Nadezhda Ptushkina's plays reflect her keen interest in constructing multidimensional characters that reflect the myriad ways people are affected by today's turbulent world. Often writing strong female roles, she does not shy away from exploring the sometimes tragic implications that lie behind her comical, almost farcical scenes. Ptushkina questions the nature of love, and explores the boundaries between the spiritual and the base, the constructive and the destructive, that lie within every human being. Conflict between the sexes constitutes the core of Ptushkina's plays, in which she warns the audience against confusing sex and love. Ptushkina rejects any notion that men and women are the same, seeing gender differences rather than personality differences as the main source of tension between men and women. Her plays thus dwell on this 'battle of the sexes' and the resulting lack of respect for women that she sees in today's Russia.In this new translation, western readers have a chance to discover why Ptushkina's work holds such wide appeal in the Russian theatre.

This is an examination of "The Night of the Hunter," Charles Laughton's only outing as a film director. It looks at the symbolism of the piece, at Willa, her throat cut sitting in the Model-T Ford, and the Preacher, a silhouetted threat on the horizon.

Best known as one of the leading Irish poets of her generation, Paula Meehan is also an accomplished and much-admired playwright, and her stage work has been performed by, among others, Team Theatre Company, Rough Magic, Calypso Theatre Company and The National Theatre Company at the Peacock. As well as her work for stage, in recent years she has also written for radio, a medium which provides particular scope for the oral and sonic qualities so often admired in her writing. Music for Dogs presents, for the first time in print, a selection of that work for radio from a poet of "perfect pitch" (Midwest Book Review). Janey Mack is Going to Die, The Lover and Threehander were all written for and first performed on RT Radio 1.

Rachel Watson longs for a different life. Her only escape is the perfect couple she watches through the train window every day, happy and in love. Or so it appears. When Rachel learns that the woman she's been secretly watching has suddenly disappeared, she finds herself as a witness and even a suspect in a thrilling mystery which she will face bigger revelations than she could ever have anticipated.

These adaptations of four 1974 episodes of the BBC1 comedy series, The Liver Birds, feature the two incompatible Liverpudlian girls, Beryl and Sandra. What they have in common are a tiny flat, boyfriend problems, and a passion for the latest fashion.

Truman Capote once remarked, "My primary thing is that I'm a prose writer. I don't think film is the greatest living thing"; nonetheless, his legacy is in many ways defined by his complex relationship with cinema, Hollywood, and celebrity itself. In "Truman Capote: A Literary Life at the Movies," Tison Pugh explores the author and his literature through a cinematic lens, skillfully weaving the most relevant elements of Capote's biography-- including his highly flamboyant public persona and his friendships and feuds with notable stars--with insightful critical analysis of the films, screenplays, and adaptations of his works that composed his fraught relationship with the Hollywood machine.

Capote's masterful short stories and novels ensure his status as an iconic author of the twentieth century, and his screenplays, including "Beat the Devil," "Indiscretion of an American Wife," and "The Innocents," allowed him to collaborate with such Hollywood heavyweights as Humphrey Bogart, John Huston, and David O. Selznick. Throughout his professional life he circulated freely in a celebrity milieu populated by such notables as Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marilyn Monroe. Cinematic adaptations of his literature, most notably "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "In Cold Blood," play with or otherwise alter Capote's queer literary themes, often bleaching his daring treatment of homosexuality in favor of heterosexual romance.

"Truman Capote: A Literary Life at the Movies" reveals Capote's literary works to be not merely coincident to film but integral to their mutual creation, paying keen attention to the ways in which Capote's identity as a gay southerner influenced his and others' perceptions of his literature and its adaptations. Pugh's research illuminates Capote's personal and professional successes and disappointments in the film industry, helping to create a more nuanced portrait of the author and bringing fresh details to light.

An 1876 Californian tale of a Coast Miwok Warrior named 'Quentin' AKA 'Naked Spurs'. In the present... a YOUNG ARTIST creates a Wild West diorama and tells the seriously tall tale of NAKED SPURS his great-great grandfather. As the streaking inmate of San Quentin penitentiary 'Naked Spurs' must run for his life along with other criminals; this is one story he can not run away from. NAKED SPURS is the plausible tale of the BEAT THE BOUNTY competition, a contest attracting the fastest guns in the west to the largest man-hunt in history.

A child's wish melds the soul of a kind-hearted simpleton to a toy BEAR. Secret for three generations the GUARDIAN wakes in time of need. Surviving the sinking of the TITANIC the BEAR passes into the hands of the JEWISH community. Aboard the rescue ship CARPATHIA it travels on...to the gas chambers of AUSCHWITZ. The BEAR brings with it...A HISTORY OF FEAR.

Ingmar Bergman is still the doyen of cinema. He is known for masterpieces of controlled human emotion, exploring every facet of the personality in relentless detail. He wrote: "I had the possibility of corresponding with the world around me in a language that is literally spoken from soul to soul."

These two screenplays, liberally illustrated with production stills featuring actors, including his favourite actress, ex wife, Liv Ullman, are classics of the screen. They will be sought after by film students, and lovers of his films, New interest in Bergman is being generated by the recent release of Faithless, Liv Ullman's 2001 masterpiece, with a screenplay by Bergman.

Born in Sweden in 1918, Ingmar Bergman is still contributing to his canon of work.

Jason had it all until his addiction finally caught up with him. After being court ordered to serve 28 days in a substance abuse facility, he loses it all. Jason learns to change his selfishness into charity for others as he bonds and forms a family with fellow addicts. This inspires him to develop the 28 Tee-Shirts Calendar Method.

Screenwriters and Screenwriting is an innovative, fresh and lively book that is useful for both screenwriting practice and academic study. It is international in scope, with case studies and analyses from the US, the UK, Australia, Japan, Ireland and Denmark. The book presents a distinctive collection of chapters from creative academics and critical practitioners that serve one purpose: to put aspects of screenwriting practice into their relevant contexts. Focusing on how screenplays are written, developed and received, the contributors challenge assumptions of what 'screenwriting studies' might be, and celebrates the role of the screenwriter in the creation of a screenplay. It is intended to be thought provoking and stimulating, with the ultimate aim of inspiring current and future screenwriting practitioners and scholars.

If there is one skill that separates the professional screenwriter from the amateur, it is the ability to rewrite successfully. From Jack Epps, Jr., the screenwriter of Top Gun, Dick Tracy, and The Secret of My Success, comes a comprehensive guide that explores the many layers of rewriting. In Screenwriting is Rewriting, Epps provides a practical and tested approach to organizing notes, creating a game plan, and executing a series of focused passes that address the story, character, theme, structure, and plot issues. Included are sample notes, game plans, and beat sheets from Epps' work on films such as Sister Act and Turner and Hooch. Also featured are exclusive interviews with Academy Award (R) winning screenwriters Robert Towne (Chinatown) and Frank Pierson (Dog Day Afternoon), along with Academy Award (R) nominee Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich).

This is" "the only screenwriting guide by two guys who have actually done it (instead of some schmuck who just gives lectures about screenwriting at the airport Marriott); "These guys are proof that with no training and little education, ANYONE can make it as a screenwriter" (Paul Rudd).
Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon's movies have made over a billion dollars at the box office--and now they show you how to do it yourself This book is full of secret insider information about how to conquer the Hollywood studio system: how to write, pitch, structure, and get drunk with the best of them. Well...maybe not the best of them, but certainly the most successful. (If you're aiming to win an Oscar, this is not the book for you ) But if you can type a little, and can read and speak English--then you too can start turning your words into stacks of money
This is the only screenwriting book you will ever need (because all other ones pretty much suck). In these pages, Garant and Lennon provide the kind of priceless tips you won't find anywhere else, including:
- The art of pitching
- Getting your foot in the door
- Taking notes from movie stars
- How to get fired and rehired
- How to get credit and royalties
And most important: what to buy with the huge piles of money you're going to make
"Writing Movies for Fun and Profit" will take you through the highs and lows of life as a professional screenwriter. From the highs of hugging Gisele Bundchen and getting kung fu punched by Jackie Chan to the soul-crushing lows of "Herbie: Fully Loaded."
Read this book and you'll have everything you need to make your first billion the old-fashioned way--by "selling out" in show business
A portion of the authors' proceeds from this book are being contributed to the USO of Metropolitan Washington, a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to serving active duty military members and their families in the greater Washington, DC, region.