"Measure for Measure," while listed among William Shakespeare's comedies, is doubtless among the darkest of his lighter works and remains one of the Bard's most popular plays. When the Duke of Vienna decides to go undercover in his own city, he leaves Angelo, his deputy, in charge and disguises himself as a monk to see how things progress in his absence. Angelo, who purports to be a man of honor and a stickler for the rules, arrests young Claudio...

"Sparkling with the witty dialogue between Beatrice and Benedicts, Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare's most enjoyable and theatrically successful comedies. This edition offers a newly edited text and an exceptionally helpful and critically aware introduction. Paying particular attention to analysis of the play's minor characters, Sheldon P Zitner discusses Shakespeare's transformation of his source material. He rethinks the attitudes to...

Menagerie was Williams' first popular success and launched the brilliant, if somewhat controversial, career of our preeminent lyric playwright. Since its premiere in Chicago in 1944, with the legendary Laurette Taylor in the role of Amanda, the play has been the bravura piece for great actresses from Jessica Tandy to Joanne Woodward, and it is studied and performed in classrooms and theaters around the world. A new introduction by prominent Williams...

The artist Mark Rothko has just hired Ken, an aspiring artist, to be his assistant – and errand boy. Ken discovers that Rothko's temper can run hot; but as he gets to know his boss better, he finds that Rothko has opened him up to more than just painting. A 2010 Tony Award winner for Best Play. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Alfred Molina as Mark Rothko; Jonathan Groff as Ken; Directed by Bart DeLorenzo. Recorded by L.A....

"Thought to be Shakespeare's earliest surviving play, The Two Gentlemen of Verona is a comedy filled with passionate lovers, women disguised as men, sword fights and sudden revelations, and a happy denouement, all underscored by a farcical subplot featuring the character Launce and his dog Crab. Perfect for theater professionals and general readers, this marvelous edition includes an extensive performance history, a commentary illuminating the complexities...

Tennessee Williams' classic drama studies the emotional disintegration of a Southern woman whose last chance for happiness is destroyed by her vindictive brother-in-law.

Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays can still be read or performed, the others being Sophocles and Euripides. He is often described as the father of tragedy: our knowledge of the genre begins with his work and our understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. Only seven of his estimated seventy to ninety plays have survived into modern times. Fragments of some other...

"Titus Andronicus was the young Shakespeare's audacious, sporadically brilliant experiment in sensational tragedy. Its horrors are notorious, but its powerful poetry of grief is the work of a true tragic poet. Introducing this edition, E.M. Waith provides a fresh view of the play in its historical context as well as an original discussion of the famous 'Peacham' drawing - the only surviving contemporary Shakespeare illustration. An illustrated account...

When it seems that Julius Caesar may assume supreme power, a plot to destroy him is hatched by those determined to preserve the threatened republic. But the different motives of the conspirators soon become apparent when high principles clash with malice and political realism.

Performed as early as 1611 and published in the "First Folio" in 1623, Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" weaves an elaborate tale of palatial envy and power in Ancient Britain. Cymbeline, King of Britain, commands that his lovely young daughter Imogen marry Cloten, the violent and callous son of the current Queen by her former husband. With her heart already promised to the poor yet heroic Posthumus, Imogen refuses. Disgusted at the prospect of his daughter...