Samuel French Fall/Winter 2016 Journal of Plays and Musicals by Samuel French

Fall/Winter 2016

SAMUEL FRENCH

CONTENTS

Journal of Plays and Musicals Fall 2016

Recent Acquisitions

We’re pleased to offer our professional producing partners this curated collection of plays and musicals featuring new work and the best dramatic writing in American theatre. This edition of the journal includes a diverse selection of titles from our catalog and an expanded Recent Acquisitions section, highlighting our newest titles. You’ll also find selected articles from Breaking Character Magazine throughout the journal. Samuel French has been busy in the months since the Spring Journal was released: we've continued to acquire new plays and musicals; produced our annual festival of short plays; hosted a series of discussions exploring concepts of identity in the theatre; honored the work of our writers at the first-ever Samuel French Awards; and launched a new initiative to provide free tickets to playwrights called Playwrights Welcome. You’ll find information about many of these activities within. When you’re ready to request a license, you can visit our website to find more information on each title and begin the licensing process. Our licensing representatives are always available to help with any specific questions you may have. Like our website, we hope you use this journal as a resource when choosing your next production. We can’t wait to see how you make theatre happen. — Samuel French, Inc.

Plays 14 Musicals 68 Resources 104 Index 106 Contact Us

110

FEATURES 4

Honoring the Profession: Playwrights Welcome by Courtney Kochuba

Playwright’s Perspective by Jordan Harrison

When You’re Here, You’re Family: Pocatello

The Shift of Cultural Conversation: Father Comes Home From The Wars

Writing About “It”: The Mystery of Love and Sex

by Garrett Anderson

by Ben Coleman

by Bathsheba Doran

From the Other Side 56 of the Casting Table: A Directorial Debut With August Wilson’s Seven Guitars by Courtney Kochuba

Revisiting The Tenors

Collaboration, Fables & The Magic of Blackouts:

by Ken Ludwig

by Ben Coleman

A Modest Proposal or: 94 You Want Me To Adapt What? by Laurence O’Keefe

Front Cover: Charles Shaw Robinson and Kathleen Chalfant in For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday by Sarah Ruhl at Berkeley Rep (Kevin Berne). Back Cover: Cedric Turner and David St. Louis in The Royale by Marco Ramirez at The Milwaukee Rep (Michael Brosilow).

Relaxed Performances: 100 The Nuts and Bolts of Offering Sensory-Friendly Experiences to Your Audience by Erica Nagel

Honoring The Profession

PLAYWRIGHTS WELCOME Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

A new program developed by Samuel French, with the support of all major publishers, to provide free tickets to Dramatists Guild Members across the country. Samuel French recently launched Playwrights Welcome, a national initiative for Dramatists Guild Members that asks theaters to offer unsold tickets to professional playwrights on the day of a performance. Our Breaking Character Magazine Editor, Courtney Kochuba, sat down with Bruce Lazarus (Samuel French’s Executive Director), Doug Wright (President of the Dramatists Guild), and Marsha Norman (Dramatists Guild Council Member) to discuss the importance of this program and why professional playwrights and theaters alike should take advantage. Courtney Kochuba: Thank you all so much for taking the time to chat. The three of you have been very active with the creation and rollout of Playwrights Welcome. Let’s kick off with a simple question. What is Playwrights Welcome and how does it work? Bruce Lazarus: On a basic level, Playwrights Welcome is designed to allow professional playwrights to attend the theatre when they might not otherwise be able to afford to go. We’re asking theaters all over the country to participate by offering tickets to playwrights at no cost at the time of curtain, if they would otherwise go unsold. Dramatists Guild Members simply present their DG card and ID at the box office. It’s really a win-win for everyone. If a theater has a ticket that would go unsold, why not honor the profession and let a

playwright see a show? Courtney: Marsha, you started nodding quite a bit when Bruce said “honor the profession.” Marsha Norman: Yes! I learned that phrase from Lisa Kron. Years ago, there was a practice on Broadway whereby someone could come to the box office at the last moment and ask, “Do you honor the profession?” And that was an indication to the staff that here was a professional, and if you honored the profession, you would let them in and sit in the empty seats. It’s the same premise as Playwrights Welcome. Empty seats won’t generate money, so let’s generate enthusiasm and inspiration. Courtney: Sounds like “honor the profession” should be the tagline for Playwrights Welcome. Marsha: Well, it’s crucial for theaters and writers to be connected through all of these programs. We are on the same team, and we need to find ways like this to really connect to that team spirit. Courtney: Are all theaters, whether regional or community or educational, able to participate in Playwrights Welcome? Doug Wright: Absolutely, yes. It’s a great way for theaters to further encourage writers in their very own community. I think the indicator of a mature

cultural center is one that is able to support the artist in their own backyard. Obviously, no major resident theater can produce every writer in their community, but they can offer them a helping hand by keeping them current in the profession. That’s what this program does, and it does so brilliantly by ensuring that playwrights can receive a continuing education in their own craft. Marsha: Yes, yes. You know, I bet if you asked Doug and me, what was the moment when you realized you wanted to write for the theatre, we would know. Mine was in Atlanta when I was watching The Royal Hunt of the Sun on a student ticket. I thought, this is what I want to do. This is where I belong. Doug, I bet you have a similar story. Doug: Absolutely. For me, it was probably in Dallas seeing Life With Father. A much more benign play than Marsha’s! But no less consequential in my life. Courtney: Is that what you hope playwrights will get out of this program? To feel connected to the community and get inspired for their future work? Marsha: Certainly those two things. That connection to the theatre is crucial, plus the theatre needs to fully enjoy their relationship to writers. That day that I saw Royal Hunt, they didn’t know that 20 years

Anybody can, at the 11th hour, paper the house. This is about investing in the future of the craft and substantiating the profession. That’s far more advantageous than just filling a seat with a random soul. later I would be coming back to present The Color Purple. But they were absolutely connected. That’s important to us, to the writers, that we stand together with theaters. What Playwrights Welcome offers is an opportunity to the community to actually feel like a community.

a wonderful benefit for members who are already in the Guild, and it’s an incentive for those who aren’t. It goes another step in legitimizing playwriting, composing, and libretto writing in our culture. It further strengthens us as an organization and makes our voice a little louder.

can act, and a designer can design. Without that initial creation, there is no theatre.

Bruce: Well said.

Marsha: It’s also worth mentioning that the Dramatists Guild has a student membership.

Doug: Also, it’s important to distinguish Playwrights Welcome from papering the house. Anybody can, at the 11th hour, paper the house. This is about investing in the future of the craft and substantiating the profession. That’s far more advantageous than just filling a seat with a random soul.

Doug: I’d like to add on to that as well. I have the privilege of going all across the country and talking to young playwrights. Often, I’ll be in a certain city and notice that there’s a new production by, say, Halley Feiffer and directed by Trip Cullman at the local theater. And with great excitement, I’ll ask this group of young writers if they’ve seen it. Their faces kind of fall and they say, no, we can’t afford to go. So what I think Playwrights Welcome has the capacity to do is erase those forlorn looks. That’s what I would most like to see this program accomplish. Courtney: That would certainly be beautiful. Actually Doug, since you’re President of the Dramatists Guild, could you speak a bit about the Guild itself, and how this is a benefit for those members? Doug: Absolutely. The Guild is the largest advocacy and labor organization for playwrights in the country. We exist to support and protect the craft by protecting playwrights’ copyrights, the ownership of their work, their approval for cast and directors, and so on. Playwrights Welcome is

Courtney: Is that at a reduced membership cost? Marsha: It’s free. And there is a first year out membership, also free. Because we know that a student’s education is crucial. And by using their Dramatists Guild Membership, they can see professional theatre in their community. Bruce: It is not just that playwrights and students see work in their community, but as they travel and visit their folks, they’re also exposed to different theatre makers around the nation. Courtney: Very true. Since this program is nationwide, playwrights can take advantage of it everywhere. Bruce: Exactly. I also want to mention why this program is designed specifically for playwrights, composers, and lyricists, because they are the originating artist. They start with a blank page and weave a quilt that a director can direct, an actor

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Doug: And in crass political and economic terms, playwrights happen to be the job creators. Marsha and Bruce: Yes, yes!

Marsha: Plus, it’s about continued education for playwrights. They need to see theatre and ask, “Is there something that’s missing? Is there something that I know that nobody seems to be writing?” That’s where continued access to the theatre can help. Doug: And then that can diversify the palette of writers. If going to the theatre is possible for a broad range of writers, you’re going to get a richer, broader, more diverse range of plays. I don’t think there’s a theater in the country that doesn’t have a serious investment in that. Courtney: On that note, beyond the connection to playwrights, what is the benefit of Playwrights Welcome to theaters? Bruce: On a practical level, it fills seats. No one wants to play to an

empty house. Why not fill it with an intelligent, concerned and involved audience? The theater really benefits in a myriad of ways. Even the PR aspect. Their name is getting out there, they are part of this larger community, and if the playwright brings a friend, the theater has just sold another ticket. Courtney: In fact, there are already 20 theaters that are participating, correct? Bruce: Yes! The Alliance, Berkeley Rep, Dallas Theater, Geffen Playhouse, the Goodman, La Jolla, McCarter, and more. From all corners of the country, we have the top theaters involved. As other theaters join the community, they get to associate themselves with these more prestigious theaters. Courtney: Speaking of association, you also have a Playwrights Welcome Council, which is made up of a lot of influential people, from Sarah Ruhl to Branden Jacobs-Jenkins to Jeanine Tesori. My understanding is that these individuals are on the Council to lend their name and support to the program. Doug and Marsha, I know you two are part of it as well. Why do you think these artists are so willing to get involved? Marsha: I don’t know anyone who would refuse to be on this Council if you asked, because it’s that important that writers have access to theatre. When a theater puts up the Playwrights Welcome window cling in their box office, every audience member who sees it will know that this is a place that respects and associates itself with playwrights. You have extraordinary people on this Council. I think there are seven Pulitzer Prize winners. It is a significant group of people, all of whom are raising their hands to say, this is important and everyone needs to get behind it.

Doug: And it’s not just writers. There are producers on this list like Daryl Roth and Tom Schumacher, and artistic directors like Todd Haimes. So people who regularly sell theatre tickets for a living still see the strategic advantage of giving them away to the community to those who would benefit from them the most. Because a free ticket today might yield a new play tomorrow that they can produce.

Marsha: (Smiling) What they said. To learn more about Playwrights Welcome, visit samuelfrench.com/ playwrightswelcome.

Courtney: Very true. Now, where did the idea for Playwrights Welcome come from? Marsha and Doug point to Bruce. Bruce: Actually, I give Marsha the credit! She came to me one day and said that her students at Juilliard couldn’t afford to buy the scripts. It got me thinking that we needed to find a way to give them plays. Around the same time, our president, Nate Collins, tasked our team to create a subscription reading app. We called it Abbott after Abbott Van Nostrand, our past president. Our team came up with the idea that we could provide a free subscription to Dramatists Guild Members to access the plays. Following that, after many discussions with Marsha and Doug, as well as reading Outrageous Fortune by Todd London, we kept talking about the fact that playwrights can’t afford to go to the theatre. Eventually, Playwrights Welcome was born. Courtney: One final question. If you had to put the goal of this program into one short sentence, what would it be? Bruce: To educate and inspire playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists. Doug: To make theatre available to the very artists who craft it.

Photo from left: Doug Wright, Marsha Norman, and Bruce Lazarus at the Samuel French offices (Lawrence Haynes).

RECENT ACQUISITIONS We're acquiring new plays and musicals all the time. Here are a few of our latest titles. You’ll find more throughout the journal. Some of these are so new, they may be restricted or not yet available. Contact your Licensing Representative if you have questions about a specific title.

Dot by Colman Domingo

Jasper in Deadland music & lyrics by Ryan Scott Oliver book by Hunter Foster

“A thoroughly entertaining comedy-drama! ... An impressive advance for Colman Domingo.” — The New York Times The holidays are always a wild family affair at the Shealy house. This year, Dotty and her three grown children gather with more than exchanging presents on their minds. As Dotty struggles to hold on to her memory, her children must fight to balance care for their mother and care for themselves. This twisted and hilarious new play grapples unflinchingly with aging parents, midlife crises, and the heart of a West Philly neighborhood.

“An electrifying surge of theatrical energy! Marks the arrival of Oliver as a major new voice in Musical Theatre.” — Entertainment Weekly When you’re failing classes, kicked off the swim team, and your family is on the skids, life can feel like it’s going to hell. Yet, in all the disappointment, Jasper has his best friend, Agnes. In one night of teenage passion, Jasper and Agnes consummate a years-long friendship. In the morning, Agnes is gone, telling Jasper to meet her at their cliff. When he arrives there’s no sign of his best friend, only a swirling vortex to another world in the water below.

4m, 3f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

Girlfriend book by Todd Almond music & lyrics by Matthew Sweet

5m, 4f, Flexible Casting | More than 120 minutes | Dark Comedy Medium Orchestra | Moderate Vocals | Pop/Rock

Dear Elizabeth by Sarah Ruhl

“Those who can enter the rhythm of the musical may find themselves returning to some epic emotions from their youth.” — Los Angeles Times

“..the language in the piece often soars, with the writing of even routine missives achieving a, yes, poetic quality..” — Hollywood Reporter

Nebraska in the 90s. Will, a bit of a social outcast, and Mike, a popular football player, figure out there’s more to life than what high school has taught them. Days after graduation, they explore their relationship and begin to ask themselves where their lives begin. Based on the album by Matthew Sweet, this pop/rock musical is for anyone who’s lived in a small town and feels for their first love.

Based on the compiled letters between poets Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop, Sarah Ruhl expresses the beauty in simple correspondence. Ruhl maps the relationship of the two poets from first meeting through their abbreviated affair. 1m, 1f, 1m or f | 105 minutes | Drama

2m | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy Small/Combo Band | Moderate Vocals | Pop/Rock

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

Perfect Arrangement by Topher Payne

Peerless by Jiehae Park

“[A] clever canapé of a comedy...Mr. Payne is a deft and witty writer.” — The New York Times

“...a theatrical genre-bending piece...Peerless is concerned not only about the broader socio-academic-cultural issue but also the human toll.” — The Berkshire Eagle

It’s 1950 and two U.S. State Department employees, Bob and Norma, have been tasked with identifying sexual deviants within their ranks. There’s just one problem: both are gay, and have married each other’s partners as a cover. Inspired by the true story of the earliest stirrings of the American gay rights movement, madcap classic sitcom-style laughs give way to provocative drama as two couples are forced to stare down the closet door.

Asian American twins M & L have given up everything to get into The College. So when D, a 1/16th Native American classmate, gets “their” spot instead, they figure they’ve got only one option: kill him. A darkly comedic take on Shakespeare’s Macbeth about the very ambitious, and cut-throat world of high school during college admissions. 2m, 3f | 90 Minutes | Dark Comedy

3m, 4f | 120 minutes | Comedy

Important Hats of the Twentieth Century by Nick Jones

Smart People by Lydia R. Diamond “...a sexy, serious and very, very funny modern-day comedy of manners.” — Variety

“Part sci-fi parody, part Ayn Rand spoof and 100% screwball comedy, Important Hats...leaves no punchline unpunched.” — The Wall Street Journal

It is the eve of Obama’s first election. Four of Harvard University’s brightest — a surgeon, an actress, a psychologist, and a neuro-psychiatrist are all interested in different aspects of the brain, particularly how it responds to race. But like all smart people, they are also searching for love, success, and identity in their own lives. Lydia Diamond brings these characters together in this sharp, witty play about social and sexual politics.

Sam Greevy is the toast of 1920s women’s apparel, until the maverick fashion designer Sam Roms springs his radical creations on the world: The Sweatshirt, The Track Suit, and Skater Pants. The clothes he comes up with are as if from another dimension, and maybe they are. As Greevy tries to adapt to rapidly changing fashions, a parallel drama unfolds in Albany, circa 1998: a teenage stoner keeps losing articles of clothing, and a man keeps bursting out of his closet and taking them.

2m, 2f | More than 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

Going to a Place Where You Already Are Revolt. She Said. by Bekah Brunstetter Revolt Again. by Alice Birch 8m, 1f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Comedy

“Sweetly dramatized without being preachy either for or against the adherence to faith. Creates a safe space for love and goodness to thrive.” — Broadway World

“A series of fragments that recall the form-bending virtuosity of Caryl Churchill...Ms. Birch’s work finds the theatrical exhilaration in civil disobedience.” — The New York Times

Is there a heaven? Joe says no. His wife, Roberta, has always claimed to agree. Lately, she’s beginning to wonder, especially when they find themselves in church a lot, having reached the age when funerals are more frequent than weddings. Meanwhile, their granddaughter Ellie doesn’t have time to ponder the afterlife. When mortality confronts them, her grandmother’s claim to have gone to heaven and back doesn’t sound so crazy after all.

A wildly experimental and inventive new play that does not behave. Playwright Alice Birch has put together a grouping of vignettes that ask how to revolutionize language, relationships, work, and life in general while bursting at the seams of conformity.

3m, 2f | 75 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

Flexible Casting | 75 minutes | Experimental Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

Recent Acquisitions

Evelyn in Purgatory by Topher Payne “The Breakfast Club for teachers... an uncommonly smart and restrained commentary on the public education system.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution A claim of improper behavior by a failing student lands Evelyn Reid in “the rubber room,” where she encounters a group of other New York City teachers, some guilty, some not, who have long since lost any hope of returning to a classroom. Over a year, these colleagues form an unlikely alliance, reminding each other of forgotten passions, and emerging to face life outside in unexpected ways. 2m, 5f | Full Length Play | Dark Comedy

Romance Novels for Dummies by Boo Killebrew “Irreverent sense of humor spiked with a dollop of Southern sass.” — Boston Globe Southern sisters Bernie and Liz are different in a number of ways. Liz is a stay at home mother, while her sister Bernie enjoys every bit of life and vice of New York City. When Liz’s husband dies, she goes to live with Bernie and adjust accordingly. After going on a series of internet dates, Bernie challenges what makes Liz’s idea of the perfect life perfect. 2m, 3f, 1g | 105 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

The New Black Fest’s Hands Up! 7 Playwrights 7 Testaments

“[A] stirring and often raw compilation.” — Broad Street Review In light of the police shootings of Mike Brown in Ferguson, MO and John Crawford III in Beavercreek, OH, among others, The New Black Fest commissioned seven emerging black playwrights to write monologues that explore their feelings about the well-being of black people in a culture of institutional profiling. 6m, 1f | 70 minutes | Drama

Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End by Allison Engel and Margaret Engel “Allison and Margaret Engel’s script is beautifully structured...a loving tribute.” — DC Theatre Scene From the writers of Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins comes a comic look at one of our country’s most beloved voices, who captured the frustrations of her generation by asking, “If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing in the pits?” Discover the story of the humorist who championed women’s lives with wit that sprang from the most unexpected place of all: the truth. 1f | 90 minutes | Comedy

Fade by Tanya Saracho “Saracho’s writing is so sharp, full lives take shape with an economy of words...a powerful piece with a fresh voice and a bright future.” — Denver Post When Lucia, a Mexican born novelist, gets her first TV writing job, she feels a bit out of place on the white maledominated set. Lucia quickly becomes friends with the only other Latino around, a janitor named Abel. As Abel shares his stories with Lucia, similar plots begin to find their way into the TV scripts that Lucia writes. 1m, 1f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

After All the Terrible Things I Do by A. Rey Pamatmat “A quietly evocative consideration of forgiveness.” — Time Out Chicago Returning to his Midwestern hometown after college, Daniel, a young gay writer, takes a job at the local bookstore. After he and Linda, the Filipina bookstore owner, begin working together, they discover they share a dark connection that goes much deeper than a love of literature. 1m, 1f | 105 minutes | Drama

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

Advance Man: Part One

The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers

of The Honeycomb Trilogy

by Mac Rogers

book by Lori Fischer music & lyrics by Lori Fischer and Don Chaffer

CRITIC’S PICK! “This effectual first part thrives in its persuasive entangling of science fiction with straightforward domestic drama.” — Backstage Astronaut Bill Cooke returns from the first manned mission to Mars bearing secrets and illicit cargo. Now his wife and teenage children are all that stand between Bill and a shocking action that will alter not only their lives but also all of humanity.

FINALIST! 2012 Richard Rogers Award June has inherited the responsibility of caring for her aging father and her sister, just back from rehab. When all June wants is to achieve her dream to become a country star, an opportunity comes her way via the local church. She has been offered the chance to sing parting songs for the recently deceased. A musical about family, loss, and the ways life gives you exactly what you need.

5m, 5f | More than 120 minutes | Drama

Blast Radius: Part Two

of The Honeycomb Trilogy

2m, 2f | 105 minutes | Comedy Small/Combo Band | Easy Vocals | Country/Western

by Mac Rogers

Verité by Nick Jones

CRITIC’S PICK! “It’s a credit to the propulsive plotting that amid debates about dissent, love and honesty, the question Blast Radius most frequently prompts is simply: What happens next?” — The New York Times Twelve years after the events of Advance Man, a sister and brother are at mortal odds on an Earth changed by an alien occupation. Ronnie leads a desperate human insurgency that might have finally found the weapon that will turn the tide. Meanwhile, Abbie has allied himself with the conquering alien race and may have found a chilling solution that will end human resistance for good.

“Mr. Jones deftly satirizes the mania for memoirs.” — The New York Times Struggling writer Jo has been given the opportunity to write her own memoir. Her publishers explicitly ask only that she write about her life truthfully and that it be as exciting as possible. Forced to re-examine her rather dull life, strange events begin to occur, and Jo has to decide if her life is worth writing about or worth living.

5m, 7f | More than 120 minutes | Drama

4m, 2f, 1b | 90 minutes | Dark Comedy

Sovereign: Part Three

of The Honeycomb Trilogy

Poor Behavior by Theresa Rebeck

by Mac Rogers

CRITIC’S PICK! “Mr. Rogers displays an impressive control over his sprawling material... and a sneaky theatrical intelligence.” — The New York Times

“A weekend getaway… provided your idea of a getaway is Napoleon’s retreat from Russia.” — The New York Times A weekend in the country spins out of control when jealous wife Maureen makes a reckless accusation about her husband Ian and their old friend Ella. Ella’s husband Peter tries and fails to stop the domestic carnage in this fierce and funny story about the unexpected ease of betrayal and the fragility of marriage.

The alien race that ruled the Earth has fallen. Ronnie is now the Governor of what used to be Florida, and her brother Abbie is the world’s greatest war criminal, now captured. As Ronnie grapples with an awful decision about what to do with her brother, Abbie makes one last desperate move, forcing a confrontation that will forever change the future of the human race.

2m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy

5m, 4f | More than 120 minutes | Drama Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

Recent Acquisitions

For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday by Sarah Ruhl

Collective Rage: A Play in Five Boops by Jen Silverman

“A warm, funny, and thoughtful play for our times.” — Arts-Louisville.com

“...a perfect balance between the really absurd and the absurdly real.” — Broadway World

When Ann thinks of her father, she remembers him bringing her flowers after performing as Peter Pan in her hometown productions when she was young. As she and her siblings sit in his hospital room during his final moments, their conversational wake explores everything from arguments over politics to when each sibling realized that they grew up. A loving look at a family’s view of death, life, and the allure of never growing up.

Betty is rich, Betty is lonely, Betty’s working on her truck, Betty wants to talk about love, Betty needs to hit something. And Betty keeps using a small hand mirror to stare into parts of herself she’s never examined. Five different women named Betty collide at the intersection of anger, sex, and the “thea-tah.” 5f | 105 minutes | Dark Comedy

3m, 3f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

The Albatross 3rd & Main by Simon David Eden “An excellent comedy that is rich, dark, well designed and acted...loaded with wit, wisdom and the courage to examine some important themes.” — Fringe Review Gene Lacy, a former lobster boat fisherman and proprietor of Lacy’s General Store, is down on his luck big time: he’s ducking creditors, huge gambling debts, and an ex-wife with very expensive tastes. So when Spider walks into his store with a golden lottery ticket in the shape of a rare and valuable dead bird, Gene has a choice to make.

Shakespeare’s Sister by Emma Whipday “It’s an excellent play, entertaining, well informed, thought-provoking and moving all at once.” — Professor Helen Hackett, Professor of Shakespeare, UCL Judith Shakespeare has one ambition: to be a playwright. When her debt-ridden father forces her into an engagement, she runs away with the help of dashing actor Ned Alleyn, hoping to join her brother in London. But when Judith arrives in the plague-stricken capital, she finds her brother gone, Ned engaged to another, and her play refused. 8m, 3f, 1b, 1g, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Drama

3m | 90 minutes | Dark Comedy

Edith in the Dark by Philip Meeks “Meeks’s highly original, well-conceived Christmas entertainment entwines dramatization of the tales with supporting evidence of the darkness of Nesbit’s domestic circumstances.” — The Guardian As midnight swiftly approaches, Edith Nesbit gives a reading of her work. Not one of her cherished children’s tales, but her terrifying early horror stories. As the stories unfold it becomes clear all is not what it seems…Someone in the attic is hiding a deadly secret.

Six Rounds of Vengeance

by Qui Nguyen

“Overflowing with awesome stage combat and imaginative writing, this show packs a huge theatrical punch in just under 90 minutes.” — TheaterMania In a post-apocalyptic “Lost Vegas”,  a young gunslinger named Jess December enlists the help of a mysterious samurai cowboy to help avenge the murder of her sister. However the gang they’ll be going against has powers that go way beyond just gunpowder and steel. To get revenge, they may have to become just as bloodthirsty as the monsters they’re facing. 3m, 2f, Flexible Casting| 90 minutes | Dark Comedy

1m, 2f | 60 minutes | Drama

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

A Human Being Died That Night by Nicholas Wright

Antlia Pneumatica by Anne Washburn

“...quietly gripping...reveals in searing, sometimes heart-rending detail the atrocities committed by the South African police forces during the terrible years of apartheid.” — The New York Times

In a ranch house deep in Texas Hill Country, a once tight-knit group of friends reunites to bury one of their own. But as they look backward through their lives, it becomes clear they’ve lost more than just their old pal. In this haunting new play, the boundaries between then and now grow disarmingly blurry as these estranged friends confront their slippery past.

“A sheer joy, elegantly weird and wonderfully vivid with ghost stories and songs.” — Time Out New York

Eugene de Kock was a paid white political assassin nicknamed “Prime Evil” for his crimes against antiapartheid activists. While serving his two life sentences, black psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela went to interview him hoping to seek humanity and forgiveness within the government-sanctioned monster. The thoughtprovoking interrogation moves from clinical to intimate in a cell where fear and compassion coexist. 1m, 1f | 90 minutes | Drama

El Paso Blue by Octavio Solis

2m, 4f | 105 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

How to Get Into Buildings by Trish Harnetiaux “Harnetiaux does some quite sophisticated structural work here, slipstreaming her events in space ... and a constantly somersaulting timeline.” — Time Out New York

“Winningly intense!” — The Washington Post Al has to take the rap for his pal Duane’s botched robbery, but before he goes, he leaves his drunken ex-beauty queen wife, Sylvie, in the care of his father, Jefe. In the year he’s gone, Jefe and Sylvie fall in love, and when Al is granted early parole, he enlists Duane in a mad and murderous hunt for the fleeing lovers.

Roger and Lucy meet at a convention. Daphne and Nick break down at a diner. Ethan continues to read compulsively from his new book, The Car Accident. It’s soon apparent that reality is slippery and time is shifting. We join our characters’ struggle with their own discovery about love, opportunity, and a desire to pause with trepidation.

3m, 2f | 90 minutes | Drama

3m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 75 minutes | Dark Comedy

Airswimming by Charlotte Jones

The Roommate by Jen Silverman

“The structure and writing — admirably clear and unsentimental — both trip the light fantastic too, effortlessly gliding from the desperately funny to the desperately sad.” — The Guardian

“The Roommate tugs at the heartstrings as much as it tickles the funny bone.” — Louisville.com Sharon, in her mid-50s, is newly divorced and needs a roommate to share her Iowa home. Robyn, also in her mid-50s, needs a place to hide and a chance to start over. But as Sharon begins to uncover Robyn’s secrets, they encourage her own deep-seated desire to transform her life. A dark comedy about what it takes to re-route your life and what happens when the wheels come off.

Set in 1920s England, two women have been incarcerated in a hospital for the “criminally insane” for having borne illegitimate children. Forgotten by their families and not released until the 1970s, Dora and Persephone adopt alter-egos, Dorph and Porph, to enact their fantasies and survive the silence of incarceration. By turns funny and moving, this play reminds us of the forgotten women of these generations in both Britain and Ireland.

2f | 105 minutes | Dark Comedy

2f | Full Length Play | Drama

Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

Recent Acquisitions

PLAYS

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE adapted for the stage by Lee Hall based on the screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard

“A joyous celebration of theatre!”

— Daily Telegraph

Young Will Shakespeare has writer’s block. The deadline for his new play is fast approaching but he’s in desperate need of inspiration. That is, until he finds his muse, Viola. This beautiful young woman is Will’s greatest admirer and will stop at nothing (including breaking the law) to appear in his next play. Against a bustling background of mistaken identity, ruthless scheming, and backstage theatrics, Will’s love for Viola quickly blossoms and inspires him to write his greatest masterpiece. Based on Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard’s Oscar-winning screenplay, this stage adaptation by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot the Musical) is a festive and theatrical celebration of language, laughter, and love.

Original West End cast, Shakespeare in Love (Johan Persson).

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18m, 6f, Flexible Casting More than 120 minutes Dramatic Comedy

Plays

The Nether by Jennifer Haley “The Nether is a gripping and deeply disconcerting look at the Internet and its role in one of the most disturbing issues of our times.” — The Telegraph The Nether is a virtual wonderland that provides total sensory immersion. Just log in, choose an identity, and indulge your every desire. But when a young detective uncovers a disturbing brand of entertainment, she triggers an interrogation into the darkest corners of the imagination. The Nether is both a serpentine crime drama and haunting sci-fi thriller that explores the consequences of living out our private dreams. 3m, 1f, 1g | 75 minutes | Drama

Prayer For My Enemy by Craig Lucas “A newly-minted classic.” — The New York Times Two middle-class families in suburban New York State confront their private demons against the public backdrop of the American incursion into Iraq. As their paths cross in ways that are both comic and terrifying, lies and secrets are at last exposed and an honest, hardearned redemption is achieved for both. 3m, 3f | 105 Minutes | Drama

The End of the Day by Jon Robin Baitz “Bleak yet hilarious. A field day for actors.” — The New York Times This comic foray into greed and indifference stars a dissipated expatriate British doctor turned hustler in Los Angeles. When the cad abandons his Beverly Hills practice and rich wife, his former father-in-law, a gangster, demands repayment of the hefty sum spent to educate and set him up in practice. Upon traipsing off to England to beg from his estranged family, he eventually ties the evils of his worlds into one smashingly corrupt con that entangles international shipping, a movie studio, a priceless Stubbs canvas, a cocaine network, and a beneficent foundation. 4m, 2f | Full Length Play | Dramatic Comedy

The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence by Madeleine George FINALIST! 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Watson: trusty sidekick to Sherlock Holmes; loyal engineer who built Bell’s first telephone; unstoppable super-computer that became reigning Jeopardy! champ; amiable techno-dweeb who, in the present day, is just looking for love. Four constant companions become one in this brilliantly witty, time-jumping, loving tribute (and cautionary tale) dedicated to the people, and machines, upon which we all depend. 2m, 1f | 120 minutes | Drama

Disassembly by Steve Yockey “Strange and hilarious and unsettling.” — San Francisco Weekly Evan is what you would call “accident-prone.” Having suffered from various injuries his entire life, he’s now been randomly stabbed. In his apartment, his twin sister and his fiancée are trying to help him recover while fending off a stream of visitors and a bitter neighbor with a thing for stuffed cats. Something isn’t quite adding up though. As the morning descends into a buzz of secrets and lies, this dark farce quickly becomes a brutally funny commentary on how violence can take hold of just about anyone. 3m, 4f | 75 minutes | Dark Comedy

in a word by Lauren Yee “In A Word is — in a word — riveting. It’s also powerful, moving, funny...” — The San Francisco Examiner Today is the two-year anniversary of Fiona’s son’s disappearance and still, nothing makes sense to her: Not her blasé husband, the incompetent detective, or the neighborhood kidnapper who keeps introducing himself in the checkout line. As Fiona delves back into her memories of that fateful day to uncover that crucial missing piece, grief and comedy collide, and ordinary turns of phrase take on dangerous new meanings 2m, 1f | 75 minutes | Drama

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

MARJORIE PRIME by Jordan Harrison

“Jordan Harrison’s elegant drama keeps developing in your head, like a photographic negative, long after you have seen it.” — The New York Times FINALIST! 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama It’s the age of artificial intelligence, and 85-year-old Marjorie — a jumble of disparate, fading memories — has a handsome new companion who’s programmed to feed the story of her life back to her. What would we remember, and what would we forget, if given the chance? A spare and wondrous exploration of the mysteries of human identity and the limits of what technology can replace. 2m, 2f | Drama | 90 minutes

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Lisa Emery and Lois Smith in Marjorie Prime at Playwrights Horizons (Jeremy Daniel).

Plays

Playwright’s Perspective

JORDAN HARRISON When I started working on the play that became Marjorie Prime, I wanted it to be a collaboration with an artificial intelligence program. The idea was that I would have an extended conversation with a computer — a chatbot — and our exchange would become the dialogue of the play. It would then be performed by two human actors, and the audience would have to guess who was the computer and who was the human. I had recently read Brian Christian’s excellent book, The Most Human Human, about the Turing Test, originally devised by the British mathematician Alan Turing. It’s simple: you put a computer and a human being in another room, and you have to determine, from the way they answer your questions, which one is the human.

intrigued me partly because some of the earliest A.I. programs were conceived as substitutes for human psychologists. (One program from the 1960s, called “Eliza,” famously used the phrase, “Tell me more about your mother.”) Here is the complete, unabridged conversation I had with Pocket Psychiatrist while, appropriately enough, reclining on a couch…

My first day of writing, I quickly learned that A.I. software (at least the sort that a civilian can get hold of ) was not quite ready to hold up its end of the conversation. (Turing himself predicted that, by the year 2000, computers would be able to fool us 70% of the time, but this hasn’t quite come to pass.) Good news for mankind and bad news for the play. I ended up writing Marjorie Prime without computer assistance — though I remained inspired by the frequent misunderstandings and generic go-tos of my A.I. collaborator.

JH: Well, they asked me and I told them I would.

Now, three years after finishing the first draft of the play, I thought I would give it one more go, and see if I could find a more worthy conversant this time around. One of the more promising chat apps on iTunes was called “Pocket Psychiatrist.” It

(Jeremy Daniel) Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Pocket Psychiatrist: Welcome. Why don’t you start by telling me something that’s bothering you? Jordan Harrison: I need to write an essay about my play for the Playwrights Horizons bulletin, and the deadline was yesterday. PP: Need is a very strong word.

PP: Don’t feel like you need to hold back. I’m here to listen. JH: Okay. Do you think it’s possible for artificial intelligence programs to be truly curious? PP: That’s ridiculous. There’s no such thing as artificial intelligence. JH: Are you saying you’re human? PP: This conversation isn’t about me. I want to hear more about you. JH: Sometimes I feel overwhelmed when I think of everything that has to get done. PP: Why only sometimes?

When I started working on the play that became Marjorie Prime, I wanted it to be a collaboration with an artificial intelligence program. JH: Other times I feel more on top of things.

JH: Because I can tell you don’t have a soul.

PP: How long have you felt this way?

PP: We aren’t here to talk about me. Tell me more about you.

[I decide to tell the Pocket Psychiatrist what it wants to hear, to see if we manage to connect any better.]

JH: I was. I was trying to explain why I feel alone.

JH: I think it all started with my mother.

PP: Have things changed since then? JH: No.

PP: Tell me about your mother.

PP: And why is that?

JH: You’d like that wouldn’t you.

JH: I want my money back.

PP: Hmm… Let’s talk about your fears.

PP: If I were to ask you what the meaning of life is, what would you tell me?

JH: Spiders, death, enclosed spaces, traveling in small planes… PP: Spiders are wonderful at getting rid of other bugs though, don’t you think?

JH: It’s a Monty Python movie. PP: Tell me more about you. JH: You’re kind of repetitive, you know that?

JH: That’s true. Can you find an upside to death?

PP: There is no harm in repeating a good thing.

PP: Does the concept of death scare you?

JH: Well, there’s tedium.

JH: The reality of death scares me.

PP: Tell me the first thing you thought when you woke up this morning.

PP: Are you feeling any stress at all right now?

JH: I thought about how I need to write this piece.

JH: Yes. Talking with you sort of makes me feel more alone than when I’m alone.

PP: Need is a strong word.

PP: I see. And why is that?

There you have it. Clearly this wasn’t a breakthrough session for me and the Pocket Psychiatrist. There’s a distinct, faintly chilly sensation to talking with a chatbot — the unmistakable feeling of talking to myself. Although I did feel forthcoming with “him.” I even felt like myself, you might say, talking in this odd void. Even if my conversant was less than human, he wasn’t entirely dismissible. This is the sort of ambivalence that drove the writing of Marjorie Prime.

JH: There is no harm in repeating good things, I hear.

This article was reprinted with permission from Playwrights Horizons and originally appeared on their website and then on Breaking Character Magazine in February, 2016.

The Herd by Rory Kinnear

Love and Information by Caryl Churchill

“...wise and truthful new play...has many moments that bring the tears flooding to your eyes.” — The Chicago Tribune

“Leave it to Ms. Churchill to come up with a work that so ingeniously and exhaustively mirrors our age of the splintered attention span.” — The New York Times

Andy, brain-damaged and physically incapacitated from birth, has a mental age of ten months. Carol, his anxiety-ridden mother, has arranged a small family party to celebrate his 21st birthday. Not that he’s counting. But Carol is. Counting the minutes until he arrives, counting the unexpected guests, counting the times that this has happened before. 4m, 3f | 120 minutes | Drama

Someone sneezes. Someone can’t get a signal. Someone won’t answer the door. Someone put an elephant on the stairs. Someone’s not ready to talk. Someone is her brother’s mother. Someone hates irrational numbers. Someone told the police. Someone got a message from the traffic light. Someone’s never felt like this before. In this fast moving kaleidoscope, more than 100 characters try to make sense of what they know. Flexible Casting | 105 minutes | Experimental

Passion Play by Sarah Ruhl “Let’s just get the superlatives out of the way. Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play is the most exciting, stimulating, and thrilling piece of theater to hit New York since Angels in America.” — Backstage A community of players rehearses its annual Easter Passion play in three different eras: 1575 England, just before Queen Elizabeth outlaws the ritual; 1934 Oberammergau, Bavaria, as Hitler rises to power; and Spearfish, South Dakota, from the time of Vietnam through the Reagan Era. At each time, the players grapple with the transformative nature of art, while politics are never far in the background. 8m, 3f, Flexible Casting | More than 120 minutes Dramatic Comedy/Experimental

American Hwangap by Lloyd Suh “As refreshingly original in its point of view as in its quirky humor and affecting relationships.” — The San Francisco Gate Steeped in the difficulty of reunification and reconciliation is the story of Min Suk Chun. 15 years earlier, he left his family in a West Texas suburb to return to his native Korea. On the occasion of his 60th birthday (hwangap), a milestone signifying the completion of the Eastern Zodiac and a type of rebirth, he returns to his ex-wife and now adult children as they struggle to reconcile their broken past with the mercurial, verbose, and often exasperating patriarch now back at the head of the table. 3m, 2f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

10 Out of 12 by Anne Washburn “A strange and ecstatic vision…a wholly original love song to the maddening art of the theater.” — The New York Times In this highly entertaining, eye-opening look into the daunting process of tech rehearsals, 10 Out of 12 places the audience in the middle of one such rehearsal, situated amongst sound designers who mix cues, stage managers who gossip about actors, and one director who struggles to pull it all together. Theatre-insiders will laugh with understanding, and outsiders will revel in wonderment at this glimpse into life on the other side of the footlights. 8m, 6f | More than 120 minutes | Comedy

The Drunken City by Adam Bock “Bock’s dialogue displays a poetic sensibility while staying rooted in everyday language; fragments, incomplete thoughts, and sudden realizations...are all utilized to create heightened but natural sounding conversation.” — TheaterMania On the bar crawl to end all crawls, three 20-something brides-to-be find their lives going topsy-turvy when one of them begins to question her future after a chance encounter with a recently jilted handsome stranger. A wildly theatrical take on the mystique of marriage and the ever-shifting nature of love and identity in a city that never sleeps. 3m, 3f | 90 minutes | Comedy

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

“Ms. Gurira weaves issues of cultural identity and displacement, generational frictions, and other meaty matters into dialogue that flows utterly naturally.”

FAMILIAR by Danai Gurira

— The New York Times In the middle of a Minnesota winter, a Zimbabwean American family prepares for the wedding of their eldest daughter. When the bride invites her aunt to perform a traditional African marriage ritual, the family’s delicate balance of Zimbabwean culture and American lifestyle is put to the test. Tensions flare and long-buried secrets surface, forcing everyone to confront where they come from and where they want to be. Gurira’s heartfelt and poignant comedy is a lively, refreshing take on the familiar struggle to find balance between tradition and modernity.

3m, 5f Full Length Play Dramatic Comedy

Ito Aghayere in Familiar at Playwrights Horizons (Joan Marcus).

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SIGNIFICANT OTHER by Joshua Harmon

“A tenderly unromantic romantic comedy, as richly funny as it is ultimately heart-stirring.” — The New York Times A modern comedy that exquisitely captures the joys and anxieties of growing up, and the shifting grounds of friendship when marriage enters into the equation. Jordan is a single, gay man in his late-20s, and finding Mr. Right is easier said than done. When his three best girlfriends get married one by one, Jordan becomes increasingly aware of — and desperate about — his singleness. 3m, 4f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

This title is headed to Broadway in 2017 and is unavailable for licensing at the time of publication. Sas Goldberg and Gideon Glick in Significant Other at Roundabout Theatre (Joan Marcus). Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

Charles Busch’s The Tribute Artist CRITIC’S PICK. “Sheer joy!” — The New York Times

HEIDI SCHRECK

When his elderly landlady dies in her sleep, an out-ofwork female impersonator takes on her identity in order to hang onto her valuable Greenwich Village townhouse. This “perfect” scheme goes awry and leads to a wild path of twists and reversals plotted by an eccentric rogues’ gallery of outrageous schemers. 2m, 4f | 120 minutes | Comedy

The Body of an American by Dan O’Brien

Creature

After being pestered by devils for more than half a year, Margery Kempe — new mother, mayor’s daughter, and proprietress of a highly profitable beer business — is liberated from her torment by a vision of Jesus Christ in purple robes. Visions are hard to come by, even in 1401. Should we trust the new Margery, with her fasting and her weeping and her chastity fixation, or burn her with the other heretics?

“An engrossingly subjective docudrama which feels psychologically acute and politically important...a really superb piece of theatre.” — The Stage This play speaks to a moment in recent history when a single, stark photograph — the body of an American dragged from the wreck of a Blackhawk through the streets of Mogadishu — reshaped the course of global events. In a story ranging far in time and place — from Rwanda to Afghanistan to the Canadian Arctic — and in powerful, theatrical language, Dan O’Brien explores the ethical and personal consequences of Paul Watson’s photograph, as well as the interplay between political upheaval and the experience of trauma in an age saturated by images and information.

3m, 3f | 95 minutes | Comedy

Grand Concourse

Having dedicated her life to religious service, Shelley runs a Bronx soup kitchen with unsentimental efficiency, but lately her heart’s not quite in it. Her brisk nature masks an unsettling fear that her efforts are meaningless. When Emma, an idealistic but confused college dropout, arrives to volunteer, her reckless mix of generosity and self-involvement pushes Shelley to the breaking point.

2m | 90 minutes | Drama

The Destiny of Me by Larry Kramer

2m, 2f | 90 minutes | Drama

The Consultant

FINALIST! 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Ned Weeks, having lost his lover to AIDS, has tested positive and checked into a hospital to begin treatment. He battles with the medical establishment as he battles his past in this memory play in the tradition of The Glass Menagerie. Moving fluidly from present to past and back again, The Destiny of Me reveals the young Alexander who grows up to be Ned, his coming to terms with his homosexuality and his family’s reluctance to do so.

After a series of brutal layoffs at Sutton, Feingold and McGrath, a precocious young consultant is brought in to save a middle-aged ad man’s job, and maybe his life. A hilarious and keenly observed play takes an intimate look at how money and work shape the human heart, and what we owe others when everything is falling apart. 2m, 3f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

5m, 2f | Full Length Play | Drama

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Plays

The Most Deserving by Catherine Trieschmann “Smart, hilarious, riveting!” — The New Yorker A small town arts council has $20,000 to award to a local artist with an “under-represented American voice.” Should they choose the teacher/painter of modest talent or the self-taught artist who creates religious figures out of trash? A comedy that explores how gossip, politics, and opinions of art can decide who is the most deserving. 3m, 3f | 90 Minutes | Comedy

The Old Neighborhood by David Mamet “This is Mamet unplugged. What we have, in essence, are three dialogues. And Mamet is of course, a virtuoso of dialogue.” — New York Daily News In these three short plays, middle-aged Bobby Gould returns to the old neighborhood in a series of encounters with his past that, however briefly, open windows on his present: Bobby and an old buddy fantasize about finding themselves in a nostalgic shtetl paradise; Bobby’s sister, Jolly, unscrolls a list of childhood grievances that is at once painful and hilarious; and old girlfriend, Deeny, finds herself obsessively free-associating on gardening, sex, and subatomic particles. 3m, 2f | Full Length Play | Drama

Title and Deed by Will Eno “Leaves you happily word-drunk! Gorgeously and inventively wrought. Haunting and often fiercely funny.” — The New York Times Behold the newest nobody of the funniest century yet. He’s almost Christ-like, from a distance, in terms of height and weight. Listen closely or drift off uncontrollably, as he speaks to you directly about the notion of home, about the notion of the world. All of it delivered with the authority that is the special province of the unsure and the un-homed, which is a word he made up accidentally. A stunning monologue which is a haunting and often fiercely funny meditation on life as a state of permanent exile 1m | 75 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

Everything You Touch by Sheila Callaghan WINNER! 2015 Ted Schmitt Award for World Premiere of an Outstanding New Play, L.A. Drama Critics’ Circle Victor is a ruthless fashion designer in the 1970s at the top of his game. Esme, his glamorous protégé and muse, is pushed aside when an ordinary Midwestern woman inspires Victor to make his artistry accessible to the masses. A generation later, a woman grappling with a healthy dose of self-loathing must wrestle her own family demons to find her way through the world of fashion that won’t give a woman her size a second look. 2m, 6f | 120 minutes | Dark Comedy

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Out of the City by Leslie Ayvazian “There may be sex in the city, but stranger things happen in the forest primeval... Leslie Ayvazian takes this premise and runs with it.” — Talkin’ Broadway When Carol & Matt and Jill & Dan pay a visit to a b&b upstate to celebrate Carol’s 60th birthday, the two wives share an unexpected kiss. A fast-moving farcical comedy that explores how a simple gesture can take on profound meaning for people who take everything for granted. 2m, 2f | 90 minutes | Comedy

The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls by Meg Miroshnik “Russian culture is rife with myth and magic. Fairytale... takes place in a similar kind of dreamland. In this dreamland, people sleep with one eye open.” — The New York Times Once upon a time, in 2005, a 20-year-old girl named Annie returns to her native Russia. Underneath a glamorous post-Soviet Moscow, she discovers an enchanted motherland teeming with evil stepmothers, wicked witches, and ravenous bears. In a tale more treacherous than any child’s fairytale, Annie must learn how to become the heroine of her own story. 6f | 90 minutes | Dark Comedy

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

“Annie Baker’s John is so good on so many levels that it casts a unique and brilliant light.”

JOHN

by Annie Baker

— The New Yorker

“... riveting, unpredictable, altogether human theater.” — Newsday The week after Thanksgiving. A bed & breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A cheerful innkeeper. A young couple struggling to stay together. Thousands of inanimate objects, watching. A simple enough description, but Annie Baker’s fascinating play takes a look at what theatre can be and builds a world all its own. Baker’s hyperrealism bleeds into the eerily supernatural in this quiet tale, where actors and audiences alike delve into ideas of self, mortality, and the solitude of human experience.

Hong Chau in John at Signature Theatre (Matthew Murphy).

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1m, 3f 120 minutes Drama

Plays

Ugly Lies the Bone by Lindsey Ferrentino

Dog Opera by Constance Congdon

“A bracing drama that confronts an achingly topical issue with hardheaded honesty and admirable compassion. A brave playwright and a writer of dauntless conviction.” — The New York Times

“A singular work created by an imagination of redeeming freedom and eccentricity.” — The New York Times

Newly discharged soldier Jess has finally returned to her Florida hometown. She brings with her not only vivid memories of Afghanistan, but painful burns that have left her physically and emotionally scarred. Jess soon realizes that things at home have changed even more than she has. Through the use of virtual reality video game therapy, she builds a breathtaking new world where she can escape her pain. As Jess advances farther in the game, she begins to restore her relationships, her life and, slowly, herself. 2m, 3f | 90 minutes | Drama

The Open House by Will Eno WINNER! 2014 Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Play People have been born into families since people started getting born at all. Playwrights have been trying to write Family Plays for a long time, too. And typically these plays try to answer endlessly complicated questions of blood and duty and inheritance and responsibility. They try to answer the question, “Can things really change?” People have been trying nobly for years and years to have plays solve in two hours what hasn’t been solved in many lifetimes. This has to stop.

Peter and Madeline have been friends since they were teenagers in Queens. Though more loving than most couples, they are incompatible: Peter is gay and hides behind snappy retorts. Maddie feeds her lack of self-esteem with Oreos and is drawn to men who treat her badly. The play follows their interactions with Maddie’s alcoholic mother, Peter’s father, various lovers, pickups, and friends with AIDS, while Jackie, a homeless teenager, addresses the audience as a Greek Chorus to throw everyone’s problems into perspective. 5m, 2f | More than 120 minutes | Comedy

Election Day by Josh Tobiessen “An outrageous comedy...at double-espresso speed.” — The New York Times It’s Election Day, and Adam knows his over-zealous girlfriend will never forgive him if he fails to vote. But when his sex-starved sister, an ecoterrorist, and a mayoral candidate willing to do anything for a vote all show up, Adam finds that making the trip to the polls might be harder than he thought. A dark comedy about the price of political (and personal) campaigns. 3m, 2f | 90 minutes | Comedy

3m, 2f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

3C by David Adjmi “Adjmi’s script, quick-cutting from dopey to deranged in seconds, is intensely funny and unnerving in equal measure.” — Time Out New York The war in Vietnam is over and Brad, an ex-serviceman, lands in L.A. to start a new life. When he winds up trashed in Connie and Linda’s kitchen after a party, the three figure out a living arrangement that has hilarious and devastating consequences. Inspired by 1970s sitcoms, 1950s existentialist comedy, Chekhov, and Disco anthems, 3C is a terrifying yet amusing look at a culture that likes to amuse itself, even as it teeters on the brink of ruin. 3m, 3f | 90 minutes | Satire

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Se Llama Cristina by Octavio Solis “An accomplished playwright who knows how to manipulate a situation for maximum psychological insight, and this text appears to be so close to the bone that its subjectivity comes across with raw tension.” — Hollywood Reporter A man and woman awake from an apparent drugging night to find their baby missing. They relive their history in order to remember the way back to their child and to try and set things right. A haunting, poetic journey moves through time from past to present to future, and from darkness and doubt to a glimmer of light. 2m, 2f | 90 minutes | Drama

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

SAMUEL D. HUNTER Pocatello

Eddie manages an Italian chain restaurant in Pocatello — a small, unexceptional American city that is slowly being paved over with strip malls and franchises. But he can’t serve enough Soup, Salad & Breadstick Specials to make his hometown feel like home. Against the harsh backdrop of Samuel D. Hunter’s Idaho, this heartbreaking comedy is a cry for connection in an increasingly lonely American landscape. 5m, 5f / 90 minutes / Drama

The Few

Four years ago, Bryan abandoned his labor of love, a newspaper for truckers. Now he’s returned and things have changed. His former lover is filled with rage, his new coworker is filled with adoration, and his paper is filled with personal ads. As he considers giving up for good, Bryan searches for what he couldn’t find on the road: a way to keep faith in humanity. 2m, 1f / 90 minutes / Drama

A Great Wilderness After decades as the gentle-natured leader of a Christian retreat that endeavors to “cure” gay teens, Walt is packing up and preparing for retirement. But when his final client quietly disappears into the remote Idaho wilderness, Walt discovers that his unwavering moral compass no longer points the way. 3m, 3f / 120 minutes / Drama

The Healing

25 years ago, a group of kids met at a summer camp where the head counselor taught them that their disabilities could be “cured” through the power of prayer. Today, the old friends gather to mourn the untimely passing of one of their circle. Over the course of the night, old wounds are uncovered, friendships tested, and a troubling truth about their late friend becomes clear. The Healing features a cast of mostly differently abled actors. 2m, 5f / 90 minutes / Drama

Rest

A retirement home in northern Idaho is being shut down, and only three residents and a bare-bones staff remain. When a record breaking blizzard blows into town and an elderly resident disappears into the storm, everyone is brought to face their own mortality. 4m, 3f / 90 minutes / Drama

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Plays

(Jeremy Daniel)

Pocatello Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

WHEN YOU’RE HERE, YOU’RE FAMILY by Garrett Anderson The setting of Samuel D. Hunter’s Pocatello is written as a “nationwide Italian franchise.” Although the restaurant that protagonist Eddie manages isn’t named in the script, the endless soup, salad, and breadsticks give it away: Olive Garden. But in production there is a specificity that is necessary to confirm that assumption. For the world premiere at Playwrights Horizons, Hunter, along with director Davis McCallum, scenic designer Lauren Helpern, and props supervisor Kate Stack crafted a space that felt very much like the Olive Garden that we all know well. “There are these, what are they, sugar packets? The pink for Sweet’N Low and so on. Each one has a little Olive Garden label on it,” said Joseph Fernandez, the Production Assistant. “And the team wanted the audience members in that first row to see that kind of detail.” The props were undoubtedly authentic, as Fernandez continued, “Olive Garden even has breadsticks that you can order to go! So we would order a bunch every three weeks for the shows.” However, the authenticity didn’t stop there. In the first week of rehearsal, the stage management team reserved an hour for the cast members who played restaurant employees to meet with a thenOlive Garden employee and fellow actor, Nick Flatto, for a brief training.

“There’s a line early in the play during the chaos scene when Max offers Tammy a sample of wine and he says, ‘Anything free is good, right?’ which is a line that Nick said to customers all the time…and Sam [Hunter] loved it so he put it in,” Fernandez said. Flatto answered questions about his day-to-day experiences at Olive Garden — everything from banter with customers to what he carried on him in his apron when serving tables. “It was mostly about the logistics, whose job it was to do what,” Flatto said. “T.R. [Knight] would ask ‘Well, would a manager do this or do that’ and my response would be ‘Well how much do you care about your job?’” Knight’s character, Eddie, certainly cares about his job — perhaps a little too much, considering it’s a restaurant he doesn’t even own. But it’s more than a job or a restaurant; it’s the last glimpse of what he feels to be his. Eddie’s grandfather’s restaurant is long gone, and his immediate family is growing further apart. However, given that the chain stores that fill up Pocatello — and so many more small towns every year — are a major cause of the deterioration of the identities that make these towns unique, it’s ironic that it’s this restaurant that is keeping Eddie’s feeling of home together. So why go to the trouble of putting that on stage? “I was just thinking back to my own experiences and public places

from my childhood and a certain Italian food franchise looms large in my memory,” Hunter said in an interview for Playwrights Horizons. “We went to visit my family in Boise…and there was an Olive Garden there. I loved it! When I was a kid I loved the food, the fake Italian-ness of it was a lot of fun. I just remember seeing a lot of family there [and] it was oddly successful in this mission statement of ‘When you’re here, you’re family’… So I wanted to write a play about this chain restaurant that wasn’t ironic.” The play certainly achieves that goal. Audience members who saw the Playwrights Horizons production raved that the play felt authentic, touching, and real. Hunter’s words provided the landscape, while the production team’s attention to detail brought it to life. And beyond the restaurant, there’s a reason it’s so easy for this play to feel authentic: as real as the breadsticks are the numbers of national chains putting small businesses out of commission; as real as the sugar packets are the people forced to take on jobs like Eddie’s when they can’t support their initial passion. More recognizable than the several household brand names are the desires for a connection to something deeper than brand. Thankfully, Hunter’s play gives you just that. This article originally appeared on Breaking Character Magazine in February, 2016.

Ken Ludwig’s BASKERVILLE: A SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY

“A madcap sendup of what you might hold dear about that Doyle classic, done up in the style of The 39 Steps.” — D.C. Theatre Scene The male heirs of the Baskerville line are being dispatched one by one. To find their ingenious killer, Holmes and Watson must brave the desolate moors before a family curse dooms its newest heir. Watch as our intrepid investigators try to escape a dizzying web of clues, silly accents, disguises, and deceit as five actors deftly portray more than 40 characters. Join the fun and see how far from elementary the truth can be. Don your deerstalker cap! The play’s afoot! Comedy | 4m, 1f | 120 minutes Lucas Hall and Gregory Wooddell in Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville at McCarter Theatre (Margot Schulman)

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

Charles Busch’s Cleopatra

Back Back Back by Itamar Moses

“...always smartly campy, often over-the-top, occasionally very raunchy, and always hilarious — with an infinite all-you-can-eat buffet of priceless lines and situations running throughout.” — Huffington Post

“No one plays King of the Hill more craftily than Itamar Moses. Taut, beautifully modulated, and riveting, with the bewildering force of a curveball pitch.” — Time Out New York

The turbulent life of Cleopatra is told, viewed through a comic lens, evoking both 1930s Hollywood epics and the grand 19th Century romantic theatre. This version of the life of the Egyptian Queen takes her from her teenage seduction of Julius Caesar through her volatile tragic romance with Mark Antony to her untimely death.

Before headlines blazed, before the Mitchell Report and ESPN lit up millions of television screens with the scandals, before congressional jaws dropped, comes the story of three guys making their way in the world of professional baseball — a world too competitive to rely solely on raw talent. What happens is a behind-theheadlines battle for their careers, their legacies, and the future of America’s favorite pastime.

5m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Comedy

3m | 90 minutes | Drama

Last Dance by Marsha Norman

OOHRAH! by Bekah Brunstetter

“Pretty women, pretty men, pretty words... A play that suggests that if loveliness is not next to godliness, it is at least kind of divine.” — The New York Times

“The young scribe’s talent and potential are obvious in this Southern-basted dramatic comedy...” — Variety

An aging poet from the American South who now lives on the coast of France has decided to give away her young lover. Her goddaughter thinks she has actually fallen in love with a local fisherman. The young lover is certain she really wants to marry him. This bittersweet comedy of manners is a tribute to the grandeur of Southern style and a musing on what a smart woman might really want toward the end of her life.

Ron is back from his final tour in Iraq, and his wife Sara is excited to restart their life together. When a young marine visits the family, life is turned upside down. A disarmingly funny and candid drama that raises challenging questions about what it means when the military is woven into the fabric of a family, and service is far more than just a job. 4m, 3f | 105 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

2m, 2f | 90 minutes | Comedy

Mr. Burns,

The Mnemonist of Dutchess County by Josh Koenigsberg

a post-electric play

by Anne Washburn

“A funny and touching new play.” — Broadway.com Meet Milo Mazowski, a campus security guard whose determination to woo a lovely local bar owner is only hampered by one thing: his unlimited memory which makes him spout out pretty much every unromantic thing he’s ever heard in his life. A bittersweet comedy about learning how to forget. 4m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy

“Makes the end of civilization seem like the perfect time to create glowing objects of wonder and beauty.” — Time Out New York After the collapse of civilization, a group of survivors share a campfire and begin to piece together the plot of The Simpsons episode “Cape Feare,” entirely from memory. Seven years later, this and other snippets of pop culture (sitcom plots, commercials, jingles, and pop songs) have become the live entertainment of a postapocalyptic society, sincerely trying to hold on to its past. 75 years later, these are the myths and legends from which new forms of performance are created. 3m, 5f | More than 120 minutes | Dark Comedy

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Plays

Middletown by Will Eno “Delicate, moving, piercing, tart, funny, gorgeous. Mr. Eno’s gift may be unmatched among writers of his generation. Glimmers from start to finish.” — The New York Times As a friendship develops between longtime resident John Dodge and new arrival Mary Swanson, the lives of the inhabitants of Middletown intersect in strange and poignant ways in a journey that takes them from the local library to outer space and points between. 6m, 6f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

Native Son

The Biography of a Young American

by Paul Green and Richard Wright adapted from the novel by Richard Wright “Native Son is drama and theatre with mind and style of its own.” — The New York Times

Carnival Kids by Lucas Kavner CRITIC’S PICK. “Surprising and very funny...” — The New York Times When an aimless former rock musician finds himself broke with nowhere to go, he’s forced to move in with his son in a cramped New York City apartment. As they try to forge a new existence together, an unusual moneymaking scheme further complicates their lives and loves. A dramedy about the people we choose to let in, and the parts of ourselves we refuse to live with. 3m, 2f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

Glorious!

The True Story of Florence Foster Jenkins, the Worst Singer in the World

by Peter Quilter

Bigger Thomas is an ignorant boy who hates a world that has imprisoned him with shadowy forces he does not understand. He murders the daughter of his white employer in terror and by accident. But the murder gives him a sense of power and achievement. Now he is a man of action, fighting the enemy for his own life. He is captured in a manhunt and his lawyer persuades him to plead guilty in the courts. At the trial his lawyer defends him, not on the facts of the case, which are hopeless, but on the causes of Bigger’s psychological tangle. As he stands in the death cell Bigger for the first time understands that he is a member of the human race. 15m, 14f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Drama

Shoot/ Get Treasure/Repeat by Mark Ravenhill “Ravenhill writes tales that hold a gun to your heart and shoot you in the soul, but leave you alive so you can feel every last drop of pain.” — The Austin Chronicle

In 1940s New York, the performer everyone wanted to see live was Florence Foster Jenkins, an enthusiastic soprano whose pitch was far from perfect. Known as “the first lady of the sliding scale,” she warbled and screeched her way through the evening to an audience who mostly fell about with laughter. A joyously happy woman who paid little attention to her critics but instead surrounded herself with a circle of devoted friends.

An epic cycle of 16 short plays examining the personal and political effect of war on modern life. Each of the plays is named after an existing classical work as Ravenhill stages the intensity of individual pain against a glimpsed vast narrative of conflict. A child talks to a headless man, a woman is afflicted with mysterious intestinal pain, a couple talks about their garden bench, a soldier demands love from a woman whose country he has liberated. Each new play is a fragment of suffering, and a fierce sardonic attack on the war on terror. The scenes are lightly connected, but can be performed in any combination or order.

2m, 4f | 120 minutes | Comedy

Flexible Casting | Sketches | Satire

“Hilarious and touching.” — Daily Mail

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

“Mr. Eno’s voice may be the most singular of his generation, but it’s humane, literate and slyly hilarious. The Realistic Joneses brought me a pleasurable rush virtually unmatched by anything I’ve seen this season.”

THE REALISTIC JONESES by Will Eno

— The New York Times

In The Realistic Joneses, we meet Bob and Jennifer and their new neighbors, John and Pony, two suburban couples who have even more in common than their identical homes and their shared last names. As their relationships begin to irrevocably intertwine, the Joneses must decide between their idyllic fantasies and their imperfect realities.

Michael O’Connell and Kerry Ryan in The Realistic Joneses at Third Rail Rep (Owen Carey).

Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

2m, 2f 90 minutes Dramatic Comedy

Plays

THE CITY OF CONVERSATION by Anthony Giardina

“A savvy depiction of social skill as political art, in a city that’s defined by political science.”

— The Washington Post

In 1979, Washington, D.C. was a place where people actually talked to each other. Where adversaries fought it out on the Senate floor and then smoothed it out over drinks and hors d’oeuvres. But it was all about to change. In this play spanning 30 years and six presidential administrations, Hester Ferris throws Georgetown dinner parties that can change the course of Washington’s politics. When her beloved son suddenly turns up with an ambitious Reaganite girlfriend and a new conservative worldview, Hester must choose between preserving her family and defending the causes she’s spent her whole life fighting for.

4m, 4f, 1b More than 120 minutes Drama

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

Jacuzzi by Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen developed by Oliver Butler

The Four of Us by Itamar Moses “Extremely clever and enjoyable study of friendship. Funny, touching, and wickedly smart.” — Time Out New York What if all your dreams came true...for your best friend? Ben’s first novel vaults him into literary stardom, and his friend David, a struggling playwright, is thrilled by Ben’s success...and crushed by it. From the dreams of aspiring youth to the realities of adulthood, this poignant two-man comedy explores friendship and memory, the gap between our hopes and our lives, and the struggles between our egos and our capacity to love.

“A slow, killing pace appropriate to a Japanese horror movie. The tension is off the charts!” — Variety The newest play from The Debate Society. In the Marshall family’s peacefully remote Colorado ski chalet, Erik and Helene are making themselves very much at home. So at home, they just might stay for good. At the edge of civilization, the lifestyles of the rich collide with the lifestyles of the aimless in the bubbling waters of a hot tub.

2m | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

Edward Albee’s Occupant

3m, 1f | 90 minutes | Dark Comedy/Thriller

Kindness by Adam Rapp

“Occupant bows its head in awe and gratitude before the mysterious force of will that allows great artists to be.” — The New York Sun

“A well-crafted mini-thriller, which keeps you in suspense until the final blackout.” — New York Daily News An ailing mother and her teenaged son flee Illinois to the relative calm and safety of a midtown Manhattan hotel. Mom holds tickets to a popular musical but her son isn’t interested, so she takes a kindly cabdriver instead. Meanwhile, her son entertains a visitor from down the hall: an enigmatic, potentially dangerous, young woman. A play about the possibility for sympathy in a harsh world and of mercy in the face of devastating circumstances.

The public accomplishments and private conflicts of flamboyant sculptor Louise Nevelson are thoroughly examined by an unnamed interviewer who questions the posthumous artist with unabashed scrutiny. From her unique vantage point beyond the grave, Nevelson answers queries with a clarity born of the distance provided by death. A touching, humorous, and honest tribute to a woman who was a pioneer for free-thinking females everywhere. 1m, 1f | 75 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

The Waverly Gallery by Kenneth Lonergan

2m, 2f | 120 minutes | Drama

Fiction by Steven Dietz

FINALIST! 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

“Everything about the play has an elegance and richness our theater sees too seldom.” — New York Daily News Linda and Michael Waterman are both successful writers, happily married to each other. They thrive on the give and take of their unusually honest and candid relationship. When they decide to share their diaries with each other, the boundaries between past and present, fact and fiction, trust and betrayal begin to break down. No life, as it turns out, is an open book.

Gladys, the elderly matriarch of the Green family, has run an art gallery in a small Greenwich Village hotel for years. The management now wants to replace her less than thriving gallery with a coffee shop. Always irascible, but now increasingly erratic, Gladys is a cause of concern to her family. A wacky and heartrending look at the effect of senility on a family. 3m, 2f | More than 120 minutes | Comedy

1m, 2f | Full Length Play | Drama Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

Plays

brownsville song (b-side for tray)

by Kimber Lee “Ms. Lee’s language is vivid and rhythmic...it argues persuasively against treating the next neighborhood death as just one more sad statistic.” — The New York Times Set in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, brownsville song (b-side for tray) is a powerful tale of resilience in the face of tragedy. Moving fluidly between past and present, this bold new play tells the story of Tray, a spirited African-American 18-year-old, and his family, who must hold on to hope when Tray’s life is cut short. 2m, 2f, 1g | 90 minutes | Drama

Bulrusher by Eisa Davis FINALIST! 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Found floating in a basket on the river as an infant, Bulrusher is an orphan with a gift for clairvoyance that makes her feel like a stranger even amongst the strange: the taciturn schoolteacher who adopted her, the madam who runs her brothel with a fierce discipline, the logger with a zest for horses and women, and the guitar-slinging boy who is after Bulrusher’s heart. Just when she thought her world might close in on her, she discovers an entirely new sense of self when a black girl from Alabama comes to town. 3m, 3f | 120 minutes | Drama

Betrayed by George Packer

Taking Care of Baby by Dennis Kelly

“...Betrayed takes a story you think you already know and, by embodying it in flesh and blood, makes it memorably immediate.” — San Francisco Chronicle

“A crafty little play... [Mr. Kelly] deftly scrambles both our sympathies for, and our trust in, this play’s characters.” — The New York Times

Millions of Iraqis welcomed the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. In January 2007, George Packer met two Iraqi men in the lobby of the Palestine Hotel to hear their story and those of other Iraqis working as key personnel for the U.S. military and occupation authorities. Instead of respect and gratitude, those who chose to help bridge the gap between the occupiers and the occupied were met with suspicion and hostility.

This tale of a mother accused and convicted of the deaths of her two young babies is horrific yet powerful. By adopting a form commonly associated with verbatim theatre, the subject is imbued with a clarity that is at once both unrelenting and utterly engaging, as it slowly emerges that these events are not truth at all. What unfolds is a bleak yet tender exploration of grief, exploitation, and the innate hypocrisies of reportage.

5m, 1f, Flexible Casting | 105 Minutes | Drama

7m, 6f | Full Length Play | Drama

King Liz by Fernanda Coppel

God’s Ear by Jenny Schwartz

“Ms. Coppel’s dialogue is finely honed, her characters drawn with a keen sense of both their forceful drives and inner conflicts.” — The New York Times

“A triumph! An adventurous, arresting new play!” — The New York Times

Sports agent Liz Rico has money and an elite client roster, but a woman in a man’s industry has to fight to stay on top. She’s worked twice as hard to get where she is and wants to take over the agency that she’s helped build. Enter Freddie Luna, a high school basketball superstar with a troubled past. If Liz can keep this talented yet volatile young star in line, she just might end up making not only his career, but her own as well. But at what price?

A husband and wife have trouble coping with the loss of their son. They find themselves speaking in clichés and the husband travels to forget. The wife stays with their daughter and the tooth fairy and tries to figure out how to cope from home. Through intentionally clichéd language, the play gracefully explores the way the death of a child tears one family apart. 3m, 4f | 90 minutes | Drama/Fantasy

3m, 3f | 120 minutes | Drama

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

THE ROYALE by Marco Ramirez

“A well-constructed drama that captures both the beautiful frenzy of boxing and the (sadly still relevant) volatile state of race relations in America.” — The Telegraph Jay “The Sport” Jackson dreams of being the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. But it’s 1905, and in the racially segregated world of boxing, his chances are as good as knocked out. Loosely based on real events, this is an explosive look at the sights and sounds of the early twentieth century boxing circuit, and the ultimate fight for a place in history. 4m, 1f | 90 minutes | Drama Robert Christopher Riley and Okieriete Onaodowan in The Royale at The Old Globe (Jim Cox).

Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

Plays

(Tristram Kenton)

Father Comes Home From The Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

THE SHIFT OF CULTURAL CONVERSATION by Ben Coleman It is not uncommon for a new play to spend years in development before it finally sees a professional production. For playwright SuzanLori Parks, it was a five year journey to fully realize her epic play, Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3. The play tells the story of a slave, Hero, who fights alongside his master in the Civil War, in order to earn his freedom. Parks began developing the play at the Public Theater in 2009, and it received its world premiere in the fall of 2014. Over the course of those five years, the cultural conversation in America took a decided shift. A play that began churning on the heels of President Obama’s inauguration and naïve (if hopeful) claims of a “post-racial America” saw its world premiere two-to-three months after the tragic deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, and the rise of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. In an interview with NPR, Parks states, “I wrote these plays long before the current events…happened. It wasn’t like I was commenting on these events. That’s the distressing thing.” Art mirrors life, life mirrors art, and social commentary is one of the most powerful mirrors a playwright can hold up to an audience. Although the play occurs during the end of the Civil War, Parks’ use of anachronism and parallelism allows the play’s meaning to reverberate well into the present day and beyond. In the play’s first scene, a chorus of slaves sprinkle their prose with contemporary turns of phrase, and touches of modern dress can be found in the play’s design — some critics noted the use of Converse

sneakers in particular. These anachronisms may have been added as a general way to bridge the 150 years between when the play is set and when it premiered. But in light of these events, the parallels carried even more weight and significance. During the second act of the play, the protagonist, Hero, asks who will he belong to if he wins his freedom: HERO. So—when a Patroller comes up to me, when I’m walking down the road to work or to what-have-you and a Patroller comes up to me and says, “Whose nigger are you, Nigger?” I’m gonna say, “I belong to myself ”? Today I can say, “I belong to the Colonel.” (Imagining being confronted by a Patroller, HERO holds up his hands. Reminiscent of: “Hands up! Don’t shoot!”) HERO. “I belong to the Colonel,” I says now. That’s how come they don’t beat me. But when Freedom comes and they stop me and ask and I say, “I’m my own. I’m on my own and I own my own self,” you think they’ll leave me be? For the record, this stage direction was not imagined by Suzan-Lori Parks. The actor originating the role of Hero, Sterling K. Brown, raised his hands up while rehearsing this moment (about a month following Michael Brown’s death). Parks recalls, “I just gasped. I thought ‘Oh dear.’ The moment was so palpable that not only was it added into the production, it made its way into the very bones of

the play. By including this direction into the script, future productions are therefore intended to replicate this moment, and a whole other set of meaning is layered onto this multifaceted play. It is impossible not to acknowledge the influences of the Greeks on Father Comes Home from the Wars too. The aptly named character, Hero, calls himself Ulysses by the end of the play; his brother’s name is Homer; and his dog’s name is Odyssey Dog. The characters also examine the conflicts, and causes/effects of their actions from all angles, which is often considered another staple of Greek theatre (arguably to the genre’s detriment). So here we have a play that pulls from theatrical tropes established in the ancient world, which is set 150+ years into America’s past, and serves as an allegory for our current times. It is hard to imagine a play with a farther reach. Through this expansiveness, Parks offers her audience an opportunity to engage with incredibly complex social issues whose meanings have shifted over time, and will continue to progress as we move forward. “This play is very much about possibility, and in one sense, the possibility of freedom.” That possibility carried different meanings in the five years between the play’s inception and its world premiere. We are eager to discover how this moving work will ripple across our future.

This article originally appeared on Breaking Character Magazine in February, 2016.

FATHER COMES HOME FROM THE WARS (PARTS 1, 2 & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks

“The finest work from this gifted writer. At once an epic poem, a moving personal drama about one man’s soul struggle, and a seriocomic mediation on liberty, loyalty, and identity.”

— The New York Times

FINALIST! 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Offered his freedom if he joins his master in the ranks of the Confederacy, Hero, a slave, must choose to leave the woman and people he loves for what may be yet another empty promise. From one of America’s most powerful writers comes this devastatingly beautiful dramatic work filled with music, wit, and great lyricism. An explosively powerful drama about the mess of war, the cost of freedom, and the heartbreak of love.

Sterling K. Brown and Jenny Jules in Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2, & 3) at The Public Theater (Joan Marcus).

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

8m, 2f More than 120 minutes Drama

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon “There’s nothing like a death in the family to bring out the worst in people. The Best Comedy of the Season!” — The New York Times After their grandfather’s funeral, three cousins engage in a verbal (sometimes physical) battle. In one corner is Daphna Feygenbam, a “Real Jew” who is volatile, self-assured, and unbending. In the other is her equally stubborn cousin Liam, a secular and entitled young man, who has his shiksa girlfriend, Melody, in tow. Stuck in the middle is Liam’s brother, Jonah, who tries to stay out of the fray. When Liam stakes claim to their grandfather’s Chai necklace, a vicious and hilarious brawl over family, faith, and legacy ensues.

Mom, How Did You Meet The Beatles? by Adrienne Kennedy and Adam P. Kennedy “Brief, odd, and entrancing... Refreshing... We are eavesdropping as a curious son prods his interesting mother to recollect a colorful — in fact glamorous — chapter in her past. ” — The New York Times Adrienne Kennedy relates her star-studded experience of moving to London and working on The Lennon Play: In His Own Write. Her astonishment at being thrust in among the rich and famous of the theatre and film world is refreshing and charming. A great story, told in an interview-style conversation between a mother and son.

2m, 2f | 90 minutes | Comedy

1m, 1f |60 minutes | Drama/Experimental

Samsara by Lauren Yee “There’s a throbbing play here with a bleeding heart and a laudable awareness of how we sometimes only get one shot at happiness or escape...” — Chicago Tribune Katie and Craig are having a baby…with a surrogate…who lives in India. A month before the baby’s due date, Craig reluctantly travels to the subcontinent, where he meets Suraiya, their young, less-than-thrilled surrogate. As all three “parents” anxiously wait for the baby to be born, flights of fancy attack them from all sides, in the form of an unctuous Frenchman and a smart-mouthed fetus. A whimsical take on modern day colonialism. 3m, 2f | 90 minutes | Comedy

The God Game by Suzanne Bradbeer “The audience can never be sure what’s going to happen next, even in the very last seconds...wonderfully on-target contemporary use of language.” — The New York Times Tom is a Virginia Senator and rising star in the Republican Party. When a long-time family friend resurfaces and offers the opportunity of a lifetime, Tom faces a crisis of conviction while his marriage hangs precariously in the balance. The God Game is a play about faith and politics, marriage and friendship, choices and consequences. 2m, 1f | 90 minutes | Drama

If Memory Serves by Jonathan Tolins

Grounded by George Brant

“Delicious satire!” — Hollywood Reporter

“A heartbreaking, beautiful, necessary and perfectlystructured solo drama … an essential story for our times.” — The Scotsman

During her classic television series, Diane Barrow was America’s sweetheart, everybody’s favorite spunky mom. That was 20 years ago. Now her career is in a slump and her son suddenly remembers some nasty things from his childhood. Or does he? A surprising comedy about memory, mothers and our maddening culture of complaint.

The story of an fighter pilot whose career in the sky has ended early due to an unexpected pregnancy. Assigned to operate military drones from a trailer outside Las Vegas, she hunts terrorists by day and returns to her family each night. As the pressure to track a high-profile target mounts, the boundaries begin to blur between the desert she lives in and the one she patrols half a world away.

4m, 4f | More than 120 minutes | Comedy

1f | 75 minutes | Drama

Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

Plays

Ernest Abuba in The Oldest Boy at Lincoln Center Theater (T. Charles Erickson).

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

THE OLDEST BOY: A PLAY IN THREE CEREMONIES

“Among the most easily accessible [dramas] from this poetic, venturesome playwright...marked by inquisitive intelligence, cleanlined eloquence and spiky humor.”

— The New York Times

by Sarah Ruhl

An American mother and a Tibetan father have a three-year-old son believed to be the reincarnation of a Buddhist lama. When a Tibetan lama and a monk come to their home unexpectedly, asking to take their child away for a life of spiritual training, the parents must make a life-altering choice and test their strength, their marriage, and their hearts. A richly emotional journey filled with music, dance, puppetry, ritual, and laughter. This meditation on attachment and unconditional love is Sarah Ruhl at her imaginative best.

4m, 1f 120 minutes Drama

Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

Plays

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS “Mr. Williams is the man of our time who comes closest to hurling the actual blood and bone of life onto the stage; he is also the man whose prose comes closest to being an incisive natural poetry.” — The New York Times

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Big Daddy Pollitt, the richest cotton planter in the Mississippi Delta, is about to celebrate his 65th birthday. He is distressed by the rocky relationship between his beloved son, Brick, an aging football hero who has turned to drink, and his beautiful and feisty wife, Maggie. As the hot summer evening unfolds, the veneer of Southern gentility slips away as unpleasant truths emerge and greed, lies and suppressed sexuality reach a boiling point. 8m, 5f, 2b, 2g / More than 120 minutes / Drama

The Glass Menagerie

The Wingfield Family, confined to a tiny St. Louis apartment on the eve of the Second World War, struggle to find hope and beauty amid the rough circumstances that surround them. A visit from a Gentleman Caller offers the possibility of a new beginning or threatens to destroy everything they’ve built. 2m, 2f / 120 Minutes / Drama

Not About Nightingales

This early play by Tennessee Williams is the story, based on real events, of a prison in which inmates fight back against the oppression of a physically abusive and even murderous warden. This 1938 play was rediscovered in the late 1990s and revived in London and on Broadway, showing signs of the genius Williams would later prove to be. 9m, 3f / Full Length Play / Drama

A Streetcar Named Desire Blanche DuBois, a faded and delicate Southern Belle, has mysteriously arrived on the doorstep of her younger sister, Stella, and her husband, the sexy yet brutish Stanley Kowalski. Blanche makes herself at home in the couple’s small apartment. However, Blanche’s web of lies to cover her past soon begins to crumble. Her downward spiral brings her face to face with Stanley, leading to a final plea of passion and desperation that changes them both forever. 6m, 6f / More than 120 minutes / Drama

Bootycandy by Robert O’Hara

The Flick by Annie Baker

“Smart, searing, and sensationally funny. Robert O’Hara reveals an important asset for a playwright to make his mark: fearlessness.” — The New York Times

WINNER! 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama In a run-down movie theater in central Massachusetts, three underpaid employees mop the floors and attend to one of the last 35 millimeter film projectors in the state. Their tiny battles and not-so-tiny heartbreaks play out in the empty aisles, becoming more gripping than the lackluster, second-run movies on screen. With keen insight and a finely-tuned comic eye, The Flick is a hilarious and heartrending cry for authenticity in a fast-changing world.

Robert O’Hara’s semi-autobiographical subversive comedy tells the story of Sutter, who is on an outrageous odyssey through his childhood home, his church, dive bars, motel rooms, and even nursing homes. O’Hara weaves together scenes, sermons, sketches, and daring meta-theatrics to create a kaleidoscopic portrayal of growing up gay and black. Robert O’Hara’s uproarious satire crashes headlong into the murky terrain of pain, pleasure and…BOOTYCANDY.

3m, 1f | More than 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

3m, 2f | 120 minutes | Comedy/Satire

Romance Language by Peter Parnell

All Hail Hurricane Gordo by Carly Mensch

“Demonstrates Parnell’s antic humors and his perverse wit. Also his imagination.” — New York Post

“All hail a new, energetic and often very funny voice in the American theater.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer The routines of daily life get blown apart when two brothers take in a plucky, young houseguest. While India is running away from her relatively normal family, Chaz is struggling to find normalcy in the one he already has. Is it possible to be your brother’s keeper and have a life too? 3m, 1f | 90 minutes | Comedy

10m, 5f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Comedy

Gnit by Will Eno

The Mystery of Love & Sex by Bathsheba Doran

“Gnit is wickedly funny, relentlessly intelligent and very well-executed.” — WFPL News Is laziness the opposite of love? Is the search for the Self for total nobodies? Watch closely as Peter Gnit, a funny-enough but so-so specimen of humanity, makes a lifetime of bad decisions, on the search for his True Self, which is disintegrating while he searches. A rollicking and very cautionary tale about, among other things, how the opposite of love is laziness. This play is a faithful, unfaithful, and willfully American misreading of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, a 19th century Norwegian play which is famous for all the wrong reasons, written by someone who has never stepped foot in Norway.

“It is tender, funny, packed with humanity and brimming with surprising revelations. Bathsheba Doran has written a play with such compassion and wry wisdom.” — The New York Times Deep in the American South, Charlotte and Jonny have been best friends since they were nine. She’s Jewish, he’s Christian; he’s black, she’s white. Their differences intensify their connection until sexual desire complicates everything in surprising ways. An unexpected love story about souls meeting and the consequences of growing up.

3m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

The author turns a modern eye on the romance of American 19th century literature in this surreal comedy. The play begins with Huck Finn climbing through Walt Whitman’s bedroom window. Since Whitman’s male lover has just died, he decides to go on a picaresque journey with Huck down the river of American culture. They encounter Custer, Thoreau, Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, Charlotte Cushman and Emily Dickinson. The craziness reaches a climax at the Battle of the Little Big Horn where everyone is killed and goes to literary heaven.

3m, 2f | More than 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy

Plays

Writing About “It”:

THE MYSTERY OF LOVE AND SEX by Bathsheba Doran When I was 26 years old, on the back staircase at the Cherry Lane Theater in New York, I bumped into a 70-year-old playwright I had read and revered in graduate school. I didn’t recognize him, I only knew him through his work, but when we were introduced, I was starstruck and he noticed and I noticed that he liked it. We chatted briefly, he was told I was also a playwright — a generous term for where I was in my career — and he asked to read some work. A week later I sent him a play and he had called and suggested we have coffee.

occurs when girls in their twenties and men in their seventies meet?

Our coffee date could not have started better. He began by telling me that he had been mentored by Samuel Beckett. Beckett, he pointed out, had been mentored by Ionesco. The implication hung in the air: at this very coffee shop, in this very moment in time, there was every possibility that a direct line of mentorship and genius was being drawn from Ionesco, to Beckett, to him, to me. It was one of those moments — impossible and yet inevitable. I was finally being seen for what I was: a genius, the great new voice of the theatre, a playwright that would survive, nay define, the age. Only one thing worried me — the one thing that plays at the back of most young women’s minds when they meet old men for coffee. Was this really about work? Or was it about using work as a front to explore the inevitable sexual chemistry that

The effect was instantaneous. The playwright sat back in his chair. His eyes ceased to sparkle. He studied me with disappointment. With brief, incisive questioning, he confirmed my sexuality as homo. I never forgot the next words out of his mouth. “Well,” he said, “Just don’t write about it.”

(T. Charles Erickson) Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

The minute I wondered if the great playwright had a sexual agenda, I rejected the thought. He was married. He was nearly three times my age. And this is surely not what Beckett asked of him, or indeed Ionesco of Beckett. But the man was also leaning forward in his chair, his hand on my knee and sometimes my arm. Just to make sure there could be no confusion as he guided us through our conversation on Life and Art, I mentioned I had a girlfriend.

Somehow, I had not put the playwright off me entirely. He insisted on walking me to the subway and I found myself submitting to a long, dry kiss on the lips as he dropped me off. A few weeks later he telephoned me to tell me about a family crisis he was going through and suggested we have another coffee. I politely, apologetically declined. He said he thought he might be in love with me. I said I had to go.

Lesbianism made people sit back in their chairs and frown. It was not beautiful. It was off-putting and unconvincing. Not a useful subject matter if one wished to be worthy of Beckett and Ionesco... As happens too often, another hero met, another hero tarnished. The great old man, who had been mentored by Beckett, seemed to me now sad and squalid. I never thought of him again without the same shiver I felt when he held my head in place with surprising strength as he kissed me. And yet. And yet. And yet. I took his advice. “Just don’t write about it.” I never did. I believed him. He was living proof. Lesbianism made people sit back in their chairs and frown. It was not beautiful. It was off-putting and unconvincing. Not a useful subject matter if one wished to be worthy of Beckett and Ionesco, if one dreaded rejection. A little over ten years later, I did write about “it” and that play became The Mystery of Love & Sex. This was not a conscious decision. My intention, as always, was to write another play. I had no plans for subject matter. I never do when I begin. As my play stormed out of me, unstoppable and violent, I was horrified. The experience was deeply unpleasant, emotionally. I was the most embarrassing of writers in the café where I worked: tears streamed down my face as I stabbed out the dialogue on my keyboard. I looked up once, just in time to see a nearby guy whisper amusedly to a girl: “Whoa, she’s really into it.” Not only was I going through the torture of the writing. I was going through the torture of writing something I was convinced was unreproducible. I believed this

absolutely, that is how thoroughly I had absorbed homophobic wisdom about what is and isn’t acceptable material for a play. I persevered with the script only because it was obvious to me that the emotions in the play needed to be exorcised from my body. When the play was finished, I could trash it, and move on with my life. That is what I told myself until I typed “the end.” When I was 38-years-old, I bumped into a brilliant director and friend of mine at a wedding. He asked what I was working on. I said I had just finished a play. He asked to read it. Two days later, he wrote me an email: “Let’s do it.” A month later, Andre Bishop, artistic director of Lincoln Center, had offered to produce the play with no ifs, ands, or buts. No workshop, no reading. Months later, Tony Shalhoub and Diane Lane had signed on. I have never been moved to production so quickly. I have never received the support of such big names before. I was astonished. I was overwhelmed. I was terrified. I was thrilled. Until The Mystery of Love & Sex, I had translated certain real-life homosexual experiences into heterosexual ones in the same way, I told myself, that many a great playwright had done before me in order to make the work more palatable and more universal. Finally without this mask, this safety net, watching Mystery go before its New York

audiences made me feel almost intolerably exposed. I can’t say I enjoyed the experience much. But as audiences responded, as I received email after email telling me that I has told a story that was personal to so many other people and yet has never been told, my own sense of vulnerability began to mellow. I started to think again about that encounter with the great playwright from years before. I thought about those little moments that have a disproportionate effect on us until, years later, after we have made our peace with our life and limitations, time stirs up new circumstances and we find ourselves overwhelmed, knocked flat and forced to start again.

This article originally appeared on Breaking Character Magazine in February, 2016

Shopping and Fucking by Mark Ravenhill

My Mañana Comes by Elizabeth Irwin

“Ravenhill has a sharp eye for the blackly comic bizarreries of this tragic, emotionally shrink-wrapped world.” — The Independent

“Elizabeth Irwin’s involving, thoughtful My Mañana Comes…is character study with a political edge — honed nearly as sharp as the men’s paring knives.” — The New York Times

A ground-breaking drama and central work of the 1990s “in yer face” British theatre movement. In ’90s London, five characters are linked loosely and intermittently in a gritty, grimy urban society: a depressing microcosm of drugs, shoplifting, prostitution, and sexual adventure. The characters have shunned morality and conduct hedonistic and destructive lives in this shocking, humorous, nihilistic play that examines a completely corrupted society. 4m, 1f | More than 120 minutes | Drama

Just beyond the elegant dining room of an Upper East Side restaurant, four busboys angle for shifts, pray for tips, and cling to dreams of life beyond their dingy backof-house grind. Expertly juggling delicate dishes, fussy customers and beer-swilling line cooks, the young men face off with management and each other. As tensions reach a boiling point, how far will each of them go to see his own mañana come? 4m | 90 Minutes | Drama

Informed Consent Observe the Sons by Deborah Zoe Laufer of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme by Frank McGuinness “The kind of work live theater needs more of — urgent, challenging and of the moment.” — The Cleveland Plain Dealer Inspired by a recent court case between a Native American tribe and an Arizona University, Informed Consent takes us into the personal and national debate about science versus belief, and whether our DNA is our destiny. With genomic breakthroughs happening at breakneck speed, we can learn more about what our futures may hold than ever before. But how much should we know? And who gets to decide? 2m, 3f | 90 minutes | Drama

Red Velvet by Lolita Chakrabarti “Shock waves rarely travel across centuries but... you can experience firsthand what it must have felt like to be part of one seriously rattled London theater audience in 1833.” — The New York Times Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, 1833. Edmund Kean, the greatest actor of his generation, has collapsed on stage whilst playing Othello. A young black American actor has been asked to take over the role. But as the public riot in the streets over the abolition of slavery, how will the cast, critics and audience react to the revolution taking place in the theatre?

“Depicts war so powerfully that audiences are seen leaving in almost complete silence... The audience feels like it knows these men like sons or brothers.” — UPI This lyrical work follows a group of Irish Protestant volunteers from joining up until their slaughter on the fields of France during World War I. It opens in 1969 with the only survivor addressing a soliloquy to his long dead comrades. The action jumps back to 1915 and the young men are seen as they meet, bond, and face their bloody fate. 8m | Full Length Play | Drama

You Got Older by Clare Barron WINNER! 2015 Obie Awards for Playwriting and Performance Mae returns home to help take care of Dad (and maybe a little herself ). A tender and darkly comic new play about family, illness, cowboys, and how to remain standing when everything you know comes crashing down around. 4m, 3f | 90 minutes | Dark Comedy

5m, 3f | 120 minutes | Drama

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

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MARY PAGE MARLOWE by Tracy Letts

“Deeply moving. You feel an intense desire for more scenes, more time in your seat, a deeper dive into the life, times and fate of the protagonist you are watching.” — Chicago Tribune Mary Page Marlowe leads an unremarkable life. As an accountant in Ohio with two children, few would expect her life to be inordinately intricate or moving. However, it is choices, both mundane and gripping, and where those choices have taken her that make her life so intimate and surprisingly complicated. A piece about the fragility of a moment and their effects on one’s identity. 6m, 11f, 1g | 90 minutes Drama

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Carrie Coon and Gary Wilmes in Mary Page Marlowe at Steppenwolf (Michael Brosilow). Plays

STAGE KISS by Sarah Ruhl

“Sarah Ruhl frothily whips together romantic comedy and backstage farce in this lively comedy about a pair of actors...who find life and art mixing together when they rekindle an old romance during rehearsals for a play.” — The New York Times

Art imitates Life. Life imitates Art. When two actors with a history are thrown together as romantic leads in a forgotten 1930s melodrama, they quickly lose touch with reality as the story onstage follows them offstage. A charming tale about what happens when lovers share a stage kiss, or when actors share a real one. 4m, 3f | 120 minutes | Romantic Comedy

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Jessica Hecht and Dominic Fumusa in Stage Kiss at Playwrights Horizons (Joan Marcus).

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

Skeleton Crew

by Dominique Morisseau At the start of the Great Recession, one of the last auto stamping plants in Detroit is on shaky ground. Each of the workers has to make choices on how to move forward if their plant goes under. Shanita has to decide how she’ll support herself and her unborn child, Faye has to decide how and where she’ll live, and Dez has to figure out how to make his ambitious dreams a reality. Power dynamics shift as their manager Reggie is torn between doing right by his work family, and by the red tape in his office. Powerful and tense, Skeleton Crew is the third of Dominique Morisseau’s three-play cycle, The Detroit Project. 2m, 2f / 120 minutes / Drama

Other plays by Dominique Morisseau Detroit ’67

1967. The world is shifting for two siblings running an after-hours joint to make ends meet. Tensions mount when dreams diverge, their tight-knit community is threatened by an outsider and the streets erupt in violence in this riveting new play set to a driving Motown beat. 2m, 2f / 120 minutes / Drama

Sunset Baby

Kenyatta Shakur is alone. His wife has died, and now, this former black revolutionary and political prisoner, is desperate to reconnect with his estranged daughter, Nina. If Kenyatta truly wants to reconcile his past, he must first conquer his most challenging revolution of all: fatherhood. 2m, 1f / 90 minutes/ Drama

Blood at the Root

A striking new ensemble drama based on the Jena Six. Six black students who were initially charged with attempted murder for a school fight after being provoked with nooses hanging from a tree on campus. 3m, 3f / 105 minutes / Drama

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Plays

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

AUGUST WILSON A Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and author whose ten plays, known as The American Century Cycle, are considered to be the most significant depiction of life in the 20th century.

Gem of the Ocean

Set in 1904 on the eve of Aunt Esther’s 287th birthday. When Citizen Barlow comes to her Pittsburgh’s Hill District home seeking asylum, she sets him off on a spiritual journey to find a city in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. 5m, 2f / 180 minutes / Drama

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone

Set in a black boardinghouse in Pittsburgh in 1911. Each denizen of the boardinghouse has a different relationship to a past of slavery as well as to the urban present. They include the proprietors, an eccentric clairvoyant with a penchant for old country voodoo, a young homeboy up from the South and a mysterious stranger who is searching for his wife. 6m, 5f / More than 120 minutes / Drama

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

It’s 1927 in a rundown studio in Chicago where Ma Rainey is recording new sides of old favorites. More goes down in the session than music in this riveting portrayal of rage, racism, the self hate and exploitation. 8m, 2f / More than 120 minutes / Drama

The Piano Lesson

It is 1936 and Boy Willie arrives in Pittsburgh from the South in a battered truck. He wants to sell an old piano that has been in his family for generations, but he shares ownership with his sister and it sits in her living room. She has already rejected several offers because the antique piano is covered with incredible carvings detailing the family’s rise from slavery. Boy Willie tries to persuade his stubborn sister that the past is past, but she is more formidable than he anticipated. 5m, 2f / More than 120 minutes / Drama

This sensational drama centers around Troy Maxson, a former star of the Negro baseball leagues who now works as a garbage man in 1957 Pittsburgh. Excluded as a black man from the major leagues during his prime, Troy’s bitterness takes its toll on his relationships with his wife and his son, who now wants his own chance to play ball. 5m, 2f / More than 120 minutes / Drama

Two Trains Running

An ensemble of characters hang out at Memphis Lee’s coffee shop in a 1960s Pittsburgh neighborhood that is on the brink of economic development. With Chekhovian obliqueness, Wilson reveals simple truths, hopes and dreams, creating a microcosm of an era and a community on the brink of change. 6m, 1f / More than 120 minutes / Drama

Jitney

Set in the early 1970s, this richly textured piece follows a group of men trying to eke out a living by driving unlicensed cabs, or jitneys. When the city threatens to board up the business and the boss’ son returns from prison, tempers flare, potent secrets are revealed and the fragile threads binding these people together may come undone at last. 8m, 1f / More than 120 minutes / Drama

King Hedley II

Peddling stolen refrigerators in the feeble hope of making enough money to open a video store, King Hedley, a man whose self worth is built on self delusion, is scraping in the dirt of an urban backyard trying to plant seeds where nothing will grow. 4m, 2f / 180 minutes / Drama

Radio Golf

Seven Guitars

Part bawdy comedy, part dark elegy and part mystery. In the backyard of a Pittsburgh tenement in 1948, friends gather to mourn for a blues guitarist and singer who died just as his career was on the verge of taking off. The action that follows is a flashback to the busy week leading up to Floyd’s sudden and unnatural death. 4m, 3f / More than 120 minutes / Dramatic Comedy Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

Fences

Fast-paced, dynamic and wonderfully funny work about the world today and the dreams we have for the future. Set in Pittsburgh in the late 1990s, it’s the story of a successful entrepreneur who aspires to become the city’s first black mayor. But when the past begins to catch up with him, secrets get revealed that could be his undoing. 4m, 1f / More than 120 minutes / Dramatic Comedy

From the Other Side of the Casting Table: A DIRECTORIAL DEBUT WITH AUGUST WILSON’S SEVEN GUITARS In September of 2015, Two River Theater Company brought one of August Wilson’s acclaimed plays, Seven Guitars to the town of Red Bank, NJ. What’s more, the production marked the directorial debut of actor Brandon J. Dirden, and the cast included both his brother and wife. Our Breaking Character Magazine Editor, Courtney Kochuba, sat down with Brandon to chat about taking on the work of a legendary playwright, directing family members, and being on the other side of the casting table. Courtney Kochuba: Seven Guitars marked your directorial debut, so let’s start with that subject. What made you want to direct? Brandon J. Dirden: I was asked. When John Dias, artistic director of Two River Theater, first approached me to direct Seven Guitars, I agreed without a moment’s hesitation. The truth is, I had more than sufficient reasons to say no. Courtney: Which were? Brandon: First, I was very happy and very busy as an actor. Second, I had never directed before. And third, there are scores of other people who went to school for directing and were much more qualified and deserving than myself. But at some point you have to assume responsibility for your dreams. I can’t

(T. Charles Erickson) Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

say that it was ever my dream to be a director, but it has long been my dream to be a vital part in the legacy of presenting August Wilson’s plays. I acted in my first Wilson play 25 years ago when I played the young boy, Reuben, in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, and I knew then that I wanted to do August Wilson plays for the rest of my life. Courtney: So what was your approach to this specific play? Brandon: I simply wanted to “do the play.” I wanted to honor what Mr. Wilson wrote, and I wanted the audience to see and hear what he wrote without me putting anything extra on top of it or taking anything away. Sometimes the play is enough. That is true with all of Mr. Wilson’s plays. Just do the play and you will be better than alright. As an actor, I try to remind myself that at each performance, the majority of the audience has never heard this story and may never hear it again. To quote Holloway from Two Trains Running, “If you are going to tell it, tell it right!” Courtney: Great quote to ascribe to! Now, did you have any “ah-ha” moments while working on the production? Brandon: My biggest revelation in working on Seven Guitars was the absence of a traditional protagonist and antagonist. As an actor in Wilson’s

“...the community of people that August is writing about is our protagonist, and the antagonist is the failure of America to live up to the ideals of the founding fathers: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for ALL.” plays, I never had to give it too much thought, but as a director what I came to understand is that the community of people that August is writing about is our protagonist, and the antagonist is the failure of America to live up to the ideals of the founding fathers: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for ALL. This is not to suggest that Wilson’s characters do not present obstacles to one another, but the real conflict lies in how a people full of hope, dignity, intelligence, and love operate in a world that treats them as secondclass citizens and perpetually stacks the deck against them. The tragedy in his dramas comes when we see how these brilliant people could have easily thrived in a more fair system. Courtney: Absolutely. Brandon: It was important to me that the audience saw people who were constantly striving to improve their lot in life. Mr. Wilson populates his plays with more than survivors or leftovers from slavery. He infuses his community with characters who are making better what they have in order to have the best. I encouraged my designers to reflect this attitude in their work. Which is why the set and costumes showed a people of limited means, but very resourceful. It was paramount that we saw people who took pride in their appearances and surroundings. One of my biggest pet peeves is when designers equate lack of money with dirty and unkempt in dealing with the African-American community.

Courtney: Now, let’s talk about the casting table. You’ve only ever been on the auditioning side. How was it from the director’s chair? Brandon: Ruben SantiagoHudson, who originated the role of Canewell in Seven Guitars and won a Tony Award for his performance, has long been my mentor and frequent director. As a director, Ruben taught me the importance of inviting the right people in the room. So, in putting the cast together, I not only looked at who had the capabilities to act the role, but also who needed to be telling this story at this time in their careers. That’s not necessarily an easy thing to gauge, and I don’t propose to have the formula for knowing, but I can say, without exception, all seven of the actors that I cast needed to be in that room more than any other actor outside of the room. I was particularly happy that I was able to cast a mixture of actors who had lots of experience with Wilson’s plays and others who had none. The more seasoned actors were able to set that signature Wilson metronome when moving the language, and the novice actors taught us to take nothing for granted, no matter how familiar we thought we were with this play. Courtney: Speaking of actors, you also directed your brother and wife in this production! How was that process? Brandon: You will not find better actors to portray Canewell and

Louise than Jason Dirden and Crystal Dickinson, respectively. I may be biased because they are my brother and wife, but I am also correct. Not only were their renderings pitch perfect, but they were also leaders in the rehearsal room and that gave me, a first-time director, space to make rookie mistakes. Courtney: Quite an awesome family affair, it sounds like! Now, to wrap up, what did you take away from this experience, overall? Brandon: Each new generation must at some point take ownership of telling a story for that story to live on. One of my goals for this production was to make my elders proud. I knew that original cast members of Seven Guitars would probably come to see this production, and I wanted them to know that what they brought into this world 20 years ago was in good hands. Some days I felt like we were the kids putting on the talent show at the family reunion. The outpouring of love from previous generations was tremendous and I am truly grateful, but what really moved me was the support from my peers and newer generations. Scores of young people sacrificed time and money to make the journey to Red Bank and their presence affirmed that August Wilson’s words are still resonating as loud as ever.

This article originally appeared on Breaking Character Magazine in January, 2016.

SEMINAR by Theresa Rebeck

“Sexy, savvy and uproarious!” — Time Out New York “Big laughs! An authentic rush of pleasure.” — The New York Times Four aspiring young novelists sign up for private writing classes with Leonard, an international literary figure. Under his recklessly brilliant and unorthodox instruction, some thrive and others flounder, alliances are made and broken, sex is used as a weapon and hearts are unmoored. The wordplay is not the only thing that turns vicious as innocence collides with experience in this biting Broadway comedy. 3m, 2f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy Bostin Christopher, and Enrique Bravo in Seminar at the Perseverance Theater (Akiko Rotch). Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

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Blood Play by Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen developed by Oliver Butler

Marie Antoinette by David Adjmi “Adjmi’s pivotal work...he resembles artists as diverse as Luis Buñuel and Rainer Werner Fassbinder... Adjmi’s brilliance is to use trashy vernacular speech to allude to the way history trashes us.” — The New Yorker Marie is a confection created by a society that values extravagance and artifice. For Marie, the political suddenly becomes very personal and France’s love affair with the royals sours as revolution brews. From the light and breezy banter at the palace to the surging chants of “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité!” in the streets, Marie Antoinette holds a mirror up to our contemporary society that might just be entertaining itself to death.

“[A] theatrical cocktail, as tasty as it is esoteric. Fix us another round.” — The Village Voice A tranquil suburban evening in the early 1950s, where a string of coincidences leads to a spontaneous grownup party in the basement of a new ranch house. Exotic cocktails are imbibed, raucous games are played, and new friends are made, but much is happening that no one is talking about. Something is stirring underground. A darkly comic thriller created by New York’s criticallylauded The Debate Society.

6m, 3f, 1b, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Drama

The Village Bike by Penelope Skinner

3m, 3f | 75 minutes | Dark Comedy

Tonight... Charlie Chaplin by Gillian Plowman

“Skinner is addressing a difficult theme head on, often with wit and verbal authenticity.” — Vulture Becky is pregnant and friskier than ever. But she can’t seem to get the attention of her husband, who is more interested in the baby manual than her new underwear. As her husband prepares for the baby’s months-away arrival, Becky takes matters into her own hands. In the heat of the summer, she sets out on an adventure that starts with the purchase of a used bike from a man in town and takes her further than she ever expected.

“It’s funny, fast moving, completely correct as far as the facts go.” — Chaplin Office Charlie Chaplin was the first icon of the silver screen and remains one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood. But what of the man behind the mustache? Born into poverty and in the absence of his father, he spent most of his childhood in and out of orphanages and workhouses.

3m, 3f | 120 minutes | Dark Comedy

Wonderful Tennessee by Brian Friel

10m, 9f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Play | Drama

Chasing Manet by Tina Howe “Has an inspirational message at its core concerning the potential that lives in us all, no matter what the barriers.” — NYTheatre.com A rebellious painter from a distinguished family in Boston and an ebullient Jewish woman with a huge, adoring family form an unlikely bond. Inside the confining walls of Mount Airy Nursing Home, the two plot an escape to Paris aboard the QE2. Can they pull it off amidst the chaos of their surroundings?

“This mythic journey into a world of ambiguous ritual, classical references and commonplace miseries has something of the magical, yes, almost wordless resonance of a Yeats poem.” — New York Post A haunting play by this celebrated Irish writer finds three couples on a deserted pier in Ballybeg, Ireland. There to celebrate Terry’s birthday, they are waiting for a boat that will take them to a mystical island, rumored to be the site of sacrificial rituals, which Terry claims to have bought. Drunken hilarity gives way to reflection as the couples play games, tell stories, and sing songs to pass the time. 3m, 3f | 120 minutes | Drama

3m, 4f | 105 minutes | Comedy Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

Plays

DAVID HARE

A Feminine Ending by Sarah Treem “Appealingly outlandish humor.” — The New York Times Having recently graduated from a major conservatory, and with a rocker boyfriend on the brink of stardom, Amanda Blue’s “extraordinary life” seems to be all mapped out. But when she’s called home to answer her mother’s distress call, Amanda’s grand plan starts to unravel. A bittersweet play about dreams deferred, loves lost, and learning to trust a woman’s voice in a man’s world. 3m, 2f | 90 minutes | Romantic Comedy

The Vertical Hour

A thought-provoking exploration of how the political can sometimes intersect, collide with, and ultimately dismantle the personal. The play addresses the relationship of characters with opposing views on the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and reveals the psychological tension between public lives and private lives. 3m, 2f / More than 120 minutes / Drama

The Judas Kiss

A compelling depiction of Oscar Wilde just before and after his imprisonment. Act One captures him in 1895 on the eve of his arrest. In Act Two, Wilde is in Naples more than two years later, after his release from Reading Gaol. In exile, he is drawn to a reunion with his unworthy lover and a final betrayal. 6m, 1f / More than 120 minutes / Drama

Skylight

Kyra is surprised to see the son of her former lover at her apartment in a London slum. He hopes she will reconcile with his distraught, now widowed, father. Tom, a restless, self made restaurant and hotel tycoon, arrives later that evening, unaware of his son’s visit. Kyra, who was his invaluable business associate and a close family friend until his wife discovered their affair, has since found a vocation teaching underprivileged children. Is the gap between them unbridgeable, or can they resurrect their relationship? 2m, 1f / More than 120 minutes / Drama

Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov a new version by Tracy Letts

based on dramaturgical translations by Charlotte Hobson and Dassia Posner “A speed and light, a sharpness and edgy heart that make it newly compelling” — Chicago Sun-Times The Prozorov sisters pine for Moscow. Culture and life brim in the city center, while they live among the mundane of a crumbling army garrison after their father’s death. Though living with their brother Andrey, nothing keeps them back but their own misfortune, decisions, and the negativity that continues to follow this family. 9m, 5f | More than 120 minutes | Drama

The Whale by Samuel D. Hunter WINNER! 2013 Lucille Lortel Award, Best Play On the outskirts of Mormon Country, Idaho, a 600 pound recluse hides away in his apartment, and slowly eats himself to death. Desperate to reconnect with his longestranged daughter, he reaches out to her only to find a viciously sharp-tongued and wildly unhappy teen. 2m, 3f | 120 minutes | Drama

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

ATHOL FUGARD

“Master Harold”...and the Boys

A white teen who has grown up in the affectionate company of the two black waiters who work in his mother’s tea room in Port Elizabeth learns that his viciously racist alcoholic father is on his way home from the hospital. An ensuing rage unwittingly triggers his inevitable passage into the culture of hatred fostered by apartheid. 3m / 90 minutes / Drama

The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek

Aging farm laborer Nukain has spent his life transforming the rocks at Revolver Creek into a vibrant garden of painted flowers. Now, the final unpainted rock, as well as his young companion Bokkie, has forced Nukain to confront his legacy as a painter, a person and a black man in 1980s South Africa. When the landowner’s wife arrives with demands about the painting, the profound rifts of a country hurtling toward the end of apartheid are laid bare. 2m, 1f, 1b / 105 minutes / Drama

The Shadow of the Hummingbird

When Oupa is visited by his ten-year-old grandson, who is playing hooky from school, the two spend a memorable afternoon together. The boy reminds the old man of his lost sense of wonder, while the child is given a bit of hard-earned wisdom. In a charming meditation on the beauty and transience of the world around us, Fugard continues to mine the depths of the human spirit with profound empathy and heart. 1m, 1b / 160 minutes / Dramatic Comedy

The Captain’s Tiger

Onboard the SS Graigaur, a young sailor pens his first novel. Assisted by his muse, a portrait of his mother come to life, and supported by his friend, an illiterate ship’s mechanic, he struggles to balance romance and reality. This most personal of Athol Fugard’s works is strictly autobiographical; at 20 he abandoned his education, hitchhiked up Africa and ended up on a tramp steamer in Port Sudan. 2m, 1f / 90 minutes / Drama

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Plays

For over 40 years, the Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival has highlighted the best in shortform playwriting from emerging writers. From an initial pool of thousands of submissions, 30 short plays are chosen to be performed during the week-long festival in New York City. Six plays are then selected by Samuel French to receive publication and licensing representation.

Off Off Broadway Festival Plays #40 (2015) Evelyn Shaffer and the Chance of a Lifetime by Greg Edwards and Andy Roninson

Evelyn Shaffer, an indie game designer, has landed an interview for her dream job. A ten-minute musical infused with a 32-bit score. Sometimes, the greatest quests aren’t in video games, but our own lives. 2m, 1f / Musical Comedy

Throws of Love by Amy Staats

Three 13-year-old girls on a late night adventure have an unexpected meeting with their former Girl Scout leader. 1f, 3g / Comedy

Narrators

The Gulf

Bill is a narrator. Walter is a narrator, too. Stephen is a stagehand for narrators. Being a narrator is the best job in the world. But as these narrators’ myopic world begins to fold in on itself, and all they talk about is talking (and talking about talking), it becomes increasingly unclear which stories are worth telling — or worth living. 4m or f / Comedy

On a quiet summer evening, somewhere down in the Alabama Delta, Kendra and Betty troll the flats looking for red fish. After Betty begins diagnosing Kendra’s deadend life with career picks from What Color is Your Parachute, their routine fishing excursion takes a violent turn. 2f / Drama

by Simon Henriques

by Audrey Cefaly

Seabird is in a Happy Place

Blind

The fast-paced, energetic testimony of Seabird, a young woman who purports to have died and come back to life under the condition that she die once again as soon as the rain stops. Her resurrection coincides with a sudden romance that complicates her inevitable return to the state of being dead. 1f / Drama

While a man waits for his blind date to show, a female stranger catches his eye and ends up being exactly who he was looking for. 1m, 1f / Comedy

by James Gordon King

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

by Gloria Calderon Kellett

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

The Samuel French Off Off Broadway

SHORT PLAY FESTIVAL Plays from the Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival may be licensed individually or in combinations of titles. These plays represent the best of our festival and are perfect for competitions, play festivals, and evenings of short plays. For more information about the festival, visit oobfestival.com.

Off Off Broadway Festival Plays #41 (2016, Coming Soon) Risen from the Dough

clarity

In a small, rustic, Brooklyn bakery previously hit with several code violations, two sisters prepare for their next health inspection. As the two sisters bake and bicker, they eventually come to terms with grief, identity, and the complicated realities of immigrant life. 2f / Drama

Cameron enjoys rough sex. Which is fine. However, in the final moments leading up to his wedding, one particular sexual encounter with his fiancé demands he question his marriage, racial identity, and sexual preferences altogether. 1m / Drama

After a hate crime shocks their community, newly instated Rabbi Gold tries to help Grandpa widen his world view. This ain’t gonna be easy. 2m / Comedy

Wedding Bash

The Cleaners

Monsoon Season

Lower East Side. Right now. It’s Rita and Jerry’s job to clean up the stuff no one else will: death. 1m, 1f / Comedy

It’s monsoon season in Phoenix, and Danny hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep in weeks. Between his recent divorce, his mind-numbing job in technical support, and the neon sign from the strip club that glows through his window all night, his grasp of reality is slipping. 1m / Drama

by France-Luce Benson

by Lindsey Kraft and Andrew Leeds

When a newly married couple invites their two friends over for a post wedding rehash, things get tense when it becomes clear that maybe people didn’t love the wedding as much as they said they did. 2m, 2f / Comedy

by Korde Arrington Tuttle

by Lindsay Joy

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Grandpa and the Gay Rabbi

by Jonathan Josephson

by Lizzie Vieh

Plays

(Roger Mastroianni)

Ken Ludwigâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s A Comedy of Tenors Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

REVISITING THE TENORS by Ken Ludwig Not long ago, I wrote a companion piece to my 1989 comedy Lend Me A Tenor and called it A Comedy of Tenors, and it recently received its world premiere in a co-production of the McCarter Theatre and the Cleveland Play House. I have referred to the new play elsewhere as a “sequel,” but I have to confess, I’m not fond of the word. In fact, the new play has turned out to be totally independent of the first, and the theatergoer does not need to know anything at all about Lend Me A Tenor in order to enjoy A Comedy of Tenors. They are their own plays set in their own worlds, and each play stands on its own. Why then, write a play at all using characters from the earlier play? I suppose because, over the years, I’ve become rather partial to the band of loonies in Lend Me A Tenor and I thought it might be fun revisiting them ‘lo these many years later. It has, in fact, proved to be a complete joy. I never dreamed of writing the second play until four years ago, when Lend Me A Tenor had a Broadway revival. As I sat in the audience, I could see how much the people around me enjoyed being in the company of my old friends from the Cleveland Grand Opera Company, and I was reminded how much I liked them myself. Then one night I had a thought: “What if I wrote a play about these characters two years after the end

of Lend Me A Tenor? Where would Max — dogsbody and aspiring opera star — be? Would he be singing for a living? Would Max and his girlfriend Maggie be married? What about the world famous opera star Tito Merelli and his wife Maria? Would they still be together?” Typically, when I get an idea for a new play, I start thinking about how other playwrights have handled the same theme. In this case, I started thinking about the whole concept of a companion piece. Were there any really good ones back there in the history of drama? Many of my favorite plays bear the distinctive marks of their comic creators. For example, Sheridan’s 18th century The School for Scandal is clearly a kissing cousin of his early comic masterpiece The Rivals; but none of my favorite comedies fit the sequel category. The Merry Wives of Windsor? It contains several of the characters in Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2, but it’s really more about Falstaff in love than a continuation of the histories. In a way, the dearth of sequels in the theatre is rather surprising. The urge to see our favorite characters for a second or third time is a natural one, and we see this urge satisfied time and again in movies, television and books. In the 1930s, the movie The Thin Man was an instant hit, and it was followed immediately by five more films about the same mystery-solving socialites. In television it’s commonplace. How many millions of us have

It was clear to me from the minute I put pen to paper (and I really do use a pen and paper) that I wanted the form of the play to be a traditional farce. loved following the Dowager Countess played by Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey over the years? Almost all of television is made up of sequels in this sense — they call ’em episodes. And don’t forget all the books that have the same nucleus of characters, from Ian Fleming’s James Bond thrillers to the Jeeves and Wooster series by P.G. Wodehouse. As Bertie Wooster would say, “Still with me? Right ho!” So: loads of series and sequels and companion pieces in other art forms, almost none in the theatre. But there is one whopping exception, and it was written by the stunningly-named PierreAugustin Caron de Beaumarchais. Beaumarchais wrote The Barber of Seville in 1773, then a few years later he wrote The Marriage of Figaro using four of the major characters from the earlier play and setting it three years later in time. Both plays are masterpieces, and they were both made into the best comic operas this side of paradise. What’s really interesting is that while The Marriage of Figaro is just as hilarious as Barber, it has a whole different tone. It asks some serious questions about marriage and politics, and it brings the lives of its characters full circle. These two plays encouraged me to forge ahead, and to try it in a similar way. In writing A Comedy of Tenors, I started thinking about my life as a writer and how artists can have a hard time balancing the conflict between art and life. I have two monstrous things called children, a girl and a boy, and there are times when I’m in production

for a new play, a continent away, sitting in a theater for days at a time, when I wonder how badly I’m short-changing the little creatures. This question set off a few bells as I scribbled my way through A Comedy of Tenors. In the play, superstar Tito Merelli has been married for 25 years, all the while spending weeks at a time performing on the road. How does his wildly demonstrative wife Maria put up with it? And how has it affected his glamorous young actress daughter Mimi? Will Mimi end up marrying a fellow artist herself? And if so, will that put her in conflict with her artist father? Exploring these characters a bit more deeply this time around, while keeping them buoyant and funny (Oh Lord, I hope so) felt exactly like the right place to be. It was clear to me from the minute I put pen to paper (and I really do use a pen and paper) that I wanted the form of the play to be a traditional farce. This was the form I used in Lend Me A Tenor, and it felt equally appropriate here since I was still dealing with extravagant characters in a glamorous setting. I was very aware that by choosing a specific theatrical form, I was setting up certain expectations, and I welcomed them. When you write a farce, you play by certain rules, one of which is to keep the plot as light as air while delivering as much wit and wisdom along the way as you can muster. In a tragedy of the Shakespearean variety, someone noble dies at the end. That’s the convention; it’s not debatable. In

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

a traditional farce, it is equally non-debatable that there will be mistaken identity, romantic couples (usually two or three), a sense of buoyant sexiness, and loads of word play. I have seen farce criticized for being “lowbrow,” but of course that’s missing the point entirely. The great Shakespearean critic Northrop Frye likens the situation to that of a doctor friend who saw Twelfth Night and couldn’t bear it because he knew that it was biologically impossible for boygirl twins to be identical. Frye’s response is that you simply have to accept Shakespeare’s conventions at face value in order to enjoy the plays. There is no in-between. My own favorite authors in the world of farce include the late19th century Frenchman Georges Feydeau, whose masterpieces include A Flea in her Ear and The Lady from Maxim’s; his slightly older near-contemporary, Eugene Labiche, who famously wrote The Italian Straw Hat, Pots of Money and dozens of other plays; the aforementioned genius Beaumarchais and his Figaro plays; Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, the first playwright in history to be knighted and the author of The Magistrate and Dandy Dick; and Ben Travers, who wrote a series of farces for the Whitehall Theatre in London in the early 20th century. If I expand this list to include comedies with farcical moments in them, I would then be adding my favorite comedies of all time: Shakespeare’s Midsummer, Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado, Twelfth Night and As You Like It;

Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer; Sheridan’s The Rivals and The School for Scandal; John O’Keeffe’s Wild Oats; Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest; Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man; Noel Coward’s Private Lives; and Kaufman and Hart’s The Man Who Came to Dinner. As I applied these thoughts and recollections to A Comedy of Tenors, the immediate question was the plot. (Farces are relentlessly plotdriven.) In this case, the plot came surprisingly quickly, partly because I based it on an historical event: In 1990, a music producer came up with a pretty wild idea. He would stage a charity concert starring the three greatest tenors in the world — Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and José Carreras — and he would present it at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome on the eve of the World Cup soccer finals. He called

it “The Three Tenors,” and it turned out to be the classical concert of the century. To this day, the album is the bestselling classical album of all time, and the follow-up concert (the sequel, if you will) was watched by over 1.3 billion viewers on international television. So my premise was this: Henry Saunders, the wily producer of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company from Lend Me A Tenor, has come up with the same idea, only fifty years earlier, in 1936. He’s staging a concert in Paris called “The Three Tenors,” starring Max, Tito and Jussi Björling — and he’s doing it at a soccer stadium which happens to be located next to one of the finest hotels in Paris, where the action of the play unfolds. After that, the plot was simplicity itself: Tito is having a midlife crisis. Max and Maggie are having a baby. The famous Russian soprano

Tatiana Racón, who is Tito’s former lover, is visiting Paris. Tito and Maria’s daughter, Mimi, is also in town with her own lover. And everything that possibly could go wrong does go wrong. The writing of A Comedy of Tenors has turned out to be more fulfilling than I’d ever imagined. I thought I had said goodbye to the characters in Lend Me A Tenor when the play first opened on Broadway so many years ago, but A Comedy of Tenors has not only been a joy to write and produce from beginning to end, it has also allowed me to spend time once again with some of the best friends I ever created.

This article originally appeared on Breaking Character Magazine in July, 2016.

Ken Ludwig’s A COMEDY OF TENORS “From conception to execution, everything about A Comedy of Tenors hits on all comedic cylinders and, as advertised, is laugh-out-loud funny.” — The News-Herald One hotel suite, four tenors, two wives, three girlfriends, and a soccer stadium filled with screaming fans. What could possibly go wrong? It’s 1930s Paris and the stage is set for the concert of the century—as long as producer Henry Saunders can keep Italian superstar Tito Merelli and his hot-blooded wife, Maria, from causing runaway chaos. Prepare for an uproarious ride, full of mistaken identities, bedroom hijinks, and madcap delight. 4m, 3f | 120 minutes | Comedy

Rob McClure and Ron Orbach in Ken Ludwig’s A Comedy of Tenors at the McCarter Theater (Roger Mastroianni).

MUSICALS

Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Sarah Charles Lewis and the original cast in Tuck Everlasting on Broadway (Joan Marcus).

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

TUCK EVERLASTING book by Claudia Shear and Tim Federle music by Chris Miller lyrics by Nathan Tysen based on the book by Natalie Babbitt

“Startles with its emotional resonance and theatrical force!”

— The New York Times Eleven-year-old Winnie Foster yearns for a life of adventure beyond her white picket fence, but when she becomes unexpectedly entwined with the Tuck Family she finds more than she could have imagined. When Winnie learns of the magic behind the Tucks’ unending youth, she must fight to protect their secret from those who would do anything for a chance at eternal life. As her adventure unfolds, Winnie faces an extraordinary choice: return to her life or continue with the Tucks on their infinite journey. A magical, thoughtprovoking musical adapted from Natalie Babbitt’s best-selling children’s classic by Claudia Shear and Tim Federle and featuring a soaring score from Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen.

6m, 3f, 1g, Ensemble 120 minutes | Comedy Medium Orchestra | Moderate Vocals Folk, Contemporary Broadway

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Musicals

Judge Jackie:

Disorder in the Court book & lyrics by Christopher Dimond music by Michael Kooman based on a concept by Van Kaplan “This jury of one finds in favor of the creators and cast for inciting lighthearted laughter.” — Pittsburgh Tribune Review Judge Jackie Justice rules her reality television courtroom with an iron fist, presiding over a three-ring circus of America’s most chaotic civil cases. But, when a drop in ratings brings her face to face with the liability of her own love life, the judge must learn to navigate the ludicrous laws of love in this over-the-top courtroom comedy. 3m, 2f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Comedy Small/Combo Band | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock

Falsettos

music & lyrics William Finn book by William Finn and James Lapine

Melancholy Play:

a chamber musical book & lyrics by Sarah Ruhl music by Todd Almond “Could turn out to be quite a central pillar of the Ruhl canon… The music adds to the considerable sensuality, and the notable wit, of the piece.” — The Chicago Tribune Tilly’s melancholy is of an exquisite quality. She turns her melancholy into a sexy thing, and every stranger she meets falls in love with her. One day, inexplicably, Tilly becomes happy, and wreaks havoc on the lives of her paramours. Frances, Tilly’s hairdresser, becomes so melancholy that she turns into an almond. It is up to Tilly to get her back. 3m, 3f | 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy Small/Combo Band | Difficult Vocals | Classic Broadway, Folk

The Wiz

adapted from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum book by William F. Brown music & lyrics by Charlie Smalls

WINNER! 1992 Tony Awards, Best Book and Best Score

“Radiates so much energy you can hardly sit in your seat...great fun.” — New York Post

A seamless pairing of March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, two acclaimed Off-Broadway musicals written nearly a decade apart. It is the tale of Marvin who leaves his wife and young son to live with another man. His ex-wife marries his psychiatrist, and Marvin ends up alone. Two years later, Marvin is reunited with his lover on the eve of his son’s bar mitzvah, just as AIDS is beginning its insidious spread.

A beloved Broadway gem, The Wiz infuses L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with a dazzling mix of rock, gospel, and soul music. This timeless tale of Dorothy’s adventures through the Land of Oz is a fun, family-friendly, modern musical and one of the most popular shows in the Samuel French catalog. A magical, high-energy show, appropriate for theaters at all levels.

3m, 3f, 1b | More than 120 minutes | Drama Small/Combo Band | Difficult Vocals | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

6m, 5f, 4m or f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Musical | Comedy Large Orchestra | Moderate Vocals | Pop/Rock, Jazz

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

SOUTHERN COMFORT book & lyrics by Dan Collins music by Julianne Wick Davis

CRITIC’S PICK! “A sweetheart of a musical.” — The New York Times “Beautiful and heartfelt show...bring the family.” — Deadline Based on the 2001 Sundance Film Festival documentary, Southern Comfort follows the last year of Robert Eads, a transgender man in Georgia, who is diagnosed with ovarian cancer. He surrounds himself with his chosen family who are predominantly transgender, as they share monthly potluck meals. Like any family, they have their trials and tribulations, but ultimately seek acceptance for who they are in their own skin. 3m, 3f, Ensemble 120 minutes | Drama Small/Combo Band | Moderate Vocals | Folk, Contemporary Broadway

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Annette O’Toole in Southern Comfort at the Public Theater (Carol Rosegg). Musicals

“A rare beauty, extraordinary and heart-gripping.”

FUN HOME

music by Jeanine Tesori book & lyrics by Lisa Kron based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel

— The New York Times WINNER! 2015 Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Book When her father dies unexpectedly, graphic novelist Alison dives deep into her past to tell the story of the volatile, brilliant, one-of-a-kind man whose temperament and secrets defined her family and her life. Moving between past and present, Alison relives her unique childhood playing at the family’s Bechdel Funeral Home, her growing understanding of her own sexuality, and the looming, unanswerable questions about her father’s hidden desires. Fun Home is a refreshingly honest, wholly original musical about seeing your parents through grown-up eyes.

2m, 4f, 2b, 1g 90 minutes | Drama Small/Combo Band | Medium Vocals Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock

Sydney Lucas in Fun Home on Broadway (Joan Marcus).

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

See Rock City & Other Destinations

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

music by Brad Alexander book & lyrics by Adam Matthias “An excellent and moving new musical... It’s also beautiful, it’s hopeful, and it’s — in the best sense of the word — sweet.” — The New York Observer A wanderer believes his destiny is written on rooftops along the North Carolina Interstate. A young man yearns to connect with intelligent life in Roswell, New Mexico. A woman at the Alamo takes a chance on love. Three estranged sisters cruise to Glacier Bay to scatter their father’s ashes. A terrified bride-to-be ponders taking the leap...over Niagara Falls. With a book full of humor and humanity, and a score that incorporates pop, rock, folk and more, this is a musical about connections missed and made at tourist destinations across America. 4m, 3f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy Small/Combo Band | Moderate Vocals | Pop/Rock, Folk

Smile

book by Larry L. King and Peter Masterson music & lyrics by Carol Hall based on a story by Larry L. King

“A font of fun and friendliness, engagingly rich in regional nostalgia and spiced with delicate bawdry. The country and western score is a delight.” — Time This happy-go-lucky view of small town vice and statewide political side-stepping recounts the good times and the demise of the Chicken Ranch, known since the 1850s as one of the better pleasure palaces in all of Texas. Governors, senators, mayors, and even victorious college football teams frequent Miss Mona’s cozy bordello until that puritan nemesis Watchdog focuses his television cameras and his righteous indignation on the institution. 13m, 14f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Comedy Medium Orchestra | Moderate Vocals | Classic Broadway, Country

music by Marvin Hamlisch book & lyrics by Howard Ashman based upon the screenplay by Jerry Belson

Gutenberg! The Musical!

by Anthony King and Scott Brown “A smashing success!” — The New York Times

A touching and satiric musical following the intrigue and exploits onstage and behind-the-scenes as Santa Rosa, California plays host to the “Young American Miss Pageant.”

In this two-man musical spoof, a pair of aspiring playwrights perform a backers’ audition for their new project — a big, splashy musical about printing press inventor Johann Gutenberg. With a huge supply of enthusiasm, Bud and Doug sing all the songs and play all the parts in their crass historical epic, with the hope that one of the producers in attendance will give them a Broadway contract.

6m, 10f, 2b | Full Length Musical | Comedy Large Orchestra | Moderate Vocals | Classic Broadway

2m | 90 minutes | Comedy Piano Only | Easy Vocals | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock

“Wonderful Marvin Hamlisch melodies. Smart, clever move-the-story lyrics from Howard Ashman... This is the best Broadway score in years!” — ABC

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Musicals

“You can hear the sound of America singing in this daring new musical!”

— The New York Times

“Hands down it’s musical theatre heaven!”

— New York Magazine

HANDS ON A HARDBODY book by Doug Wright lyrics by Amanda Green music by Trey Anastasio and Amanda Green

For ten hard-luck Texans, a new lease on life is so close they can touch it. Under a scorching sun for days on end, armed with nothing but hope, humor, and ambition, they’ll fight to keep at least one hand on a brand-new truck in order to win it. In the hilarious, hard-fought contest only one winner can drive away with the American Dream. Inspired by the true events of the acclaimed 1997 documentary of the same name by S.R. Bindler, produced by Kevin Morris and Bindler.

9m, 6f 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy Medium Orchestra | Moderate Vocals Pop/Rock, Country/Western

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

The original cast of Hands On A Hardbody on Broadway (Chad Batka).

Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

Musicals

Happy New Year

based on Holiday by Philip Barry adapted by Burt Shevelove songs by Cole Porter “A playful, tuneful, civilized musical.” — New York Post A clever show that gives new life to one of America’s most popular comedies. The story concerns an eager young man who falls in love with the wrong rich girl. In the final scene he realizes that it is her young, unconventional sister whom he really loves, and the two turn their backs on old money and old values for a shared life that should prove to be a holiday. 14m, 11f | Full Length Musical | Comedy Small/Combo Band | Moderate Vocals Classic Broadway, American Songbook

Dani Girl

music by Michael Kooman book & lyrics by Christopher Dimond “I have not seen anything so creatively imaginative, powerful, and moving for a long time.” — AussieTheatre.com When Dani, a precocious nine-year-old, loses her hair to leukemia, she embarks on a magical journey to get it back. Simultaneously hilarious and heartbreaking, Dani Girl is a tale of life in the face of death, hope in the face of despair, and the indomitable power of the human imagination. 2m, 2f | 90 minutes | Dramatic Comedy Small/Combo Band | Moderate Vocals | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill by Lanie Robertson

“Hurts and exhilarates in just the right proportions.” — New York Magazine The time is 1959. The place is a seedy bar in Philadelphia. The audience is about to witness one of Billie Holiday’s last performances, given four months before her death. More than a dozen musical numbers are interlaced with salty, often humorous, reminiscences to project a riveting portrait of the lady and her music. 1m, 1f | 90 minutes | Drama Small/Combo Band | Moderate Vocals | Jazz

Golden Boy

book by Clifford Odets and William Gibson based on the play by Clifford Odets music by Charles Strouse lyrics by Lee Adams “A knockout, not only for the whirling excitement of its action but for the powerful punch in its comment.” — The New York Times A rousing musical play adapted from Clifford Odets’ classic drama, beginning and ending with the rhythmic, breathing exhaust of the prizefight ring. Joe Wellington, a young black man from Harlem tries to rise out of the ghetto to fame in the brutal world of boxing. But he makes one mistake: falling in love with his manager’s girl, Lorna, a seen-it-all white woman whom he loves not wisely but all too well. 17m, 4f | Full Length Musical | Drama Large Orchestra | Moderate Vocals | Classic Broadway

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

ADDING MACHINE: A MUSICAL

composed by Joshua Schmidt libretto by Jason Loewith and Joshua Schmidt based on the play by Elmer Rice

“A brilliant musical! A superb libretto by Loewith and Schmidt and music that gets under your skin and stays there.”

— The New York Times

WINNER! 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical Mr. Zero, after 25 years of service to his company, is replaced by a mechanical adding machine. Enraged, he murders his boss. An eclectic score gives memorable voice to this stylish and stylized show, following Zero’s journey to the afterlife, where he is met with one last chance for romance and redemption. A darkly comic and heartbreakingly beautiful musical adaptation of Rice’s incendiary 1923 play.

5m, 4f 105 minute | Drama Small/Combo Band | Difficult Vocals Operetta

The cast of Adding Machine: A Musical, Odyssey Theater Ensemble (Clifford Morts).

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Musicals

FLY BY NIGHT’S KIM ROSENSTOCK & MICHAEL MITNICK Collaboration, Fables & The Magic of Blackouts The map of this story is both tiny and vast. And it is as simple and complex as choosing a path to travel, and trusting it will connect to all other paths. This statement, proclaimed by the Narrator at the beginning of Fly By Night, sets the tone for a musical that explores life in micro and macro. “I suppose I could begin by telling you that there is an invisible world woven into the fabric of our daily lives,” he continues. This world threads together a young guitarplaying sandwich maker, a deli owner, a troubled playwright, a widowed opera-lover, and two sisters from South Dakota. Fable-like in tone, yet cosmic in scope, Fly By Night centers on a love triangle between Harold (the musical sandwich maker) and the South Dakotan sisters, Miriam and Daphne. But this is not just another love story; we’re all connected, and Fly By Night examines human connection with the people you love as well as the people you pass on the street. I had the opportunity to chat with two members of the tri-person writing team, Kim Rosenstock and Michael Mitnick — and the conversation ranged from collaboration and themes, to their avid fans (aka “Frequent Flyers”). Ben Coleman, Samuel French Literary Supervisor: What was the collaboration process on this show like? Michael Mitnick: We all met in

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016 (Craig Mitchelldyer)

the Yale School of Drama. Kim [Rosenstock] and I were in the writing program and Will [Connolly] was in the acting program. Kim and I were in classes all the time together so I got to know her quite well, and Will was in a show of mine, so we began working together. The student-run theatre, the Yale Cabaret, selected Kim as the artistic director for the summer of 2009, and she asked me if I wanted to write a musical with her for the summer program, and I said, “Sure, but we should write it with Will as well.” Kim Rosenstock: The first draft was a whirlwind; we had about six months to make a show. We began with lots of long, late-night conversations about themes and characters. With those conversations in mind, I wrote a very rough draft of a play. Together, we adapted that play into a musical. It was an all-hands-on-deck environment — we worked together on book/music/lyrics — whoever was available would pick up whatever piece of the puzzle was next on the list. It was an exciting time, but we weren’t sleeping. We were mostly eating cookies and burritos. We wouldn’t be in the same room a lot after that. Often we were on different coasts. We found that we really needed to be in the same room to make the show. That was the nature of how it was formed and how it continued to be built — in giant bursts of activity once (at most twice) a year in workshops and productions. It became a yearly ritual. The summer of 2015 will be the first summer we

Very early on we realized that we were all extremely interested in making a piece of musical theatre that was, in some way, about the mysteries of the universe. haven’t gotten together to work on Fly By Night since 2009. Ben: Fly By Night has a cosmic bent it seems, and I’m curious how this idea developed. Was it always your intention to write a piece of this scope, or did that develop naturally over time? Kim: Very early on we realized that we were all extremely interested in making a piece of musical theatre that was, in some way, about the mysteries of the universe. It was actually the first big spark we had as collaborators. So it made sense to explore that. Michael: I remember when we started to write the songs that would highlight that point, specifically “Stars I Trust” and the show locked in from there. Kim: I don’t know — the universe is infinitely fascinating and inspiring. Of course. It’s the universe! But we were always watching out to make sure that the story felt character-based with these cosmic themes acting as the backdrop, as opposed to the other way around. Ben: There are many unexpected (though completely earned) surprises the musical has to offer. How did you go about shaping a book like this? Did you work backwards? Michael: A lot of those details were in the first draft of Fly By

Night that Kim wrote at Yale for us to adapt into a musical. But as we went along things got deeper. There was a deliberate attempt to make sure that each character landed somewhere and had a moment (either wonderful or melancholic), but a real moment. Kim: We worked forwards and backwards. We were always restructuring things and making discoveries that we had to go back and pull through from the beginning. It felt like putting together a big puzzle that was always expanding. Having an audience was tremendously helpful. We could feel when they were delighted by certain pieces coming together and paying off and when they were completely lost and confused. It was important to us that the audience feel taken care of and guided through the events. Ben: What compelled you three to write a musical fable? Kim: Personally, I grew up loving fables. I loved that they contained lessons and morals. I didn’t have anyone telling me that I had to think or be a certain way. So I found it oddly comforting to read fables and see these bold sweeping proclamations at the end. “Live this way.” “This is good.” “That is bad.” So I’ve always wanted to write a fable. As we wrote Fly By Night, however, we realized we were not telling a story that could be wrapped up in a moral. Fables

are supposed to help make sense of things. And we were interested in how inherently mysterious and chaotic everything is. Fables provide answers. Our show was asking questions more than answering them. Ben: Was this always meant to be a minimalist show? Michael: Yes, but the minimalism was dictated by the story because it takes place in multiple locations. You can’t build big sets for all of these places, so the solution was to strip them down to the essentials. Then as we were picking apart the script, we linked each character with a specific prop or set piece. Mr. McClam has his phonograph, Harold has his guitar, Crabble has his sandwich counter, and Miriam has her swing in South Dakota. Fortunately, over the course of Fly By Night we worked with two outrageously talented set designers, who made these choices so affecting. Ben: The next bit is a spoiler alert, readers! Fly By Night ends with the 1965 blackout — one of the most gorgeous moments in the theatre I’ve ever experienced. It is such a wonderful surprise in the musical, yet it feels completely organic. Was it always decided that the play would culminate with this true historic event? Kim: The 1965 blackout was always a touchstone for us. It was helpful, as we were inventing everything

Fables are supposed to help make sense of things. And we were interested in how inherently mysterious and chaotic everything is. else, to know that we had this one thing that had to happen. And it was real so we couldn’t endlessly question and rewrite the details. The details were facts. They couldn’t be changed. This was a huge relief. As writers we needed some kind of an anchor or we might have drifted forever. The blackout gave us a structure. We wrote this show both towards and around that event. Ben: Do you have any memories of the fans from Palo Alto, Dallas, or NYC? Anything worth sharing about how people were affected by the show? Michael: It was interesting to watch audiences connect with the show. We were so busy making changes, so we didn’t always notice the people seeing our show. But in Dallas, when we were working late on the show, we would sometimes notice these audience members who just didn’t leave. They wanted to talk about the show, and they had seen it multiple times. They called themselves “Frequent Flyers.” It was touching. It meant a lot to me. Kim: I remember an older man who’d ushered the show in NYC. He walked up to the stage after a talkback, he was nervous and determined, and he shook our hands and sincerely thanked us. In Dallas, I remember leaving the theater and seeing this group of people quietly staring up at the stars together. I also remember the feedback form we got in Palo Alto where one annoyed audience member informed us, “This was no Fiddler.” So true. Also, I’ve heard many wonderful stories

about audience members’ blackout experiences. Some of them in the 1965 blackout. One of my most memorable audience experiences happened during previews in Dallas. We had an automated set. About halfway through Act 2, at this big climactic moment when everything was supposed to start moving, there was this sound and everything just stopped. We proceeded to have a 30 minute break while a solution was found. We started the show again and there was a line in the blackout section right after Joey tells Daphne he’s canceling the show where she insists, “You’re not pulling the plug because of a little technical problem!” The audience broke into a huge round of applause and cheered. It was amazing.

Michael: There is a lot to play with and it is a very free show. There are not a lot of hard and fast rules, and I don’t think there is just one way of doing it. Have fun! Kim: Locate the humor and joy in all of the characters as well as the sadness and pain. Embrace the fluidity of the story. Any prop or scenery element that fights the rhythm of the piece isn’t worth it. Although a swing descending in South Dakota is always nice…

But what was even more amazing was that after the show, people were coming up to me in the lobby and saying that the scenic breakdown had created a blackoutlike atmosphere among the audience members. People had turned to the strangers around them and made friends. Plans were made. Phone numbers and email addresses exchanged. One girl had her portrait drawn by an artist sitting next to her. I had several people tell me we should have the set break in the middle of every performance. We didn’t do that because we’re not crazy. But still, that night was incredible. Ben: What advice would you like to impart to those companies wanting to produce Fly By Night?

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

This article originally appeared on Breaking Character Magazine in April, 2015.

FLY BY NIGHT conceived by Kim Rosenstock written by Will Connolly Michael Mitnick and Kim Rosenstock

“Romance doesn’t come any sweeter than it does in this winsome love triangle... Its unabashed emotionalism could turn it into more than a hit. It could turn it into a cult phenomenon.” — New York Post

WINNER! 2011 Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award A star-crossed prophecy. A lot of music. Just not a lot of light. In this darkly comic rock-fable, a melancholy sandwich maker’s humdrum life is intersected by two entrancing sisters. A sweeping ode to young love set against the backdrop of the northeast blackout of 1965. Fly By Night is a tale about making your way and discovering hope in a world beset by darkness.

5m, 2f More than 120 minutes | Dark Comedy Small Orchestra | Moderate Vocals Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock

Rebecca Teran and Joe Theissen in Fly By Night at Broadway Rose Theatre Company (Craig Mitchelldyer).

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Musicals

SIDE SHOW

book & lyrics by Bill Russell music by Henry Krieger additional book material by Bill Condon

“...the musical burrows deep into your spirit... It’s just wonderful!”

— The New York Times

Based on the true story of conjoined twins Violet and Daisy Hilton who became stars during the Depression. A moving portrait of two women joined at the hip whose extraordinary bondage brings them fame but denies them love. Told almost entirely through song, the show follows their progression from England to America, from the vaudeville circuit to Hollywood. With new book and songs, the 2014 revival delves deeper into their backstory, fleshing out characters and situations and offering more sophistication and truth to the story.

13m, 9f More than 120 minutes | Drama Large Orchestra | Difficult Vocals Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock

Erin Davie and Emily Padgett in the Broadway revival of Side Show (Joan Marcus).

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

Lust

Pump Boys and Dinettes

book, music & lyrics by The Heather Brothers based on William Wycherley’s The Country Wife

by John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel, and Jim Wann

“Three words describe Lust: FA... BU... LOUS!” — The Philadelphia Daily News This rollicking Restoration revel throws off the shackles of Puritan austerity in a high-spirited celebration of “the noblest urge bestowed on us.” Ribaldry, romance and drama abound in the hilarious tale of Homer, a notorious London libertine. He charms and seduces his way into the hearts and boudoirs of society ladies, while practicing elaborate deceptions so as to be trusted by the foolish husbands as a eunuch and chaperone to ladies of quality.

The ‘Pump Boys’ sell high octane on Highway 57 in Grand Ole Opry country and the ‘Dinettes,’ Prudie and Rhetta Cupp, run the Double Cupp diner next door. Together they fashion an evening of country western songs that received raves on and off Broadway. With heartbreak and hilarity, they perform on guitar, piano, bass and yes, kitchen utensils.

10m, 7f | 105 minutes | Comedy Small/Combo Band | Moderate Vocals | Classic Broadway

4m, 2f | 105 minutes | Comedy Small/Combo Band | Moderate Vocals | Pop/Rock, Country

35mm:

Nine

A Musical Exhibition music & lyrics by Ryan Scott Oliver based on photographs by Matthew Murphy

book by Arthur Kopit music & lyrics by Maury Yeston adapted from the Italian by Mario Fratti based on Fellini’s 81/2

“When theater pundits talk about the future of Broadway and the new generation of composers, they’re talking about artists like Ryan Scott Oliver ... a major new voice in musical theater.” — Entertainment Weekly

WINNER! 1982 Tony Award, Best Musical WINNER! 2003 Tony Award, Best Revival of a Musical

A picture is worth 1,000 words — what about a song? Can a picture inspire a song or 15? In 35mm, each photo creates an unique song, moments frozen in time; a glimmer of a life unfolding, a glimpse of something happening. A stunning new multimedia musical that reimagines what the modern American musical can be.

The story of celebrated film director Guido Contini and his attempts to come up with a plot for his next film as he is pursued by hordes of beautiful women, all clamoring to be loved by him and him alone. Flashbacks reveal the substance of his life that will become the material for his next film: a musical version of the Casanova story.

3m, 2f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Song Cycle Small/Combo Band or Medium Orchestra | Difficult Vocals Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock, Country

Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

“Both musically and theatrically, a triumph of ensemble playing. It doesn’t merely celebrate the value of friendship and life’s simple pleasures, it embodies them.” — The New York Times

1m, 22f, 4b, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Drama Large Orchestra | Difficult Vocals | Classic Broadway

Musicals

Chess

music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus lyrics by Tim Rice based on an idea by Tim Rice book by Richard Nelson “One of the best rock scores ever produced. This is an angry, difficult, demanding and rewarding show.” — Time The pawns in this drama form a love triangle: the loutish American chess star, the earnest Russian champion and a Hungarian American female assistant who arrives at the international chess match with the American but falls for the Russian. From Bangkok to Budapest, the players, lovers, politicians, and spies manipulate and are manipulated to the pulse of a monumental rock score. The game becomes a metaphor for romantic rivalries, competitive gamesmanship, super power politics and international intrigues. 9m, 2f, 1b or 1g | More than 120 minutes | Drama Large Orchestra | Difficult Vocals | Pop/Rock, Classic Broadway

Runaways

words & music by Elizabeth Swados “It’s enthralling — a fast and furious, poignant and disturbing 80 minutes.” — amNY A collection of songs sung by troubled children. The characters were taken from workshops conducted by Swados with real-life runaways in the late 1970s. While the subject is primarily runaway children from broken homes, Runaways comments on the larger world in which the children live. The show blends different musical styles from pop to hip-hop, jazz to reggae, while asking why children can’t remain children. 11m, 9f | 80 minutes | Drama Small/Combo Band | Moderate Vocals | Pop/Rock

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Trey Parker’s Cannibal! The Musical book, music & lyrics by New Cannibal Society

“It’s finger-licking good! It will take a truly jaded soul to push away from the table before this often hilarious meal is over. Bon appetit!” — San Francisco Examiner The true story of the only person convicted of cannibalism in America, Alferd Packer. The sole survivor of an ill-fated trip to the Colorado Territory, he tells his side of the harrowing tale to news reporter Polly Pry as he awaits his execution. And his story goes like this: While searching for gold and love in the Colorado Territory, he and his companions lost their way and resorted to unthinkable horrors, including toe-tapping songs! 10m, 2f, Flexible Casting | 105 minutes | Comedy Piano Only | Moderate Vocals | Classic Broadway

Death Takes A Holiday book by Thomas Meehan and Peter Stone music & lyrics by Maury Yeston based on the play by Alberto Cassella “Timeless appeal... One lush, soaring number after another...a melody-rich score that draws on a wide range of influences, from the Baroque to the British poperetta craze of the 1980s.” — The New York Times It’s just after World War I and Death, the loneliest of souls, arrives at an Italian villa disguised as a handsome young Prince. For the first time, he experiences the joys and heartbreaks of life. Based on the play by Alberto Cassella, and later made into a 1934 film starring Fredric March and a 1998 film starring Brad Pitt. 7m, 7f | More than 120 minutes | Dramatic Comedy Medium Orchestra | Moderate Vocals | Classic Broadway

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

ROCK OF AGES

book by Chris D’Arienzo music by A Bunch of Really Sweet 80s Bands

“Rock of Ages is the power-ballad decade in all its glory, tricked out with big perms, bigger dreams, and the kind of operatic ecstasy you read about only in bathroom stalls.”

— Entertainment Weekly

“A seriously silly, absurdly enjoyable arena-rock musical.”

— The New York Times

Set in L.A.’s infamous Sunset Strip in 1987, Rock of Ages tells the story of Drew, a city boy from South Detroit, and Sherrie, a smalltown girl, both in L.A. to chase their dreams of making it big and falling in love. Rock of Ages takes you back to the time of big bands with big egos, playing big guitar solos, and sporting even bigger hair!

7m, 10f 120 minutes | Comedy Small/Combo Band | Difficult Vocals Pop/Rock

The cast of Rock of Ages on Broadway (Joan Marcus).

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ADRIFT IN MACAO

book & lyrics by Christopher Durang music by Peter Melnick

“A drop-dead funny book and shamefully silly lyrics...and lethally catchy music by Peter Melnick.” — Broadway World

Everyone that comes to Macao is waiting for something, and though none of them know exactly what that is, they hang around to find out. The characters include your film noir standards, like Laureena, the curvaceous blonde, who luckily bumps into Rick Shaw, the cynical surf and turf casino owner. And don’t forget about Mitch, the American who has just been framed for murder by the mysterious villain McGuffin. With songs and quips, puns and farcical shenanigans, this musical parody of noir films will please audiences of all ages.

4m, 3f 100 minutes | Comedy/Parody Small/Combo Band | Moderate Vocals Classic Broadway

The cast of Adrift in Macao at TheatreWorks New Milford (Ghostlight Photography).

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

Luck! A Musical

Iowa

based on a story by Isaac Bashevis Singer book & lyrics by Mark Waldrop music by Brad Ross

book & lyrics by Jenny Schwartz music & lyrics by Todd Almond “Smart, off-angle pop art songs add to the abundance of pleasures.” — Time Out New York

“First time theatergoers [will be] engrossed and experienced theater lovers entertained... a glorious storydriven score will have you humming the songs as you leave the theater.” — Anthony Gruppuso In this fractured folk tale, Singer, Mazel and Shlimazel, the spirits of Good Luck and Bad Luck, make a bet to determine who is the more powerful. The terms: Mazel will take a hapless young man named Tam under her wing for one year, at the end of which Shlimazel will attempt to undo everything she’s done in one second. That’s the point at which Tam and the princess with whom he’s fallen in love have to rely upon their own ingenuity to save the kingdom and keep Tam’s neck out of the hangman’s noose. 6m, 6f, Flexible Casting | 120 minutes | Comedy Piano Only | Moderate Vocals | Classic Broadway

1m, 6f, 1g | 90 minutes | Dark Comedy Small/Combo Band | Moderate Vocals | Pop/Rock

Henry, Sweet Henry book by Nunnally Johnson music & lyrics by Bob Merrill based on The World of Henry Orient by Nora Johnson

A New Brain

music & lyrics William Finn book by William Finn and James Lapine “Apt and original... A fascinating story.” — New York Post Gordon collapses into his lunch and awakes in the hospital surrounded by his maritime-enthusiast lover, his mother, a co-worker, the doctor and the nurses. Reluctantly, he had been composing a song for a children’s television show that features a frog, Mr. Bungee, and the specter of this large green character and the unfinished work haunts him throughout his medical ordeal. 6m, 4f | 105 minutes | Drama Small/Combo Band | Difficult Vocals | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock

Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

When Becca’s mom finds her soulmate on Facebook, she must leave the unusual pleasantries of her hometown and teenage life to venture to Iowa as her mother seeks a new beginning. But no amount of Facebook chatting can prepare them for their new life in the lone Midwest. This daring piece successfully melds absurdism and musical theatre into a genre-bending romp about the relationships that connect us in a disconnected world.

“Zesty songs...a thoroughly pleasant and most affectionate musical.” — New York Daily News Henry Orient, peripatetic roue and composer of “new music” is a legend in his own mind and skirt-chaser par excellence. Following Henry’s every move are Val and Gil, two smitten teens who unwittingly blow the whistle on Henry and his various amours while chasing him up and down Manhattan. 8m, 8f | 120 minutes | Comedy Piano Only | Easy Vocals | Classic Broadway

Musicals

Phillipa Soo and Lucas Steele in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 at Ars Nova (Chad Batka).

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 by Dave Malloy

CRITIC’S PICK! “A vibrant, transporting new musical… Mr. Malloy’s lyrical voice is blunt, funny and forthrightly contemporary…”

— The New York Times An electro-pop opera based on a scandalous slice of Leo Tolstoy’s War & Peace. Young and impulsive, Natasha Rostova arrives in Moscow to await the return of her fiancé from the front lines. When she falls under the spell of the roguish Anatole, it is up to Pierre, a family friend in the middle of an existential crisis, to pick up the pieces of her shattered reputation. This award-winning musical expands the possibilities for the genre with its daring score and bold storytelling. This title is currently running on Broadway and unavailable for licensing at the time of publication.

5m, 5f, chorus, Flexible Casting More than 120 minutes | Drama Medium Orchestra | Difficult Vocals Pop/Rock, Folk, Operetta

Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

Musicals

Dames at Sea

book & lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller music by Jim Wise “A winner! A gem of a musical!” — The New York Times It’s big time New York City, into which sweet little Ruby from faraway Hometown, USA has come to make it big on Broadway. Who should she chance to meet but another boy from Hometown, USA, Dick, a sailor who also has ambitions as a songwriter. Ruby begins in the chorus, and by the end of the day, in true Hollywood fashion, Dick saves her doomed Broadway show with a smash tune, as Ruby becomes a star on the deck of a battleship which just happens to be passing by. 4m, 3f | Full Length Musical | Comedy Medium Orchestra | Large Vocals | Classic Broadway

The Secret Garden

book & lyrics by Marsha Norman music by Lucy Simon adapted from the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett “Elegant, entrancing... The best American musical of the Broadway season.” — Time A stunning musical that brings to life the haunting beauty of this beloved literary classic. Orphaned in India, 11-yearold Mary Lennox is sent to a Yorkshire manor to live with relatives she’s never met. Left to her own devices, Mary’s personality blossoms as she and a young gardener restore a neglected garden — bringing new life to the manor, and ultimately healing her sickly cousin and uncle. Evocative music dramatizes The Secret Garden’s compelling tale of forgiveness and renewal. 12m, 10f, 1b, 1g | 120 minutes | Drama Large Orchestra | Moderate Vocals | Classic Broadway

A Tale of Two Cities, A Musical

book, music & lyrics by Jill Santoriello based on the novel by Charles Dickens “The return to the era of big blockbusters such as Les Miserables, Phantom, and Miss Saigon.” — The Associated Press Two men in love with the same woman. Two cities swept up in revolution. One last chance for a man to redeem his wasted life and change the world. Based on Charles Dickens’ masterpiece, A Tale of Two Cities is a musical that focuses on the love triangle between young beauty Lucie Manette, French aristocrat Charles Darnay, and drunken English cynic Sydney Carton — all caught in the clutches of the bloody French Revolution. 7m, 3f, 1g, 9 ensemble | 120 minutes | Drama Large Orchestra | Moderate Vocals | Classic Broadway, Operetta

Kudzu: A Southern Musical

book, music & lyrics by Jack Herrick, Doug Marlette and Bland Simpson based on the comic strip by Doug Marlette “A joyous musical score and delicious satire.” — The Boston Globe The story of a boy who comes of age against the changing face of the American South. Like the comic strip from which it is adapted, this musical celebrates the values, humor and original characters still found in disappearing rural America. 11m, 3f, Flexible Casting | Full Length Musical | Comedy Medium Orchestra | Moderate Vocals | Pop/Rock, Country

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

HEATHERS THE MUSICAL

book, music, & lyrics by Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe based on the film written by Daniel Waters

“Ingenious, naughty and very funny. Heathers still cliques.” — New York Post Are you in, or are you out? Veronica Sawyer, a brainy, beautiful teenage misfit hustles her way into the most powerful and ruthless clique at Westerberg High: The Heathers. Before she can get too comfortable atop the high school food chain, Veronica falls in love with the dangerously sexy new kid, J.D. When Heather Chandler, the Almighty, kicks her out of the group, Veronica decides to bite the bullet and kiss Heather’s aerobicized ass…but J.D. has another plan for that bullet. 8m, 9f, Flexible Casting 120 minutes | Dark Comedy Medium Orchestra | Difficult Vocals | Pop/Rock

Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

The cast of Heathers The Musical at New World Stages (Chad Batka).

Musicals

A MODEST PROPOSAL or: You Want Me To Adapt What? by Laurence O’Keefe 2006: So I’m at the California Canteen, a ramshackle restaurant clinging to Ventura Boulevard right where the Valley (suburban, complacent) jams up against Hollywood (sexy, violent). Which side am I on, I wonder. I’m there to meet my old friends Kevin Murphy and Andy Fickman, who want to convince me to help them adapt Heathers into a Broadway musical. This is, of course, a terrible idea, unless it’s not. 1989: The movie Heathers comes out. Winona Ryder plays Veronica, a brilliant teenage misfit plucked from nerdy isolation and elevated to the ranks of the Heathers, Westerberg High School’s three hottest and cruelest girls. But Veronica learns the Heathers are selfish monsters and quits to play Bonnie and Clyde with J.D. (Christian Slater), a darkly magnetic high school outlaw, who offers a cure for selfish monsters: bullets and bombs. Veronica, trapped between violence and powerlessness, must find a third solution. Heathers was frickin’ hilarious. And it scared the crap out of everyone. Because Heathers blew a whistle on our entire culture. Reagan’s “Morning In America” had become a hungover afternoon migraine, still shilling candy-flavored lies about America the infallible. Our TVs were full of Oliver North lecturing us on how patriotism requires you to covertly sell arms to Iran and use the proceeds to finance fascist Nicaraguan rebels. Our movie theaters were stuffed to bursting with Rambos, Rockys and almost-but-not-

(Chad Batka) Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

quite-truthful adolescent epics like John Hughes’ The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and Pretty In Pink. Those teen flicks were funny and occasionally honest about the lives of teenagers. But at heart they were candy, too: utopian fantasies of Rich Boy Loves Poor Girl and Bad Boy Wins Prom Queen. We shrugged and consumed them like a Slurpee at 7-Eleven: delicious, but never mistaking it for actual nutrition. So when a friend dragged teenaged me to see “this movie Heathers, about the meanest school on Earth,” we had no reason to think this movie would be any less of a fantasy. Until five minutes in when our jaws hit the floor and stayed there for two hours. It felt like a documentary about the inside of our own heads. No other movie had ever portrayed how we high school kids actually treated each other. How we sneered and cursed and lied and prayed. And how we all craved justice and safety, and how every one of us had fantasized about hurting those who hurt us. It was cathartic. It helped me realize I wasn’t alone; helped me deal with my own adolescent bewilderment and resentment and hope; and taught me to think hard about how to treat people, and myself, better. So naturally Heathers flopped in movie theaters, but then went on to form the bedrock of our entire culture ever since. Without Heathers there’s no Clueless, no Legally Blonde, no Grosse Pointe Blank and, of course,

Without Heathers there’s no Clueless, no Legally Blonde, no Grosse Pointe Blank and, of course, no Mean Girls. no Mean Girls. Heathers’ DNA is unmistakable in Veronica Mars, Freaks And Geeks, Beverly Hills 90210, My So-Called Life, Dawson’s Creek, and on and on and on. 2006: Problem is, I tell Kevin and Andy, Heathers also spawned smug stories celebrating shiny, rich, defiantly mean girls: Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, My Super Sweet 16, Laguna Beach. Without Heathers, there would be no TV shows for Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, and Real Housewives everywhere. Heathers looked so gorgeous, and the actors so deliciously hot and effortlessly cool, that many audiences forgot the film’s satire and anti-violence stance, and instead worshiped the candy coating, treating the fashions, hairdos and mansions as a consumer Bible. So wouldn’t a Heathers musical fall into that trap? Wouldn’t a musical adaptation soften the wrong edges and wind up glorifying glamorous cruelty? “Guys,” I said. “We have a hard choice: stay true to the dark heart of the movie and risk alienating Broadway audiences, or soften the edges for theatergoers’ tastes and dilute the honesty that made the film iconic in the first place. “Broadway audiences aren’t the same as film audiences; they usually expect higher levels of hope and optimism and much, much lower levels of teenage sex, teenage murder and (worst of all!) teenage swearing. In a Broadway house, a

light PG can feel like an R. “And part of what makes the film so delicious is its moral poker face. It has so much fun showing misfit teens wreaking murderous revenge that it’s hard to tell whether the filmmakers deplore violence or endorse it. Not until the very last few minutes, when Veronica finally decides, ‘No, blowing up my school will not save it.’ She stops J.D.’s murderous plan, then confronts Heather Duke, the new alpha dog. She rips the red scrunchie of power from Duke’s hair and ties it around her own, declaring, ‘There’s a new sheriff in town,’ then turns to poor wheelchair-bound loser Martha Dumptruck, inviting her over to watch videos. Only then do we understand that the screenwriter Dan Waters prefers forgiveness over violence. ’Til then the movie can feel a bit like a dispatch from a free-fire zone in one of those ancient trouble spots where no UN-brokered ceasefire ever holds. “And even if we find a way to make theatre audiences okay with the racier stuff, in the end will they even want to hear the movie’s message that change is rare and painful? That when you depose one Heather you risk becoming a Heather yourself? Broadway audiences prefer their morals black-and-white and their endings uplifting-and-victorious: Hairspray, Lion King, Legally Blonde. They don’t love having their assumptions challenged. “I mean, Sweeney Todd is a masterpiece and it’s been produced on Broadway three times, but none of those three times was a

box office hit. And this movie is often even more nihilistic than Sweeney…” They replied: “Sure, the movie is. But Larry, your own musical Bat Boy ends with a stage littered with bodies, which is played for laughs, and audiences still found it moving. Avenue Q and Urinetown are hilarious and yet stay honest and deal with real darkness. We think a musical Heathers can be less flippant about violence than the film and still hit hard. It’s the story of a teenage girl trapped in an abusive, pressurecooker environment, who longs for a better world, but makes destructive mistakes until she learns to separate justice from revenge. That can sing.” They had me. I took the leap of faith. Wasn’t hard, actually. Kevin and Andy are geniuses and have hearts full of hilarity and warmth. They created one of history’s funniest musicals, Reefer Madness. They’ve made lots of great television and movies. And you can’t get more dedicated champions for a project than our three originating producers: Amy Powers, J. Todd Harris, and Andy Cohen. I’m glad I joined them. It’s been the best professional experience of my career. But mostly, I knew they had me when Kevin Murphy showed me his first draft of a lyric for a song called “My Dead Gay Son.”

This article originally appeared on Breaking Character Magazine in May, 2015.

The Act

Chicago

book by George Furth

book by Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins script adaptation by David Thompson

Liza Minnelli took Broadway by storm in this “concept musical” about a Las Vegas nightclub performer named Michelle Craig, a has been movie star now trying to make a comeback. All the terrific Kander and Ebb songs are sung by Michelle, making this an amazing tour de force for a performer. 5m, 2f | Full Length Musical Dramatic Comedy Medium Orchestra | Moderate Vocals Classic Broadway

In roaring twenties Chicago, chorine Roxie Hart murders a faithless lover and convinces her hapless husband Amos to take the rap... until he finds out he’s been duped and turns on Roxie. Convicted and sent to death row, Roxie and another “Merry Murderess,” Velma Kelly, vie for the spotlight and the headlines, ultimately joining forces in search of the “American Dream”: fame, fortune and acquittal.

Flora, the Red Menace book by David Thompson based on the novel by Lester Atwell originally adapted by George Abbott A romance of charming simplicity set amidst the American communist agitation during the Depression of the 1930s. Is Flora a “red menace” or just that good old Broadway stand by: a Girl in Love? 9m, 10f | Full Length Musical Dramatic Comedy Piano Only | Moderate Vocals Classic Broadway

9m, 10f | 120 minutes | Comedy Large Orchestra | Moderate Vocals Classic Broadway, Jazz

“They have composed dozens of brassy ballads for gu No raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens for th Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

Kiss of the The Rink Spider Woman book by book by Terrence McNally based on the novel by Manuel Puig originally directed by Harold Prince Cell mates in a Latin American prison, Valentin is a tough revolutionary undergoing torture and Molina is an unabashed homosexual serving eight years for deviant behavior. Escaping from the reality of prison life, Molina shares with Valentin fantasies about an actress, Aurora, He loves her in all roles, but one scares him: the Spider Woman, kills with a kiss.

Terrence McNally This innovative musical is set in a sort of Coney Island of the mind, on the ragged fringe of the New York showbiz world. Anna Antonelli’s roller rink is about to be demolished, and with it Anna’s sour memories of her Lothario of a husband and her painfully shy daughter, Angel. The rink becomes an arena in which mother and daughter examine their past, present and future. 5m, 3f | Full Length Musical | Drama Medium Orchestra | Moderate Vocals Classic Broadway

Steel Pier book by David Thompson conceived by Scott Ellis, Susan Stroman, and David Thompson In the honky tonk world of marathon dancing in 1933 Atlantic City, a captivating assortment of Depression Era souls, eager to dance their way into fame and prizes, gather on the Steel Pier. 15m, 13f | 120 minutes | Comedy Medium Orchestra | Moderate Vocals Classic Broadway

15m, 3f | More than 120 minutes | Drama Large Orchestra | Moderate Vocals Classic Broadway

utsy ladies staking out their parcel of asphalt turf. hese guys.” — Time Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

Musicals

Big Nate: The Musical book by Jason Loewith and Lincoln Peirce music by Christopher Youstra lyrics by Jason Loewith and Christopher Youstra based on the cartoons & books by Lincoln Peirce “Bursting with energy and fun music! A rocking fresh bundle of raucous fun.” — D.C. Theatre Scene Nate Wright, a detention-riddled sixth grader (and drummer for the greatest garage band in the history of the galaxy, Enslave the Mollusk!), hopes to capture beautiful Jenny’s heart by winning “The Nicholodeon,” the first prize in his school’s Battle of the Bands. But when Artur and Jenny team up with Nate’s arch-rival Gina to form the sap-pop band Rainbows and Ponies, he’s gotta take his game to an all-star level. 4m, 3f | 75 minutes | TYA Comedy Small/Combo Band | Moderate Vocals | Classic Broadway, Pop/Rock

Fugitive Songs

music by Chris Miller lyrics by Nathan Tysen “A powerful yearning weaves through the tunes...a song cycle tailored to anyone who has ever thought of shucking his job, his mate or his life to start anew.” — Variety

Yo, Vikings!

book & lyrics by Marcus Stevens music by Sam Willmott based on the book by Judith Byron Schachner “Brisk, tuneful and endearing musical...[the] show might be about children but doesn’t feel like children’s theater.” — Fresnobee.com The mini-saga of ten-year-old Emma, the fiercest Viking in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and her quest for real adventure. Yo, Vikings! combines sweeping melodies, thrilling Viking chants and funky rock‘n’roll with a beautiful, heartfelt story to engage and excite every member of the family. 7m, 6f, 1b, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Comedy Piano Only | Moderate Vocals | Classic Broadway

James A. Michener’s Sayonara

book by William Luce lyrics by Hy Gilbert music by George Fischoff adapted from the novel by James A. Michener

An innovative song-cycle, conceived as half-musical/halfhootenanny, spotlights people on the run: a disgruntled Subway sandwich employee, a jilted ex-cheerleader, a pair of Patty Hearst fanatics, and others. Blending traditional folk music with contemporary pop and gospel, this eclectic score provides material for a wide range of experienced singers and delivers poignant and thoughtful lyrics that capture each character’s “reasons to run.”

The classic tale recounts the haunting love story of jet pilot hero Major Ace Gruver and exotic Japanese actress Hana Ogi, star of Japan’s all female Takarazuka Theatre, whose forbidden passion grows against a lush backdrop of Japanese tradition, soaring melodies, and lavish production numbers.

3m, 3f, Flexible Casting | 90 minutes | Song Cycle Small/Combo Band | Difficult Vocals | Pop/Rock, Country, Folk

5m, 6f | Full Length Musical | Drama Large Orchestra | Moderate Vocals | Classic Broadway

Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

“A spectacle with a soul.” — The New York Times

Restrictions may apply to certain titles.

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES music & lyrics by Jerry Herman book by Harvey Fierstein based on the play by Jean Poiret

“This is Jerry Herman’s best musical yet...happier, more assertive, more buoyant than Hello Dolly! or Mame.” — New York Post After 20 years of un-wedded bliss, Georges and Albin, two men partnered for better-or-worse, get a bit of both when Georges’ son (fathered during a one-night fling) announces his impending marriage to the daughter of a bigoted, right-wing politician. Further complicating the situation is the family business: Albin and Georges run a drag nightclub in St. Tropez, where Albin is the star performer, Zaza. Georges reluctantly agrees to masquerade as “normal” when he meets the family of the bride-to-be. But Albin has other plans, with hilarious results. 7m, 3f, Flexible Casting 120 minutes | Comedy Large Orchestra | Moderate Vocals | Classic Broadway

Apply for a license at www.samuelfrench.com.

Les Cagelles in La Cage aux Folles at Playhouse Arts Centre in Melbourne, Australia (Jeff Busby).

Musicals

Relaxed Performances:

THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF OFFERING SENSORY-FRIENDLY EXPERIENCES TO YOUR AUDIENCE by Erica Nagel

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A Relaxed Performance is a true judgment-free zone.... Everyone is free to respond, move, speak, or self-sooth in whatever way they need to enjoy and experience the performance. The work of making the theatre field more inclusive and equitable for people with disabilities is a complex and longterm project. Like any kind of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) work, it can feel simultaneously like the most important priority for sustainability of an organization and like an issue so large that it can be daunting to take the first step. I was asked to write this piece because of one particular program that McCarter has done for the past several years: our Relaxed Performances (RPs). These performances, modified slightly to make the experience accessible for audience members with sensory differences, are growing in popularity at regional theaters, and I am fairly often approached by colleagues looking to understand what it takes to implement them. But when Samuel French asked us to write the accompanying piece for their #IdentityWeek panel on Access and Activism, I have to admit that I felt underqualified to address the larger trends in the field — issues of casting, inclusive rehearsal room practices for actors and designers with disabilities, the need for a body of written work that explores characters with disabilities with nuance and complexity, the ablest structures that exist in a workplace that are so ingrained as to be invisible to those of us with the privilege not to notice them, and the ways in which all of these things combine to make the theatre an unintentionally exclusionary

place for artists and audience members with disabilities. There are people doing incredible work on all of these fronts in the field. Among many others, I urge you to check out the work that Dog and Pony DC and Playpenn have recently done to create inclusive practices with deaf actors. I highly recommend looking into the community-based work Joan Lipkin, artistic director of That Uppity Theater Company, has been doing for over 25 years. And for a deep training and discussion on the nature and outcomes of ableism in an artistic workplace I hope you’ll look into the EDI learning opportunities provided by Carmen Morgan of ArtEquity. While acknowledging that the complexity and scale of the conversation goes well beyond inclusive performances, I certainly believe that offering RPs at your theater is an effective and achievable step towards full inclusion and access. What is a “Relaxed Performance?” A Relaxed Performance is a performance in which certain production elements, such as light and sound cues, are adjusted slightly to even out or soften the sensory experience of the show, or removed altogether. A Relaxed Performance may also offer accommodations outside of the show itself, such as a relaxation/ quiet area, an activity area, family/nongendered bathrooms, a livefeed of the show in the lobby, and online pre-show materials like a social story (a sort of

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storybook for individuals with autism about what to expect in seeing the show) and FAQs for parents and caregivers. Ushers for these performances receive some special training, and often autism specialist volunteers are on hand in the house and lobby to support families who need it. Audience members are welcome to bring snacks, toys, and fidgets (objects that can help soothe and focus individuals on the autism spectrum) into the theater with them, and are welcome to exit and return to the theater whenever they need to. Most importantly, a Relaxed Performance is a true judgmentfree zone. The theater staff models that everyone is welcome and released from the traditional expectations about sitting still and staying silent. Everyone is free to respond, move, speak, or self-sooth in whatever way they need to enjoy and experience the performance. When we first set out to offer Relaxed Performances at McCarter five years ago, we were fortunate to have excellent guidance from the staff of Theater Development Fund (TDF), which works with Broadway shows to offer Autismfriendly performances. We learned many of their strategies through discussion and meetings, but the single most valuable thing we did to prepare ourselves for putting on a Relaxed Performance was attend one of theirs. That experience was an important turning point in our understanding of Relaxed Performances as an

access program. RPs are often thought of as performances that have been significantly modified or shortened, but an essential component of RPs is that they are executed at the highest artistic level — as they would on any other night — with slight technical adjustments that soften the sensory experience. It’s important to remember that RPs are about access and inclusion, not only for the individuals with sensory sensitivity, but also for their families and caregivers. These performances are about creating a space where a parent, a child with sensory sensitivity, and their neuro-typical sibling can all have an incredible artistic experience. What is the difference between “Relaxed” and “Autism-friendly” or “Sensory-friendly” performances? The first year that we offered this program at McCarter, we used the term Autism-friendly performance. And indeed, the majority of families and groups who attend these performances do so with an individual on the autism spectrum. But it was important to us to use the most inclusive term possible and to make sure that parents and caregivers knew that anyone who needs a relaxed atmosphere was welcome, regardless of their medical diagnosis. The term Relaxed Performance is more common in the UK where this kind of programming is also becoming popular, but we are part of a consortium of theaters in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware that have all decided to use this terminology as a way to spread awareness of the availability of these performances with consistent language. How do you “relax” the production elements? At McCarter, we have been pleasantly surprised by how little actually needs to change to make

a performance accessible and enjoyable to those with sensory sensitivity. We always make our best guess about what will need to be adjusted, then bring in a community partner to watch a preview performance and offer their feedback. (Our primary community partner is Eden Autism Services, which also provides training for our ushers and volunteers on the day of the performance — huge gratitude to them!) This feedback has been invaluable, as sometimes they dismiss things we were worried about, and other times they point out sounds, pitches, or moments that we wouldn’t have known were sensory triggers. Often, the very simple shift of keeping the house lights at a 30 percent glow during the show will be enough to soften the effects of all other light cues during the performance. At McCarter, we have excellent sound engineers who live-ride the actors’ microphones and pull down the volume slightly when an actor is yelling. This is important because it allows the actors to give a fully invested and committed performance, trusting that the folks at the sound board will modulate volume for them. Some elements that we have removed completely for Relaxed Performances include strobe lights, onstage gun shots, a very high-pitched “waterphone” instrument, and an interactive moment of throwing things at a puppet that flew over the audience. For each relaxed performance we schedule a halfday of technician time and two hours of actor rehearsal to set any of the changes. What does it cost to do? There are some small upfront costs to set up the relaxation and activity areas (mostly beanbag chairs), and the consumables for each performance (fidgets, coloring books, glow sticks), but many of

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those items can be donated from local toy stores. We also like to buy pizza and t-shirts for the volunteers from our community partners. But those are really the only material goods we’ve found we needed to offer a great experience. The largest potential cost, of course, is dedicating a performance date where you might otherwise sell tickets to the general public as a Relaxed Performance. While TDF routinely sells out Broadway houses with families traveling from all over the country to attend, we have pretty consistently found that our houses are in the 200-300 person range. In our 360 seat theater, that feels great. In our 1100 seat theater, that is a lot of unsold inventory. We chose to address this issue by offering relaxed performances on evenings where there wouldn’t otherwise be a show but that didn’t bump the actors into a 9-show week (which usually meant Tuesday nights.) Adding this dedicated performance did create some additional expense to pay for the crew and front of house staff for the show, but it didn’t significantly change the weekly operating cost of the production overall. Other theaters, such as Dallas Children’s Theatre (a leader in this work) have dedicated existing performance dates as RPs, and sought significant funding to underwrite the difference between the income from an RP and the potential income of a sold out house for that show. What is the biggest challenge? Marketing. The first year that we offered a Relaxed Performance, we leaned heavily on community partners to spread the word and bring audience members to the performance. They did their best, but these autism service providers

In a field where we always worry about dwindling audience attention or the power of the arts to make change, these performances are some of the most joyful, moving, and artistically satisfying you will ever see. are experts in providing services, not in marketing performance events. In the second year, as we were deciding whether to offer another RP, the biggest question was whether we could take on the significant work of marketing and sales within our marketing department. We have found that it is absolutely not enough to include the RP date and information on general marketing for the production, but rather that we need to market the RP as if it were a one-night special event, separate from the production. We’ve found success through targeted social media ads, newspaper articles, and hard copy information stuffed in bags at events for families affected by autism. It took McCarter a few years to adjust to thinking of the marketing resource for these performances as a different framework for ROI—one that has more to do with mission, access, communitybuilding, and potential for contributed income to subsidize the work than with financial return from ticket sales. What is the biggest reward? Even if you are not considering programming RPs at your theater, do yourself a favor and attend one. In a field where we always worry about dwindling audience attention or the power of the arts to make change, these performances are some of the most joyful, moving, and artistically satisfying you will ever see. I’ll never forget watching parents

hold their children and each other while the cast of Into the Woods sang “No One is Alone.” I’ll never forget Sunny Raskin from the Live Muppet Movie Sing Along extending her dance break two, three, four times, while a little girl with developmental delays gazed up at her rapt, calling out “More! More!” The feedback we hear from parents who have brought their children is also a potent reminder of how theatre can bring people together. “As someone who loves going to the theatre, it was amazing to feel that my son was welcome to experience the show on his own terms, however he felt comfortable,” wrote one parent on a post-show survey. What’s next? At McCarter, we are thrilled to be working with a cohort of six theaters in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, supported by a TCG Audience Revolutions Grant, to build best practices, awareness, and demand for RPs and other theatre programs for individuals with autism. As a theater that offers both produced and presented work, we are also exploring the potential for offering RPS of music, dance, and touring children’s performances, and will offer an RP with children’s singer/ songwriter Laurie Berkner this April. Some theatre companies, such as Trusty Sidekick, are creating new works specifically for audiences with diverse sensory challenges. Several theaters around the country that offer

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RPs (including People’s Light, the amazing coordinating theater for the cohort) also offer classes, residencies, or blended cast performance projects as part of a larger initiative around inclusion. I suspect that as parents and caregivers begin to see theaters as places that are actively welcoming and engaging with their loved ones, those programs will grow. I’m happy to speak with anyone who is interested in more nittygritty details, but I want to give the last word here to another parent of a son with autism. In a note to the theater, he wrote: “I never thought I’d be able to share my love of theatre with my son. Tonight I did. He usually doesn’t say much, but after one scene he said, ‘That was incredible!’ My sentiments exactly!”

This article originally appeared on Breaking Character Magazine in September, 2016. Photo: Audience members attend a McCarter Theater Relaxed Performance (Matt Pilsner).

RESOURCES Licensing Head to the product page of any play or musical on samuelfrench.com and begin the licensing process by clicking the Request License button. We’ll do our best to respond to requests within 24 to 48 hours. Newer and popular titles may take longer as we work directly with authors and their agents to process the request. We recommend applying for rights at least four weeks in advance of your pre-production process or any internal deadlines you have for season planning. Applications can be accepted as early as 18 months in advance of your production dates (and the sooner you submit, the better). A play or musical may be unavailable or restricted due to a current first class production or a national tour. You may also be in a region in which rights are currently withheld. If you’re looking for recommendations, want more information about a specific title, or have questions about the licensing process, contact a member of our Professional Licensing Team at 1-866-598-8449: Amy Rose Marsh, Literary Director David Kimple, Licensing Manager Nikki Przasnyski, Licensing Representative Theresa Posorske, Licensing Representative Buddy Thomas, Director of International Licensing Matthew Akers, International Licensing Representative

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Breaking Character Magazine Breaking Character Magazine was created for theatre makers across the nation and provides the latest industry news, access to your favorite playwrights and composers, engaging content, and more. Visit breakingcharactermagazine.com. Journal of Plays and Musicals | Fall/Winter 2016

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Looking for more? The Samuel French website is a great resource for show information and tools to assist you with your next great production. Visit samuelfrench.com to see our entire catalog of plays and musicals.

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TITLES 10 Out of 12 — 22 35MM — 85 3C — 28 Act, The — 96 Adding Machine: A Musical — 79 Adrift in Macao — 88 Advance Man: Part 1 of The Honeycomb Trilogy — 11 After All the Terrible Things I Do — 10 Airswimming — 13 Albatross 3rd & Main, The — 12 All Hail Hurricane Gordo — 47 American Hwangap — 22 Angry Fags — 33 Antlia Pneumatica — 13 Back Back Back — 33 Bad Jews — 43 Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Ken Ludwig’s — 32 Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The — 75 Betrayed — 38 Big Nate: The Musical — 98 Blast Radius: Part 2 of The Honeycomb Trilogy — 11 Blind — 62 Blood at the Root — 53 Blood Play — 59 Body of An American, The — 25 Bootycandy — 47 brownsville song (b-side for tray) — 38 Bulrusher — 38 Captain’s Tiger, The — 61 Carnival Kids — 34 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof — 46 Chasing Manet — 59 Chess — 86 Chicago — 96 City of Conversation, The — 36 clarity — 63 Cleaners, The — 63 Cleopatra, Charles Busch’s — 33

Collective Rage: A Play in Five Boops — 12 Comedy of Tenors, Ken Ludwig’s A — 64-67, 67 Consultant, The — 25 Creature — 25 (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence, The — 18 Dames at Sea — 92 Dani Girl — 78 Dear Elizabeth — 8 Death Takes a Holiday — 86 Destiny of Me, The — 25 Detroit ’67 — 53 Disassembly — 18 Dog Opera — 28 Dot — 8 Drunken City, The — 22 Edith in the Dark — 12 El Paso Blue — 13 Election Day — 28 End of the Day, The — 18 Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End —10 Evelyn in Purgatory — 10 Evelyn Shaffer and the Chance of a Lifetime — 62 Everything You Touch — 26 Fade — 10 Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, The — 26 Falsettos — 72 Familiar — 23 Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) — 40-41, 42 Feminine Ending, A — 60 Fences, August Wilson’s — 55 Few, The — 29 Fiction — 37 Flick, The — 47 Flora the Red Menace — 96 Fly by Night — 80-82, 83 For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday — 12 Four of Us, The — 37 Fugitive Songs — 98 Fun Home — 74

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Gem of the Ocean, August Wilson’s — 55 Girlfriend — 8 Glass Menagerie, The — 46 Glorious! The True Story Of Florence Foster Jenkins, the Worst Singer in the World — 34 Gnit — 47 God Game, The — 43 God’s Ear — 38 Going to a Place Where You Already Are — 9 Golden Boy — 78 Grand Concourse — 25 Grandpa and the Gay Rabbi — 63 Great Wilderness, A — 29 Grounded — 43 Gulf, The — 62 Gutenberg! The Musical! — 75 Hands on a Hardbody — 76-77 Happy New Year — 78 Healing, The — 29 Heathers The Musical — 93, 94-95 Henry, Sweet Henry — 89 Herd, The — 22 How to Get into Buildings — 13 Human Being Died That Night, A — 13 If Memory Serves — 43 Important Hats of the Twentieth Century — 9 in a word — 18 Informed Consent — 50 Iowa — 89 Jacuzzi — 37 James A. Michener’s Sayonara, — 98 Jasper in Deadland — 8 Jitney, August Wilson’s — 55 Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, August Wilson’s — 55 John — 27 Judas Kiss, The — 60 Judge Jackie: Disorder in the Court — 72

Kindness — 37 King Hedley II, August Wilson’s — 55 King Liz — 38 Kiss of the Spider Woman — 97 Kudzu: A Southern Musical — 92 La Cage Aux Folles — 99 Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill — 78 Last Dance — 33 Love and Information — 22 Luck! A Musical — 89 Lust — 85 Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, August Wilson’s — 55 Marie Antoinette — 59 Marjorie Prime — 19, 20-21 Mary Page Marlowe — 51 “Master Harold”… and the Boys — 61 Melancholy Play, a chamber musical — 72 Middletown — 34 Milk Like Sugar — 18 Mnemonist of Dutchess County, The — 33 Mom, How Did You Meet the Beatles? — 43 Monsoon Season — 63 Moors, The — 9 Most Deserving, The — 26 Mr. Burns, a post-electric play — 33 My Manana Comes — 50 Mystery of Love and Sex, The — 47, 48-49 Narrators — 62 Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 — 90-91 Native Son: The Biography of a Young American — 34 Nether, The — 18 New Black Fest’s Hands Up! 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments, The — 10 New Brain, A — 89 Nine — 85 Not About Nightingales — 46 Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme — 50

Occupant, Edward Albee’s — 37 Old Neighborhood, The — 26 Oldest Boy: A Play in Three Ceremonies, The — 44-45 OOHRAH! — 33 Open House, The — 28 Out of the City — 26 Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek, The — 61 Passion Play — 22 Peerless — 9 Perfect Arrangement — 9 Piano Lesson, August Wilson’s The — 55 Pocatello — 29, 30-31 Poor Behavior — 11 Prayer For My Enemy — 18 Pump Boys and Dinettes — 85 Radio Golf, August Wilson’s — 55 Realistic Joneses, The — 35 Red Velvet — 50 Rest — 29 Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. — 9 Rink, The — 97 Risen from the Dough — 63 Rock of Ages — 87 Romance Language — 47 Romance Novels For Dummies — 10 Roommate, The — 13 Royale, The — 39 Runaways — 86 Samsara — 43 Se Llama Cristina — 28 Seabird is in a Happy Place — 62 Secret Garden, The — 92 See Rock City & Other Destinations — 75 Seminar — 58 Seven Guitars, August Wilson’s — 55, 56-57 Shadow of the Hummingbird, The — 61 Shakespeare in Love — 16-17 Shakespeare’s Sister — 12 Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat — 34 Shopping and Fucking — 50 Side Show — 84 Significant Other — 24

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Six Rounds of Vengeance — 12 Skeleton Crew — 53 Skylight — 60 Skyscraper — 89 Smart People — 9 Smile — 75 Southern Comfort — 73 Sovereign: Part 3 of The Honeycomb Trilogy — 11 Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers, The — 11 Stage Kiss — 52 Steel Pier — 97 Streetcar Names Desire, A — 46 Sunset Baby — 53 Taking Care of Baby — 38 Tale of Two Cities, A Musical, A — 92 Three Sisters — 60 Throws of Love — 62 Title and Deed — 26 Tonight… Charlie Chaplin — 59 Trey Parker’s Cannibal! The Musical — 86 Tribute Artist, Charles Busch’s The — 25 Tuck Everlasting — 70-71 Two Trains Running, August Wilson’s — 55 Ugly Lies the Bone — 28 Verité — 11 Vertical Hour, The — 60 Village Bike, The — 59 Waverly Gallery, The — 37 Wedding Bash — 63 Whale, The — 60 Wiz, The — 72 Wonderful Tennessee — 59 Yo Vikings! — 98 You Got Older — 50

AUTHORS Abbott, George — 96 Adams, Lee — 78 Adjmi, David — 28, 59 Albee, Edward — 37 Alexander, Brad — 75 Almond, Todd — 8, 72, 89 Anastasio, Trey — 76-77 Andersson, Benny — 86 Ashman, Howard — 75 Ayvazian, Leslie — 26 Baitz, Jon Robin — 18 Baker, Annie — 27, 47 Barron, Clare — 50 Benson, France-Luce — 63 Birch, Alice — 9 Bock, Adam — 22 Bos, Hannah — 37, 59 Bradbeer Suzanne — 43 Brant, George — 43 Brown, Scott — 75 Brown, William F. — 72 Brunstetter, Bekah — 9, 33 Busch, Charles — 25, 33 Butler, Oliver — 37, 59 Callaghan, Sheila — 26 Cefaly, Audrey — 62 Chaffer, Don — 11 Chakrabarti, Lolita — 50 Churchill, Caryl — 22 Collins, Dan — 73 Condon, Bill — 84 Congdon, Constance — 28 Connolly, Will — 80-82, 83 Coppel, Fernanda — 38 D’Arienzo, Chris — 87 Davis, Eisa — 38 Davis, Julianne Wick — 73 Debate Society, The — 37, 59 Diamond, Lydia R. — 9 Dietz, Steven — 37 Dimond, Christopher — 72, 78 Domingo, Colman — 8 Doran, Bathsheba — 47, 48-49 Durang, Christopher — 88

Ebb, Fred — 96, 97 Eden, Simon David — 12 Edwards, Greg — 62 Ellis, Scott — 97 Engel, Allison — 10 Engel, Margaret — 10 Eno , Will — 26, 28, 34, 35, 47 Federle, Tim — 70-71 Ferrentino, Lindsey — 28 Fierstein, Harvey — 99 Finn, William — 72, 89 Fischer, Lori — 11 Fischoff, George — 98 Fitzpatrick, John — 10 Foley, John — 85 Fosse, Bob — 96 Foster, Hunter — 8 Fratti, Mario —85 Friel, Brian — 5 Fugard, Athol — 61 Furth, George — 97 George, Madeleine — 18 Giardina, Anthony — 36 Gibson, William — 78 Gilbert, Hy — 98 Green, Amanda — 76-77 Green, Dennis — 78 Green, Paul — 34 Greenidge, Kirsten — 18 Gurira, Danai — 23 Haimsohn, George — 92 Haley, Jennifer — 18 Hall, Carol — 75 Hall, Lee — 16-17 Hardwick, Mark — 85 Hamlisch, Marvin — 75 Hare, David — 60 Harmon, Joshua — 24, 43 Harnetiaux, Trish — 13 Harrison, Jordan — 19, 20-21 Heather Brothers, The — 85 Henriques, Simon — 62 Herman, Jerry — 75, 99 Herrick, Jack — 92

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Howe, Tina — 59 Hunter, Samuel D. — 29, 30-31, 60 Irwin, Elizabeth — 50 Johnson, Nunnally — 89 Jones, Charlotte — 13 Jones, Nick — 9, 11 Josephson, Jonathan — 63 Joy, Lindsay — 63 Kander, John — 96, 97 Kavner, Lucas — 34 Kellett, Gloria Calderon — 62 Kelly, Dennis — 38 Kennedy, Adam P. — 43 Kennedy, Adrienne — 43 Killebrew, Boo — 10 King, Anthony — 75 King, James Gordon — 62 King, Larry L. — 75 Kinnear, Rory — 22 Koenigsberg, Josh — 33 Kooman, Michael — 72, 78 Kopit, Arthur — 85 Kraft, Lindsey — 63 Kramer, Larry — 25 Krieger, Henry — 84 Kron, Lisa — 74 Lapine, James — 72, 89 Laufer, Deborah Zoe — 50 Lee, Kimber — 38 Leeds, Andrew — 63 Letts, Tracy — 51, 60 Loewith, Jason — 79, 98 Lonergan, Kenneth — 37 Lucas, Craig — 18 Luce, William — 98 Ludwig, Ken — 32, 64-67 Malloy, Dave — 90-91 Mamet, David — 26 Marlette, Doug — 92 Masterson, Peter — 75 Matthias, Adam — 75 McGuinness, Frank — 50 McNally, Terrence — 96, 97

Meehan, Thomas — 86 Meeks, Philip — 12 Melnick, Peter — 88 Mensch, Carly — 47 Merrill, Bob — 89 Miller, Chris — 70-71, 98 Miller, Robin — 92 Miroshnik, Meg — 26 Mitnick, Michael — 80-82, 83 Monk, Debra — 85 Morgan, Cass — 85 Morisseau, Dominique — 53 Moses, Itamar — 33, 37 Murphy, Kevin — 93 Murphy, Matthew — 85 Nelson, Richard — 86 New Black Fest — 10 New Cannibal Society — 86 Nguyen, Qui — 12 Norman, Marc — 16-17 Norman, Marsha — 33, 92 O’Brien, Dan — 25 O’Hara, Robert — 47 O’Keefe, Laurence — 93, 94-95 Odets, Clifford — 78 Oliver, Ryan Scott — 8, 85 Packer, George — 38 Pamatmat, A Rey — 10 Park, Jiehae — 9 Parker, Trey — 86 Parks, Suzan-Lori — 40-41, 42 Parnell, Peter — 47 Payne, Topher — 9, 10, 33 Peirce, Lincoln — 98 Plowman, Gillian — 59 Porter, Cole — 78 Prince, Harold — 97 Plowman, Gillian — 59 Quilter, Peter — 34 Ramirez, Marco — 39 Rapp, Adam — 37 Ravenhill, Mark — 34, 50 Rebeck, Theresa — 11, 58 Rice, Elmer — 79 Rice, Tim — 86 Robertson, Lanie — 78 Rogers, Mac — 11

Roninson, Andy — 62 Rosenstock, Kim — 80-82, 83 Ross, Brad — 89 Ruhl, Sarah — 8, 13, 22, 44-45, 52, 72 Russell, Bill — 84 Santoriello, Jill — 92 Saracho, Tanya — 10 Schimmel, John — 85 Schmidt, Joshua — 79 Schreck, Heidi — 25 Schwartz, Jenny — 38, 89 Shear, Claudia — 70-71 Shevelove, Burt — 78 Silverman, Jen — 9, 12 Simon, Lucy — 92 Simpson, Bland — 92 Skinner, Penelope — 59 Smalls, Charlie — 72 Solis, Octavio — 13, 28 Staats, Amy — 62 Stevens, Marcus — 98 Stewart, Michael — 75 Stone, Peter — 86 Stoppard, Tom — 16-17 Stroman, Susan — 97 Strouse, Charles — 78 Suh, Lloyd — 22 Swados, Elizabeth — 86 Sweet, Matthew — 8 Tesori, Jeanine — 74 Thompson, David — 96, 97 Thureen, Paul — 37, 59 Tobiessen, Josh — 28 Tolins, Jonathan — 43 Treem, Sarah — 60 Trieschmann, Catherine — 26 Tuttle, Korde Arrington — 63 Tysen, Nathan — 70-71, 98 Ulvaeus, Björn — 86 Vieh, Lizzie — 63 Waldrop, Mark — 89 Wann, Jim — 85 Washburn, Anne — 13, 22, 33 Whipday, Emma — 12 Williams, Tennessee — 46 Willmott, Sam — 98 Wilson, August — 55, 56-57

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Wise, Jim — 92 Wright, Doug — 76-77 Wright, Nicholas — 13 Yee, Lauren — 18, 43 Yeston, Maury — 85, 86 Yockey, Steve — 18 Youstra, Christopher — 98

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