Eight highly diverse works from one of America’s most prolific and versatile authors, this collection includes an exclusive dramatization of Oates’ bestselling novel American Appetites, two comedic plays The Perfectionist and The Truth Teller, four short stories Gulf War, Black, The Key and Tone Clusters, as well as her libretto for Black Water: An American Opera, composed by John Duffy.American Appetites:The façade of an affluent suburban couple crumbles under the weight of...

Dostoyevsky’s monumental novel The Idiot, adapted into a spellbinding full-cast drama by playwright David Fishelson.In The Idiot, meet the kindly, childlike Prince Myshkin, as he returns to the decadent social whirl of 1860s St. Petersburg. The two most beautiful, sought-after women in the town compete for his affections, in a duel that grows increasingly dangerous.An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Edward Asner, Kate Asner, Angela Bettis, Arye Gross, Joh...

Adapted from the diaries of Richard Wagner, Beethoven’s music soars in the background as a poor young composer named Richard Wagner struggles toward Vienna to meet the composer he idealizes.An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Edward Asner, Allan Corduner, Arye Gross and Paul Mercier.©2010 L.A. Theatre Works (P)2010 L.A. Theatre Works

A parade of unforgettable characters emerge from the steam in this hilarious, supernatural bathhouse. There is Tandy, fresh from teaching art appreciation at the Police Academy; Meredith, whose last memory is buying a micro-miniskirt; Biberman, a karate silver-belt who masquerades as a paraplegic; and the mysterious Puerto Rican janitor given to omniscient musings and manipulating the fate of all mankind.An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Jason Alexander, Edward ...

It’s 1929 as The Jazz Singer hits the silver screen and the talkies promise to change movies forever. Enter three down-and-out vaudevillians who hatch a hare-brained scheme to “make it big” in Tinsel Town. Their plan? To open a voice academy for the witless stars of silent movies. The only things standing in their way are ditzy starlets and power-hungry movie moguls. Starring Ed Asner and directed by Moss Hart’s son, this is top-of-the-bill screwball comedy and Kaufman and Hart genius at i...

Help your children develop moral character with this updated, 30th anniversary edition of the perennial classic The Book of Virtues.Almost 3 million copies of the Book of Virtues have been sold since it was published in 1993. It is one of the most popular moral primers ever written, an inspiring anthology that helps children understand and develop character—and helps parents teach it to them. Thirty years ago, readers thought that the tim...

In “an unabashedly biased, deeply researched book” (SF Gate), Ed Asner—the actor who starred as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show—reclaims the Constitution from the right-wingers who think that they and only they know how to interpret it.Ed Asner, a self-proclaimed dauntless Democrat from the old days, figured that if the right-wing wackos are wrong about voter fraud, Obama’s death panels, and climate change, they are probably just as wrong a...

Learn how to adapt the craft of acting to the needs of the camera and how to make it in TV & film with this guide full of insights from pros in the field.Culled from Tony Barr's forty years of experience as a performer, director, and acting teacher in Hollywood, this highly praised handbook provides readers with the practical knowledge they need when performing in front of the camera.This updated edition includes plenty of new exercises for honing on-camera s...

A unifying narrative for divided times, Bent Toward Justice tells the story of Murray Schwartzman, a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust and escaped to America. But while Schwartzman may have found respite from external conflict in his peaceful and supportive American Jewish community, he faces a new internal upheaval. An encounter with an apparently anti-Semitic doctor forces Schwartzman to confront his beliefs about Palestinians being the enemy of the Jewish people.Mar...

On a spring day in 1947, Mr. Rickey, the powerful General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, summons heavyweight champion Joe Louis, tap star Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson and actor Paul Robeson to his hotel room in Manhattan. Rickey wants their support when he taps Jackie Robinson to be the Major League’s first black ballplayer. But a power struggle ensues when the eloquent Robeson raises questions about Rickey’s motivations to integrate white baseball.An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast pe...

Two one-act plays by Joyce Carol Oates.The Key: a hilarious perverse encounter between a vacationing suburban housewife, recently separated from her husband, and a prosperous businessman.Tone Cluster: a chilling trig-comedy that takes the form of an interview between a middle-aged, middle-class American couple and the media.Full-cast L.A. Theatre Works performances featuring Edward Asner, Hector Elizondo, Don Reed, Joyce Van Patten, JoBeth Williams

Inspired by the released American hostages, Hotel Oubliette is a darkly comedic play that explores what happens when two emotionally disconnected men are chained to a post with an endless amount of time stretching before them.An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Edward Asner, Thomas Caruso, Arye Gross and Marsha Mason.