Set in a small Russian town during the 1870s, this 20-character farce centers on a schoolteacher's romantic entanglements. Chekhov's first play holds the key to many themes revisited in his later dramas.

A major achievement--Callow examines Chekhov's life within the context of the evolution of his art, making the reader acutely aware of the hidden ground from which his work sprang and on which his life stood. A beautifully written biography by a novelist, poet, and biographer.

New York magazine was born in 1968 after a run as an insert of the New York Herald Tribune and quickly made a place for itself as the trusted resource for readers across the country. With award-winning writing and photography covering everything from politics and food to theater and fashion, the magazine's consistent mission has been to reflect back to its audience the energy and excitement of the city itself, while celebrating New York as both a place and an idea.

This book concentrates on six neo-slave narratives written by late 20th and early 21st century black American women: Octavia Butler’s Kindred, Phyllis Alesia Perry’s Stigmata and A Sunday in June, Gayl Jones’ Corregidora, Joan California Cooper’s Family, and Athena Lark’s Avenue of Palms. It explores the process of re(-)membering of the black female characters in these novels, and shows how these authors manage to both write the transgenerational trauma of slavery and write through it, enabling black American women’s voices to be heard. This analysis of famous classics, as well as less-known books, demonstrates how black American women’s traumatic memory of slavery is inscribed in a transgenerational black female body. Conjuring up questions of narratology and intertextuality, it highlights how working-through takes the form of a narrativization of this traumatic memory by diverse means. This book also reflects upon the links between the collective and personal psyches by laying emphasis on the ineluctable intertwining of national history and individual destiny.

Describes more than 80 full-length plays produced in the last quarter of the 20th century, with an emphasis on New York and London performances.

This volume examines the key representations of transgression drama produced between 480 B.C. and 1600. Arranged in chronological order, the entries consist of plot summary (often including significant dialogue), performance data (if available), opinions by critics and scholars, and other features. The plays covered in this volume will include the great ancient Greek and Roman tragedies, fifteenth century Passion plays, and dramas by Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare.

One of the world's most well known fictional characters, Sherlock Holmes first appeared in print in 1887. The detective was featured in four novels and 56 short stories written by his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Within a decade of his creation Sherlock Holmes made his theatrical debut, first in a couple of obscure productions and soon in the celebrated play adapted by and starring William Gillette. Through the 20th century and beyond, the fictional detective featured in dozens of plays, not to mention radio programs, films, and television shows. In Sherlock Holmes on Stage, Amnon Kabatchnik cites the many theatrical appearances of the great detective since his debut in a one-act musical satire in November 1893. Divided into three sections, this book focuses on plays written or cowritten by Conan Doyle, one-act productions, and plays written by other authors—either adaptations of the novels and stories or original works. Within these sections, each entry is arranged in chronological order and provides a plot synopsis, production details, and other unique features. Some entries identify principal actors and provide biographical sketches of the playwrights, as well as those actors who made a lasting impression as the fictional sleuth. The book also includes several appendixes that focus on special productions, plays that feature variations of the Holmes character, and a list of acting editions.

This volume examines the key representations of transgression drama produced between 1600 and 1800. Arranged in chronological order, the entries consist of plot summary (often including significant dialogue), performance data (if available), opinions by critics and scholars, and other features.

Since his death in 1904, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov's works have had an enormous resonance in different cultures and fields of artistic activity. The essays in this volume examine the various aspects of his reception in Europe. North America, and the Far East. There are analyses of prose, film, and ballet transformations of his work, discussions of many theatre productions, and essays on the problems involved in translating his work into other languages. A final topic is Chekhov's biography as a changing cultural artifact.