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.Life Is a Dream, by Pedro Calderón de la Barca,, adapted by Wim Coleman  Calderón’s 17th-century play Life Is a Dream, sometimes called “the Spanish Hamlet,” appears here in an adaptation based on Wim’s new translation. Life Is a Dream tells the story of Segismundo, a prince who finds existence so strange that he is uncertain whether it is real or a dream. This version offers a vivid introduction to a story too seldom read in the English-speaking world....Download Life is A Dream free PDF file |
.The Lost World, by Arthur Conan Doyle, adapted by Wim Coleman The British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) is best known for creating the detective hero Sherlock Holmes. But Doyle actually preferred his lesser-known hero, the brash, adventurous scientist George Edward Challenger. The best of the Challenger novels is The Lost World, which tells of a journey to a land forgotten by time, where dinosaurs still live. Here is Wim’s free adaptation of this action-filled, suspenseful novel....Download The Lost World free PDF file |
Medea, by Euripides, adapted by Wim Coleman The Athenian playwright Euripides (480?-405 B.C.) has been described as the most modern of the ancient Greek playwrights. He is especially famous for his vivid, emotionally intense female characters. This is Wim’s retelling of Euripides’ best-known play—a powerful drama of a cruelly betrayed wife who ultimately finds that she has no choice but to murder her own children....Download Medea free PDF file |
The Drinking Gourd, by Wim Coleman Between 1830 and 1865, some 40,000 to 100,000 slaves used the Underground Railroad to find freedom in Canada and Mexico, despite vicious bounty hunters, rough countryside, and bitter weather. This fictional play tells of a brother and sister escaping from slavery in the Deep South, showing how signs and songs helped African Americans along the Underground Railroad. The play also introduces “Peg Leg Joe,” a mysterious, legendary figure believed to have helped many slaves find freedom. ........................Download The Drinking Gourd free PDF file |
The Clouds, by Aristophanes, adapted by Wim Coleman The Greek philosopher Socrates was sentenced to death in 399 B.C. for promoting what his fellow Athenians considered to be radical ideas. Was his doom partly caused by ruthless satire? In 423 B.C., while Socrates was still alive and stirring up controversy, the comic playwright Aristophanes wrote a play called The Clouds, in which he portrayed the philosopher in a most unflattering light. The play remains a classic, and this adaptation is both a hilarious and thought-provoking read....Download The Clouds free PDF file |
Stranded, by Wim Coleman Around the beginning of the 19th century, a Swiss pastor named Johann David Wyss wrote stories about a family of castaways to entertain and educate his children. Later, his son Johann Rudolf Wyss brought these tales together into a classic novel, The Swiss Family Robinson, first published in 1812. Wim’s free adaptation takes place in today’s world; the Robinsons are stranded after their private plane crashes on a desert island.......Download Stranded free PDF file |
The Call of the Wild, by Jack London, adapted by Wim Coleman In 1897, American author Jack London traveled far north to join the Klondike Gold Rush. He learned brutal lessons about the struggle for survival, and he brought those lessons to his most famous novel, The Call of the Wild. Wim’s adaptation preserves much of the suspense and adventure of the original: A huge St. Bernard named Buck journeys from California to the wilds of the Klondike, triumphs over human and animal adversaries, becomes a sled dog, and finally leads a pack of wolves. ........................Download The Call of the Wild free PDF file |
A Slave's Education in Courage, by Wim Coleman Drawing on The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and other autobiographical writings, Wim dramatizes the life of one of history’s greatest African Americans. This play relates Frederick Douglass’s brutal early years in servitude, how he learned to read and write despite laws against literacy for slaves, and how he eventually escaped to freedom and became a brilliant and charismatic abolitionist leader—one whose ideas influenced the policies of President Lincoln himself.........................Download A Slave's Education in Courage free PDF file |
| Finalist, 2007 Distinguished Achievement Awards, The Association of Educational Publishers Don Quixote in Hollywood, by Wim Coleman  Imagine that two unforgettable fictional characters find themselves alive, real—and in our own age. Wim lifts the mad knight Don Quixote and his faithful squire Sancho Panza out of Cervantes’ 17th-century masterpiece and transports them to today’s Hollywood, where they are groomed to play themselves in a blockbuster movie. The play introduces elements of Cervantes’ original novel, including the legendary fight with windmills. Also like Cervantes, Wim blurs the line between fiction and reality....Download Don Quixote in Hollywood free PDF file |
| Huck Finn and the Deadly Feud, by Mark Twain, adapted by Wim Coleman (an episode from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)  The Missourian Samuel Clemens—better known by his pseudonym Mark Twain—blamed the decline of the American South largely on its refusal to live in the present, clinging instead to defunct ideals of feudalism and chivalry. This play dramatizes a passage from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in which Twain mixes hilarious satire and grim tragedy to explore the South’s decay. Here Huck finds himself caught between two feuding families, the Shepherdsons and the Grangerfords....Download Huck Finn and the Deadly Feud free PDF file |
The Poe Hoax, by Wim Coleman Edgar Allan Poe is not remembered for his sense of humor—which is a shame, because he did have one. A prankish sense of humor it was, too. In 1844, he wrote a story for a New York newspaper relating the first powered balloon voyage across the Atlantic. All of New York went wild with the news. There was just one problem; Poe had made the entire story up. This original play, "a made-up story that really happened," tells how Poe put over his hoax....Download The Poe Hoax free PDF file |