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Books > Language & Literature > Literature: texts > Drama texts, plays > General
In 1970, renowned writer-composer-lyricist Leslie Bricusse adapted
the classic Charles Dickens tale, A Christmas Carol, into the hit
screen musical "Scrooge!". Now available as a charming stage
musical, Scrooge! has enjoyed a hugely successful tour of England
and a season at London's Dominion Theatre starring the late Anthony
Newly. Included are six new songs not performed in the film. Now
this sure-fire audience pleaser is available in two versions: as a
full-length musical and in a 55-minute adaptation that is ideal for
small theatre groups and schools, where it can be performed as a
short play or as part of a seasonal concert.Large flexible cast
Without resorting to the jargon often employed by contemporary
critics, this book covers all major aspects and questions raised by
the play. The text contains a thorough examination of the contrast
between Athens and its dramatic opposite, Thebes, a contrast best
represented by the comparison between each city's primary
representative, Theseus or Creon. Wilson offers a radical rereading
of the Oedipus riddle and concludes with a substantial discussion
of the play's (and playwright's) role in providing a political and
moral education for the troubled Athenian polis in the last decade
of the tumultuous fifth century.
Joseph P. Wilson is Associate Professor in the Department of
Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of
Scranton.
This book (hardcover) is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS. It
contains classical literature works from over two thousand years.
Most of these titles have been out of print and off the bookstore
shelves for decades. The book series is intended to preserve the
cultural legacy and to promote the timeless works of classical
literature. Readers of a TREDITION CLASSICS book support the
mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from
oblivion. With this series, tredition intends to make thousands of
international literature classics available in printed format again
- worldwide.
Based on historical fact, "George Washington's Boy," written by Ted
Lange, portrays the fight for freedom, the Declaration of
Independence, and the first presidency of the United States from
the viewpoint of one of George Washington's closest confident,
ironically, his slave, Billy Lee. Billy Lee served his master
throughout these monumental times and was privy to the innermost
thoughts and actions of Washington.
'One of the best plays ever written about the First World War'
GUARDIAN 'To say that it leaves you emotionally shattered feels
like an insult to those bygone souls and the horrors the faced, but
quietly shattering it is, all the same' DAILY TELEGRAPH A battalion
of 1,000 young men raised in 1914 from volunteers in the Accrington
area of East Lancashire go to war. They are destined to see their
first real action on 1st July 1916 on the first day of the Battle
of the Somme, still regarded as the greatest British military
disaster with huge loss of life. Not many return to Accrington
alive or intact. Whelan's play traces these men's history through
individual stories, but his special interest lies in the lives of
the women left behind, battling with their own problems, deprived
of their relationships with husbands and lovers, undertaking
traditionally male roles, and kept in doubt by the misinformation
of wartime propaganda. Their moving stories interweave in scenes
that are often comic, but which reach a devastating climax as the
news of the disastrous battle finally reaches them. Commentary and
notes by John Davey.
Rosario has not had an easy life. Orphaned at fifteen when his
diplomat parents are assassinated in Algeria, Rosario is forced
into manhood and eventually becomes a doctor. Not wishing to follow
a traditional career path, he applies to most elite division of the
legion-the airborne corps-not realizing that his decision is about
to lead him down a dangerous path. He must now kill to save himself
from being killed.
Now Rosario has traveled from France to Jackson, Mississippi,
ready to embark on a new adventure. In search of a good woman to
marry, Rosario intends to hike the Natchez Trace to Louisiana,
where he hopes to settle down and start a family. Instead, as he
walks along the side of the road on his second morning in
Mississippi, he is approached by two policemen who insist he is
guilty of a triple murder. Unable to provide an alibi, Rosario is
thrown in jail for a crime he never committed.
In this riveting thriller set in the sweltering South, a man
wrongly accused of murder must exact a plan to find a serial killer
before he strikes again.
By 1714 the inability to measure longitude accurately at sea had
led to the tragic loss of hundreds of trading ships, and thousands
of lives. Pressure from merchants and seamen finally drove the
government to form the Board of Longitude, and a prize of 20,000
was offered for a successful solution. Although scientists such as
Sir Isaac Newton knew that a clock would solve the problem of
identifying longitude, it was generally considered impossible to
build one that would withstand the motion of a ship or the extremes
of temperature in foreign climes. Only Harrison, an uneducated
carpenter from Lincolnshire, dared to pit his genius against the
establishment belief that the answer lay in the stars, pursuing the
realisation of his invention against years of scepticism."
The Importance of Being Earnest marks a central moment in
late-Victorian literature, not only for its wit but also for its
role in the shift from a Victorian to a Modern consciousness. The
play began its career as a biting satire directed at the very
audience who received it so delightedly, but ended its initial run
as a harbinger of Wilde's personal downfall when his lover's
father, who would later bring about Wilde's arrest and
imprisonment, attempted to disrupt the production. In addition to
its focus on the textual history of the play, this Broadview
Edition of Earnest provides a wide array of appendices. The edition
locates Wilde's work among the artistic and cultural contexts of
the late nineteenth century and will provide scholars, students,
and general readers with an important sourcebook for the play and
the social, creative, and critical contexts of mid-1890s English
life.
Nellie, a spunky nurse from Arkansas, falls in love with a mature
French planter, Emile. Nellie learns that the mother of his
children was an island native and, unable to turn her back on the
prejudices with which she was raised, refuses Emile's proposal of
marriage. Meanwhile, the strapping Lt. Joe Cable denies himself the
fulfillment of a future with an innocent Tonkinese girl with whom
he's fallen in love out of the same fears that haunt Nellie. When
Emile is recruited to accompany Joe on a dangerous mission that
claims Joe's life, Nellie realizes that life is too short not to
seize her own chance for happiness, thus confronting and conquering
her prejudices. Based on Tales of the South Pacific, James
Michener's collection of short stories, South Pacific opened on
Broadway at the the Majestic Theatre on April 7, 1949, starring
Mary Martin, Ezio Pinza and Juanita Hall. South Pacific received
the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and for the first time the
committee included a composer in the drama prize. The show received
ten Tony Awards (including Best Musical), a Grammy Award and
countless other accolades. For years the second-longest running
show in Broadway history (right behind Oklahoma!), South Pacific
returned to Broadway in a celebrated 2008 revival starring Kelli
O'Hara and Paolo Szot. The show has proven itself a classic in
countless productions around the world and was adapted onscreen in
the 1958 film starring Rossano Brazzi and Mitzi Gaynor and in a
2001 made-for-television film starring Glenn Close and Harry
Connick, Jr.
Rodgers and Hammerstein's first collaboration remains, in many
ways, their most innovative, setting the standards and rules of
modern musical theatre. In a Western territory just after the turn
of the 20th century, a high-spirited rivalry between local farmers
and cowboys provides a colorful background for Curly, a charming
cowboy, and Laurey, a feisty farm girl, to play out their love
story. Their romantic journey, as bumpy as a surrey ride down a
country road, contrasts with the comic exploits of brazen Ado Annie
and hapless Will Parker in a musical adventure embracing hope,
determination and the promise of a new land. Oklahoma! opened at
the St. James Theatre on Broadway on March 31, 1943. At that time,
the longest-running show in Broadway history had run for three
years. Oklahoma! surpassed that record by two more years, running
for a marathon 2,212 performances. The US national tour played for
an unprecedented ten and a half years, visiting every single state
and playing before a combined audience of more than 10 million
people. In 1947, Oklahoma! opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane,
London, where it ran for 1,548 performances, the longest run of any
show up to that time in the 267-year history of the theatre. In
1953, the Oklahoma State Legislature named "Oklahoma" the official
state song. In 1955, the motion picture version of Oklahoma!,
starring Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones and produced by Rodgers
and Hammerstein, was released to great success.
Skip Jordan and his friends have faced the powers of darkness
before; they have confronted the deceptions of witchcraft, and done
battle with demonic entities. They have seen The Veil of Deception,
and prevailed against seemingly impossible odds, but what they are
called to face now is more ominous than anything they have known
before. Skip Jordan is dreaming again. Their former friend Roger
Wilson, missing for almost a year, appears in the dream. He also
sees Ntambo, the African preacher who had saved Skip from death
when he was only four years old. Against the backdrop of Victoria
Falls in Africa, or, as the locals know it, The Smoke That
Thunders, he sees his black friend hounded over the edge into the
gorge below. Skip has no doubt the dream is a call for he and his
friends to launch a rescue mission to save Roger, and others, from
the clutches of witchcraft. Only two months short of his fifteenth
birthday, they leave for Africa on an adventure that could very
well be their last. They face attacks from demons, lying wonders,
and end up in a secret place known as The Lions Den. In this evil
place no escape is possible; only death awaits them. Will their
faith be sufficient to carry them through? Will their youth and
inexperience cause them to fail? Or is there help on the way, both
human and divine, that will lead them to final victory? This second
volume in the SKIP JORDAN series, told with a blend of fantasy,
drama and adventure, cannot fail to excite, challenge, and bless
all who read it
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