TCG Books

Welcome to “The New Now,” a time in which written language has been forbidden and forgotten. Those who desire to have their love letters written and read must make a dangerous journey to the secret and illegal camp of She, the Keeper of the Lost Hand. Aided by the mysterious showman Me, She recounts how her past led her to be one of the last people able to read and write in cursive. The tandem tale of Zako Budaydos and His Dancing Bear illuminates the time of “The Before,” when the carnival performer had to rely on wit, love, and a secret coded language in order to survive.

International Playwriting Award - 2018

Zara has spent her adult life being two different people. The good Muslim daughter, all set to marry the man her family approves of – and a free-spirited British millennial, who parties as hard as she works.

Over one dramatic weekend, the lies she's been telling to keep these two worlds apart begin to unravel and she is forced to confront her real identity.

Cape Bretoner Dougie hasn’t seen his childhood best friend Allen in thirty years. Based on what can be seen on Facebook, things have changed, but Dougie has no doubt they’ll easily reconnect when Allen comes to visit. With the added flair of Dougie’s ex-wife Cheryl and daughter Sandy, the group spends a night reminiscing, drinking, and dancing. But as the party progresses, shadows from Dougie and Allen’s past come out to play, bringing along tough questions that have to be answered.

Donald Wellner knew success when he wrote a hit play thirty-five years ago, but now he’s recently separated, living in a small apartment, and promising that he’s trying to start a new script. His fortysomething son Blake is a travel writer with commitment issues who pops by between trips to try to hold his family together and prove his worth. Over seven years, Donald experiences the onset of dementia, and father and son become both closer and farther apart.

After thirty years of playing wife, Hedda is bitter and bored. When her estranged daughter, Thea, suddenly reappears asking for help, the present begins to echo the past and Hedda embarks on a path of destruction.

Hedda Tesman, by Cordelia Lynn, breathes new life into Henrik Ibsen's classic, asking what we inherit, what we endure and how we carry our history. A vital exploration of motherhood, power and sabotage, the play was produced by Headlong and premiered at Chichester Festival Theatre in August 2019, before transferring to The Lowry, Salford.

When social media goes into a frenzy over pictures of a girl at a party, Louise's teacher lectures all the schoolgirls on taking more responsibility for their actions. Enraged that it's them getting reprimanded – and not the boys who took the pictures – Louise wages war on the school's systemic misogyny.

But when she threatens popular boy Scott, risking his claim to the School Captain title, things escalate horribly; a website appears, objectifying the girls and shaming them for their actions.

Natalie Mitchell's play When They Go Low explores everyday feminism, consent and the changing face of teenage sexuality in an online world. Is it always true that "when they go low," we should go high?

When They Go Low offers rich opportunities for a large cast of all genders, with particularly strong roles for young women.

Joey Brant needs to have a bar mitzvah immediately. Like, next Tuesday. Except he’s not thirteen, the usual age for the Jewish milestone. He’s in his sixties. Joey has a grandson who is about to step up to the Torah, and a little white lie he once told his family is about to become painfully obvious. A task he thinks he could quickly cross off his to-do list becomes a deep immersion into the faith he no longer follows when he meets Rabbi Michael Levitz-Sharon.  

Michael’s personal life is hanging together by a thread. Her preteen daughter is being treated for cancer, which has put a strain on her marriage and her beliefs. Between her duties as rabbi, mother, and wife, she doesn’t have much time or energy to spare. So, when she finds Joey in her office on Shabbat asking for immediate help, she refuses.  

Eventually Joey wins Michael over; his challenge is something she can actually fix, plus he’s generous with donations. They embark on a crash bar mitzvah course, leading the two into a series of reflections on their own faith and family.

Faustus: That Damned Woman is a radical new work in which the iconic character of Faustus becomes a woman who makes the ultimate sacrifice in order to traverse centuries and change the course of history.

It is premiered at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in January 2020, in a co-production with Headlong and Birmingham Repertory Theatre, prior to a UK tour.

It's Christmas Day, sort of, and Alice, Mike and Tess – three generations of the one family – are busy preparing a feast, singing songs, spinning yarns and squabbling about snacks… like only a close family can. But someone is missing from the table.

Telling their stories in turns, and breaking off for the odd musical interlude, the family pass the time waiting for Tess's mum to arrive. As they do, we see a picture of how one family forms its traditions – and how those traditions matter most when there are problems on the horizon.

The Last Noël captures the unique bonds of family and how coming together to share stories and a meal can be a modern Christmas miracle.

It was first produced in 2019 by Attic Theatre Company and Arts at the Old Fire Station on a tour of venues around London, before a Christmas run at the Old Fire Station in Oxford.

In 1535, Hummiktuq, an Inuit widow, has a strange dream about the future. The next day, she discovers a bear cub floating on a piece of ice near a breathing hole. Despite the concerns of her community, she adopts him as her own and names him Angu’řuaq. In 1845, Angu’řuaq and his mate Panik wander into a chance meeting between Inuit hunters and explorers from the Franklin Expedition. By 2029, when surveyors and entrepreneurs examine the now-melting land for future opportunities, Angu’řuaq encounters the passengers and crew of a luxury cruise ship as it slinks through the oily waters of the Northwest Passage.

Humorous and dramatic, and published in both English and Nattilingmiutut, The Breathing Hole is a respectful and profound saga that traces the paths of colonialism and climate change, revealing the devastating scars left on the land and in history.

An anthology of five of the best plays from VAULT Festival 2023, London's leading festival of live performance.

Fanboy by Joe Sellman-Leava is a love-hate letter to pop culture and nostalgia. A five-star hit at the Edinburgh Fringe, it's the story of a thirty-something, self-confessed nerd – obsessed with Star Wars and Nintendo – asking why his generation can't let go of their childhoods.

Five Years with the White Man by Eloka Obi and Saul Boyer is a startling account of satirist ABC Merriman-Labor – the greatest Black Briton ever to have been forgotten – whose dreams of becoming the greatest writer of his generation lead him on a defiant journey from Sierra Leone to Edwardian London.

Honour-Bound by Zahra Jassi is a powerful solo show about family, anti-Blackness, and what we're willing to sacrifice for love. After Simran loses her friend to honour-based violence, she has to answer some life-changing questions: will she and her boyfriend be able to live safely ever after?

How We Begin by Elisabeth Lewerenz is a tender exploration of love, queerness and identity. Helen and Diana are perfect for each other: they've both got good degrees, busy jobs and nice flats. There's just one small problem – Diana's got a boyfriend.

I Fucked You in My Spaceship by Louis Emmitt-Stern is a razor-sharp comedy-drama about sex and relationships. Two couples each invite a stranger into their homes with the hope of sparking new life. Instead, they find themselves threatened by alienation, abduction and invasion...

Neil and Zef are two twenty-something computer whizzes with questionable dress sense and a highly developed interest in video games and Netflix. They're also the UK's "National Defence Information Security Team" - recruited by GCHQ for their sky-high IQs and ability to work quickly and discreetly, no questions asked.  

With unfettered access to the world's data and infinite powers of electronic intrusion, these unlikely agents are essential cogs in the national security machine. But when their window onto intelligence operations shows them more than they were meant to see, they begin to question their roles in a system whose reach is unlimited but whose safeguards are not…

Al Blyth's play The Haystack explores how we can live honestly, love freely, and stay authentic when the advances in cutting-edge technology outpace the law.

It is premiered at Hampstead Theatre in January 2020.

Three women, forty years, one ever-evolving bond.

Fake sick days, Stonehenge, roller skates, champagne and glow-in-the-dark stars.

The Tyler Sisters is a funny, heartening exploration of time, and the unassuming moments that make up our lives. It premiered at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, London, in December 2019.

Since her ordeal five years ago, nineteen-year-old Nene rarely leaves home. Secure within her mum's embrace, Nene now keeps the outside world securely on the other side of her bedroom window.

But weekly visits from her best friend start to fill the void and on one unexpected day, when Nene is finally beyond the walls of her sanctuary, a long-forgotten spark is powerfully reignited in her, one which will change her direction forever…

Where there's turmoil, trauma and hardship, there's also love, bravery and hope, making it possible to go with the flow… and live.

Unknown Rivers premiered at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, London, in October 2019.

In Amaryllis, a preteen goes missing on her birthday. Amaryllis heads out with her sister Fey’s ashes, determined to scatter the remains and set Fey free. But when she discovers that Fey is stuck between life and death, she realizes she has to join Fey on a trek to the Land of the Dead.

In The Little Witch, a sickly mother and daughter live in the deep, dark woods. One day, Big Witch finds an ogre caught in a trap. They make a deal: in return for saving him, the ogre agrees to take care of Little Witch once Big Witch has passed. Soon, the little girl finds herself in the ogre’s home, frightened and alone except for her pet cat. But when a Hunter Boy gets caught by the ogre, Little Witch must make a choice: save herself, save the boy, or choose another path...

On the outskirts of Ennis, on a dark and stormy night, three men gather for the anniversary of a childhood friend, killed in a road accident when they were seventeen. Expecting a crowd and tearing into the cans, the three slowly realise they're the only ones coming. As they drink to their uncertain futures – and their receding youth – they're forced to face up to the ghost that has held them together.

Flights is a haunting and funny play about bereavement, brotherhood and breaking away from your past. It premiered in 2020 at glór in Ennis before transferring to Dublin and London, directed by Thomas Martin.

Sink is a play of two voices for one actor, about memory, catastrophe and sacrifice. Bríd's coming home to convalesce after drying out in rehab. Ciara's headed west too, investigating a potential archaeological site on a parched area of bogland. But as the countryside swelters in a heatwave, the pair find peace elusive. How will Bríd cope in her old haunts? How will Ciara confront a past she thought forgotten? And will they unearth the hidden truth that binds them together?

Sink premiered at the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2019, directed by Thomas Martin.

After the death of her sister is left unresolved, Esther is broken and alone. Searching for closure, she looks to Keith for answers.

As she becomes increasingly drawn in to his disturbing world, her other relationships come under strain, not least a burgeoning romance with Chris.

Can Esther find peace after trauma? Or will the trauma spread and catch the rest of her life in its grip?

Spiderfly premiered at Theatre503, London, in November 2019, produced by Metal Rabbit Productions.

While on holiday, Peter and Debbie befriend Elsa: a lusty, Trump-loving widow from Denver, USA. She's less than woke but kind of wonderful. They agree to stay in touch – because no one ever really does, do they?

When Elsa invites herself to stay a few months later, they decide to look her up online. Too late, they learn the truth about Elsa Jean Krakowski. Deadly danger has just boarded a flight to London! But how do you protect all that you love from mortal peril without seeming, well, a bit impolite? Because guess who's coming... to murder!

Steven Moffat's play The Unfriend takes a hilarious and satirical look at middle-class England's disastrous instinct always to appear nice. It was first performed at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in May 2022, with a cast including Amanda Abbington, Frances Barber and Reece Shearsmith, before transferring to the Criterion Theatre in London's West End in January 2023.

Steven Moffat is an award-winning writer whose internationally successful television shows include Doctor Who, Sherlock and Dracula – the latter two co-written with actor and writer Mark Gatiss, who made his stage directorial debut with The Unfriend.

What happens when a passion is turned into a means to survive?

Sisters Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë have always enjoyed writing and storytelling, but so far, it’s been for their own personal enjoyment. Now that their father is sick and their brother is an alcoholic, they have to be the ones to support the family. They’d rather focus on their careers than settle down with suitors anyway, so writing is what could save them.
But is it also what could tear them apart? Jealousy, rivalry, and the strong need for self-expression threaten not only their livelihood and relationships but also their confidence in creativity and what could be their legacy.

When physics student Edie seems to prove, scientifically, the existence of God, it has far-reaching effects. Not least for her lecturer, Henry Brook, his marriage to celebrity atheist author Virginia – and his entire universe.

God's Dice is an electric tragicomedy about the power of belief and our quest for truth in a fractured world. It premiered at Soho Theatre, London, in October 2019, starring Alan Davies as Henry, and directed by James Grieve.

The Jungle Book tells the story of Mowgli, the man-cub who is raised by wolves. With a little help from his animal friends – including Bagheera the panther, Baloo the bear, and Kaa the python – he must face the cruel and powerful tiger, Shere Khan, and learn the Law of the Jungle.

This musical adaptation is packed with memorable characters, catchy songs and brilliant storytelling, offering rich opportunities for all school, college, youth-theatre and amateur groups looking for a "fresh, ambitious and inventive" (The Times) version of a much-loved classic.

It was widely seen on tour of the UK, produced by the Children's Theatre Partnership, Fiery Angel, and Royal & Derngate, Northampton, in 2018.

It's 8 a.m. and a revolt is underway.

The father is dying. The son is spying. The wife is cheating. The uncle is stealing. The mother is scheming. The dynasty is crumbling.

One house. One fortune. One victor.

Maxim Gorky's savagely funny play Vassa Zheleznova was first published in 1910. Mike Bartlett's adaptation, Vassa, premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in October 2019.

Something's not right. Children are being raised by animals. A mother is slowly sinking in the bath. The trees are left doing the paperwork. The air is filled with screams of children howling for help. And some twins want to tell you a story about how everything got so fucked up.

A spiralling odyssey of dizzying theatricality, Wolfie is a bold, fantastical fairytale following two twins separated at birth and asks who is truly responsible for society's most vulnerable children.

It was premiered at Theatre503, London, in March 2019, directed by Theatre503 Artistic Director Lisa Spirling.

As the prime suspect in a workplace accident, Floyd has to get out of town fast. Pursued by the RCMP, he heads through the Rockies for Burnaby, BC, along the route of the Trans Mountain Pipeline. By the time he reaches the Pacific, Floyd has experienced changes: his gait widening, muscles bulging, sense of smell heightening...

Idi Amin is the self-declared President of Uganda. When Scottish medic Nicholas Garrigan becomes his personal physician, he is catapulted into Amin's inner circle. A useful asset for the British Secret Service, is Garrigan the man on the inside, or does he have blood on his hands too?

This stage adaptation by Steve Waters premiered at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, in September 2019, directed by Gbolahan Obisesan.

Jack is proud of his work at the Clyde shipyards. His wife, Beanie, who is nursing him through asbestosis, thinks he's a fool. But the real test of their marriage comes when they discover that the dusty overalls Jack brought home for Beanie to wash have poisoned her too.

Meanwhile their daughter, Lucy, is struggling; will she be held back by her parents' experience, or will she have the courage to allow romance to blossom with Pete?

A story told by four resilient, witty Glaswegian characters, the play asks can we ever cut the cords that bind us – and who will catch us if we do?

The play toured Scotland in 2019, in a co-production between Stellar Quines Theatre Company and the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow.

Sarah gets spat at in the street. Frankie doesn't go to her lectures. In the aftermath of the accident that brought them together, neither expects to find solace in the other's company.

Between hate mail and novelty teddy bears, the two women become something like friends. They want to punish themselves. They might save each other.

It was shortlisted for the Tony Craze Award in 2017, and premiered at Soho Theatre, London, in February 2019.

Ashley is sixteen. She's lived in Medway for fifteen years and six months. She has 2,354 leaflets on sexual health. She knows exactly how many she has, because she's counted them 1,582 times…

At 7.48 p.m. tonight, she will have been going out with Ollie for exactly three months, which he thinks means it's time to take their relationship to the next level; especially given her position as their school's resident expert on sexual health. But what if counting leaflets can't protect Ashley from getting hurt when she decides to take her biggest risk yet?

Germ Free Adolescent received its first full production at The Bunker, London, in October 2019, having previously toured Kent where the play was researched and developed with young people, youth workers and mental-health services.

“Fabulous and bedraggled: a defiant and beautiful mess… Welcome to the world of Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, where carnage and camp coexist.” —Jesse Green, New York Times

In Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, Taylor Mac’s singular worldview intersects with William Shakespeare’s first tragedy, Titus Andronicus. Set during the fall of the Roman Empire, Mac’s extraordinary play picks up where Shakespeare’s blood-soaked tale left off: the coup has ended, the country has been stolen by madmen, and there are casualties everywhere. Two lowly servants, Gary and Janice, are charged with cleaning up the bodies. It’s the year 400—but it feels like the end of the world.

Sam Steiner's A Table Tennis Play is a play about how everything and nothing changes as people bat a ball. It premiered at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in a production by Walrus in association with Theatre Royal Plymouth.

Nate's coming to the end of his career, Yaz hasn't the means to get herself one, and Josh's injury could finish his before it's even started. Today's been a bad day – and bad days need great nights out. But when things get out of control, someone might get hurt.

A fast and wild ride into the darker side of our celebrity-obsessed culture, with three people who share a single goal: to lose themselves in the night. Written as intertwining monologues, Katherine Chandler's play Lose Yourself premiered at Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, in May 2019.

“The closest thing that the American theater currently has to a David Foster Wallace, Rapp can give you the head rush of sophisticated literary allusion and unreliable narrative trickery à la Dostoevsky, and yet talk of Plano, Illinois, and let you know that he knows exactly how it feels…A gripping stunner of a play.” —Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

When Bella Baird, an isolated creative writing professor at Yale, begins to mentor a brilliant but enigmatic student, Christopher, the two form an unexpectedly intense bond. As their lives and the stories they tell about themselves become intertwined in unpredictable ways, Bella makes a surprising request of Christopher. Brimming with suspense, Rapp’s riveting play explores the limits of what one person can ask of another.

Ella is from Yorkshire. Haseeb is from London. They order a pizza. House red for Ella. Hot chocolate for Haseeb.

People and playlists. Christmas and Eid. Travelcards and Megabuses. London to Leeds.

Love is more than just a game for two. Especially when there's an elephant in the room.

I Wanna Be Yours premiered on tour of the UK in 2019, in a co-production between Paines Plough and Tamasha, including a run at the Bush Theatre, London.

Ellen McLaughlin returns with a new collection of adaptations and modern reimaginings of classic Greek tragedies. Drawing on works by Sophocles, Homer, Aeschylus and more, these plays breathe fresh life into timeless questions and conflicts that still feel startlingly relevant today: Can civilization survive humanity’s basest instincts? What do we do about the human compulsion toward violence? Are we irreversibly transformed by the trauma of war and political strife, or is there a chance we can recover a part of our former selves? This collection includes the plays Ajax in Iraq (from Sophocles), Kissing the Floor (Sophocles), Penelope (Homer), Mercury’s Footpath (Euripides), and The Oresteia (based on Aeschylus’ trilogy Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides).

Kefalonia, 1941. Captain Corelli, an enigmatic young Italian officer, is posted to the idyllic Greek island as part of the Axis occupying forces. Shunned by the locals at first, he proves to be civilised, humorous – and a consummate musician.

The captain is soon thrown together with Dr Iannis's strong-willed and beautiful daughter, Pelagia, who discovers all of the complexities of love, and how it can blossom in the most unexpected and profound way.

Jane and Toni are immaculate, iconic, accommodating flight attendants. They're here for your safety, your comfort and your pleasure. Or so you think. But 30,000 feet below them their seemingly perfect lives are rapidly unravelling.

In the sky, over the sea and in cheap hotel rooms around the world, they can feel the ground shake beneath them. Something is rising up, something which cannot be ignored. And it's calling out for them. If they're going to survive what's coming, something needs to change.

Enough premiered at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, as part of the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Set in and around a swimming pool, Chris Bush's play The Changing Room follows a group of teenagers full of excitement, impatience and uncertainty. They know change is coming, but not what it'll look like.

Written specifically for young people, The Changing Room was part of the 2018 National Theatre Connections Festival and was premiered by youth theatres across the UK. It offers opportunities for a large, flexible cast of any size or mix of genders, and incorporates chorus work and music. No swimming pool required.

This edition of The Changing Room includes the words and music to Chris Bush's original songs, arranged by Matt Winkworth.

Sebastian is "that kid" at high school. He's weird. He smells. He's obsessed with comics, and talks to himself. But after a catastrophic fallout with his only friend, Claryssa, he wakes up with a moth in a jar by his bed, and a calling to save the souls of all humanity. And so begins the Passion of Sebastian: a journey into a terrifying and starless night.

Declan Greene's play Moth was first produced by Arena Theatre and Malthouse Theatre at the CUB Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne, in May 2010. It was premiered in the UK at HighTide Festival and the Bush Theatre, London, in 2013.

Can a lesbian couple find Mr. Right?

Helen and Paige really want a baby. Maybe even two. They’ve decided they want to use a sperm donor, but because of Paige’s own upbringing as an adopted child they want the donor to at least be known to the child. This challenge makes the normally anonymous favour even harder and more intimate than they expected. And then there are the options for donors. Through the fast-paced “dating” of several candidates, all of whom come with their own warning labels, Helen and Paige’s relationship is strained to a point where they must remember why they set out on this journey together in the first place.

Andy Nyman's first book,The Golden Rules of Acting, has become a bestseller in the acting world. Now he returns to bring you more priceless nuggets gleaned from more than thirty years in the acting business.

This book will help you to...

• Learn to love auditions and self-tapes (yes, really!)
• Look after your mental health
• Deal with success and failure
• Burst a few bubbles that need bursting

Written with the same candid wit as his first book, this is every actor's new best friend – in handy paperback form. 

This encouraging, no-nonsense guide walks you through the whole process of applying for drama school – including doing your initial research, selecting the right school for you, choosing and preparing your audition pieces, nailing the audition and dealing with recalls.

Perfect for any aspiring actor, as well as anyone advising or coaching them, it will answer your questions, bust commonly held myths and give you all the knowledge you need to boost your chances of getting into drama school.

The Compact Guides are pocket-sized introductions for actors, 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.

Winner, Calgary Theatre Critics Award for Best New Script 2013

Winner, Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama 2014

Winner, Grand Prize in Alberta Playwriting Competition 2011

Theo has been named Time Magazine’s Luckiest Man Alive. For twenty consecutive years he has successfully bet double or nothing on the Super Bowl coin toss. And he’s getting ready to risk millions on the twenty-first when he is confronted by Cynthia, a young woman who claims to have figured out his mathematical secret.  

Stem-cell researcher and professor Dr. Guzman is on the verge of a groundbreaking discovery. She’s also learned that one of her students has defied probability to get all 150 multiple-choice questions wrong on his genetics exam, but it’s not until he shows up to her office in the middle of the night that she’s able to determine if it’s simply bad luck.  

The two narratives intertwine like a fragment of DNA to examine the interplay between logic and metaphysics, science and faith, luck and probability. Belief systems clash, ideas mutate, and order springs from chaos.

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.

"The book all actors need—a vital manual to help you stay balanced in an increasingly demanding industry." —Miranda Hart

The Jobbing Actor is an innovative six-week coaching programme designed by accredited coaches to help you achieve your acting ambitions. It's not just another 'how to' guide telling you what you already know; it's a professional self-development programme that's high on impact and low on bullshit.

Week by week, it will guide you through a structured series of industry-focused and holistic exercises and challenges. Full of uplifting advice and practical hints and tips, it covers every aspect of building and sustaining a career – from auditions and self-taping, through dealing with rejection and other trip-ups, to networking, branding and diversifying. Also included are daily journal pages in which you'll set your targets and goals, and track your progress.

Inspiring, empowering—and fun!—The Jobbing Actor is your own personal coach in handy paperback form. It'll empower you to take stock of where you are personally and professionally, instigate long-term, positive change, and reclaim ownership of your career.

Anita Gilbert and Letty Butler (aka Bert & Butler) have between them over forty years' experience in the business. Anita has worked as a professional actor, as well as a theatrical agent, and is now a full-time voice and accent coach. Letty is a jobbing actor and comedienne, with extensive credits for stage and screen. She's also an award-winning writer and professional life coach.

Kurt, a silver fox dance instructor, and his young fiancé, Travis, have an arrangement: when one’s away, they’re allowed to stray... as long as they’re safe. One night, over a dinner conversation about wedding invitations, Travis admits that he had a fling with a man named Gideon who he believes removed his condom during sex. He also reveals that he didn’t start taking the HIV preventative medication PrEP (TRUvada)—as promised—putting himself and Kurt in danger of contracting HIV. When Gideon appears on their doorstep in the middle of the night, the threat to Kurt and Travis’s relationship is an alarming force to be reckoned with.

A funny, furious monologue about navigating a world that cares so much about you keeping it together, it doesn't notice you falling apart.

Margaret Perry's play Collapsible was first performed at VAULT Festival, London, in February 2019, winning a VAULT Origins Award for outstanding new work.

This new edition is published alongside the 2019 production at Assembly, Edinburgh.

This clear, concise and practical guide provides actors with a structured and effective method for breaking down and understanding a performance script. It offers a flexible approach that works with plays from any period or genre, with television and film scripts, and even when preparing for your audition.

Inside, you'll find the tools you need for every step of the process, from making sense of the whole script, to breaking it down scene by scene, through to detailed line-by-line analysis. There are strategies for exploring character arcs, objectives, beat shifts and subtext, as well as practical exercises and sample scenes from leading playwrights to help you put the concepts into action. Also included are worksheets you can use and reuse on all your future projects.

Wherever you are in your acting career, this book is your essential working companion – giving you a method for tackling any script, and providing the foundation to take your performances to the next level.

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.

“Guirgis, a lifelong New Yorker and a properly profane bard of the city, is a wizard at getting language to flow hot, funny, and fast…Guirgis’s rough-cut gem of a play is rich with revelation and barbed empathy.” —Alexandra Schwartz, New Yorker

Stephen Adly Guirgis brings his prodigious gifts for exploring the lives of social outcasts to new heights in this play about the inner workings of a women’s halfway house in New York City, where the unmoored residents struggle with addiction, abuse, and mental illness. Between daily therapy sessions, they clash with the staff and each other, form alliances, and fall in love. Harrowing, humorous, and heartbreaking, Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven roaringly brings to life the experiences of women who society has tried to shuffle out of sight and out of mind.

Can a weekend trip to visit family ever be smooth? 

Nick was hoping for a quick dinner at his brother’s house when he stopped by with his seventeen-year-old adopted son, Gerome, on their way to meet Gerome’s birth mother. Gerome was recently diagnosed with schizophrenia, and he wants to know more about his family history. Unsure of how to act, Nick’s brother, sister-in-law, and nephew cause a flurry of disorienting energy, but also convince Gerome to stay the night, even after they find him on the roof ready to demonstrate backflips. The dinner pit stop becomes a tense weekend-long event full of claims and questions as the family attempts to “un-crazy” Gerome, leading him to a dangerous breaking point.  

Hortense yearns for a new life away from rural Jamaica, Gilbert dreams of becoming a lawyer, and Queenie longs to escape her Lincolnshire roots. In these three intimately connected stories, hope and humanity meet stubborn reality, tracing the tangled history of Jamaica and Britain.

Andrea Levy's epic novel Small Island, adapted for the stage by Helen Edmundson, journeys from Jamaica to Britain in 1948 – the year the HMT Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury. It premiered at the National Theatre, London, in April 2019, directed by Rufus Norris.

Adapted into the Hit TV Series, Winner of Six 2019 Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

Celebrate the incredible journey of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's outrageously funny, blazingly forthright Fleabag, from fringe theatre hit to international cultural phenomenon, in this special edition—featuring the original playscript, never-before-seen color photos, and exclusive bonus content by Phoebe, director Vicky Jones, and key members of the creative team.

In 2013, Fleabag made its debut as a one-woman show in the sixty-seater venue the Big Belly, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe's Underbelly. It was an immediate hit, going on to enjoy two runs at London's Soho Theatre, national and international tours, while picking up prizes including Critics' Circle, The Stage, Fringe First and two Off West End Theatre Awards, plus an Olivier Award nomination.

The 2016 TV adaptation propelled Fleabag and Phoebe to worldwide fame, earning critical acclaim and further accolades including Writers' Guild, Royal Television Society and BAFTA Television Awards. A second season followed in 2019, winning an amazing six Emmy Awards, along with a sold-out run of the original play in New York.

This special edition of the play is released alongside Fleabag's first West End run at Wyndham's Theatre, London. It is introduced by Deborah Frances-White, stand-up comedian, writer and host of The Guilty Feminist podcast.

By weaving her personal experiences in Canada around a reflection on the Tunisian emcee Weld-El 15’s unjust imprisonment for insulting cops and a politician in a song, St. Bernard creates a space to reflect on how we are part of the systems that oppress us, and on how to be a part of a solution.

With a few drinks and some “Ayes!” three fishermen on a small island off the coast of Nova Scotia declare independence from Canada: henceforth, they shall be known as the Princes of the Principality of Outer Baldonia!

It’s 1948 when Russ, Elson, and Ron discover that the Canadian government plans to open their Atlantic commercial fishing rights to the Spanish, posing an overcrowding threat to business and wildlife. Russ, a vacationing American lawyer, has just purchased Outer Bald Tusket Island for $750. With a newly erected stone lodge, plenty of fish, two new friends, and just enough frustration about rules and regulations, Russ can do what he pleases, including requesting official recognition from the United Nations for his fledgling state and declaring war on the USSR.

For years, Zaya has delicately balanced his relationship with his Muslim faith and queer identity by keeping his genderqueer lover and manipulative mother apart. But when his mother ends up in the hospital on the same day his partner is leaving for pilgrimage, Zaya’s worlds come crashing in on each other, opening a space for traumatic memories to resurface.

In this collection of essays, legendary theatre director Peter Brook reflects on the role of music in theatre and performance and revisits some of the best-known productions from his long and distinguished career, including Titus Andronicus, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, and The Prisoner. In his prologue, Brook writes, “As Orpheus discovered, every animal can respond to sounds. For us, the living question is ‘Which sounds? What music?’ In this book we will try to explore together the infinite range of experiences that can sometimes touch us deeply, sometimes leave us cold.” With topics ranging from how to evoke “true listening” to the relationship between words and music to the “living presence” of silence, Brook’s ever-inquisitive and questing mind invites the reader to pay greater attention to the rhythms and melodies present on stage and in life.

Cambodian Rock Band is an epic play/rock concert that thrusts us into the life of a young woman trying to piece together her family history thirty years after her father fled Cambodia. Featuring actor/musicians who perform a mix of contemporary Dengue Fever hits and classic Cambodian oldies live, Lauren Yee brings to vivid life the Cambodian rock scene of the ’60s and ’70s, a movement cut short by the Khmer Rouge’s brutal attempt to erase the music (and musicians) once and for all. A story about survivors, the resilient bond of family, and the enduring power of music.

Lowell Garrish has lost everything—his parents, his grandma, the music the waves make on the shore in Nova Scotia. Desperate to hold on to real sound, Lowell sets off on a road trip across Canada with a tape recorder, capturing something from every person he meets and his observations along the way. But as he drives, strange occurrences and mass disappearances imply that something terrible is happening, and Lowell begins to realize that time for humanity may be running out.

“The single most daring thing I’ve seen in a theater in a long time.” — Wesley Morris, New York Times

The Old South lives on at the MacGregor Plantation—in the breeze, in the cotton fields…and in the crack of the whip. Nothing is as it seems, and yet everything is as it seems. Slave Play rips apart history to shed new light on the nexus of race, gender, and sexuality in twenty-first-century America.

Jiv is “Canadian.” And “Indian.” And “Hindu.” And “West Indian.” “Trinidadian,” too. Or maybe he’s just colonized. He’s not the “white boy” he was teased as within his immigrant household. Especially since his Nova Scotian neighbours seemed to think he was Black. Except for the Black people—they were pretty sure he wasn’t. He’s not an Arab, and allegedly not a Muslim—at least that’s what he started claiming after 9/11. Whatever he is, the public education system was able to offer him the chance to learn about his culture from a coffee-table book on “Eastern Mythology.” And then he had a religious epiphany while delivering a calf in Trinidad. By now, Jiv’s collected a lot of observations about trying to find your place in your world.

This story asks the gut-punching questions: What divides us? Who is served by the constructs of cultural identity? And what are we willing to accept in the desire to belong? Then again—it doesn’t really matter, because we are all Jiv.

Great-grandmother fled the Japanese during World War II by escaping China into Hong Kong, a traumatic effect that’s rippled down the family line. Grandmother married into the family after a childhood of poverty that will always stay with her. Mother decided to leave Hong Kong for Canada with her two sons, pursuing more opportunities, though
dissatisfied with her son’s desire to focus on the piano rather than math. Though pain is a constant, there are plenty of wisecracks, games of Mahjong, and familiar family anecdotes swirling through Ho’s genealogical journey of survival.

In a room in a house in a provincial town, three sisters wait for their lives to begin. Olga, the eldest. Masha, the middle child. Irina, the youngest.

The clock strikes. A candle is lit. The clock stops. Something catches fire. The clock strikes. They wake up.

Cordelia Lynn's version of Chekhov's Three Sisters, from a literal translation by Helen Rappaport, was first performed at the Almeida Theatre, London, in April 2019, in a production directed by Rebecca Frecknall.

When Gilles and Esther decided to move from Montréal to Vancouver, they didn't expect their lives to change so starkly. All they wanted was to start a new life for themselves, to find new artistic opportunities. But their new home proves to be a challenging culture shock as the young couple struggles to connect to others, navigate their language barrier, and cope with non-stop rain. These blocks become walls, cutting Gilles and Esther off from the world, and with cabin fever comes erratic behaviour. They find themselves being torn apart, divided by their yearning to go back to their old life and the desire to stay. But how long can two people be everything for each other before they lose themselves completely?

Winner of the Best Play Award at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards.

Shane, sixteen and scared shitless, has fled small-town Australia for downtown Sydney. Adrift among the lonely hearts and heady thrills of Darlinghurst Road, Shane attempts to navigate the troubled waters of his past toward a brighter future.

Tommy Murphy's Strangers in Between received its UK premiere at the King’s Head Theatre, London, in 2016, directed by Adam Spreadbury-Maher.

Robert Holman writes plays of startling beauty, combining close observation of the way people behave with a thrilling and often fiercely uncompromising mastery of dramatic form. He is the playwright most admired by other playwrights. To Simon Stephens, he is "My favourite living writer."

Here, in this selection from Holman's first decade of playwriting, a monkey is taken for a French spy by an eighteenth-century fishing community; the inhabitants of a Greek island reside under the shadow of the atom bomb; and a group of lonely people converge on the North Yorkshire moors.

With a new introduction by Holman himself, this volume contains The Natural Cause (Cockpit Theatre, London, 1974), Mud (Royal Court Theatre, London, 1974), Other Worlds (Royal Court, 1983), Today (Royal Shakespeare Company, 1984) and The Overgrown Path (Royal Court, 1985).

As the outside world disintegrates, they teeter on the edge of their own personal catastrophes. Their hopes and fears become entangled as they try, desperately, to connect with the callers and with each other.

Upon the death of King Edward VI, the thirty-eight-year-old princess Mary—daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon—wrests the throne from Edward's deemed heir. But Mary's mother appears from the vaults of memory, and adamantly questions the motives of Mary's cousin Jane and her half-sister Bess, despite Mary's affection for them both. As the kingdom splits along Roman Catholic and Protestant lines, Mary walks a gauntlet of squabbling ethics and politics, and is forced to make some tough decisions. Should she execute her opponents before it's too late, the way her father did? Should she scramble to find a husband who can give her a rightful heir? And can she trust her mother, her sister, or even herself?

Miss Julie begins as a flirtatious game between the daughter of a wealthy landowner and her father's manservant, and gradually descends, over the course of a long and sultry Midsummer's Eve, into a savage fight for survival.

In Creditors, young artist Adolf is deeply in love with his new wife Tekla – but a chance meeting with a suave stranger shakes his devotion to the core. Passionate, dangerously funny, and enduringly perceptive, Strindberg considered this wickedly enjoyable black comedy his masterpiece.

Both plays premiered in co-productions between Jermyn Street Theatre, London, and Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, directed by Jermyn Street's Artistic Director Tom Littler.

She may not have a job or a flat, and, admittedly her boyfriend's not answering her calls; but she's got talent and a dream -- when she releases her first EP everything’s going to change.

About to be fired from her cleaning job for stealing a volume of Euripides, Jude turns her employer's outrage to shock by translating the ancient Greek on the spot. The employer, a Classics teacher, knows great talent when she sees it and the encounter kick-starts Jude's lifelong ambition to study at Oxford University.

Possessing an astonishing gift for languages, Jude will stop at nothing to achieve her dream – but she remains oblivious to the hidden barriers that her background has placed in her path…

The play premiered at Hampstead Theatre, London, in 2019, directed by Edward Hall.

Clara and Nyri. Two very different women. Two complicated lives. Both having a very bad day.

Mental health nurse Nyri's woken up hungover with a younger man. Meanwhile, Clara has developed a compulsive wink and can't remember if she's taken her meds. Nyri needs to get to Ebbw Vale Hospital via Greggs, and Clara is dodging signs telling her – rather rudely – to kill herself, so she can get cracking with her shoplifting list for The Devil.

For All I Care was first staged by National Theatre Wales in 2018, and is published alongside performances at Summerhall, Edinburgh, in August 2019.

Winner of the 1983 Chalmers Canadian Play Award, Jennie's Story is set in the late 1930s on the Canadian prairies. It concerns the Sexual Sterilization Act that was enacted in 1928, allowing a sterilization procedure to be performed without consent on individuals that were deemed to be unfit or mentally challenged. Jennie McGrane takes the title role, and her discovery of what the priest Father Fabrizeau has done to her is the central drama of the play. Believing she had an appendectomy when she was a teenager, the truth is revealed when she's unable to conceive. In Under the Skin, Emma, the twelve-year-old daughter of Maggie Benton, has disappeared. John and Renee Gifford, Maggie's neighbours and friends, attempt to console her, but their own ominous behaviour makes this a cold comfort.

Trapped in a house that keeps its secrets behind closed doors, a mother is confronted with the ghosts of her past when her son returns home after finding himself embroiled in a scandal.

When the Crows Visit is premiered at Kiln Theatre, London, in October 2019.

One sister stayed at home to care for Dad. The other set out to 'make a difference'. Reunited under their childhood roof, Pauline and Rachel unearth more than the ten years between them.

It's a huge gap. Almost insurmountable. And each is determined to let the other know exactly who has done things right.

Charley Miles's Daughterhood was first produced in 2019 by Paines Plough and Theatr Clwyd on a nationwide tour, including a run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in Paines Plough's pop-up theatre, Roundabout.

Originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4, the play received its stage premiere at Jermyn Street Theatre, London, in January 2019.

Late-night taxis, teen discos, home nurses, Jewish launderettes, vigilantes, babies, immigrants, seagulls. Citysong is a play, a poem and a chorus of voices showing three generations of a Dublin family on one day.

Intimate and sweeping, joyous and ridiculous, it's modern-day Dublin's Under Milk Wood via Metamorphoses (not the book about the cockroach). It's different things at different times, which makes sense seeing as it's about change.

Dylan Coburn Gray's play Citysong was winner of the 2017 Verity Bargate Award, and premiered at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in May 2019, before transferring to Soho Theatre, London.

This edition also contains the plays Boys and Girls, which won the Fishamble Best New Writing Award at the Dublin Fringe and was nominated for the Stewart Parker Trust Award, and Drawing Crosses on a Dusty Windowpane.

An epic romcom, Victoria's Knickers tells the story of an unlikely romance between the Queen of England and a boy from the wrong side of the tracks. Will the teenage lovers survive a power-crazed Lord Conroy, the Chartists and Prince Albert?

Nadia and Daniel have a secret. In fact they have quite a few. They've just signed on the dotted line for a studio flat. Under a pseudonym, naturally – Mr and Mrs White.

After years of school pick-ups, TV takeaways, and the day-to-day drudgery of married life, this is their chance to wipe the slate clean. But as much as they try and redefine the rules, and themselves, the outside world is closing in.

Rust premiered at the Bush Theatre, London, ahead of transferring to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and HighTide Festival in 2019, in a co-production between the Bush and HighTide.

As their husbands clash over an international crisis, the first ladies of France and America find themselves alone together in a side room.

Friends, or enemies? When the stakes are so high, can they trust each other? Can they trust their husbands?

Nancy Harris's play Two Ladies is premiered at Bridge Theatre, London, in September 2019.

In 1963 Bristol, as Black British Civil Rights campaigners walk onto the streets, Princess finds out what it really means to be black and beautiful.

William Thornhill arrives in New South Wales a convict from the slums of London. Upon earning his pardon he discovers that this new world offers something he didn't dare dream of: a place to call his own. But as he plants a crop and lays claim to the soil on the banks of the Hawkesbury River, he finds that this land is not his to take. Its ancient custodians are the Dharug people. 

The Secret River, adapted from Kate Grenville's acclaimed novel by playwright Andrew Bovell, was first performed in January 2013 at the Sydney Theatre, performed by Sydney Theatre Company.

It has its UK premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2019, before coming to the National Theatre, London.

The problem with love is that it's different for everyone. For Bex, love is a handjob in detention and the promise of a date at a Chinese buffet. She doesn't even like Chinese.

Developed by HighTide and Nottingham Playhouse, LIT is premiered at HighTide Festival, Aldeburgh, in September 2019.

1944. America. Celebrated actor, singer and political campaigner Paul Robeson – forever associated with 'Ol' Man River' – is touring the country as the eponymous hero in Shakespeare's Othello. His Desdemona is the brilliant young actress Uta Hagen. Her husband, the Broadway star José Ferrer, plays Iago.

All the actors are friends. But in mid-century American society, they are not all equals.

As the tour goes on, the boundaries between the onstage passions and their offstage lives begin to blur. Soon the chemistry between Robeson and Hagen and the rivalry between Robeson and Ferrer is every bit as dangerous as that between their famous characters. Revenge takes many forms and in post-war America it isn't always purely personal – it can be disturbingly political too.

Fast-forward to 2019. Mirjana from the care company is waiting to meet Sean's mother to help her stay in her own home. Mirjana is from Sarajevo, but has lived in the village since escaping the war there as a teenager. The village hall has been her solace and proves an unlikely link between them.

A travelling troupe of two actors and an opera singer arrive by donkey to masterfully, movingly and miraculously enact the greatest story ever told.

The absurdly talented Maurice Rose, the alarmingly unpredictable Ronald Bream RAC, and the distinguished diva Mrs Leonora Fflyte play a cast of thousands in a Christmas comedy that conjures up the sublime, the ridiculous and the truly angelic.

Patrick Barlow's The Messiah was first performed to universal acclaim by the National Theatre of Brent in 1983, and revived at the Bush Theatre, London, in 2000. This new version, with additional material by Julian Hough, Jude Kelly and John Ramm, was published alongside a major touring production in 2018, starring Hugh Dennis, John Marquez and Lesley Garrett, which was seen at venues around the country including Birmingham Repertory Theatre and The Other Palace, London.

As a playwright, director, and performer, Robbie McCauley has been an influential presence in the American avant-garde theatre for many decades. In her work, she consistently confronts uncomfortable truths about race and racism in America with a sharp eye for nuance and complexity, using the personal to extend into the universal by weaving her own family history into her narratives. By breaking down the traditional walls between performer and spectator, her plays encourage challenging and necessary dialogue about the ways race affects our social frameworks and individual lived experiences. In addition to containing the full text of McCauley’s plays Sally’s Rape, Indian Blood, Sugar, and Jazz ’n Class, this volume includes insightful introductions to each play as well as additional essays by McCauley and other leading writers and academics about her work and legacy.

When Dexter's mum is sent to jail for getting mixed up in a jewellery robbery, it's up to Dexter and his best friend Winter to get her out.

On their journey to uncover the truth and free Mum, their detective work leads them to some surprising discoveries.

Dexter and Winter's Detective Agency was first produced in 2019 by Paines Plough and Theatr Clwyd on a nationwide tour, including a run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in Paines Plough's pop-up theatre, Roundabout.

Mayakovsky and Stalin is a dramatic character study exploring two distantly connected relationships: that of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and his wife Nadya, and of Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and his married lover and “muse,” Lilya Brik.

Mike and Liz are selling.

James wants to buy.

He'll only deal with Clair.

THE GOOD AUDITION GUIDES:
Helping you select and perform the audition piece that is best suited to your performing skills

If you're auditioning for a musical – or needing to choose a song to perform for an exam, showcase or drama-school application – it's vital you find a song that shows off your voice and reveals your full potential as both a singer and an actor.

In this invaluable book, you'll find comprehensive introductions to fifty of the best songs from musical theatre, for soprano, mezzosoprano and alto voices, and in a variety of periods, styles, genres and tempos. Each song comes with detailed textual, vocal and musical analysis, and a practical performance guide to ensure you perform it to maximum effect in your own unique way.

Drawing on his experience as a performer, musical director and teacher at several leading drama schools, Paul Harvard gives his top tips for performing each song, note by note, moment by moment. He also recommends soundtrack recordings to inspire you, and tells you where to find the correct sheet music for your chosen song (please note: the book does not contain the sheet music itself).

The selection includes songs from acclaimed contemporary musicals such as In the Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Songs for a New World by Jason Robert Brown, as well as Next to Normal, Miss Saigon, The Color Purple, Sister Act and Ragtime – alongside much-loved classics like The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, My Fair Lady, Anything Goes, and five of Sondheim's masterpieces.

Also included is an extensive introduction to the process of choosing your song, preparing your performance and approaching the audition itself, along with many vocal and acting exercises to improve your technique and boost your confidence.

It's 1972. An era of possibility and polyester and pubic hair. While Ziggy Stardust is on Top of the Pops, Penny is writing an essay on Lady Chatterley's Lover, Christine is watching Deep Throat and Brian is confused.

Devised by The Wardrobe Ensemble, 1972: The Future of Sex incorporates the company's trademark theatricality, irreverent humour and ensemble ingenuity to tell the story of three couples having sex for the first time – and a country on the brink of a sexual awakening.

Commissioned by Shoreditch Town Hall, the play was first seen there in 2014, before a UK tour in 2015, including performances at Bristol Old Vic and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It was revived at the Bristol Old Vic in 2019.

The Sri Lankan civil war has left many scars on Thangan and his family, most noticeably the loss of his eldest son and the crippling epileptic seizures brought on by his torture. As the final days of the war play out, the family bears witness from their new home of Toronto. Thangan’s other son Kanan comes home from a protest, shaken that someone referred
to him by his brother’s name. His young daughter Kavitha innocently dances around with a mysterious pair of anklets that she found. And Thangan’s wife Sevi is consumed with feeling responsible for her broken family. Amidst the ongoing trauma, the family is faced with the possibility of Thangan undergoing neurological surgery. Will the surgery give them a
chance to heal, or will it cause even more pain?

Frances works on the books pages of a Sunday newspaper. She's quiet and capable, but nobody takes much notice: her face is pressed to the window, on the outside, looking in.

One evening, driving back to London after visiting her infuriating parents, she comes across an overturned car crumpled on the side of the road. She waits with the injured driver, Alys Kyte, until the ambulance arrives. Later, when Alys's famous family gets in touch, Frances finds herself ushered for the first time into the world on the other side of the window. And she begins to wonder: what will it take to belong?

This stage version of Alys, Always was premiered at the Bridge Theatre, London, in February 2019, directed by Nicholas Hytner and starring Joanne Froggatt and Robert Glenister.

In 1957 the world is tender and fearful of nuclear weapons post World War II. In an effort to understand and facilitate a neutral global discussion and find some peace, leading scientists and academics—world-renowned “Thinkers”—are invited to a conference in the small town of Pugwash, Nova Scotia, by philanthropist Cyrus Eaton.

Curious about the exciting events when their town is often only ravaged by fires, two local children, Conni and Jamie, take interest in hosting some of the Thinkers—particularly Alex from Russia and Ogawa from Japan. The Thinkers are humbled by the innocent welcome, despite being suspicious of each other, and embrace the children’s wonder by opening up about past traumas. But a spy disguised as a reporter has conned Jamie for information to use against Russia, putting the entire conference—and the town of Pugwash—at risk.

This published edition also includes dozens of full-color, never-before-seen doodles by Jessie. She's very happy to (over)share it with you.

Sunrise was performed as a critically acclaimed live show at Soho Theatre, London, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and on tour around the UK, and was produced by Soho Theatre.