Books published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc.,U.S.

"Firefighting and fire starting get the noir-camp treatment in Adam Szymkowicz's INCENDIARY, which tackles the whimsical dilemma of star-crossed lovers in the arsonist and arson-investigator fields. ...this nutty love triangle of boy, girl and inferno is charmingly original and genuinely suspenseful."Time Out Chicago "Hilariously ornate in the best world-weary, film-noir fashion."Chicago Theater Beat

This collection includes three full-length plays: LET'S PLAY TWO, THE LIVING, and SHOW AND TELL. LET'S PLAY TWO: A simple story about two total opposites falling in love. THE LIVING: In 1665 the plague brought London to its knees. The play concerns Londoners who have remained in the city as they struggle to find meaning. LET'S PLAY TWO "... LET'S PLAY TWO, Anthony Clarvoe's suprisingly affecting romantic comedy. Mr Clarvoe's low-key two-hander ... The play, about a young woman made pregnant by an even younger man whose constancy she doubts has something to say about the notion of maturity. As demonstrated by the example of sweet-tempered Phil, that quality is perhaps measured best not by the hardness of one's calluses but by one's willingness to acquire new ones. This may not be the most revolutionary concept ever considered on the American stage. Still, it's no shame to have basic human decency reiterated as a value now and again, especially when it is elucidated as compassionately as in LET'S PLAY TWO." -Peter Marks, The New York Times THE LIVING "Set in 1665 London as the Black Plague sweeps the city claiming more than 100,000 lives, THE LIVING is not about death. Rather this remarkable, riveting drama is a compelling confirmation of life. And although it's set more than three centuries ago, Anthony Clarvoe's two-act parable (in which the reactions of the people and the government parallel those surrounding today's A I D S epidemic), maintains ... stunning immediacy ... Often bitterly funny, often ineffably sad, this is the story of a few brave sometimes reluctantly so people who stood fast, doing what need to be done ... Propelled by Clarvoe's masterful handling of language ..." -Sandra Dillard-Rosen, The Denver Post "The play THE LIVING is alive with lessons for tomorrow. Set in London in the bubonic plague year of 1665, the play is a scary morality tale, a ghoulish slice of history and an evening shining with hope ... Inevitably, the world wakes up from nightmares and learns to dance and grumble again. Clarvoe's play reveals much in its simple retelling of a real horror. The Londoners of 1665 knew nothing about the causes of the plague. In the end, it passed, as all things do. The lesson in THE LIVING is about being tested and not being found wanting." -Jackie Campbell, Rocky Mountain News "... Clarvoe's thought-provoking script, which not only celebrates the strength of courage and compassion in a climate of overshelming fear, but has a clear parallel in this country's muddled response to the dire beginning of the AIDS crisis ..." -Terri Roberts, Backstage West SHOW AND TELL "All school kids - and their parents - know about 'Show and Tell.' Bringing objects from home is not only a lesson in history, but also an experience in contact, of one person reaching for another and the other reaching back. Playwright Anthony Clarvoe understands it too, and his drama is a powerful tale of contact, and of discovery, and of what it takes to survive. Corey teaches fourth grade, and her classroom literally explodes one morning during show-and-tell. The entire class of twenty-four children dies, but she had left the room for a moment, and survives. A team of government forensics experts arrives to re-assemble the bodies for identification and to seek the cause of the explosion ... They are tough and experienced, with the sardonic wit that they, and others who work constantly with death, need to survive. SHOW AND TELL is a strong, well-written drama that is both entertaining and thought-provoking." -Joe Pollack, Saint Louis Post Dispatch

Trapped in horrendous and cramped living conditions with his father and grandfather, Rosario Cortez battles to break his family's cycle of poverty and remove his son from the violence and squalor of the urban ghetto."Few playwrights are persuasive enough to make an audience root for a young man who batters his girlfriend and considers kidnapping and murder to get what he wants. But from the moment we meet Rosario Cortez, singing to his infant son and promising him a better future with a passion that burns white-hot, we like him. After we see his living conditions - sharing a cramped room with his father and grandfather, who spend their days watching porno films - we know that extreme measures are necessary. That doesn't mean that we approve of Rosario's means or the ways in which he expresses his anger. But we understand his motives, share his dreams and admire his tenacity. It is not surprising that the writer who's created Rosario and his world of longings is Edwin Sánchez, who also wrote TRAFFICKING IN BROKEN HEARTS. That haunting play centered on a love triangle involving a street hustler, an abused teenager and a yuppie lawyer, all yearning for something more in their lives. Sánchez knows how to capture the world of dreamers ... play ... moves gracefully ... carried along by beautiful writing ..." -Aileen Jacobson, Newsday"... a touching drama that's worthy of attention ..." -David Kaufman, Daily News"Edwin Sanchez's tough, twisty, surprising new plays shows his usual flair for dealing with predictable subjects unpredictably ... [and with] sparky verbal flights ..." -Michael Feingold, Village Voice

"The mercurial qualities of love, dreams, and beauty provide the gently pulsating thrust of Edwin Sánchez's new play ICARUS… New plays are often either hard and edgy or soft and sappy. ICARUS is the rare creation that is allowed to be both. Unabashedly sweet, often lyrical and even incisive, Sánchez's play takes a group of oddball characters-all searching, all damaged-and lets them do quietly wonderful things for one another… Like the Greek myth from which the play takes its name, ICARUS is about super-charged dreamers whose wax wings melt when they fly too close to the sun… ICARUS plays out like an inverted Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, though there's no magic to whip up a happy ending. But there are moments of grace that fill the play's one hundred minutes when the characters are momentarily released from their own traumas and attempt to help one another in unassuming but meaningful ways… …in an enchanted setting, dreamers almost win, lovers nearly find happiness, and beauty kisses those who most deserve its fleeting glory. Reality ultimately kills the fairy tale, but nothing can stem the heartfelt charm and warmth that radiates from ICARUS."Chad Jones, Oakland Tribune "Like two battle-weary soldiers, Altagracia and Primitivo plod toward the beach. Primitivo, a boy whose contorted body languishes in a wheelchair, is nudged forward. His sister, half-dragging the chair, is marked by a maroon-colored gnarl that runs across her forehead and down the side of her face. Just then, Primitivo, as cranky as a sleep-deprived two-year-old, begins to cry. The disquieting scene that opens Edwin Sánchez's ICARUS is enough to make anyone uneasy. But what initially seems like some postmodern cross between Beach Blanket Bingo and Freaks, Tod Browning's 1932 cult film, methodically unfolds into a thing of profound beauty. And that's the point of ICARUS: Beauty is not just in the eye of the beholder. It's something that runs deeper than the roots of an oak tree, down to some inner sanctuary that provides safety even in the harshest conditions. Sánchez's lyrical, often soaring portrait of dreamers is one of the sweetest, most affirming plays to come through the Bay Area in the last two years… ICARUS is propelled by Sánchez's winning, playful script. His moving text is laden with the nuggets of information…that go into building a richly etched picture. A consummate story-teller, Sánchez also is careful to leave enough blank spaces on his canvas for the audience to fill in from their own imaginations…"Mark de la Viña, San Jose Mercury News