The Chair Plays

'I am nothing. Nobody. One day I could forget what I have done. Then I am nothing with no past. My knife is to tell me who I am. It is my passport to myself.' The Chair Plays are three one-act plays that Edward Bond has combined into one continuous drama on the state of society towards the end of the present century. Faced with ecological disaster and economic chaos, governments have become authoritarian and repressive. Domestic family life struggles to survive in a world of fleeing refugees, mass suicides, ruined and deserted suburbs, and soldiers patrolling the streets. Authority decrees even the exact placing of furniture in rooms. There is a knock at the door - but it is not the secret police. It is something even more disturbing. In this broken world sheer human goodness and vision asserts itself in stubborn and radiant ways. A master dramatist creates a range of extraordinary characters, vivid situations and radical theatrical devices to stage the central problem of modern life.

A stunning experimental short play by Caryl Churchill

A fresh and funny picture book about feeling left out and the power of friendship, from the author and illustrator of A Year Without Mom. Every evening before brushing their teeth and getting ready for bed, Vivi and Monkey play the game: Monkey hides under a sheet, and Vivi pretends to look for him. Every evening, Chair wishes more than anything that he could play, too. One night, Chair decides to make Monkey late for the game so that Vivi will look for Chair instead. But nothing goes quite according to plan. Instead of looking for Chair, Vivi grows increasingly worried about Monkey. She gathers witnesses for questioning, and Chair could be the key to her investigation. But if Vivi finds Monkey, will she still want to be friends with Chair? This sweet, funny story about friendship will encourage young readers to empathize with those feeling left out. Kids will delight in Dasha’s simple yet sophisticated illustrations. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.3 Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.3 Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

Gerald the elephant and Piggie learn to play catch with their new friend Snake, even though Snake doesn't have any arms! By the author of the Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal-winning book, Are You Ready to Play Outside?

Three one act plays by master dramatist Edward Bond, combined into a single drama and exploring humanity amid a broken world.

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, NPR, The Atlantic, Electric Lit, Thrillist, LitHub, Kirkus Reviews • A witty, intelligent novel of an American woman on the edge, by a brilliant new voice in fiction—“the glorious love child of Ottessa Moshfegh and Sally Rooney” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) “[A] jewel of a debut . . . abundantly satisfying.”—Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker As an adjunct professor of English in New York City with little hope of finding a permanent position, Dorothy feels “like a janitor in the temple who continued to sweep because she had nowhere else to be but who had lost her belief in the essential sanctity of the enterprise.” No one but her boyfriend knows that she’s just had a miscarriage—not her mother, her best friend, or her therapists (Dorothy has two of them). She wasn’t even sure she wanted to be a mother. So why does Dorothy feel like a failure? The Life of the Mind is a book about endings—of youth, of ambition, of possibility, but also of the meaning that an inquiring mind can find in the mess of daily experience. Mordant and remorselessly wise, this jewel of a debut cuts incisively into life as we live it, and how we think of it.

In a house on an island a very old couple pass their time with private games and half-remembered stories. With brilliant eccentricity, Ionesco's 'tragic farce' combines a comic portrait of human folly with a magical experiment in theatrical possibilities.

The most significant works in recent New Zealand theatre, Krishnan's Dairy, The Candlestickmaker, and The Pickle King form a loose trilogy connected by theme and theatrical style that explores three eternal questions: Will I find love? How can I find happiness? and What is worth preserving? Western theatrical traditions fuse with Indian flavors in the telling of three stories that are accessible to all cultures.

A Playful Path, the new book by games guru and fun theorist Bernard De Koven, serves as a collection of ideas and tools to help us bring our playfulness back into the open. When we find ourselves forgetting the life of the game or the game of life, the joy of form or the content, the play of brain or mind, body or spirit, this book can help us return to that which our soul is heir.