Random House New Releases - Drama - American

The Most of Nora Ephron by Nora Ephron

2013-10-29T00:30:00-05:00

The Most of Nora Ephron
Written by Nora Ephron

Hardcover, 576 pages | Knopf | Literary Criticism - Humor; Literary Collections - Women Authors; Drama - American | $35.00 | 978-0-385-35083-9 (0-385-35083-X)

A whopping big celebration of the work of the late, great Nora Ephron, America's favorite funny--and perceptive--writer, famous for her brilliant takes on life as we've been living it these last forty years.

It's all here--from her writings on journalism, feminism, and being a woman (the notorious piece on being flat-chested, the clarion call of her commencement address at Wellesley) to her devastating best-selling novel, Heartburn, written in the wake of her disastrous marriage to Carl Bernstein, to her hilarious and touching screenplay for her movie When Harry Met Sally . . . ("I'll have what she's having"). From her ongoing love affair with food, recipes and all, to her extended takes on such iconic women as Lillian Hellman and Helen Gurley Brown to her pithy recent blogs on politics to her moving meditations on aging ("I Feel Bad About My Neck") and dying.

A Cornucopia

Heartless by Sam Shepard

2013-09-10T00:30:00-05:00

Heartless A Play
Written by Sam Shepard

Trade Paperback, 112 pages | Vintage | Drama - American; Fiction - Literary; Drama | $15.00 | 978-0-345-80680-2 (0-345-80680-8)

Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights by Barry Paris

2013-09-10T00:30:00-05:00

Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Clifford Odets, William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee
Written by Stella Adler
Edited by Barry Paris

Trade Paperback, 400 pages | Vintage | Literary Criticism & Collections - Drama; Drama - American; Performing Arts - Theater | $16.95 | 978-0-679-74699-7 (0-679-74699-4)

Stella Adler was one of the most influential acting teachers of all time, a legendary force of nature whose generations of students include Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Anthony Quinn, Diana Ross, Robert De Niro, Warren Beatty, Annette Benning, and Mark Ruffalo.

This long-awaited companion to her book on the master European playwrights brings to life America’s most revered playwrights, whom she knew, loved, and worked with. Brilliantly edited by Barry Paris, Adler’s lectures on the giants of twentieth-century theater feature her indispensable insights into such classic plays as “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” “The Skin of Our Teeth,” “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Come Back, Little Sheba,” “The Glass Menagerie,” and “Death of a Salesman,” while shedding new light on such lesser known gems as Tennessee Williams’s “The Lady of Larkspur Lotion” and Arthur Miller’s “After the Fall.” Illuminating, revelatory, inspiring—this is Stella Adler at her electrifying best.

Heartless by Sam Shepard

2013-09-03T00:30:00-05:00

Heartless A Play
Written by Sam Shepard

eBook, 112 pages | Vintage | Drama - American; Fiction - Literary; Drama | $9.99 | 978-0-345-80682-6 (0-345-80682-4)

Buchanan Dying by John Updike

2013-04-09T00:30:00-05:00

Buchanan Dying A Play
Written by John Updike

Trade Paperback, 256 pages | Random House Trade Paperbacks | Fiction - Biographical; Fiction - Historical; Drama - American | $16.00 | 978-0-8129-8490-3 (0-8129-8490-0)

To the list of John Updike’s well-intentioned protagonists—Rabbit Angstrom, Richard Maple, Henry Bech—add James Buchanan, the harried fifteenth president of the United States (1857–1861). In what the author calls “a kind of novel, conceived in the form of a play,” Buchanan’s political and private lives are represented as aspects of his spiritual life, whose crowning, condensing act is the act of dying. This definitive edition includes a Foreword by Updike, discussing early productions of the work, the historical context in which it was written, and its kinship to his later novel Memories of the Ford Administration. A wide-ranging Afterword fleshes out this dramatic portrait of one of America’s lesser known, and least appreciated, leaders.

Buchanan Dying by John Updike

2013-04-09T00:30:00-05:00

Buchanan Dying A Play
Written by John Updike

eBook, 256 pages | Random House Trade Paperbacks | Fiction - Biographical; Fiction - Historical; Drama - American | $9.99 | 978-0-8129-8491-0 (0-8129-8491-9)

To the list of John Updike’s well-intentioned protagonists—Rabbit Angstrom, George Caldwell, Piet Hanema, Henry Bech—add James Buchanan, seen above as a young Congressman in the 1820’s, and on the front cover as the harried fifteenth President of the United States (1857-1861). In a play meant to be read, Buchanan’s political and private lives are represented as aspects of his spiritual life, whose crowning, condensing act is the act of dying. A wide-ranging Afterword rounds out the dramatic portrait of one of America’s lesser known, and least appreciated, leaders.

Come Back, Little Sheba by William Inge

2013-04-03T00:30:00-05:00

Come Back, Little Sheba
Written by William Inge

eBook, 96 pages | Random House | Drama - American | $11.99 | 978-0-307-82940-5 (0-307-82940-5)

William Inge's famous story of marital frustration which erupts in violence. Doc and Lola had an indiscreet affair, she became pregnant and, compelled to marry her, he gave up his medical studies, forfeited his future and settled down to a life of quiet desperation with the simple, homey Lola, who lost the child but has remained Doc's steadfast if slatternly wife. Now a chiropractor and recovering alcoholic, Doc's sobriety is tested when Marie, a young college student becomes their boarder bringing new life and long-dormant hostilities to the surface of Doc and Lola's troubled marriage.

Picnic by William Inge

2013-04-03T00:30:00-05:00

Picnic
Written by William Inge

eBook, 72 pages | Random House | Drama - American | $11.99 | 978-0-307-82939-9 (0-307-82939-1)

This title collects four plays by American playwright William Inge, including Come Back Little Sheba, Picnic, Bus Stop, and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.

Fifteen One-Act Plays by Sam Shepard

2012-08-14T00:30:00-05:00

Fifteen One-Act Plays
Written by Sam Shepard

eBook, 432 pages | Vintage | Drama - American; Drama - Anthologies (multiple authors); Drama | $11.99 | 978-0-345-80277-4 (0-345-80277-2)

Filled with wry, dark humor, unparalleled imagination, unforgettable characters, and exquisitely crafted storytelling, Sam Shepard’s plays have earned him enormous acclaim over the past five decades. In these fifteen one-acts, we see him at his best, displaying his trademark ability to portray human relationships, love, and lust with rare authenticity. These fifteen furiously energetic plays confirm Shepard's status as our most audacious living playwright, unafraid to set genres and archetypes spinning with results that are utterly mesmerizing. Included in this volume:

Ages of the Moon
Evanescence; Shakespeare in the Alley
Short Life of Trouble
The Unseen Hand
The Rock Garden
Chicago
Icarus’s Mother
4H Club
Fourteen Hundred Thousand
Red Cross
Cowboys #2
Forensic & The Navigators
The Holy Ghostly
Back Bog Beast Bait
Killer’s Head

Fifteen One-Act Plays by Sam Shepard

2012-08-14T00:30:00-05:00

Fifteen One-Act Plays
Written by Sam Shepard

Trade Paperback, 400 pages | Vintage | Drama - American; Drama - Anthologies (multiple authors); Drama | $16.00 | 978-0-345-80276-7 (0-345-80276-4)

Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights by Barry Paris

2012-08-14T00:30:00-05:00

Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Clifford Odets, William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee
Written by Stella Adler
Edited by Barry Paris

eBook, 368 pages | Knopf | Literary Criticism & Collections - Drama; Drama - American; Performing Arts - Theater | $14.99 | 978-0-307-80042-8 (0-307-80042-3)

In her long-awaited book, the legendary acting teacher Stella Adler gives us her extraordinary insights into the work of Henrik Ibsen (“The creation of the modern theater took a genius like Ibsen . . . Miller and Odets, Inge and O’Neill, Williams and Shaw, swallowed the whole of him”), August Strindberg (“He understood and predicted the forces that would break in our lives”), and Anton Chekhov (“Chekhov doesn’t want a play, he wants what happened in life. In life, people don’t usually kill each other. They talk”).

Through the plays of these masters, Adler discusses the arts of playwriting and script interpretation (“There are two aspects of the theater. One belongs to the author and the other to the actor. The actor thinks it all belongs to the author . . . The curtain goes up and all he knows are the lines . . . It is not enough . . . Script interpretation is your profession”).

She looks into aspects of society and class, and into our cultural past, as well as the evolution of the modern spirit (“The actor learns from Ibsen what is modern in the modern theater. There are no villains, no heroes. Ibsen understands, more than anything, there is more than one truth”).

Stella Adler—daughter of Jacob Adler, who was universally acknowledged to be the greatest actor of the Yiddish theater, and herself a disciple of Stanislavsky—examines the role of the actor and brings to life the plays from which all modern theater derives: Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, The Master Builder, An Enemy of the People, and A Doll’s House; Strindberg’s Miss Julie and The Father; Chekhov’s The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, and Three Sisters (“Masha is the sister who is the mystery. You cannot reach her. You cannot reach the artist. There is no logical way. Keep her in a special pocket of feelings that are complex and different”).

Adler discusses the ideas behind these plays and explores the world of the playwrights and the history—both familial and cultural—that informed their work. She illumines not only the dramatic essence of each play but its subtext as well, continually asking questions that deepen one’s understanding of the work and of the human spirit.

Adler’s book, brilliantly edited by Barry Paris, puts her famous lectures into print for the first time.

Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights by Barry Paris

2012-08-14T00:30:00-05:00

Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Clifford Odets, William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee
Written by Stella Adler
Edited by Barry Paris

Hardcover, 400 pages | Knopf | Literary Criticism & Collections - Drama; Drama - American; Performing Arts - Theater | $27.95 | 978-0-679-42443-7 (0-679-42443-1)

“Don’t use your conscious past. Use your creative imagination to create a past that belongs to your character. I don’t want you to be stuck with your own life. It’s too little.”

“You must get beneath the words before you can say them. The text must be in you. It is your job to fill, not to empty the words. They can only be used if they come out of what you need to say.” —Stella Adler

From one the most celebrated and influential acting teachers of her time, of all time, whose generations of students include Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn, Eva Marie Saint, Diana Ross, Robert De Niro, Warren Beatty, Annette Benning, Peter Bogdanovich, Mark Ruffalo—the long-awaited companion volume to her book on the master European playwrights Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov (“Evidence,” wrote John Guare, “that Stella Adler is hands down the greatest acting teacher America has produced . . . Nobody with a serious interest in the theater can afford to be without this book”).

She was a force of nature, an unforgettable personality. Once, when she walked into a crowded room and her presence caused a hush to fall over it, a little girl asked, “Mommy, is that God?”

Adler saw script interpretation as the actor’s profession (“The most important thing you can teach actors is to understand plays”). Her classes of script analysis became legendary; brilliant revelations of the playwrights, the characters, the social class and the time of the play as opposed to one’s own. Adler explored how to find the ideas and experience them; how to search for the soul, for what is unsaid; all of this as a way of building craft as distinct from talent.

Her new book, brilliantly edited by Barry Paris, brings together her most important lectures on America’s plays and playwrights, the giants of the twentieth century, men she knew, loved, and worked with. Adler considers, among them, Eugene O’Neill, Mourning Becomes Electra; his first play, Beyond the Horizon; and his last, Long Day’s Journey into Night (“O’Neill is a mystical playwright . . . his speech is vernacular, down-to-earth . . . it conveys the idea that there is nothing real outside, but that’s where I want to be—somewhere out in the fog. The answers are hard to get in a fog”) . . .

She writes about Tennessee Williams and The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Summer and Smoke, and The Lady of Larkspur Lotion (“Williams captivates us because of the romantic way in which he escapes the filth and frustration . . . The greatness in Williams is that [the characters] have a right to run away. What do they run away from? From the monster of commercialism and competition, from things that kill the melody and beauty of life”) . . . about Clifford Odets (“Clifford, if you don’t become a genius,” Adler once said to him, “I’ll never forgive you”); and about his plays Waiting for Lefty and Golden Boy (on Lorna Moon and Joe Bonaparte: “You can’t put a whore together with a Napoleonic man and think they’re going to make it. They might make it under certain conditions—but not from the point of view of love. This is not a love story. It’s a hate story”) . . . about William Inge and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs and Come Back, Little Sheba; about Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman (“[The salesman’s sons] are Biff and Happy . . . They’re not George and Jacob. Their names are shortcuts. It’s the American Way—a way of saying, ‘We’ll leave out tradition’ . . . That tells you something you’ll see throughout the entire play: they are cut off from custom”) about Miller’s After the Fall; and Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story and The Death of Bessie Smith.

Illuminating, revelatory, inspiring: Stella Adler at her electrifying best.

The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window by Lorraine Hansberry

2012-02-22T00:30:00-05:00

The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
Written by Lorraine Hansberry

eBook, 220 pages | Vintage | Drama - American | $7.99 | 978-0-307-81553-8 (0-307-81553-6)

Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays by Lorraine Hansberry

2012-01-04T00:30:00-05:00

Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays The Drinking Gourd/What Use Are Flowers?
Written by Lorraine Hansberry

eBook, 288 pages | Vintage | Drama - American | $11.99 | 978-0-307-81556-9 (0-307-81556-0)

Here are Lorraine Hansberry's last three plays--Les Blancs, The Drinking Gourd, and What Use Are Flowers?--representing the capstone of her achievement. Includes a new preface by Jewell Gresham Nemiroff and a revised introduction by Margaret B. Wilkerson.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Requiem for a Nun by William Faulkner

2012-01-03T00:30:00-05:00

Requiem for a Nun
Written by William Faulkner

Trade Paperback, 240 pages | Vintage | Drama - American; Fiction - Literary | $15.00 | 978-0-307-94680-5 (0-307-94680-0)

This sequel to Faulkner’s most sensational, Sanctuary, was written twenty years later but takes up the story of Temple Drake eight years after the events related in Sanctuary. Temple is now married to Gowan Stevens. The book begins when the death sentence is pronounced on the nurse Nancy for the murder of Temple and Gowan’s child. Told partly in prose, partly in play form, Requiem for a Nun is a haunting exploration of the impact of the past on the present.

DRINKS BEFORE DINNER by E.L. Doctorow

2011-11-09T00:30:00-05:00

DRINKS BEFORE DINNER
Written by E.L. Doctorow

eBook, 96 pages | Random House | Drama - American | $6.99 | 978-0-307-79961-6 (0-307-79961-1)

The long-unavailable work by one of America's most eminent writers.

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

2011-11-02T00:30:00-05:00

A Raisin in the Sun
Written by Lorraine Hansberry

eBook, 160 pages | Vintage | Drama - American; Social Science - African-American Studies | $6.99 | 978-0-307-80744-1 (0-307-80744-4)

"Never before, the entire history of the American theater, has so much of the truth of black people's lives been seen on the stage," observed James Baldwin shortly before A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959.

Indeed Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America--and changed American theater forever. The play's title comes from a line in Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem," which warns that a dream deferred might "dry up/like a raisin in the sun."

"The events of every passing year add resonance to A Raisin in the Sun," said The New York Times. "It is as if history is conspiring to make the play a classic." This Modern Library edition presents the fully restored, uncut version of Hansberry's landmark work with an introduction by Robert Nemiroff.

From the Hardcover edition.

November by David Mamet

2011-04-27T00:30:00-05:00

November
Written by David Mamet

eBook, 128 pages | Vintage | Drama - American | $11.99 | 978-0-307-79374-4 (0-307-79374-5)

David Mamet's new Oval Office satire depicts one day in the life of a beleaguered American commander-in-chief. It's November in a Presidential election year, and incumbent Charles Smith's chances for reelection are looking grim. Approval ratings are down, his money's running out, and nuclear war might be imminent. Though his staff has thrown in the towel and his wife has begun to prepare for her post-White House life, Chuck isn't ready to give up just yet. Amidst the biggest fight of his political career, the President has to find time to pardon a couple of turkeys — saving them from the slaughter before Thanksgiving — and this simple PR event inspires Smith to risk it all in attempt to win back public support. With Mamet's characteristic no-holds-barred style, November is a scathingly hilarious take on the state of America today and the lengths to which people will go to win.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Kicking a Dead Horse by Sam Shepard

2011-04-20T00:30:00-05:00

Kicking a Dead Horse
Written by Sam Shepard

eBook, 80 pages | Vintage | Drama - American | $8.99 | 978-0-307-79373-7 (0-307-79373-7)

A solitary man digs a hole in the ground, near a dead horse. Amidst the clutter of food and equipment stands Hobart Struther, who has ridden all the way out to the middle of nowhere on a holy mission. But one day into his “Great Sojourn,” things are looking bleak. His horse has choked to death, he's miles away from civilization, and there's not a person around to talk to – other than himself. As Hobart examines his rise — how he built a vast art collection while ensconced in a comfortable Park Avenue lifestyle — he digs deep into his own history, unearthing truths about his past while still struggling to find the answers he needs. With Shepard's linguistic flair, subtle humor, and probing insights, Kicking a Dead Horse is an invigorating addition to the works of one of America's most innovative playwrights.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Cabin by David Mamet

2011-04-13T00:30:00-05:00

The Cabin Reminiscence and Diversions
Written by David Mamet

eBook, 176 pages | Vintage | Drama - American | $8.99 | 978-0-307-78751-4 (0-307-78751-6)

In these mordant, elegant, and often disquieting essays, the internationally acclaimed dramatist creates a sort of autobiography by strobe light, one that is both mysterious and starkly revealing.

The pieces in The Cabin are about places and things: the suburbs of Chicago, where as a boy David Mamet helplessly watched his stepfather terrorize his sister; New York City, where as a young man he had to eat his way through a mountain of fried matzoh to earn a night of sexual bliss. They are about guns, campaign buttons, and a cabin in the Vermont woods that stinks of wood smoke and kerosene -- and about their associations of pleasure, menace, and regret.

The resulting volume may be compared to the plays that have made Mamet famous: it is finely crafted and deftly timed, and its precise language carries an enormous weight of feeling.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Random House New Releases - Drama - American

The Most of Nora Ephron by Nora Ephron

The Most of Nora Ephron Written by Nora Ephron

Heartless by Sam Shepard

Heartless A PlayWritten by Sam Shepard

Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights by Barry Paris

Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Clifford Odets, William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Arthur Miller, Edward AlbeeWritten by Stella Adler Edited by Barry Paris

Heartless by Sam Shepard

Heartless A PlayWritten by Sam Shepard

Buchanan Dying by John Updike

Buchanan Dying A PlayWritten by John Updike

Buchanan Dying by John Updike

Buchanan Dying A PlayWritten by John Updike

Come Back, Little Sheba by William Inge

Come Back, Little Sheba Written by William Inge

Picnic by William Inge

Picnic Written by William Inge

Fifteen One-Act Plays by Sam Shepard

Fifteen One-Act Plays Written by Sam Shepard

Fifteen One-Act Plays by Sam Shepard

Fifteen One-Act Plays Written by Sam Shepard

Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights by Barry Paris

Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Clifford Odets, William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Arthur Miller, Edward AlbeeWritten by Stella Adler Edited by Barry Paris

Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights by Barry Paris

Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Clifford Odets, William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Arthur Miller, Edward AlbeeWritten by Stella Adler Edited by Barry Paris

The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window by Lorraine Hansberry

The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window Written by Lorraine Hansberry

Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays by Lorraine Hansberry

Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays The Drinking Gourd/What Use Are Flowers?Written by Lorraine Hansberry

Requiem for a Nun by William Faulkner

Requiem for a Nun Written by William Faulkner

DRINKS BEFORE DINNER by E.L. Doctorow

DRINKS BEFORE DINNER Written by E.L. Doctorow

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

A Raisin in the Sun Written by Lorraine Hansberry

November by David Mamet

November Written by David Mamet

Kicking a Dead Horse by Sam Shepard

Kicking a Dead Horse Written by Sam Shepard

The Cabin by David Mamet

The Cabin Reminiscence and DiversionsWritten by David Mamet

The Most of Nora Ephron
Written by Nora Ephron

Heartless A Play
Written by Sam Shepard

Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Clifford Odets, William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee
Written by Stella Adler
Edited by Barry Paris

Heartless A Play
Written by Sam Shepard

Buchanan Dying A Play
Written by John Updike

Buchanan Dying A Play
Written by John Updike

Come Back, Little Sheba
Written by William Inge

Picnic
Written by William Inge

Fifteen One-Act Plays
Written by Sam Shepard

Fifteen One-Act Plays
Written by Sam Shepard

Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Clifford Odets, William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee
Written by Stella Adler
Edited by Barry Paris

Stella Adler on America's Master Playwrights Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, Clifford Odets, William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee
Written by Stella Adler
Edited by Barry Paris

The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
Written by Lorraine Hansberry

Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays The Drinking Gourd/What Use Are Flowers?
Written by Lorraine Hansberry

Requiem for a Nun
Written by William Faulkner

DRINKS BEFORE DINNER
Written by E.L. Doctorow

A Raisin in the Sun
Written by Lorraine Hansberry

November
Written by David Mamet

Kicking a Dead Horse
Written by Sam Shepard

The Cabin Reminiscence and Diversions
Written by David Mamet