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Nikolai Gogol's classic and hilarious satire of bureaucratic ineptness and corruption in a first-class translation by Laurence Senelick."The emperor deigned to attend the premiere with the heir apparent: he was extremely pleased and laughed heartily. The play is very entertaining but an intolerable insult to the nobility, the civil service, and the merchantry." -Khrapovitsky's diary, 1836"Everybody got his and me first of all!" -Tsar Nicholas I (allegedly), 1836"The audience, struck by the novelty, laughed enormously, but I expected a better reception ... One of my friends explained the reason jokingly. Says he, 'How can you expect them to give a better reception to this play, since half the audience is made up of those who are 'getting it,' and the other half those who are 'giving it.'" -Mikhail Shchepkin, 1838"The comedy was accepted by many people as a liberal manifesto ... a political bombshell flung at society under the guise of a comedy." -Prince Pyotr Vyazemsky, 1836"I decided to gather into one heap everything in Russia that I was aware of at the time, all the injustices committed in those places and on those occasions where justice is especially required of humanity, and, at the same time, to laugh at it all. The effect, as everyone knows, was astonishing. Behind the laughter which had never before spurted from me with such force, the reader can notice sorrow ..." -Nikolay Gogol, 1847

Before Ebenezer Scrooge learned the true meaning of Christmas, another old miser was haunted by the ghosts of his past, present and future. What happened to Jacob Marley, in the seven years since his untimely death, that could convince him to sacrifice everything to save the one man he despises most?"... [a] rich new holiday confection, MARLEY'S GHOST. Jeff Goode's play is a smart, engaging prequel to A CHRISTMAS CAROL that stirs in some wicked whimsy a la Lewis Carroll and ultimately conveys the same inspirational message of hope and forgiveness as the original ... Theatergoers ... will witness a rather exquisite blend of foolery and feeling." -Los Angeles Times"... Jeff Goode's bizarre take on A Christmas Carol and a Dickens of an update it is ... The often tongue-in-cheek/often poignant slant on the holiday classic is ... enough to make this an annual event." -Backstage West

A disillusioned young woman traveling with her hippie mother's ashes. A disillusioned TV star hitch-hiking across America. A Russian dissident turned motel owner. A lovesick farmer and a kidnapped beauty queen. Conjoined twins escaping a cult once led by a dead Senator reincarnated as a real-estate developer. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF TULSA LOVECHILD is a freeway fantasia about love and hope."Aside from some beautiful dialogue and a delightfully optimistic spirit, the greatest strength of this play is that its characters confound all stereotypes. Most plays about misfits in motels go for easy archetypes. By contrast, Owens's piece of rural Gothic not only respects the human spirit ... but also celebrates the romance of the interstate." -Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune"TULSA LOVECHILD straddles the delightfully absurd and painfully real without cracking at the seams." -Robin Rauzi, Los Angeles Times"What Owens has given us is a post-Jack Kerouac look at the forces that can go bump in the night in this country ... every wise, wistful, whimsical, darkly comic, quasi-tragic note of Owens's script is played with truth and wit. There is a cartoonish quality to the way all their fates coalesce, but there also is truth and genuine sentiment in it. And therein lies the gentle magic of this play." -Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun Times"With tongue-in-cheek, but with generosity of spirit, author Greg Owens concludes that goodness and decency survive in unexpected nooks and crannies and souls, even as the forces of hypocrisy and darkness constantly are reborn." -Jonathan Abarbanel, Windy City Times"... oddly intoxicating road story, a bittersweet comedy that will likely have particular resonance for baby boomers who grew up during the flower-child era and witnessed its aftermath ... the play is breezily amusing and very intelligent ..." -Les Spindle, Backstage West

This classic and hilarious French farce commences when a customs official barges into newlyweds Robert and Paulette's train compartment at a most inopportune moment on their wedding night, rendering the poor fellow impotent. His parents-in-law demand that he consummate the marriage or it will be annulled, and Paulette will marry La Baule instead. Enter Mademoiselle Zeze, a courtesan, and let the games begin."Panic is the chief ingredient of ANYTHING TO DECLARE?, a 1906 French farce ... as the emergencies mount for a bashful bridegroom, his hypocritical father-in-law, a frustrated former suitor and a de-pantsed camel dealer. Farce, which requires absolute conviction in the face of increasingly absurd circumstances, may be the most fragile of theatrical forms. ANYTHING, by Feydeau contemporaries Maurice Hennequin and Pierre Veber, puts the players through some demanding paces [in] Laurence Senelick's gleefully euphemistic translation ..." -Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle

When Trent brings Felix home to New Orleans to meet his father and homophobic grandfather, the family's demons come slithering into the light. Watchful ghosts, sinister hustlers, and a myriad of parasites lead Felix on a Southern Gothic journey to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1."Tom Jacobson's galvanic drama HOUSE OF THE RISING SON, boasts some of his trademark qualities, such as shrewd scientific metaphors and astute ruminations on social issues. Those heady ideas are embellished here with the sublime pleasures of a well-spun yarn chock-full of surprises. Equal parts ghost story and unorthodox family drama, this gripping play is further blessed with an unmistakable whiff of Tennessee Williams-style lyricism. Beginning in contemporary L A, the story quickly shifts to New Orleans, where Jacobson capitalizes on the city's eternal aura of mystery and occultism ... Expect the unexpected, as the intricate narrative incisively explores issues of family dynamics and gay relationships in startlingly fresh ways. Ingeniously pondering how nature balances the good and bad effects of parasitic organisms, Jacobson forges profound reflections on symbiotic human relationships. The first act ends with a humdinger of a surprise that sets the stage for a mind-blowing second act, full of humor, poignancy, suspense, and food for thought. Possibly Jacobson's finest work to date, this sinfully rich concoction is the theatrical equivalent of a multicourse gourmet meal." -Les Spindle, Backstage"... the prolific Jacobson at his witty yet heartfelt best ..." -F Kathleen Foley, Los Angeles Times"... the gay community, publicly uncloseted for barely fifty years, is late in bringing its paranormal yarns to the campfire. Tom Jacobson takes a giant step forward with his engrossing, provocative HOUSE OF THE RISING SON ..." -Bob Verini, Variety

A beautiful young girl who rises her parent's ballroom dancing act to film stardom. Inspired by the life of Rita Hayworth."DIOSA is a naked look back to the era of the casting couch ... [The play] leads the audience into feeling the raw desperation, humiliation and inner chaos of Josefa's life. [It] reminds us of the glitz and glitter of Rita Hayworth's Hollywood. However playwright Edwin Sanchez does not fail to convey that life for women in this profession, in the 1930s, was both ugly and glamorous, bitter as well as sweet." -Christine LeFoll, The Chronicle"Although DIOSA at the Hartford Stage Company utilizes the backstage of a movie set, this is not your upbeat 'makin it big' kind OF 42ND STREET or SINGIN IN THE RAIN. Edwin Sanchez's play that is roughly akin to the life of Rita Hayworth is punctuated with Latin dancing that makes it a kind of Strictly Ballroom for the stage, with a dark edge ... Sanchez's play explores the underbelly of the Golden Age of Hollywood ... is at once a charming and alarming examination of family life, and stardom. The play is most engaging when mocking Hollywood's stock stereotyping." -T E Gilchrist, Metroline"What price Hollywood stardom? For Josefa, a teenage Latina dance, it is nothing less that the surrender of body, identity and psyche. Modeled loosely on film goddess Rita Hayworth, Josefa is the protagonist of Edwin Sanchez's DIOSA, which is infused with Latina dance and set against the backdrop of the tawdry glitter of 1930's Hollywood." -Ellen Pfeiffer, Boston Globe

Two women find that they have everything in common until the death of a brother drives them apart. Part stand-up comedy, part stand-up tragedy for two. The redhaired mythology that glorifies and empowers two women leads them into a big love, but can't lead them safely out again. A play about the heaviness of the things we carry."... Sherry Kramer's inventively structured, colorfully written and frequently lyrical play ... The narrative fluidly shifts back and forth between the present and the span of a few days two years earlier, when Jean and Marilyn met and Jean received the fateful phone call from home informing her of David's death ... this thoughtful meditation on loss ..." -Douglas J Keating, The Philadelphia Enquirer"... Kramer is working with some provocative material: Jean and Marilyn, a pair of red-haired temptresses (or so they like to think), meet in an enchanted boudoir setting of bent willow and diaphanous draperies, find that they share a million and one likes and dislikes, old boyfriends, nasty habits and family patterns, and fall in love because of that almost magical twinship ... Kramer does, however, have a way with verbal imagery. Woven through the script are wonderful references to fairy tales - Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel ... The playwright is also adept at monologues chock-full of telling details ..." -Pamela Sommers, The Washington Post"... All the scenes are interspersed with lines from previous scenes and foreshadowings of things to come, so there is a coiled, spiralled tension instead of the suspense of an ordinary linear plot. Except for their monologues about death - and the one opening the second as is a stunner - the actresses are always in duet ... DAVID'S REDHAIRED DEATH is a stirring, annoying and difficult piece of work. But an absorbing one ..." -Elizabeth C Donahoe, The Washington Blade"... Kramer's play is like a puzzle: after slowly and painstakingly connecting a series of dots, one uncovers an integrated image out of what appeared to be chaos ..." -Mary Shen Barnidge, Reader (Chicago)

This collection contains 15 short plays. Here are a few things that reviewers have said about some of his other plays:on ICARUS: "Sánchez's lyrical, often soaring portrait of dreamers is one of the sweetest, most affirming plays..."Mark de la Viña, San Jose Mercury Newson THE ROAD: "Sánchez's excellent, compelling drama...the heart-rending text..."Robert Kent, Next Magazineon UNMERCIFUL GOOD FORTUNE: "Since graduating from the Yale School of Drama in 1994, Edwin Sánchez has won more fellowships and foundation grants than most playwrights receive in a lifetime. Go see UNMERCIFUL GOOD FORTUNE and you will understand why. The drama's premise is intriguing, and the action often riveting, but what really sets the play apart is the dialogue."Virginia Gerst, Pioneer Press

Louis Phillips may be one of the great undiscovered playwrights of our day. The imagination, humor, and variety of his many plays is truly astonishing. THE ENVOI MESSAGES is a perfect example of his great talent.Set in the Midwest during the Depression, this play is about a twelve year-old girl who works for Western Union, delivering messages both real and imaginary.As Stanley Kramer has written in a special foreward for this edition: "The problem with Louis Phillips is that he is an obscure poet and brilliant playwright. In most ordinary people, one or the other of these blessings is possible, not both.... "

CHECKS & BALANCES tells the story of a young music student who comes to New York to attend a prestigious music conservatory and gets a part-time bookkeeping job with the founder, a woman well into her 80s who appears to be losing her memory. Upon inspection of her finances, he uncovers numerous checks written to the maid, which lead him on a journey of unexpected twists and turns that in the end challenge his own values and ethics. The play explores issues regarding immigration (both legal and illegal), class, privilege, the definition of family, as well as how society chooses to deal with its aged. "Any great comedy should make you think. And make no mistake, Oren Safdie's CHECKS AND BALANCES, is a great comedy. It's the kind that makes you laugh honestly but guiltily at all the ways life is unfair; how the best intentions can end in ruin; and how sometimes the truth does anything but set you free."The Source, Northwest Arkansas "The story itself is thought provoking, with subtle undertones that challenge societal ideas of family, the elderly and entitlement. These undertones, in combination with Safdie's sophisticated yet clever dialogue, make the show simply spectacular… The characters evolve beautifully on stage." City Wire, NWA