sanctuary CityTwo compelling, uncompromising plays about the immigrant experience by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of Cost of Living. With humor, grace, and an unsentimental eye, Martyna Majok explores the challenges immigrants face as they strive to carve out a place in a harsh and often indifferent America.In Ironbound, Darja, a Polish immigrant, negotiates the terms for her future at a rundown bus stop in New Jersey. Over the course of 20 years and three relationships, Darja's initial search for love becomes eclipsed by her desire for security and survival.In Sanctuary City, two undocumented teenagers seek refuge in each other and make a pact to stake their claim in America together. But as their experiences and opportunities diverge, their bonds begin to fray, and each must make a difficult choice about what they are willing to sacrifice for their dreams.

Lydia Casselberry's world comes undone when she discovers that her husband of almost forty years is having an affair. Needing time to grieve and to decide whether to continue the marriage, she decides to flee from her Tampa home to a place she hasn't been in decades – her family's lodge in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. She tells no one where she is going, but writes two notes saying she needs to be alone. One is to her best friend; the other her husband will find when he returns from another of his continual business trips.Healing begins in the solitude of nature and a place where she can rediscover herself. Memories of her youth and marriage flood back, but so do more questions. What she uncovers reveals that her husband's betrayal is far deeper, and far more sordid, than she ever could have imagined. Her grief then turns to cold rage – and revenge that undoes his world.

Joanna Baillie was born on the 11th September 1762 in Bothwell, Lanarkshire.Her established Scottish family was both well-connected and intellectually stimulating. Her strict mother home educated her and although she was drawn to literature her first love was the surrounding Scottish countryside. After her father's death in 1778, the family moved to Glasgow, and later to London. It was there that Baillie began to immerse herself in the literary and theatrical circles of the time. She first published in 1790 with ‘Poems: Wherein it is Attempted to Describe Certain Views of Nature and of Rustic Manners'she received more attention a few years later with ‘Plays on the Passions', an ambitious series of plays exploring human emotions with each play focussed on a single emotion. Its success was recognised by being performed at Drury Lane.Baillie's work was characterized by its psychological depth and moral seriousness. She believed in the power of drama to reveal the complexities of human nature and aimed to combine classical traditions with contemporary themes. Unusually for the time her plays featured strong, complex characters, particularly women, and addressed issues such as social injustice and the human capacity for both good and evil.Her later works failed to mirror her early success, although she remained a respected figure in literary circles.Alongside her many dramatic works she wrote further volumes of poems and songs as well as essays.Despite the waning of her audience during the long Victorian era more modern audiences are again engaging works and her then innovative approach to character and emotion.Joanna Baillie died on the 23rd February, 1851, in Hampstead, London. She was 89.

Joanna Baillie was born on the 11th September 1762 in Bothwell, Lanarkshire.Her established Scottish family was both well-connected and intellectually stimulating. Her strict mother home educated her and although she was drawn to literature her first love was the surrounding Scottish countryside. After her father's death in 1778, the family moved to Glasgow, and later to London. It was there that Baillie began to immerse herself in the literary and theatrical circles of the time. She first published in 1790 with ‘Poems: Wherein it is Attempted to Describe Certain Views of Nature and of Rustic Manners'she received more attention a few years later with ‘Plays on the Passions', an ambitious series of plays exploring human emotions with each play focussed on a single emotion. Its success was recognised by being performed at Drury Lane.Baillie's work was characterized by its psychological depth and moral seriousness. She believed in the power of drama to reveal the complexities of human nature and aimed to combine classical traditions with contemporary themes. Unusually for the time her plays featured strong, complex characters, particularly women, and addressed issues such as social injustice and the human capacity for both good and evil.Her later works failed to mirror her early success, although she remained a respected figure in literary circles.Alongside her many dramatic works she wrote further volumes of poems and songs as well as essays.Despite the waning of her audience during the long Victorian era more modern audiences are again engaging works and her then innovative approach to character and emotion.Joanna Baillie died on the 23rd February, 1851, in Hampstead, London. She was 89.

Joanna Baillie was born on the 11th September 1762 in Bothwell, Lanarkshire.Her established Scottish family was both well-connected and intellectually stimulating. Her strict mother home educated her and although she was drawn to literature her first love was the surrounding Scottish countryside. After her father's death in 1778, the family moved to Glasgow, and later to London. It was there that Baillie began to immerse herself in the literary and theatrical circles of the time. She first published in 1790 with ‘Poems: Wherein it is Attempted to Describe Certain Views of Nature and of Rustic Manners'she received more attention a few years later with ‘Plays on the Passions', an ambitious series of plays exploring human emotions with each play focussed on a single emotion. Its success was recognised by being performed at Drury Lane.Baillie's work was characterized by its psychological depth and moral seriousness. She believed in the power of drama to reveal the complexities of human nature and aimed to combine classical traditions with contemporary themes. Unusually for the time her plays featured strong, complex characters, particularly women, and addressed issues such as social injustice and the human capacity for both good and evil.Her later works failed to mirror her early success, although she remained a respected figure in literary circles.Alongside her many dramatic works she wrote further volumes of poems and songs as well as essays.Despite the waning of her audience during the long Victorian era more modern audiences are again engaging works and her then innovative approach to character and emotion.Joanna Baillie died on the 23rd February, 1851, in Hampstead, London. She was 89.

A wry, innovative reckoning with the legacy of the Salem witch trials from one of America's foremost playwrights.Becky Nurse is an outspoken, sharp-witted tour guide at the Salem Museum of Witchcraft who's just trying to get by in post-Obama America. She's also the descendant of Rebecca Nurse, who was infamously executed for witchcraft in 1692—but things have changed for women since then…haven't they? After losing her job for calling out The Crucible in front of schoolkids, Becky visits a local witch for help. One spell leads to another, and then everything really goes off the rails. A darkly comic play about a woman coming to terms with her family's legacy and finding her voice in the “lock her up” era.Becky Nurse of Salem received its world premiere at Berkeley Rep in December 2019, in a production directed by Anne Kauffman. The play will receive its New York premiere at Lincoln Center Theater in the fall of 2022.

Since its immediate success in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work “her own darling child” and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, “as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print.” The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England. Among the writers who have approached nearest to the manner of the great master, we have no hesitation in placing Jane Austen. —Thomas Macaulay ‘Pride and Prejudice'is the best novel in the language. —Anthony Trollope I used to think that men did everything better than women, but that was before I read Jane Austen. I don't think any man ever wrote better than Jane Austen. —Rex Stout Elizabeth Bennet has but to speak, and I am at her knees. —Robert Louis Stevenson Read again, and for the third time at least, Miss Austen's very finely written novel of ‘Pride and Prejudice.'That young lady has a talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. —Sir Walter Scott

Joanna Baillie was born on the 11th September 1762 in Bothwell, Lanarkshire.Her established Scottish family was both well-connected and intellectually stimulating. Her strict mother home educated her and although she was drawn to literature her first love was the surrounding Scottish countryside. After her father's death in 1778, the family moved to Glasgow, and later to London. It was there that Baillie began to immerse herself in the literary and theatrical circles of the time. She first published in 1790 with ‘Poems: Wherein it is Attempted to Describe Certain Views of Nature and of Rustic Manners'she received more attention a few years later with ‘Plays on the Passions', an ambitious series of plays exploring human emotions with each play focussed on a single emotion. Its success was recognised by being performed at Drury Lane.Baillie's work was characterized by its psychological depth and moral seriousness. She believed in the power of drama to reveal the complexities of human nature and aimed to combine classical traditions with contemporary themes. Unusually for the time her plays featured strong, complex characters, particularly women, and addressed issues such as social injustice and the human capacity for both good and evil.Her later works failed to mirror her early success, although she remained a respected figure in literary circles.Alongside her many dramatic works she wrote further volumes of poems and songs as well as essays.Despite the waning of her audience during the long Victorian era more modern audiences are again engaging works and her then innovative approach to character and emotion.Joanna Baillie died on the 23rd February, 1851, in Hampstead, London. She was 89.

Recovering the stage work of one of America's finest black female writers This volume collects twelve of Georgia Douglas Johnson's one-act plays, including two never-before-published scripts found in the Library of Congress. As an integral part of Washington, D.C.'s, thriving turn-of-the-century literary scene, Johnson hosted regular meetings with Harlem Renaissance writers and other artists, including Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, May Miller, and Jean Toomer, and was herself considered among the finest writers of the time. Johnson also worked for U.S. government agencies and actively supported women's and minorities'rights. As a leading authority on Johnson, Judith L. Stephens provides a brief overview of Johnson's career and significance as a playwright; sections on the creative environment in which she worked; her S Street Salon;'The Saturday Nighters,'and its significance to the New Negro Theatre; selected photographs; and a discussion of Johnson's genres, themes, and artistic techniques.

Quiara Alegría Hudes'stage adaptation of her much-lauded memoir is a joyous celebration of Puerto Rican womanhood in 1990s West Philadelphia.In this memoir-turned-play, Hudes showcases a handful of key life moments that mark subtle changes in her sense of self and her place in the world. Interlaid between these vignettes are moments of song, dance, and ritual that evoke her boisterous girlhood in a house run by the Perez women. Through this piece, we come to understand the collaborative art that was Hudes's coming of age, and the communal nature of autobiography.

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR DRAMA: EnglishIn this two-play volume, Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Sanaz Toossi explores the emotional toll of migration, both for those who leave and those who stay. Taken together, English and Wish You Were Here offer a moving portrait of the complex effects of the Iranian diaspora.

Neugier und die Liebe zum Dialog kennzeichnen die Regisseurin Barbara Frey. Der Figurenfeinzeichnung in ihren Inszenierungen, ihrer eminenten Musikalität, ihrem ästhetischen Chiaroscuro, aber auch ihren Gastgeberqualitäten als Intendantin am Schauspielhaus Zürich und der Ruhrtriennale geht der vorliegende Band in Essays und Interviews nach. La curiosité et l'amour du dialogue caractérisent Barbara Frey. Le présent ouvrage réunit essais et interviews pour souligner la finesse des personnages qu'elle met en scène, sa musicalité exceptionnelle, son clair-obscur esthétique mais aussi son talent d'hôte comme directrice du Schauspielhaus de Zurich puis de la Ruhrtriennale. La curiosità e l'amore per il dialogo caratterizzano la regista Barbara Frey. In saggi e interviste, il presente volume mette in luce l'intensità dei personaggi che porta in scena, la sua eminente musicalità, il suo chiaroscuro estetico, ma anche il suo spirito di accoglienza come direttrice artistica dello Schauspielhaus di Zurigo e della Ruhrtriennale. Curiosity and love of dialogue: these are director Barbara Frey's signature features. The essays and interviews in this volume examine the depth she brings to her characters on stage, her extraordinary musicality, her aesthetic chiaroscuro – and her welcoming spirit as artistic director of Schauspielhaus Zurich and the Ruhrtriennale.

I can do it. I can be her. Hedda Gabler.When offered the lead part in a Norwegian film adaptation of Hedda Gabler, an American actress seizes the opportunity to escape Hollywood - and gain some artistic credibility. She's running away from her past as a child star, from her present as a tabloid punchline, and from an unfortunate collision between a self-driving Tesla and a member of the paparazzi. What awaits her in Norway is a film set where reality and fiction are blurred by Henrik, the brilliant and demanding director. As the atmosphere on set becomes increasingly claustrophobic, she becomes unmoored and paranoid - and Henrik becomes fixated on how to end the movie with a bang.Nina Segal's Shooting Hedda Gabler is a radical and affectionate adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, about doing whatever is necessary to get the shot.This edition was published to coincide with the Rose Original Production in association with The Norwegian Ibsen Company at Rose Theatre, London in September 2023.

Maybe we shouldn't always stay here. Maybe we should stay at yours, or you should stay at yours and I should stay here. Sometimes.Simon has returned to uni after taking a year out. He wants to get on with his finals and not slip back into old, destructive habits. Mia, a first-year, is embracing the explosive freedom of life away from home.Simon doesn't want to leave his room. But then he meets Mia.Philippa Lawford's Ikaria is a love story about finding salvation in someone else. Ikaria was awarded as runner-up for the Ambassador Theatre Group Playwrights'Prize, in association with Platform Presents and Time Out, and also received an Offie Short Run Commendation for the world premiere at the Old Red Lion Theatre in November 2022. Ikaria was originally developed by Tightrope Theatre with support from New Diorama Theatre.This edition was published to coincide with the UK tour in September 2023.

The first-ever print edition of a play by one of the first women playwrights in England. E. Polwhele (c. 1651-c. 1691) was one of the first women to write for the stage in Restoration London. This book presents the first printed edition of Polwhele's first play, The Faithful Virgins, which until now has existed only in an unsigned manuscript in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. A tragicomedy apparently performed in London by the Duke's Company ca. 1669–1671, The Faithful Virgins is altogether different in tone from Polwhele's later, better-known prose comedy, The Frolicks; or, The Lawyer Cheated (1671). The introduction to this modern-spelling edition of The Faithful Virgins discusses the play in terms of radical changes in English stage practices following the restoration of the monarchy after England's civil war and situates Polwhele's play within the social and political life of seventeenth-century London.

This translation makes The Buffoons, the first female-authored comedy printed in Italy, available to Anglophone readers for the first time. Published in 1641, this burlesque play depicts the mismatched sexual desires of a prince and princess. Although set in northern Africa, the comedy satirizes the Florentine court of Grand Duke Ferdinando II de'Medici, one of Costa's several elite patrons. By featuring the clownish antics of an unconventional cast of dwarfs, hunchbacks, and buffoons, it reflects the bizarre appetites and grotesque entertainments of the day. Ribald puns and commedia dell'arte-inspired slapstick abound, presenting the reader with a comic alternative to decorous women's writing in early modern Italy.

Isabella Andreini was the most famous actress of the Italian Renaissance, the darling of dukes and kings, as well as of less-moneyed theatergoers. As a founding member with her husband, Francesco, of the Compagnia dei Gelosi, she performed ceaselessly throughout Italy and France, and was prized for the new role she invented for women on stage, that of the ingénue with a comic bent. She was also a playwright; in fact, the first woman to publish a pastoral. This modern edition and translation subtly captures the novelty, as well as the imaginative pyrotechnics, of a brilliant, self-made virtuosa of the stage. The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe - The Toronto Series: Volume 62

In her first collection of plays, Olivier award-winning playwright and screenwriter Morgan Lloyd Malcolm's talent for writing complex female characters is on dazzling display. Belongings (2011):'Malcolm's writing is sharp and witty but also very powerful in places. Her use of humour can be shocking but it helps to balance out the weighty issues being explored: guilt, gender and family politics, sex as both a commodity and a weapon. Touching, funny and brutal, this is – on many levels – an impressive first work.'- Exeunt The Wasp (2015):'Morgan Lloyd Malcolm's two-hander is sprung like a bear trap, a play with very sharp teeth.'- The Stage Mum (2021):'Lloyd Malcolm, who resurrected a 17th-century feminist poet for her riotous 2018 hit Emilia, here spills the dark side of modern maternity: exhausted anxiety, love-hate co-dependency, what happens when your very worst fears come true.'- Evening Standard When The Long Trick's Over (2022):'Grief can feel like drowning. And in Morgan Lloyd Malcolm's play about a swimmer with the challenge to cross the Channel, it is voluminous.'- Guardian The Passenger (2021): Originally commissioned and produced by Shakespeare's Globe, this piece recounts the experience of the author's childhood terrors. A shadowy figure who follows. Has it followed us here? How will she escape him? The Passenger was staged as a part of the first Terrifying Women showcase at the Golden Goose Theatre, London, in October 2021. Morgan Lloyd Malcolm's play Emilia became a hit show in summer 2018 before transferring to the West End in 2019, winning three Olivier awards. Her adaptation of her play The Wasp completed filming at the end of 2022 starring Naomie Harris and Natalie Dormer and directed by Guillem Morales. Her play Belongings was shortlisted for the Charles Wintour Most Promising Playwright Award. She formed Terrifying Women with Abi Zakarian, Sampira and Amanda Castro in 2021 with an aim to producing more horror in theatre.

DISCOVER ONE OF THE UK'S FAVOURITE CRIME WRITERS WITH OVER 1.5 MILLION COPIES SOLD. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'Another excellent thriller…leading to an electrifying conclusion'Kathleen on Without Trace She opened her mouth to scream, but he slapped something across her lips. The gag tasted of salt and mould, rough sacking on her tongue. With a terrifying certainty, she knew she was going to die. DI Geraldine Steel knows people go missing all the time; sometimes because they don't want to be found. So when her partner Ian asks her to look into the disappearance of his friend's girlfriend, her first instinct is to reassure him there's no need for concern. Until she's called to a suspected murder, and all her instincts tell her she's right about the identity of the victim. The young woman has earth and leaf mould and fragments of twigs in her long fair hair, her nose, her mouth, under her finger nails, clinging to her clothes. It's as if she'd been completely encased in earth. And yet she was found on the pavement, at the side of a suburban road, where she wasn't in contact with any soil or mud. Had she managed to escape a living grave? She needs to find out what really happened. Where did the assault occur? Why are there traces of DNA from two other unidentified sources on the body? What reason could there be to attack a popular young woman who never did anyone any harm? And why bury her body so carelessly that she was able to escape? Then another young woman is reported missing. Unless he has an accomplice, they have an innocent man in custody. And Steel is running out of time... A page-turning puzzle of a case with an unexpected final twist. If you're a fan of Angela Marsons, Mel Sherratt and Karin Slaughter, you'll love Leigh Russell. Can be read as a stand-alone.

This is a comprehensive book about the three significant African American women dramatists whose plays illustrate the debilitating effects of racism, sexism, and classism on African Americans in general and African American women in particular. The book explicates the novel ideas about the African American women who have been oppressed by the men (both white and black); however, they launch a rebellion against the oppressive hegemonic white culture, African American patriarchy, and white materialistic ideology. This book offers an exhaustive background of the social, economic, political, and cultural history of African Americans in general and how the social, economic, political, and cultural history of African American women is different than that of white men, white women, and African American men in particular. The book also discusses how the images of African American women in American mainstream theater and African American male theater are different than the images of African American women in African American women's dramas. The themes of the book are the African American women as warriors or militants. African American women playwrights have transformed and re-invented American theater by writing plays for African American theater which focus on African American concerns, delineation of blackness, challenging the racial and gender authorities, projection of black womanhood, and production of African American history. African American women were truly and genuinely excluded from American mainstream theater because they were projected as stereotypes in American mainstream dramas and theater. Therefore, these women dramatists carried out the African American women's voice on the African American stage by telling the story of their race, history, African identity as well as being a woman. In their plays, they voice against the brutal treatment meted out to them by the white patriarchal social order and also by the African American patriarchy. African American women dramatists depict social violence, rape, suicide, domestic violence, racial violence, verbal abuse, child molestation, and so on. In most cases, black women are the victims of the violence and are portrayed as mere objects in a discourse of domination that African American women playwrights challenge. The main characters in the plays are not presented as mere objects, passive victims who endure subjugation; they are surrounded by brutal behavior and they use violence too. This shift in identification and focus is clearly influenced by the playwrights'adherence to African American feminist thought.

This edition presents, for the first time in English, a selection from the repertoire of the first Polish woman dramatist, Princess Franciszka Urszula Radziwiłłowa (1705–1753), with a historical-biographical Introduction incorporating interpretations of her works. Radziwiłłowa's plays treated complex issues concerning intimate relationships. In her poetry she explored new, very personal, means of expression for intimate declarations, in a form of language capable of conveying the emotional distress that could not find expression under existing conventions.

The second half of the seventeenth century marked the first major breakthrough for women playwrights in France, as some of them succeeded in getting their works staged, published and taken seriously by critics and authority figures. The four works included here, translated into English for the first time, represent the diversity of genres cultivated by these writers, while reflecting both the cultural milieu of the era and a concern for the status of women. Françoise Pascal's Endymion, a tragicomedy with special effects, daringly reexamines a classical myth. Marie-Catherine Desjardins's Nitetis, a historical tragedy, focuses on the plight of a virtuous and astute queen married to an evil tyrant. Antoinette Deshoulières's Genseric, also a historical tragedy, rejects prevailing models of male heroism and of conventional tragic plots. Catherine Durand's proverb comedies contain a scathing critique of aristocratic mores and give voice to women's desires for emancipation.

“A deceptively simple flavor-bomb of a new comedy about survival, second chances, and digesting whatever life serves up.” —Naveen Kumar, VarietyWith a chance at reclaiming their lives, the formerly incarcerated people working at Clyde's, a roadside sandwich stop, strive hard to overcome their personal challenges. Not so easy under their boss Clyde. In this razor-sharp comedy, this motley crew of line cooks, under a visionary chef, are given purpose and permission to dream through their shared quest to create the perfect sandwich.

A diverse group of seven writers comes together to create seven tender scenes about their hopes for the future.'The seven of us, a diverse group of elders, have endured, loved, lost and celebrated life in our own ways. Now, we decided, we would write a production for the stage, voicing our different experiences and what we came to realize are similar concerns about the future of our families, our planet, its peoples and its incredible network of flora and fauna.'The Many Mothers Collective came together during the pandemic, hoping to make sense of the world that they found themselves in. What they found is that they needed to focus not only on the present moment, but on the world they would leave for their children and grandchildren -- and for seven generations into the future. In seven scenes for the stage, they explore where we have come from and where we are going, with a deep hopefulness rooted in resistance.

Five Conversations About Peter Sellers is an essay that begins as an exploration of the author's burgeoning obsession with Peter Sellers, and specifically his role in hijacking and derailing production of the spy spoof, Casino Royale, in the late 60s. But what begins as a reported piece on how the film set erupted into chaos, quickly devolves into its own chaos as the essay splits into 5 different narrators, each with their own idea of what the essay is actually about. Is it about how Peter Sellers and his oversize ego ruined Casino Royale? Is it about how society has too long allowed horrible men to run the world? Is it an exploration of the nature of the essay as a creative form? Or is Peter Sellers and his genius at impersonation actually a vehicle through which the author probes her own shifting identity as a bi-ethnic person? The answer is...yes. From Five Conversations About Peter SellersBeth: There's a passage in Notes from Underground where the narrator speaks about the perverse pleasure of knowing your own vileness. ‘This pleasure comes precisely from the sharpest awareness of your own degradation; from the knowledge that you have gone to the utmost limit; that it is despicable, yet can't be otherwise, that you no longer have any way out, that you will never become a different man.'Build all the utopias you want, but some people can only know they're alive when they've destroyed everything beautiful around them.

Celeste Bedford Walker, one of the most accomplished contemporary playwrights in Texas, crafts dramas from history and everyday life that illuminate the African American experience in all its variety, tragedy, pathos, and hilarity. Collected here are five of her most acclaimed plays: Sassy Mamas, Greenwood: An American Dream Destroyed, Reunion in Bartersville, Distant Voices, and Camp Logan. The topics treated by Walker are timelier than ever. Sassy Mamas follows “three women of substance and of a certain age who flip the script on gender stereotypes and become involved with younger men.” Greenwood: An American Dream Destroyed tells the powerful story of the horrific attack on the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, once known as the “Black Wall Street.” In Reunion in Bartersville, described by Walker as “a comedy-mystery in two acts,” the 50-year class reunion of Bartersville High School turns to hilarious suspense when an unexpected guest arrives. Recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Distant Voices “resurrects” persons buried in College Memorial Park, the second-oldest African American cemetery in Houston, to celebrate the wisdom of those gone before. Camp Logan is based on real-life events in Houston in 1917, when members of the highly decorated 24th Infantry Regiment were subjected to brutal Jim Crow treatment, resulting in a riot that left dozens dead and the execution of seventeen African American soldiers for mutiny. Readers and audiences should be prepared to laugh out loud, to be challenged, to be disturbed, and above all, to be enlightened by this poignant collection of plays.

World War II veteran Hank Dunfield is about to turn one hundred years old. The staff at Ponderosa Pine Lodge have recruited Sarah, a young nursing student, to keep Hank safe, comfortable, and in the building while they plan a grand centenarian celebration. There's one problem: Hank doesn't want to live that long. Seemingly opposites, Hank and Sarah kindle a deep friendship. Sarah fears the future with multiple sclerosis will be even more isolated, difficult, and painful than the isolated, difficult, and painful present. Hank, a tail gunner during the Second World War, opens his heart to share the deep knowledge of fear, luck, and flying into battle he learned over his. combat missions. Sarah and Hank find strength in each other as they face their deepest fears. Based on interviews with veterans in Alberta seniors'homes and the skilled nurses who care for them, Flight Risk is the story of finding exactly who you need when you least expect it. An empathetic exploration of grief, friendship, and hope, this play asks what we lose when we ignore the knowledge of our elderly, challenges the way that we think about aging and death, and inspires a brighter, more compassionate future.

Melva Haggar Dye is a free-lance writer of both fiction and nonfiction. Her articles have appeared in numerous publications including Chicken Soup for the Unsinkable Soul. This is her second novel, the first being All That Remains. After living for many years in Houston, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, she returned to her native Western North Carolina. She and her husband make their home in Lake Lure, NC.

2023 Tony Award winner for Best Musical!NEW JERSEY, 1999. Kimberly is about to turn sixteen and has recently moved with her family to a new town in suburban New Jersey. Suffering from a disease that causes her to age four and a half times faster than her high school peers, surrounded by a dysfunctional family (and possible felony charges), Kimberly is also navigating her first teenage crush. Ever the optimist, Kimberly is determined to find happiness against all odds and embark on a great adventure.

Elizabeth MacKintosh was born on the 25th July 1896 in Inverness, Scotland.After attending Inverness Royal Academy and then the Anstey Physical Training College in Erdington, Birmingham she taught physical training at schools throughout England and Scotland.In 1923, she returned to Inverness to care for her invalid mother. She stayed after her mother's death later that year to keep house for her father. It was now that she began her literary career and first published in The Westminster Gazette in 1925, under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot. She continued to write and publish in periodicals until, in 1929, her first novel ‘Kif: An Unvarnished History'was published to good reviews followed, three months later, by her first mystery novel, ‘The Man in the Queue'. Despite her good fortune and talents her mind was set on writing a play that would receive a West End run. ‘Richard of Bordeaux', under the Daviot pseudonym, made its debut in 1932 at the Arts Theatre.In all she completed about a dozen one-act plays and a dozen full-length plays, many with biblical or historical themes, and all with the Daviot pseudonym. Only four of these plays were produced.Perhaps her best-known books all involve the Scotland Yard Inspector, Alan Grant, and required yet another pseudonym. This time Josephine Tey.She was intensely private, and during the last months of her life, when she knew she was terminally ill, she avoided all of her friends. Elizabeth Mackintosh died from liver cancer on 13th February 1952 in London. She was 55.

The Other Voice's edition of Barbara Torelli's pastoral drama Partenia (c. 1586) is a groundbreaking contribution to the study of early modern Italian literature and women's writing. This is the first ever print edition of the earliest secular play by an Italian woman, acclaimed at the time of its composition—the drama theorist Angelo Ingegneri placed it on a par with Tasso's Aminta and Guarini's Pastor fido—but long forgotten, to the extent that it was believed lost until the early twentieth century, when the first manuscript of it surfaced in Cremona.

Delarivier Manley and Mary Pix were among the groundbreaking “female wits,” who debuted their original plays for the public stage in 1695–96. Two of these plays contain explicitly Islamicate themes. Manley's The Royal Mischief expands on The Travels of Sir John Chardin into Persia(1686), and Pix's Ibrahim draws on Rycaut's History of the Turkish Empire (1687). Continuing this interest, Manley's Almyna (1706–7) responds to the newly translated Arabian Nights Entertainments (1704–17), and Pix's The Conquest of Spain (1705) engages the history of Islamic Spain recounted in The Life of the Most Illustrious Monarch Almanzor (1693). These plays have been modernized and annotated in this edition, most for the first time. This edition also includes appendices with excerpts from historical sources and a select bibliography.

Quelle est la place des femmes dans l'industrie du spectacle du XIXe siècle au-delà des métiers de performance très exposés qu'exercent les actrices, chanteuses, et danseuses? Comment les femmes qui dirigent une salle ou une troupe peuvent-elles se frayer un chemin dans un milieu socio-économique considéré principalement comme une affaire d'hommes? Comment être autrice, organisatrice de tournées et de programmations, critique littéraire, écuyère ou maîtresse de ballet? Dans une perspective pluridisciplinaire et internationale, ce volume propose des interprétations et des réponses à ces enjeux qui embrassent le monde du spectacle dans sa diversité et sa complexité. Les contributrices proposent de jouer au féminin l'adaptation à un milieu socio-professionnel masculin, entre défi des préjugés et mimétisme, censure, voire autocensure, et affirmation de soi, utilisation avisée des aléas de la vie familiale et professionnelle et création de nouveaux réseaux.

The two one-act plays in Talker's Town and The Girl Who Swam Forever are set in a small northern B.C. mill town in the 1960s. They portray identical characters and action from entirely different gender and cultural perspectives. In many ways, the two separate works are inter-related coming-of-age stories, with transformation as a key theme.The central action in both plays involves an Aboriginal girl, Roberta Bob, who escapes from a residential school and hides out by the river. In Nelson Gray's Talker's Town, the story is conveyed by a teenage non-Indigenous boy whose friend has had a relationship with the girl and whose attempts to hush up the affair lead to disastrous consequences. In Marie Clements's The Girl Who Swam Forever, the action unfolds from the perspective of the girl, who – to claim her past and secure her future – must undergo a shape-shifting transformation and meet her grandmother's ancestral spirit in the form of a hundred-year-old sturgeon.Employing a single setting and working with the same set of characters, the playwrights have created two radically different fictional worlds, one Aboriginal and one non-Aboriginal. Published together, the plays form a fascinating diptych that reveals rifts between Indigenous and colonial/settler histories and provides a vehicle for cultural exchange. As a starting point for trans-cultural dialogue, this set of plays will be of interest to educators, theatre directors, and the general reader interested in the current discourse arising from Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Idle No More, and the Indigenous Rights Movement happening throughout North America. Read as a set, these two plays also invite conversations about negotiating creative boundaries, particularly with respect to eco-centric politics and cultural appropriation.Talker's Town: cast of 5 men and 1 woman. The Girl Who Swam Forever: cast of 2 women and 2 men.

Edmée Elizabeth Monica Dashwood, née de la Pasture, and more commonly known as E M Delafield, was born in Steyning, Sussex on 9th June 1890. Raised in the fading years of the Victorian era with its Empire and strict moral codes Delafield, not yet married at twenty-one, joined a French religious order, in Belgium, but soon decided that this was a totally wrong choice for her. Her next challenge was her work during the horror of the First World War. Delafield decided to take up a position as a nurse in a Voluntary Aid Detachment in Exeter. It was whilst here that she managed to write her first novel, ‘Zella Sees Herself'. With the end of the war new opportunities were sought and she now took up a position for the South-West Region of the Ministry of National Service in Bristol. With it came enough time to write two more novels: ‘The War Workers'(1918) and ‘The Pelicans'(1918). On 17th July 1919, she married Colonel Arthur Paul Dashwood, OBE, an engineer responsible for building the massive docks at Hong Kong Harbour. The marriage produced two children; Lionel and Rosamund. That same year her fourth novel, ‘Consequences', was published. The couple spent their early years in Malaya but returned to England to live in Croyle, an old house in Kentisbeare, Devon. Delafield continued to collect responsibilities and organise whatever she could. At the initial meeting of the Kentisbeare Women's Institute, Delafield was unanimously elected president, and also became a Justice of the Peace, raised the children and, of course, continued to write her best-selling novels. Her greatest work is undoubtedly the largely autobiographical ‘Diary of a Provincial Lady', which is a simply structured journal of the life of an upper-middle class Englishwoman, living mostly in a Devon village of the 1930s. It spawned several best-selling sequels. Her works also includes stage and radio plays, film scripts and short stories After the death of her son in 1940, her health began to markedly decline. E M Delafield died on 2nd December 1943. She had collapsed whilst giving a lecture in Oxford. She was 53.

“A masterpiece... Trouble in Mind still contains astonishing power; it could have been written yesterday.” —VultureAhead of its time, Trouble in Mind, written in 1955, follows the rehearsal process of an anti-lynching play preparing for its Broadway debut. When Wiletta, a Black actress and veteran of the stage, challenges the play's stereotypical portrayal of the Black characters, unsettling biases come to the forefront and reveal the ways so-called progressive art can be used to uphold racist attitudes. Scheduled to open on Broadway in 1957, Childress objected to the requested changes in the script that would “sanitize” the play for mainstream audiences, and the production was canceled as a result. Childress's final script is published here with an essay by playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, editor of TCG Illuminations.

“Furious and incandescent… Harris writes so blisteringly that the actors could just let the language's flames carry them along.” —Helen Shaw, Time Out New York on Is God IsAn explosive epic that examines the cyclical nature of violence, Is God Is follows twin sisters who undertake a dangerous journey to exact revenge upon their father at the behest of their dying mother.“Aleshea Harris turns theater into a monument, ephemeral but real, to ongoing pain. You can't tear down a statue that never shows up outside.” —Vinson Cunningham, New Yorker on What to Send Up...What to Send Up When It Goes Down is a play-pageant-ritual response to anti-Blackness in America. It is a challenge to us all: to heal through expression, expulsion, and movement.

The fourteenth winner of the Yale Drama Series prize explores “Blackness” and the reasons why joy and peace might be harder to get than we think What does it mean to be safe when you're a person of color in the United States? If you were given the chance to leave and create a utopia, would you? Is utopia possible with all of our subconscious bias? The fourteenth winner of the Yale Drama Series prize, this highly satirical and funny play is set in the fictional world following a second Civil War. Bronx Bay, an all-Black state (and neighborhood), is established in order to protect “Blackness.” As Jules's new partner, Yael, moves into town, community members argue over whether Yael, who is Dominican, can stay. Questions of safety and protection surround both Jules and Yael as the utopia of Bronx Bay confronts within itself where the line is when it comes to defining who is Black and who gets left out in the process.

1864... Fear About Capital by Anna Maria Stratta and Franca Bosco A series of murders always carries with it a series of investigations... 1864... fear of the capital In an apartment in Piazza Vittorio, a young aristocrat had just taken the life of his mistress. As the nobleman walked away, conflicting emotions within him tormented him but at the same time exalted him. How nice to be masters of the life of another human being. Deciding to end the existence of another person made him feel almost omnipotent. These were the thoughts that crowded his head as an evil grin pursed his lips.