Naomi Wallace commits the unpardonable sin of being partisan, and, the darkness and harshness of her work notwithstanding, outrageously optimistic. She seems to believe the world can change. She certainly writes as if she intends to set it on fire. -

“Naomi Wallace commits the unpardonable sin of being partisan, and, the darkness and harshness of her work notwithstanding, outrageously optimistic. She seems to believe the world can change. She certainly writes as if she intends to set it on fire.”—Tony Kushner Naomi Wallace, the rare writer who combines lyrical theatricality with political ferocity, turns her sight to the Middle East, with a new triptych for the stage. Vision One, A State of Innocence, is set—as the playwright describes, in “something like a small zoo, but more silent, empty, in Rafah, Palestine. Or a space that once dreamed it was a zoo”—and features a Palestinian woman, an Israeli architect, and an Israeli soldier. Vision Two, The Retreating World, is of an Iraqi bird keeper from Baghdad and his address before the International Pigeon Convention. Vision Three, Between this Breath and You, takes place after hours in the waiting room of a clinic in West Jerusalem, where a Palestinian father confronts the nurse’s aide, a young Israeli woman, about the meaning of the loss of his son and the impact it had on her life. These multifaceted works explore the urgency and complexity of the Middle East’s political landscape, through the voices and bodies of the people who inhabit it. Naomi Wallace is a poet and playwright from Kentucky, who currently resides in England. Her numerous awards include the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship. Her plays, including One Flea Spare, In the Heart of America, and Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, are produced throughout the United States and around the world.

Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors: Monologues for Men aims to provide new and exciting audition and showcase material for actors of black, African American, South Asian and Middle Eastern heritage. Featuring the work of international contemporary playwrights who have written powerful and diverse roles for a range of actors, the collection is edited by Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway. Categorized by age-range, the monologues are collected in groups of characters playable by actors in their teens, twenties, thirties and forties+, and include work from over 25 top-class dramatists including Lemn Sissay, Katori Hall, Rajiv Joseph, Philip Ridley and Naomi Wallace. Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors: Monologues for Men is the go-to resource for contemporary monologues and speeches for auditions. Ideal for aspiring and professional actors, it allows performers to enhance their particular strengths and prepare for roles featuring characters of specific ethnic backgrounds.

Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors: Monologues for Women aims to provide new and exciting audition and showcase material for actresses of black, African American, South Asian and Middle Eastern heritage. Featuring the work of international contemporary playwrights who have written powerful and diverse roles for a range of actors, the collection is edited by Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway. Categorized by age-range, the monologues are collected in groups of characters playable by actresses in their teens, twenties, thirties and forties+, and include work from over 25 top-class dramatists including Sudha Bhuchar, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Marcus Gardley, Mona Mansour and Naomi Wallace. Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors: Monologues for Women is the go-to resource for contemporary monologues and speeches for auditions. Ideal for aspiring and professional actresses, it allows performers to enhance their particular strengths and prepare for roles featuring characters of specific ethnic backgrounds.

Unrivalled in its coverage of recent work and writers, The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary American Playwrights surveys and analyses the breadth, vitality and development of theatrical work to emerge from America over the last fifty years. This authoritative guide leads you through the work of 25 major contemporary American playwrights, discussing more than 140 plays in detail. Written by a team of 25 eminent international scholars, each chapter provides: · a biographical introduction to the playwright's work; · a survey and concise analysis of the writer's most important plays; · a discussion of their style, dramaturgical concerns and critical reception; · a bibliography of published plays and a select list of critical works. Among the many Tony, Obie and Pulitzer prize-winning playwrights included are Sam Shepard, Tony Kushner, Suzan-Lori Parks, August Wilson, Paula Vogel and Neil LaBute. The abundance of work analysed enables fresh, illuminating conclusions to be drawn about the development of contemporary American playwriting.

Two imprisoned young women, one African American and the other white, form a perilous bond. As they serve time they forge a plan for survival. They practice hard. If they don't get it right they'll lose everything: the outside world is even more dangerous to their friendship than the jail itself. Exploring the fierce dreams of youth and the brutal reality of adulthood in 1950's segregated America, Naomi Wallace's And I and Silence premiered at the Finborough Theatre, London, in May 2011.

As Karen Malpede points out in her introduction to Acts of War, drama "arose as a complement to, perhaps also as an antidote to, war." Like the great ancient Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the playwrights in this volume see the theater as an art form uniquely capable of addressing the effects of warfare. --