If theatre were a religion, explains David Mamet in his opening chapter, "many of the observations and suggestions in this book might be heretical." As always, Mamet delivers on his promise: in Theatre, the acclaimed author of Glengarry Glen Ross and Speed the Plow calls for nothing less than the death of the director and the end of acting theory. For Mamet, either actors are good or they are non-actors, and good actors generally work best without the interference of a director, however well-intentioned. Issue plays, political correctness, method actors, impossible...

Characters: 2 males, 2 females

Bare stage, movable props

The Obie award-winning Sexual Perversity in Chicago "takes funny and painful digs at the fantasies and distances of the contemporary sexual game," according to The New York Times. Two male office workers, Danny and Bernie, are on the make in the swinging singles scene of the early 1970's. Danny meets Deborah in a library and soon they are lovers as well as roommates. The other couple, Bernie and Joan, seem to have the politics of sex down pat but are as confused as their more naive counterparts. After much comic drama,...

Scenery: Interior

Best American Play, New York Drama Critics' Circle Award during the 1976-77 season, this volatile drama starred Robert Duvall in the original Broadway production and has seen revivals with Al Pacino and most recently on Broadway with John Leguizamo in 2008. In a Chicago junk shop three small time crooks plot to rob a man of his coin collection, the showpiece of which is a valuable "Buffalo nickel." These high-minded grifters fancy themselves businessmen pursuing legitimate free enterprise. But the reality of the three- Donny, the oafish junk...