ARAN PRESS
1036 S. FIFTH STREET
Louisville, KY 40203
ARAN PRESS STAGE PLAYS WITH 7 TO 9 CHARACTERS
THE AD GAME
by Dick W. Zylstra
Cast: 5 men and 3 women. Two acts. Musical comedy. Set: office.
THE AD GAME presents the hectic, entertaining and sometimes hilarious
side of the advertising industry. It depicts the meteoric rise of a brash
young man with the unwitting help of the reception ist, as the personnel
create amusing ad campaigns, play office politics, engage in romance and
intrigue, and display the wild antics of uninhibited though fascinating
creative people. Nine original songs, an energetic, fast-moving pace, and
a highly entertaining look at an industry that exerts an enormous influence
on our society. Book $4.50. Royalty - $35-$25.
***
THE ARTISTIC STREET CLEANER
by Herschel S. Steinhardt
Cast: 4 men and 5 women. Three acts. Comedy. Set: area staging.
Peter Ustinov described Steinhardt's play SONS OF MEN as "a
turbulent slice of American life which is both photographically authentic
and yet aspires successfully to be artistic." John Gassner, professor
of Playwriting, Yale University, said Steinhardt's plays are "vivid
examples of soundly constructed playwriting." Steinhardt has had plays
produced and read over the radio world-wide. Now he has done it once again
with THE ARTISTIC STREET CLEANER a spoof on the artistic director
who uses his position as a "casting couch." Book $3.50. Royalty
$35 - $25.
***
BABIED
by Leonard L. Perlmutter
Cast: 3 men, 2 women, 1 boy and 1 girl. Two acts. Drama. Set: living room.
Custody battles are among the most painful, especially when young impressionable
children are involved. Amy Holland would like to hold on to her two children
when her politician husband leaves her. But Amy is an alcoholic who has
had a couple of trips to a sanitarium and verges on suicide. She wants to
stay away from drinking, she wants to be sane, she wants to build a life
for herself, get a job and take care of her kids. But the cards seemed stacked
against her. BABIED particularly highlights Amy's relationship with
her mother, Harriet. On the surface, it appears that Harriet is trying to
help Amy, but Harriet's negative attitude and disparagement of anything
Amy tries may be at the root of Amy's problems. BABIED is an excellent
character study in an unfortunately too real scenario. Book $4.00. Royalty
$35-$20.
***
BEATS, TWO BEATS
by John Connor
Cast: 3 men and 5 women. One act. Set: dorm rooms and dance space.
It is the day of the annual dance recital at a Midwest university. Steven
and Karen, lovers and prin ciple dancers, each handle the pressure differently.
Things go wrong during the performance, and the accusations fly as they
blame each other. While this relationship gets strained, their roommates,
bookish Don and introverted Susan, embark on their first date. In this funny
and touching play, each character proffers their own quirky wisdom on life,
beer, and the exact odds of finding your "perfect mate." There
is also an unexpected look into the hearts and minds of the "beautiful
people." CAU TION: Performers are forewarned that the previously unattached
lead actor and actress in the first staged reading of BEATS, TWO BEATS
went on to get married. . Book $3.00. Royalty - $15 - $10.
***
THE BIG DOLLAR
by Herschel S. Steinhardt
Cast: 6 men and 3 women. Three acts. Drama. Set: sales office.
THE BIG DOLLAR is prolific Steinhardt's view of the business worldwhere
men and women compete for their daily bread and butter. The sales force
of Smith Realty may all work for the same company, but they can be natural
adversaries of each other when it comes to closing a sale. Here are many
of the archtypes of businessthe veteran seller; the attractive sales lady
who uses her per sonal charm in every business venture; the unethical salesman;
the divorcee who has taken a job in real estate to have free time to care
for her daughter; the ever-balance sheet minded boss. Steinhardt, having
worked himself for years in real estate, writes with authority. Book $4.00.
Royalty $30 - $20.
***
BLACK ENGLISH
by Lou Rivers
Cast: 3 men and 4 women. Two acts. Comedy. Set: a living room.
Wade Simmons, a college senior, is having trouble passing a required final
English exam, and because of this, it seems, he experiences a temporary
inability to make love to his girl friend, Lynette Hill, who just happens
to be the chairman of the English department. Lynette is several years older
than Wade, and their relationship has remained clandestine. As an aftermath
of the temporary set back, Wade begins to evaluate his life as a Black man
and begins to take immediate steps to change it. He dresses up in Lynette's
clothes and takes Lynette and another English teacher hostage. Emmanuel
Omawa, a security guard for the building, and former mental patient, drops
by and joins Wade's revolution. The battle lines are drawn. Wade and Emmanuel
are going to start a movement to liberate men from female domination and
Blacks from standard English. BLACK ENGLISH is one of the funniest
plays of ideological cant by a gifted master of comedy of manners. You won't
be able to suppress the laughs. Book $5.00. Royalty - $35-$20.
***
BLISSFUL IGNORANCE
by Lakey W. Tolbert
Cast: 5 men and 3 women. One act. Comedy. Set: living room.
Inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne's "David Swan," Tolbert's BLISSFUL
IGNORANCE dramatizes the dream (or is it a dream?) of couch potato Howard.
Money, sex and death trickle past Howard as he cocoons peacefully on the
sofa. Earlier a friend has admonished Howard that awareness is the only
key that unlocks the door the fulfillment. BLISSFUL IGNORANCE is
a reminder that events may affect our lives without our knowledge. The theme
is timeless: We must all find the balance between knowledge and serenity.
This balance is perhaps more important in this age of diminishing leisure
and expanding information overload than it was in Hawthorne's time. Book
$3.00. Royalty $15 - $10.
***
A BRA FULL OF STRAWBERRIES
by Alexander Panas
Cast: 4 men and 3 women. Three acts. Comedy. Set: a living room.
Alan Dupont, a ne'er-do-well, and his rich fiancee Estelle are in Paris
for a premarital vacation with Estelle's 250 lb. sixteen year old son, Peter.
One night Peter brings home an antique clock and a wife, Maria, who really
can't be his wife because she is married to Paprike. Alan gets caught in
the middletrying to hide Maria, trying to please Paprike to get a loan,
and trying to keep Estelle from finding out anything. Paprike is an antique
expert and very interested in Peter's clock, and more than upset when he
finds his wife's brassiere in it. Paprike is set to kill someonehis own
brother, Peter, Alan, or even his wife. The confusions abound in A BRA
FULL OF STRAWBERRIES and the characters are straight out of Labiche,
Feydeau or G.S. Kaufman. The audience will drink them selves into buckets
of laughter and beg for more. Book $5.00. Royalty - $35 - $25.
***
A COMEDY OF HISTORY
by Dick W. Zylstra
Cast: A minimum of 7 men and 2 women. Three acts. Musical comedy. Set: A
bare stage.
If you think history is dull, you haven't seen A COMEDY OF HISTORY.
This amazing musical cavalcade covers just about everything and morethe
repetitive stupidities of mankind, the ge niuses and philosophers, the progress
in technology, cultural and social organization, the great religions, the
corruption of the Christian church, the debt of Western Europe to the Muslims
in culture and education, the skepticism that led to the Reformation, the
vile barbarity of the Crusades and Inquisition, the sprouting of democratic
feeling and its blossoming in the American and French revolutions, and the
enormous contributions of America to the technology, culture and progress
of the world. And never a dull moment! Book $5.00. Royalty $35 - $25.
***
CONFUCIUS WAS RIGHT
by Edward L. Perry
Cast: 4 men and 4 women. Three acts. Comedy.Set: family room.
It all started in Asa Kalian's apartment when Archie "Loony" Toombes,
a slightly punchy ex-fighter and the building's maintenance man, mistakes
the doorbell for the ring bell and starts belting away at Cletus "ghost"
Jackson, an NFL football star on injured reserve. Cletus is laid up on Asa's
couch till Dr. Lim Kee, the Confucius quoting team physician can arrive.
Meanwhile, Loony Toombes slips off with Asa's daughter to seewhat else?the
fights. Asa's troubles are just beginning. Book $34.00. Royalty $30-$20.
***
THE DEALERS OF SAN JUAN
by Joe Martin
Cast: 5 men and 3 women. 13 scenes. Drama. Setting: a Southern country.
Lester MacLeod has run his cantina and hardware store in a secluded village
in a Latin American country for many years. Though the country is run by
a decrepit dictatorship threatened by both a revolution in the countryside
and pressure to hold elections, he carries on his existence without ruffling
feathers or drawing attention to himself. When a man claiming to be an "old
friend" arrives at his door, although he can't recollect the man, he
is willing to give assistance to this fellow northerner, who speaks his
"own language." Despite the admonitions of his friend Tito a local
Indian shaman MacLeod remains blind to the mercenary, political objectives
of his visitor. Meanwhile, an important army officer who once showed favor
to MacLeod has broken with the country's rulers, and Tito brings the renegade's
daughter to MacLeod for protection. When the daughter is brutalized by assailants
and Tito is made to "disappear," MacLeod finds it may be too late
to stop the carnage which has now entered his own life brought about by
the fact that he has learned to turn a blind eye to the cycle of violence
imposed on the people of the society in which he lives. THE DEALERS OF
SAN JUAN was produced at The Sanctuary Theatre in Washington DC and
received 3rd prize in the Source Literary Competition in 1985. Alan Twigg
of The Vancouver Free Press says Joe Martin has "an excellent
ear for dialogue." Book $4.50. Royalty $35 - $25.
***
DECEIT
by Joe Martin
Cast: 4 men and 3 women. Eight scenes. Fantasy in verse. Set: Area staging.
If you have been waiting for a good contemporary urban play in verse,
DECEIT is for you. The setting is a gentrifying neighborhood in the
downtown core of a great city. The near future. A rising politician, Grand,
has exploded while campaigning. Who is guilty of blowing him up? A chorus
of street Bible hawkers takes us back in time to witness the conflicts between
an overclass couple and an underclass couple, both of whom had pinned their
hopes on the candidate. DECEIT is an abusive satire, borrowing elements
from both Commedia dell'Arte and Kabuki. Book $4.00. Royalty $30 - $20.
***
THE DIFFERENCE IN WOMEN
by John David Ballum
Cast: 4 men and 4 women. Five scenes. Set: flexible area staging
Geoffrey is a young, romantic, contended bachelor, fond of society, yet
secretly enamoured of those daring enough to violate its dictates. He is
enchanted by the mysterious "Lady Catherine," a woman he has never
seen, but yearns to meet. Together with his friend, Oliver, Geoffrey goes
in pursuit of Lady Catherine. Doesn't sound like today? It isn't. It is
England at the turn-of-the century, when there was such a thing as "proper
society," prim morals, and, the plays of Oscar Wilde, dazzling verbal
exchanges of wit. Playwright John David Ballam has written a period piece
that comes as close to the spirit and flavor of Wilde's style as any comedy-of-manners
written since the passing of the Master. Book $3.50. Royalty - $35 - $20.
***
DISENCHANTMENT
by Barbara Plum
Cast: 3 men and 4 women. Comedy/Fantasy. Two acts. Set: two offices. Sandra
Allan has just broken up with her boyfriend when a strange young man pops
up and claims to be Merlin from King Arthur's Court. Merlin is there to
help Sandra with her problems. He can make her career as a TV talk show
host soar, which is what Sandra wants. But what Merlin wants is to bring
Sandra and her boyfriend back together. Why? To keep the Arthurian family
line alive. Standing in Merlin's way is Miss Kirby, Sandra's secretary.
Miss Kirby is also a sorceress from Merlin's past. To complicate things,
there is a gangster named Fernando and a stripper named Snow White. Book
$5.00. Royalty $35-$20.
***
DOUBLE EXPOSURE
by Jonathan Eckblad
Cast: 4 men and 4 women. Two acts. Mystery play. Set: parsonage.
Two college students stumble on a deserted parsonage while on a backpacking
trip. Some strange things happen in the old house, which prompt the students
to return with professors to investigate the possibility of psychic phenomena.
With a fast-paced plot, the play comfortably straddles the realms of the
"normal" and the paranormal. A bit chilling in spots, somewhat
tongue-in-cheek, and often humorous. DOUBLE EXPOSURE was first produced
at Carthage College in Wisconsin. Book: $3.50. Royalty $25 - $20.
***
EANY-MEANY
by Mark Pizzato
Cast: 3 men and 4 women (with double casting). Two acts. Drama. Sets: area
staging.
Art Smith has confessed to over 300 brutal murders. The victims he has taken
credit for were left mutilated and dismembered (some decapitated). Law enforcement
officials from all over the U.S. have been clearing their files of mysterious,
unsolved cases after talking with Art Smith. But two reporters become doubtful
of Art's sincerity. They probe deeper into his past and his strange lack
of emotion over the confessed crimes. EANY-MEANY explores the darkness
at the heart of a great killer (or at least a man who believe himself to
be a great killer) and exposes the way society helps to create such an evil
figure. EANY-MEANY premiered at the Sanctuary Theatre of Washington,
DC. Book $4.00. Royalty $35-$25.
***
THE FRONT PORCH
by Francis Hoffmann
Cast: 4 men and 4 women. Two acts. Comedy. Set: a front porch. Two elderly
ladies, Ellen Perlmutter, and Josephina Bacicalupo, get together nightly
on Ellen's front porch for coffee and a chat on whatever. Various neighbors
stop by and join in and tell their stories. Harley Dockery, a retired bachelor;
Arthur Flett, a retired family man; Mildred Grackle, an old maid; Honeysuckle
Santiago, a pregnant teenager, and others. Update an old Fred Allen radio
show and you have almost the flavor of FRONT PORCH. There are serious
moments, however, in FRONT PORCH. For the most part, though, FRONT
PORCH is a comedy of charactersJosephina: "Hey, Mildred, did you
get a good look at Mr. Dockery? Not a bad looking old coot, is he? If I
were you, I'd bait my trap from him. He's a bachelor, and fair prey"
Mildred: [dubiously] He looked to be very fragile and weak."
Josephina: "He's recovering from a double bout with a saber-swinging
surgeon. However, he's getting stronger everyday. And while he's got snow
on his roof, there's plenty of fire in his furnace below." Book $4.50.
Royalty $30 - $20.
***
The Games Actors Cry takes you through an amateur production - the auditions, the casting, the rehearsals, opening night, the reviews, the closing night, and finally a cast reunion. All of this from the perspective of the performers, who always seem to find themselves gathering for one occasion or another at Esther's Coffee Shop. Anyone who has ever done any amateur acting will recognize the experiences and characters of The Games Actors Cry. The play premiered in 1981 at Le P'tit Cabaret Dinner - Theatre in Santa Barbara, CA. "Games Actors Cry is a fast-paced, thoroughly enjoyable play. You'd never mistake it for anything non-professional. It's an absolute must-see for any actor, amateur or otherwise." John Dell, News-Press, Santa Barbara. "Marcelle Wilson has a wicked sense of humor. Besides that,she has the makings of a first-class comedy writer. . . Games can be fun to anyone who has ever been involved in theatre in any way, has had to endure someone who has- or as a matter of fact, to just about everybody else." A.N. Vander Veer, N&R Reviewer. The Games Actors Cry is recommended for community, summer stock and dinner theaters.
Royalty - $35-$25. Book $5.00
* * *
THE GREEN CARNATION
by Louis Valentine
Cast: 8 men and 1 woman. Three acts. Drama. Set: study.
It is the home of Oscar Wilde, 16 Tite Street, London, February, 1895. It
is the opening night of his greatest triumph, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST,
which will establish Wilde as one of the premier playwrights in the English
languageOn this evening in February, 1895, Wilde is perhaps the wittiest
man alive. He is at the zenith of his success. And it is all about to come
crum bling down. He will be excused of a vile crime, tried, convicted, imprisoned,
and finally face exile, and death in poverty. Worst of all, he will lose
his family. The man of wit is about to face real life tragedy. Though he
has flaunted his unconventional behavior in front of Victorian eyes, he
cannot escape the revenge of the Marquis of Qeensberry (the man who invented
the rules of boxing) when Queensberry discovers Wilde's affair with his
son, Lord Alfred Douglas. So much is history. THE GREEN CARNATION
gives us the human side of Wilde. The Wilde at home with family and friends,
above all the painful realization of his wife Constancethat Oscar has changed.
On THE GREEN CARNATION, one critic has written: "In one set
and within three economical acts Valen tine has captured the essence of
Wilde, at the peak of his creative powers, becoming his own execu tioner.
There is not a smidgen of idolatry here: we must often remind ourselves
that this querulous, indecisive, besotted fop is the legendary wit and dandy,
the peer of Whistler, Bourne-Jones, Beardsley, and Swinburne. Wilde's alcoholism
is mercilessly observed and his cavalier behavior toward his wife, children,
friends, and Victorian society as a whole is laid before us without extenua
tion. He shrivels before our eyes into a monster" Frederick G. Jarvis,
author of MURDER AT THE MET and THE DIVAS. Book $5.00. Royalty - $35 - $20.
***
HEAT OF THE CITY
by Gregory Conklin
Cast: 4 men and 3 women. One act. Drama. Set: a room.
In this comedy/drama, a young, charismatic, small-time Black hood, Booker
T. Turner decides to go for the big money. He is joined by an admiring side-kick
in a kidnapping for ransom scam. Turner finds that his well thought out
plan is far from flawless. The victim, Monica Wood, a young and pretty businessman's
wife, falls for Turner. They have an affair and plan to go to Mexico. Together
they deceitfully extort a sizeable sum of money from Wood's wealthy husband.
Jaspersen, the key man in Turner's scam, bungles everything. Furious, Turner
plans to kill him. Adding to the calam ity, Turner's old flame, "Judy
with the big body" appears on the scene. Turner eventually acquires
the money and lives long enough to buy a bottle of Dom Perignon. HEAT
OF THE CITY premiered at The Gallery Theatre in Austin, Texas. Book
$3.00. Royalty $20 - $10.
***
I NEVER WENT TO PITTSBURGH
by Herschel S. Steinhardt
Cast: 7 men and 2 women. Two acts. Comedy. Set: living room/foyer.
Pittsburgh is a very, very special school where all the affluent of a small
midwestern city went to school. All the affluent that had show biz ambitions
then moved on to NYC and proceeded to fall on their asses. They next came
home (to the small midwestern city) and started an exclusive club to put
on shows for their and their families' benefit. Love of Carol Beck has brought
Tommie, a trumpeter from NYC, to the small city. Tommie is a great trumpeter
but because of the petty jealousy of a local psychologist, Tommie is kept
out of performing in the only game in town, the exclusive club's productions.
Tommie, you see, never went to Pittsburgh. I NEVER WENT TO PITTSBURGH
is a tale of laughter that mocks snobbery. Book $3.50. Royalty $30 - $20.
***
I ONCE HAD THREE LOVERS
by Francis Hoffmann
Cast: 5 men and 2 women. One act. Comedy. Set: A hatcheck stand.
Chastity Darlington, 22, is a working mother striving to raise her "identical
twins." Her husband, Denny Darlington, is of no aid, as he is serving
a 99-year term in the state penitentiary on an unjust drug conviction. After
much searching, Chastity finds work as a hatcheck girl at the Velvet Vulture
nightclub. Unfortunately, the nightclub's owner overbearing, overweight,
oversexed Carlo Cesspooli is after her. Eventually, Carlo forces Chastity
to promise to meet him in his lush penthouse, winning her over with his
devious and slimy charm. Also, to add to her woes, Chastity is being hotly
pursued by Hobart Slooth, a crooked detective, who, too, is overbearing,
overweight and oversexed. Chastity, almost unglued, is hard put to decide
which of her lovers(?) she should choose: Denny, Carlo or Hobart. To add
to her confusion, Denny breaks out of prison! Book $3.00. Royalty $20 -
$10.
***
IN A DARK CORNER
by Robert W. Witt
Cast: 6 men and 1 woman. Two act whodunit. Set: area staging
"What a deal of cold business doth a man misspend the better part of
his life in! In scattering compli ments, tendering visits, gathering and
venting newsmaking a little winter love in a dark corner," Ben Jonson
wrote. In the spirit of Jonson's observation, playwright Robert W. Witt
has constructed a murder mystery set in a small town, where everyone knows
everyone else, and may be sleeping with everyone else, too. The country
club's tennis pro is a popular bed partner. When a murder occurs, the local
sheriff is torn between seeking out the truth and his life-long love of
the tennis pro, for whom he would sacrifice wife and position. Witt keeps
the mystery spinning till the last climatic scene. Book $4.00. Royalty $30-$20.
***
IN 25 WORDS OR LESS
by Francis Hoffmann
Cast: 2 men and 5 women. Two act comedy. Set: a back porch.
Larry Colfax is a 30ish writer and professional contest and sweepstaker
entrant, engaged to sweet and lovely Lark Bunting. Myrtle Colfax, Larry's
divorced mother, has always wanted a "slew of grandchildren."
Myrtle and Opal Muckeldorf, Larry's eccentric 88-year-old aunt, are constantly
urging Larry to marry. Larry would like nothing better. The only obstacle
standing between Larry and Lark is: $$$ and Lark has caught Larry with his
pants down with Blush McGonigle. Blush McGonigle is a nubile and oo-la-la
female who has the hots for Larry and just won't leave him alone. Book
$4.00. Royalty $35 - $25.
***
THE LAST INQUISITOR
by John Hans Menkes
Cast: 7 men and 2 women. Drama in eight scene. Set: lounge of a hotel. In
Alt Aussee, a small village in the Austrian Alps, Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner,
Head of German Security Police (Gestapo), calmly awaits the imminent arrival
of the enemy. He occupies his time playing solitaire in the lounge of the
Styrian House Hotel while his soldiers are scurrying to hold back the advancing
Americans. THE LAST INQUISITOR captures a moment of historythe mood,
the sights and sounds, and then with a jolt interjects the presentthe place
where the play is being performed. Kaltenbrunner is dealing with people
in the theatre audience. THE LAST INQUISITOR forces the audience
to confront a Nazi leader not as history, not even as drama, but as a living
person. Book $4.00. Royalty - $35 - $20.
***
A LITTLE SUNSHINE
by Herschel S. Steinhardt
Cast: "A Little Girl Remembers" 3 men and 4 women; "My Business
Is Old Flesh" 3 men and 2 women; "A Marriage Proposal" 2
men and 2 women; "I Live In A Cemetery" 3 men and "several
ghostly figures." Four one act dramas. Area staging.
A LITTLE SUNSHINE is four one acts on autumn life that can be performed
together or individu ally. They are thematically tied by; the subject of
aging. In "A Little Girl Remembers" a little girl takes time away
from school to escort an old man who was her protector when she was a child.
"My Business Is Old Flesh" dramatizes the exploitation of a weak
old man by one who is supposed to be a state appointed guardian. "A
Marriage Proposal" finds a sixty-six year old woman struggling to decide
whether she will accept a phone proposal from a man on the other side of
the country, whom she hasn't seen in years. "I Live In A Cemetery"
finds the neighbors calling the police in on an aging writer who acts up
when his neighbors ignore him. Steinhardt writes with poetic economy about
simple people in basic human situations. The common thread is loneliness,
and the style is evocative of Ferenc Molnar. Book $4.00. Royalty - $30 -
$20.
***
THE LOCAL TRAIN
by Rubin Battino
Cast: 6 men and 3 women. Two act drama. Set: area staging.
The subject is the unthinkable, none of us want to, but all of us must,
facedeath. LOCAL TRAIN contrasts how two different people face death,
or rather more precisely how one old man faces it in contrast to how the
family members of a woman face it. The old man, Mr. Meyers, has accepted
death, arranged for it and enjoys the approach as best he can. The family
members of the woman refuse to acknowledge that she is dying, don't want
to tell her, and generally make the last few days of the woman miserable
for everyone. LOCAL TRAIN is for every mortal in the audience. Book
$3.50. Royalty $30 - $20.
***
LOVE A LA CARTE
by Francis Hoffmann
Cast: 6 men and 3 women. One act. Comedy. Set: a dining room.
Charmaine Sloakum is a naive, ill-starred, 18-year-old orphan striving to
support herself and her troubled, burdensome younger brother, aptly named
Doolittle. She is also trying to help Feckless Beaugart, her fiance, to
snare a long-elusive college degree. By both curse and blessing hers is
"a shape that makes men gape and contemplate rape." To survive,
she accepts the best job available: a pearl diver's (dishwasher's) position
in a posh restaurant owned by a kinky lecher, Jean-Pierre Valdez, and supervised
by his spiteful, spoiled rotten daughter Flawna. Not only is she lusted
after by almost every man who enters the restaurant, she is particularly
beset by Valdez's evil designs and Flawna's malicious jealousy. This bittersweet,
grease-splattered comedy serves up both laughs and tears in equal quantities,
but, alas, provides no dessert... Book $3.00. Royalty $20 - $10.
***
LOVE IS LIKE A PRAIRIE DOG
by Raymond Johnson
Cast: 3 men and 4 women. Three acts. Comedy. Set: living room and a coffee
shop. Sometimes we just have to make sacrifices to save our kids. That's
the way Melba Costermonger feels. Melba Costermonger is a hard-line feminist
who has just left her husband of many years, Martin Mervyn. Their daughter,
Felicia, wants to get them back together so she threatens to marry John
William, a redneck buffoon straight out of a Marloboro ad, unless her mother
goes once a week to have dinner with her father. For Melba, making this
minor sacrifice is better than having her daughter given up to some macho
cowboy. So, she goes, but oh drat! She's starting to feel for Martin again.
That won't do at all. Her feminist friends wouldn't approve. Martin's starting
to feel for her again too and wants her to come back, but in the meantime
he's having fun romping with Sonia the maid. Book $4.00. Royalty $35 - $25.
***
A MAN'S HOUSEHOLD ARE HIS ENEMY
by Herschel S. Steinhardt
Cast: 5 men and 4 women. Two acts. Drama. Set: living room.
Jacob Vaughn has worked his way out of poverty and now would like to do
something to help the unfortunate. His goal is to build a community house
so people can get a bit of learning and get ahead. The chief obstacle in
the way of Jacob's goal, ironically, is an established Minister Foley, who
doesn't like the idea of having anyone cutting in on his turf. Rev. Foley
is a first class crook, and so is Jacob's stepson Jason. Rev. Foley manages
to recruit Jason to sabotage Jacob's subscription drive for a community
center. A MAN'S HOUSEHOLD ARE HIS ENEMY is basic good versus evil
and plays over the irony of illusion versus reality. Book $3.50. Royalty
$30 - $20.
***
MEMENTO MORI
by John W. Fiero
Cast: 5 men and 4 women (with doubling). Two act comedy. Sets: area staging.
Designed for en semble players, MEMENTO MORI brings together four
of Fiero's most successful one-act plays related by their irreverent and
hilarious view of the American way of death and its impact on our country's
institutions and moresIn "Pawn's Gambit," a snobbish servant in
an exclusive men's club plots the demise of one or both of two misogynistic
millionaires (who have put him in their wills) by bringing a vivacious,
sexy model into their inner sanctum. The crusty old gentlemen, however,
don't play by the rules; the scheme backfires. In "Snuff Flick,"
a beleaguered director of a blockbuster movie talks an aspiring but squeamish
starlet into doing a scene with the mortal remains of the leading man, who
unfortunately died three days earlier in his dressing room toilet. IN "Lucky
Bill," a woman who thinks her husband has died in air disaster begins
to play what she will do with the insurance money. But lucky Bill missed
the connection with the ill-fated plane. In "Body En glish," a
series of mourners parade past the coffin of a philander, paying their last,
outrageously disrespectful respects. Book $5.00. Royalty - $35 - $25 (all);
$15 - $10 (individually).
***
MOTHER TONGUE
by Paul Stephen Lim
Cast: 3 men and 4 women. Drama. Two acts. Set: Area staging.
The central conflict in MOTHER TONGUE is the internal struggle of
an Asian-English professor at an American University. The memory of his
Chinese mother who did not want him to become an American haunts him. "a
particularly timely playIt could be an important play. In its observa tion
of rootlessness and personal nirvana, it catches the new melting pot, where
some immigrants are even strangers to the countries they left behind."
Los Angeles Times. "When East and West come together in the
powerful play MOTHER TONGUE by Paul Stephen Lim, it is not so much
a meeting as a merging of the best of both worlds Cleverly written, MOTHER
TONGUE abounds with puns, palaver and wordy play" Valley Star
(CA). Book $6.00. Royalty $35-$20.
***
NAKED LONGINGS
by Terre Ouwehand
Variable cast size. Full-length. Experimental. Set: area staging. Grief,
maturing, and personal transformation are the general focus of this abstract
play which is a portrait of the artist as a young archetype. First produced
at Center Stage, Santa Barbara, California. "Falling somewhere between
playwright Arthur Miller and post-modern performance art NAKED LONGINGS
is arguably the only experimental theatre being performed in a Central Coast
profes sional theatre venue. A unique experience" Bill Anerson, The
Santa Barbara Independent. "NAKED LONGINGS is an ambitious
worka dense, brooding mediation on the sufferings and lost possibilities
confronted in the painful rites of passage to self-realization a mythic
quest steeped in ritualistic imagery Ouwehand writes with undeniable power
and conviction, and her dialogue has a poetic, even hypnotic appeal"
Philip Brandes, Los Angeles Times/Ventura &The Santa Barbara News
Press. Book $4.50. Royalty $30-$20.
***
NATURAL ENEMY
by Jesse Kulberg
Cast: 5 men and 2 women. Two acts. Drama. Two sets: an office and a living
room. Brian, a univer sity professor in his late 30's, and Paul, a twenty-two
year old student of Brian's, are trying to sell their play to Skip, a twenty-two
year old movie executive. Although, the play has been written mostly by
Brian, and is mostly about Brain's experiences, it has Paul's (not Brian's)
name on it. Skip relates more to Paul than Brain, and Brain is surprised
to see Paul, who he has known as an independent spirit, crumbling into a
sycophant before Skip. Paul will do anything to latch on to a movie contract.
The lure of fame and riches is irresistible. But Brian appears immune. His
story is more complex. He is a gifted writer without faith in his ability.
He has had another collaborator, Giles. Brian put life into Giles' historical
novel, but is Giles prepared to recognize Brian's contribu tion? Or is even
the scholarly, ethical Giles, as Paul, seduced by the taste of success.
NATURAL ENEMY is a complex play that has much to say on age and talent,
collaboration, trust and betrayal, and above all, on ego. Book $5.00. Royalty
- $30 - $20.
***
NEVERTHELESS
by David Radavich
Cast: 4 men and 4 women. Two act comedy. Set: half artist's studio, and
a small café. Michael, a young sculptor, attempts to make sense out
of art, commerce, and romance. His mother would like him to give up his
life of decadence and poverty of art. Michael is in crisis; his model and
love has walked out on him. He has no inspiration until he meets Clara.
Trouble is Clara has a philistine for a boy friend who doesn't quite understand
the higher art of Clara posing nude for Michael. Ah, the travails of an
artist! NEVERTHELESS played to sold out houses for its premier production
by the 619 Monroe Players, Charleston, Illinois. Book $4.00. Royalty $30
- $20.
***
O MY GODDESS!
by Patricia Montley
Cast: 7 players (with doubling), mixed or all female. Satire of Greek myths
in 5 ten-minute scenes. Story theatre with music: Set: bare stage. (1) In
"Pandora's Pox" Pandora, an independent woman who wants to be
self-supporting, resists the "dowry-box" Zeus insists on giving
her. (2) In "Atalanta and the Apple-Pie Man," the famous runner
is struck by Eros' arrow anddetermined to combine marriage and an athletic
careerrecognizes the perfect mate in Hippomenes, who manages a day -care
center. (3) In "Arachne the Spiderwoman," a mortal woman challenges
Athena to a weaving contest and pays for her pride. (4) In "Pygmidas
and the Old-Fashioned Gal," a male chauvinist sculptor is tricked by
Aphrodite, and his creation backfires. (5) In "Hera the Replaced Homemaker,"
the philandering Zeus loses a wife and gains a cow, as the goddess becomes
a liberated woman. O MY GODDESS! has been produced at several colleges,
and for over twenty high school and com munity groups. It's a "classic
comedy"! Book $3.00. Royalty $20-$10.
***
OOPS, I NEVER MEANT TO KILL YOU!
by Francis Hoffmann
Cast: 6 women, 3 men. Two acts. Comedy. Set: office.
OOPS is a light-hearted comedy for all who have ever been afraid
of losing their jobswhich just might include about everyone who has ever
held a job. AwayOutWest is an automobile finance company about to go belly-up.
The manager of AwayOutWest(manager only by virtue of being married to the
founder's daughter) is too nice a guy to lay off employees. But everyone
knows demise is almost inevitable. Hoffmann creates well-defined characters
and an all too believable situation and layers it over with a confection
of his own unique brand of humor. Book $4.00. Roy alty $30-$20.
***
OUR DAILY BREAD
by Herschel S. Steinhardt
Cast: 5 men and 2 women and extras. (Doubling possible.) Two acts. Comedy/drama.
Set: Bakery part of a supermarket. Most of us earn our daily bread at some
labor, and most of us shop at a supermarket for groceries. Out of these
near universal experiences, and from personal experience, playwright Steinhardt
spins a play. Adam is an elderly gent who refuses to move into a home for
senior citizens, he values his independence too much. To support himself
and his adopted son Joseph, Adam goes to work in the bakery shop of a supermarket.
In a subplot, a frequenter oft he bakery shop, an eccentric biker, Robin,
feeds the homeless out of the supermarket's dumpster. Steamed because the
lottery tickets sold at the supermarket do not offer opportunities for winning
small amounts of money, Robin throws the supermarket manager into the dumpster.
Book $3.50 Royalty $30-$20.
***
PLAGUESHIP NINE DAYS OUT OF BARBADOS
by Alexander Panas
Cast: 5 men and 2 women. Two acts. Farce. Set: area staging.
Can an evening with the plague be fun? You may die laughing if it's NINE
DAYS OUT OF BARBADOS. The Mayor of an island seaport awakes from a terrible,
but vivid dream. He dreamt a red ship, thirteen cubits high was sailing
towards him. It was nine days out of Barbados; it was named the St Exupery,
and it was carrying the plague. His wife doesn't want to listen, and his
second-in -command, Lt. Herringbone, doesn't believe him, even though Herringbone
is, there to tell him that a ship, named the St. Exupery, is requesting
permission to dock. Everyone thinks the Mayor is crazy. Then Hermione arrives
by canoe from the St. Exupery to get someone to help her father, the captain,
who is sick. And the Imperialisimo arrives, and he wants the ship to dock.
It has valuable cargo for him. Voovoo Varetta, out to kill the Mayor, escapes
from prison, and complicates things further. PLAGUESHIP premiered
at Lincoln Center in NYC. Book $4.00. Royalty - $30 - $20.
***
THE POWER OF INANIMATE OBJECTS
by Richard Hansen
Cast: 5 men and 4 women. One act. Comedy. Set: boiler room.
Gertie, the cleaning lady, maintains that inanimate objects have a life
of their own. Through facts, instances, and logic she manages to persuade
almost everyone in the elementary school where she works. Of course, one
might say the people Gertie works with aren't too tightly wrapped, or you
could say they all just have a touch of the poet in them. "If you slop
jelly, you get a blob, but if you slop jam, you get a glob" says Cindy,
a co-worker of Gertie's. When you make distinctions like that, it's easy
to slide over into thinking: "All things have a life of their own.
What do you say when a bulb's burned out? 'There's a dead bulb.' And how
come you don't touch any wires with the current on? Because they're live
wires." THE POWER OF INANIMATE OBJECTS is a charming tour de
force by an award-winning writer. It might just have your audiences saying
goodbye to their seats when they leave the theatre. Book $3.00. Royalty
$20 - $10.
***
THE PRIDE OF THE MADISONS
by Raymond Johnson
Cast: 4 men and 4 women. Three acts. Comedy. Set: living room.
The Madisons are a crime family. They run a place called the Black Panty,
and live a very civilized life with Gloria Madison matriarchal head. The
only trouble for these cultivated, tradition-bound rogues is the boy friend
Mona Madison brings home. Mona doesn't know what the family does, but her
boy friend, a newspaperman, is very interested in finding out. There is
also a seasoned detective, Charles Le Loup, who is closing in on the Madisons'
activities. Only, Le Loup is falling in love with Gloria between and during
interrogations. Book $4.00. Royalty $30 - $20.
***
THE PRIZEWINNER
by Raymond Johnson
Cast: 5 men and 3 women. Three act drama. Set: the anteroom of a hotel ballroom.
Henry Menger, is receiving an award, and the President of the U.S. is asking
Menger to serve as ambassador in Managa. What the audience is given in THE
PRIZEWINNER is the behind stage true state of affairs of Henry Menger
and his family. Henry, a cripple renown for his public service, years ago
actually conspired with his best friend, Dr. Cassette, to have himself crippled
so that he wouldn't have to serve in the army during World War II. Henry's
son Sam devoted to his father, discovers he is really not his father's son,
but the result of an indiscretion of his mother. Henry's daughter, Elizabeth
and her husband John, meanwhile are plotting to take over Henry's financial
empire. All this backstage on the greatest night in the life of the great
man. THE PRIZEWINNER, first produced by the Lakeside Players in Kenosha,
Wisconsin, is a drama with elements reminiscent of Chekov and Racine. Wit,
wisdom, and insight into the human condition are packed into almost every
line. Book $4.00. Royalty - $30 - $20.
***
THE RED BALL
by Herschel S. Steinhardt
Cast: 7 men and 2 women. Three act. Comedy. Set: living room and kichenette.
Alvin is a young man who gets no encouragement from either his mother or
stepfather. His stepfa ther, Manfred, is wealthy, but has acquired his wealth
by swindling people. Alvin's hero is his maternal grandfather, Hector, who
is a retired comedian. A comedy of thievery, THE RED BALL offers
good character development and a timeless theme. Book $3.50. Royalty $30
- $20.
***
THE RETIREMENT PLAN
by Francis Gallagher
Cast: 5 men and 3 women. Drama. Three acts. Set: living room.
Peggy Larkin has recently married George Larkin. Now, however, she realizes
she made a big mistake. George has revealed himself as a drunken gambler
who married Peggy to assure a comfort able living for himself. He barely
takes the trouble to conceal that he is carrying on an affair. Peggy plans
to get a divorce, but George will not allow it. He becomes physically abusive
and when Peggy does not change her resolve, he plots her death. It is George,
however, that gets murdered and all the evidence points to Peggy. A long-time
friend, James Dowd, strives to defend Peggy, but an old diary of Peggy's
may undercut any attempt at a defense. Book $5.00. Royalty $30$20.
***
THE ROGUE'S GALLERY
by Verna Safran
Cast: 5 men and 2 women. One act. Farce. Set: an art gallery.
A witty farce in verse, which spoofs the greed and phoniness of the art
world, as well as the gullibil ity of the public. Mrs. Crabgrass, a suburban
hausfrau who has taken one short art course, comes to a gallery to try to
get a showing of her totally amateurish work. She leaves her stuff there
to go out partying with some bohemian artists who promise to instruct her
in the secrets of self-promotion. While she is gone, her husband, a businessman,
comes in, and not knowing anything about art (except, of course, what he
likes) he falls in love with his wife's painting. The gallery owner, who
will do anything for money, agrees to chop it up for him in any size piece
he wishes. Meanwhile, the Framer, the only true artist in the shop, struggles
to make a living so he can marry his sweetheart. When the others try to
leave the gallery, they find to their dismay, that the world has turned
into a hideous abstract painting just like the world of their imagination,
and they can only be led back to reality and beauty by the Framer. Book
$3.00. Royalty $25 - $20.
***
RUNNING 'GAINST THE RAIN
by Alexander Panas
Cast: 5 men and 2 women. Two acts. Drama. Set: a restaurant.
A suspenseful, brilliant recasting of the Electra and Orestes myth. On a
stormy night in a small town in North Carolina, a young man, Albert Graves,
gets off a bus and waits at the town bus stationa restaurant called The
Captain's Place. In a conversation with the Negro cook, Ernie, he learns
that the original Captain died mysteriously upon returning from World War
II, and his wife, Jo Pepper, a sexually passionate woman, has remarried.
When Ernie slips out back to get drunk, Albert meets Jo Pepper, who is attracted
to him. Albert explains that he came through the town because a friend of
his, Billy Hendrix, once lived here. Jo Pepper gets deeply upset when she
hears the name. Finally, Jo breaks down and tells him that Billy was her
son by her first marriage, and her second husband, Russell, made her put
the boy up for adoption. Next, Albert encounters Jo's daughter Lyla, who
recognizes him as Billy. She tells him that Jo and Russell killed their
father, and she wants him to help her revenge the crime. Book $4.50. Royalty
$30 -$20.
***
SEERS, BELIEVERS, AND THE NEWS
by Stan R. Lenkiewicz
Cast: 6 men and 3 girls and extras. One act. Drama. Set: area staging.
Stuart Kelly is a not-too-bright teenager with not-too-bright friends. Stuart's
parents aren't much help, and neither is the cop on the beat. It doesn't
look like Stuart has much of a future. In fact, guided by his friends, Stuart
is so confused that, like them, he thinks that the only way he can man age
to succeed is by holding up a bank. But an odd thing happens. One of the
people in the bank is a girl Stuart fell in love with a year ago. A quiet,
disarming, easy to produce play. Book - $2.50. Royalty - $10 - $5.
***
THE SILO STUD
by Tom White
Cast: 5 men and 4 women. Two acts. Drama. Set: area staging.
"Compelling Makes a moving case for the working man of the American
heartland sold a ticket to nowhere," Marilyn Stasio, New York Post
. "Absorbing exciting provocative a highly charged drama that makes
theater going exciting," John Bustin, Third Coast Magazine.
"Genuinean unusually excellent showcase production," Joseph Hurly,
Stages. "Rich with humor and pathos," Kevin Phinney, American
Statesman. "powerful superb," Critics' Choices Manhattan
Arts. "beautiful the genuine article," Gene Fowler, The
Pawn Review. "One of the most exciting new plays to emerge from
Austin this year!" Austin Circle of Theatres Newsletter. The
critics are all raving about THE SILO STUD. Witt Holcomb is trapped
on top of an exploded grain silo. Below friends and family and the authorities
do all they can to rescue him. Book $4.50. Royalty $35-$20.
***
A SLICE OF CORNED BEEF
by Murray Spitzer
Cast: 4 women and 3 men. Three acts. Mystery play. Set: an apartment.
A coed has been raped on a college campus, threatening the delicate balance
of a newly integrated, once private school, which is now part of the State
university system. Years of quiet progress in offering education to less
fortunate students seem almost lost, as rumors spread that a minority student
is the suspected rapist of a white girl. There were two witnesses. The first
was a school guard, who thought he was watching a "boy-girl thing that
was none of my business!" The second, the coed's innocent roommate,
holds the key to the crime, but finds herself cast as a "peeping Tom"
because her almost childish curiosity led to a crucial second look! It is
one surprise after another, sometimes sardonic, often highly comical, as
the plot twists its way to the unexpected conclusion. Book $4.50. Royalty
$35 -$25.
***
SOMETHING, ANYTHING
by Ron Kanecke
Cast: 4 men and 3 women. One act. Comedy. Set: area staging.
In this zany comedy, Sheldon Blue, an advertising copywriter, begins to
ponder life, and its meaning. What he discovers is a laundry list of seemingly
unanswerable questions. That is until an emergency trip to the hospital
and an ad in the back of a magazine prompts him to embark on a 9,000 mile
journey to a mystical temple somewhere in Tibet, where he personally confronts
the Dali Lama. After an extensive (and whacky) question and answer session
with the religious figure, Sheldon becomes enlightened. Unfortunately, on
his journey back from the temple he slips and falls to his death. To Sheldon's
dismay, everything he encounters in the afterlife is inconsistent and contradic
tory to what the Lama has said, leaving Sheldon to uncover for himself the
secrets we all desire to know. Book: $2.50. Royalty $20-$10.
***
STANLEY WON'T BE HOME TONIGHT
by Francis Hoffmann
Cast: 5 men and 2 women. One act. Comedy. Set: office.
Curtain rises, and Stanley Feemish enters darkened stage, glowing flashlight
in hand. Suddenly a shot rings out and Stanley falls to the floor, thoroughly
dead. Soon, hung-over, down-on-his-luck private eye Mike Mallet arrives.
Then Tiffanny Scawggins, his secretary, arrives for work and, to allay her
squeamishness, Mallet stashes Stanley behind a sofa, where he is out
of sight for the rest of the play but very much in the scheme of things!
In rapid succession, Queenie Boomboom, an ecdysiast, Lester Lakkluster,
Tiffany's "Hahvahd"-educated fiance, Thaddeus Yuccatash, an over
bearing Texas multimillionaire, and Vincent T. Flaker, a flaming-eyed crusader,
all move in and out of Mallet's office, turning it into a maelstrom of comedy,
confusion and mystery. Book $3.00. Roy alty $20 - $10.
* * *
STAY OUT OF THE SOUTH
by Tom Eagan
Cast: 2 men and 7 women. Comedy. Three acts. Set: living room
After twenty years of married life in New York City, widow Sylvia
has retired to her hometown - a small, quiet, dull Southern city.
Her New York brother-in-law Sam Baker, tired of the hassles of the
Big Apple, is contemplating moving to a small town. Sam Baker has packed
up his family and is headed in Sylvia's direction. To prevent Sam Baker
and family from settling down in her hometown, Sylvia concocts a bunch of
lies for her friends about Sam Baker. When Sam and family arrive they are
greeted with strange behavior calculated to get them to leave town.
Book $4.00 Royalty - $35-20.
***
THE STUDIO & ARE
YOU STILL HERE?
by Terre Ouwehand
"The Studio"Cast: 6 women. One act. Set: a large art studio.
"Are You Still Here?" Cast: 2 senior men. One act. Set: a retirement
home. In THE STUDIO Georgia O'Keeffe, Mary Cassatt and Grandma Moses
are alive and lively in this orchestration of art and life. With fellow
painter, Romaine Brooks, sculptor Harriet Hosmer, and basket-maker Dat-So
-La-Lee, they share their personal storiesthe challenges, surprises, the
sorrows and triumphs of being an artist, and a woman, in America's emerging
modern culture. "Extremely rewarding and entertainingmaking a delightful,
perceptive experience from which one could and did, learn and enjoy,"
Deborah Tufts, Curator of Education, Santa Barbara Museum of Art. "Enchantingwell
-wrought" Faculty Voice, Santa Barbara City College. This collage
of American women artists from 1850 to 1950 can be easily excerpted for
shorter programming needs. In ARE YOU STILL HERE? the ultimate question
is bantered about by Charlie and Bert as they engage daily in a ritual game
of chess, in a retirement home. But today their casual battle of wits opens
to unexpected territory. Humorous and poignant. A good companion piece for
any program. Book $3.50. Royalty $30 - $20. (both) $15 - $10 (individually).
***
SUN DANCE FOR ANDY HORN
by Shelly Frome
Cast: 5 men and 3 women. Two acts. Drama. Set: a mountain ledge.
SUN DANCE FOR ANDY HORN is "a moving story about a young American
Indian who is torn between his allegiance to the culture of his ancestors
and the structure of contemporary society. He is the pawn used by the police
trying to ferret out the information on a possible insurrection, the industrialist
interests that want to see the Indian destroyed in order to take his rich
land and the valiant but pathetic, struggling tribesmen who he left years
before," Adriane Lyon, The Connecticut Weekly. "Frome has
drawn his characters beautifully. The roles are well-defined, have a clear-cut
purpose in the plot and build to a dynamic denouement. I especially liked
the part of Betsy Gibble the aggressive, intellectual and feeling newswoman"
Margery Leonard, The Waterbury Republican. Book $4.00. Royalty -
$30 - $20.
***
THIRD HOUR OF THE NIGHT
by Herschel S. Steinhardt
Cast: 5 men and 2 women. Two acts. Drama. Set: area staging.
THIRD HOUR OF THE NIGHT chronicles the coming of age of a girl with
everything against her. Anna, age fourteen, marries Frank, a man in his
late forties, to escape the physical and sexual assaults of her stepfather.
Frank, brings his child-bride north to the big city, gets her pregnant and
proceeds to neglect and abuse her. What does Anna do? The play is structured
as a memory play; the narrator is an elderly man who was Anna's landlord
and tries to help her. Excellent character-devel opment and the ring of
authenticity. You get the feeling that this is a story that tragically occurs
too, too often and receives too little attention. Book $3.50. Royalty $30
- $20.
***
THOSE FUMBLES'LL KILL YA
by Murray Spitzer
Cast: 3 women and 4 men. Three acts. Comedy. Set: interior.
Professional criminals don't do kidnappings, for a good reason: too much
can go wrong. But the gang of amateurs who kidnap Annie Kipnis don't know
that. After all, hasn't "mastermind" Al Grieco, coach of the gang,
thought of everything? "Coach" Al and his "team," Wayne
and Sylvia, snatch Annie Kipnis and have Annie telephone her businessman
husband Solly in carefully guarded 30 second messages. But there is no listening-in
phone for the gang. So while Annie is relaying ransom instructions, Solly
returns words of instructions from the police. Annie learns who the kidnappers
are despite their elaborate, comic procedures designed to prevent her from
learning who they are. So, Al decides Annie must be "taken out of play.'
But first, there is the little detail of all the cops surrounding the hideaway.
It's Al's team vs. the cops' team in a comedy worthy of Peter Falk. Book
$4.00. Royalty $30 - $20.
***
THREE FOR THE MIDSHIFT
by John LaPlante
Cast: 8 men for "The Bound Man"; 3 men for "Penance"
and 3 men for "The Cadre's Logician." Three one acts. Dramas.
Set: area staging.
THREE FOR THE MIDSHIFT is the stuff movies are made of. An excellent
script on a little -explored subject by a writer who writes from experience
in the field. The subject is prison guards. Those society hires to watch
over society's malefactors are not angels! Each play can stand by itself
or all can be performed together. This award-winning play premiered at Everett
Community College. "The Cadre's Logician" was subsequently presented
at the American College Theatre Festival. Book. $4.00. Royalty $35-$20 (all
three); $15 - $10 (individually).
***
TRIANGLES
by June Bingham
Cast: 5 women and 2 men. Two acts. historical drama. Set: area staging.
TRIANGLES is the story of the Roosevelts. The play portrays the loss
of innocence of two remark able persons and their country. Franklin D. Roosevelt
is shown as a charming young man, along with his cousin and bride, Eleanor.
The state of the couple and the nation are followed as the country moves
toward World War I. Politics is shown as saving the couple's marriage. For
it was Franklin's political dream that caused him to relinquish his lady-love,
Lucy. The struggle of Franklin D. Roosevelt with polio and the loss of Lucy
are depicted excellently as America moves through the greatest war of the
century, World War II. An "entirely exciting and excellent piece of
dramaturgy." Park East . Book $3.50. Royalty $35 - $25.
***
THE WALL CLIMBERS
by Jesse Kulberg & Frances Ring
Cast: 4 men and 3 women. Two acts. Comedy. Set: area staging.
Fern and Janice are two housewives collaborating on a play for a sleazy
theatre owner named Freddie Fountain. The husbands of Fern and Janice, Ben
and Adrian, respectively, have never taken their wives' writing very seriously.
When sleazy Freddie offers money for the play and the girls buckle down
to serious work on it, the husbands, along with Janice's children, complain
that the obligations of wife, and mother, as well as homemaker, are being
neglected. Janice's husband, Adrian, is particularly offended. Doesn't he
provide for Janice? Why does she have to work at anything? Things become
even more complicated for the housewives who would be writers when it looks
like sleazy Freddie is going to pull a double-cross. Book $5.00. Royalty
- $35 - $25.
***
THE WHITE ELEPHANT
by Rubin Battino
Cast: 4 men and 5 women. Two acts. Comedy. Set: living room.
Who can two psychotherapist turn to when their marriage starts unraveling?
In WHITE ELEPHANT, Robert and Betsy Ritter turn to their good friends
and fellow psychotherapists, Melissa and Mortimer Morgan. Melissa and Mortimer
really help outMortimer seduces Betsy and Melissa goes off
with Robert. But no worry, if things don't turn out, Robert and Betsy can
always get a new book out of their troubles, a book which will help others
get a "creative divorce." A situation com edy that parodies the
whacky world of psychotherapists. Book $3.50. Royalty $30 - $20.
***
WHO SHOT CAPTAIN DARK?
by Bruce Cantwell
Cast: 3 mean and 4 women. Two acts. Mystery. Set: a radio station.
While taping his farewell performance as radio sleuth Captain Dark, before
his departure for West coast film fame, actor Julian Ritchard is shot in
cold blood by someone in the room. Was Julian worth more dead than alive
to "The Captain Dark Hour's" director Nick? Would Nick's assistant
Katrina kill to get ahead? Had Julian cheated on his fiancee Colette one
too many times? What did Julian's agent Becky do with his $750,000 film
advance? Could Becky's husband Dominick have done it for the movie money?
A loving tribute to the golden days of radio and the classic mysteries of
Agatha Christie. "Cantwell has a knack for easy dialogue and meticulous
plot construction that eludes many a young playwright," Chicago
Tribune, "...with the proper style and clever twists, whodunits
never fail to delight. This production is a delight," Chicago Sun-Times.
Book $4.00. Royalty $35 - $25.
***
WHO'S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR?
by Francis Hoffmann
Cast: 3 men and 5 women. One act. Comedy. Set: A disorderly room.
Joe Futch (aka Calhoun Maroon) is a moderately successful novelist, currently
suffering a siege of writer's block. Knock knock! Enter Mrs. Elvira
Robust, Joe's widowed and sex-starved landlady, offering to accept sex as
payment for his past-due rent. Joe fends her off, and off she goes, offended.
Knock knock! Enter Dolly Loblolly, answering Joe's ad for a secretary.
Her qualifications are excellent and so is her bod! and Joe hires her, PDQ!
Many more Knock knocks! ensue with absorbing reappearances by Mrs.
Robust and Dolly and appearances by Dr. Boohoople, Joe's inse cure dentist
friend; Joe's agent, who informs him of the sale of his latest book to a
Hollywood studio, and many others. Book $3.00. Royalty $20 - $10.
***
WILD WEST - A LIBERATED LOOK
by Stewart Benedict
Cast: one man and six women. One act. Comedy. Set: saloon.
THE WILD WEST - A LIBERATED LOOK is a comedy which pokes fun at such
cliches of Western lore as the aging gunslinger whom all the young gunslingers
want to kill to make their reputations, and the perennial battle between
cattle ranchers and homesteaders. In addition, the play satirizes the conventional
roles of males and females in Western society by the use of role reversals.
Book $2.50. Royalty $15 - $10.
***
THE WIND AND THE RAIN
by Herschel S. Steinhardt
Cast: "The Wind and the Rain" - 2 men and 4 women; "The Worthy
Lawyer and the Dumb Shep herd" - 4 men and 1 woman; "He Will Know"
- 1 man and 7 women. Three one acts. Set: area staging.
THE WIND AND THE RAIN is three one act plays that can be performed
together or separately. In "The Wind and the Rain," Ben and Rita,
neighbors in a small town, are in love, but Ben wants to be an artist and
goes off to New York to succeed. In the Big Apple he meets Sylvia, who can
help his career but for a price. "The Worthy Lawyer and the Dumb Shepherd"
is a comedy based on an old French tale. A wise but impoverished counselor
tries to hoodwink a draper, and gets taken by a shepherd. "He Will
Know" is based on a story by Isaac Loeb Peretz. A widow, with three
daughters, protects the first two daughters from the men, and she lives
to see the two daughters grow unattrac tive and curse her for protection.
The youngest daughter, the widow allows to enjoy her moment of life, even
if it is only a moment, and pain will follow. Book - $3.50. Royalty $30
- $20 (to gether); $15 - $10 (separately).
***
WINTER'S MARKET
by Eugene Yanni
Cast: 4 men and 5 women. Poetic drama. Set: area staging.
If T.S. Eliot, Edward Hopper, Dylan Thomas and Strindberg had collaborated
on a play and had John Barrymore in mind for the lead, they might have turned
out WINTER'S MARKET. A masterpiece of mood. It is a director's challenge,
and has more meaning than many a play that is crystal clear. The theme is
loveall kinds of love. The central character, Anthony, is an actor torn
between pursuit of his art and settling down to a "normal" life
with Daizy. Book $3.50. Royalty $35 - $20.
***
WRAPPINGS
by Marty Gelozin
Cast: 5 men and 4 women (& 3 extras). Two acts. Comedy. Set: office.
All too often, too many of us are taken in by appearances and ignore reality.
We live in a society where the pretty paper sells the product not the quality
of the product. In WRAPPINGS a psychologist, Dr. Dzymwich, sees patients
to help them. Dr. Dzymwich's father, Harry, also sees the same patients.
The difference is the patients know Dr. Dzymwich as doctorsomeone they make
an appointment to see, someone they pay money to. They know Harry as friend.
In fact, Harry lets everyone think he is just the janitor in his son's office
Guess who really helps the patients? Book $4.00. Royalty $30-$25.
***
A YANKEE FIASCO
by Arnold L. Wetzstein
Cast: 6 men and 3 women. Seven scenes. Comedy. Set: area staging.
A YANKEE FIASCO depicts some of the ill feelings that can inadvertently
arise due to some preventable mistakes. Joe Adams plans to attend the wedding
of his eldest son, Hank. His plans go awry. He arrives at the South Carolina
home of his son's prospective in-laws in the middle of the night, unannounced,
with no money and dressed like a bum. Southern hospitality is further put
to the test when Joe, a semi-illiterate farm-raised Iowan, proves to have
a number of very annoying habits. Book $2.50. Royalty $15-5.
***
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