TCG Books

One bitter Christmas Eve, a cold-hearted miser is visited by four ghosts. Transported to worlds past, present and future, Ebenezer Scrooge witnesses what a lifetime of fear and selfishness has led to, and sees with fresh eyes the lonely life he has built for himself. Can Ebenezer be saved before it's too late?

Jack Thorne's joyous adaptation of Charles Dickens's timeless classic premiered at The Old Vic, London, in 2017, in a production directed by Matthew Warchus, and starring Rhys Ifans as Ebenezer Scrooge. It was revived at the Old Vic in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

When an unhappy estate agent sells a house to Alice, a charismatic social media influencer, the two strike up an unlikely friendship. But as her obsession with Alice's seemingly perfect world intensifies, the lines between online and reality become dangerously blurred.

A thrilling, twisted and razor-sharp comedy on the corrosive effects of social media and isolation, Phoebe Eclair-Powell's play Harm premiered at the Bush Theatre, London, in May 2021.

After years of running from her dysfunctional past, Sarah returns home to the family farm in Saskatchewan to find her mom Kathleen yelling into the wind, setting off a turbulent new chapter in her life. Instead of finding comfort in “home,” Sarah learns nothing is how she remembers it, and with Kathleen’s growing dementia, nothing will ever be the same again.

Two of Sarah’s older siblings, Jolene and Steven, are more focused on the future ownership of the farm and are planning a supper that could help influence that decision. But Sarah turns her attention to Kathleen, who keeps chasing things that aren’t there: a fox, a hill, the answers to questions only Sarah’s adopted brother Tom holds the key to. When an unexpected outcome shocks the family at the supper, much more than the farm is at stake. 

Blow Wind is a beautiful portrait—with musical accompaniment—of a family that together must build new paths forward while learning how to love, let go, and forgive.

Welcome to the world of the one per cent, the corporate elite, the C-suite, the kingmakers. A world managed by payoffs, press releases, NDAs, and company policies. What happens to morality in this world when its people have limitless power?

When a CEO and his highest executives are on an international business trip to secure a major deal, a sex scandal between employees is unearthed on the news. As the pressure to complete the deal mounts, more damaging secrets come to the surface, endangering the CEO’s company, family, and legacy.

In this searing look at upper-class privilege, Post-Democracy asks, what does it take to confront corruption?

Jimmy's writing messages. In pepperoni. On top of pizzas.

His life is going nowhere. But after watching the film I Hired A Contract Killer, Jimmy's found a solution - he'll just put out a hit on himself. What could possibly go wrong?

For The Grace Of You Go I is a darkly funny, quick-witted, fast-moving new comedy. It premiered at Theatr Clwyd, Mold, in June 2021.

Love freely. Love freedom. Love.

Meet Aurora and Orion: Sister and Brother. Constellations in time. More than blood. More than just fam.

They look after each other in their small London flat, filled with the memories of their parents' Black Love.

When that love is threatened, they have to find their way back to each other and to what it means to love whilst Black. Using real-life stories, imagined worlds and new songs inspired by an R&B heritage, they begin a  journey to confronting their own worst fears.

It is premiered by Paines Plough on a UK tour from July 2021.

From the glittering high-rise condos to the desperate streets of Vancouver, powerful stories told by women reveal the fraying social fabric among the wealthy and hangers-on in the city’s Asian Canadian community.

Lady Sunrise introduces us to six women who are risking everything, all motivated by the need for more money and the freedom it could buy, whether it’s the allure of expensive items and real estate to substitute what’s been lost or the safety of not being in abusive debt to anyone else just to survive. This heartbreaking examination of the effects of today’s hyper-consumerist society will challenge perspectives of strength and power, exposing painfully raw consequences.

“Eurydice is a luminous retelling of the Orpheus myth from his beloved wife’s point of view. Watching it, we enter a singular, surreal world, as lush and limpid as a dream—an anxiety dream of love and loss—where both author and audience swim in the magical, sometimes menacing, and always thrilling flow of the unconscious… Ruhl’s theatrical voice is reticent and daring, accurate and outlandish.” —John Lahr, New Yorker

A reimagining of the classic myth of Orpheus through the eyes of its heroine. Dying too young on her wedding day, Eurydice journeys to the underworld, where she reunites with her beloved father and struggles to recover lost memories of her husband and the world she left behind.

It's been thirty years since former flames Alex and Jason last saw each other. With their carefree university days long behind them, the student reunion seems the perfect opportunity to reconnect, revive and relive their heyday. But as they flirt with reigniting their passion – even if just for one night – will the march of time get in the way?

Raya opened at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, London, in June 2021, directed by the theatre's Artistic Director, Roxana Silbert.

It’s time to make every moment count.

Sixteen-year-olds Pria and Theo—or as they know each other online, the aspiring opera singer PriaSoprano and outer-space aficionado Eagle19—have decided to have sex. There’s just one catch… they both have life-threatening genetic disorders that may cause them to explode from one another’s touch. But they won’t know what will happen until they try. Sick of being told what to do their whole lives, they rebel against their reality and meet at a motel. But while Pria is more or less accepting of her fate, Theo has hopes for the future, and what was planned as a simple meeting becomes much more intimate as they open up about their experiences. The fate of their lives comes down to one decision…

This teen romance space opera explores our willingness to live, what it means to belong, and the necessity of emotional and physical relationships.

A woman runs into her former abuser and is surprised by the power he still holds over her. In an attempt to uncover the truth of what happened between them, she recalls her adolescent self: a fourteen-year-old synchronized swimmer struggling to make sense of the world around her.

Lola is 16 and has her whole life ahead of her – until she’s diagnosed with a Grade 4 malignant brain tumour, that is. What’s always made Lola unique, she reckons, is her brilliant brain – a brain that’s now rapidly turning into a short-circuiting, useless mush. But, before she dies, she’s promised herself two things: 1. She’s going to finally get All The Sex and 2. She’s going to definitively discover the Actual Meaning of Life.

Inside looks at the lives of three women forgotten by the world, but not by themselves.

Outside presents three stories of finding connection in the darkness and coming together after so long apart.  

This volume contains the following plays:

• Two Billion Beats by Sonali Bhattacharyya
• Guidesky and I by Deborah Bruce
• The Kiss by Zoe Cooper
• Prodigal by Kalungi Ssebandeke
• When the Daffodils by Joel Tan
• Ursa Major by Joe White

They were first performed at, and livestreamed from, the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in March 2021.

Explore a world on the edge of change through three epic stories spanning five hundred years of imagined history, unpacking systems of power and what we are capable of in the pursuit of freedom.

The story starts in The Philosopher’s Wife. Deep in the North, a philosopher exiled for promoting his atheist work amidst a bloody religious war yearns to ignite a revolution, but his personal life has collapsed into chaos. What begins as a desperate attempt to cure his wife’s animalistic behaviour erupts into a power struggle between the sexes, unleashing violent reckonings while the world outside hurtles towards an epoch-changing revolution.

Over twenty years later, The Scavenger’s Daughter examines the true face of empire as Northern forces continue to march against the South, “liberating” all who stand in their way. In a landscape blown apart by war, we follow Jack and Ash, orphan soldiers belonging to the Black Swan army, trying to survive the camp, toxic masculinity, and each other until they can be free. When Jack returns to camp, his freedom having been bought for him by a mysterious philosopher, he believes his new life is just around the corner. But as rations wear thin and the king seizes the opium trails, the camp is thrown into chaos, putting everything Jack and Ash have known—including Jack’s first love, Sarah—at risk.

Centuries later, in Four Sisters, we meet Sarah again as a woman and former Madam who has survived death, the toppling of regimes, and centuries of war. When a mysterious plague breaks out, she is forced to relocate to a quarantined zone called “The Skirts” with four young girls who were orphaned by the women she once employed. But when a strange doctor arrives and discovers the girls are plague-positive, Sarah must decide whether to go ahead with an experimental treatment or none at all. As time itself begins to erode, this found family of women must face loss, love, and their individual struggles for power in a violent world.

For fans of Game of Thrones, The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Mists of Avalon, The Empire is both foreign and shockingly familiar, leaving you asking, how did we get here, and where are we going?

Experienced teacher, actor and director Max Hafler tackles the myths that Shakespeare's work is like a foreign country, not for the faint-hearted, or only for a privileged few. In this book, he shows how you can embrace the challenges of doing Shakespeare with young people, and make the plays accessible and exciting for all.

Beginning with a series of workshops that introduce the skills and principles of voice and acting, he sets out, step by step, how to use devising, develop short scenes, explore soliloquies, and unlock the themes, characters, stories and language of the plays.

The holistic approach includes dozens of exercises – many inspired by Michael Chekhov's innovative technique – which will help young actors explore their voice, imagination and body, and lead to performances that are richer, focused and more fulfilling.

There is also useful advice on preparing for a production, editing and transposing the text, rehearsing scenes, and fostering an ensemble. Above all, this book will equip you to engage and empower young people, and to help them discover for themselves the joy of working with Shakespeare.

If you could spend eternity with just one precious memory, what would it be?

A group of strangers grapple with this impossible question as they find themselves in a bureaucratic waiting room between life and death. Encouraged by enigmatic officials, they must sift through their past lives to choose their forever.

After Life, a play by Jack Thorne adapted from Hirokazu Kore-eda's award-winning film (concept by Bunny Christie, Jeremy Herrin and Jack Thorne), is a surreal and powerfully human look at the way we view our lives.

It was premiered at the National Theatre, London, in 2021.

Vinny’s organising a surprise birthday party for his mate, Anita. It’s not going well: his choice of venue is a bit misguided, Anita’s not keen on leaving the house, and everyone else has their own stuff going on. Maybe a surprise party wasn’t the best idea? 

Tom Wells’s Stuff is a play about friendship and loss – and the way people try to do the right thing for their mates when there isn’t really a right thing to do.

Written specifically for young people, the play formed part of the 2019 National Theatre Connections Festival and was premiered by youth theatres across the UK. It offers rich opportunities for an ensemble cast of teenagers.

This new collection brings together plays and monologues from the National Black Theatre Festival, one of the most historic and culturally significant events—not only in the history of Black theater but in American theater. Held every two years in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, this gathering of Black theater companies and artists from around the country and across the globe features an extraordinary array of performances, workshops, films, spoken-word poetry, and more. Established in 1989 by Larry Leon Hamlin and the North Carolina Black Repertory Company, this volume includes three full-length plays produced at the Festival:

Maid’s Door by Cheryl L. Davis

Berta, Berta by Angelica Chéri

Looking for Leroy by Larry Muhammad

This collection also includes seventeen monologues and scenes selected from each year of the Festival, featuring the artists and playwrights: Jackie Alexander, Ifa Bayeza, Pearl Cleage, Kamilah Forbes, Endesha Ida Mae Holland, Javon Johnson, Rhodessa Jones, and others.

Winner of the 2023 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Drama.

From the author of trace comes two adaptations that transport mythological stories from Ancient Greece to modern-day civilizations. Led by people of colour, these darkly comedic plays depict recognizable plights for justice.

Iphigenia and the Furies (On Taurian Land) highlights the repetition of hate and colonialism that occur in ancient myths through a mischievous lens. Since Iphigenia was rescued from the sacrificial altar, she has served as a high priestess to the goddess Artemis on Tauros, where she in turn is to sacrifice any foreigners who try to enter. When she discovers that an exiled prisoner is her brother, they together plot their escape, but are soon confronted by a force beyond their control.

Antigone: 方is set against the backdrop of the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement and Tiananmen Square Massacre protests. When citizens challenge a state’s traditional doctrine, the ruling family is divided between their own interests and those of its citizens. After brothers Neikes and Teo kill each other in the protests, their sister Antigone defies her father’s orders to retrieve Neikes’s body, causing the government—and what’s left of their family—to reach a reckoning.

Finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Beneath the deadpan back-and-forth of a seemingly typical city council board meeting lies the whiff of something distinctly sinister in Tracy Letts’s new play The Minutes. Known for his keen ability to illustrate the faults and cracks under humanity’s surface, Letts delivers an acutely thrilling new work that pulls you in with laughter before grabbing you by the throat.

From the liberation of the electric wheelchair to the ignominy of discrimination and incarceration, there have been both great advances and terrible setbacks for disabled people in Britain over the last fifty years.

Hard-hitting and hilarious, personal and poignant, CripTales comprises six fictional monologues portraying some very real experiences. From negotiating friendships and personal assistants, navigating the benefits system, and experiencing sexual fulfilment, they challenge the view that having a disability is a problem or ‘not normal’. Normal doesn’t exist!

CripTales was commissioned by the BBC and broadcast on BBC Four and BBC America in 2020 to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the UK’s Disability Discrimination Act, which criminalised discrimination against disabled people in many areas of life. The production had disabled people at its core – as writers, directors and actors of all six monologues. 

Mat Fraser, the series’ Creative Director, said, "Disabled voices have been shut out of mainstream TV drama for too long and this is a chance to showcase some of the wonderful, inventive, funny, dramatic, sexy and sobering potential available… We called the series CripTales, as the word ‘crip’ has been taken by the disabled community as a self-empowering title since the late ’80s, and these are authentic stories and tales from people who identify as Deaf and Disabled people and who are embedded in disabled community."

This volume comprises:

• Thunderbox by Genevieve Barr
• Audition by Mat Fraser
• Paper Knickers by Jackie Hagan
• The Shed by Matilda Ibini
• Hamish by Jack Thorne
• The Real Deal by Tom Wentworth

Is something incredible happening in Merthyr? Sixteen-year-old Carys claims to have received the stigmata: Christ's wounds from the Cross. Are her wounds a sign from God?

Carys thinks so – she wants to tell the world and demands to be heard. Siân, her teacher, is not so sure, and believes silencing Carys will keep her safe. But can she make sense of what is happening to her student?

The Merthyr Stigmatist was shortlisted for the inaugural Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Award, and first presented online in 2021, as a co-production between Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, and Theatre Uncut.

A playwright writes an exposé of modern motherhood full of her own darkly funny confessions and taboo-breaking truths. One of her real-life friends, an actress, performs the piece, and through it her own experiences of motherhood start to surface. These mothers are not the butts of jokes, the villains, or the perfect angels of a household.

This empowered and relatable play was written collaboratively between award-winning theatre artists Hannah Moscovitch, Maev Beaty, and Ann-Marie Kerr, with co-creator Marinda de Beer.  Uplifting and full of love, Secret Life of a Mother is a generous and powerful act of truth-telling for anyone who has thought about, been, loved, known—or come from—a mother.  

Mothers who are blissed out. Mothers who are pissed off. Mothers who are great, or grateful, or grating. Mothers who have changed, mothers who can't, mothers who can't even change nappies. Women who aren't mothers. Welcome to the 'hood.

The Motherhood Project draws together dramatic monologues and real-life reflections by some of the UK's leading writers, artists and thinkers, and explores all the guilt, joy and absurdity, the regrets, pressures and taboos surrounding motherhood.

Contributors: Kalhan Barath, E.V. Crowe, Juno Dawson, Suhayla El Bushra, Jodi Gray, Hannah Khalil, Katherine Kotz, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, Siggi Mwasote, Irenosen Okojie, Anya Reiss, Naomi Sheldon, Lemn Sissay, Athena Stevens and Joelle Taylor.

The project was produced online in 2021 by Katherine Kotz in association with Drift Studio, and presented in association with Battersea Arts Centre, London.

In 1978 Obie-award winning New York playwright Murray Mednick brought his friends Sam Shepard and Maria Irene Fornes together with a group of actors and younger playwrights to Claremont outside Los Angeles to stage the first Padua Hills Playwrights Workshop/Festival. On an annual basis the Festival continued for the next eighteen years, extending the experimental ferment of the Off-Off Broadway movement into new and unique forms of theatrical expression. Featuring formal essays and reminiscences by a collection of participants—including David Henry Hwang and Migdalia Cruz, as well as Festival luminaries John O’Keefe, John Steppling, and Mednick himself—Outlaw Theatre is the first authoritative look back at this exciting legacy. The book will be a valued source of inspiration and craft notes for a new generation of young playwrights and theatre artists looking to shake things up as they craft the new.

Eve's eyes are green like guacamole, she has posh hair, a freckle on her chin (it might be chocolate), and when she puts her hand on Elle's arm…

Bloody Elle – A Gig Musical is a heart-warming and belly-achingly funny story about falling in love for the very first time, stuffed full of stomach-flipping, time-stopping moments, touches, glances, kisses.

Written and originally performed by Lauryn Redding, this one-person gig musical, set to an original score, was first performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in June 2021. It was directed by the theatre's Joint Artistic Director Bryony Shanahan and co-produced with Rebel Productions.

An exhilarating biographical play about international icon Bruce Lee from three-time Pulitzer finalist David Henry Hwang.

Following Bruce Lee’s journey from troubled Hong Kong youth to martial arts legend, Kung Fu paints a portrait of Lee as he struggles to prove himself as a fighter, a husband, a father, and a man. David Henry Hwang’s play fluidly blends dance, Chinese opera, martial arts, and drama into a bold new theatrical form.

It's one of those hot April evenings that feel like summer, and the heat is stifling in Sissy's London flat as she dances, unrestrained, beautiful, alive…

But when sixteen-year-old Eshe arrives, powerful emotions come to the surface – and the two women are locked in a dance where freedom clashes with duty.

babriye bukilwa's play …cake is a psychological drama that asks if the cycle of generational trauma can ever be broken. Can queer, Black femmes find love and belonging when the soil beneath them – and the climate around them – is hostile? It was first performed at Theatre Peckham, London, in 2021, directed by the venue's Associate Director, malakaï sargeant.

Slimm, a seventeen-year-old Black boy in a hoodie suddenly finds himself in the first moments of his afterlife. He calls out for God. God does not respond. What happens next is a sacred journey through the unknown, as Slimm grapples with the truth of the life he lived and the death he didn’t choose.

Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothers is a protest for all Black life beyond headlines and hashtags, a prayer for all families left behind, and a promise to the community that all Black lives matter.

A symphony of dislocated and interconnected scenes, in which a series of characters search for meaning in a complicated and unstable world.

A girl is locked in a room. A boy brings another boy flowers. A girl has tied herself to a railing. A boy doesn’t know who he is. A girl worries about impending catastrophe. A woman jumps in front of a train. A boy’s heart falls out his chest. A butterfly has a broken wing.

Written specifically for young people, Chaos formed part of the 2019 National Theatre Connections Festival and was premiered by youth theatres across the UK. The play offers rich opportunities for a large, flexible cast of young performers.

Johann Sebastian Bach, irascible and turbulent, writes music of sensuous delight and deep religious fervour. He's touchy, he's fabulously rude, he has impossibly high standards (he stabs a bassoonist for playing badly), and he's constantly in trouble with his patrons.

Music is the family business – but the burden of their father's genius weighs heavily on his sons. Wilhelm is brilliant but self-destructive. Tense, industrious Carl is more successful than his father, but knows he is less talented. As the years pass, their rivalry provokes furious arguments about love, God and above all music. What is it for – to give pleasure, like a cup of coffee in the sun, or to reveal the divine order that gives life its meaning?

Beautiful, profound and funny, Nina Raine's play Bach & Sons is a gripping family drama and an anthem to the art that draws us together and sings of our common humanity. It premiered at the Bridge Theatre, London, in June 2021, directed by Nicholas Hytner, with Simon Russell Beale playing J. S. Bach.

The Long Song is the story of a young slave girl who lives through the final turbulent days of slavery on a sugar plantation in 19th-century Jamaica.

It is adapted from Andrea Levy's award-winning novel by Suhayla El-Bushra, and premiered at Chichester Festival Theatre in October 2021, directed by Charlotte Gwinner.

There’s no such thing as a secret in Stewiacke. Not when the gossips meet for coffee every day at the local diner. Vi, Rita, Mary Ellen, and Janine are all as close as can be, and they know everybody’s business. But when Sean, a heartbroken doctor, moves in to take a temporary job at the clinic, he tips the Maritime town that’s famous for being halfway between the North Pole and the equator off its axis.

While Sean decides to pursue Janine, it only brings her closer together with her friends, who each have their own messy love lives. Vi just turned down her boyfriend’s proposal, Mary Ellen is tired of doing everything for her husband and sons, Rita just wants to find a date, and Janine already lives with a man she loves a “little bit. ” Can everyone find what they’re looking for in Stewiacke? And what happens when someone finds out a secret that managed to be kept hidden?

Whether you’re applying for drama school, taking an exam, or auditioning for a professional role, it’s likely you’ll be required to perform one or more monologues, including a piece from a contemporary play. It’s vital to come up with something fresh that’s suited both to you – in order to allow you to express who you are as a performer – and to the specific purposes of the audition.

In this book, you’ll find forty fantastic speeches featuring male roles, all written and premiered since the year 2014, by some of today’s most exciting dramatic voices from the UK and USA.

Playwrights include Annie Baker, Andrew Bovell, Jez Butterworth, Caryl Churchill, Mark Gatiss, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Anna Jordan, Arinzé Kene, Rona Munro and Evan Placey. The plays featured were premiered at leading venues including the National, the Royal Court, the Bush and Hampstead in London, prestigious theatres in Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Manchester, and by renowned companies including Frantic Assembly and Paines Plough.

Drawing on her experience as an actor, director and teacher at several leading drama schools, Trilby James introduces each speech with a user-friendly, bullet-point list of essential things you need to know about the character, and then five inspiring ideas to help you perform the monologue.

This book also features a step-by-step guide to the process of selecting and preparing your speech, and approaching the audition itself.

Voices of a Generation collects three Canadian plays that speak to millennials’ complex and varied experiences and the challenges and stereotypes they often face.

zahgidiwin/love by Frances Koncan follows Namid through multiple generations: as a victim of abuse in a residential school in the 1960s, as a missing woman held in a suburban basement in the 1990s, and as the rebellious daughter of a tyrannical queen in a post-apocalyptic, matriarchal society. A comedy about loss in the era of truth and reconciliation, zahgidiwin/love uses a mash-up of theatrical styles to embody the millennial creative impulse to remix and remake while presenting a vital perspective on what decolonization might look like both on and off stage.

The Millennial Malcontent by Erin Shields is a gender-swapped adaptation of Sir John Vanbrugh’s Restoration Comedy The Provoked Wife, following a group of millennials during a night out as they romantically and sexually pursue each other with comical results. Satirizing every trope from social media stardom to economic precarity to slacktivism, Shields reveals the loneliness lurking under every smiling profile photo.

In Smoke by Elena Eli Belyea, Aiden’s ex Jordan arrives at Aiden’s door to confront her about the allegation that Jordan sexually assaulted her two years ago, forcing them to discuss their conflicting memories of their last night together and whether and how they’re going to move forward. With Jordan meant to be performed by either a cis-male or cis-female actor, Smoke is a nuanced examination of issues and perceptions surrounding sexual assault and consent.

This empowering, informative guide explains everything actors need to know about agents – how to find one, what they do, and how to work with them effectively to help you succeed in your career.

If you're currently seeking an agent, discover how to research and contact them, and what they're looking for in their clients. And if you already have one, learn how to manage and get the most out of this crucial relationship.

Also included are invaluable tips on how to write a great CV; obtain attention-grabbing headshots, showreels and voicereels; prepare for and excel at auditions; embrace social media; protect your mental health; and much more.

The Compact Guides are pocket-sized introductions for actors and theatremakers, each tackling a key topic in a clear and comprehensive way. Written by industry professionals with extensive hands-on experience of their subject, they provide you with maximum information in minimum time.

This clear, accessible guide to creating and putting on a solo show is packed with inspiring, practical advice for writers, actors, directors, and anyone who wants to know how solo shows are actually made.

Written by two theatremakers with a wealth of experience in the field, it leads you through the whole process – from finding a subject you're passionate about, to developing your ideas and getting the script written, through to rewrites, rehearsals and getting your show on stage. It tackles key questions such as: What makes a 'good' solo show? How do I engage the audience? How should directors and writer-performers work together? And what's the best way of approaching a producer?

There's also invaluable advice on looking after yourself, coping with anxieties, dealing with reviews, and taking your show to the Edinburgh Fringe. With practical exercises throughout to help you put everything into action, this book is an indispensable toolkit for making your solo show a reality.

Lisa Carroll is a playwright, screenwriter and comedian, whose plays have been staged at Soho Theatre, the Arcola Theatre, and the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Milly Thomas is an actor and writer whose plays have been staged at Theatre503, the Edinburgh Fringe, Soho Theatre, the West End's Trafalgar Studios and New York Theatre Workshop. Together, Lisa and Milly teach regular solo-show workshops for training and creative organisation The Mono Box.

The Compact Guides are pocket-sized introductions for actors and theatremakers, each tackling a key topic in a clear and comprehensive way. Written by industry professionals with extensive hands-on experience of their subject, they provide you with maximum information in minimum time.

In this companion anthology to Digital Performance in Canada, six works of digital theatre illustrate how audiences are forced to re-evaluate definitions of performative space, bodies, and relationships.

In Avatar, Freya Olafson uses contemporary dance paired with the ambiguities of virtual social networks to navigate the digitally altered notions of exhibitionism, orientation, and identity.  You Are Very Star by The Electric Company is a virtual site-specific treasure hunt between the height of the Space Race and the dawn of new humanity.  Helen Lawrence by Chris Haddock and Stan Douglas is a hard-boiled tale of loyalty and money that uses both filmed and live sequences to create "live cinema. " Barbra French’s Muse tells a story from inside an institutionalized young woman’s imagination with the help of a nurse, the audience, projections, and light. Theatre Replacement’s Town Choir featured text that was transmitted live from across Canada to the Vancouver Youth Choir, who then transformed the text into songs. And Alien Contagion: Rise of the Zombie Syndrome by Andy Thompson, Tyler Clarke, and Finn Ghosh-Luedke is an immersive theatrical adventure in which audience members need to work together to save the world and conquer the undead.

This accessible, systematic guide will teach you how to memorize your lines quickly and effectively, and let go of the fear of forgetting them – helping you build confidence and focus, and reducing anxiety and stress around auditions, rehearsal and performance.

Inside, you'll find dozens of tips, tricks and techniques such as Memory Palaces, Mental Maps, Creative Memorization, Visual Cues and many more, along with exercises and examples to illustrate how they work in practice. Discover how to harness these tools to strengthen your memory, and develop a personalised line-learning strategy that works for you and your acting process – one that is easier, faster and more enjoyable.

The Compact Guides are pocket-sized introductions for actors and theatremakers, each tackling a key topic in a clear and comprehensive way. Written by industry professionals with extensive hands-on experience of their subject, they provide you with maximum information in minimum time.

Twelve-year-old Genevieve has been having a hard time at home, and all she really wants is to be an altar server at her church. Except it’s 1963 and Father Paul tells her that’s not allowed. After having her dreams crushed and being made fun of by her classmate and star altar boy Martin, Genevieve prays to God hoping for an exception. Instead, a fourteen-year-old martyr from the fourth century, Saint Pancras, appears and promises to get her an answer from God. But with her mom missing for weeks and Martin disappearing on his way home from school the next day, she fears her prayers have been answered in dire ways. Do This in Memory of Me is for anyone who has ever questioned the relationship between faith and trust or wondered where they fit in the bigger picture.

The Alexander Technique has revolutionised the physicality, presence, stature and professional lives of generations of actors. By first asking you to identify your own acquired habits, the technique enables you to find new and beneficial ways of moving, thinking, breathing and performing, freely and without unnecessary tension.

Written by an experienced teacher of the Alexander Technique, this book takes you step by step through a series of eleven guided lessons, and dozens of exercises and assignments. Each explores different elements and principles of the technique, including:

• Training your mind to stay present, and mindful of your environment
• Thinking (but not overthinking!) in new ways
• Observing and developing your natural poise
• Sitting, standing and walking easily and effortlessly
• Breathing and speaking with release and relaxation
• Applying all of your work to characterisation and performance

Alex and Rupert aren't a conventional match, but a caffeinated meeting on the Underground ignites a spark. Skip forward to them fighting over baby names, nursery colours and ways to save money. All the signs of a normal family in waiting.

Then Alex goes into labour, their baby is born still – and their world implodes. What follows is a window into how a couple find the strength to move forward, the will to stay together, and the determination to keep alive the memory of their child.

Jon, a star professor and author, is racked with self-loathing after his third marriage crumbles around him when he finds himself admiring a student—a girl in a red coat. The girl, nineteen-year-old Annie, is a big fan of his work, and also happens to live down the street. From their doorways to his office to hotel rooms, their mutual admiration and sexual tension escalates under Jon’s control to a surprising conclusion that will leave you wanting to go back and question your perceptions of power as soon as you finish.

Fourteen-year-old Jim Hawkins is serving ale in The Admiral Benbow Inn – when suddenly the door slams open and in strides Billy Bones, the infamous pirate, to change Jim’s life forever…

Soon, Jim finds himself on board The Jolly Todger and setting sail on the high seas. Alongside him, the crew includes Captain Birdseye, Black Dog, Blue Peter, the one-legged Long John Silver, and a parrot called Alexa – and their destination: a mysterious tropical paradise in the Caribbean named Treasure Island. Or Skeleton Island. Depends who you ask.

This riotously chaotic adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s beloved Treasure Island is a collaboration between John Nicholson (The Hound of the Baskervilles) and the physical-comedy theatre company Le Navet Bete, with their four actors playing dozens of characters.

Following the company’s hilarious, hit adaptations of Dracula: The Bloody Truth and The Three Musketeers, it premiered at the Plymouth Athenaeum in 2019, and in a Black Spot-defying production at the Exeter Northcott Theatre in 2020, before touring nationally.

If you’re looking for a rip-roaring, swashbuckling, family-friendly retelling of a classic story to perform with your theatre company or drama group, then X marks this spot.

Interdependent Magic: Disability Performance in Canada is a collection of plays and interviews by, for, and about Disabled theatre artists that invites readers into the magical worlds of Disability arts culture.

The book features four plays as well as interviews with artists Justin Manyfingers and Niall McNeill. In Smudge by Alex Bulmer, a woman details her journey toward Blindness, mourning what she loses and discovering what her other senses provide. Access Me by Boys in Chairs Collective is a celebration of sex and Disability, providing an all-access safe space to spin around. Antarctica by Syrus Marcus Ware imagines a world where racialized people have survived multiple catastrophes and must begin terraforming a new colony. And in Deafy by Chris Dodd, a Deaf public speaker takes the audience on an unexpected journey of discovering what it really means to belong.

In a roving, shimmering conversation that took place in May 2021, scholar, poet, and activist Alexis Pauline Gumbs and playwright, songwriter, performance artist, and educator Daniel Alexander Jones discuss love as a foundational principle of artistic practice and societal change. Reflecting on Love Like Light, Daniel Alexander Jones's collection of seven plays and performance texts (published by 53rd State in July 2021), DAJ and APG illuminate the ways in which an attention to care, community, nuance, invitation, perceptual particularities, and embodied conditions can resist the profoundly extractive context in which life is lived and art is made. As they discuss the work of Audre Lorde, Billie Holiday, Beah Richards, Bayard Rustin, and Malcolm X, as well as that of DAJ's grandma Daisy Mae and APG's grandmother, aunt, and niece, DAJ and APG propose that love, like light, suffuses everything, and that love, like light, creates a field in which transformation, justice, healing, and radical beauty are not just possible—they are already, now.

Perfect for playwrights and screenwriters of all levels of experience, The Writer’s Toolkit will equip you with everything required to kickstart your creativity, develop your craft, and make your writing the very best that it can be.

Written by an experienced playwright, screenwriter and producer, this essential book is packed with almost two hundred practical exercises, techniques and ideas for every part of your process, designed to be used either solo or in a group. It includes:

• Writing warm-ups to focus your mind and get your creative muscles in gear
• Dozens of exercises to strengthen fundamental elements of your writing such as developing characters, improving dialogue, layering in subtext, creating a strong setting and constructing a compelling plot
• Immersive-writing techniques to lift the world of your script off the page and allow you to shape it more effectively
• A blueprint for writing a ten-minute play – a great way to practise your craft, explore a new idea and add to your portfolio
• A Submission Surgery with exercises and pointers so you can review and fine-tune your completed work before sending it out
• 101 quick-fire writing prompts to help you warm up, take a break from your current project, or just keep you feeling productive

Also included are mindful meditations to use at the beginning and end of your writing sessions, to help you relax, boost your productivity and maximise your creative output.

Whatever you need as a writer – whether that’s to crack a problem in your current script, develop ideas for future projects, build up your skills and experience, or bust through writer’s block – this book will give you the right tools for the job. So get writing!

On a reality television show, six remarkable – and remarkably young – geniuses are competing for the coveted Golden Brain trophy and the title "Britain’s Brainiest Child." As the contestants battle it out round after round, the pressure mounts, the spotlight gets harsher, and each is faced with questions they were never expecting. Who will win and who will lose – and what exactly does winning mean anyway?

Georgia Christou’s Bright. Young. Things. is part of Platform, an initiative from Tonic Theatre in partnership with Nick Hern Books. Aimed at achieving greater gender equality in theatre, Platform comprises big-cast plays with predominantly, or all, female casts, written specifically for performance by young actors.

Maria and her kids—Lisa, a pregnant teenager, and Jude, an excitable preteen—are on the run following the murder of Lisa’s rapist. As the police close in, Maria is determined to give her kids a last supper that prepares them for everything they’re going to need to survive in the world without her.

At Miami's Cherokee Valley Zoo & Conservation Centre, the most dangerous thing that ever happened was the tapir's caesarian section. That is until Hurricane Jonas sets itself on a crash course straight towards it. Now zookeeper Bonnie must rush to batten down the hatches and ensure the safety of her animals – and herself.

Halfway across the world in the Yorkshire Dales, Bonnie's friend Carol feels the repercussions of that tempestuous night. Will she be able to help from afar? Or will the danger they all face turn out to be deeper and darker than a spot of bad weather?

Lily Bevan's play Zoo is a wildly inventive comedy drama about courage, female friendship and flamingos. It premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2018, where it was selected as one of the Guardian's Best Shows of the Fringe. It also enjoyed London runs at Theatre503 and the 2020 VAULT Festival.

This edition also includes twelve comic monologues for female performers, some of which featured in the BBC Radio 4 series, Talking to Strangers (co-written with Sally Phillips), and were performed by Olivia Colman, Jessica Hynes and Emma Thompson, amongst others.

It’s Wasp’s destiny to be impregnated by a swarm of hornets called the Angels on their twenty-first birthday, but they aren’t going down without a fight. Their plan? A bottle of Coke, an abandoned church, and (regrettably) their ex-boyfriend Isaac.

Across town the twin daughters of a prominent cult leader are also approaching their twenty-first birthdays. True-believer Caroline is excited for her fate, but Rachel isn’t so sure. When Rachel runs into Isaac, he offers Wasp’s help, a caustic solution that seems too good to be true. Meanwhile Janey, Caroline’s trans best friend, secretly pines for Wasp, and grapples with her illegal transition. When the Angels take Rachel but don’t come for Caroline, the group have a lot of quick decisions to make that will either save them or lead them to a violent end. They’ll need to unite if they want to survive as the clock ticks down to Wasp’s birthday and the Angels’ inevitable arrival.

Now, drawing inspiration from Ovid, fifteen leading female and non-binary British playwrights dramatise the lives of these fifteen heroines in a series of new monologues for the twenty-first century.

15 Heroines was commissioned by Jermyn Street Theatre, London, and first performed – online and in three parts – in November 2020, presented in partnership with Digital Theatre. This edition of all fifteen monologues is introduced by directors – Adjoa Andoh, Tom Littler and Cat Robey – and writer, broadcaster and classicist Natalie Haynes.

The War tells the untold stories of the Trojan War: Oenone, Hermione, Laodamia, Briseis and Penelope, written by Lettie Precious, Sabrina Mahfouz, Charlotte Jones, Abi Zakarian and Hannah Khalil.

From those electric moments of discovery and connection to the dark hours of isolation, we all seek community and resolution. But sometimes the things that connect us are the very things we need to escape.

I Think We Are Alone was commissioned by Frantic Assembly as part of their twenty-fifth anniversary and premiered on a UK tour in 2020 as a co-production with Theatre Royal Plymouth and Curve, Leicester. The original production was co-directed by Kathy Burke and Frantic Assembly's Artistic Director Scott Graham.

This volume includes:

Something Awful by Tatty Hennessy is a thrilling play inspired by the true-crime story of the Slenderman. Soph and her best friend Jel love scary stories and hunt for the best online. But then new girl Ellie turns up at school with one of her own.

Second Home by Charlotte Chimuanya explores the experiences of growing up mixed-race in twenty-first century Ireland. Naomi is trying to mend her broken heart. But will tackling grief and racism in a place she calls home prove to be the final betrayal?

Madame Ovary by Rosa Hesmondhalgh tells the heartbreaking and hilarious true story of Rosa's own ovarian cancer. This five-star sell-out Edinburgh hit is a life-affirming monologue exploring the typical struggles of staying relevant, with the less typical struggles of staying alive.  

Take Care by Zoë Templeman-Young and Sam McLaughlin follows the real-life story of Pam, a woman struggling to move her mother into a care home that's closer to her. An award-winning Edinburgh smash, it is an astonishing, tragic and uplifting verbatim play about the care system in the UK today.

Heroes by Isabel Dixon is a poignant exploration of fallen idols, family secrets and the human price of forgiveness. Set across two timelines, it is the tense and sensitive story of a family torn apart by an unforgiveable act.

Can you remember your first time?

In this hilarious and heartbreaking true story, theatre-maker and activist Nathaniel Hall can’t seem to forget his. To be fair, he’s had it playing on repeat for the last fifteen years… but now he’s ready to lift the lid on his life-changing secret.

First presented by Dibby Theatre and Waterside Arts, First Time went on to critical and audience acclaim on tour of the UK and at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It smashes through the stigma and shame of HIV, to present an uplifting and inspirational guide to staying positive in a negative world.

This edition features the full script of First Time, alongside extensive material about HIV/AIDS and the themes and issues explored in the play, including several workshop plans which can be used with students and community groups.

Sephy and Callum sit together on a beach. They are in love. It is forbidden.

Sephy is a Cross and Callum is a Nought. Between Noughts and Crosses there are racial and social divides. A segregated society teeters on a volatile knife-edge. As violence breaks out, Sephy and Callum draw closer, but this is a romance that will lead them into terrible danger.

This gripping Romeo and Juliet story by acclaimed writer Malorie Blackman is a captivating drama of love, revolution and what it means to grow up in a divided world.

Sabrina Mahfouz’s stage adaptation first toured the UK in 2019 and won the Excellence in Touring category at the UK Theatre Awards. It was commissioned and presented by Pilot Theatre in co-production with Derby Theatre, Belgrade Theatre Coventry, Mercury Theatre Colchester and York Theatre Royal.

Twelve-year-old Philly is literally pulled into an action-packed adventure while mourning the loss of her lola when she opens an old book and finds herself tossed into the fantastical land of Uwi.

In Uwi, memories are stories, and all stories are forbidden since the datu’s storytelling-loving wife died and his youngest daughter Nale disappeared. Now his remaining daughters, the Three Sisters, rule with darkness in their hearts. So when Philly appears, the duwende believe that she is Nale and the key to saving the kingdom. Can Philly save Uwi while searching for her lola to bring her back home?

Similar to The Wizard of Oz, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Alice in Wonderland, this unique Filipinx Canadian tale inspired by Philippine mythology shows the value of keeping memories alive and explores how families deal with loss.

Is there a limit to free speech? Who gets to decide?

Isabelle’s film theory students are stunned that she would open an unmoderated online discussion group to complement a controversial syllabus. Her intention was for them to learn from each other, but when an anonymous student starts to post racist comments and offensive videos on the forum and others challenge Isabelle’s methods, she is forced to decide whether to intervene or to let the social experiment play out. But the posts soon turn abusive and threatening to Isabelle’s relationship with her wife, Lee, causing her to take matters into her own hands.

In this thrilling exploration of the intersections and divisions within liberalism, a young tenure-track professor finds herself in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse that has her questioning her beliefs and fighting back for her life.

Whether you’re applying for drama school, taking an exam, or auditioning for a professional role, it’s likely you’ll be required to perform one or more monologues, including a piece from a contemporary play. It’s vital to come up with something fresh that’s suited both to you – in order to allow you to express who you are as a performer – and to the specific purposes of the audition.

In this book, you’ll find forty fantastic speeches featuring female roles, all written and premiered since the year 2014, by some of the most exciting dramatic voices writing today.

Playwrights include Mike Bartlett, Andrew Bovell, Chris Bush, Jez Butterworth, Vivienne Franzmann, Ella Hickson, Lucy Kirkwood, Chinonyerem Odimba, Frances Poet and Stef Smith. The plays featured were premiered at leading venues including the National, the Royal Court, Soho and Hampstead in London, prestigious theatres in Cardiff, Chichester, Edinburgh and Sheffield, and by renowned companies including Clean Break, Frantic Assembly and HighTide.

Drawing on her experience as an actor, director and teacher at several leading drama schools, Trilby James introduces each speech with a user-friendly, bullet-point list of ten essential things you need to know about the character, and then five inspiring ideas to help you perform the monologue.

This book also features a step-by-step guide to the process of selecting and preparing your speech, and approaching the audition itself.

Up-and-coming comics Alex and Ben have been booked in the warm-up spot for a beloved but fading double act’s comeback tour. Neither is delighted to be playing to a sparse crowd in a sleepy seaside town – but when it’s revealed that a Hollywood director is in the audience, both acts glimpse a final chance for their big break.

Cue sabotage, mistaken identity and full-on farcical mayhem, as the performance descends into a desperate battle for the limelight. With the action alternating between offstage and on, and the tone between Noises Off and Morecambe and Wise’s old-school charm, The Comeback is a heart-warming exploration of bittersweet nostalgia and the enduring power of friendship.

It is the joyful and dazzlingly funny debut play by The Pin’s award-winning Ben Ashenden and Alex Owen – ‘destined to become one of the great comedy duos’ (Radio Times). It opened at the West End’s Noël Coward Theatre in December 2020.

Nora is the perfect wife and mother. She is dutiful, beautiful and everything is always in its right place. But when a secret from her past comes back to haunt her, her life rapidly unravels. Over the course of three days, Nora must fight to protect herself and her family or risk losing everything.

Henrik Ibsen's brutal portrayal of womanhood caused outrage when it was first performed in 1879. This bold new version by Stef Smith reframes the drama in three different time periods. The fight for women's suffrage, the Swinging Sixties and the modern day intertwine in this urgent, poetic play that asks how far have we really come in the past hundred years?

Nora: A Doll's House was first produced by the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, in 2019, at Tramway, Glasgow. A new production opened at the Young Vic, London, in February 2020.

It was a finalist for the 2020 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, awarded annually to celebrate women who have written works of outstanding quality for the English-speaking theatre.

Winner of the 2020 Robert Merritt Award for Outstanding New Play by a Nova Scotian

Set in a rural Black Nova Scotian community, The Bridge explores the complex relationship between two brothers strained over twenty years of secrecy, deception, and dishonour. Secrets are revealed one by one from the brothers themselves, as well as a trio of community gossips who provide the musical backdrop for this gospel-infused tale. A story of a family torn apart by betrayal, The Bridge invites us to consider the roads we choose in life, and to wonder whether we can ever cross back over the bridges we burn along the way

It only takes one spark of love to change the world forever.

Mabel Hubbard Bell was a strong, self-assured woman—bright, passionate, and a complete original. Despite a near-fatal case of childhood scarlet fever that cost her the ability to hear, she learned to talk and lip-read in multiple languages. At nineteen, she married a young inventor named Alexander Graham Bell and became the most significant influence in his life.

This is Mabel’s story, offering the unique perspective of a woman whose remarkable life was forever connected to her famous, distracted husband. From inspiring invention to promoting public service, Mabel and Alec challenged each other to become strong forces for good. Silence is a beautiful and true love story about how we communicate.

Especially necessary in a historical moment in which many theatre companies have been forced to move their work online, Digital Performance in Canada illuminates the influence and ubiquity of digital technology on performance practices in Canada. This collection of essays explores how digital technology forces us to reimagine our relationships to performance. Looking at the three categories of space, bodies, and relationships, this collection includes contributors Bruce Barton, Owen Brierley, Chris Eaket, Alan Filewod, Patrick Finn, Peter Kuling, Pyrrko Marula-Denison, Kim McLeod, Jennifer Nikolai, Xavia Publius, Andrea Roberts, and Don Sinclair.

Dom has had a rough go of things so far. At fourteen, he has the hardened look of someone who’s had to fight for everything. And he’s sick of pronouns, but when push comes to shove, he uses he.

Fred has just moved to Not-The-City, a new place where he can try to disappear. But he didn’t expect to actually make friends. He just hopes he’s accepted for how he looks.

When Dom and Fred meet on a hill overlooking a bridge that connects Not-The-City to The City, a place where anyone can be anything they want, the two find a refuge in one another and make a pact: they’ll cross the bridge at the end of the school year. They’ll be free. What could happen by then? Who will they be? And will the bridge even let them cross?

Meet the creators behind the words of Canadian opera in this exciting new collection of contemporary libretti. Featuring Ours by Robert Chafe, Rocking Horse Winner by Anna Chatterton, Beatrice Chancy by George Eilliott Clarke, Missing by Marie Clements, Nigredo Hotel by Ann-Marie MacDonald, Shelter by Julie Salverson, and Dog Days by Royce Vavrek, When Words Sing turns the spotlight on everything that goes into writing libretti, and answering frequently asked questions along the way.

Through supplementary interviews, essays, and illustrations, the book will examine the role of the librettist; how a libretto can inspire a composer, director, and designer; and how the relationship between words, music, sound, and design coalesces into an ageless theatrical form.

Convinced the world at large can’t be trusted to prioritize the well-being of adolescent girls in the event of a cataclysmic event (or just in general), a determined troupe of preteen “doomers” commit to preparing for survival in the post-collapse society they anticipate inheriting.

When Maureen, Jo, Sarah, Vic, and Robbie sneak out at night to investigate an ominous hidden lair in the woods, they believe they have stumbled onto proof of what happened to a mysterious local cult that vanished over a decade ago. As they search for vital clues, examining small bones and dusty cans of food for signs of life, they fight to understand how to be understood in a world that seems to reject them. What they discover changes everything—eighth grade will never be the same.

Part Judy Blume, part Rambo, this darkly comic coming-of-age story for complicated times is for any young woman who has ever been told that she is “too much,” or that what she fears is illegitimate, or that what she has to say is less important than keeping the peace.

An eviscerating satire of gender roles in popular culture, Beautiful Man imagines a world in which women are the subjects and men the objects. As three women dissect the latest Hollywood blockbuster, narrative after narrative of strong female characters fold into each other, fusing into a brutally recognizable story.

In Unit B-1717, a woman is trying to clean out her storage locker and say goodbye to the past, but an overwhelming feeling of dread forces her to confront the way she has historically subjugated herself to the needs of others.

In And then there was you, a mother addresses her child as they both visit milestones that offered them each independence, and in the process explores how the profound connection between mother and child evolves.

Nam, a procrastination-prone Vietnamese Canadian university student, sets out with the vague ambition to write a musical about his diaspora as embodied by food, particularly the world-famous noodle soup pho. What follows is pure meta musical, genre-bending through thousands of years of history, featuring rapping ancient kings, communist spies, dancing sharks and refugees, and awkward first dates in suburbia. However, Nam eventually finds himself caught between his different characters as each argues what pho (the food and the show) truly represents, and he struggles to find an answer that will satisfy everyone—in the end, isn’t this just a bunch of silly soup songs?

It's 1955 and the Pallas Players, an all-female theatre company, are putting on a play: Whisky Galore.

They transport us back to 1943 on the Scottish islands of Great and Little Todday, where the whisky supply has dried up because of the war, leaving tensions running high. Relief seems to be at hand when a ship carrying 50,000 bottles of whisky is wrecked just offshore. Then it's every thirsty man for himself as the islanders try to rescue as many bottles as possible before stuffy Captain Waggett of the Home Guard can put a stop to their fun.

First performed in a touring production by Oldham Coliseum Theatre, Hull Truck Theatre and New Vic Theatre, Whisky Galore combines rollicking physical theatre, panto and farce, with an array of hilarious characters for any female-led theatre company.

This edition includes an introduction by Philip Goulding, notes on the characters, and the original music by Alan Edward Williams that accompanied the premiere production.

When two souls collide, the impact can resonate for all eternity. So it was – and so it is – with Heathcliff and Cathy. But if they can't be together, the world that struggles to contain them will simply shatter and burn…

Andrew Sheridan's gripping reinvention of Emily Brontë's classic novel Wuthering Heights is a searing and ferocious celebration of passion, of desire – and of the female imagination that created this indelible masterpiece.

Exposing a very different but essentially truthful side to literature's most electric couple, it premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in 2020, in a production directed by Bryony Shanahan, joint Artistic Director of the theatre.

What stories do we tell ourselves to keep our walls up and our privilege intact? What is the cost of revolution?

In this contemporary retelling of Antigone, denial of what rages outside of a city’s perimeter comes to a head when a young princess named Alison tries to expose the truth of her beloved cousin Henry’s death. By night, Henry went as Andy, as together he and Alison scaled the walls of their kingdom to help the migrants who are kept out of sight. Burdened by the weight of the inequality that his future reign represented, he killed himself. But his mother, Queen Regina, hails his death as a valiant knight and will do anything she can to keep Alison silent. The two women become locked in a poetic battle of power and prejudice, until a push turning into a shove might mean it’s too late to find peace.

From holding hands in the womb to holding each other’s hair back when they puked, twins Laura and Lizzie grew up only having each other. They couldn’t count on their practically feral mom, absent dad, or even the boys they liked. They’re polar opposites—Laura’s reserved while Lizzie’s reckless—but their shared mischievous giggles and dreams for the future kept them going. One day, Laura finds a familiar book of poems in Lizzie’s apartment and is dragged through their turbulent past. Together, the sisters relive their complicated history in an effort to make sense of the present. Framed by the beauty of a well-loved poem, this story of ferocious sisterhood, addiction, and the aftermath of trauma will leave howls echoing in your ears.

Mona is a young woman on the edge. All she sees is the Earth falling apart, but no one really seems to care. Amidst the chaos of competing and contradictory voices, she sets off on a kaleidoscopic journey to find solutions for the planet – and the truth about her family – in the hope that everything might start to make sense again.

Lizzie Nunnery’s Heavy Weather is part of Platform, an initiative from Tonic Theatre in partnership with Nick Hern Books. Aimed at achieving greater gender equality in theatre, Platform comprises big-cast plays with predominantly, or all, female casts, written specifically for performance by young actors.

It's the middle of the night, and Peebs and Epi are the only students left at school over half-term. At the end of their night out, former step-siblings Red and Jazz try to navigate their reunion. With only a couple of hours until morning, Jaffa tries to help Keesh finish an essay. As day breaks, Wolfie is getting up the courage to confess a secret to VJ at a party.

Their choices are small yet momentous. The hours are small but feel very, very long. And when the night finally ends, the future is waiting – every last bit of it.

Katherine Soper's play The Small Hours was written specifically for young people. It formed part of the 2019 National Theatre Connections Festival and was premiered by youth theatres across the UK. The play offers rich opportunities for a large cast of young performers.

The eighth title in TCG’s Classic Russian Drama series.

Nikolai Ivanov, approaching middle-age, has lost all passion for life. No longer in love with his wife, riddled with debt, and in danger of losing his estate, Ivanov finds himself trapped in a stasis he cannot shake—dragging all of those in his orbit down with him. While his family and friends rally around him trying to help, Ivanov only seems to sink further into the darkness that threatens to consume him. A new translation of Chekhov’s character study of a man undone by his own spiritual malaise.

Drama Menu is the revolutionary, hugely popular concept that has transformed the planning and delivery of drama classes for teachers and workshop leaders around the world. Choose an Appetizer or two, a Starter, a Main Course and a Dessert—and voilà!—you’ll have a delicious, dramatic banquet for your students.

This new collection, Drama Menu at a Distance—created specifically to help anyone teaching drama during the COVID-19 pandemic—brings you 80 games and exercises, all of which are safe and secure to play in this new era of socially distanced teaching and online learning.

It offers dynamic, brand-new exercises to energize, excite and inspire your group, alongside some firm favorites, redesigned to be played within the necessary constraints. Also included is an introduction by the author, with advice and suggestions to support you in delivering your session.

Drama Menu at a Distance is the essential recipe book you need to eliminate the challenges of planning lessons and workshops in the “new normal,” and leave you with more time for playing. Stay safe—and bon appétit!

A young scientist by the name of Frankenstein breathes life into a gruesome body. Banished into an indifferent world, Frankenstein's creature desperately seeks out his true identity, but the agony of rejection and a broken promise push him into darkness. Dangerous and vengeful, the creature threatens to obliterate Frankenstein and everyone he loves, in a ferocious and bloodthirsty hunt for his maker.

Rona Munro's 'inventive feminist adaptation' (The Stage) of Mary Shelley's Gothic masterpiece places the writer herself amongst the action as she wrestles with her creation and with the stark realities facing revolutionary young women, then and now. It premiered on a tour of the UK in 2019.

"A triumph... a small yet well-measured tale." —Los Angeles Times

When Patrick is eight years old, his absent father returns unexpectedly for a brief but memorable encounter.

Years later—recalling that meeting, and the revelations that followed—Patrick traces the events of his father's life, laying bare a journey of grandiose plans, aching disappointments and audacious self-delusion.

Three Kings is a heartbreaking and hilarious play for a solo actor about fathers and sons, the gifts and burdens of inheritance, and the unfathomable puzzle of human relationships.

It was written for Andrew Scott to perform and Matthew Warchus to direct as part of Old Vic: In Camera, a series of live performances streamed from the Old Vic Theatre, London, in 2020. This edition includes an introduction by the author.

Brighton, 1862. A day in the life of Sarah, an African girl, adopted by Queen Victoria and raised in the Queen's circles. Today is the eve of her having to return to Africa, but will she go?  

The Present. A day in the life of Sarah, a black middle-class woman staying in a Cheshire village with her husband and small child. They are paid a visit by well-meaning neighbours who have something to confess…  

The two Sarahs meet Queen Victoria for tea. This won't be your regular tea party…

Janice Okoh's play The Gift is premiered on a UK tour by Eclipse Theatre, from January 2020.

It's Michael Thomas's birthday. A cake sits in his mother Evelyn's living room, its candles burning undisturbed.

On the fifteenth anniversary of Michael's fatal stabbing, Jackie wants to clear her conscience, whilst Evelyn's got a big speech to deliver. Are some things better left unsaid?

Mel Pennant's play seeds explores the human story behind a tragedy, through the eyes of those left behind: two mothers united in sorrow, and sharing the hardship of protecting their sons – one in life, and one in death.

seeds was shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award, and first produced on a UK tour in 2020 by tiata fahodzi and Wrested Veil, in association with Leeds Playhouse, Soho Theatre and Tara Finney Productions.

Sisters Connie and Ursula were once everything to each other. Years on, they're almost strangers.

When a family bombshell is dropped, Connie is forced to retrace forty years of sisterhood and confront a web of secrets and conflicting loyalties.

Run Sister Run was first produced in 2020 by Paines Plough, Sheffield Theatres and Soho Theatre, directed by Charlotte Bennett, Joint Artistic Director of Paines Plough.

Winner of the Papatango New Writing Prize, 2019

Instead of GCSEs, Cain, Riyad and Jonjo got sentences. Locked up in a young offender institution, they trade sweets, chat shit, kill time – and await fatherhood.

Grace's job is to turn these teenagers into parents, ready to take charge of their futures. But can they grow up quickly enough to escape the system?

Shook premiered at Southwark Playhouse, London, in October 2019, followed by a UK tour.

Things are going to be different. Very different...

1838, London. Jacob Marley is dead. And so is Ebenezer Scrooge…

In this reinvention of the timeless classic, Ebenezer has died and his sister Fan has inherited his money-lending business. She rapidly becomes notorious as the most monstrous miser ever known, a legendary misanthrope, lonely, and despised by all who cross her path.

This year, on Christmas Eve, Fan Scrooge will be haunted by three spirits. They want her to change. But will she?

This stage adaptation of Dickens's Christmas tale first came to life in the Dickensian environment of the world's oldest-surviving music hall, Wilton's Music Hall, London, in December 2019.

When Ronan's former girlfriend Max turns up at his fashionable Dublin restaurant, he's determined to prove to her how far he's come. But Max has something bigger to discuss.

Over the course of one winesoaked evening, old wounds are exposed and new truths uncovered.

Gillian Greer's play Meat is a story of class, consent and transgressions buried in the past. How can one couple navigate their shared history when their memories don't quite match up?

The play was a finalist in Theatre503's International Playwriting Award in 2018. It premiered at Theatre503, London, in February 2020.

Maggie and Gordon first met, dancing to Rod Stewart songs, in 1971. Now in their sixties, and still very much in love, they've been finishing each other's songs all their marriage.

But now Maggie is feeling foggy and some days the songs are all she can remember. Her son and his new girlfriend are coming to dinner, and her best friend is asking questions.

A heartfelt and inspiring story of hope, Maggie May was first produced in 2020 by Leeds Playhouse, Curve Theatre, Leicester, and Queen's Theatre Hornchurch, directed by Jemima Levick.

This is not a story about the Yorkshire Ripper.

It's 1975 and Sharon just wants to marry Donny Osmond. Her mum, June, is working to keep girls like Helen off the street, and Fiona is desperate to get inside the Milgarth Police Station incident room.

Between the years of 1975 and 1980, the women of Leeds lived in fear. With no clue as to who was responsible for the sustained attacks and murders across the city, the authorities urged women to stay at home. From the fear and fury, a steadfast solidarity arose, birthing the Reclaim the Night movement and echoing down the generations to this day.

Charley Miles's play There Are No Beginnings was premiered at Leeds Playhouse in October 2019, in a production featuring Julie Hesmondhalgh.

Two sisters struggle to survive in the wake of a toxic childhood, bound by the legacy of what has been before. Each must find a way to build a life out of chaos. But what happens when the ties that bind become the thing that holds you back? Inextricably linked by blood, all they have is each other.

Kathryn O'Reilly's play Poisoned Polluted premiered at the Old Red Lion Theatre, London, in November 2019.

Here is a father who loves his daughter. You can tell from the way he held her when she was born after a difficult delivery; you can tell from the way he dances with her to her favourite songs; you can tell from the way he will do anything to protect her.

He's not going to apologise for every other little thing he's ever done. Who knows, you might have done them too…

Daughter received its UK premiere at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2018, where it became one of the most talked about shows at the festival, before transferring to Battersea Arts Centre, London, in 2020.

This edition contains the complete text of the play alongside an introduction by the author and essays about the impact of the play and the issues it raises.

All over London, public houses become private flats. Tomorrow The Anchor closes for good. It's the end of an era, but Kenny and the gang are going out with a bang. There's a blow-up sheep, karaoke and a lot of Campari. There's secrets and grudges and forgotten dreams. As the front doors are locked and the bar is drunk dry, there's a lot more to lose than just a pub.

Anna Jordan's play We Anchor in Hope premiered at The Bunker, London, in 2019, produced by The Bunker and W14 Productions in association with the Royal Court Theatre, and directed by Artistic Director Chris Sonnex.

Confined within the walls of the Warsaw ghetto, Dr. Janusz Korczak struggles to protect the children at his orphanage from the horrors of the Second World War. There is not enough food or pairs of eyes to keep watch over them. Between a trouble-making thief, an abandoned girl, a malnourished boy, and a violin prodigy, Janusz has his hands full, but together they fight for beauty and hope in the world crumbling in around them.

Based on the WWII advocacy work of Dr. Janusz Korczak, The Children’s Republic is a reminder of the hope that can still be found in a world devoid of freedom and the necessities of life.

“What we do now becomes history by which our grandchildren will judge us.” August Wilson’s words, delivered in a speech at Theatre Communications Group’s conference in June 1996, remain as vital and relevant today as they did 25 years ago.

Fierce and passionate, The Ground on Which I Stand is Wilson’s eloquent, personal call for African American artists to seize the power over their own cultural identity and to establish permanent institutions that celebrate and preserve the singular achievements of African American dramatic art and reaffirm its equal importance in contemporary American culture. It is an urgent appeal for an overhaul to the established system in order to provide equitable access and influence throughout the field.

Delivered as the keynote address at TCG’s conference, this speech refocused the agenda of the entire convening and spurred months of debate about cultural diversity in the American theatre, culminating in a standing-room-only public debate at New York City’s Town Hall. This 25th anniversary edition celebrates Wilson’s legacy and acts as an essential reminder of the work that still needs to be done.

Little Baby Jesus is a lyrical triptych of three intertwining, colliding monologues about the life-changing moments when three young people "grew up." Joanne is dipped in rudeness, rolled in attitude and is fighting to keep her life afloat. Sensitive and mature he may be, yet Kehinde struggles with an obsession for mixed-race girls as he eyes his place on the social ladder. Rugrat is the class clown and playground loudmouth, and just wants to make it past GCSEs.

Estate Walls is the story of Obi, a young writer who dreams of leaving his estate, but with bad boys Myles and Cain for best friends, there are bound to be setbacks…

Both plays premiered at Ovalhouse Theatre in south London, directed by Ché Walker, with Estate Walls winning Arinzé the Most Promising Playwright at the Offies (Off West End Theatre Awards) in 2011. Little Baby Jesus was revived at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in 2019, directed by winner of the JMK Young Director Award Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu.

Elizabeth I is the only unmarried woman to have ever ruled England. And she reigned for forty-four years. Mastermind. Seductress. Survivor.

Swive [Elizabeth] premiered in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe, London, in December 2019.

A new year of high school is full of excitement and potential—but three teens didn’t expect it to bring such a dark change to their lives. After spending a summer reinventing herself in Paris, Emma is ready for her new life to start, while her best friend Lily is eager for them to reconnect. Lily throws a last-minute party fuelled by alcohol and Instagram, which leads to a long-awaited encounter between Emma and Lily’s older brother Chris. But the next day Emma feels that something went terribly wrong. When a doctor’s appointment and a visit from police confirm that there was a sexual assault at the party, and the whole school turns against Emma, the three friends grapple with what actually happened between Emma and Chris. This smart and intense play about the complexities of relationships and community opens up a much-needed conversation about the nature of consent.

At the instruction of their marriage counsellor, empty nesters Norm and Ruth book a trip to a place where they remember being in love, the Bear Bones Family Campground, in order to rekindle their spark. After arriving late in the night, the conservative couple wakes to discover that their once familiar spot has become the Bare Bones Alternative Lifestyle Campground, and that nobody else is wearing any clothes!

Besides figuring out which side of the clothesline they’re on, Norm and Ruth have to work on their communication, whether it’s blindly directing one another to the washroom or re-establishing their goals in life. With the help of guests and staff, the couple starts to open their eyes and find their way back to their happy place.