THE STORIES: In CONVERSATIONS WITH THE SPANISH LADY, a sleepless old railroad man describes hauling trains full of the dead across Canada during the World War I home-front plague of influenza that killed thousands of people. As he defends his life,

Good evening. I'm Inspector Carter. Take my case. This must be Charles Haversham! I'm sorry, this must've given you all a damn shock. After benefitting from a large and sudden inheritance, the inept and accident-prone Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society embark on producing an ambitious 1920s murder mystery. They are delighted that neither casting issues nor technical hitches currently stand in their way. However, hilarious disaster ensues and the cast start to crack under the pressure, but can they get the production back on track before the final curtain falls? The Play That Goes Wrong is a farcical murder mystery, a play within a play, conceived and performed by award-winning company Theatre Mischief. It was first published as a one-act play and is published in this new edition as a two-act play.

How much truth and how much illusion does a persion need to live a balanced life. Four actors sit on a darkened stage, awaiting the arrival of the stage manager who has called them together. Lacking his authoritative presence they are merely characters in search of a play to become part of, for their own personalities seem unformed and shallow next to the full-blooded figures they are used to playing. They are also "types," and each of them has absorbed most of what he is from what he pretends to be on the stage. As they wait, the stage lights come up--but still no one appears to tell them what they are to do. They know only that they are not to leave the stage until they have "acted out the play." Suddenly becoming aware that an audience is present, the actors decide to improvise, an idea which finds them slightly flustered. Ernest, the "leading man," exercises the prerogative of star billing and assumes command. He plunges ahead, assigning roles to himself and his colleagues--Winifred, who always plays the "leading lady's best friend"; Lora, the struggling ingenue; and Tony, the juvenile lead. The "drama" which unfolds is a mixture of truth, fantasy and well-rehearsed situations, but out of it, in subtle progression, comes a deepening awareness of the real people behind the theatrical facades.

Home of the most popular one-act plays for student actors, Playscripts, Inc. presents 15 of their very best short comedies. From a blind dating debacle to a silly Shakespeare spoof, from a fairy tale farce to a self-hating satire, this anthology contains hilarious large-cast plays that have delighted thousands of audiences around the world. Includes the plays The Audition by Don Zolidis, Law & Order: Fairy Tale Unit by Jonathan Rand, 13 Ways to Screw Up Your College Interview by Ian McWethy, Darcy's Cinematic Life by Christa Crewdson, The Whole Shebang by Rich Orloff, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Fifth Period by Jason Pizzarello, Small World by Tracey Scott Wilson, The Absolute Most Cliched Elevator Play in the History of the Entire Universe by Werner Trieschmann, The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet by Peter Bloedel, Show and Spell by Julia Brownell, Cut by Ed Monk, Check Please by Jonathan Rand, Aliens vs. Cheerleaders by Qui Nguyen, The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon by Don Zolidis, 15 Reasons Not To Be in a Play by Alan Haehnel

This new volume gathers some of Williams' most exuberant early work and includes one-acts that he would later expand to powerful full-length dramas, including "The Pretty Trap," a cheerful take on "The Glass Menagerie," and "Interior: Panic," a stunning precursor to "A Streetcar Named Desire."

THE STORIES: FOREIGN BODIES centers around a mother and daughter who, after a lifetime of miscommunication, are able to connect in the unlikeliest of ways. Rise, a young woman in her early 30s, impulsively joins a Jewish Sacred Burial Society. By d