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A Place on the Magdalena Flats Play: Preston Jones. 4 men, 4 women. 2 Interiors (1 Simplified). The time is 1956; the place a small cattle ranch in drought stricken
New Mexico. Carl Grey, a former prisoner of war in World War II,
is struggling to make a go of it, battling the elements and worrying
about providing for his pregnant wife, Charlene. His problems are
not eased by his happy-go-lucky younger brother, Frank, who is often
more of a hindrance than a help - and with whom Carl finds himself
in growing conflict. Although leavened with humorous scenes involving
their colourful neighbours and the denizens of the Busy Bee Cafe,
the core of the action focuses on the mounting tension between the
two brothers which, despite Charlene's attempts at moderation, ultimately
reaches the breaking point when Frank falters at a crucial moment
- bringing on an explosive final scene and a split for which there
is no longer any hope of reconciliation. Play Thomas Babe. 4 men, 2 women. Unit Set The action of the play centres on the picaresque adventures of Henry
Hitchcock, a Union Army deserter, and Will Hill, a runaway slave
with whom Henry has journeyed to the north. They join the travelling
circus run by a flamboyant impresario named Bartholomew Van Amburgh,
who wants to make Will, the newly freed slave, the centerpiece of
his sideshow. A shrewd capitalist ringmaster, Van Amburgh is obsessed
with money and machines - the sinister harbinger of the increasingly
industrialized nation which will arise from the ashes of the Civil
War. The irony of the play is centred on the question of how such "growth
and progress" will benefit the country and what quality of life -
and freedom - it will provide for its citizens, black and white alike.
Along the way Henry and Will encounter, and debate with such personages
as Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, and even Abraham Lincoln
- with results that are both comic and dramatic, and which foreshadow
the dilemmas and disorders which we are still struggling to resolve
in our own time. Comedy. Woody Allen Allan has this thing about Humphrey Bogart. His wife has left him
and his friends have been trying to fix him up with beautiful dates,
but he is so gauche they always end abysmally. His daydreams of Bogart
and the beautiful people are always rudely shattered by real life.
And when he falls for his best friend's wife things really seem black.
But the homely hero is saved and is left to dream of being greater
things. Comedy. Rick Abbot A theatre group try desperately to put on a play, amid all kinds
of maddening interference from its authoress, Phyllis, who keeps
revising the script until almost opening night and during the actual
performance anything that can go wrong does. At the curtain call
Phyllis decides to give a speech on the state of the modern theatre
and what befalls her is the madcap climax to this hilarious romp. Comedy. Murray Schisgal. 2 men, 3 women. Unit Set. In a neo-naturalistic, comedic style, integrating original songs,
verbal banter, dances and vaudeville turns, Play TIME explores the
lives of five contemporary characters in an age of waning convictions.
The story told is that of a stockbroker who, in a faustian bargain,
agrees to divulge
"inside information!' to an enormously successful Wall Street trader.
This leads our stockbroker into a series of adventures that transform
his personality and his beliefs. The Playboy Of the Western World J.M. Synge A stranger, Christy, arrives in a village bar in the West of Ireland
claiming to have killed his father. The locals are impressed - some
can even directly relate to the deed - and Christy is lauded as a
folk hero. He can't believe his luck, and confidently pursues the
affections of the barmaid Pegeen, until the arrival of his not-so-dead
father takes the wind out of Christy's sails ... First performed
in 1907. Play Dale Wasserman. 9 men, 5 women. Unit Set Humane and witty, and appreciative of the pleasures of the flesh
and the table, the Bishop of 14th century Prague casts a tolerant
eye on the sinful excesses of his rich and self-indulgent parishioners
- much to the displeasure of the Pope, then situated in Avignon,
France. Bedeviled by gout, the Bishop is especially taken with Richard
the Healer, a charming rascal who is notorious for his gambling and
wenching but who is the only one able to ease the Bishop's discomfort.
Richard also captures the somewhat ambivalent attention of Anna Sarban,
an icily beautiful highborn lady who righteously (and perhaps jealously)
denounces him to the Grand Inquisitor, Jean Charlier, a sinister
young Dominican priest whom the Pope has dispatched to Prague to
enforce the ban he has placed on the corrupt Bishop. But Anna's desire
for vengeance leads to perilous complications when a group of bumbling
dice players and whores (who claim they are only meeting to join
in prayer) are also drawn into the Grand Inquisitor's web and, despite
Anna's last minute offer to sacrifice herself in their stead, are
condemned to be burned at the stake. Angry at this invasion of his
authority and determined to gain their release, the Bishop confronts
the wily Grand Inquisitor in a gripping, brilliantly constructed
scene in which two master strategists manoeuver for advantage, ultimately
striking a cynical bargain in which the Bishop, suddenly faced with
the threatened loss of his own position, accepts the sacrifice of
the condemned "sinners" in order to spare himself, Richard, and the
others of his flock for whom the loss of privilege and pleasure would
be a burden too onerous to bear. Play. April De Angelis Of vital importance to the development of English drama was the
entrance of the first actresses upon the English stage. April De
Angelis has taken five actresses- Nell Gwyn, Elizabeth Farley, Rebecca
Marshall, Doll Common and Mary Betterton - and given us a fascinating
look at the precarious lot of actresses in the Restoration period.
A moving and often comic account of a true story, with some earthy
language! Period 1669 Play. Bernard Kops A powerful psychological drama set in an oppressive old house in
London, where grown-up siblings Norman and Sandra resist their lonely
future by living out their fantasies in the music of their idol,
Frank Sinatra. Norman, an agoraphobic bookbinder, works at home and
heats microwave meals to perfection; Sandra, with outside job and
interests, longs to break free of her existence. But the option of
leaving her mentally-disturbed brother and running off with the "mystic" Phillip
proves less than straightforward ... This tense play's clammy grip
never slackens. Playing With Fire (After Frankenstein) Barbara Field : Drama 5M 1 F Flexible staging Adapted from Mary Shelley's novel, the play deals with the events
which transpire after those usually associated with the Frankenstein
story - in this case the final, fateful meeting between Dr Frankenstein
and his creation amidst the barren wastes of the North Pole. As the
play begins, an exhausted and dying Victor Frankenstein has finally
tracked down his Creature in the frozen tundra. Determined to right
the wrong he has committed by at last destroying the evil he believes
he has created, Frankenstein finds that he must first deal with his
own guilt and responsibility - for, as their fascinating confrontation
develops, it is evident that the Creature has become a pathetic,
lonely and even sensitive being who wants to find only love and that
he, Frankenstein, by intruding into the very secrets of life, is
truly the evil one. As the two debate, scenes from the past flash
by: the doctor's young bride whom the Creature killed when the scientist
failed to provide him with a mate of his own; the brilliantly quick-witted
Professor Krempe, Frankenstein's mentor; and moments between the
youthful Victor and his brother, who also fell victim to the Creature's
vengeance. The exchange between the two becomes a confrontation between
parent and child, scientist and experiment, rejection and love, even
between good and evil, culminating in the Creature's agonising question: "Why
did you make me?" It is a question the exhausted Frankenstein can't
answer, and as the play ends the Monster lives on, condemned to pass
his remaining days in the awful loneliness he has so desperately
sought to escape. Drama. August Strindberg, translated by Michael Meyer. 3 men, 3 women. Unit Set The play focuses on the triangular relationship of Knut, his wife Kerstin and her lover Axel. When Knut discovers that Kirsten and Axel are strongly drawn to each other he agrees to give up his wife if Axel will marry her. The gesture causes Axel to lose his passion for Kirsten; he leaves hastily and life at the villa returns to normal. Play. Ronald Hayman August Strindberg directs two actors in an autobiographical play
detailing his difficult, stormy relationship with his first wife
Sid von Essen. Sid is played by Harriet Bosse, with whom Strindberg
falls in love and marries; Strindberg himself is played by Bengt
Anders, an earnest, ardent young actor who is also in love with Harriet.
This impressive drama about a sensitive, driven, turbulent and mystical
playwright uses a fictional play-within-a-play device to brilliantly
approximate the environment in which Strindberg lived and worked. Comedy. Neil Simon The comedy consists of three separate plays all occurring in the
same hotel suite, and all parts can be played by separate artists.
In the first play, Visitor from Mamaroneck, a middle-aged
couple revisit the hotel room of their honeymoon - but the arrangement
does not end as romantically as might have been expected. Visitor
from Hollywood recounts the meeting of two old flames and what
can happen under the influence of repeating magic Hollywood names.
The last play, Visitor from Forest Hills, tells of a mother
and father and their daughter who has locked herself in the bathroom
and refuses to come out for her wedding. Melodrama. Mary Oldfield 4 men, 3 women. Interior. Set in England, Robert and Eleanor Clyde, a happily married couple,
have one child, a son, Robin, whom they both adore. Eleanor is away
on a visit and Robert is taking his secretary, Jane, home one night
when he runs over a man on a bicycle. Jane is afraid her fiancé will
put the wrong construction on it if he knows she has had dinner with
her employer, even though the evening was entirely proper. At her
insistence, Robert drives on, leaving the man he has hit lying on
the road. When he arrives at his home, Robert learns that the man
he hit was his own son - and that the boy is dead. Jane is the only
person who knows that it was Robert who killed his son, and they
agree to keep it a secret from Eleanor, who arrives immediately afterwards.
Eleanor's grief changes her from a charming, gracious woman to someone
whose only thought is of revenge - her life becomes dedicated to
one purpose, to find and punish the person who killed her son. She
offers a large reward to anyone who, can furnish information that
may lead to discovery of the driver. Eventually, between a clue that
is furnished by the owner of the garage where Robert keeps his car,
and Robert's own slips as the result of his unhappy conscience, Eleanor
learns that it is her husband who killed her son and the remainder
of the play is filled with suspense until we finally learn what course
of action Eleanor will take. Comedy. Samuel Taylor (with Cornelia Otis Skinner). A somewhat tarnished international playboy returns to the San Francisco
home of his former wife to give away their daughter in marriage.
He hasn't laid eyes on the girl since she was a baby and now discovering
her a resplendent young woman, he turns on the charm that has won
his reputation in all the playgrounds of the world. The daughter
is utterly transported, the mother and the fiancé are helpless
against this sophisticated tidal wave. But the impasse is rationally
resolved when the girl wins her plea to be allowed a small sabbatical
abroad [with her father] before settling down to the marriage
she still cherishes. Tragedy. Sean O' Casey To the Irish Citizen Army 'The Plough and the Stars' symbolises
their futile patriotism. To all the slum dwellers the Easter rebellion
brings the realisation that there is no help against the strength
of the English forces. This tragic satire ends amid a scene of final
desolation where two Irishmen sit playing cards until they are rounded
up by the King's soldiers. Period 1915-16 Comedy/Drama: Christopher Kyle. Clare, Marty and Val were the best of friends in college. Now approaching
30, they find themselves struggling with careers and relationships-unhappy,
yet fearful of change. The three gather, along with Val's husband
Harris, at a country house in Connecticut for a weekend of escape
and reminiscence. But this awkward reunion is interrupted by the
bmtruck Jim, an office temp with whom Clare had a brief affair. Heedless
of the circumstances, Jim proves to be the catalyst that pulls apart
these delicately maintained relationships. As the friends' betrayals
are revealed and the misbegotten weekend hurtles toward its tragi-comic
conclusion, a candid snapshot of a generation comes into focus. Sharp
and witty in its observations, Plunge dives through its comic
surface to find the melancholy beneath. |