Showing results by narrator "David Grace" in All Categories

The Noh theatre of Japan was popularized towards the end of the 14th century. It was heavily influenced by Buddhism in philosophy and style, and was made up of dances performed at Shinto shrines to honor spirits and gods and old lyric poetry. Around the same time Shakespeare's Hamlet was being performed in London, Noh was integral to official ceremonies at Kyoto, and young nobles and princes were encouraged to attend and perform. This is a collection of four short plays from the Noh theatres of Japan - Hagoromo, Kumasaka, Kagekiyo, and Nishigiki.

According to George Bernard Shaw, Joan of Arc was in fact one of the first Protestant martyrs. She was one of the first apostles of nationalism, and the first French practitioner of Napoleonic realism in warfare. She also refused to accept the specific woman's lot, and dressed and fought and lived as men did. Shaw's exploration of the story of this ingenuous and eponymous heroine is set in six scenes and an epilogue, which takes place in 1456, when the church cleared Joan of the charge of heresy and condemned her accusers of corruption.

Veteran Homicide Detective James "Big Jim" Donegan and his partner, Chris Hunter, have been called to the scene of their latest case, a strangled call girl who has been put halfway through a wood chipper that was left unattended in one of the city's parks. Today Big Jim intends to use this case, like every other crime that they have worked together, as an opportunity to teach the technically brilliant but socially awkward Hunter how to be a great cop.

Jubal Dark has been the Sheriff of Francine County, Texas for 20 years, but Dark's enemy, Texas Ranger Buck Nevins, has convinced a Houston homicide detective to run against him. Dark's failure to solve a two-year-old rape and murder, coupled with his approaching 60th birthday, have led many voters to decide that Jubal should be replaced.

When eight immigrants arrived at the Baltimore Federal Courthouse to be sworn in as new citizens, they didn’t give a thought to the trial next door of five terrorists charged with blowing up a federal building. Baltimore Sun reporter Mark Shrader did care about that trial. His wife and unborn child had been killed in that explosion, but in spite of his pleas to cover the case, he was instead ordered to write a Sunday-Supplement article on the new citizens. Then the terrorists escaped their guards, invaded the immigrants' courtroom, and took them all hostage.