Tom Dulcet's girlfriend has become enamored with Reuben Wild, an eccentric local playwright whose controversial works take aim at the rampant corruption in the city they're performed in. A shadowy political figure known as the Accountant has also become aware of Reuben and has made it his goal to strongarm anyone who supports Wild's subversive plays. Through Tom's eyes, we watch as Reuben's stories embolden and energize his neighbors to rise up against their oppressors. We also partake in Tom's secret obsession, peeping on a beautiful young woman who lives with her parents in the wealthiest neighborhood in the city. The Peeper and the Playwright is a story that will be appreciated by anyone who's ever objected to authority and wanted to fight back against those keeping them down.

Our story opens in the middle of a horrifying abduction. Jade, a teen runaway and sex worker-turned-killer, has been restrained and is being driven into the deep woods in the dark night to be brutally murdered. Through Jade we learn the details of her heartbreaking life up to this point and how she came to be in this frightening predicament. Jade was born Laura, an only child raised by a caring mother in the city of Highbridge. After Laura’s mother gets sick, her father, an alcoholic who has been in and out of the women’s lives, returns to attend to the mother of his child in her final days. After her mom’s passing, Laura’s father disappears. A sad and scared Laura is soon taken in by two prostitutes who teach her the ways of the streets and rename her Jade Suede. The pair of working girls eventually leave Jade in a brothel where she is recruited by a loan shark/nightclub owner named Max Burke who hires her to seduce and kill deadbeat debtors. Along the way Jade falls in love with a gravedigger who also works for Burke. Wanting a better life for themselves, the lovers make a daring plan to escape their wretched world of homicide and lechery that will either lead them to freedom or get them both killed.

Phillip Attenberg is a twenty-six-year-old virgin with no charm or charisma. Other than working at a big-box membership-only warehouse retail store, Phillip's only other activities include drinking canned iced coffee and watching his grouchy roommate harass women through a speaker hanging out of a window of the apartment the two share. One day, Phillip discovers there's a man living in his city who looks exactly like him. The difference between Phillip and his doppelgänger, however, is that the look-alike has loads of charm and charisma. Another difference is that Phillip's double has started seducing and murdering women by drowning them! The local press begins referring to the wicked scoundrel as the Cold-Water Killer, and this evil twin quickly becomes the bane of Phillip's already miserable existence. Will the Cold-Water Killer be brought to justice before Phillip mistakenly takes the fall for him? Will Phillip ever get the "juice" he needs to establish a social life for himself? Will Phillip's roommate ever stop pestering ladies walking by their apartment? Find the answers to all these questions in Zero Percent Juice!

A discussion of the Bible's resemblance to theatre, with the author arguing that the fear the ancient Hebrews felt for theatre was based on its highly creative potential as a rival Creator, not its gaudy aspects. God, in theatrical terms, is "The Great Offstage Being".

Although some scholars credit Shakespeare with creating in Henry IV's Falstaff the first "second banana" character (reviving him for Henry IV Part Two), most television historians agree that the popular co-star was born in 1955 when Art Carney, as Ed Norton, first addressed Jackie Gleason with a "Hey, Ralphie-boy," on The Honeymooners. The phenomenon has proved to be one of the most enduring achievements of the American sitcom, and oftentimes so popular that the co-star becomes the star. Twenty-nine of those popular co-stars get all of the attention in this work. Each chapter focuses on one television character and the actor or actress who brought him or her to life, and provides critical analysis, biographical information and, in several instances, interviews with the actors and actresses themselves. It includes people like Art Carney of The Honeymooners, Don Knotts of The Andy Griffith Show, Ted Knight of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Max Baer of The Beverly Hillbillies, Vivian Vance and William Frawley of I Love Lucy, Ann B. Davis of The Brady Bunch, Jamie Farr of M*A*S*H, Ron Palillo of Welcome Back, Kotter, Jimmie Walker of Good Times, Tom Poston of Newhart and Michael Richards of Seinfeld, to name just a few.

A diverse selection of plays from the nineties, noughties and 2010’s from a range of established and up-and-coming playwrights based in Greece. The collection includes a foreword and introductions to each play by prominent academics in Greek Contemporary Theatre. 1. M.A.I.R.O.U.L.A by Lena Kitsopoulou, translated by Aliki Chapple (2012) 2. Angelstate by Nina Rapi, translated by the author (2015) 3. Wolfgang by Yannis Mavritsakis, translated by Christina Polyhroniou (2008) 4. Hungry by Charalampos Giannou , translated by the author (2016) 5. Juliet by Akis Dimou, translated by Elizabeth Sakellaridou (1995)

An enlightening, nuanced, and accessible introduction to the life and work of one of the greatest writers of short fiction in history. Anton Chekhov’s stories and plays endure, far beyond the Russian context, as outstanding modern literary models. In a brief, remarkable life, Chekhov rose from lower-class, provincial roots to become a physician, leading writer, and philanthropist, all in the face of a progressive fatal disease. In this new biography, Michael C. Finke analyzes Chekhov’s major stories, plays, and nonfiction in the context of his life, both fleshing out the key features of Chekhov’s poetics of prose and drama and revealing key continuities across genres, as well as between his lesser-studied early writings and the later works. An excellent resource for readers new to Chekhov, this book also presents much original scholarship and is an accessible, comprehensive overview of one of the greatest modern dramatists and writers of short fiction in history.

This encyclopedia includes entries for 1,153 world premiere (and other significant) performances of operas in Europe, the United States, Latin America and Russia. Entries offer details about key persons, arias, interesting facts, and date and location of each premiere. There is a biographical dictionary with 1,288 entries on historical and modern operatic singers, composers, librettists, and conductors. Fully indexed and with a bibliography.