Paul Halpern is a cynical, middle-aged comedy writer whose professional and personal lives collide when a woman he is interested in wants to stage a play that he would like to forget.

Linda is an English teacher with a small apartment full of a rich collection of great literature. Her only close personal relationships are those she has with her favorite authors. Her life is far less complicated than the dramas she reads, and she likes it that way. All that changes when former star pupil Jason returns to town after failing as a playwright in New York. To help him avoid law school, Linda mounts his play at school, and puts her own...

"Originally conceived not in its present form, but as a work for the stage. I completed the first draft of the script ... the play was "postponed" and presently dropped. It was at this point that the idea for the present volume began to take shape. Work on the script had produced a form that seemed to lend itself with equal facility to the printed page, while going far beyond the inherent limitations of the stage. Work on the book and revisions of...

"Usher is a black, queer writer, working a day job he hates while writing his original musical: a piece about a black, queer writer, working a day job he hates while writing his original musical. Michael R. Jackson's blistering, momentous new musical follows a young artist at war with a host of demons - not least of which, the punishing thoughts in his own head - in an attempt to capture and understand his own strange loop"--

It is 1945 and a grown up Anne Shirley returns to Prince Edward Island for an extended visit. She agrees to write a play for a local theatre producer in hopes that it will keep her mind off of her only son who is serving in the Armed Forces overseas. A letter is discovered from the father who abandoned her as a child, bringing up the memories of her early childhood.

A switchboard operator gets caught up in the personal lives of the clients of an answering service, including that of a playboy.

A married Broadway director falls for a prostitute-turned-actress and works to help her advance her career.

Lisa, once a brilliant playwright, no longer writes. She lives with her family in Switzerland, but her heart remains in Berlin, beating in time with that of her twin brother Sven, the famous theatre actor. Since Sven has been suffering from an aggressive type of leukaemia, the relationship between them has become even closer. Lisa does not want to accept this blow of fate, she does everything in her power to bring Sven back on stage. For her soulmate...

"He died laughing" becomes the very definition of irony when renowned playwright Harold Blumenthal literally drops dead during an interview while laughing at one of his own jokes. Those around him are thrown into a tailspin while coming to grips with his untimely passing, along with some familial infighting.

A successful playwright who marries a mediocre actor with a troubling secret. She soon discovers that he not only married her for money but that he plans to murder her with the help of his lover. She must use her plotting skills to save her own life.