Marianne McDonald

For me The Train Driver] is the biggest of them all. Everything I have written before has been a journey to this.--Athol FugardA dramatic, moving theater experience written for South Africa. . . . It will save us from hopelessness. See it.--Sunday IndependentThe Train Driver is classic Athol Fugard, and one of his most important plays. The playwright, known throughout the world as a chronicler of his native South Africa's apartheid past, directed its premiere at the newly opened Fugard Theater in one of Cape Town's most politically contentious areas. This seminal work was inspired by the true story of a mother who, with her three children, committed suicide on the train tracks in Cape Town. The two-person drama unfolds between the train's engineer and the grave digger who buries the ones without names. This edition also includes Coming Home, Fugard's first work addressing AIDS in South Africa, and Have You Seen Us? his first play set in America, about a South African transplanted to San Diego, where the playwright currently resides.Athol Fugard's works includes Blood Knot, Master Harold. . .and the Boys, Boesman and Lena, Sizwe Banzi is Dead and My Children My Africa He has been widely produced in South Africa, London, on Broadway, and across the United States.

Marianne McDonald brings together her training as a scholar of classical Greek with her vast experience in theatre and drama to help students of the classics and of theatre learn about the living performance tradition of Greek tragedy. The Living Art of Greek Tragedy is indispensable for anyone interested in performing Greek drama, and McDonald's engaging descriptions offer the necessary background to all those who desire to know more about the ancient world. With a chapter on each of the three major Greek tragedians (Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides), McDonald provides a balance of textual analysis, practical knowledge of the theatre, and an experienced look at the difficulties and accomplishments of theatrical performances. She shows how ancient Greek tragedy, long a part of the standard repertoire of theatre companies throughout the world, remains fresh and alive for contemporary audiences.

Opera has often used classical literature as a means of expressing the most vital concerns of the period in which the operas were written. Sing Sorrow explores the classical roots of many noted operas, illustrating the ways in which the operas reflected the political concerns of their time through these ancient narratives. In particular, though female opera characters are often regarded as victims, they are actually quite heroic, frequently shaping their own destinies.Each chapter provides background and historical context, examines the relationship between the opera and the original work of literature, and suggests what the music contributes to the interpretation. Through the lens of the classics, Sing Sorrow approaches opera from a unique aesthetic and cultural standpoint, giving a new perspective to both opera and its literary and dramatic ancestors.