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By: Mary Hunter Austin (1868-1934) | |
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The Arrow-Maker A Drama in Three Acts |
By: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) | |
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Proserpine and Midas |
By: Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814) | |
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The Group A Farce | |
By: Michael Strange | |
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Clair de Lune A Play in Two Acts and Six Scenes |
By: Molière | |
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Tartuffe
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature. Among Molière's best-known works is Tartuffe or The Hypocrite, written in 1664. Though Tartuffe was received well by the public and even by Louis XIV, its popularity was lessened when the Archbishop of Paris issued an edict threatening excommunication for anyone who watched, performed in, or read the play.Tartuffe, a pious fraud who pretends to speak with divine authority, has insinuated himself into the household of Orgon... |
By: Moliere (1622-1673) | |
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The Imaginary Invalid
The Imaginary Invalid is a three-act comédie-ballet by the French playwright Molière. It was first performed in 1673 and was the last work he wrote. The plot centers around Argan, the 'imaginary invalid' who is completely dependent on his doctors and wants to marry his daughter to a doctor against her will, so that he will always have medical care freely available to him. In an ironic twist of fate, Molière collapsed during his fourth performance as Argan on 17 February and died soon after. |
By: Montrose Jonas Moses (1878-1934) | |
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Representative Plays by American Dramatists 1765-1819 |
By: Nicholas Rowe (1674-1718) | |
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Jane Shore: A Tragedy
Covering some of the plot of Shakespeare's Richard III, Jane Shore focuses on the mistress of the late Edward IV, also known as "The White Queen". In this short tragedy, Jane tries to thwart Richard's rise to power while experiencing love, betrayal, forgiveness, and an unexpected visitor who arrives in disguise. Cast ListLord Hastings: Tchaikovsky Duke of Gloster: ToddHW Belmour: Adrian Stephens Sir Richard Ratcliffe: Wayne Cooke Sir William Catesby: Alan Mapstone Dumont: Tomas Peter Jane Shore: Michele Eaton Alicia: WendyKatzHiller Jane's Servant: Larry Wilson Alicia's Servant: B. Jones Stage Directions: Adrienne Prevost |
By: Olive Tilford Dargan (1869-1968) | |
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Semiramis and Other Plays |
By: Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774) | |
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She Stoops to Conquer
In She Stoops to Conquer, or The Mistakes of a Night, a young lady pretends to be a servant in order to win the notice of a young man who is painfully shy around women of his own class. Hilarious misadventures and mayhem ensue before matters are neatly wrapped up at the end. This play, one of the great English comedies, was first performed in 1773 and continues to be very popular with audiences today. |
By: Oliver Optic (1822-1897) | |
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The Birthday Party, A Story For Little Folks
Flora Lee’s birthday came in July. Her mother wished very much to celebrate the occasion in a proper manner. Flora was a good girl, and her parents were always glad to do any thing they could to please her, and to increase her happiness. |
By: Orrie Lashin | |
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Class of '29 |
By: Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) | |
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An Ideal Husband
This story opens at a fashionable dinner party in Sir Robert Chiltern's home in the heart of London's stylish Grosvenor Square. One of Lady Chiltern's old school-friends, Mrs. Cheveley, a woman with a dubious past, accosts Sir Robert and threatens to expose a financial crime that he had once participated in, unless he agrees to finance a fraudulent construction project that she's promoting. Lady Chiltern is astounded when her husband who had been the severest critic of this project suddenly begins to speak in its favor... | |
Lady Windermere's Fan
Lady Windermere’s Fan: A Play About a Good Woman is a four act comedy by Oscar Wilde, published in 1893. As in some of his other comedies, Wilde satirizes the morals of Victorian society, and attitudes between the sexes. The action centres around a fan given to Lady Windermere as a present by her husband, and the ball held that evening to celebrate her 21st birthday. | |
A Florentine Tragedy and La Sainte Courtisane
Two short fragments: an unfinished and a lost play. A Florentine Tragedy, left in a taxi (not a handbag), is Wilde’s most successful attempt at tragedy – intense and domestic, with surprising depth of characterisation. It was adapted into an opera by the Austrian composer Alexander Zemlinsky in 1917. La Sainte Courtisane, or The Woman Covered in Jewels explores one of Wilde’s great idées fixes: the paradox of religious hedonism, pagan piety. Both plays, Wildean to their core, revel in the profound sadness that is the fruit of the conflict between fidelity and forbidden love... | |
A Woman of No Importance
A Woman of No Importance is a play by Irish playwright Oscar Wilde. The play premièred on 19 April 1893 at London's Haymarket Theatre. It is a testimony of Wilde's wit and his brand of dark comedy. It looks in particular at English upper class society and has been reproduced on stages in Europe and North America since his death in 1900. | |
The Duchess of Padua
Guido Ferranti, a young man, travels to Padua with his friend Ascanio after receiving a mysterious letter from a stranger, claiming to know the true secret of Guido's birth. His plan of revenge goes awry, however, when he falls in love with his enemy's beautiful wife, the Duchess of Padua. | |
Intentions | |
Vera; or the Nihilists
Vera; or, The Nihilists is a play by Oscar Wilde. It is a melodramatic tragedy set in Russia and is loosely based on the story of Vera Zasulich. It was the first play that Wilde wrote. It was produced in the United Kingdom in 1880, and in New York in 1882, but it was not a success and folded in both cities. It is nowadays rarely revived. | |
For Love of the King a Burmese Masque |
By: Paul Carus (1852-1919) | |
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The Buddha A Drama in Five Acts and Four Interludes |
By: Percival Wilde (1887-1953) | |
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The Noble Lord A Comedy in One Act | |
The Reckoning A Play in One Act |
By: Philippe de Mornay (1549-1623) | |
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A Discourse of Life and Death |
By: Pierre Corneille (1606-1684) | |
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Polyeucte |
By: R. N. Dutta | |
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Tales from the Hindu Dramatists |
By: Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) | |
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The Post Office | |
Chitra, a play in one act | |
The King of the Dark Chamber | |
The Cycle of Spring |
By: Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) | |
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The Rivals
The play is set in Bath in the 18th century, a town legendary for conspicuous consumption and fashion at the time. Wealthy, fashionable people went there to "take the waters", which were believed to have healing properties. The plot centres on the two young lovers, Lydia and Jack. Lydia, who reads a lot of popular novels of the time, wants a purely romantic love affair. To court her, Jack pretends to be "Ensign Beverley", a poor officer. Lydia is enthralled with the idea of eloping with a poor soldier in spite of her guardian, Mrs... | |
School For Scandal
Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comedy was first performed in 1777 and focuses on the intrigues and scandals of the British upper classes. Lady Sneerwell wants to marry Charles Surface, while Joseph Surface wants to marry Maria, an heiress and ward of Sir Peter Teazle. Maria, however, prefers Charles over Joseph. In order to detach her from Charles, Lady Sneerwell and Joseph spread rumors about an affair between Charles and Lady Teazle, Sir Peter's new young wife. Meanwhile, Sir Oliver Surface, newly returned from the East Indies, assumes various disguises to test his nephews' characters. Misunderstandings, mistaken identities, gossip, and bad behavior abound in this uproarious comedy. |
By: Richard Harding Davis (1864-1916) | |
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Miss Civilization
Miss Civilization, a one act comedy, tells the story of a young woman who matches wits with three burglars attempting to rob her house. |
By: Richard Steele (1672-1729) | |
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Funeral: or Grief A-La-Mode
The Funeral: or, Grief à-la-Mode, a Comedy, was written in the summer of 1701, and given to Christopher Rich, of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in October. Soon afterwards it was acted, and it was published by Jacob Tonson between December 18 and 20, with the date 1702 on the title-page. The music to the songs, by William Croft, appeared between December 16 and 18. [] The play was revived occasionally in most of the years between 1703 and 1734, and from time to time during the following half-century, the last date, apparently, being April 17, 1799... |
By: Robert Browning (1812-1889) | |
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A Blot in the 'Scutcheon |
By: Robert Rogers (1731-1795) | |
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Ponteach The Savages of America |
By: Rutherford Mayne (1878-1967) | |
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The Turn of the Road A Play in Two Scenes and an Epilogue | |
The Drone A Play in Three Acts |
By: Samuel Low (1765-) | |
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The Politician Out-Witted |
By: Sara Ware Bassett (1872-1968) | |
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Mrs. Christy's Bridge Party |
By: Shepherd Knapp | |
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The Christmas Dinner | |
Down the Chimney | |
Up the Chimney |
By: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) | |
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The Hound of the Baskervilles (dramatic reading)
The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of four crime novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound. |
By: Sophie May (1833-1906) | |
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Prudy Keeping House |
By: Sophocles (495-406 BC) | |
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Antigone
This is the final installment in Sophocles's Theban Plays, following Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus. Oedipus's daughter Antigone deliberately breaks the laws of Thebes when she buries her brother's body and is sentenced to death. She clashes with Creon, the King of Thebes, over what constitutes justice and morality: the laws of the state or the laws of the individual. | |
Electra
Sophocles' play dramatizes the aftermath of Agamemnon's murder by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. His daughter Electra is hungry for revenge and longs for the return of her brother Orestes to help her achieve her ends. |
By: Stephen Phillips (1864-1915) | |
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Nero |
By: Sudraka | |
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The Little Clay Cart Mrcchakatika |
By: Susan Glaspell (1876-1948) | |
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Trifles
On the surface, this short play is a slice-of-life story about a murder investigation in the rural United States. However, it is also a story about the relationships between men and women, husbands and wives, and the often-overlooked "trifles" which can say so much about a person's life. |
By: Thomas Baker (fl. 1700-1709) | |
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The Fine Lady's Airs (1709) |
By: Thomas Dekker (1572?-1632) | |
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The Noble Spanish Soldier |
By: Thomas Dixon (1864-1946) | |
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A Man of the People A Drama of Abraham Lincoln |
By: Thomas Godfrey (1736-1763) | |
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The Prince of Parthia A Tragedy |
By: Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) | |
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The Dynasts |
By: Thomas Kyd (1558-1594) | |
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The Spanish Tragedie |
By: Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866) | |
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Headlong Hall
Headlong Hall is the first novel by Thomas Love Peacock, published in 1815 (dated 1816). As in his later novel Crotchet Castle, Peacock assembles a group of eccentrics, each with a single monomaniacal obsession, and derives humor and social satire from their various interactions and conversations. The setting is the country estate of Squire Harry Headlong Ap-Rhaiader, Esq. in Wales. |
By: Thomas Morton (1764-1838) | |
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Speed the Plough A Comedy, In Five Acts; As Performed At The Theatre Royal, Covent Garden |
By: Thomas Otway (1652-1685) | |
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Venice Preserved A Tragedy in Five Acts |
By: Unknown | |
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Everyman
The Somonyng of Everyman (The Summoning of Everyman), usually referred to simply as Everyman, is a late 15th-century English morality play. Like John Bunyan's novel Pilgrim's Progress, Everyman examines the question of Christian salvation by use of allegorical characters, and what Man must do to attain it. The premise is that the good and evil deeds of one's life will be tallied by God after death, as in a ledger book. The play is the allegorical accounting of the life of Everyman, who represents all mankind... |