Kirjahaku

Nick Applegate, a retired math teacher, reads Tennyson, drinks George Dickel bourbon and suffers visions of violence. He and his wife, Joyce, used to teach at Durango High School. She was killed in a school shooting ten years ago. Now, Nick is building a log cabin on Missionary Ridge 12 miles outside the town of Durango, Colorado. There on the ridge, he encounters more than he ever expected. A mysterious man dressed in camouflage revives dark memories of pain and despair. Meredith, a lovely mountain woman who raises beautiful white goats lives just down the road. She offers a different path for his life. Both will play a role in his journey - a journey out of Purgatory. But it is Angela who guides him toward final acceptance. She too was a victim of the shooting. Despite her own grievous wound, she held Joyce in her arms as she died. Angela survived, but still broken. Her speech is slow and slurred. Nick feels like he owes Angela something. The seasons of a whole year pass. Nick struggles to finish his cabin, but now, near the completion of his quest, the sky turns grey with drifting clouds of ash. A conflagration is sweeping toward him and his carefully constructed cabin. Everything is threatened once again. His fears are no longer imaginary. They have become real.

Plays of Yore is a collection of three one act plays: A Comedy of Pregnant Women, Mayfair and The New Play Everyman. The plays are romps through medieval England, ribald, full of puns, fun to watch and even more fun to perform. This book now makes available, free of charge, these original plays to all community, non-profit theater groups. Easy to stage, utilizing minimal sets and small casts, the plays are perfect for black box theater venues or other small stage events. A Comedy of Pregnant Women, written in blank verse ala Shakespeare, follows the twisting tale of three pregnant women as they scheme to ensnare the man who impregnated them. In true Elizabethan style, the jokes are raunchy and the plot is ridiculously complicated, but the spirit is always in fun and the ending is happy.In Mayfair, we see a similar tale, but turned on its head. Three men love one woman, but in vastly different ways. The play is written in rhyming couplets and much of the fun is in the language, though the story contains a powerful moral about what love really means. Again, this tale is intended for mature audiences.The New Play Everyman is rendered in prose and modern language. But the story is a classic tale from the middle ages. This updated version of the medieval play, Everyman, has a more somber tone, but has many fine, comedic moments. This play is suitable for all ages, and, indeed, has been performed by a high school group. All three plays are uplifting comedies, reaffirming the innate compassion of human beings tossed about in a universe of folly and foibles. The world of Plays of Yore is a world of energy, engagement and, ultimately, smiles.