Returning from several months spent filming her lead role in a brand new TV detective series, Phyllida Moon as misgivings about how she will be received at the Peter Piper Detective Agency. But she has no need to worry – she’s welcomed back with open arms. And Peter has just the job lined up for her . . . Phyllida doesn’t have much trouble thinking herself into her new role, that of Sonia Sheridan, amateur actress extraordinaire, though she has slightly more difficulty exposing the drug dealing thought exposing the drug dealing thought to be taking place within the Little Theatre Company. She’s on the brink of making an amazing – and totally unexpected – discovery when suddenly something happens that sheds a whole new light on the case. One of the theatre company is murdered – and it looks like the killer could only be a fellow member . . .

Sean Stirling isn’t having a good day. Hearing snide comments on a photoshoot, he storms off, not caring that he looks every inch a celebrity throwing a tantrum. Things get worse when he falls on the ice-covered street. As a car comes barreling toward him, there’s nothing he can do to prevent his fate. Luckily, Emerson Willis is there to save the day. Emerson pushes the man from the street, then gets bamboozled into accompanying the stranger to the hospital. After Emerson sees himself on television, he realizes the man he saved is a pop star. Now, Sean is smitten and eager to thank his rescuer. Emerson, whose mind is still spinning, can’t tell what to think about the sudden attention. Can the musician convince Emerson they’re made for each other? Or will Emerson dismiss it all as the passing fancy of a rich and famous man?

Three new modern comedies have been published in the book Three Plays: "The Little Greenie", "Hellcat Kate", "Come in Hypno". All three comedies have been successfully produced for short runs at a theater on Long Island, and are suitable for all audiences. Subject matter treated by the three plays varies widely, from the problems of a butler who's been cut out of a will and seeks satisfaction, to the romantic perils of life in New York City, to the complications that arise when computers start to talk and listen to people. The butler of "The Little Greenie" tires to solve his de-willed problem by enticing a young law student into marrying the daughter of the rich family he works for. An agreement is signed whereby the butler is to get 10% of whatever the student latches onto. The girl's mother becomes suspicious and brings in the family lawyer, and together they engage a private detective. Meanwhile the maid of the house is trying to get the butler to marry her, while the boyfriend of the girl thinks he can buy off this latest fortune hunter with a few hundred dollars. This play has been made into a video/movie and is available in VHS or DVD from www.customflix.com or order from the author at www.thelittlegreenie.com. In "Hellcat Kate" an unemployed engineer has to cope with a live-in girlfriend who is a travel agent and goes on a short trip to Brazil with a customer who appears to be excessively amorous. The girl's mother, Hellcat Kate, does not get along well with the engineer and decides that her daughter should marry the man she goes to Brazil with, even if he is married at the moment. Kate works to get the engineer and an old girlfriend of his together again when she learns that she is the wife of the man she wants her daughter to marry. When this attempt fails, Kate even tries to seduce the engineer. "Come In, Hypno" explores the world of computer programs that understand (in a crude way) what people say, and can talk back to them. Students at a modern college are writing so many talk-and-listen programs that the professor in charge, Ms. Ardis McPherson, is driven to distraction and would love to get rid of some of the hackers. When a student has a fainting spell, he is misdiagnosed by a pre-med student as being dead, and some students are willing to believe that Professor McPherson actually murdered him. One of the programs, Hypno, has been designed to hypnotize people, especially girls. Another program, Feeder, runs to college's food and nutrition program, buying food and watching out for various student allergies. Things can go wrong in a situation of this kind - and they do.

Theatre has provided many words and meanings which we use - ignorant of their origins - in everyday writing and speech. This is the first book to explore 2,000 theatre terms in depth, in some cases tracing their history over two and a half millenia, in others exploring expressions less than a decade old. Terms are defined, shown in use and cross-referenced in ways which will fascinate theatre-goers, help theatre students and encourage those engaged in the theatre to examine the familiar from new angles.

Slapstick comedy has a long and lively history from Greek Theatre to the present day. This book explores the ways in which comic pain and comic violence are performed within slapstick to make the audience laugh. It draws examples from theatre, television and film on both sides of the Atlantic.

A collection of Frank Skinner's most brilliant, biting, gut-bustingly funny columns for The Times. For several years, legendary comedian Frank Skinner wrote a weekly column for The Times. Without fail, he sat down and wracked his brain to think of something to write 900 words about, frequently giving up and writing about football instead. Dispatches from the Sofa is the brilliant result. Pondering such random topics as the potential demise of Margaret Thatcher, the love-hate relationship with your football club, the banking crisis and the evil phenomenon of Jedward, this is wit and wisdom, and a fine sense of the absurd, all rolled into one.