Bill Bryden's Cottesloe Company, which flourished at Peter Hall's National Theatre, was the English theatre's only true ensemble of the last thirty or so years. Impossible Plays tells the story of the company and the many actors and musicians connected to it. Co-written by Keith Dewhurst, author of eight plays for the group, and Jack Shepherd, a founder-actor, it explains the ideas behind the company's work and how the work was staged, and provides an idiosyncratic, lively and deeply personal take on the company. "The search was always to find a popular theatre, a form of theatre that would draw into it people from all backgrounds, not just the cultured and the educated." Beginning with a Royal Court Theatre Sunday night performance in 1970, the story of one company's aim to create a popular theatre form includes such milestone productions as The Mystery cycle of plays and Lark Rise to Candleford. With photographs by John Haynes, Michael Mayhew and Nobby Clark, Impossible Plays is a glorious and timely tribute to one of theatre's most innovative companies.

From NFL player Steve Gleason, a powerful, inspiring memoir of love, heartbreak, resilience, family, and remarkable triumph in the face of ALS In 2011, three years after leaving the NFL, Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS, a terminal disease that takes away the ability to move, talk, and breathe. Doctors gave him three years to live. He was thirty-three years old. As Steve says, he is now ten years past his expiration date. His memoir is the chronicle of a remarkable life, one filled with optimism and joy, despite the trauma and pain and despair he has experienced. Writing using eye-tracking technology, Gleason covers his pre-ALS life through the highs and lows of his NFL career with the New Orleans Saints, where he made one of the most memorable plays in Saints history, leading to a victory in the first post-Katrina home game, uplifting the city, making him a hero, and reflected in a nine-foot bronze statue outside the Superdome. Then came his heartbreaking diagnosis. Gleason lost all muscle function, he now uses Stephen Hawking-like technology to communicate, and breathes with the help of a ventilator. This book captures Gleason and his wife Michel’s unmatched resilience as they reinvent their lives, refuse to succumb to despair, and face his disease realistically and existentially. This unsparing portrait argues that a person's true strength does not reside solely in one’s body but also in the ability to face unfathomable adversity and still be able to love and treasure life.

On a bluff overlooking the White River on the northwest side of Indianapolis stands the architecturally distinctive campus of Christian Theological Seminary. In the west wing of that building is Shelton Auditorium, which houses the Edyvean Repertory Theatre, an institution that during the 1996-1997 season celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. This history tells of the dream of its founder, Dr. Alfred R. Edyvean, to establish his "theatre with a purpose", from its fledgling flights as the Seminary Players, when Christian Theological Seminary was still the School of Religion of Butler University, to its secure reputation as a professionally managed community theatre with six or seven productions a year of high-quality drama. These productions draw nearly 30,000 people annually from across the state. The Edyvean Repertory Theatre at CTS is unique among community theatres for having been established at a theological seminary and having maintained a full season of dramatic presentations for almost thirty years. This history is an effort to determine why it survived and what must be done to keep it alive. (1993 saw the closing of the neighboring Starlight Musicals housed at Butler University and the Theatre Department at Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis.)