This playful collection of 14 original monologues gives voice to characters and observers from the 18th century French fairs. Before the Revolution, these were a prime source of entertainment for people of all classes. Among those who speak in these monologues are a man with two heads, a rope dancer, a strong woman, a marionettist, a tumbler, a "turner" and various presenters of mechanical or animal exhibits. All of the subjects, even the most unlikely, actually existed in Pre-Revolutionary France. As imagined here, their voices are ribald, resentful, poignant, pensive, cocky, exuberant, and...

Le Grand d'Aussy traces French bread history from the first Tameliers and Fourniers to the Boulangers whose bread evolved from a simple boule to the pains mollet of the seventeenth century and the long breads which already began to replace round breads in the eighteenth century. Along the way he looks at the different types of bread, typically made from wheat, and also the other grains and even other products which were used to make bread. He then presents the history of French pastry, which began, essentially, as meat pies and other foods cooked in pastry before evolving into a dizzying...

These monologues explore the tragedy of suicide through a variety of voices: observers, survivors, suicides themselves. These "Suicide Monologues" may be done individually (for auditions, class, etc.) or presented in a complete production. They are offered for use not only by actors, but by anyone else who finds their experience reflected in these pages.