This third volume of the "Shakespeare Set Free" series is written by institute faculty and participants. The volume sparkles with fine recent scholarship and the wisdom and wit of real classroom teachers in all kinds of schools all over the United States.

In this book, you'll find:

Clear and provocative essays written by leading scholars to refresh the teacher and challenge older students

Successful and plainly understandable techniques for teaching through performance

Ways to teach Shakespeare that successfully engage students of every grade and ability level in exploring Shakespeare's language and the magical worlds of the plays

Day-by-day teaching strategies for "Twelfth Night" and "Othello"-- created, taught, written, and edited by teachers with real voices in real classrooms.

Too frightened of scandal to become involved with a brilliant writer, Hedda Gabler opts instead for a conventional but loveless marriage. But, when her first love returns with a masterpiece that might threaten her husband's career, Hedda decides to take drastic and fatal action. Universally condemned in 1890 when it was written, Hedda Gabler has subsequently become one of Ibsen's most performed and studied plays. Blending comedy and tragedy, Ibsen probes the thwarted aspirations and hidden anxieties of his characters against a backdrop of contemporary social Habits and hypocrisies. This Methuen Drama Student Edition is published with Michael Meyer's classic translation, and with commentary and notes by Dr. Sophie Duncan. These offer a contemporary lens on the play's gender politics, and consider some key twentieth and twenty-first century productions of Hedda Gabler, which include actresses like Maggie Smith, Harriet Walker, and Ruth Wilson taking on the iconic titular role.

April, 1984. Winston Smith thinks a thought, starts a diary, and falls in love. But Big Brother is watching him, and the door to Room 101 can swing open in the blink of an eye. Its ideas have become our ideas, and Orwell's fiction is often said to be our reality. The definitive book of the 20th century is re-examined in a radical new adaptation exploring why Orwell's vision of the future is as relevant as ever.

'I have caused what might soon be a global situation because you've stopped thinking people like me are worth hearing.' Is something incredible happening in Merthyr? Sixteen-year-old Carys claims to have received the stigmata: Christ's wounds from the Cross. Are her wounds a sign from God? Carys thinks so - she wants to tell the world and demands to be heard. Sian, her teacher, is not so sure, and believes silencing Carys will keep her safe. But can she make sense of what is happening to her student? Lisa Parry's play The Merthyr Stigmatist is a fierce and exhilarating exploration of faith and truth, a hymn to community, and a testament to the power of young people. The play was shortlisted for the inaugural Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Award, and first presented online in 2021, as a co-production between Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, and Theatre Uncut.

The Eco-Self in Early Modern English Literature>/cite> tracks an important shift in early modern conceptions of selfhood, arguing that the period hosted the birth of a new subset of the human, the eco-self, which melds a deeply introspective turn with an abiding sense of humans' embedment in the world. A confluence of cultural factors produced the relevant changes. Of paramount significance was the rapid spread of literacy in England and across Europe: reading transformed the relationship between self and world, retooled moral reasoning, and even altered human anatomy. This book pursues the salutary possibilities, including the ecological benefits, of this redesigned self by advancing fresh readings of texts by William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, John Webster, and Margaret Cavendish. The eco-self offers certain refinements to ecological theory by renewing appreciation for the rational, deliberative functions that distinguish humans from other species.

In these pages, Rent offers what most theater books can't: a chance to step behind the curtain and feel the electricity of a stage phenomenon as it unfolds.

Rent has single-handedly reinvigorated Broadway and taken America by storm. Sweeping all major theater awards, including the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for drama, as well as four 1996 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score for a Musical, Rent captures the heart and spirit of a generation, refleting it onstage through the emotion of its stirring words and music, and the energy of its young cast. Now, for the first time, Rent comes to life on the page -- through vivid color photographs, the full libretto, and an utterly compelling behind-the-scenes oral history of the show's creation. Here is the exclusive and absolutely complete companion to Rent, told in the voices of the extraordinary talent behind its success: the actors, the director, the producers, and the librettist and composer himself, Jonathan Larson, whose sudden death, on the eve of the first performance, has made Rent's life-affirming message all the more poignant.

Elesin Oba, the King's Horseman, has a single destiny. When the King dies, he must commit ritual suicide and lead his King's favorite horse and dog through the passage to the world of the ancestors. A British colonial officer, Pilkings, intervenes.

"The action of the play is as inevitable and eloquent as in Antigone: a clash of values and cultures so fundamental that tragedy (ensues): a tragedy for each individual, each tribe."-Daily Telegraph

"This play, by the winner of aNobel Prize for Literature, asks: "On the authority of what gods" the white aliens rupture a world. It puts exciting political theatre back on the agenda ... a masterpiece of 20th century drama."-Guardian

Methuen Student Editions are expertly annotated texts of a wide range of plays from the modern and classic repertoires. As well as the complete text of the play itself, the volume contains a chronology of the playwright's life and work; an introduction giving the background to the play; a discussion of the various interpretations; an interview with Wole Soyinka; and notes on individual words and phrases in the text.

I can't take care of you anymore. I can't take it. It's like an endless boxing match. Mia is at boarding school. She has access to drugs. They are Martha's. Henry is preparing for art college. He has access to alcohol. From Martha. Martha controls their lives. Martha is their mother. That Face premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in April 2007, and won the TMA Award 2007 for Best New Play. Polly Stenham received both the Charles Wintour Award 2007 and the Critics' Circle Award 2008 for Most Promising Playwright.

There are seven surviving tragedies by Sophocles. Three of them form the Theban Plays, which recount the story of Thebes during and after the reign of Oedipus. Here, David Slavitt translates the remaining tragedies - the "other four plays:" Ajax, Women of Trachis, Electra, and Philoctetes. Punchy and entertaining, Slavitt reads Athena's opening line in Ajax as: "I've got my eye on you, Odysseus. Always." By simplifying the Greek and making obscure designations more accessible - specifying the character Athena in place of "aegis-wearing goddess," for example - his translations are highly performable. The Other Four Plays of Sophocles will help students discover underlying thematic connections across plays as well. Praise for David R. Slavitt: "Slavitt's translation is ...lively and sometimes witty." (Times Literary Supplement, reviewing Slavitt's translation of Seneca). "The best version of Ovid's Metamorphoses available in English today...It is readable, alive, at times slangy, and actually catches Ovid's tone." (Philadelphia Inquirer, reviewing Slavitt's translation of The Metamorphoses of Ovid). "Slavitt's ability is clearly in evidence...These translations are rendered in lucid, contemporary English, bringing before us the atrocities, horrors, and grotesqueries of Imperial Rome. " (Classical Outlook, reviewing Slavitt's translation of Seneca). "Excellent translations that suit the ear and strengthen the feeble spirit of the time...One will do well to read these hymns, these poems, and find nourishment in them in Slavitt's translations." (Anglican Theological Review, reviewing Slavitt's translation of Hymns of Prudentius).

This book explores the relationship between multiplicity and representation of non-European and European-American cultures, with a focus on comics and superheroes. The author employs a combination of research methodologies, including close reading of transmedia texts and interviews with transmedia storytellers and audiences, to better understand the way in which diverse cultures are employed as agents of multiplicity in transmedia narratives. The book addresses both commercial franchises such as superhero narratives, as well as smaller indie projects, in an attempt to elucidate the way in which key cultural symbols and concepts are utilized by writers, designers, and producers, and how these narrative choices affect audiences - both those who identify as members of the culture being represented and those who do not. Case studies include fan fiction based on Marvel's Black Panther (2018), fan fiction and art created for the Moana (2016) and Mulan (2020) films, and creations by both U.S.-based and international indie comics artists and writers. This book will appeal to scholars and students of new media, narrative theory, cultural studies, sociocultural anthropology, folkloristics, English/literary studies, and popular culture, transmedia storytelling researchers, and both creators and fans of superhero comics.

Harold Pinter has long been acknowledged as one of the most influential playwrights in contemporary theatre; his arresting and original works have left a lasting imprint on the development of the stage and screen while delighting audiences around the world. This, the first of four volumes, contains his first five plays, including The Birthday Party (1958), his first full-length drama; as well as two short stories--"The Black and White" and "The Examination"--both written before Pinter turned to the theatre. Pinter's exacting and complex use of language and the features that mark his "comedies of menace" are clearly realized in these plays and stories. His speech "Writing for the Theatre" introduces the volume and establishes the context for those early years.

Edited, introduced and annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. The Wordsworth Classics' Shakespeare Series presents a newly-edited sequence of William Shakespeare's works. The textual editing takes account of recent scholarship while giving the material a careful reappraisal. Much Ado About Nothing has long been celebrated as one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies. The central relationship, between Benedick and Beatrice, is wittily combative until love prevails. Broader comedy is provided by Dogberry, Verges and the watchmen. The drama ranges between the destructively sinister and the lyrically romantic, giving the whole a complex and sometimes problematic character. Numerous revivals, in the theatre and on screen, have displayed the lively variety and interpretative openness of this engaging comedy.

Stop it. Stop it! Everyone! We're on holiday, we're meant to be having a nice time. What the hell is wrong with you? Tomas and Ebba are determined to have quality family time with their children, so they head to the Alps on a skiing trip. But when disaster strikes, their family unit is tested to breaking point with hilarious and tragic consequences. Ruben OEstlund's award-winning comedy about a family falling apart is adapted for the stage by Tim Price. This edition was published to coincide with the world premiere at London's Donmar Warehouse in December 2021.

Arthur Miller's classic parable of mass hysteria draws a chilling parallel between the Salem witch-hunt of 1692 - 'one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history' - and the American anti-communist purges led by Senator McCarthy in the 1950s. The story of how the small community of Salem is stirred into madness by superstition, paranoia and malice, culminating in a violent climax, is a savage attack on the evils of mindless persecution and the terrifying power of false accusations.

A depiction of innocent men and women destroyed by malicious rumour, The Crucible is also a powerful indictment of McCarthyism and the 'frontier mentality' of Cold War America.

Includes the full French text, accompanied by French-English vocabulary. Notes and a detailed introduction in English put the work in its social and historical context.

'A working-class woman inside the walls of Westminster? If that is not espionage, I do not know what is.' Forever on the right side of history, but on the wrong side of life, Labour MP Ellen Wilkinson is caught between revolutionary and parliamentary politics as she fights for a better world. Battling to save Jewish refugees in Nazi Germany; campaigning for Britain to aid the fight against Franco's Fascists in Spain; leading two hundred workers in the Jarrow Crusade against unemployment and poverty... she pursues each cause with a passionate, reckless conviction. And yet - despite a life spent running into the likes of Albert Einstein and Ernest Hemingway, serving in Churchill's cabinet, having affairs with communist spies and government ministers - she still finds herself, somehow, on the outside looking in. Caroline Bird's play Red Ellen is the remarkable true story of an inspiring and brilliant woman. It was first produced by Northern Stage, Nottingham Playhouse and the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh in 2022.

Professor Albus Dumbledore knows the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald is moving to seize control of the wizarding world. Unable to stop him alone, he entrusts Magizoologist Newt Scamander to lead an intrepid team of wizards, witches, and one brave Muggle baker on a dangerous mission, where they encounter old and new beasts and clash with Grindelwald’s growing legion of followers. But with the stakes so high, how long can Dumbledore remain on the sidelines?

The official screenplay of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is the ultimate companion to the film, and invites readers to explore every scene of the complete script penned by J.K. Rowling & Steve Kloves. Special features include behind-the-scenes content and commentary from David Yates, David Heyman, Jude Law, Eddie Redmayne, Colleen Atwood and more.

The plays in this theater book give teenage performers the chance to reveal the unique identities and motivations of students their own age. These brief plays may be used for speech and drama classrooms, forensic competitions or variety shows. They are easily staged with no sets or costumes. Topics include: how to be popular, jealousy, shoplifting, pranks and more. Included are scripts for girls only, scripts for boys only and scripts for mixed casts. The dialog in all the plays is believable and easy to perform.

Shakespeare and Lost Plays returns Shakespeare's dramatic work to its most immediate and (arguably) pivotal context; by situating it alongside the hundreds of plays known to Shakespeare's original audiences, but lost to us. David McInnis reassesses the value of lost plays in relation to both the companies that originally performed them, and to contemporary scholars of early modern drama. This innovative study revisits key moments in Shakespeare's career and the development of his company and, by prioritising the immense volume of information we now possess about lost plays, provides a richer, more accurate picture of dramatic activity than has hitherto been possible. By considering a variety of ways to grapple with the problem of lost, imperceptible, or ignored texts, this volume presents a methodology for working with lacunae in archival evidence and the distorting effect of Shakespeare-centric narratives, thus reinterpreting our perception of the field of early modern drama.

A NEW, REVISED EDITION OF THE ULTIMATE NORA EPHRON COLLECTION, PACKED WITH WIT, WISDOM AND COMFORT, WITH AN INTRODUCTION FROM CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS 'The perfect introduction to the iconic writer' STYLIST INCLUDING: * Nora's much-loved essays on everything from friendship to feminism to journalism * Extracts from her bestselling novel Heartburn * Scenes from her hilarious screenplay for When Harry Met Sally * Unparalleled advice about friends, lovers, divorces, desserts and black turtleneck sweaters 'It's got a little bit of everything, from witty essays on feminism, beauty, and ageing to profiles of empowering female figures' ELLE *PRAISE FOR NORA EPHRON* 'So bold and so vulnerable at the same time. I don't know how she did it' PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE 'Nora's exacting, precise, didactic, tried-and-tested, sophisticated-woman-wearing-all-black wisdom is a comfort and a relief' DOLLY ALDERTON 'Nora Ephron is the funniest, cleverest, wisest friend you could have' NIGELLA LAWSON 'I am only the one of millions of women who will miss Nora's voice' LENA DUNHAM

You do not feel pain. You do not feel hunger. Now get out there and dance as though you love this island. When a river breaks its banks one night resulting in a massive flood, one medium-sized village (or very very very small town) finds itself completely cut off - unexpectedly an island. As the residents embrace their independence, a new leader rises and a shared identity emerges - but at what cost? Shortlisted for the George Devine Award 2020, Nina Segal's O, Island! is a funny and furious modern myth about disaster and community, exploring how borders can be changed by people, by nature and by accident. This edition is published to coincide with the world premiere at The Other Place by the RSC, in September, 2022.

First published in 1971, Poison, Play and Duel explores the dominant symbols of the language and action of Hamlet. The Ghost first reveals that Claudius murdered his brother by poison, and this act of poisoning is then dramatically presented before the King. The ultimate consequence of the 'poison in jest' performed by the actors is the poisoned 'play' with rapiers between Laertes and Hamlet. This representation of violence, and the vengeful response to violence, creates the moral and the psychological problems of Hamlet. Critics naturally question, and disagree about, the way that Hamlet plays his role in this play because the role of Hamlet is a theatrical device designed to bring all human actions into debate and question. It is hardly surprising that audiences have seen mirrored in Hamlet their own most fundamental and inescapable problems. Nigel Alexander shows how Shakespeare, like Raphael, Titian and other Renaissance artists, developed and adapted the imagery inherited from the Christian and classical past. The battle within the soul, the choice of life, the hunt of passion, the triple face of prudence and the dance of the graces are given dramatic habitation in Hamlet's soliloquies, in the inner-play and in the savage contrast of sexuality between Gertrude and Ophelia. This book will be of interest to students of literature, drama, psychology and philosophy.