David MametDavid Mamet is the author of the plays: ROMANCE, BOSTON MARRIAGE, FAUSTUS, OLEANNA, GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS (1984 Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle Award), AMERICAN BUFFALO, THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD, A LIFE IN THE THEATRE, SPEED-THE-PLOW, EDMOND, LAKEBOAT, THE WATER ENGINE, THE WOODS, SEXUAL PERVERSITY IN CHICAGO, REUNION and THE CRYPTOGRAM (1995 Obie Award). His translations and adaptations include: FAUSTUS and RED RIVER by Pierre Laville; and THE CHERRY ORCHARD, THREE SISTERS and UNCLE VANYA by Anton Chekov. His films include: The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Verdict, The Untouchables, House of Games (writer/director), Oleanna (writer/director), Homicide (writer/director), The Spanish Prisoner (writer/director), Heist (writer/director) and Spartan (writer/director). Mr. Mamet is also the author of: Warm and Cold, a book for children with drawings by Donald Sultan, and two other children's books, Passover and The Duck and the Goat; Writing in Restaurants, Some Freaks, and Make-Believe Town, three volumes of essays; The Hero Pony and The China Man, a book of poems; Three Children's Plays, On Directing Film, The Cabin, and the novels The Village, The Old Religion and Wilson. His most recent books include the acting books, True & False and Three Uses of the Knife. GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS was awarded the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play in 2005, and his latest plays NOVEMBER and RACE as well as a revival of OLEANNA have recently appeared on Broadway.
Anton ChekhovWidely considered one of the world's greatest writers, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on January 29, 1860, in Taganrog, Russia. In 1879 he entered the University of Moscow to study medicine and graduated in 1884. He kept a strict writing schedule and continued to practice medicine for the rest of his life. In addition to his numerous short stories, many considered masterpieces of the form, Chekhov wrote over a dozen plays, among them the classics of Western dramatic literature UNCLE VANYA, THE CHERRY ORCHARD, THE THREE SISTERS, and THE SEAGULL.