In January 2004, Showtime debuted The L Word, the first prime-time commercial drama to centre around lesbian characters. Over the course of six seasons, the show depicted the lives and loves of an evolving circle of friends in West Hollywood, California, and was widely read as evidence of changing social attitudes toward gay people. Building on immediate critical attention, the show reigned as Showtime's most popular for its first three seasons and earned a large and enthusiastic audience. In The L Word, author Margaret T. McFadden argues that the show is important for its subject matter, its extended and deeply literate commentary on the history of representation of lesbians in popular media, and the formal innovations it deployed to rewrite that history. McFadden shows that the programme's creators, led by executive producer Ilene Chaiken, were well aware of the assumptions and expectations that viewers would bring to it after a history of stereotypical depictions of lesbians on television. They sought to satisfy a diverse group of viewers who wanted honest and appealing portrayals of their lives while still attracting a large enough mainstream audience to make The L Word commercially viable. In five chapters, McFadden explores how the show tackled these problems of representation by using reflexivity as a strategy to make meaning, undertaking a complicitous critique of Hollywood, skillfully using a soap-drama format to draw in its audience and ultimately creating its own complex representation of a lesbian community. While deconstructing the history of misrepresentation of lesbians, The L Word's new modes of storytelling and new perspectives made many aspects of lesbian experience, history and culture visible to a large audience. Fans of the show as well as readers interested in cultural studies and gay and lesbian pop cultural history will enjoy this astute volume.

Her harsh brand of rehab hides a bitter secret. Ex-nurse, Nancy is hurled into the world of celebrity when she finds herself performing a shoot for handsome but odious playboy, Vince, as they walk from one of his nightclubs. The seduction of this other world sours after Nancy overhears Vince make a bet with his PA, Leon on the length of her fifteen minutes of fame. Her world falls apart after Vince's limo crashes, killing Leon and forcing Nancy into saving Vince's life. Soon after, she finds Vince bedridden with no memory of her, and surrounded by sycophants. From hereon, Nancy's alter-ego, Nora hijacks Vince's home and forces him to undergo her harsh brand of rehab with darkly comical results. Approximate running time 92 minutes. Book's dimensions: 8x5in and 102 pages.

SHAPELESS is a One Act Play. A dark, satirical play within a play. It takes on eating disorders and body image in a "not so" typical manner. Four friends attempt to put on a play about eating disorders but cannot get past their own inhibitions to do so. It is not what you would expect. We have the game show NAME THOSE FLAWS. There is a scene with Adam and Eve and Dancing with food to name a few. It's a fast scenic play that is both gross, disgusting and enlightening. SHAPELESS played in Toronto at the Tarragon Theatre and had a very successful run. National Eating Disorder Awareness Week Picked it up and had it as their finale and it played at The Robert Gill Theatre in Toronto. My Name is Sean Carthew and I have a degree in acting from the University of Windsor. I have had a book, this play and a feature film produced. I feel that Shapeless makes a great read as it is not what you would expect when dealing with this issue. It will read differently for all as it is very visual and people will visualize it in many different ways. I think it should be on the stage again. Someone should pick it up and run with it as I feel it is very important and would make a great play for young people to do and/or what be a fantastic touring production as there is little or no production costs. I hope you enjoy it.

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

This is the mystery about some people getting killed; as the musical goes through a set of events; that lead up to the gangs being caught, and interrogating; until the detective finds out the truth.

This is the story of a town; which is ficitonal; where peopel enjoy the winter time/christmas time; as a few friends are not ready for this season; as they have lost some loved ones; as they want to destroy the town's season; until they have a change of heart.

The final story of J. J. Rhymes; is at hand; as the contract comes; to him; as the group comes together; as the chance at hand; with all the complete; puzzles; it seems that J. J. Rhymes will final break into the business; for one last time.

A small-town bank robbery leads to a brutal showdown between a sheriff and a mysterious stranger in this high-stakes game of shifting identities and hidden motives, starring Mekhi Phifer (ER), William Sadler (The Shawshank Redemption) and Sterling K. Brown (Army Wives). When the obvious suspect is apprehended not far from the crime scene, the police think that the case is solved, but they couldn't be more wrong. The real crime hasn't even happened yet. Before it's over, two desperate men will be pushed over the line where innocent lives hang in the balance.

The Warden- Isolation and family dysfunction lead a Warden's heir on a murderous spree of abductions and false imprisonments in this twisted drama.

There is no writer who excels at the art of adaptation for the screen so much as Harold Pinter. His consummate skill and unerring ear for dialogue, coupled with his sensitivity and understanding of the work of other authors, make the three volumes of his screenplays (of which this is the first) a collective masterclass in screenwriting. Included in this collection are the screenplays for The Servant, The Pumpkin Eater, The Quiller Memorandum, Accident, The Last Tycoon and Langrishe, Go Down.

The Seagull is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramatizes the romantic and artistic conflicts between four characters: the famous middlebrow story writer Boris Trigorin, the ingenue Nina, the fading actress Irina Arkadina, and her son the symbolist playwright Konstantin Treplev. Anton was a Russian physician, dramaturge and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Chekhov practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career.

"You've got to give Duncan credit, it took most people ages to realise the lederhosen was painted on and not real clothing..." Jake Black is almost your average teen, fresh from high-school he jumps at the chance to move from Hobart to Adelaide, with the vague plan of taking engineering at the University. Like many of his generation who travel from home, he turns to Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends. If only his mother wouldn't call him every day to check on his diabetes. Or use his sister's account to spy on his activities. Perhaps this is why his parents were so eager for him to attend one of the city's residential colleges, where he is surrounded by two hundred students who can keep watch. However, college is more adventurous than Jake's parents bargained for... Ignoring the inevitable medical impacts of his new life style Jake struggles managing his mother and his new freedom, with mixed results on the public Facebook platform. A combination of short story written in status updates and posts, and a one-act play for small and large casts, Jake's Page is a comic yet heart-breaking tale of a young, type one diabetic and his Facebook Page.

An unexpected bond forms between two women when their sons are killed in an explosion at a local shopping mall. When the police find evidence of a bomb, one of the sons, a Muslim American, becomes the prime suspect, threatening the two mothers' new friendship and forcing them to question how well they knew their own children.

"Torn capitalizes on a gripping and emotional storyline to deliver a terrific ending." - Tony Hicks, SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

"Slowly uncovering the prejudices that calamity can unleash, Michael Richter's screenplay lays bare the damage wrought by Sept. 11 while deftly dodging hysteria, wondering how we differentiate between innocent teenage behaviors and dangerous red flags. Most of all, it wonders if we can ever fully know the people we live with, leaving the question to resonate as deeply as the two women's grief." - Jeannette Catsoulis, THE NEW YORK TIMES

"A great accomplishment." - John Oursler, THE VILLAGE VOICE

"A terse, wonderfully observant and unsentimental screenplay by Michael Richter... Richter tells the tale with admirable economy-the film runs 80 minutes-as well as an unstressed but devastating emotional authenticity. He could have ended his film with the question of the boys' culpability unanswered and that ambiguity would have been sufficient, but instead he reveals the truth, and the revelation is breathtakingly poignant." - David Noh, FILM JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL

"A genuinely unsettling microcosm of modern terrorism... Torn rings with the sound of quiet truth." - Andrew Lapin, THE DISSOLVE

"Michael Richter's screenplay weaves together its various themes and such subplots as Lea's tentatively resuming a relationship with her long estranged ex-husband (Patrick St. Esprit) with intelligence and sensitivity, not to mention an uncommon succinctness (the film runs a scant 80 min). The relationships between the complex characters are well drawn, and the ironic ending manages to touchingly upend our expectations." - Frank Scheck, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

For a unique, little-known three month period in 1505 Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. They each had a comission to paint a mural depicting the military glories of Florence. This play dramatizes that great moment in history. What transpired in that room? How did Leonardo, sophisticated and well travelled, handle the local bearded recluse? How did Michelangelo react to the older, more experienced artist working in his city? Salai, Leonardo's adopted son, was named the Devil for good reason.

When "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" became box office hits for Universal, Carl Laemmle Junior immediately ordered that sequels be written for both films. Scripts were prepared but Junior's choice of director - James Whale - had had enough of monster films and was doing everything he could to avoid them. Finally in 1935, after getting out of shooting "Dracula's Daughter" Whale agreed to direct "The Return of Frankenstein." In this volume is the final shooting script by John L. Balderston. Balderston added more scenes from the novel, such as the monster hiding in a peasant's hut and learning to read and speak. But Whale thought his version of the Monster's personality too brutish and evil. He wrote a new script with screenwriter William Hurlbut, added new characters such as Mini and Dr. Pretorius, keeping Balderston's script as just an outline. Most historians and fans feel that when Return of Frankenstein was renamed "Bride of Frankenstein" it became the most beloved film in Universal's Classic Monster films.

Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays can still be read or performed, the others being Sophocles and Euripides. He is often described as the father of tragedy: our knowledge of the genre begins with his work and our understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. Only seven of his estimated seventy to ninety plays have survived into modern times. Fragments of some other plays have survived in quotes and more continue to be discovered on Egyptian papyrus, often giving us surprising insights into his work.

Memories of Underdevelopment was the first great international success of Cuban cinema. The film provides a complex portrait of Sergio, a disaffected bourgeois intellectual who remains in Havana after the Revolution, suspended between two worlds. He can no longer accept the values of his family's reactionary past and yet boredom and the conditioning of his early life prevent him from committing himself to the new revolutionary society. Sergio's story is played out in the turbulent period of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the 1962 missile crisis, events he can only watch on his television screen or from his apartment balcony. The film, initially banned by the U.S. government as part of its trade quarantine of Cuba, was shown here five years after its original release. But American critics responded enthusiastically to it and the National Society of Film Critics bestowed an award on its director. This double volume includes the complete continuity script of Memories, as well as the complete novel, Inconsolable Memories, upon which the film is based. An interview with Alea is reproduced here, as well as documentation of the political controversy that surrounded the film in this country. Michael Chanan's introduction places the film in the context of Cuban political and cultural history. The volume also includes a biographical sketch of Alea, a chronology of the Cuban Revolution, reviews, commentary, a filmography, and a bibliography. Michael Chanan lives in England, where he teaches and writes on film. He is the author of The Cuban Image: Cinema and Cultural Politics in Cuba.

The official script for the box-office smash movie, featuring every ruddy word (and stage direction) of Alan's seamless transformation from natural-born broadcaster into fully fledged and occasionally fully dressed hostage negotiator. Contains deleted scenes and an exclusive Foreword by Steve Coogan. With a television career behind him and a much-coveted breakfast slot in his spiritual home, regional digital radio, there was only one place left for Alan Partridge to turn: Hollywood! Or rather, an Anglo-French funded co-production for the big screen. Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa sees Alan face his biggest challenge since he spent six months in a travel tavern, and is almost certainly the first time he has handled a loaded gun since he was a prime-time BBC2 presenter. When his beloved income-source North Norfolk Digital is taken over by a faceless media conglomerate, Alan's inimitable instinct for self-preservation leads to a violent and bloody siege on the radio station by an unhinged, nay mentalist, DJ, and a hostage crisis for which there can be only one man with the chat to diffuse it ... Featuring a cast of old and new Partridge favourites, including Sidekick Simon, assistant Lynn and Michael the Geordie, Alpha Papa is proof that while the jury's out on whether you can keep a good man down, it's an outright fact that you can't keep a good regional broadcaster off the airwaves.

Louis Phillips, a widely published poet, playwright, and short story writer, has written some 50 books for children and adults. Among his published works are: five collections of short stories - A DREAM OF COUNTRIES WHERE NO ONE DARE LIVE (SMU Press), THE BUS TO THE MOON (Fort Schuyler Press), and THE WOMAN WHO WROTE KING LEAR AND OTHER STORIES (Pleasure Boat Studio), FIREWORKS IN SOME PARTICULARS (Fort Schuyler Press), and MUST I WEEP FOR THE DANCING BEAR (Pleasure Boat Studio). HOT CORNER, a collection of his baseball writings, and R.I. P. (a sequence of poems about Rip Van Winkle) from Livingston Press; THE ENVOI MESSAGES, and THE LAST OF THE MARX BROTHERS' WRITERS, full-length plays, (Broadway Play Publishers). His books for children include: THE MAN WHO STOLE THE ATLANTIC OCEAN (Prentice Hall & Camelot Books), THE MILLION DOLLAR POTATO (Simon and Schuster), and HOW TO WRESTLE AN ALLIGATOR (Avon). His sequence of poems - The Time, The Hour, The Solitariness of the Place -was the co-winner in the Swallow's Tale Press competition (1984). Among his published books of poems are: THE KRAZY KAT RAG (Light Reprint Press), BULKINGTON (Hollow Spring Press), THE TIME, THE HOUR, THE TIME, THE HOUR, THE SOLITARINESS OF THE PLACE (Swallow's Tale Press), CELEBRATIONS & BEWILDERMENTS (Fragments Press). He edited BEST LOVED POEMS (Random House) and THE RANDOM HOUSE BOOK OF HUMOROUS VERSE. Other books include: GERTRUDE STEIN IN DAYTON & OTHER PLAYS; AMERICAN ELEGIES, THE TRIAL OF THE ASSASSIN GUITEAU, and LATE NIGHT IN THE RAIN FOREST (World Audience Publishers) He teaches at the School of Visual Arts in NYC.

This is the story; of government control; it seemed that; as the government wants to take over; the world; as they enlist; the help of two scientist; then; all of sudden; the other people; who are against the goverment; is ready; to take them down.