The short troubled lives of the Bronte sisters have become one the great literary myths of all time. How was it possible that three women who had never had sex, had probably never been kissed, could write some of the most erotic literature of all time? And why should these plain, reclusive women, who lived in rural isolation, have invented such stories.
When two souls collide, the impact can resonate for all eternity. So it was - and so it is - with Heathcliff and Cathy. But if they can't be together, the world that struggles to contain them will simply shatter and burn... Andrew Sheridan's gripping reinvention of Emily Brontë's classic novel Wuthering Heights is a searing and ferocious celebration of passion, of desire - and of the female imagination that created this indelible masterpiece. Exposing a very different but essentially truthful side to literature's most electric couple, it premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in 2020, in a production directed by Bryony Shanahan, joint Artistic Director of the theatre.
Orphaned at an early age, Jane Eyre leads a lonely life until she finds work as a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she meets the mysterious Mr Rochester and sees a ghostly woman who roams the halls by night.
While debating literature’s greatest heroines with her best friend, thirtysomething playwright Samantha Ellis has a revelation—her whole life, she's been trying to be Cathy Earnshaw of Wuthering Heights when she should have been trying to be Jane Eyre. With this discovery, she embarks on a retrospective look at the literary ladies—the characters and the writers—whom she has loved since childhood. From early obsessions with the March sisters to her later idolization of Sylvia Plath, Ellis evaluates how her heroines stack up today. And, just as she excavates the stories of her favorite characters, Ellis also shares a frank, often humorous account of her own life growing up in a tight-knit Iraqi Jewish community in London. Here a life-long reader explores how heroines shape all our lives.
Set in the mysterious landscape of the bogs of rural Ireland, Carr's lyrical and timeless play tells the story of Hester Swane, an Irish traveller with a deep and unearthly connection to her land. Tormented by the memory of a mother who deserted her, Hester is once again betrayed, this time by the father of her child, the man she loves. On the brink of despair, she embarks on a terrible journey of vengeance as the secrets of her tangled history are revealed. 'A piece of poetic realism steeped in the past... Carr has an extraordinary ability to move between the mythic and the real.' Guardian 'A great play... a great work of poetry... the word should soon carry across both sides of the Atlantic.' Independent By the Bog of Cats premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in 1998. It was revived at Wyndham's Theatre, London, in November 2004.
"Explore the many ways in which we connect to the world around us through our senses in speechless: different by design, an exhibition of multisensory, interactive, and immersive experiences for visitors of all backgrounds and abilities. Created in collaboration with designers, scholars, and scientists, speechless presents unique opportunities for discovering new perspectives through communications beyond speech and words. Co-organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and the High Museum of Art, speechless: different by design will debut site-specific installations and new commissions by six leading and emerging international designers and design teams--Ini Archibong, Matt Checkowski, Misha Kahn, Steven and William Ladd, Laurie Haycock Makela, and Yuri Suzuki. Their new works will create participatory environments in which senses are merged or substituted for one another--for instance, sound will become visible and language will become tactile--so that visitors can engage with their surroundings in new and unconventional ways."--
Country Duppy and Jonkanoo Jamboree are two very amusing plays that revel in traditional Jamaican cultural forms and creatively explore their meeting with the modern world. Highly recommended for Caribbean students of English Literature and Theatre Arts COUNTRY DUPPY This is family entertainment.informative, rib-tickling comedy (Daily Gleaner) Country Duppy is an outrageously hilarious slice of Jamaican life. (Jamaica Observer) heavily informed by Jamaican folklore and traditional practices. (Share News, Toronto) JONKANOO JAMBOREE An allegorical exploration of class and race using the Jonkanoo as a trope for life as a masquerade. (SUSUMBA) There was understanding of stage craft, use of space and natural dialogue. (Daily Gleaner) Musical drama, part cautionary folktale marked by a sense of old-fashioned Jamaican storytelling and youthful angst. (Tallawah Magazine)
William Esper, one of the leading acting teachers of our time, explains and extends Sanford Meisner's legendary technique, offering a clear, concrete, step-by-step approach to becoming a truly creative actor.Esper worked closely with Meisner for seventeen years and has spent decades developing his famous program for actor's training. The result is a rigorous system of exercises that builds a solid foundation of acting skills from the ground up, and that is flexible enough to be applied to any challenge an actor faces, from soap operas to Shakespeare. Co-writer Damon DiMarco, a former student of Esper's, spent over a year observing his mentor teaching first-year acting students. In this book he recreates that experience for us, allowing us to see how the progression of exercises works in practice. The Actor's Art and Craft vividly demonstrates that good training does not constrain actors' instincts—it frees them to create characters with truthful and compelling inner lives.
A dinner party during the Second World War unites celebrated writers Agatha Christie, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas - with a mysterious guest. With copious booze flowing, acid-tongued barbs flying, and the threat of global conflict looming, the guests - and the world around them - are close to boiling point. Everyone has a confession. Someone has a secret. Set in the French Alps in 1940, Steven Carl McCasland's Little Wars is an enthralling, entertaining and ultimately moving portrait of seven exceptional women - and a thrilling fiction based on truth. It was workshopped Off-Off-Broadway, first performed in 2015, and received an acclaimed digital premiere in 2020, featuring Linda Bassett, Sarah Solemani, Juliet Stevenson and Sophie Thompson. It provides glorious opportunities for an all-female cast to play some of the greatest literary figures of the twentieth century.