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Black Box Press specializes in theatre scripts and books for the theatre. We publish plays by a variety of authors -- both emerging and established -- contemporary and classic.
We offer first editions of new plays fresh off their world premieres and new editions of forgotten classics that have gone out of print. Our mission is simply this: to bring you great theatre scripts!
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THEATRE QUOTES
"The drama is not dead but liveth, and contains the germs of better things."
WILLIAM ARCHER,
About the Theatre
"A theatre, a literature, an artistic expression that does not speak for its own time has no relevance."
DARIO FO, Nobel Lecture
"It is a hopeless endeavour to attract people to a theatre unless they can be first brought to believe that they will never get in."
CHARLES DICKENS, Nicholas Nickleby
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Print: $14.95 Download: $5.95 The intellectual offspring of Ionesco, Beckett, and Pinter, Walter Wykes is proof that the Theatre of the Absurd lives on. In his plays, he creates a series of modern myths, tapping into something in the strata of the subconscious, through ritualism and rich, poetic language. The worlds he creates are brand new, and hilarious, yet each contains an ancient horror we all know and cannot escape and have never been able to hang one definitive word on. "The Worker" explores the life of a young woman who fashions a fake child to help her cope with the loneliness she endures each day while her husband is away at work. "Family 2.0" tells the story of a man who invades a stranger’s home and attempts to convince the family he finds there to accept him as their new husband/father. "The Spotted Man" follows the trials of a man cursed with a strange disease that may signal the end of the human race. Also included are "Cherry Bizarre" and "The Tragical Tale of Melissa McHiney McNormous McWhale."
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Print: $14.95 Download: $5.95 By the time of Lucian, popular religion had ceased to hold much influence over the hearts of the cultured classes. Philosophy was the new God, but there were efforts in some circles to divert men’s minds from the philosophical sects and restore a sort of unorthodox faith in the old religion. Against this artificial revival of mythological faith, Lucian pitted the influence of his tremendous satirical powers. In the “Dialogues of the Gods,” he pulls the curtain aside—exposing the Gods as they engage in private disputes, domestic brawls, and love affairs, with their jealousies and scandals, their paltry strifes and petty motives. The lesson is simple: Can one worship beings with such weaknesses, such foibles, and such scandalous and immoral lives? This new translation by Baudelaire Jones breathes fresh life into ancient deities such as Zeus, Hera, Hermes, Aphrodite, Poseidon, and Athena, revealing complex, contradictory, sex-obsessed creatures that modern mortals can surely relate to.
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Print: $14.95 Download: $5.95 William Congreve's "The Way of the World" represents a large, distinguished, and notorious body of drama—Restoration comedy; and more specifically, it is one of the most brilliant examples of the English "comedy of manners," which gives an external picture of social life, with all its activity, intrigues, and foibles. The chief foreign influence under which it arose is that of Molière, though by no means can all of its traits be traced to his paternity. The type is easily recognizable by its characterization, its plotting, its style, and its morals. Long after we have forgotten the story, the impression of the whole play is almost as sharp as ever, the impression of a gay, unscrupulous social life, and of unparalleled mental agility and cleverness. "The Way of the World," for all its malice, all its irony, all its merriment, is as austere as tragedy, as rarefied as thought itself.
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Print: $16.95 Download: $6.33 In this collection of plays, Walter Wykes creates a series of modern myths, tapping into something in the strata of the subconscious, through ritualism and rich, poetic language. The worlds he creates are brand new and hilarious, yet each contains an ancient horror we all know and cannot escape and have never been able to hang one definitive word on.
"The Profession" follows the experiences of a naïve young man exposed to the inner workings of a secret society of assassins. In "Fading Joy" a young woman finds herself caught up in the intoxicating world of a smooth-talking salesman. When he flees to escape a mysterious group known only as "The Tall Men," she finds it impossible to go back to her old way of life. Finally, "The Father Clock" tells the apocalyptic tale of two actors and a stage manager abandoned by their aging director. As the auditorium begins to fill and the lights dim, they desperately attempt to pull the show together even as a strange illness drifts through the theatre.
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Print: $14.95 Download: $5.95 This collection of 10-minute plays will delight readers and audiences alike. From the dark humor of Nick Zagone's "Sixty Years, to Life" to the zany absurdism of Walter Wykes' "Family 2.0" to the disturbing imagery of Laura Elizabeth Miller's "Fugue," each of these short plays expresses the unique vision of an emerging contemporary dramatist. Together, they make an exciting and diverse evening of theatre. Other plays in this anthology include "While the Auto Waits" by O. Henry, "Lures" by Jeanette D. Farr, "The Next Mrs. Jacob Anderson" by Ann Wuehler, "The Chocolate Affair" by Stephanie Alison Walker, "No Such Thing" by Douglas Hill, "Heart of Hearing" by Joseph Zeccola, and "Phone Arts" by LB Hamilton.
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Print: $12.95 Download: $5.86 This collection of 10-minute plays will delight readers and audiences alike. From the social drama of Jeanette D. Farr's "Gray Matter" to the Pinteresque tension of Walter Wykes' "The Salmon Tribunal" to the zany swashbuckling fun of Jeff Goode's "Jolly Jack Junior," each of these short plays expresses the unique vision of an emerging contemporary dramatist. Together, they make an exciting and diverse evening of theatre.
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Print: $14.95 Download: $5.95 John Galsworthy (1867-1933) was one of the finest intellects and dramatic forces of the English stage of his time. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932. This collection presents "Strife," perhaps Galsworthy's finest play, which documents the human consequences of a labour strike on both the unemployed workers and the company executives. Also included are three short plays: "Defeat," "The First and the Last," and "The Sun."
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Print: $14.95 Download: $5.95 In his final play, Henrik Ibsen tells the story of Rubek, an aging sculptor who has lost all interest in the world around him. In spite of his wealth, his fame, and the attentions of his beautiful, young wife, he can find no joy in his existence. He is stagnating, trapped in a spiritual vacuum, when suddenly he is jolted out of his stupor by an unexpected reunion with Irene, a model who once posed for him and whom he idolized. She is now half-mad and literally believes herself to be a walking corpse, a dead woman who roams the earth. In spite of her delusions, however, and in spite of his marriage, Rubek woos the disturbed woman mercilessly. He believes that, together, he and Irene can make each other whole. He will cure her of her delusions of death, and she will restore in him the joy of life. Irene eventually agrees to allow Rubek a few moments of real happiness. She will spend one final night with him ... but there is a terrible price to be paid.
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Print: $14.95 In this modern adaptation of Dialogues of the Dead, Baudelaire Jones remains true to the original spirit of Lucian’s dialogues, if not the details. Most of the antiquated cultural references have been updated to modern equivalents that the average reader can more easily understand, and several of Lucian’s original characters have been recast with more modern counterparts, most notably: Howard Hughes, John D. Rockefeller, Anna Nicole Smith, Clarence Darrow, Sigmund Freud, Michael Moore, Saddam Hussein, and Jack the Ripper. The result is an infinitely readable and highly entertaining adaptation of a classic text.
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Download: $2.50 In this short one-act play, adapted from the classic short story by O. Henry, a young man and woman meet in a public park and instantly fall for one another ... but neither of them is what they seem.
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Print: $14.95 Download: $5.95 One of the most ambitious dramatic poems ever written, Percy Bysshe Shelley's Prometheus Unbound tells the story of the Titan Prometheus who gave mankind the secret of fire in open defiance to the decrees of Zeus, and who, as punishment for this generosity, was chained to the Caucasus Mountains and exposed to horrible tortures. Inspired by the Prometheus Bound of Aeschylus, Shelley's play serves as a sort of sequel, matching its Greek predecessor in stature and pure poetic power. It depicts its philanthropist hero's ultimate triumph over the superstition and bigotry of the gods. As Shelley himself stated in his Defence of Poetry, Prometheus Unbound awakens and enlarges the mind.
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Print: $29.95 Download: $5.95 Although known primarily for his poetry, Lord Byron (1788-1824) also had a keen interest in the theatre and wrote a number of verse dramas, mostly during his Italian exile. While these plays went largely unnoticed during Byron's lifetime, they have since been recognized by critics for their sublime poetic and dramatic qualities. This collection brings together six of Byron's finest plays: Manfred, Cain, Heaven and Earth, Marino Faliero, Sardanapalus, and The Two Foscari.
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Print: $12.95 Download: $5.95 Leonid Andreyev was once considered one of Russia's greatest dramatists, but his opposition to the Bolshevik Revolution and the Communist government's unilateral support of naturalism on the stage conspired to undermine his career. He was imprisoned, died in poverty, and has become increasingly obscure.
Andreyev is symbolic and romantic. Fate and Chance are the two dark, unknown, at times brutal forces which dwell ever before his mind's eye. He sees human beings in the form of ghosts and ghosts in the form of human beings.
Andreyev's best-known play, “He Who Gets Slapped” tells the story of a famous writer who takes a job as a circus clown in order to escape his past. In this carnival of human outcasts, Andreyev fashions a meaningful portrait of an intellectual’s struggle to exist in a world ruled by Fate, Chance, and the almighty dollar.
Also included are two extraordinarily haunting plays adapted from Andreyev's short stories: “Call of the Revolution” and “The Serpent's Tale.”
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Print: $14.95 Download: $5.95 This exciting anthology of one-act plays includes classics such as Anton Chekhov's "The Boor" and John Millington Synge's "Riders to the Sea" as well as lesser-known gems such as Alice Gerstenberg's "Fourteen" and Percival Wilde's "The Sequel." Other plays in the collection include August Strindberg's "The Stronger," Moliere's "The Pretentious Young Ladies," Neith Boyce's "Enemies," Horace Holley's "The Genius," Susan Glaspell's "Trifles," and Ferenc Molnar's "A Matter of Husbands."
Best of all, every play in this anthology is in the public domain and may, therefore, be performed without paying royalties, making this a great resource for theatres or schools with limited budgets.
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Download: $2.50 In this short one-act play, adapted from the short story by Edna Ferber, a young writer, down on her luck, finds inspiration and romance in the most unexpected of places.
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Print: $12.95 Download: $5.95 Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most popular plays, and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in the English language. This version condenses the entire script into a forty minute one-act play. Perfect for in-class reading or high school and college productions, it retains all of the famous scenes and characters that have made Macbeth an audience favorite for more than 400 years, exposing new students to one of the masterpieces of modern literature in about the time it takes to watch a TV sitcom.
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Print: $12.95 Download: $5.95 Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play, and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in the English language. This version condenses his masterpiece into a forty minute one-act play. Perfect for in-class reading or high school and college productions, it retains all of the famous scenes and characters that have made Hamlet Shakespeare’s most popular play, exposing new students to one of the masterpieces of modern literature in about the time it takes to watch a TV sitcom.
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