Publisher: Clink Street Publishing
Michael Rose observes the world with a passionate and playful eye, bringing the everyday to life. Whether drawing on his family history, his personal love story, the Scottish coastline, or the vocabulary of modern food criticism, what underpins his sharp observations is affection. Both social commentary and documentary, his poems address the heart and mind.
The Tempest is a play by English playwright William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610-1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that Shakespeare wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, the rest of the story is set on a remote island, where the sorcerer Prospero, a complex and contradictory character, lives with his daughter Miranda, and his two servants: Caliban, a savage monster figure, and Ariel, an airy spirit. The play contains music and songs that evoke the spirit of enchantment on the island. It explores many themes, including magic, betrayal, revenge, and family. In Act IV, a wedding masque serves as a play-within-a-play, and contributes spectacle, allegory, and elevated language. Although The Tempest is listed in the First Folio as the first of Shakespeare's comedies, it deals with both tragic and comic themes, and modern criticism has created a category of romance for this and others of Shakespeare's late plays. The Tempest has been put to varied interpretations, from those that see it as a fable of art and creation, with Prospero representing Shakespeare, and Prospero's renunciation of magic signaling Shakespeare's farewell to the stage, to interpretations that consider it an allegory of Europeans colonizing foreign lands.Show book
A new collection by Sean O’Brien – ‘Auden’s true inheritor’, and one of our wisest poetic chronographers – is not just a literary event, but also, invariably, a reckoning of the times. Given the nature of our times, his voice is an essential one: there is no other poet currently writing with O’Brien’s intellectual authority, historical literacy and sheer command of the facts. Embark also registers our unique cultural climacteric, where the larger crises of the planet – the pandemic and the terrifying spectre of revanchist nationalism among them – impact all of us, and where the illusion of a church-and-state separation of the personal and political can no longer hold. As the poet turns seventy, he shows us how the inevitable absences that age brings are assuaged by how we furnish them; the result is not just a logic made from loss and pain, but a music, a metaphysic, and finally a redemptive art. Embark reminds us of the enduring consolations of love, of friendship, of the freedoms and possible futures still afforded by the imagination – and, through O’Brien’s own exemplary model, of poetry itself.Show book
Theodore Huebner Roethke (May 25, 1908 to August 1, 1963), born in Saginaw, Michigan, is regarded as one of America's most accomplished and influential poets, having won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1954 for his book The Waking, and the annual National Book Award for Poetry on two occasions. His work is characterized by a willingness to engage deeply with a multifaceted introspection, and his style was overtly rhythmic, with a skillful use of natural imagery. In this recording, Roethke discusses poetry and writing, and reads many of his most famous poems: In A Dark Time, The Waking, My Papa's Waltz, Cuttings, The Sloth, Light Listened, Dolor, Elegy For Jane, A Rouse For Stevens, The Pets, The Adamant, Once More The Round, The Happy Three.Show book
Hamlet and Macbeth are two dramas by William Shakespeare that have been thrilling audiences for centuries. Both have been adapted to radio and film and continue to be taught in high schools and universities. But as with most of Shakespeare' s works, modern audiences sometimes need some help absorbing elements of both plays. In a series of lectures, literary scholar Elizabeth McNamer provides engaging insights into these two Shakespeare classics. Providing glimpses into each play' s most compelling moments, Dr. McNamer first focuses on Hamlet, regarded by many as the greatest drama ever written. Because he is given much to philosophizing, the Danish prince fails to act— and this procrastination becomes Hamlet' s downfall. McNamer then tackles Shakespeare's most gruesome tragedy. Macbeth, who has murdered his way to the crown, finds there only a murderer's reward— no peace, no love, no honor, no friends— only curses. While these lectures are grounded in scholarly research, they are also accessible for contemporary audiences, helping them appreciate more fully these two great works.Show book
On the last night of his life, Henry Jekyll records the harrowing story of his years-long struggle to maintain his reputation as a physician and philanthropist - while secretly suppressing the voracious beast he had long felt lurking within. Playwright David Rambo drew on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson for inspiration to create this original L.A. Theatre Works commission. Includes a conversation with playwright David Rambo and horror expert Leslie S. Klinger. Recorded before an audience at the UCLA James Bridges Theater in April 2023. Directed by Anna Lyse Erikson Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast production, starring: Laila Ayad as Iris Bravo and others Edita Brychta as Dr. Semerenko and others Seamus Dever as Dr. Henry Jekyll and Robert Hyde Matthew Hancock as Nick Underwood Venk Potula as Tyler Poole and others André Sogliuzzo as the Priest, Bouncer, Rookie Cop and others Senior Producer: Anna Lyse Erikson Prepared for Audio by Mark Holden for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood Recording Engineer and Sound Designer, Mark Holden Editor and Mixing Engineer: Charles Carroll Senior Radio Producer: Ronn Lipkin Foley Artist: Jeff GardnerShow book
Life has the capacity of great moments and attainment, of lives well-lived, both fulfilling for ourselves and those around us. But for others life is arduous, there is no spark to ignite the curiosity, to explore a stability and a growth for their lives. Indeed, their lives, in their own eyes, become almost meaningless, their sense of themselves subsumed under a myriad of problems, whether real or imagined. Seismic events in their lives might crush them. The loss of a loved one for instance. Coping is difficult, support is hard to find, and isolation abounds. We never really know the reason, or the motivation, but one final, dreadful way out is the solution. In this volume our authors explore stories that help us understand and recognise a tragic circumstance.Show book
