THE STORY: Set in the wilds of suburban New Jersey, KIMBERLY AKIMBO is a hilarious and heartrending play about a teenager with a rare condition causing her body to age faster than it should. When she and her family flee Secaucus under dubious circu

THE STORY: Welcome to Southie, a Boston neighborhood where a night on the town means a few rounds of bingo, where this month's paycheck covers last month's bills, and where Margie Walsh has just been let go from yet another job. Facing eviction and

"A lyrical and understanding chronicler of people who somehow become displaced within their own lives…Mr. Lindsay-Abaire has shown a special affinity for female characters suddenly forced to re-evaluate the roles by which they define themselves."—New York Times Set in the Bristol Place Assisted Living Facility, this glorious and biting new comedy from David Lindsay-Abaire centers around Abby, who takes pride in her residence in one of the most coveted rooms in the rest home. Things turn sour quickly when she must take in Marilyn, a new roommate to share her precious space. In a satirical conflict of territory and control, Lindsay-Abaire spins a benign, typically mundane setting into an absurdist, colorful battleground. This high-stakes comedy examines our expectations of what it means to grow old in twenty-first century America, and what happens when a sense of possession collides with a mania of obsession. David Lindsay-Abaire's plays include Good People, Fuddy Meers, Kimberly Akimbo, Wonder of the World, High Fidelity, A Devil Inside, and Rabbit Hole, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Lindsay-Abaire wrote the book for Shrek the Musical, and the screen adaptation of Rabbit Hole starring Nicole Kidman. Lindsay-Abaire is a proud New Dramatists alum, a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the Juilliard School, as well as a member of the WGA and the Dramatists Guild Council.

Cast size: medium.

An intriguing, unusual and chilling look at the destructiveness of racism in the U.S.

The most comprehensive and up-to-date exploration of one of the most important religious orders in the modern world Since its founding by Ignatius of Loyola in 1540, the Society of Jesus—more commonly known as the Jesuits—has played a critical role in the events of modern history. From the Counter-Reformation to the ascent of Francis I as the first Jesuit pope, The Jesuits presents an intimate look at one of the most important religious orders not only in the Catholic Church, but also the world. Markus Friedrich describes an organization that has deftly walked a tightrope between sacred and secular involvement and experienced difficulties during changing times, all while shaping cultural developments from pastoral care and spirituality to art, education, and science. Examining the Jesuits in the context of social, cultural, and world history, Friedrich sheds light on how the order shaped the culture of the Counter-Reformation and participated in the establishment of European empires, including missionary activity throughout Asia and in many parts of Africa in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He also explores the place of Jesuits in the New World and addresses the issue of Jesuit slaveholders. The Jesuits often tangled with the Roman Curia and the pope, resulting in their suppression in 1773, but the order returned in 1814 to rise again to a powerful position of influence. Friedrich demonstrates that the Jesuit fathers were not a monolithic group and he considers the distinctive spiritual legacy inherited by Pope Francis. With its global scope and meticulous attention to archival sources and previous scholarship, The Jesuits illustrates the heterogeneous, varied, and contradictory perspectives of this famed religious organization.

THE STORY: Mrs. Slater has waited fourteen long years to tell her son, Gene, the truth. And when he wakes up on his twenty-first birthday, she greets him with the customary banners and good wishes, and then gets to the point. Your father was murde