Aubrey, a very determined romantic, believes she's met her soul-mate in Calvin, a boozing womanizer. But in this tilted, thoughtful comedy, true love is an even more tangled predicament. Peopled by an assortment of eccentrics, mystics, and front porch philosophers, Marlane Meyer's play is a sweet polemic, an unexpected love story, and a deliciously cockeyed view of the sustaining—and destructive—power of belief.
(Applause Acting Series). Lawrence Harbison has selected 100 terrific monologues for men from contemporary plays, all by characters between the ages of 18 and 35 perfect for auditions or class. There are comic monologues (laughs) and dramatic monologues (no laughs). Most have a compelling present-tense action for actors to perform. A few are story monologues and they're great stories. Actors will find pieces by star playwrights such as Don Nigro, Itamar Moses, Stephen Adly Guirgis, and Terence McNally; by exciting up-and-comers such as Nicole Pandolfo, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, Crystal Skillman, Greg Kalleres, Reina Hardy, and J. Thalia Cunningham; and information on getting the complete text of each play. This is a must-have resource in the arsenal of every aspiring actor hoping to knock 'em dead with his contemporary piece after bowling over teachers and casting directors alike with a classical excerpt.
From a growing awareness of the depletion of energy resources and the perils of environmental degradation to the founding of self-sufficient communities and the establishment of the National Trust, the concept of sustainability began to take on a new importance in the Victorian period. An emerging sense of the fragility and instability of human and natural resources, and the deeply complex interweaving of the two, led many Victorians to consider how to preserve or protect what they valued, and how individuals, communities (or even nations) could survive and flourish in a world of finite resources. This collection explores not only nascent understandings of sustainability in ecological or environmental contexts but also encompasses consideration of the problem of psychological sustainability and emotional wellbeing in response to the upheavals of modernity. With chapters by scholars working in literary studies, history, cultural studies, and sustainability studies, the volume encompasses a wide diversity of topics, objects, and authors ranging from the 1850s to the early twentieth century. Victorian Sustainability offers new perspectives on debates about sustainability in the present by showing how our current concerns derive from an earlier historical context.
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR (NPR, The Washington Post, Lit Hub, The Telegraph, Goodreads, Tor.com, them, and more) “A deeply strange and haunting novel in the best possible way...An impressive and exciting debut novel that may leave you thinking about your own relationships in a new light.” —NPR “Shocking...Achingly poetic...Sharp and beautiful as coral polyps...Armfield exercises an exquisite—even sadistic—sense of suspense." —Ron Charles, The Washington Post Leah is changed. A marine biologist, she left for a routine expedition months earlier, only this time her submarine sank to the sea floor. When she finally surfaces and returns home, her wife Miri knows that something is wrong. Barely eating and lost in her thoughts, Leah rotates between rooms in their apartment, running the taps morning and night. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home. As Miri searches for answers, desperate to understand what happened below the water, she must face the possibility that the woman she loves is slipping from her grasp. By turns elegiac and furious, wry and heartbreaking, Our Wives Under the Sea is an exploration of the unknowable depths within each of us, and the love that compels us nevertheless toward one another.
In Monsters of Our Own Making, Marina Warner explores the dark realm where ogres devour children and bogeymen haunt the night. She considers the enduring presence and popularity of male figures of terror, establishing their origins in mythology and their current relation to ideas about sexuality and power, youth and age.
Is there a shark movie that is scarier than Jaws? What is the sneaky secret hidden in the Loch Ness monster’s name? How did the Gill-man in Creature from the Black Lagoon become a romantic hero? Do mermaids count as sea monsters? What terrifying sea creature was discovered to really exist, and just what on earth is a globster? From Kraken to kaiju, Open Water to The Shallows, monsters of the deep have fascinated and horrified us for centuries. There’s even a name for the fear of deep bodies of water: thalassophobia. Humans have a natural fear of predators in the water, and yet we just can’t stop thinking about them! There are a lot of deep water monster movies out there; good, bad, strange and ‘so bad it’s good’. This book has collected some of the best, worst and most interesting out there to tell you about. If you ever wanted to know your crocodile from your Cthulhu and find out how they make the monsters come alive, whether you like your monsters in the ocean or in lakes, based on real animals or totally made up, with fins or tentacles, one head or five, if you love your movie monsters of the deep then this book was written for you.
Hybrid in genre the works of Jane Barker include realistic stories, romances, poetry, religious & philosophical reflections and critiques of early 18th century England. She was a religious convert, poet and some of the time a Jacobite spy.
Explores humanity's fascination with lake and sea monsters and separates fact from fiction by examining ancient legends and myths, contemporary eyewitness accounts, and the latest scientific discoveries.
