This cornucopia of comedy showcases works by major playwrights and emerging young writers, with casts of all sizes and diverse and challenging roles for actors of every age and type. You’ll discover such colorful characters as a businessman free-falling from a plane, an embittered sword swallower, a punkish girl skateboarder, and retirees in post-apocalyptic Siberia, alongside plays that unleash the humor in high school reunions, alien invasions, office cubicle farms, and even post-Katrina New Orleans. Perfect for actors, students, theater lovers, and comedy fans, Shorter, Faster, Funnier covers the spectrum of humor, from slyly witty to over-the-top outrageous. Rob Ackerman ● Billy Aronson ● John Augustine ● Pete Barry ● Dan Berkowitz ● Adam Bock ● Eric Coble ● Philip Dawkins ● Anton Dudley ● Christopher Durang ● Liz Ellison ● Halley Feiffer ● Peter Handy ● Jeffrey Hatcher ● Amy Herzog ● Mikhail Horowitz ● David Ives ● Caleen Sinnette Jennings ● Ean Miles Kessler ● Dan Kois ● Eric Lane ● Drew Larimore ● Warren Leight ● Mark Harvey Levine ● Elizabeth Meriwether ● Michael Mitnick ● Megan Mostyn-Brown ● Mark O’Donnell ● Nicole Quinn ● Wayne Rawley ● Theresa Rebeck ● Jacqueline Reingold ● Laura Shaine ● Nina Shengold ● Jane Shepard ● Edwin Sanchez ● Samara Siskind ● Daryl Watson ● Barbara Wiechmann ● Mary Louise Wilson ● Garth Wingfield ● Gary Winter ● Elizabeth Wong ● Dana Yeaton

From unbelievable tales of triumph (with all the shocking bits left in) to incredible facts about Olympic athletes, this is an aspirational, informative, interactive and hilarious guide to the Olympics - what they're all about and what made them what they are today. Packed with funny illustrations, inspirational ideas and amazing activities, this is a brilliant guide to the Olympics past and present.

All of us have immense inner resources for dealing with what life throws at us - but we have to learn how to release those resources. We can't always control what life sends us, but we can choose how we respond. And that, Easwaran tells us, is mainly a matter of quieting the agitation in the mind. It's a simple idea, but one that goes deep - a truly calm mind can weather any storm. And we learn to calm the mind through practice - there's no magic about it. This book offers insights, stories, practical techniques, and exercises that will help us release the energy, compassion, and wisdom we need to ride the waves of life minute by minute, day by day.

In celebration of American Theatre’s twenty-fifth anniversary, the editors of the nation’s leading theater magazine have chosen their best essays and interviews to provide an intimate look at the people, plays, and events that have shaped the American theater over the past quarter-century. Over two hundred artists, critics, and theater professionals are gathered in this one-of-a-kind collection, from the visionaries who conceived of a diverse and thriving national theater community, to the practitioners who have made that dream a reality. The American Theatre Reader captures their wide-ranging stories in a single compelling volume, essential reading for theater professionals and theatergoers alike. Partial contents include: Interviews with Edward Albee, Anne Bogart, Peter Brook, Lorraine Hansbury, Lillian Hellman, Jonathan Larson, David Mamet, Arthur Miller, Joseph Papp, Will Power, Bartlett Scher, Sam Shepard, Tom Stoppard, Luis Valdez, Paula Vogel, August Wilson, and others. Essays by Eric Bentley, Eric Bogosian, Robert Brustein, Christopher Durang, Oskar Eustis, Zelda Fichandler, Eva La Gallienne, Vaclav Havel, Danny Hoch, Tina Howe, David Henry Hwang, Naomi Iizuki, Adrienne Kennedy, Tony Kushner, Kristin Linklater, Todd London, Robert MacNeil, Des McAnuff, Conor McPherson, Marsha Norman, Suzan-Lori Parks, Hal Prince, Phylicia Rashad, Frank Rich, José Rivera, Alan Schneider, Marian Seldes, Wallace Shawn, Anna Deavere Smith, Molly Smith, Diana Son, Wole Soyinka, and many others.

Plays for Two is a unique anthology of twenty-eight terrific plays for two actors, by a mix of celebrated playwrights and cutting-edge new voices. It takes two to tango—or to perform a duet, fight a duel, or play ping-pong. The two-character play is dramatic confrontation stripped to its essence. These four full-length and twenty-four short plays feature pairs of every sort—strangers, rivals, parents and children, siblings, co-workers, friends, and lovers—swooning or sparring, meeting cute or parting ways. In a dizzying range of moods and styles, these two-handers offer the kind of meaty, challenging roles actors love, while providing readers and audiences with the pleasures of watching the complex give-and-take dynamics of two keenly matched characters. Plays by: Billy Aronson, David Auburn, Pete Barry, Naveen Bahar Choudhury, Anthony Clarvoe, Steven Dietz, Halley Feiffer, Simon Fill, Frank Higgins, David Ives, Jacob Juntunen, Ean Miles Kessler, Neil LaBute, Eric Lane, Kitt Lavoie, Jacqueline E. Lawton, Mark Harvey Levine, Elizabeth Meriwether, Michael Mitnick, Daria Polatin, Marco Ramirez, Kelly Rhodes, Jose Rivera, Paul Rudnick, Edwin Sanchez, Nina Shengold, Cori Thomas, Doug Wright

PLAYS FOR THREE is a unique anthology of 23 outstanding plays for three actors by an exciting mix of established and emerging playwrights. Everyone’s heard that “Two’s company, three’s a crowd.” That may be true on a date, but on stage, three is a magic number. Add a third character to any interaction and the dramatic possibilities increase exponentially: suddenly there’s competition, intrigue, shifting allegiances, comic misunderstandings, secrets and lies. Triangles make excellent drama, and three-handers offer the kind of substantial and challenging roles that actors love. Plays for Three offers six full-length and seventeen short plays featuring dramatic trios of every sort. Rob Ackerman Pete Barry Stephen Belber Cesi Davidson Adrienne Dawes Philip Dawkins Catherine Filloux Madeleine George Amlin Gray Frank Higgins Cory Hinkle Wendy Kesselman Eric Lane Kitt Lavoie Mark Harvey Levine Matthew Lopez Donald Margulies Anna Moench A. Rey Pamatmat David Riedy Nina Shengold Stephen Webb Craig Wright

NoPassport theatre alliance and press in collaboration with force/collision, Theater J and Twinbiz NYC commissioned and presented an evening of short works in support of gun control on Janurary 26, 2013 at Georgetown University's Gonda Theatre in Washington D.C. directed by force/collision to coincide with Molly Smith and Suzanne Blue Star Boy's March on Washington for Gun Control.

FAST FUNNY WOMEN is a broad collection: 75 women writers, ages 20 to 89, were invited by editor Gina Barreca to make a party out of their life's most unnerving, challenging, illuminating, desperate, and hilarious moments. Political campaigners, devoted teachers, lousy daughters, good mothers, would-be nuns, admired sportswriters, grad-school-wanna-bes, revenge-driven sisters, frustrated roommates, body-fluid-sorting professionals, lace-loving fashion mavens, intrepid daters, hungry lovers, justice-seeking nasty-women, ACE wedding celebrants, trapped wives, and women with all kinds of ammunition tell their stories-- and their stories are all under 750 words. You know many of these brilliant women, but you've never heard them like this: with new works commissioned for the book from NYT Bestseller and member of the American Academy of Poets, Marge Piercy, Pulitzer-Prize winner Jane Smiley, NYT bestseller graphic artist Mimi Pond, New Yorker staff cartoonist Liza Donnelly, Commander of the British Empire Fay Weldon, bestselling author of "Love, Loss, and What I Wore" Ilene Beckerman, "Sylvia" creator Nicole Hollander, stand-up comics Lisa Landry and Leighann Lord, filmmakers Ferne Pear

Like many ambitious New York City teenagers, Craig Gilner sees entry into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School as the ticket to his future. Determined to succeed at life—which means getting into the right high school to get into the right college to get the right job—Craig studies night and day to ace the entrance exam, and does. That's when things start to get crazy. At his new school, Craig realizes that he isn't brilliant compared to the other kids; he's just average, and maybe not even that. He soon sees his once-perfect future crumbling away.