BRUCE FELD plays
published by ARAN PRESS
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QUEEN FOR A YEAR
by Bruce Feld
Cast: 4 women & 2 men. Farce. One act. Set: ballroom stage.
The American institution of beauty pageants is under fire again in this
short one act which has Miss Alabama, Miss New Jersey, and Miss Missouri
pitted against each other in the question & answer portion of the contest.
Beauty may be on the surface, but petty envy and colossal stupidities are
bursting forth with every word uttered. Suddenly, Miss New Jersey burst
into an impassioned speech on
race relations, but the Pageant People recover and the music plays on "QUEEN
FOR A YEAR is a truly awesome one act by one of the most clever contemporary
playwrights of the 90's!" - Barbara Eaton, The Movie Gazette."QUEEN
FOR A YEAR had the audience screaming with laughter." - Maurice
Keller, The Tolucan.
Book: $1.00. Royalty - $10-5.00
What the critics are saying about Bruce Feld's "Queen for a Year":
"Queen for a Year is a truly awesome one act by
one of the most clever contemporary playwrights of the 90's!"
- Barbara Eaton, The Movie Gazette
"Queen for a Year by Bruce Feld is a hilarious send-up of beauty contests
which had the audience screaming with laughter."
- Maurice Keller, The Tolucan
"Bruce Feld's Queen for a Year reveals beauty contestants who have
reached the oh-so-important question section of their pageant. The contest's
emcees are hilariously in control as the contestants struggle to come up
with the right response. Director Ann-Giselle Spiegler pulls out all the
stops as this piece speeds towards it unexpected conclusion."
- Amy Schaumburg, Drama-Logue
"Bruce Feld's socially conscious Queen for a Year, directed by Ann-Giselle
Spiegler, is a satiric look at racism, black beauty contestant Toyin Fadope
answers the perennial 'help the world' question with a response most people
of color would cheer."
- Martin Hernandez, LA Weekly
QUEEN FOR A YEAR
by Bruce Feld
Available from ARAN PRESS. $1.00 a copy. Productions royalty $10-$5.
ALSO FROM ARAN PRESS BY BRUCE FELD:
A BEE TO HONEY
by Bruce Feld
Cast: 2 men and 1 woman. Two act. Dark comedy.
Set: sterile penthouse; cheap motel room in Oklahoma City. Honey Bee and
George are honeymooning at a swanky penthouse in Mexico City. George's brother,
Robert, who financed their honeymoon-and, indeed, supports George out of
his deep pockets-keeps interrupting them with constant phone calls. Robert
is right to be concerned; Honey Bee is about to take George on the ride
of his life, resulting in a nervous breakdown. Robert later pays a visit
to Honey Bee, seeking revenge. A BEE TO HONEY is based on the award-winning
LISTEN TO THE DUCHESS (infra) which earned the following accolades:
"An eerie piece that sizzles with passion, action, and suspense."
L.A. Reader. "Filled with excitement, tension, eroticism, chemistry,
happiness, despair, theatricality, and though the subject matter may be
a bit much for some, it is excellent theatre." Drama-Logue.
Book $3.50. Royalty - $35-$25.
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CARRYING ON
by Bruce Feld
Cast: 1 man and 2 women. Black comedy. One act. Set: office.
Hollywood casting director Ralph Webster has just heard that his parents
have died in a plane crash in South Carolina-"They never lived there.
They died there, but they never lived there." In barges Shelley Dixon,
a brassy actress that is a cross between Bette Midler and Ethel Merman.
Shelley wants Ralph to recommend her for the part of Lady Macbeth, and she'll
do just about anything to get the part. This is a play that tells you what
Hollywood is all about, the true mettle of show biz folk. "My first
choice was CARRYING ON Bruce Feld, never ceases to amaze me with
his sophisticated wit and humorous satirical punning.." - Barbara Eaton,
The Movie Gazette. Book $1.00. Royalty $10-$5.
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CLEOPATRA AND THE NIGHT
by Bruce Feld
Cast: 4 men and 2 women. Black comedy. Three one acts. Set: area staging.
"These three sharp vignettes from Feld's fertile and mischievous imagination
prove him a dramatist to reckon with." Polly Warfield, Drama-Logue
(April 28-May 4, 1994). Each of these comedies deal with the dark side
of love. In the title piece, two modern day detectives arrive on the dying
Cleopatra of 30 B.C. and brilliantly manage to trivialize the closing moments
of one of the great romances of all times: "You have the right to remain
silent" In "The $1,000 Goodbye," a male escort service sends
the wrong men to the wrong women, but despite the mismatch, professionals
that they are, they perform. In "Intimate Details" a willfully
homeless-by-design couple make money by renting their son out to a pedophile.
CLEOPATRA AND THE NIGHT premiered at the Actors' Circle Theatre,
Hollywood, California, in 1994. "Bruce Feld's three one-acts recallMurray
SchisgalSamuel Beckett." L.A. Weekly. "Feld's writing is
rife with sly and subtle humor and wry appreciation of life's little ironies"
Drama-Logue. Book $3.50. Royalty $30-$20 (all three); $20-$10 (individually).
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LISTEN TO THE DUCHESS
by Bruce Feld
Cast: 1 man and 1 woman. One act. Drama. Set: cheap motel room.
A narcissistic nightclub singer has driven her husband crazy. Her brother-in-law
arrives unexpectedly seeking revenge. This award-winning play received universal
critical praise in its California premier: "It is a piece filled with
excitement, tension, eroticism, chemistry, happiness, despair, theatricality
and, though the subject matter may be a bit much for some, it is excellent
theatre." Drama-Logue. "[LISTEN TO THE DUCHESS]
is an eerie piece that sizzles with passion, action, and suspense."
Reader's Guide. "LISTEN TO THE DUCHESS works its way
to an unsettling climax, a moment of cruelly imposed awareness." Daily
News. LISTEN TO THE DUCHESS can stand alone or as the second
act of A BEE TO HONEY (infra.) Book $2.00. Royalty -$15-$10.
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THE SECRETARY
by Bruce Feld
Cast: 1 man and 1 woman. One act. Comedy. set: Desk, waiting lounge, two
chairs. An aggressive, high level accountant who has recently been terminated
tries desperately to see his boss, to get his job back. He encounters an
executive secretary-a woman with a personality part-robot, part-electric
fence, part-corporate mannequin-who convinces him via rigid but compelling
reasoning that he does not know what he is doing or, indeed, who he really
is. Thus, an executive who entered full of vim and vigor is reduced to a
salivating, broken, hulk of a man. THE SECRETARY is a nightmare comedy
about rejection, and how those who practice it can hoist their own petard
as well as wound others. Of the California production starring Lucy Lee
Flippin, the Drama-Logue critic wrote: "This is a farce on a grand
scale, a kinetic play embellished by prime performances by the two actors."
Book $1.00. Royalty - $10-$5.
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