The Theater Of Night

“In this rhapsodic series of poems, Ríos presents the story of Ventura and Clemente Ríos, a married couple living near the United States-Mexico border. . . . Ríos’s project [is] indebted to magic realism but rooted in naturalism.”—The New Yorker “Ríos creates the feeling of enchanted or intimate lore within a family [and] evokes the mysterious and unexpected forces that dwell inside the familiar.”—The Washington Post Now in paperback, and following the success of his National Book Award nomination, Alberto Ríos’ new book is filled with magic, marvel, and emotional truth. Set along the elusive southern border, his poems trace the lives and loves of an elderly couple through their childhood and courtship to marriage, maturity, old age, and death. Like the best of storytellers, Ríos charms his readers, making us care deeply—even love—these people we read. From “The Chair She Sits In”: I’ve heard this thing where, when someone dies, People close up all the holes around the house- The keyholes, the chimney, the windows, Even the mouths of the animals, the dogs and the pigs. It’s so the soul won’t be confused, or tempted . . . Alberto Ríos, the poet laureate of Arizona, teaches at Arizona State University. He is the author of eight books of poetry, three collections of short stories, and a memoir.

WINNER - Best American Play, Obie Awards 2018 In 1920, the Russian writer Isaac Babel wanders the countryside with the Red Cavalry. In 1990, a mysterious KGB agent spies on a woman in Dresden and falls in love. In 2010, an aircraft carrying most of the Polish government crashes in the Russian city of Smolensk. Set in Russia over the course of ninety years, this thrilling and epic new play by Rajiv Joseph traces the stories of seven men and women connected by history, myth and conspiracy theories.

Kala gave me any kine advice especially about Filipinos when I moved to Pahala -- Kala: sitting on our bikes by the Catholic church -- Kala: captain of the volleyball team -- Kala: Saturday night at the Pahala Theatre -- Kala: grad party -- Tita: the bathroom -- Tita: Japs -- Tita: user -- Tita: on fat -- Tita: boyfriends -- Girlie: Monday after school -- Girlie and faso face the music -- Girlie and Asi Frenz4-Eva -- Tongues – Parts -- Boss of the food -- Chicken pox -- Yarn wig -- Lickens -- Dead dogs RIP -- Prince PoPo, Prince Jiji -- Haupu Mountain -- Pueo don't fly -- Turtles -- Kid -- Glass -- My eyes adore you -- Ravine -- Empty heart -- Name me is.

Who produced the first stage adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz" in 1902-nearly forty years before the movie classic?

In this comedic quintet, five couples explore the delights and disappointments of their sex lives. Whether they are the first two people on Earth or the last two, modern partners with shifting needs, exes on the eve of a life-altering event, or twelfth-century pen pals, following those most natural desires uncovers truths about their humanity. Altogether, FIVE TIMES IN ONE NIGHT is a hilarious examination of intimacy through the ages.

The play focuses on a disappointed and despondent young woman who methodically plans her own death.

Margaret and Stanley Locker and their friends, Donna and Walter Pace, are at the theatre for their weekly dose of culture. This week's ordeal is Hamlet. After they seat themselves with some confusion, the play consists of their incessant and hilarious chatter about themselves, their children, a dead friend and even occasionally Shakespeare's play. Secrets emerge and friendships unravel amid the audiences's laughter. You may even recognize these rude playgoers as the obnoxious people who sometimes sit behind you. This comedy with bite can be simply staged with a single set four adjacent theatre seats, or it can be enhanced with an abbreviated, mimed version of Hamlet that provides six additional non speaking roles. In this version, the audience sees but does not hear Hamlet and hears but does not see the Lockers and the Paces. - Publisher's note.

Now published for the first time as a trade paperback with a new introduction and the short story on which it was based. Williams wrote: “This is a play about love in its purest terms.” It is also Williams’s robust and persuasive plea for endurance and resistance in the face of human suffering. The earthy widow Maxine Faulk is proprietress of a rundown hotel at the edge of a Mexican cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean where the defrocked Rev. Shannon, his tour group of ladies from a West Texas women’s college, the self-described New England spinster Hannah Jelkes and her ninety-seven-year-old grandfather, Jonathan Coffin (“the world’s oldest living and practicing poet”), a family of grotesque Nazi vacationers, and an iguana tied by its throat to the veranda, all find themselves assembled for a rainy and turbulent night. This is the first trade paperback edition of The Night of the Iguana and comes with an Introduction by award-winning playwright Doug Wright, the author’s original Foreword, the short story “The Night of the Iguana” which was the germ for the play, plus an essay by noted Tennessee Williams scholar, Kenneth Holditch. “I’m tired of conducting services in praise and worship of a senile delinquent—yeah, that’s what I said, I shouted! All your Western theologies, the whole mythology of them, are based on the concept of God as a senile delinquent and, by God, I will not and cannot continue to conduct services in praise and worship of this…this…this angry, petulant old man.” —The Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon, from The Night of the Iguana

Maria Irene Fornes is PAJ's top-selling author, with three volumes in print for two decades.