Art Drama

Arguably the greatest love story ever told, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet continues to touch modern audiences with its passionate depiction of the tragic romance between two young lovers. With a bitter feud between their respective families, Romeo and Juliet’s love is troubled from the start, and through their relationship, Shakespeare shows the fine line between love, hatred, comedy and tragedy.

After Henry V's death and while Henry VI is young, nobles rule England and fight the French, including Joan of Arc. As Henry VI becomes king, the noble houses begin to divide and take sides between York and Lancaster. The war with France winds down, and the nobles try to find Henry a wife and disagree about who Henry chooses.

The ghost of the king of Denmark tells his son Hamlet to avenge his murder by killing the new king, Hamlet's uncle. Hamlet feigns madness, contemplates life and death and seeks revenge. His uncle, fearing for his life, also devises plots to kill Hamlet. The play ends with a duel, during which the king, queen, Hamlet's opponent and Hamlet himself are all killed.

Roman General Coriolanus makes his name defeating an enemy army and defending Rome. The Senate nominates him as consul, but he cannot win the people's vote, so he is banished from Rome and allies with his old enemy. He comes to attack Rome, his mother persuades him not to and his new-found ally kills him for the betrayal.

Forced into exile in the Forest of Arden, lovers Rosalind and Orlando become entangled in a beguiling game of love, lust and mistaken identity. Rosalind and her cousin escape into the forest and find Orlando, Rosalind's love. Disguised as a boy shepherd, Rosalind has Orlando woo her under the guise of 'curing' him of his love for Rosalind. Rosalind reveals she is a girl and marries Orlando during a group wedding at the end of the play.

A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia. Forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler. The bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms of madness and death.

Alceste, the misanthrope, hates everyone including himself. But unlike in many pure farces with their cliche stock characters, the characters here are much more well-rounded, and who knows—Alceste might actually grow and change throughout the play.

In this survey of eighteenth and nineteenth century American drama, Tice L. Miller examines American plays written before a canon was established in American dramatic literature and provides analyses central to the culture that produced them. Entertaining the Nation evaluates plays in the early years of the republic, reveals shifts in taste from the classical to the contemporary in the 1840s and 1850s, and considers the increasing influence of realism at the end of the nineteenth century.

Tomas Kyd, the son of the notorious Captain William Kyd, had always had well enough. Yet enough was not at all satisfaction. Enough only stirred within him a desire for more: a desire for love, adventure, and a life of nobility that he felt he, too, so richly deserved. However, his father's curse, that which he shares with the pirate crew of his father's unfinished voyage, has always kept him from discovering a life he thought worth living.

This single inherited epic in our language has it all: drama, blood, heroism, mourning, and teaching with soul-searching thought about all this. It looks back. In its top layer of listening, we are brought along with heroic figures, even with a superhero, to challenge agonizing monsters. This world also includes beautiful sea voyages, crafty disputes, the falling of tribes, and moving elegies. Most often its Old English poetry can translate directly into fresh pictures. The epic Beowulf is a masterfully told story.

An uplifting comedy drama about the life, loves and misadventures of wheelchair user Maz. Nicknamed Tinsel Girl by her best friend Lisa because of her sparkly view of life, wheelchair user Maz is one of life's eternal optimists. She has just turned 30, only to become all too aware that not only is she single but also disabled. Her degenerative disease means she now has to use a motorised wheelchair, which isn't exactly the sexiest accessory a girl can have!

The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy presents a profoundly original theory of drama that speaks to modern audiences living in an increasingly volatile world driven by artificial intelligence, gene editing, globalization, and mutual-assured destruction ideologies. Tragedy, according to risk theatre, puts us face to face with the unexpected implications of our actions by simulating the profound impact of highly improbable events.

Long before Rod Serling created The Twilight Zone and hid social messages within the context of science fiction and fantasy, Playhouse 90 was among the last of the live television anthology dramas to explore them as straight dramas. This audiobook shall shed light on Playhouse 90, and put into perspective the influence it had on The Twilight Zone and others.

It was a drama about friendship, addiction, and loyalty (with some partial nudity thrown in, of course). And, let's not forget the case of the week. NYPD Blue exploded in the public's consciousness in 1993, and remained a presence in American homes for 12 years. For the first time, the entire run of the series is explored through a series of essays, character examinations, and trivia.

Empower yourself with informed choices, whether you're new to self-defense or an experienced practitioner. Jiu Jitsu for Self Defense: Why Even Bother is your guide to making sense of BJJ in the context of personal security.