Niccolò Machiavelli (1469 – 1527) was a Florentine essayist, dramatist, historian, sketch writer, biographer, dialogist, writer of novellas, poet, statesman, and political theorist. Among his many writings, he authored two plays THE MADRAKE (MANDRAGOLA) and LA CLIZIA. His most famous work is his treatise on political conduct and the application of power, The Prince (Il Principe).

Peter Maloney's plays have been published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc, Samuel French, Inc, and Faber and Faber. LEASH (part of his ABU GHRAIB TRIPTYCH) was chosen as one of the Best American Short Plays 2003 – 2004 and published by Applause Books. LEASH has also been published by Joyce Carol Oates in her quarterly Ontario Review. In its first production, by Signal & Noise Theater, ABU GHRAIB TRIPTYCH was called "a shocking dramatic success as well as a rare example of art confronting our present national dilemma." IN THE DEVIL'S BATHTUB was published in the Kenyon Review. Mr Maloney has performed four autobiographical pieces, ACCIDENT, MY FATHER'S FUNERAL, ACCORDION DREAMS and KOLOSSAL HERO, at Ensemble Studio Theater. He directed Sandra Bullock in Larry Ketron's NO TIME FLAT, Kevin Bacon in John Byrne's THE SLAB BOYS, Tommy Lee Jones in Jack Gilhooley's TIME TRIAL, and Lois Smith and Thomas Gibson in Romulus Linney's JULIET. He starred with Estelle Parsons in David Hare's THE BAY AT NICE, and with Brooke Adams in THE CHERRY ORCHARD. He has been seen on Broadway in JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG, with Maximilian Schell; STANLEY, with Sir Antony Sher; Pavel Kohout's POOR MURDERER, with Maria Schell; Eugene O'Neill's HUGHIE, with Ben Gazzara, and in the Lincoln Center Theater productions DINNER AT EIGHT, ARCADIA, CAROUSEL, SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS, and OUR TOWN. He has appeared in forty-seven films, including K-Pax, Boiler Room, Requiem for a Dream, The Crucible, Washington Square, J F K, Desperately Seeking Susan, and John Carpenter's The Thing! Mr Maloney is a Fox Foundation fellow, a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Actors Studio, and an alumnus of New Dramatists.