Drama Memoir

Learn it, be it, lead it. These six simple words can be seen plastered across billboards along the highway of my life, from Muncie to Florida, Kentucky to Las Vegas and everywhere in between and beyond. I’ve been in plenty of situations along the road where I’ve learned what not to do, what to do, how to do it and what not to say to avoid getting into more trouble. So I’ve been there, done that, experienced it. Now it’s my turn to lead it and that’s how this audiobook came to be.

On the eve of the American Revolution in the fall of 1772, 18-year-old Phillis Wheatley, the household slave of John and Susanna Wheatley, was invited to appear before 18 of Boston's most prominent men in the Governor's Council Chamber in Boston to defend the premise that she was the author of a collection of poems. The so-called "jury" was comprised of the most prominent men in Boston. This was not a jury of her peers but rather one comprised of all white, all male, and largely middle-aged men.

One day in 2011, I lost my job. No big deal, I'll just polish up my resume and find a new one. Sometimes, that's easier said than done. We don't know how financially fragile we can be. I found out on that day in 2011.

Der Wirecard-Skandal ist einmalig in der deutschen Wirtschaftsgeschichte - ein einziger großer Fake. Wie konnte es zu diesem filmreifen Bankrott eines Dax-Konzerns kommen? Wer sind die Köpfe hinter dem Betrug? Wer muss dafür büßen? Und warum ist das weltumspannende kriminelle Netzwerk erst nach so langer Zeit aufgeflogen? Die Journalisten Bettina Weiguny und Georg Meck - beide federführend an der UFA-Verfilmung des Wirecard-Skandals beteiligt - entwerfen das Psychogramm eines Jahrhundertskandals.

An Untraditional Fire is a lovingly told story about a dynamic, unique, and life-changing man of God, Dr. Rocellia Johnson, the founding pastor of the Bethany Baptist Church of West Los Angeles. Author Harry A. Mitchell III traces the life of Pastor Johnson from the humble beginnings in an Oklahoma farm in Jim Crow America to his arrival in Los Angeles in the early 1940s - a couple decades before Disneyland, the Dodgers, and the completion of the Santa Monica Freeway - to his development into one of the most influential ministers in African American churches.

In all the tales of John Dillinger, the name Herbert Youngblood has been given short shrift or completely ignored. No more, the author D. Gordon Franks grew up in town where Youngblood met his demise. The author's family owned the bar and whorehouse where the shoot out occurred after several bank robberies. It culminated in the sheriff being wounded, the under-sheriff being killed and another deputy wounded, and a cousin of the author shot as well. Dillinger came upon the gun battle staged on his behalf.

Ten million daily viewers loved her as Liz Chandler on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. Yet while the cameras rolled and the fictional plotline for Days unfolded each day, Loring was quietly wrestling with her own real-life dramas - the diagnosis of her young son's diabetes, the unraveling of her marriage, and a nagging inner voice from childhood that told her something was wrong. Coincidence Is God's Way of Remaining Anonymous is Loring's spiritual exploration of how coincidence helped her make sense of life's challenges and uncertainties.

The script for the universally acclaimed one person play written by Eddie Frierson and based on the life and writings of Baseball Hall of Fame and New York Giants Pitching legend Christy Mathewson. In a time when Giants walked the earth and roamed the Polo Grounds, none was more honored than than the great Christy Mathewson - the quiet, educated man who lifted the then rowdy world of baseball into gentlemanliness.

In 2008, a troubled Vietnam veteran turned struggling actor named Hamilton Meadows became obsessed with a question: What did William Shakespeare's English sound like when the Bard and his actors spoke it? Others had asked the same thing before - the quest to piece together the pronunciation of Elizabethan English, the language as it was spoken during Shakespeare's lifetime, has captivated English scholars, theater directors, and romantic adventurers for two hundred years.

As a cub river pilot, one of Mark Twain’s masters was a pilot named George Ealer, who recited Shakespeare by the hour - from memory - and who was a virulent opponent of the notion that the Shakespeare plays and poems were in truth written by Sir Francis Bacon. At first, young Sam Clemens agreed with his teacher and boss, but he soon realized that it was no fun for the pilot to argue with someone who agreed with him all of the time.

A son learns that his estranged mother is dying from stage four cancer and reluctantly moves her into his home after a past of aggressive nurturing. They attempt to salvage the time she has left while he tries to repair his struggling marriage and cultivate his three teenage sons. Witness this young Black man maneuver his way through their creative and edgy relationship. His father walks with him through this chaotic door and continues to build his character as a son and a man. But will it prepare him for what lies ahead with his mother?

While I was growing up, I sometimes wondered if other people would find my life funny or interesting. Even with all the seriousness of everyday life, there were things that happened to make it bearable, things that brought a smile to my face. As I got older, I would sometimes tell a few of these stories from my life, and they would bring a smile to other people’s faces, too, and maybe even make them laugh aloud. People seemed to enjoy them.

Peter Lorre, Michael B. Druxman’s one-person stage play, finds the famous actor in poor health near the end of his life. He contemplates his third divorce and ponders how he will provide for his young daughter, while remembering the greener years that he spent with the likes of Humphrey Bogart, John Huston, and Sydney Greenstreet. One simple set.

This study of Hollywood's favorite "screwball" comedienne begins on the eve of her death. Following a successful war bonds tour, she awaits word in an Indianapolis hotel room to see if she's been successful in securing plane reservations for a flight back to Los Angeles. She's anxious to get home, because she suspects that her husband, Clark Gable, is cheating on her.

Toward the end of the Hundred Years War between France and England, as Merlin predicted, a great warrior emerged, uniting a beleaguered nation and leading it to improbable victories. It was said this warrior was a messenger of God. And it may have been, for a country was saved and a kingdom restored. This great leader of men, this messenger who united a nation, was a 17-year-old maiden named Joan.

Actor. Dramatist. Poet. Husband. Father. Producer. Businessman. Servant of the Crown. All of the above can be applied to William Shakespeare. Certainly England's greatest playwright, he is still considered to be the most influential writer in the English language. Leaving behind a nearly unprecedented body of work to his credit, he addressed the full spectrum of the human condition and achieved what few other writers have in becoming a part of a global consciousness.

Orson Welles is a one-person play in two acts about the life and times of Orson Welles. Some say that Orson Welles was a genius, but he always denied that. He did give us Citizen Kane, considered by most critics to be the best film ever made, but after that, his career took one long downward plunge. The play finds Welles trying to find the financing for one of his film projects. It's a difficult task, since most of the Hollywood community considers him to be a "screwball".

Lisa Kron invites her audience on a roller coaster ride through the Kron family album in 2.5 Minute Ride. Rising and falling between high hilarity and deep disquiet, Kron demonstrates with disarming simplicity that humor and horror can share the same human moment. Kron's' performance switches back and forth between her journey to Auschwitz with her septuagenarian father, a Holocaust survivor; her Michigan family's annual pilgrimage to a Sandusky, Ohio amusement park, and more.

Bådbrand en nytårsaften på Lillebælt. En moder, hendes lille søn og yderligere to personer druknede. Hele Danmark var rystet. Men den eneste overlevende efter katastrofen gik på kro samme aften.

En oktobernat for nogle år siden udspillede der sig et gidseldrama i de lille by Tilst, vest for Århus. En ung mand gik amok og tog et kvindelig gidsel, som han truede med at dræbe.