Moncrief House, Panley Common. Scholastic establishment for the sons of gentlemen, etc. Panley Common, viewed from the back windows of Moncrief House, is a tract of grass, furze and rushes, stretching away to the western horizon. One wet spring

Lotus Beauty follows the intertwined lives of five multigenerational women, inviting us into Reita's salon where clients can wax lyrical about their day's tiny successes or have their struggles massaged, plucked or tweezed away. But with honest truths and sharp-witted barbs high among the treatments on offer, will the power of community be enough to raise the spirits of everyone who passes through the salon doors?

The plays of Maria Martinez Sierra were popular in Spain, South America and in translation on Broadway and London's West End in the first half of the 20th century but they were thought to be written by her husband, the celebrated director and playwright Gregorio Martinez Sierra. After his death, the authorship of his work was revealed to be that of Maria, making her one of the most important playwrights of her time. This edited collection features three plays by Maria Martinez Sierra, translated by Helen and Harley Granville-Barker, along with an introduction by Patricia O'Connor, University of Cincinnati, US, which examines Maria's extraordinary life and work, and the battle for her authorship to be recognized in both the Spanish-speaking and anglophone world. This volume focuses on plays centred on strong women; and each is translated by the eminent man of theatre Harley Granville-Barker and his wife, Helen, whose own story holds stark parallels to Maria's in terms of authorship. The collection is edited by playwright Richard Nelson and Professor Colin Chambers, who contribute an essay on the translation work of the Granville-Barkers. The plays are: The Kingdom of God (1928); The Romantic Young Lady (1920) and Take Two From One (1931). Maria Martinez Sierra: A Great Playwright Hidden in Plain Sight recognizes Maria de la O Lejarraga Garcia, to use her birth name, as one of the most important female playwrights, not just in Spain, but globally, in the first half of the 20th century.

Clayton James, a 17-year-old Nottingham lad, dreams of becoming the next Viv Anderson. With a prodigious talent, the offer of a professional contract at a First Division club and a growing romance with girlfriend Serena, he appears to have the world at his feet. But life at the beginning of the 1980s isn't easy for Clayton and his family, trying to make it in an era of racism and hooliganism. And Clayton's steelworker dad Patterson faces an uncertain future as the Thatcher government faces off against the unions. When his charismatic and powerful former coach, Lafferty, returns after four years away, Clayton is forced to confront painful memories of the past. Can he protect his loved ones from the truth of what he endured? A world premiere, inspired by the recent football abuse scandals, First Touch is a gripping and heartfelt drama about what it takes to fulfil your dreams, by screenwriter Nathaniel Price (BBC's Noughts and Crosses and Sky's Tin Star).

They may be mother and daughter yet they are strangers to each other, still refusing to face what really happened that day. No wonder they cannot move on with their lives. It takes another stranger, Cassiel, a passing fisherman to help them disentangle the weeds that are drowning them. But Cassiel is more than he appears...A hauntingly beautiful, many-layered tale of love and forgiveness, played out on an abandoned jetty.

Since the death of her trawlerman husband 30 years ago, Margaret Harvey has lived with her daughter Rebecca in a small cottage in a coastal town. Rebecca is moving out to live with her boyfriend, so when she meets Milton Farnsworth, an American visiting the area to paint the landscape, she invites him to lodge with Margaret during his stay. Margaret has become increasingly set in her ways over the years, dependent on ritual and superstition, but with patience, humour, and cheap wine, Milton gradually encourages her to relinquish her hold on control. Warm, funny and moving, A Fine Bright Day Today explores love in later life. It was performed at the Oldham Coliseum in June 2011 and the New Vic, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, in July 2012.

Two Stories - Two Mysteries In 'Second Chance', Jonathan Vaness, an account executive with an office on the eightieth floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, watches as a plane slams into the building on 9.11. He is in major debt to the mob from his illegal sports betting. His marriage is falling apart, and he just learned that he is being fired at the end of the week. The scenario he creates in the next few minutes especially after the South Tower is hit, is to disappear from his old life and move to Cape Haze, Florida with a new identity. Everyone will think that he was vaporized like hundreds of other victims in the horrendous terror attack. Eleven years later, Jonathan even with his new hair color and mustache, is recognized by someone from his old life. His only out, besides prison and death from the mob, is murder. In the next story 'Justice for Tracy', a billionaire's daughter is brutally slain in her upscale antique shop in Sarasota, Florida. Who killed her and why? The police are baffled. After two years of investigation, the police have given up hope, Christopher Day, a private investigator for the law firm of Constantine, Constantine and Fitzpatrick is hired by the billionaire to find his daughter's killer. To solve the murder, Chris is led down a road of infidelity, deceit and revenge. The plans the billionaire has for the killer of his daughter, makes for an exciting climax. The author can be reached: [email protected]

I'm really looking forward to robbing this bank! Mischief's smash-and-grab hit The Comedy About A Bank Robbery is a fast, fabulous comedy caper and the funniest show in the West End! Summer 1958. Minneapolis City Bank has been entrusted with a priceless diamond. An escaped convict is dead set on pocketing the gem with the help of his screwball sidekick, trickster girlfriend... and the maintenance man. With mistaken identities, love triangles and hidden agendas, even the most reputable can't be trusted. In a town where everyone's a crook, who will end up bagging the jewel? Written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, the creators of the Olivier Award-winning Best New Comedy The Play That Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong, The Comedy About A Bank Robbery opened at the Criterion Theatre in London's West End in April 2016. 'The best new comedy to open straight into the West End in decades' Time Out 'Thrilling and daringly inventive' The Guardian

"Mother Warned You" is a violent dose of reality with a Christian message throughout. Adult content, just enough to make it real, also make it interesting. Before you ever get to read it, I want to say that I never had any formal training as a writer. I have heard that a little of the author goes into every character. I'm sure that is natural. Teachers also tell you to write about what you know. I did just that. Those are dismal thoughts for me to digest, but, oh well, if you knew me better, you'd see me throughout the book. I managed to move about the country so much, that I'd be gone from an area before too many got to know me well. Lots of good people only knew me as a roofer or a carpenter. Some only knew me as "Snakeman." That was all they needed to know. I kept snakes for many years and still have three.

Of course, I like to think of my self as the good guy, basically I am and usually I was. Today, I am for sure. Still, it was too easy to draw on personal thoughts and experience to develop even the most horrible of the bad guys. Every single character in all the stories was patterened after someone I've crossed paths with in the 55 years I'd lived prior to publishing this the first time. I'd gotten to know (or be) some of the bad guys too well.

Tantrum is a departure from writing norms. The line between good guys and bad guys is only clear due to the truly evil nature of the villians. Cottonmouth and Mike's Place deal with a flexible style of police work that most cops only dream of. Liberal courts stymie the best efforts of good cops. These tales are about how they'd like to operate.

This is a collection of seven contemporary American plays (six of them by gay playwrights) that depict the lives of gay men in the years before gay liberation and in our own time. All of these plays have been successfully produced by major American theaters and all have received critical acclaim. The first three works in the collection-Robert O' Hara's Antebellum, Joseph and David Zellnik's Yank , and Jon Marans's The Temperamentals-demonstrate gay playwrights' impulse to share the history of oppression and liberation gay men have faced. The remaining four plays-Guillermo Reyes's Deporting the Divas, Stephen Karam's Sons of the Prophet, Neal Bell's Spatter Pattern and Jose Rivera's Pablo and Andrew at the Altar of Words-offer depictions of the ways in which gay men have and have not assimilated in the twenty-first century.

Imagine having Frank Mathews's Street Smart, Lucky Luciano's Charismatic, John Gotti's stlye & Grace and Nicky Barns's knowledge of the Urban World. Thats just with I did in, Hustlers from Harlem Twenty Years Later. Combining old school hustling with todays hustling.

Newsroom, political platform, local hot spot, confession box, preacher-pulpit and football stadium. For generations, African men have gathered in barber shops to discuss the world. These are places where the banter can be barbed and the truth is always telling. Barber Shop Chronicles, which was partly inspired by verbatim recordings, is a heart-warming, hilarious and insightful play that leaps from a barber shop in Peckham to Johannesburg, Harare, Kampala, Lagos and Accra over the course of a single day. It was first produced by the National Theatre, Fuel and Leeds Playhouse in 2017 and is here publishedas a Methuen Drama Student Edition with commentary and notes by Oladipo Agboluaje.