Books in L.A. Theatre Works Audio Theatre Collections series

A Raisin in the Sun is a seminal American drama and a heroic testament of hope. This new recording of Lorraine Hansberry s classic play, starring Rutina Wesley from the HBO hit series True Blood, chronicles a working class African American family struggling to maintain dignity in a harsh world. With her late husband s insurance money finally in hand, Mama Lena dreams of moving to a better home. However, her children have other plans: Walter Lee wants to buy a liquor store, and Beneatha wants to go to medical school. What happens when family dreams drastically diverge? A full-cast performance featuring: Judyann Elder, James Gleason, Noah Gray-Cabey, Corey Hawkins, Deidrie Henry, Terrell Tilford, Rutina Wesley and Mirron E. Willis.

Stacy Keach and Jane Kaczmarek star in this 1949 masterpiece by Arthur Miller, a searing portrait of the physical, emotional, and psychological costs of the American dream. Willy Loman (Keach) is the play's iconic traveling salesman, whose family is torn apart by his desperate obsession with greatness and social acceptance. As his two sons cast about aimlessly for their station in life, Willy begins to come unraveled when the reality of his life threatens his long-cherished illusions. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Stacy Keach as Willy Loman; and Jane Kaczmarek as Linda Loman; Steven Culp as Biff Loman; Maureen Flannigan as Letta and Jenny; Jason Henning as Bernard and Stanley; Kathryn Meisle as The Woman; Tim Monsion as Uncle Ben; Sam Mcmurray as Charley; John Sloan as Happy Loman; Kate Steele as Miss Forsythe; Kenneth Alan Williams as Howard. Directed by Eric Simonson. Recorded before a live audience at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles in March, 2011.

An award-winning full-cast dramatization based on the epic novel by Nobel Laureate John Steinbeck, starring Shirley Knight and Jeffrey Donovan. Set during the Great Depression, The Grapes of Wrath tells the powerful story of the Joad family s trek from the dust bowl of Oklahoma to the promise of a new life in California. But what they find threatens to rip apart their lives, and sever the ties that bind them together. Starring Shirley Knight as Ma Joad, Frank Galati s heart-wrenching adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel finds its timeless heart in the generous spirit of the common man. A full-cast production featuring: Shirley Knight, Jeffrey Donovan, Emily Bergl, Mike Buie, Daniel Chacon, Maurice Chasse, Shannon Cochran, Trista Delamere, Francis Guinan, Charlie Matthes, Rod McLachlan, Bob Pescovitz,Joel Rafael, Stephen Ramsey, Nick Sadler, Andy Taylor, Todd Waring, Fredd Wayne, Michael Weston and Kate Williamson with live music performed by the Joel Rafael Band.

Academy-Award winner Athol Fugard, one of theatre's most acclaimed playwrights, finds humor and heartbreak in the friendship of Harold, a 17-year old white boy in 1950's South Africa, and the two middle aged black servants who raised him. Racism unexpectedly shatters Harold's childhood and friendships in this absorbing, affecting coming of age play. Initially banned from production in South Africa, the play was a Drama Desk Award winner for Outstanding New Play. A L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Leon Addison Brown, Keith David and Bobby Steggert.

"Oedipus the King" grew out of ancient Greek myths dating back over three thousand years. For centuries the story of the King who unwittingly kills his father and marries his mother, like those of the Greek tragedies, was passed down from generation to generation as oral history, spoken or sung. Then, around 750 B.C, the Greek discovered writing, and began to record their myths. Sophocles wrote his play around 428 B.C. This production is a new translation from The Original Greek by Nicholas Rudall. Starring: Harry Lennix, Spencer Garrett, Francis Guinan, Charles Kimbrough, Rod McLachlan, Carolyn Seymour, W. Morgan Sheppard

A new dramatization of one of the greatest baseball stories of all time. A poignant, touching, and often comic tale of a baseball teams friendship and loyalty to a dying teammate. Adapted from the novel by Mark Harris. A L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Ed Begley Jr., John Freeland Jr., Henry Harris, Brent Hinkley, Bruce Nelson, Joshua Rifkind, David Robbins, Marcia Rodd, Elizabeth Ruscio, Enrique Sandino, David Schwimmer, Harry Shearer and Jonathan Silverman.

Shakespeare's timeless story of revenge, corruption, and murder is considered one of the greatest works in the English language. Prince Hamlet sets out to avenge his beloved father's death at the hand of his uncle Claudius - but Hamlet's spiral into grief and madness will have permanent and immutable consequences for the Kingdom of Denmark. Composed over 400 years ago, Hamlet remains one of the theater's most studied and performed works, and is presented here in a stunning, sound-rich full-cast recording. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Josh Stamberg as Hamlet Stephen Collins as King Claudius JoBeth Williams as Queen Gertrude Stacy Keach as Ghost Alan Mandell as Polonius Emily Swallow as Ophelia JD Cullum as Laertes Matthew Wolf as Horatio Mark Capri as Ambassador and others Josh Clark as Gravedigger, Voltemand and others Henri Lubatti as Rosencrantz and others Jon Matthews as Guildenstern and others Darren Richardson as Player Queen and others André Sogliuzzo as Reynaldo and others Directed by Martin Jarvis. Original Music Composed & Performed by Mark Holden and Michael Lopez. Sound Effects by Tony Palermo.

In Neil Simons darkly funny memoir of his family in 1930s Brooklyn, 14-year-old Eugene is preoccupied by his passion for the Yankees and his lust for his beautiful cousin. Eugenes comic growing pains contrast with the darker issues troubling his family: poverty, illness and the growing Nazi threat to relatives abroad. A L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Max Casella, Peter Michael Goetz, Valerie Harper, Alexana Lambros, Anna Sophie Loewenberg, Jonathan Silverman and Joyce Van Patten.

Based on the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novel by Ernest J. Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying is set in a small Louisiana Cajun community in the late 1940s. Jefferson, a young illiterate black man, is falsely convicted of murder and is sentenced to death. Grant Wiggins, the plantation schoolteacher, agrees to talk with the condemned man. The disheartened Wiggins had once harbored dreams of escaping from his impoverished youth, yet he returned to his home town after university, to teach children whose lives seemed as unpromising as Jefferson s. The two men forge a bond as they come to understand what it means to resist and defy one s own fate. A L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Rick Foucheux, Beatrice Winde, Keith Glover, Jerry Whiddon, Jamahl Marsh, Linda Powell and Jefferson A. Russell.

Set in Yonkers, New York in 1942, two boys, aged 13 and 16, must spend one year with their austere and demanding grandmother. While the war rages in Europe, Jay and Arty learn the ropes from Uncle Louie and assorted relatives, all peculiar characters. This classic Neil Simon play was a Pulitzer Prize Winner for Drama, Tony Award Winner for Best Play and Drama Desk Award Winner for Outstanding Play. A L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Barbara Bain, Gia Carides, Dan Castellaneta, Ben Diskin, Arye Gross, Roxanne Hart and Kenneth Schmidt.