THE STORIES: FIFTH PLANET. Charts the friendship between two observatory workers as it waxes and wanes over the course of a year. (1 man, 1 woman.) ARE YOU READY. The fates of three people drawn to the same restaurant are altered in an instant. (2

This one-of-a-kind anthology features thirty-six hilarious short plays by major American playwrights and emerging new voices, all guaranteed to send readers and audiences into peals of laughter. From the surrealistic wit of Steve Martin's "The Zig-Zag Woman" to the biting political satire of Steven Dietz's "The Spot," from Christopher Durang's wonderfully loopy "Wanda's Visit" to Shel Silverstein's supremely twisted "The Best Daddy," there's something in here to make everyone laugh. There are plays for casts of all sizes, from monologues to large ensembles, with diverse and challenging roles for actors of every age and type. Even the titles are funny: Mark O'Donnell's "There Shall Be No Bottom (a bad play for worse actors)," Elaine May's "The Way of All Fish," and Alan Ball's "Your Mother's Butt." A bonanza for theatergoers, performers, and comedy fans, Laugh Lines will bring down the house. From the Trade Paperback edition.

A Study Guide for David Auburn's "Proof," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.

(Applause Books). What was the play that changed your life? What was the play that inspired you; that showed you something entirely new; that was so thrilling or surprising, breathtaking or poignant, that you were never the same? Nineteen of today's most gifted playwrights respond in this most revealing and personal book, published by Applause Books and presented by the American Theatre Wing, founder of The Tony Awards. From Edward Albee's 1935 visit to New York's Hippodrome Theatre to see Jimmy Durante (and an elephant) in Rodgers and Hart's Jumbo, to Diana Son's twelfth-grade field trip in 1983 to see Diane Venora play Hamlet at The Public Theater, from David Henry Hwang's seminal San Francisco encounter with Equus to a young Beth Henley's epiphany after seeing her mother in a "Green Bean Man costume," The Play That Changed My Life offers readers a unique peek into the theatrical influences of some of the nation's most important dramatists. The book is filled with tributes, memories, anecdotes and other insights that connect past to present and make this volume an instant "must have" for anyone who adores the theatre. Also in the book are pieces by David Auburn, Jon Robin Baitz, Nilo Cruz, Christopher Durang, Charles Fuller, A. R. Gurney, Tina Howe, David Ives, Donald Margulies, Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Sarah Ruhl, John Patrick Shanley, Regina Taylor, and Doug Wright, as well as an introduction by Paula Vogel. All together, the playwrights featured here have won more than 40 Tony Awards, Pulitzer Prizes, Obies, and MacArthur genius grants.

(Applause Acting Series). For this book, Lawrence Harbison has interviewed successful playwrights who have developed relationships with theaters that regularly produce their plays, have had at least one major New York production, have their plays published by a licensor such as Dramatists Play Service or Samuel French, have received commissions, and have an agent. Harbison asks each of them the same question: How did you do it? How I Did It features an introduction by Theresa Rebeck and interviews with David Auburn, Stephen Belber, Adam Bock, Bekah Brunstetter, Sheila Callaghan, John Carlani, Eric Coble, Jessica Dickey, Kate Fodor, Gina Gionfriddo, Daniel Goldfarb, Kirsten Greenidge, Rinne Groff, Lauren Gunderson, Michael Hollinger, Rajiv Joseph, Greg Kotis, Neil LaBute, Deborah Zoe Laufer, Wendy MacLeod, Itamar Moses, Bruce Norris, Lynn Nottage, Aaron Posner, Adam Rapp, J.T. Rogers, Lloyd Suh, Carl Thomas, Sharr White, and Anna Ziegler. A valuable tool for playwrights daunted by the extremely difficult task of getting their work produced, as well as to playwriting students, How I Did It is full of stories of how it's done.

THE STORY: Cynthia Karslake is a freewheeling divorcee in 1906 New York City society. She has decided to settle down again into a much more stable, reliable relationship with the prominent Judge Philip Phillimore. Little does she know, however, tha