Search results for ""nick hern books""

New York City, 1930. Following a decade of explosive creativity, the Harlem Renaissance is starting to feel the bite of the Great Depression. In the face of hardship and dwindling opportunity, Angel and her friends battle to keep their artistic dreams alive. But, when Angel falls for a stranger from Alabama, their romance forces the group to make good on their ambitions, or give in to the reality of the time. Pearl Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky was first performed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1995. It was revived at the National Theatre, London, in 2022, directed by Lynette Linton, with a cast including Samira Wiley and Giles Terera. Pearl Cleage is a celebrated American playwright, novelist, poet and political activist, and was one of the first Black women in America to achieve national recognition as a dramatist. Her plays, also including Flyin' West and Bourbon at the Border, provide a remarkable and penetrating look at the African-American experience over the last century. 'As a woman, as an African-American, her artistic objectivity and sensitivity to history combine with her capacity to dig for truth' Ruby Dee 'One of the voices singing in the wilderness' Ossie Davis

Read more less

'I think of my body sometimes like it's stubborn. We're not good friends. Like it's a spooky hotel, and I'm a ghost haunting it. 'Cause you don't live in a hotel, you just pass through.' When Daphne is diagnosed with Premature Ovarian Insufficiency at the age of nineteen, her sister Christine steps in to help in the only way she knows how: by donating her eggs. For a while, the world seems corrected. But as the years go by – and Daphne sets out on the long road of IVF – the sisters' relationship begins to twist. Pennyroyal is a heartrending new play by Lucy Roslyn about sisterhood and motherhood, enduring love, and regrets many years in the making. Inspired by Edith Wharton's 1922 novella The Old Maid, it was premiered at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 2022, directed by Josh Roche.

Read more less

'I'm going to answer all your wishes, bubba! Big or small, it'll be me who makes them come true, no one else.' Leila is happy living at home with Noor, her loving but traditional grandmother. But when Aleena, her fiercely independent mother, returns home from prison determined to deliver a new world of fun and excitement, their calm lives are upended in a blur of nail varnish and sweet treats. Family secrets come tumbling into the light, and Leila finds the task of deciding on her future more difficult than she first thought. Ambreen Razia's play Favour is a touching and hopeful family drama about a working-class Muslim family, tackling duty, addiction and the challenge of pulling yourself back together after it all falls apart. It was a Bush Theatre and Clean Break co-production and premiered at the Bush, London, in 2022, directed by Róisín McBrinn and Sophie Dillon Moniram.

Read more less

'It's not a game for gentlemen we're playing, Political and civilized. This is Historic' 2024. As America goes to the polls, democracy itself is on the brink. Who takes the White House – and at what cost? Mike Bartlett's viciously funny and foreboding The 47th is a dazzling glimpse into the underbelly of the greatest political show on earth: the US presidential race. It was first produced at The Old Vic, London, in March 2022 by The Old Vic, Sonia Friedman Productions and Annapurna Theatre, directed by Rupert Goold, and featuring Bertie Carvel as Donald J. Trump, Tamara Tunie as Kamala Harris, and Lydia Wilson as Ivanka Trump.

Read more less

Two compassionately subversive plays about identity, by Young Jean Lee, a Korean American playwright whose work is groundbreaking, humorous and often thrillingly transgressive. In Straight White Men, it's Christmas Eve, and Ed has gathered his three adult sons to celebrate with matching pyjamas, trash-talking, and Chinese takeaway. But when a question they can't answer interrupts their seasonal cheer, they are forced to confront their own identities. Raucous, surprising and fearless, Straight White Men takes an outside look at the traditional father/son narrative, shedding new light on a story we think we know all too well. It had its UK premiere at Southwark Playhouse, London, in 2021, following US productions including a Broadway run that made Lee the first Asian-American woman to have a play produced on Broadway. In Untitled Feminist Show, six charismatic stars of the theatre, dance, cabaret and burlesque worlds come together in an exhilaratingly irreverent, nearly wordless celebration of a fluid and limitless sense of identity. Untitled Feminist Show isn't a show about feminism – it is a feminist show. It premiered at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, in 2012 before transferring to the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City. 'Young Jean Lee is, hands down, the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation' New York Times

Read more less

'The sky turns the colour of a jay's eye. The sea turns a deep royal purple. The mist lifts in quick, lithe ribbons, like a conjuring trick. Before us lies the island…' It's 1935, and an eccentric English family – four children, their widowed mother, and Roger the dog – arrives on the sun-soaked shores of Corfu to start a new life. For eleven-year-old Gerry Durrell, the extraordinary landscape provides the perfect playground. Its exotic fauna inspires a life-long fascination with the animal kingdom – and his much-loved memoir My Family and Other Animals. Janys Chambers' acclaimed stage adaptation was first seen at York Theatre Royal, and invites other theatre companies to make ingenious and inventive decisions, bringing to life all the inhabitants of Durrell's cherished island – whether they walk and talk, fly and squawk, crawl or swim or slither.

Read more less

'There is a war coming... A war that will last for a hundred years... I think it is already here. I think we've been fighting it a long time.' A young Jewish physicist and an activist poet meet at a party and fall in love. As society splinters around them, the couple's struggle to survive erupts into violence. Cordelia Lynn's play Love and Other Acts of Violence is a subversive and intimate love story about inheritance and the cycles of politics and history. It premiered at the Donmar Warehouse, London, in October 2021, directed by Elayce Ismail.

Read more less

'Bit risky though, isn't it? Just sort of turning up to an isolated peninsula in the North Sea without any sandwiches…' Kilnsea, East Yorkshire. Angie and Lauren are closing up the café for another winter; the birds have gone south and taken the tourists with them. The last visitor is Dennis, stopping by for his pasty and beans. But there’s another arrival – one that’s unforeseen and life-changing for them all. Tom Wells' Big Big Sky is a beautifully tender play which explores nature's influence on love, friendship and family – the belief that anyone who's lost can be found, even in the remotest of places. It was premiered at Hampstead Theatre in July 2021, directed by Tessa Walker.

Read more less

'We are here to make sense of it all.' From the everyday to the astonishing, and the ordinary to the miraculous, the Roman poet Ovid's stories of epic impossibilities explore the power of transformation, the resilience of humans, and the wonder of life. The myths of Metamorphoses have inspired generations of writers, including Shakespeare. Over two thousand years later, they are reimagined for our world by three leading British playwrights, and feature anarchy, shape-shifting and a burning chariot of fire. This entertaining and provocative new play, by Sami Ibrahim, Laura Lomas and Sabrina Mahfouz, was written for the candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe, London. It was first performed by four actors in 2021, and directed by Globe Associate Artistic Director, Sean Holmes and Associate Artistic Director of Headlong, Holly Race Roughan.

Read more less

Brian and Donna's son is nine years old and he's struggling. That's what his teacher says. Says he should see a psychologist. But Brian and Donna – recently separated – never liked school, never liked teachers. An explosive triple confrontation that is funny, heartbreaking and beautifully observed, Iseult Golden and David Horan's CLASS is an award-winning play about learning difficulties: in school, in life, wherever. After a sold-out run in the Dublin Theatre Festival 2017, the play transferred to the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in January 2018 before playing in the Traverse Theatre as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018. CLASS won an Edinburgh Fringe First Award and was named Best Theatre Script at the 2018 ZeBBie Awards awarded by the Writers Guild of Ireland.

Read more less

THE GOOD AUDITION GUIDES: Helping you select and perform the audition piece that is best suited to your performing skills In this volume of the Good Audition Guides, you'll find fifty fantastic speeches for women, all written since the year 2000, by some of our most exciting dramatic voices. Playwrights featured in Contemporary Monologues for Women include Mike Bartlett, Alexi Kaye Campbell, Caryl Churchill, Helen Edmundson, debbie tucker green, Ella Hickson, Lucy Kirkwood, Rona Munro, Joanna Murray-Smith and Enda Walsh, and the plays themselves were premiered at the very best theatres across the UK including the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Bush, Soho and Hampstead Theatres, Manchester Royal Exchange, the Traverse in Edinburgh, the Abbey in Dublin, and many on the stages of the Royal Court. Drawing on her experience as an actor, director and teacher at several leading drama schools, Trilby James prefaces each speech with a thorough introduction including the vital information you need to place the piece in context (the who, what, when, where and why) and suggestions about how to perform the scene to its maximum effect (including the character’s objectives and keywords). Contemporary Monologues for Women also features an introduction on the whole process of selecting and preparing your speech, and approaching the audition itself. The result is the most comprehensive and useful contemporary monologue book now available. 'Sound practical advice for anyone attending an audition… a source of inspiration for teachers and students alike' Teaching Drama Magazine on The Good Audition Guides

Read more less

A comprehensive training course in screen acting by an internationally renowned teacher and acting coach who has worked with actors of all backgrounds and experience – from drama school students at the start of their careers to Hollywood stars, including Daniel Craig, Angelina Jolie and Keira Knightley. Mel Churcher has developed a series of five workshops which take actors step by step through the process of creating, developing and delivering assured performances on screen. Accompanied by ninety minutes of online film clips, showing all of the work in action, this book builds on these workshops and lets you progress through them at your own pace: Workshop 1: Keeping the Life encourages you to find what is unique about yourself and how you can preserve this vitality when acting on screen Workshop 2: Inhabiting the Role focuses on the emotional and psychological steps required in preparing your performance Workshop 3: The Physical Life introduces a series of practical exercises to develop the physicality and imagination of the actor Workshop 4: Through the Eye of the Camera explains the technical skills you must master to act in front of a lens Workshop 5: Off to Work We Go covers how to prepare for auditions and then how to handle specific challenges when you get the job Each exercise, technique and tip is vividly illustrated in online film clips taken from the author's actual workshops. The result is a vital masterclass in every aspect of acting on screen. Foreword by Jeremy Irons. 'When the whole business seems to have gone loopy, dip into Mel Churcher's book; somehow she always makes sense' Bob Hoskins

Read more less

Two exhilarating and teasingly entertaining one-act plays from one of the UK’s leading playwrights. Heart’s Desire sees a family awaiting their daughter’s return from Australia, though in a series of alternative scenarios, the play collapses as it keeps veering off in unexpected and ridiculous directions. Blue Kettle tells the story of conman Derek and the five women he misleads into believing he is their biological son. Try as he might, Derek’s plans are scuppered as the play is invaded by a virus. In Caryl Churchill’s ever-inventive style, the two plays in Blue Heart pull apart language and structure in a way that is theatrically remarkable and fast paced, in a stirring yet truthful exploration of family and relationships. Blue Heart was first performed at Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, in August 1997 in a touring co-production by Out of Joint and the Royal Court Theatre. This edition was published alongside the first major revival of Blue Heart, nearly twenty years after its premiere, in a co-production by the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, and Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol, in 2016.

Read more less

James Joyce's startlingly modern portrait of a marriage. Back in Dublin after nine years abroad, Richard and Bertha have to confront two other people who love them, and ask themselves questions about guilt and responsibility. Will infidelity hold them together? Exiles is based in part on Joyce's own relationship with Nora Barnacle. His only play, it was written in 1914 during his own self-imposed exile from Ireland, between A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses.

Read more less

In folklore, pelican mothers feed their young on their own blood. Today, four sisters are trying to come to terms with their mother's death – and divide their mother's house between them. Joy wants a baby, Storm wants to be seen, Sage wants to be paid, Maya doesn't want anyone to find out her secret. Granny's in a wheelchair on day release – and Mum's presence still seeps through the ceiling and the floors. The Pelican Daughters are home for the last time. The Wardrobe Ensemble's play The Last of the Pelican Daughters is a comedy about four sisters trying to come to terms with their mother's death. It combines the company's trademark irreverent humour and lovable characters to tackle the idea of what it means for young people to grapple with inheritance, loss and justice. The Last of the Pelican Daughters was first staged at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019. In addition to the full script of the play, this published edition includes an extensive oral history of The Wardrobe Ensemble by its members, and a workshop plan for two people of different generations to communicate and collaborate in person or online.

Read more less

'If I am the chief of sinners, I am the chief of sufferers also.' A series of random nocturnal assaults in the back streets and alleyways of Victorian London are spreading fear and panic. Meanwhile, the friends of a highly respected doctor are beginning to wonder why he goes missing on exactly the same nights… Neil Bartlett's inventive, brilliantly theatrical adaptation cuts right to the heart of Robert Louis Stevenson's darkly fascinating tale of male violence, guilt and privilege. It premiered at Derby Theatre in 2022, directed by Artistic Director Sarah Brigham, before transferring to Queen's Theatre Hornchurch. Written for an ensemble and with several key roles for women, this adaptation will appeal to any theatre or company looking to thrill their audiences with a bold new take on this classic tale of murder and mayhem.

Read more less

A dinner party during the Second World War unites celebrated writers Agatha Christie, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas – with a mysterious guest. With copious booze flowing, acid-tongued barbs flying, and the threat of global conflict looming, the guests – and the world around them – are close to boiling point. Everyone has a confession. Someone has a secret. Set in the French Alps in 1940, Steven Carl McCasland’s Little Wars is an enthralling, entertaining and ultimately moving portrait of seven exceptional women – and a thrilling fiction based on truth. It was workshopped Off-Off-Broadway, first performed in 2015, and received an acclaimed digital premiere in 2020, featuring Linda Bassett, Sarah Solemani, Juliet Stevenson and Sophie Thompson. It provides glorious opportunities for an all-female cast to play some of the greatest literary figures of the twentieth century.

Read more less

An electrifying, bittersweet love story with echoes of Romeo and Juliet, set in a society divided by racial bigotry and a world rocked by terrorism. Adapted from Malorie Blackman's best-selling novels. Sephy (a Cross) is the daughter of the Deputy Prime Minister. Callum is the son of a Nought agitator. United by a shared sense of injustice as children, and separated by intolerance as they grow up, their desire to be together begins to eclipse all family loyalty – sparking a political crisis of unimaginable proportions. 'I wanted to turn society as we know it on its head, with new names for the major divisions, i.e. Noughts (the underclass) and Crosses (the majority, ruling society)' - Malorie Blackman Dominic Cooke's adaptation of Noughts & Crosses was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2007.

Read more less

A chillingly grotesque farce set in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, banned for decades in the USSR and revived in this uproarious new version by Declan Donnellan. Moscow, 1924. The early days of the Soviet Union. Communism is everywhere - little understood but greatly feared. A landlord must pretend to be a Communist. His cook is mistaken for the missing princess Anastasia, and his lodger is threatening them with the militia. Nikolai Erdman's play The Mandate was written in 1924 and first performed in 1925 in a production directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold. This English version by acclaimed director Declan Donnellan was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in 2004, in a production directed by Donnellan.

Read more less

A dark and wickedly funny farce about one man's twisted attempts to find a woman he can control completely. Adapted from Molière's classic comedy The School for Wives by Liz Lochhead, 'Scotland's greatest living dramatist' (Scotland on Sunday). He's old, rich and determined to find the perfect wife. She's young, innocent and in debt to him. He'll have her by any means possible... 'Wives like your one, those with all the smarts, The ballbreakers, they're the ones to break our hearts... So pick a simple girl - it's not rocket science!' Liz Lochhead's play Educating Agnes was first staged by Theatre Babel at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, in 2008.

Read more less

The tragic story of how Rudyard Kipling sent his son to his death in the First World War. The year is 1913 and war with Germany is imminent. Rudyard Kipling's determination to send his severely short-sighted son to war triggers a bitter family conflict which leaves Britain's renowned patriot devastated by the warring of his own greatest passions: his love for children - above all his own - and his devotion to King and Country. David Haig's play My Boy Jack was first staged at Hampstead Theatre in 1997. It was revived at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, in 2004, and toured the UK. The play was filmed for television in 2007, with Daniel Radcliffe as Jack and the author himself as Kipling.

Read more less

Pirandello's classic play, updated for the twenty-first century by Headlong. Blurring the border between fiction and life, between the stage and the world outside, Luigi Pirandello's play Six Characters in Search of an Author exploded onto the stage in 1921 as one of the unique achievements of twentieth-century drama. Updated and recontextualised in this vertiginous new version, it becomes a dark parable for a media-obsessed age and an exhilarating exploration of how we define art, ourselves and 'reality' in the twenty-first century. This version by Rupert Goold and Ben Power was first performed at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in June 2008, in a co-production between Headlong and Chichester Festival Theatre.

Read more less

A modern classic about one woman's struggle to come to terms with her past. Brutally separated from her German Jewish parents at the age of nine, Eva is brought to England with the promise of a new life... Between 1939 until the outbreak of World War II, nearly 10,000 Jewish children were taken from their families in Nazi-occupied Germany and sent to live with foster families in Britain. Diane Samuels’ seminal play, Kindertransport, imagines the fate of one such child. Now widely considered a modern classic, Kindertransport has been read and studied the world over. Kindertransport won the 1992 Verity Bargate Award and was subsequently staged by the Soho Theatre Company at the Cockpit Theatre in London in 1993. It also won the Meyer-Whitworth Award in 1993. Since its premiere the play has been revived several times. Watford Palace Theatre staged it in 1996, in a production that transferred to the West End. Renowned theatre company Shared Experience also revived the play to great acclaim for a regional tour in 2007. This edition includes several personal memoirs by German-born children whose lives were saved, and transformed, by the Kindertransport. Kindertransport is a SET TEXT for GCSE English Literature (AQA) and AS/A-Level English Literature (WJEC).

Read more less

A powerful expressionist drama from the 1920s about the dependent status of women in an increasingly mechanised society, based on the true story of Ruth Snyder. Sophie Treadwell was a campaigning journalist in America between the wars. Among her assignments was the sensational murder involving Snyder, who with her lover, Judd Gray, had murdered her husband and gone to the electric chair. 'This is a play written in anger. In the dead wasteland of male society – it seems to ask – isn't it necessary for certain women, at least, to resort to murder?' - Nicholas Wright Sophie Treadwell's play Machinal was first seen on Broadway in 1928, in London in 1930, and was later revived in the 1990s. This edition of Machinal includes an introduction by Judith E. Barlow.

Read more less

Inspired by Georges Seurat's pointillist masterpiece, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's musical celebrates the art of creation and the creation of art. In the first half of the musical, set in 1884, the people - and the animals - in the painting come to life in a world where, for the artist George, art comes before love, before everything. In the second half, a century later, Seurat's great-grandson is wrestling with the same obsessions in present-day New York. Sunday in the Park with George was premiered on Broadway in May 1984, in a production directed by James Lapine. An earlier, incomplete version had been performed Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in July 1983. The musical went on to win the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The first London production opened at the National Theatre in March 1990. It won the 1991 Olivier Award for Best New Musical.

Read more less

Whether you’re applying for drama school, taking an exam, or auditioning for a professional role, it’s likely you’ll be required to perform one or more monologues, including a piece from a contemporary play. It’s vital to come up with something fresh that’s suited both to you – in order to allow you to express who you are as a performer – and to the specific purposes of the audition. In this book, you’ll find forty fantastic speeches featuring male roles, all written and premiered since the year 2014, by some of today’s most exciting dramatic voices from the UK and USA. Playwrights include Annie Baker, Andrew Bovell, Jez Butterworth, Caryl Churchill, Mark Gatiss, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Anna Jordan, Arinzé Kene, Rona Munro and Evan Placey. The plays featured were premiered at leading venues including the National, the Royal Court, the Bush and Hampstead in London, prestigious theatres in Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Manchester, and by renowned companies including Frantic Assembly and Paines Plough. Drawing on her experience as an actor, director and teacher at several leading drama schools, Trilby James introduces each speech with a user-friendly, bullet-point list of essential things you need to know about the character, and then five inspiring ideas to help you perform the monologue. This book also features a step-by-step guide to the process of selecting and preparing your speech, and approaching the audition itself. ‘Easy-to-use… The guidance is perhaps the most thorough I have seen in a monologue book’ Teaching Drama on Trilby James’s first volume of Contemporary Monologues Please note that some of the speeches in this volume contain strong language and themes which some readers may find inappropriate.

Read more less

Sephy and Callum sit together on a beach. They are in love. It is forbidden. Sephy is a Cross and Callum is a Nought. Between Noughts and Crosses there are racial and social divides. A segregated society teeters on a volatile knife-edge. As violence breaks out, Sephy and Callum draw closer, but this is a romance that will lead them into terrible danger. This gripping Romeo and Juliet story by acclaimed writer Malorie Blackman is a captivating drama of love, revolution and what it means to grow up in a divided world. Sabrina Mahfouz’s stage adaptation first toured the UK in 2019 and won the Excellence in Touring category at the UK Theatre Awards. It was commissioned and presented by Pilot Theatre in co-production with Derby Theatre, Belgrade Theatre Coventry, Mercury Theatre Colchester and York Theatre Royal.

Read more less

Science and religion go head to head in David Baddiel's debut play: a ferociously funny battle for power, fame and followers. When physics student Edie seems to prove, scientifically, the existence of God, it has far-reaching effects. Not least for her lecturer, Henry Brook, his marriage to celebrity atheist author Virginia – and his entire universe. God's Dice is an electric tragicomedy about the power of belief and our quest for truth in a fractured world. It premiered at Soho Theatre, London, in October 2019, starring Alan Davies as Henry, and directed by James Grieve.

Read more less

Mark Williams is tired of his marriage and tired of his job teaching astronomy at the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. Angela Vasquez is a young single mother training to be a nurse. Norman Ketterly is fighting for his life in a cancer ward. Their intertwining stories unspool under a canopy of stars too vast to imagine and too beautiful to comprehend, especially when the travails of life on Earth threaten to blot it out. Kenneth Lonergan's play The Starry Messenger is a bittersweet exploration of love, hope and the mysteries of the cosmos. It premiered in New York in 2009, and received its UK premiere at Wyndham's Theatre, London, in May 2019, featuring Matthew Broderick and Elizabeth McGovern.

Read more less

‘I just think it’s, you know, important to look at the good things that are happening as well.’ In a cramped, crumbling office, four volunteers spend a few hours every Tuesday night on the phone telling strangers that everything is going to be okay. As the outside world disintegrates, they teeter on the edge of their own personal catastrophes. Their hopes and fears become entangled as they try, desperately, to connect with the callers and with each other. Sam Steiner's You Stupid Darkness! is an urgent play about the struggle for optimism and community amid the chaos of a world falling apart. It was first seen at Theatre Royal Plymouth in February 2019, in a co-production between Paines Plough and Theatre Royal Plymouth.

Read more less

‘When that bell rings, your life is entirely in your hands.’ London, 1869. Four very different Victorian women are drawn into the dark underground world of female boxing by the eccentric Professor Sharp. Controlled by men and constrained by corsets, each finds an unexpected freedom in the boxing ring. As their lives begin to intertwine, their journey takes us through grand drawing rooms, bustling theatres and rowdy Southwark pubs, where the women fight inequality as well as each other. But with the final showdown approaching, only one can become the Lady Boxing Champion of the World… Joy Wilkinson's play The Sweet Science of Bruising is an epic tale of passion, politics and pugilism. It premiered at Southwark Playhouse, London, in October 2018, in a production by Troupe.

Read more less

'Marchin' days is over man.' Patience is running out, times have changed. And progress isn't enough. Black British. African American. Here. There. Now. Snapshots of lives, snapshots of experiences of protest; violence vs non-violence, direct action vs demonstrations, ear for eye follows characters navigating their way through society today. debbie tucker green's play ear for eye premiered in October 2018 at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, in a production directed by the playwright. ear for eye was a finalist for the 2019 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. A filmed version of ear for eye, written and directed by debbie tucker green, was broadcast on BBC Two in October 2021. 'A furious dissection of racial injustice... overwhelming' - Guardian

Read more less

A darkly comic debut play about confession and the gravity of young love. Ramona is sixteen, hates bananas, and she's totally cool. Honestly. She's completely cool. It's 1998, and Ramona, of Englandshire, is on a wet, midge-riddled geography field trip, deep in the Scottish Highlands. There she meets Jim, a local laddie obsessed with hermit crabs, rock erosion and spider plants. When Ramona falls for Jim's awkward charm, she gets caught in a scandal that will haunt her for years to come. Sophie Wu's Ramona Tells Jim was commissioned by and first performed at the Bush Theatre, London, in September 2017.

Read more less

New York. A city that runs on ambition – and coffee. In the offices of a notorious Manhattan magazine, ruthless editorial assistants vie for their bosses' jobs and a book deal before they're thirty. But bestselling memoir fodder is thin on the ground, and climbing the career ladder is hard when you're trapped between Starbucks runs, jaded gossip and endless encircling cubicle walls... Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's Gloria is a razor-sharp comic drama about ambition, office warfare and hierarchies, where the only thing that matters is selling out to the highest bidder. The play was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2016, and had its UK premiere at Hampstead Theatre, London, in 2017. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins was named Most Promising Playwright at the Critics' Circle Awards in 2018 for his plays Gloria and An Octoroon.

Read more less

The Fleabag bites back. A rip-roaring account of some sort of female living her sort of life. Phoebe Waller-Bridge's debut play is an outrageously funny monologue for a female performer. It premiered at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, performed by Phoebe herself, before transferring to Soho Theatre, London, for several successful runs, followed by a UK tour. It won a Fringe First Award in Edinburgh, the Most Promising New Playwright and Best Female Performance at the Off West End Theatre Awards, The Stage Award for Best Solo Performer and the Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright. It received a Special Commendation in the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and was nominated for the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. In 2016 it was turned into a wildly successful and 'utterly riveting' (Guardian) BBC television series. This edition also features an introduction by the author.

Read more less

An intense domestic drama of global consequence – for India then and for our world now. 1659. Mughal India. The imperial court, a place of opulence and excess; music, drugs, eunuchs and harems. Two brothers, whose mother's death inspired the Taj Mahal, are heirs to this Muslim empire. Now they fight ferociously for succession. Dara, the crown prince, has the love of the people – and of his emperor father – but younger brother Aurangzeb holds a different vision for India's future. Islam inspires poetry in Dara, puritanical rigour in Aurangzeb. Can Jahanara, their beloved sister, assuage Aurangzeb's resolve to seize the Peacock Throne and purge the empire? Originally performed by Ajoka Theatre, Pakistan, Tanya Ronder's adaptation of Shahid Nadeem's play Dara premiered at the National Theatre, London, in 2015.

Read more less

A gripping journey through British history that shows how our country was shaped and how connected we are with our past. Across seven centuries, small groups of children seek sanctuary in the same solid old wardrobe. It's the safest place they know - but is it safe enough? The Wardrobe was commissioned as part of the 2014 National Theatre Connections Festival and premiered by youth theatres across the UK. With a variety of roles for young actors, the play can be performed by a large cast of up to twenty-eight, or a smaller cast with doubling.

Read more less

From the bestselling Drama Games series, this dip-in, flick-through, quick-fire resource book offers dozens of games to serve as a rich source of ideas and inspiration for all actors – and those teaching or directing them. This must-have companion is divided into three sections, each focusing on a different aspect of the actor’s process: Self provides methods to deepen relaxation, sharpen focus, boost energy, expand imagination and enable a company of actors to work collaboratively Character suggests strategies to aid the process of transformation, encouraging actors to explore characteristics that are distinct from their own And Text offers exercises to unlock the words, allowing free and imaginative work within the structure of a script, without losing specificity The games range from solo explorations which can be performed alone, to ideas for pairs and group work – making them suitable for a wide variety of scenarios and requirements. Overall, the book will serve as an essential foundation for every actor’s creativity, helping improve preparation, rehearsal and performance. ‘A mass of invaluable ideas for all ages and all types of actors, amateur or professional. It’s hard to imagine anyone involved in theatre who wouldn’t find it useful.’ Richard Eyre, from his Foreword

Read more less

'I wish I'd had this book when I was starting out as a young director... I cannot recommend it highly enough' Marianne Elliott, from her Foreword This dip-in, flick-through, quick-fire resource book in the bestselling Drama Games series offers dozens of ideas and exercises to energise and inspire a bold, creative rehearsal process for any play, of any period or genre. Aimed at directors of all levels, it covers every aspect of rehearsal, including: Warm-up exercises to prepare the body, voice and mind, and to create a strong ensemble Ideas for approaching the text, tackling the 'Story of the Play' A wealth of games for unlocking the 'World of the Play', including developing characters, finding a physical style, understanding genre and investigating themes Suggestions for exploring sound and music, whether for use in the production or simply to encourage a sense of fun in rehearsals This essential 'go-to' book will provide you with a host of original and illuminating games, perfect for the play you're rehearsing, be it Shakespeare or Greek tragedy, a Restoration comedy, physical theatre, Modern Naturalism – or even a brand new play. Marianne Elliott, one of the most innovative and exciting directors working anywhere in the world, describes it as a 'beautiful, and very clearly written book' which will become her 'constant companion in future'.

Read more less

A fascinating, witty and characteristically exuberant dramatic exploration of the Shakespeare authorship debate. Is it possible that the son of an illiterate tradesman, from a small market town in Warwickshire, could have written the greatest dramatic works the world has ever seen? It’s a question that has puzzled scholars, theatre practitioners and theatregoers for many years. The philosopher, Francis Bacon; the Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere; and Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke: all of them have been put forward as the real author of the plays. But why would they hide behind an anonymous actor? Who was the real Bard of Stratford? Why should we care? Mark Rylance is one of a number of leading actors who seriously question the idea that William Shakespeare was the man behind the thirty-seven plays that have moved, inspired and amazed generations. First performed at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in 2007, and subsequently on tour, Rylance’s provocative play introduces us to four candidates and their respective claims – whilst asking fundamental questions about what makes a genius, and why it all matters anyway.

Read more less

Bleak, funny and excruciatingly accurate, Sex with a Stranger examines what it is to be in your twenties, lonely, hollow and uncertain. Adam meets Grace in a club. They go back to hers. Earlier that day, his girlfriend watches as he prepares for his big night out. Stefan Golaszewski's play Sex with a Stranger was first performed at Trafalgar Studios, London, in February 2012.

Read more less

A practical guide to training as an actor, helping you get the most out of drama school - and survive in the world beyond. Are you thinking of applying to drama school? Do you have a place already and want to get the most out of your training? Are you seeking to make the best possible start in the world beyond drama school? Becoming an Actor takes you, step by step, technique by technique, through everything you can expect to encounter at drama school, and in your first year as a professional actor. Stuffed with exercises and full of practical advice, it is the ideal handbook to accompany your training. Thomasina Unsworth teaches at Rose Bruford College, one of the UK's leading drama schools. Here she shows what acting classes at an accredited drama school are actually like, and offers guidance and support through what is a critical time in any actor's career. With many different exercises to help actors explore the techniques they need to master, Becoming an Actor is also an invaluable resource for those teaching acting, and for those seeking to refresh their training.

Read more less

Written in a blaze of rhyming couplets, La Bête is an exuberant, wildly distinctive comedy that encompasses timeless concerns about life and art. Winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. Elomire, high-minded head of the Royal theatre troupe, is incensed. His patron, the Princess, has decreed that the Court ensemble admit a new actor – the scandalously boorish street entertainer, Valere. With Elomire's pride and the troupe's livelihood on the line, the company is duty-bound not only to accept the outrageous troubadour, but to perform one of his ludicrous plays, an event that has dramatic consequences for them all. David Hirson's La Bête opened on Broadway in February 1991 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, and had its UK premiere at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, in 1992. A new production, directed by Matthew Warchus and starring Mark Rylance, opened at the Comedy Theatre in the West End in June 2010, and subsequently transferred to Broadway.

Read more less

Richard Eyre's version of Ibsen's Ghosts is a fresh and vivid depiction of a woman who yearns for emotional and sexual freedom, but who is too timid to achieve it. Helene Alving has spent her life suspended in an emotional void after the death of her cruel but outwardly charming husband. She is determined to escape the ghosts of her past by telling her son, Oswald, the truth about his father. But on his return from his life as a painter in France, Oswald reveals how he has already inherited the legacy of Alving's dissolute life. Richard Eyre's version of Ghosts was first staged at the Almeida Theatre, London, in 2013. This edition contains an introduction to the play by Richard Eyre.

Read more less

Jez Butterworth's hugely acclaimed, prize-winning play - a comic, contemporary vision of life in England's green and pleasant land. On St George's Day, the morning of the local country fair, Johnny 'Rooster' Byron, local waster and Lord of Misrule, is a wanted man. The council officials want to serve him an eviction notice, his son wants to be taken to the fair, a vengeful father wants to give him a serious kicking, and a motley crew of mates wants his ample supply of drugs and alcohol. Jerusalem premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in July 2009 in a production directed by Ian Rickson and starring Mark Rylance. It transferred to the Apollo Theatre in the West End in January 2010, and played on Broadway in 2011. Jez Butterworth's play won the Evening Standard Best Play Award and the Critics Circle and Whatsonstage.com awards for Best New Play.

Read more less

'I wonder what I have to do for people to recognise me as a threat. Do I have to smash a glass over the head of every single man I come into contact with, just so I leave a mark?' Irina takes erotic photos of average-looking men. Always behind the lens, she watches, she moulds, and she stalks. These boys are putty in her hands, just the way she likes it. When the opportunity to show her photographs in a fashionable London gallery coincides with a new boy to obsess over, cracks begin to appear. How far can she push her new prey for the perfect shot, or has she already gone too far? Based on the critically acclaimed debut novel by Eliza Clark, which was a finalist for the Women's Prize Futures Award, Boy Parts is a pitch-black psychological thriller that subverts the erotic gaze and asks what happens when our need for connection gets twisted. This stage adaptation for one actor by Gillian Greer was premiered in 2023 at Soho Theatre, London, in a co-production between Metal Rabbit Productions and Soho Theatre, and directed by Sara Joyce. Praise for Eliza Clark's novel: 'Hilariously sardonic… Will make most readers howl with laughter and/or shut their eyes in horror' Guardian 'A carnival funhouse ride: terrifying, feverish, hilarious' Julia Armfield 'Boundaries are for breaking and if anyone can crash through and reinterpret the fear of our time, Eliza Clark can' Mslexia 'Hallucinogenic, electric and sharp' Jessica Andrews 'Delightfully and deviously rooted in the now with its delectable internet and culture references and evocative and real-feeling portrait of women' Dazed 'Smart, stylish, and very funny' Lara Williams 'Explores the darkest corners of artistic practice, sexuality and violence with bold wit and fearlessness. A dazzling, horrifying debut' Irish Times

Read more less

'O, full of scorpions is my mind.' The spellbinding story of love and murder, power and paranoia, and the internal struggles of a married couple as they try to control their destiny, and one another… This official tie-in edition to the Donmar Warehouse's hotly anticipated 2023 revival of Shakespeare's extraordinary psychological drama features rich and revealing behind-the-scenes material exploring how the production was conceived and developed. Starring David Tennant and Cush Jumbo, and directed by Donmar Associate Director Max Webster, this bracingly fresh version used binaural sound technology to place the audience inside the minds of the Macbeths, asking us: are we are ever really responsible for our actions? In addition to the version of Shakespeare's text performed, this volume also includes a fascinating rehearsal diary, colour photos, and interviews with its leading cast and creative team: Tennant, Jumbo and Webster, plus designer Rosanna Vize, sound designer Gareth Fry and composer and musical director Alasdair Macrae.

Read more less

'We are all the authors of our own love story.' Casey's new boyfriend Brett is handsome, romantic and devoted – a dream come true. He writes poetry! He makes quiche! For once in her life, Casey is in a relationship with a man who attends to her every whim and desire. But when her suspicious sister Cynthia starts digging into Brett's past, she threatens to take away the one good thing that's ever happened to Casey… Nancy Harris's play Somewhere Out There You is a romantic comedy with a twist, playfully unravelling the love stories we weave for ourselves and inviting us to question what compels us to tell them in the first place. It was first performed in 2023 at the Abbey Theatre, as part of Dublin Theatre Festival, directed by Wayne Jordan.

Read more less