Harry wants to leave an Inheritance for his sons. So, going against life-long political convictions, he joins the property-owning class. Then the economic crisis hits.A timely, comic and poignant exploration of how a worldwide recession impacts on the lives of ordinary people, Mike Packer's Inheritance opened at Live Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne, in November 2010.

As portrayed in Homer's Odyssey, Penelope - wife of Odysseus and cousin of the beautiful Helen of Troy - has become a symbol of wifely duty and devotion, enduring twenty years of waiting when her husband goes to fight in the Trojan War. As she fends off the attentions of a hundred greedy suitors, travelling minstrels regale her with news of Odysseus' epic adventures around the Mediterranean - slaying monsters and grappling with amorous goddesses. When Odysseus finally comes home, ...

A concise guide to playwriting to awaken creativity, from a playwright who has taught the subject for over a decade."If you want to be a playwright, here's your bible." —David Lindsay-Abaire, author of Fuddy Meers and Wonder of the WorldDuring the more than ten years that Sturt Spencer has taught playwriting, he has struggled to find an effective handbook for his courses. Although most of the currently popular guides contain...

Write a Play - and Get It Performed is designed for would-be writers of every level and for all types of motivation by two prize-winning professionals. Whether writing for the specific needs of an amateur drama group, community event, political campaign or simply for personal or professional development, this is a guide to the craft of playwriting. It offers guidance on the creative principles of scripts, characters, plot, structure and dialogue and explains the principles of staging and s...

Bill Johnson uses reviews of Romeo and Juliet, The Heidi Chronicles, Death of a Salesman, Hamlet, and The Iceman Cometh to teach the art and craft of writing powerful plays. Using these plays, he shows how new playwrights can learn the craft of writing for theater from masters of the stage.Bill is author of the website, A Story is a Promise, where he writes about popular novels, films, and plays. He's also the author of A Story is a Promise & The Spirit of Storytelling, a popular h...

Pulitzer Prize—winning playwright David Mamet’s Romance is an uproarious, take-no-prisoners courtroom comedy that gleefully lampoons everyone from lawyers and judges, to Arabs and Jews, to gays and chiropractors.It’s hay fever season, and in a courtroom a judge is popping antihistamines. He listens to the testimony of a Jewish chiropractor, who’s a liar, according to his anti-Semitic defense attorney. The prosecutor, a homosexual, is having a domestic squabble with his love...

I have spoken very clearly with her and I have told her that she is new here and that she must live how we live.'A woman arrives in a rural village in pre-industrial England. Her desire is to sew and learn from their simple way of life. But the group soon begins to suspect she is not who they thought she was.'There's no point in just making quilts. They have to serve the village. They have to DO something.

In the aftermath of the massacre of a clan, an epic story of self-sacrifice and revenge unfolds as a young orphan discovers the shattering truth behind his childhood. Sometimes referred to as the Chinese Hamlet and tracing its origins to the 4th century BC, The Orphan of Zhao was the first Chinese play to be translated in the West.James Fenton's adaptation of The Orphan of Zhao premiered with the RSC at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon in November 20...

A perfectionist is a writer for whom nothing is ever finished or right. In worse case scenarios, the perfectionist can't even get anything down on paper. Perfectionism grows in the dirt of fear and has no purpose other than making you feel terrible about yourself and what you create.Perfectionism can be a curse for a writer's overall productivity. The first step to eliminate the spell of perfectionism is to determine whether or not you're a perfectionist. Once you recognize the prob...

I do not accept there is anything wrong with me.Days before her wedding Megan discovers she has a 50-50 chance of developing early onset Alzheimer's. Years later she's offered a genetic test. But if she's got the gene does she really want to know?Megan, 21. Megan, 47. Megan, 32. Megan, 27.One woman lurches through time while her young family deal with the consequences.I can't think. But I still feel. And most of the time I feel scared. Scared be...

Men in this town were born with mouths that can right wrongs with a few words. Why are you too timid to speak?As she is about to be executed for a murder she didn't commit, young widow Dou Yi vows that, if she is innocent, snow will fall in midsummer and a catastrophic drought will strike.Three years later, a businesswoman visits the parched, locust-plagued town to take over an ailing factory. When her young daughter is tormented by an angry ghost, the new factory ...

Nobody knows us. They think they do. But they don't.In a world of champagne and canapés, the five Colby sisters are the glamorous faces of New York high society. With wealth, style and desirable husbands, they appear to have it all.But privately, the sisters' squabbles distort the picture of this perfect family. Image is everything and struggling to maintain it could have life-changing consequences.This black comedy by OBIE award-winning Canadian playwright...