by John O'Neal
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TCG is proud to publish this momentous, singular anthology of nine plays by artist and activist
John O'Neal. O'Neal is best known for his Junebug Jabbo Jones cycle of plays, a remarkable collection of tales and anecdotes drawn from African-American oral literature, which he has performed all over the globe. Five of these plays are included in this career-spanning volume, along with four of O'Neal's large-scale ensemble productions.
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Fresh off its world premiere production at the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York, TCG is excited to announce the publication of this new brand play from John Patrick Shanley about a troubled but gifted boy from the South Bronx who arrives at a private school in New Hampshire. As with his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Doubt, John Patrick Shanley has drawn on his personal experiences to create an explosive portrait of a young man on the verge of either salvation or destruction.
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Another anthology! TCG is excited to release a new volume of four plays by Irish playwright Conor McPherson. With inimitable warmth, style, and craft, The Night Alive deftly mines the humanity to be found in the most unlikely of situations. Also included in this volume are The Birds, a suspenseful thriller; The Veil, a troubling tale of Ireland's past; and McPherson's adaptation of the dark Strindberg drama, Dance of Death.
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| Hot off the presses: TCG has just printed a brand new edition of Stephen Karam's hit Broadway play, now with an updated text and foreword by Samuel G. Freedman.
As Jesse Green at New York
magazine describes it, The Humans is "[t]he best play of the year. The most, well, human play I've ever seen. You may find yourself gasping and yelping and, if you're the type, crying. Rackingly funny even as it pummels the heart and scares the bejesus out of you, The Humans is a miracle. This is why we go to the theater." |
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Year of the Fat Knight from Nick Hern Books is Sir Antony Sher's account -- splendidly supplemented by his own paintings and sketches -- of researching, rehearsing, and performing one of Shakespeare's best-known and most popular characters. He tells us how he had doubts about playing the part at all, how he sought to reconcile Falstaff's obesity, drunkenness, cowardice and charm, and how he explored the complexities and contradictions of this comic yet often dangerous personality. New Yorkers! If you'd like to hear Sir Antony Sher discuss his book in person, be sure to stop by the Drama Book Shop on April 28th at 5:00pm. More info here.
Humana Festival 2015: The Complete Plays from Playscripts, Inc. brings together all nine scripts from the 2015 Humana Festival of New American Plays, the 39th cycle of world premiere productions staged at Actors Theatre of Louisville. This unique compilation features a thrilling array of work by some of the freshest voices in the American theatre: from the boisterous inner-city Philadelphia family coping with its matriarch's dementia (Dot), to the surreal birthday celebration for legendary writer and spiritual thinker Thomas Merton (The Glory of the World), to the Charles Ludlam-inspired sci-fi quest to save the Homosexual Race (I Promised Myself to Live Faster).
The Twits from Nick Hern Books was mischievously adapted from Roald Dahl's story by acclaimed playwright Enda Walsh, who has turned The Twits upside down. Mr. and Mrs. Twit are not very nice. In fact they're extremely nasty. They're nasty to each other, and they're VILE to everyone else. They hold a family of monkeys hostage in a cage and force them to stand on their heads. ALL THE TIME. We told you they weren't very nice. Can the monkeys find a way to take down those vicious Twits?
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| In addition to publishing our own books, TCG is proud to distribute the publications of eleven other terrific drama publishers. Here, we shine a spotlight on the work of 53rd State Press.
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53rd State Press publishes new plays and performance texts that interrogate, challenge, renew, and emblazon the language of performance.
53rd State Press is co-edited by Karinne Keithley Syers and Antje Oegel. Working on a small, sustainable model, and functioning as part of the creative community, they publish writing for performance that particularly tends toward new directions in the theatrical imagination of language. Work in translation is also part of their purview, and they look forward to bringing out volumes of plays translated into English, along with other imaginative texts and scores from contemporary performance communities. 53rd State Press is also engaged in finding and distributing documentation of interdisciplinary performance and choreographic composition.
53rd State Press was founded in 2007 by Karinne Keithley Syers.
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Each month, a TCG staff member will select a TCG Books title that holds a special meaning -- whether it's a show the staffer performed in, a dog-eared acting resource, a writer that continually inspires, or simply a favorite play -- and we will offer a special 50% discount off that title for the month.
For April, Penny Pun, TCG's development intern, has selected Will Eno's Middletown, and here's why.
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TCG Bestsellers
(March 2016)
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TCG Titles Currently in Production
Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl,
4000 Miles by Amy Herzog,
(CA)
Fences by August Wilson,
The Country House by Donald Margulies,
The New Electric Ballroom
by Enda Walsh,
4000 Miles by Amy Herzog,
4000 Miles by Amy Herzog,
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Congratulations to Three Major TCG Playwrights
In late March, the American Academy of Arts and Letters announced their annual awards in literature, granting $10,000 to Stephen Adly Guirgis and Lynn Nottage, and $20,000 to the soon-to-be-published TCG playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.
A Star-Studded Reading with Stephen Adly Guirgis
On April 5th, Stephen Adly Guirgis brought some friends of his to the Drama Book Shop in New York to promote his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Between Riverside and Crazy. When his friends turned out to be Ellen Burstyn,
Bobby Cannavale, and Paola Lázaro-Muñoz, it made for a pretty lively occasion!
Celebrating 20 Years Since the Ground-Breaking 'Ground on Which I Stand' Speech
In April 1996, August Wilson was the keynote speaker for TCG's annual National Conference, held at the McCarter Theatre Center. He delivered the history-making speech, " The Ground on Which I Stand," which is still causing reverberations throughout the theatre community and within our collective development as artists and creators. On April 18th, the McCarter Theatre Center and Princeton's Lewis Center will host a symposium to commemorate the formative event 20 years ago.
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