Tattoo Monologues

Body art can tell personal stories. When linked to a difficult or traumatic life, it can even restore one’s sense of well-being. As director of a community health center for twenty-seven years and as a nurse practitioner for over forty years, Donna Torrisi became fascinated with the stories behind her patients’ tattoos. When she began to ask her female patients about their markings, themes of trauma, pain, and loss emerged, and it became clear that the art indelibly marked on their bodies had played a part in their healing and redemption. The women featured in Tattoo Monologues demonstrate vulnerability and courage as they share both their personal tattoo narratives and photos of the images on their bodies. These women represent diverse cultures, ethnicities, and professional contexts, but they are united by their use of tattoos as a tool for processing traumatic life experiences. The images, stories, emotions, and journeys in this book collectively tell a compelling story. A story of skin and ink. A story of trauma and adversity. A story of courage and resilience.

Actors of colour need the best speeches to demonstrate their skills and hone their craft. Roberta Uno has carefully selected monologues that represent African-American, Native American, Latino, and Asian-American identities. Each monologue comes with an introduction and notes on the characters and stage directions to set the scene for the actor. This new edition now includes more of the most exciting and accomplished playwrights to have emerged over the 15 years since the Monologues for Actors of Color books were first published, from new, cutting edge talent to Pulitzer winners.

The not unusual story of a woman who loved more than she was loved, and who desired beyond the desire people had for her. With humor and rancor, a monologue about resentment as a form of self-love. The text humorously addresses the conflicting relationship between a woman and the marks of her past. It discusses not only about the repentance for a thoughtless tattoo, but of the emotional burden of love disappointments, of the time wasted on unrequited affections, and the impossibility of recovering the wasted time and love. Little Monologues for Women is a collection of theatrical texts intended for actresses and directors who want to show their work through short montages, but strikingly able to deal with themes such as jealousy, the desire for motherhood, the despise and the being despised and, love, with its contradictions, anguish and dazzles.

Renowned editor Lawrence Harbison brings together approximately one hundred never-before-published women’s monologues for actors to use for auditions and in class, all from recently produced plays. The selections include monologues from plays by both well-known playwrights and future stars, including Michael Ross Albert, Don Nigro, Daniel Damiano, Molly Goforth, Seth Svi Rosenfeld, Brian Dykstra, Michael A. Jones, Sam Graber, Penny Jackson, Christi Stewart-Brown, George Sapio, Sarah M. Chichester, Constance Congdon, Steven Hayet, and Ashlin Halfnight. There are terrific comic pieces (laughs) and terrific dramatic pieces (no laughs), and all represent the best of contemporary playwriting. This collection is an invaluable resource for aspiring actors hoping to ace their auditions and impress directors and teachers with contemporary pieces.

Muslim people are found all over the world. Most live outside the Middle East, from Asia to the Americas. The vast majority of contemporary Muslims are not fluent in Arabic, and speakers of languages such as Persian, Urdu, and Turkish have made essential contributions to Islamic history and culture. However, typical courses on Islam tend to downplay areas beyond the Middle East, focusing on Arabic texts and elite theological and doctrinal arguments. This book offers an inclusive view of the diversity and complexity of the many worlds of Islam, investigating ethics and aesthetics as much as scriptures and theology. By paying attention to Muslims who are socially, culturally, doctrinally, or politically marginalized, it provides a comprehensive and all-embracing vision of the religion and its many interrelated communities. Contributors from a range of personal and intellectual backgrounds explore the capaciousness of Muslim identities, helping readers achieve a broader understanding of the past, present, and future of the Muslim world. This book includes communities such as the Nation of Islam and Alevi Muslims, and it goes beyond rituals like prayer and fasting to consider a wider array of practices, such as tattooing. Across the Worlds of Islam is at once student-friendly and cutting-edge, written with both introductory courses and general readers in mind. Examining Muslim identity and practice from the perspective of the margins, it offers nuanced portraits of Muslim life across geographic and sectarian divisions.

The 20th Anniversary Retrospective from Miami’s Locust Projects comprehensively documents and celebrates 20 years of ground-breaking contemporary art from the Southeast’s leading alternative art space with a playful and sophisticated graphic design. Locust Projects, the Southeast’s leading alternative art space, documents its first 20 years in The 20th Anniversary Retrospective. The cutting-edge art space offers contemporary visual artists the freedom to experiment with new ideas. Locust’s ethos of encouraging exploration and breaking boundaries has, at times, extended to the very integrity of its physical space (think jackhammered floors). This volume includes a comprehensive visual record of over 150 exhibitions and projects, essays and commentary, a written timeline, and extensive quotes. Included are works by renowned artists such as Daniel Arsham, Hernan Bas, Nathan Carter, Francesa DiMattio, Jim Drain, Jon Pylypchuk, Retna, and Cristina Lei Rodriguez. The book includes text by director Lorie Mertes and board members Steve Lanster and Debra and Dennis Scholl. The innovative book design, like Locust Projects itself, experiments with convention. Visually referencing a calendar, the volume leads readers on a voyage of discovery through the organization’s history, with each year’s images visually bleeding into the next across French-fold pages. The cover’s thin strips of images are details from installation photos. This book will appeal to anyone interested in contemporary art, including artists, art lovers, collectors, students, curators, gallerists, and arts administrators.

A Play in One Act, Comedy. Cast: 3 Women, 1 Man. Synopsis: Amy wants her big sis Zelda to have a perfect wedding day. Even after discovering that Zelda slept with her boyfriend, Amy resolves to hold her feelings in until after the wedding is over. To stay calm, Amy throws herself into a series of Yoga classes. Soon, however, the dark clouds brewing within threaten to escape. Will Amy keep it together until the wedding is over, or will she make a stink?

Bob Odenkirk is a legend in the comedy-writing world, winning Emmys and acclaim for his work on Saturday Night Live, Mr. Show with Bob and David, and many other seminal TV shows. This book, his first, is a spleen-bruisingly funny omnibus that ranges from absurdist monologues (“Martin Luther King, Jr’s Worst Speech Ever”) to intentionally bad theater (“Hitler Dinner Party: A Play”); from avant-garde fiction (“Obituary for the Creator of Madlibs”) to free-verse poetry that's funnier and more powerful than the work of Calvin Trillin, Jewel, and Robert Louis Stevenson combined. Odenkirk's debut resembles nothing so much as a hilarious new sketch comedy show that’s exclusively available as a streaming video for your mind. As Odenkirk himself writes in “The Second Coming of Jesus and Lazarus,” it is a book “to be read aloud to yourself in the voice of Bob Newhart.”