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"I cannot take human beings seriously. They seem to me to have been created solely to amuse those who regard them in a certain way." Eugène Labiche "We love these tremendous farces of a formidable joviality and an absurd comic spirit… They constitute an original, spontaneous and profoundly French art." Théophile Gautier "The characters of Labiche, like those of classic comedy, are men of forever, as well as the permanent reflection of their era, their milieu… He doesn't lose his temper; he laughs with precision and intelligence." Jacques Crépineau "With a force, an insistence, an exactitude which shows the care Labiche took in tracing this portrait, the author of ME, ME, ME succeeds in pinning down his man… ME, ME, ME is one of the best things Labiche ever wrote, one of those in which he shows his true strength…" Philippe Soupault "A universe in which everything is computations, calculations and frantic cynicism. ME, ME, ME scratches where it itches most: happiness, immoral but ineffable, is to be selfish to one's fingertips. Fie on innocence, fine feelings are to be mocked… This is a celebration of uncompromising selfishness. Cruel. Abominable. But ever so delightful…" Didier Mereuze

"…Y York's THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF NOW is all about words: the way they work, they way they don't. The way they delight us and sicken us and confound us and please us. The premise is straight out of an Oliver Sacks book: a bestselling science writer named Carl suffers a brain injury that renders him amnesiac. Carl's wife Miranda, a poet, learns that Carl has a different relationship with words than he used to. Where once he ghostwrote biographies for astronauts and wrote scathing critiques of anthropologists, now he simply delights in the miracle of words: their sounds, their meanings, the way they look-which he envisions as a flurry of snowflakes drifting through the air. As Carl wanders around his Las Vegas home, trying to remember his past life, Miranda has to deal with the shambles of their marriage from before Carl's accident. She's having a complicated affair with a dentist named Anthony, but suddenly Carl doesn't at all resemble the Carl who made her so miserable. Where before he was withholding and unhappy, now Carl is joyful and content. He's eager to see his wife, and desperate to please her. Is it too late to turn the marriage around? Is it possible to find new meaning in the words they've been using our whole lives? THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF NOW is…funny and touching and endearingly sweet-a thoughtful study of the way different people interact with language, and each other" Paul Constant, Seattle Review of Books "…York's rich dialog and characters…this sweet…romantic comedy is a delight." Jay Irwin, Broadway World "…Utilizing a highly original plot, outstandingly witty dialogue…interesting recognizable stereotypes, who go through profound character development…this romantic…delivers the goods. And how!" Marie Bonfils, Drama In The Hood "A new play can make me giddy, especially if I can't guess where it's headed and its subject area is "about" the human condition in a new and interesting way… Y York's The Impossibility of NOW is an unexpected delight, a delicious and magical moment." Miryam Gordon, Seattle Gay News

This collection includes two full-length plays, STRAY DOG STORY and JERKER, and three interconnected one-acts, DOG PLAYS. STRAY DOG STORY: In the opening scene a "lonely faggot" named Jon wishes out loud that his faithful Buddy were human and his lover. "If people were as good-hearted as dogs," he sighs, "we wouldn't be in the mess we're in, that's for sure." No sooner has Jon left the room than presto! Buddy's Fairy Dog Mother appears, and his and Jon's wish is granted. JERKER: J.R. and Bert's anonymous telephone-sex relationship continues to evolve into something deeper until Bert's health begins to fail. DOG PLAYS: A trilogy of interconnected one-act plays, whose subject matter is the AIDS epidemic. In (WILD) PERSON, TENSE (DOG) Dog and Buck, former lovers, run into each other at a bar. Both now have AIDS. Buck's disease is in the advanced stages, and Dog refuses to recognize and acknowledge their shared past and, inevitably, their shared future. In THE DEPLORATION OF ROVER Fido is angry that Rover, in spite of being sick, continues to act on his desires. And in HOLD Dog reminisces with Lad, his lover, as he undresses him, but Lad, who has died of AIDS, exists now only in Dog's imagination. "These strange, wonderful, heartbreaking plays go beyond magic realism into something very deep and primal. No matter where he began, in fairy tale or phone sex, Robert Chesley always took his audience someplace new. He could shift from the silly to the dangerous to the tender in the blink of an eye. His plays are not period pieces, but startling glimpses of a recent past that tell us things we badly need to know about our present and future." -Christopher Bram "Without question, Robert Chesley is the most incisive gay playwright at work in America today." -Mark Thompson, The Advocate "Robert Chesley wrote gut-wrenching plays." -Linda Winer, Newsday STRAY DOG STORY "STRAY DOG STORY is both brutally shocking and a warmhearted fairytale." -Gay City News JERKER "... although Robert Chesley's JERKER does indeed center around two naked men whacking off while exchanging fantasies on the phone (well, to tell the truth only one bares all), it is finally a funny, thoughtful, tender story that emerges ... the most wonderful thing about JERKER is its sense of humor. Some performance artists have been known to do appalling things to their genitalia for no apparent artistic reason, but this playwright is not out simply to shock. And because Chesley peppers his scenes with gentle wit and good-natured joking, he eases our potential embarrassment at the play's action." -Diana Spinrad, Chicago Reader

In Nebraska in 1972, three members of the Peak family, father, mother, and teenage daughter, were murdered. Beth, an adult daughter, who was not home at the time the crimes were committed, must come to terms with the apparently senseless act and find a way to live with the horror. "'The nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.' This line from Wallace Stevens's poem The Snowman perfectly reflects both the style and the content of VANISHING POINTS. This play is and isn't a story about murder. It exists and does not exist as sensational melodrama. What we see is not necessarily what we get because Martin Jones is rare among contemporary playwrights: He uses the stage to make visible the invisible. Ghosts inhabit VANISHING POINTS, but not the Halloween kind. Jones conjures up those psychological specters populating Henry James's The Turn of the Screw-emotions that refuse to die, grieves that will not stay buried… Jones avoids conventional docudrama. His script unfolds in blatantly theatrical fragments, brief scenes, in a lyrical mix of expressionism and impressionism. Instead of facts and figures from a typical case study, here dreams, nightmares and pain assume tangible shapes… …this further solidifies his reputation. With depressing frequency the majority of new playwrights give us media realism. Too often their influences are television and film, genres where photographic imagery can reflect the material world but not the unconscious. It takes a play like VANISHING POINTS to reveal what only the theater can capture: 'The nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.'" Richard Stayton, The Los Angeles Herald Examiner

This gem of a play evokes the days of youth and innocence as young Americans were being shipped off to World War II.

A nightmarish black comedy about a man being operated on by two possibly insane doctors for the removal of his guilt complexes.

In Hollywood in 1939, an actor/director named Julian Hyde is blackmailed by a gossip columnist known as Hollywood Confidential who threatens to reveal Hyde's homosexuality. Hyde is coerced into revealing secrets of other Hollywood stars. Hyde plots revenge by making a film about Hollywood Confidential's life, revealing all of his secrets. "Mr. Parnell argues that the dreams perpetrated by the dream factory during the movies' golden age were as monstrous as … nightmares but far more lasting and lethal … ''A nation lives by its symbols,'' says the playwright. Implicit in HYDE IN HOLLYWOOD is the belief that a braver 30's Hollywood might have helped produce a more courageous nation than the one that was tardy in mobilizing against Hitler in one generation and against Joseph McCarthy in the next. …a fascinating piece." -Frank Rich, The New York Times

When Claudine meets Henry, a starving artist, she falls head over heels. Her mother, a financial guru, has her doubts. Is Henry everything her daughter has been looking for? Or is he after only one thing? A modern-day adaptation of Henry James's Washington Square, RICH GIRL is about women and their relationship to men, mothers, and money, in that order.

"A three-character drama that keeps you guessing…the lingering pauses which punctuates the tersely written dialogue lends an extra soupçon of suspense and even some unspoken sexual tension … [Mr Cahn] neatly resolves the play with a double cross (or perhaps even a triple cross) of a conclusion that ties up his agreeable little caper with a nifty bow." The New York Times "VILLAINOUS COMPANY offers a teasing glimpse into a brightly lit shadow-world, where three smart, strong, bad girls perform-without a cop, a man, or a righteous authority figure in sight-a slow-dance of deceit, betrayal, and glossy illusion." Asbury Park Press "Unexpected twists, surprising character revelations, and an all-woman cast is part of the fun watching VILLAINOUS COMPANY… This is a diverting and mysterious tale where everything and everyone is not quite what they seem to be, which is part of the point and definitely most of the fun… The three actresses each hold their own and have a strong grasp of the complicated characters that they are playing-always more than meets the eye. I suspect the playwright is having some fun here with our traditional ideas and expectations about class and power, sex and gender roles. The subtext of the play's often witty dialogue seems to be determining who is the more and the less powerful player in any given exchange. Characters take hold of, enjoy, and give away that power as more of the mystery, and more and more of the twists are revealed to us. Because this is an all-female cast, those power dynamics are less obvious and a lot more interesting than we might usually imagine or expect. And that provides a fresher take on a class theater trope." Tri City News "Often funny and unendingly intriguing, it feels like an Alfred Hitchcock thriller." Theatermania

What happens when news becomes entertainment and politics become a performance? Virginia Eames, an aspiring political pundit, attempts to negotiate her way through the constantly shifting landscape of cutthroat commentary and learns what it takes to be a star.

"Daniel Therriault's vision of Hawaii is not the stuff of which travel brochures are made. `People don't know Hawaii', said the slim, bespectacled playwright. `They think Hawaii is Waikiki-but to the Hawaiians, Waikiki is where the tourists are. I've spent time there because my wife is blood-Hawaiian… The truth is that we went in and colonized their island, completely converted their culture, their language, their way of life. We went in with an army and pointed guns at their queen. We castrated their society.' The darker side of that society is the setting for Therriault's latest work, THE WHITE DEATH, a Hawaii-based murder mystery." Janice Arkatov, Los Angeles Times

"Through the dialogue the playwright's skill is revealed; the dialogue is incredibly witty and full of gallows humor, yet psychological insights abound about the two as well as discussions about whether individuals bear responsibilities for the decisions of their governments." Marie Bonfils, Drama in the Hood "This is must-see theatre, for if the role of theatre is not solely to entertain but to provoke contemplation about our humanity-even if it means assaulting our senses, sensibilities, and assumptions and creating discomfort-then HOSTAGES fits the bill… It is a measure of El Guindi's's genius and craftsmanship that he pulls the audience aboard the excursion." Herbert Paine, Broadway World "HOSTAGES is about our individual humanity and the related concept of fellowship. Echoing, in different ways, works by Sartre and Beckett, El Guindi explores how we survive on our own and how we survive with each other; what makes us ourselves and what makes us-and prevents us from being-free. HOSTAGES ranks as compelling and worthy theatre." Martin Denton, nytheater indie archive "El Guindi's dialogue and humor are sharp enough to cut. These are most exciting roles of the evening…" Thom Taylor, Spectator

"Lia Romeo is a deft playwright with a wild imagination…. The promise inherent in this play is significant." Kansas City Star "Two very different sisters, mourning the recent death of their mother, are forced to take stock of themselves and attempt to find meaning through their relationships with the less-than-perfect men in their lives. Despite the provocative themes explored-pedophilia among them-ultimately this is an insightful (or inciting) and darkly humorous examination of the how the human heart's need to find a human connection can manifest itself in ways that are not always the most edifying. And yet, despite the foolhardy behavior on display, one can't help coming away with the impression that the playwright believes that the willingness to risk it all for love has its own rewards-making it all worthwhile. …It's another edgy, daring play…that's not easily forgotten. Recommended." Gregory M Alonzo, Stark Insider "When Goethe wrote, 'Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing,' he might have drunk from the same glass that Lia Romeo shared with us three hundred years later." KCMetropolis

from Interview, August 1987 by Kevin Sessums: "There's a creature known in the South as a feist dog. Little. Scraggly. High-strung. You know where one lives by a backyard full of barks. The thing'll take on a German shepard-shit, the whole German army-if it thinks its territory is being threatened. But it likes kids too. And it likes the feel of a hand on its underbelly. Playwright and screenwriter Alan Bowne, whose work concerns the scraggly underbelly of life itself, has the friendly tenacity of one of those tight-tailed mutts… Bowne didn't start writing until he was 35. Before that? `I bummed around. Drug dealer. Movie extra. Junkie…' …he begins to growl away at a number of subjects. …Love: `Living without love is death itself. If you have love in your life-the true thing-then you've got everything.'"And that is what Alan Bowne's great plays-BEIRUT, SHARON AND BILLY-are about.THE LITTLE MONSTERS tells the story of, in the author's words: Maurice, a bald myopic WASP in his late 50s; Kip, a slight plain scruffy male in his late teens, of Irish extraction; 3-Yard, a coarse handsome well-built male in his late teens, of Italian extraction; and Gooey, a plump flashy Jewish female in her late teens-a hitter.

Editor's Pick: "DAY OF THE DOG, an absorbing play." Judith Newmark, Saint Louis Post Dispatch "…the real star of the evening is Daniel Damiano's text. His voice is distinct and refreshing with a tone that reminds me of an Edward Albee with a bit more rooting in reality. …A playwright to watch." Greg Solomon, Theatre is Easy "The show hits the ground running and doesn't stop for what is a riveting two hours. …the work is virtually flawless, as is its execution. …Mr Damiano's play masterfully disassembles the porous foundation of this family. He shows us the humor of a dysfunctional marriage, of a couple living in denial, without ever resorting to caricature. …Organic dialogue flows effortlessly from the mouths of rich, truthful characters." Dmitry Zvonkov, Stage & Cinema

"Georg Büchner's three surviving dramatic texts show the playwright wrestling with divergent styles in a struggle to convey his bleak worldview. …Sean Graney reveal[s] much the same process. Both artists want to build on centuries-old theatrical traditions yet shred the niceties of conventional theater to expose life's raw nerves… …Graney exploits his trademark techniques-stark design, inflated acting, self-reflexive presentation-to create an explosive, richly unpleasant affair.… Büchner poured every ounce of his cynicism into Prince Leonce, whose absurd battle with boredom fuels LEONCE UND LENA. Leonce can find nothing better to do with his days than spit on a rock 365 times in a row, convinced that human beings `fall in love, marry, and multiply out of boredom, and finally they die out of boredom.' His childish father has betrothed him to the Princess Lena, a plan that will greatly interfere with Leonce's commitment to idleness.… Since Büchner is satirizing the theatrical conventions of his day, she's earnestly trying to become a fairy-tale princess, spouting poetic rhapsodies about flowers and dragonflies-while wrestling with the realization that `there are people who are unhappy, incurably so, simply because they exist.' For this play Büchner drew heavily on the conventions of commedia dell'arte, then a nearly 300-year-old tradition of stock rustic characters in cartoonish, often ribald situations. Graney transforms the genre into menacing farce, inflating the characters' passions to such volatile extremes that they often quake as though ready to explode." Justin Hayford, The Chicago Reader

"…Adam Seidel's serio-comic CATCH THE BUTCHER…evoke[s] both the dank confines of Hannibal Lecter's cell in The Silence of the Lambs and the fireplace textures of 1960s suburban homes. Both environments, literally or figuratively, can be prisons, which is only appropriate for this quirky, unsettling and rewarding play. Strains of the country ditty All My Ex's Live in Texas…conjure the location. Nancy, a single woman, sits on a park bench before she is chloroformed and kidnapped by Bill, a fastidious serial killer. Awakening in his basement liar, she finds him with accessories familiar to fans of Dexter and the Hostel movies: an industrial apron and a cabinet full of chemicals and surgical instruments. Bill intends to kill her, but she enchants him with her admiration for the poems he composes and leaves with his victims. It turns out she intentionally positioned herself as bait. The bond between the lonely Nancy and the broody Bill evolves into love and, briefly, a kind of conservative domestic bliss: She cleans house and cooks, while he goes to work (he's a doctor) and returns to read the newspaper, have a martini and be doted on. But Nancy grows bored, and reaches out to their neighbor Joanne, whom she invites over, against Bill's wishes, for supper. Bill, a control freak is not pleased. …Mr Seidel's effective blend of romance, absurdism, satire and dread…" Andy Webster, The New York Times

"What if Neil Simon wrote a lovable comedy about a Muslim-American family trying to hold itself together amidst the misunderstandings that run amuck and the comedy that ensues when the generations collide? It would probably resemble something like the surprisingly enjoyable, charming and oftentimes hilarious TEN ACROBATS IN AN AMAZING LEAP OF FAITH." Fabrizio O Almeida, New City Chicago "With TEN ACROBATS IN AN AMAZING LEAP OF FAITH, playwright Yussef El Guindi takes the genre (of the immigrant experience) to a new place-the Arab-American experience post September 11, 2001. With humor, passion and a lovely touch of whimsy, he's created a theatrical experience that's not to be missed." Louis Weisberg, CFP "El Guindi's engrossing play…finds a workable balance between sharp humor and head-banging angst, which shapes his story effectively." Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times "Woven into this complicated family drama are scenes of delightful humor. Humanity is the substance that ties not only all of the characters together but also binds the audience to them. This play beautifully serves the purposes of drama, comedy, the artistic theatrical process and, perhaps most importantly, demystifying the hate that comes from fear of unknown cultures." Venus Zarris, Gay Chicago Magazine "The drama comes from an emotionally vivid story that captures a world of anger, joy, love and frustration as it plays out in a Muslim-American family. The appeal lies in Guindi's ability to transcend ethnicity while still writing a rich depiction of a Muslim family… The emotional difficulties could belong to any family of any (or no) religion… Smart, challenging, poignant, whimsical and at times, delightfully silly." Catey Sullivan, Pioneer Press

A Puerto Rican hit woman, her mentally challenged son, and a janitor who dreams of nothing more than being a father meet the neighbors from hell. Crass, rude and desperate these neighbors are like everybody else, looking for a way to end their loneliness. These characters find out the hard way that family comes first.LA BELLA FAMILIA is a winner of the New York Foundation for the Arts Playwriting Fellowship and the National Latino Playwriting Award.

A deeply intelligent, provoking, and witty play, PARADISE STREET wrestles with important questions of class and gender in this country. It takes you for a wild ride through the transformation of several characters dealing with what feminism has done for, and to, their lives.

Donald Freed's stage version of HAMLET (IN REHEARSAL) unearths a buried play within the play within the play in which a guilt-imprisoned, state-imprisoned, cosmically-imprisoned Hamlet lunges for and ultimately grasps the quietus of freedom. It is an explosively original, marvelously creative feat of Nabokovian intellectual acrobatics. Wonderful!Leon Katz, Leon Katz' Edition of the Notebooks of Gertrude Stein, Emeritus Professor, Yale UniversityIf Shakespeare had reawakened in the oppressed theater of the 21st century, read Beckett, watched C N N and had a stiff drink, this is the play he would have written.Adam Leipzig, producer & dramaturgDonald Freed has brought us a completely new concept of Hamlet and a brilliant one. Setting up a rehearsal play to take its place with Buckingham and Michael Frayn, he engineers a high level debate/conflict, funny and active enough to hold any audience tight. The central impression is of a director beset like Hamlet, and a Hamlet with a great deal of the director. They share a predicament, fight it out and the audience wins.Edward Pearce, Machiavelli's Children, The Great Man, The GuardianNo actor with a pulse could read this play without wanting to get up and do it. Freed takes us into dark corridors between the lines of Shakespeare's play, creating a brilliant met-drama full of theatrical joy, startling epiphany and crackling-good language. Unique as can be.Ron Marasco, PhD, author of Notes to an ActorDonald Freed's HAMLET (IN REHEARSAL) is a revelation that rings so true, you will wonder why you never thought of it. Freed has trumped his own genius. Amazing!Lorinne Vozoff, Artistic Director, Theatre Group Studio

No politician is as beloved as New York City Mayor John Kendrick, the four-term hero who triumphed during crisis and eliminated homelessness. But if the truth the mayor is hiding comes to light, it could leave New York in ruins. As cataclysm looms, New Yorkers' lives intersect, leading a power-hungry aide, a struggling author, and a loud-mouthed journalist to uncover a devastating series of lies. History, legacy, and death collide while a city races toward the worst disaster it has ever faced. The destruction will be tweeted.

Jane Austen’s mastery of manners and morals is on full display in Christopher Baker’s stage adaptation of her beloved masterpiece, Pride and Prejudice. In the Bennet sisters’ world, marriage is the prize, but for second-eldest, Lizzy, companionship trumps blind courtship. Enter Mr. Darcy, and one of literature’s most iconic and tempestuous romances takes flight. Journey through a world quite unlike—and yet perhaps not so different from—our own, as Lizzy and Darcy learn that first impressions aren’t all they seem, and that second chances can lead to answers that have been there the entire time.   “While respectful of Austen, [Baker] does not aim for mere imitation or by-the-numbers re-creation; the dialogue sounds authentic and natural. This is, above all, an entertaining work of theater… Most impressive, perhaps, is how Baker does all of this without making it feel forced. Even though we know right from the get-go that ever-so-independent-minded Elizabeth Bennet and haughty Mr Darcy will eventually overcome their initial dislike for each other, their journey remains intriguing, each bump in the road delivering sufficient jolt, with the final destination delivering a true emotional payoff. Note, too, the abundant humor. This PRIDE AND PREJUDICE gets a good deal of amusing mileage from Austen’s deft targeting of stuffiness, hypocrisy and social machinations—traits all too prevalent in our day, too, as you might have noticed.”Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun

After Warren proposes to Josie, she decides she must make one last attempt to find her long-lost father before she walks down the aisle. She sets off that morning on a journey across the mountains.When her car breaks down and she's invited into the Wright's home she's dumbstruck to find her father there, living a perfect life with a perfect wife and daughter-oblivious of his past. Desperate to stay she agrees to anything asked of her-giving up her identity, her past and ultimately her voice. When Warren arrives and is captured by the spell of the Wrights, Josie must decide between her father and her future, her silence and her voice-a choice which plays out in the final scene of Warren and Belle's wedding. ONCE UPON A BRIDE THERE WAS A FOREST is a lyrical, haunting, and surprisingly funny fairy tale about children and parents, forgetting and remembering, and the power of a good story to capture us or set us free. "A beautifully imagined modern day fairytale,"Amanda LaPergola, Theater is Easy "Palmer weaves a bit of Dark Shadows, a wee bit of Rocky Horror, a flicker of Twilight Zone and even a hint of The Wizard of Oz into a full-length comedy-drama-thriller perfect for a dark night when hopes seem thin."Jon Sobel, BlogCritics

A rock retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice through the eyes of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, combining elements from Dante's Inferno and Nirvana's lyrics, to explore the essence of faith and love. "adobe [theatre company] knows just how to retool old forms and artists … to produce new theater games. So its ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE begins with bad sex and ends with death and everlasting angst, with rock 'n' roll in the middle … Orpheus fronts and writes songs for his band In Your Thrace (That's right, the Greek Orpheus was from Thrace)… Myths and references crisscross brazenly. The playwright and director Jeremy Dobrish (adobe's artistic director) accomplishes all this with compact writing and versatile humor (sometimes he's witty, sometimes he's farcical, sometimes he's deliberately corny)… It's all quite winning. Young, smart, a trifle skittish about sustained emotion, but filled with comic pleasures."Margo Jefferson, The New York Times

"As Gunpowder Joe begins, Mary Priestley urges her world-famous husband to flee as a mob approaches their home in Birmingham, England. But the scientist, whose political writings have inflamed his foes previously, isn't perturbed. `It will be fine', Joseph Priestley tells his worried wife. `They have been content to hang me in effigy for years.' `They may be done pretending', Mary retorts. Thus, the world premiere of Anthony Clarvoe's historical drama- `Gunpowder Joe: Joseph Priestley, Pennsylvania and the American Experiment' -gets off to a fast start… In the end, the Priestleys flee, and the rioters torch their residence, which contains the scientist's laboratory and library.… It quickly establishes how well connected Priestley became after settling in Pennsylvania. He soon had friends-and foes-in high places. In one scene, he and President John Adams are having tea when Priestley suggests that Adams appoint Thomas Cooper, another English expatriate who has settled in Northumberland, to a federal post. The president reacts sharply. `I would never give such a position to a foreigner', Adams declares, adding that such appointments should be given only to `loyal Americans'.… Animated, occasionally humorous and always enlightening, Clarvoe's drama shatters any notion that Priestley, internationally known for discovering oxygen in 1774, spent his last decade living quietly in Northumberland content to pursue new discoveries. It shows how he helped strengthen our First Amendment right to say things about our government that even the president may not like."John L Moore, The Daily Item

"FIREPOWER has enough explosive material in its arsenal for half a dozen plays."John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press "FIREPOWER…explores the challenge of trust, honesty, respect, and love through the reunion of two generations of African American men."Yuko Kurahashi, San Diego Free PressKermit Frazier is one of the most underrated, under-the-radar African American playwrights of his generation… [His] plays are both lyrical and richly theatrical. And while they typically deal unflinchingly with the landscape of African American life and the socio-political issues of that life, the scope of his work ranges far beyond that culture.Woodie King, Jr, Producing Director, New Federal Theatre

In Eduardo De Filippo's classic Neapolitan tale, Filumena, a former prostitute, has been living with with shopkeeper Domenico for twenty-five years. Domenico would like to marry the young Diana, but Filumena feigns mortal illness to convince Domenico to marry her in extremis, which he does. When he finds out he's been duped, he has the marriage annulled. But Filumena will not give up. She's determined to make a family and reveals that she has three sons, one of whom is Domenico's, but she will not tell him which one. Eventually he concedes to her wishes and remarries her, accepting all three sons as his own.