Books in the Acting Edition S. series

This intense triangle of a clandestine affair between a middle-aged husband and father and his male lover becomes a scalding drama when the man's wife discovers and confronts both men in shock and outrage.

Genre: Dramatic Comedy Characters: 3 males, 3 females Scenery: Interior Maureen Stapleton won Broadway's Tony Award as Best Actress for the role of Evy Meara, a popular singer who has hit the skids. After a short stay in rehab, her best friend age-defying Toby, her daughter Polly, and Jimmy Perry, a gay actor try to help her adjust to sobriety with a jolly birthday party. Enter Lou Tanner, a former lover, who ends up giving her a black eye. The party is a wash out, the "gingerb

The Magistrate is a farce by the English playwright Sir Arthur Wing Pinero. The plot concerns a respectable magistrate who finds himself caught up in a series of scandalous events that almost cause his disgrace. The first production opened at the Court Theatre in London on 21 March 1885.

"Since It Gives Me Great Pleasure first appeared in 1972 I have been heartened to hear from so many producers and performers, both amateur and professional, how useful they have found it as a source of help, information and encouragement and above all of inspiration for their own ideas. For this is very much a suggestive publication, if you'll pardon the expression, the intention being to fire the imagination, to suggest a course of procedure rather than to proclaim an ex cathedra list of inviolable do's and don't's. And now my estimable publishers have permitted me in this new edition to update publishers' addresses, to revise the text in the light of a further fifteen years' Music Hall experience, and considerably to expand the Chairman's section."Michael Kilgarriff

Four Riotous Routines edited by Michael Kilgarriff. The Molecatcher by Malcolm Sircom, is a brief (ten-minute) rousing sketch with music showing three yokels and their trials and tribulations with moles. Who Will Man the Lifeboat? devised by Michael Kilgarriff, is a six-minute sketch with music. The Tram-Track Tragedy by Patricia and Peter Ariss, is a twenty-five minute sketch in the best melodrama fashion, without music, but with the provision of a tram! The Master and the Maid by Michael Kilgarriff, is a six-minute sketch in the mode of the silent movies wherein a film of husband, wife, lover and maid is first shown ordinarily, then backwards and finally forwards at double speed! The script includes several pages of accompanying music.|Flexible casting

This original and enjoyable show is best described as a musical revue which takes a light hearted look at the first time experience and feelings all of us have or will come up against. Each song and sketch is associated with the word "first" in one way or another-- First Child, First Job, First Glance, First Family Christmas, First Bite(!). The show can be presented simply but effectively on an open stage, and the large number of characters provides the opportunity for a mixed cast to play a variety of interesting parts, with doubling. A great success in England.|9 women, 9 men

The events of the past are brought to life in Gorse Cottage when, after twenty years abroad, Mrs Bell's daughter Sylvia returns to visit her mother and spinster sister, Mavis. The beautiful Sylvia brings with her a daughter whose plainness arouses the same enmity in old Mrs Bell that has led her to use and mistreat Mavis for so long. Rose, however, shows spirit and humour in her dealings with her grandmother. The atmosphere of spite deepens into something more when Mrs Bell is frightened almost to death. The only suspects are the members of her own family. Was murder the intention? Will it be finally accomplished? | 5 women, 2 men

Comedy / 6m, 2f / Int.This classic comedy opens as a group of the guys assembled for cards in the apartment of divorced Oscar Madison. And if the mess is any indication, it's no wonder that his wife left him. Late to arrive is Felix Unger who has just been separated from his wife. Fastidious, depressed and none too tense, Felix seems suicidal, but as the action unfolds Oscar becomes the one with murder on his mind when the clean-freak and the slob ultimately decide to room together with hilarious results as The Odd Couple is born. His skill is not only great but constantly growing...There is scarcely a moment that is not hilarious.- The New York Times Fresh, richly hilarious and remarkably original. Wildly, irresistibly, incredibly and continuously funny.- New York Daily News

Eric has pocketed thousands of pounds through fraudulent DSS claims. When Norman (the lodger) opens the door to a DSS Inspector, deceptive mayhem follows. Meanwhile Linda (his wife) consults Dr Chapman regarding the discovery of her husband's lingerie (all part of his swindling activities)!

Four devilishly clever comedians were responsible for this madhouse of hilarity in both London and New York: Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore. Their skits include one about an impassioned preacher whose emotion carries him so far from the text that he cant find his way back. Theres a delicious spoof on Shakespeare in beautifully faked speech, and a couple of panel scenes, in one, three experts on nuclear war clobber the subject to death. And these are but samples of a grab bag of highly intellectual fun.

In this bubbling modern extravaganza for the young, the immaculate Miss Nadia Naive and her three pupils are swung into riotous Transylvanian happenings with the irrepressible Count and his gruesome acolytes. On the side of right are noble Nick Necrophilic, Father O'Stake, the cuddly Hansel and Gretel and the Fuddled Friends; can they prevail over the forces of darkness when these include the creme de la horrible creme such as the Countess Wraith, Genghis the groveling minion, the Zombies, the Fanged Brides and the dynamic sanguineous gentleman the Price of Vampireshimself? Plenty of good parts, a sizzling score and a fresh hilarious script.

Willis Hall brings Dumas' swashbuckling adventure to the stage in this tongue-in-cheek version of "The Three Musketeers". D'Artagnan, a poor, young Gascon gentleman, goes to Paris to join King Louis XIII's musketeers and is befriended by three members of that force and shares their adventures.

At the end of Noël Coward's Design for Living, two men and a woman embark on a menage a trois founded on mutual attraction and a conscious flouting of societal norms. This witty and warm hearted comedy continues their story.|2 women, 4 men

At the centre of his own universe sits matinee idol Garry Essendine: suave, hedonistic and too old, says his wife, to be having numerous affairs. His line in harmless, infatuated debutantes is largely tolerated, but playing closer to home is not.

This adaptation of Dickens' famous epic novel of the French revolution tells the story of English lawyer Sydney Carton and French aristocrat Charles Darnay, both caught up in the bloodshed of the French Revolution.

This play centres around a chaotic day in the life of Alex Partridge, Manager of the Thurlow Playhouse. He has a lot to deal with: Doreta Mason, director of an amateur production of "Oklahoma"; Ms Murdstone, the agent from the Arts Council; and worst of all Doreta's husband, Clarence.

The tales of Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad. When Mole goes boating with the Water Rat instead of spring-cleaning, he discovers a new world. As well as the river and the Wild Wood, there is Toad's craze for fast travel which leads him and his friends on a whirl of trains, barges, gipsy caravans and motor cars and even into battle.

This lovely hardcover edition conjures up marvelous visions of Carroll's fantasy world. Luxuriously illustrated with 92 watercolors, it's a wonderful introduction to Alice's adventures as well as a splendid volume for collectors. Available for sale in the United States only.

Orphaned at an early age, Jane Eyre leads a lonely life until she finds work as a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she meets the mysterious Mr Rochester and sees a ghostly woman who roams the halls by night.