THE STORIES: In BETTE AND ME, the author and the legendary Bette Midler get their hair done, try on makeup, and row a boat on the Hudson River. They finally end up at Radio City Music Hall, where Wendy rises from the orchestra pit on a half-shell w

These short plays by the great Danish-Norwegian playwright Ludvig Holberg reveal, in brilliant and sparking miniature, his genius for comedy. The plays are here translated into English for the first time, with an introduction by Svend Kragh-Jacobsen, well-known Danish theater critic. In these social comedies Holberg pricks the vanity of snobbery and the worship of riches, deals with the world of the philosophers, and has fun with the theme of common sense. A talkative barber, a scientific charlatan, and an ignorant farmer boy come in for sharp characterization. Originally published in 1950. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

THE STORIES: MARGARET’S BED. Elsie picks up Ben at the symphony and brings him back to the apartment she shares with Margaret, who is away for the night. Ben assumes that this is a prelude to sex, but truly Elsie is just desperate for Ben to sleep in Margaret’s empty bed, because she has a pathological fear of sleeping in an empty apartment. (1 man, 1 woman.) THE KILLING. Mac meets Huey at a bar and brings him home to his apartment to share a bottle of whiskey, but this isn’t the kind of pick-up you might think. Mac, who is a religious man and fears damnation, hopes to convince Huey, who does not believe, to kill him. (2 men.) THE POWER OF SILENCE. Teachers at the same school, Emma and Louise have been receiving mysterious phone calls, and when Emma answers, no one speaks. Louise is less disturbed by the calls, but they make Emma frantic, and she is sure that one of her students is responsible. After several silent calls, someone rings their door buzzer repeatedly. But who’s there? (2 men, 2 women.) PRODIGAL. Terry is a troubled teen who’s been arrested multiple times and is on probation. In fact, if his mother won’t let him stay with her, Terry has to turn himself in and go back to “the farm.” Nancy has a chance at a new life with a new husband, though, and she can’t handle her son anymore. But her decision has dire consequences for others. (1 man, 2 women.) THE CALL. Joe has traveled to New York City from Billings, Montana for a Shriners-like convention and parade, but he is weighed down by his sense of failure and fear of a changing world. He can’t even bring himself to stay with his successful actress sister and her husband in their tony apartment, preferring to drag his heavy suitcase to find a hotel room on a low floor. (2 men.) THE LOVE DEATH. Byron is a successful writer, living alone in a well-decorated apartment, who makes a series of calls to his mother, friends, and the critic who gave his last book of short stories a terrible review to let them know that he is about to commit suicide. (1 man, voices.) MOVED-IN. The super of the apartment complex, Mr. Flicker, is leaving, and the board has offered his job to Carlton. But Carlton, an African American who struggled to get admitted to the complex in the first place, isn’t sure he wants to take the job and give up the hate he feels for many of his fellow tenants. (2 men, 1 woman.)

These are the best of Moliere's masterful one-acts, blending broad farce and pointed wit to express his never-ending delight in human foibles. But Moliere is more than just the "master of the laugh," for behind the comic gestures of these matchless rogues, tight-fisted masters, possessive lovers and elegant ladies lurk fears, insecurities and their consequences. Includes: The Jealous Husband, The Flying Doctor, Two Precious Maidens Ridiculed, The Imaginary Cuckold, The Rehearsal at Versailles, The Forced Marriage, The Seductive Mistress.

THE STORIES: BAD BREATH. What starts as a seemingly light spoof of 1960s Mad Men-era advertising and the All-American Family turns darker, exposing lies and betrayals behind the glossy sheen. (6 men, 9 women, doubling.) CINDERELLA. This sharp and sly retelling is set in a pretentious middle-class home, somewhere in America. But this young woman seems to have everything in hand to save herself. (4 women.) THE DISPOSAL. Jess was convicted for killing his pregnant wife, and now he sits on death row, awaiting execution today. He alternates between calm acceptance and violent hysteria, raging at his fellow inmates and the prison’s chaplain. Jess is desperate for forgiveness from his father, but his father refuses to accept that Jess is guilty, robbing his son of the possibility of some kind of understanding. (8 men, 1 woman.) A HERO OF OUR TIME. Bonnie and Vic are teenage neighbors who have the eye for one another, but their families keep them apart. Bonnie’s father worries that his daughter hangs out with bad company. Vic’s religious and conservative mother wants her son to steer clear of impure thoughts and deeds. And so the parents condemn their children to lives of dissolution and repression. (4 men, 4 women.) A MURDER. A private man with a box of memories seeks lodging at a strange boarding house—a place where the weather and time itself can change in an instant. When the man discovers the dead body of a young boy in the wardrobe, we wonder if we really have crossed over into another dimension. (2 men, 1 woman.) VENUS IN THERAPY. The owner of a small beauty parlor in a country village, Venus loves to be in love. She seems to be ageless, and it’s possible that she really is an embodiment of the goddess of love. But this Venus feels that her lifelong desire has become a curse, and that in the face of sexual obsession, people don’t think of love as something real. (6 men, 7 women, doubling.)

The one-act play stands apart as a distinct art form with some well known writers providing specialist material, among them Bernard Shaw, Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill. Alan Ayckbourn, Edward Albee and Tennesee Williams. There are also lesser-known writers with plenty of material to offer, yet sourcing one-act plays to perform is notoriously hard. This companion is the first book to survey the work of over 250 playwrights in an illuminating A-Z guide. Multiple styles, nationalities and periods are covered, offering a treasure trove of compelling moments of theatre waiting to be discovered. Guidance on performing and staging one-act plays is also covered as well as essential contact information and where to apply for performance rights. A chapter introducing the history of the one-act play rounds off the title as a definitive guide.