The purpose of theater, like magic, like religion . . . is to inspire cleansing awe. What makes good drama? And why does drama matter in an age that is awash in information and entertainment? David Mamet, one of our greatest living playwrights, tackles these questions with bracing directness and aphoristic authority. He believes that the tendency to dramatize is essential to human nature, that we create drama out of everything from today’s weather to next year’s elections. But the...

Questo libro, a metà strada fra l'autoritratto di un mostro sacro di Hollywood e il manuale per aspiranti cineasti, ha riunito per la prima volta in italiano i saggi del premio Pulitzer David Mamet. Sceneggiatore, regista, attore, produttore, drammaturgo, romanziere e perfino poeta, Mamet è una delle figure più complesse e affascinanti del cinema dei nostri tempi. Ha messo la firma a film che hanno fatto la storia del cinema, tra cui Il verdetto, Il postino suona sempre due volte, Gli into...

One of our most brilliantly iconoclastic playwrights takes on the art of profession of acting with these words: invent nothing, deny nothing, speak up, stand up, stay out of school. Acting schools, “interpretation,” “sense memory,” “The Method”—David Mamet takes a jackhammer to the idols of contemporary acting, while revealing the true heroism and nobility of the craft. He shows actors how to undertake auditions and rehearsals, deal with agents and directors, engage audiences, and stay fai...

In a terrifyingly short time, a male college instructor and his female student descend from a discussion of her grades into a modern reprise of the Inquisition. Innocuous remarks suddenly turn damning. Socratic dialogue gives way to heated assault. And the relationship between a somewhat fatuous teacher and his seemingly hapless pupil turns into a fiendishly accurate X ray of the mechanisms of power, censorship, and abuse.

David Mamet has been a controversial, defining force in nearly every creative endeavor-now he turns his attention to politics.In recent years, David Mamet realized that the so-called mainstream media outlets he relied on were irredeemably biased, peddling a hypocritical and deeply flawed worldview.In 2008 Mamet wrote a hugely controversial op-ed for the Village Voice, "Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal'", in which he methodically attacked li...

“The finest American author of his generation.” —Sunday Mail“Viewed as an indictment of journalism or the law—take your pick—The Penitent is timely and exciting and, in the best of ways, awfully depressing.” —NBC New York“David Mamet is an American theater icon for good reason. He writes plays with nuance and depth that require the audience to really listen and think. About subjects that will stick to your ribs and keep your mind and your guts chu...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!“Savagery appeased can only grow. Once you give in to it, it must escalate, like a fire searching for air.”The man who won the Pulitzer Prize for GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, who wrote the classic films THE VERDICT and WAG THE DOG sounds his alarm with searing political commentary about the Visigoths at our gates.In RECESSIONAL he calls out, skewers, mocks, and, most importantly, dissects...

A big-shouldered, big-trouble thriller set in mobbed-up 1920s Chicago—a city where some people knew too much, and where everyone should have known better—by the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of The Untouchables and Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright of Glengarry Glen Ross.Mike Hodge—veteran of the Great War, big shot of the Chicago Tribune, medium fry—probably shouldn’t have fallen in love with Annie Walsh. Then, again, maybe the man who ki...

"Mamet's intellectual rigor is evident on every page. There is not a wasted word" in this novel b ased on the wrongful murder conviction of a Jewish man ( Time Out).In 1913, a young woman was found murdered in the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta. The investigation focused on the Jewish manager of the factory, Leo Frank, who was subsequently forced to stand trial for the crime he didn't commit and railroaded to a life s...

American Buffalo, which won both the Drama Critics Circle Award for the best American play and the Obie Award, is considered a classic of the American theater. Newsweek acclaimed Mamet as the hot young American playwright . . . someone to watch.” The New York Times exclaimed in admiration: The man can write!” Other critics called the play a sizzler,” super,” and dynamite.”Now from Gregory Mosher, the producer of the original stage production, comes a...

¿Qué hace que una obra dramática sea buena? ¿Cómo se relaciona una obra dramática con la vida cotidiana? Para David Mamet, uno de los ideólogos contemporáneos más carismáticos y comprometidos con la creación artística, el teatro con mayúsculas satisface la necesidad humana de ordenar el mundo. Una buena obra dramática lleva al protagonista a invocar frente al público, en el escenario y a través del propio personaje, la fuerza para continuar en la lucha por existir. El autor considera inher...

Mike Hodge, periodista del Tribune, conoce como nadie la cara más oscura de Chicago. Veterano de la Gran Guerra, es un tipo acostumbrado a moverse por una ciudad de la que se están adueñando los gánsteres tras la promulgación de la ley que prohíbe el alcohol. Mike tan solo se muestra inseguro ante Annie Walsh, una chica irlandesa de la que se enamora al frecuentrar su floristería. Pero esa incipiente historia de amor se ve truncada cuando un desconocido mata a tiros a Annie. Presa de la de...