ARAN PRESS STAGE PLAYS
1036 S. FIFTH STREET
Louisville, KY 40203
ARAN PRESS PLAYS WITH 10 OR MORE CHARACTERS
AND I WAS KING?
by Tom Eagan
Cast: 6 men and 4 women. Two acts. Comedy. Set: a living room.
Martin and Bonnie, an American couple honeymooning in Europe, meet Rachel
Antois in a cable car in Switzerland. Rachel tells Martin he was married
to her in a former life. Martin thinks Rachel is nuts, but Bonnie is intrigued
and accepts Rachel's invitation to visit her. At the Antois estate Martin
and Bonnie find Rachel's disinherited brothers plotting to have their sister
committed to an asylum. Inadvertently, Martin and Bonnie may have provided
the brothers with the ammunition they've needed to have Rachel locked away.
The honeymooners set out to save Rachel, even if it jeopardizes their own
marriage. Book $5.00. Royalty - $25 - $20.
***
THE ANGEL'S SHARE
by Gerard Anthony Cox
Cast: 5 men and 5 women. Two acts. Comedy. Set: living room.
By mistake, Marion Vickers, a male transfer student, is assigned
to a women's dorm. The girls and Marion like the arrangement just fine and
try to conceal the error from the Dean. But, a complication arisesword spreads
around campus that Vickers is about to be hauled into court for refusing
to register for the Selective Service, which puts a different spin on his
staying at a girls' dorm. Fresh man Samantha Smyth-Scott leads the charge
to save Vickers. "A refreshingly tidy comedy" Script Reviews.
ANGEL'S SHARE addresses a politically significant issue faced by
undergraduates across America. Book $6.00. Royalty $30-$20.
***
APPALACHIAN QUARTET
by Lee Pennington
Cast: flexible, approx. 6 men and 6 women. Two acts.Poetic drama. Set: area
staging. What Pulitzer prize nominee Lee Pennington does in APPALACHIAN
QUARTET calls to mind Dylan Thomas' UNDER MILKWOOD and Edgar Lee Masters'
SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY. As Thomas captured Wales in dramatic poetry, and
Masters a midwestern village, Pennington brings to the stage a subculture
rarely seen. Indeed, one critic asserts: "No other writer has explored
Appala chia so consistently in dramatic form [as Pennington]. No other writer
has captured so well the complex spirit of his subject." APPALACHIAN
QUARTET is four one acts with original music and lyrics by the author.
"Appalachia My Sorrow" explores the myths about the region's past.
("Ap palachia isn't what it is, but what it was and never was.")
"Coalmine" compares a coal mine and a "spiritual coal mine";
"Foxwind" recounts tall tales, and "Ragweed" raises
the question of human value. "APPALACHIAN QUARTET is a genuine
approach to the problems and people who are Appalachia." Kay Halasek,
The Georgetonian. "QUARTET demonstrates a wide range
of emo tions, but all melted together neatly..." Walter Tunis, The
Kentucky Kernel. Book $8.00. Royalty - $35 - $20.
***
THE ASSASSIN
by Alexander Panas
Cast: 14 men and 4 women. Two acts. Drama. Set: area staging.
A hired assassin called "the Cobra," is waiting in a hotel room
to assassinate the President. As he reflects on his situation, a hideous
hallucination overtakes him. The Cobra begins to regress in time to the
period of the American Civil War, when he was another assassin, John Wilkes
Booth. In this ultimate dream play, the scenes, laced with vaudevillian
Civil War songs, are both historical and fantastical. The play moves through
Booth's career and climaxes in the inevitable moment when Booth walks into
the theatre box of Abraham Lincoln and points a derringer at his head. In
this final amazing episode, J.W. Booth decidesWell! You must see it to believe
it. THE ASSASSIN has been performed at SMU, The Washington Theatre
Club and on NYC Public Television. It is a dazzling tour de force, a challenge
for the accomplished director and acting company. Book $11.00. Royalty -
$35 - $25.
***
AUGUST 6TH
by Rubin Battino
Cast: 8 men and 3 women. 18 scenes. Set: area staging.
Jerry is a worker in the anti-nuclear war* movement. He has come to the
conclusion that speeches don't get through to audiences. Jerry coolly, logically
decides that only a media event that shocks people will get their attention.
Only something outrageous that dramatizes the point will make folks aware
of the horror of nuclear war. Despite all pleadings of his girlfriend and
cohorts, Jerry decides on self-immolation by fire, which will be taped by
companions and distributes to the TV stations with a voice over message
on nuclear war by Jerry. AUGUST 6TH brings to mind all the attention-getting
terrorists who do horrible, desperate things to get the world focused on
their cause. Hope fully, without the sacrifice of a real life, AUGUST
6TH will get some in the audience thinking. Book $5.00. Royalty - $25-$15.
***
THE BALL-ROOM IN ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL
by Louis Phillips
Cast: 11 men and 6 women. Doubling possible. Comedy/drama. Two acts. Set:
area staging. De scribed by Emory Lewis as "a drama of originality
and glowing beauty," THE BALL-ROOM IN ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL
focuses on a family of Greek-Americans in a small Massachusetts town during
the closing days of World War II. The N.Y. Times critic Richard Eder
wrote: "It is a naturalistic play, whose setting and details of character
could not be more specific and lifelike. Yet the variety of moods and feelings
working their way out is such as to give it a glittering intensity that
passes realism. It is astonishingly textured" BALL-ROOM runs
the scale of human emotions and like life itself you never know which turn
it is going to take. Book $8.00. Royalty $30-$20.
***
BAPU
by Alexander Panas
Cast: 19 men and 3 women (with doubling) Two acts. Biography. Set: a bare
stage. BAPU is the story of Mahatma Gandhifrom the time he returned
to India to work for Indian independence, until his martyred death at the
hands of N.V. Godse. Although sweeping in scope, BAPU allows for
simple staging and minimal scenery. And a host of fascinating characters:
Gandhi, himself, pre sented in a warm, personal and light-hearted manner;
his good friend, Rajkumar Shulka, a kind of Sancho Panza; the irrepressible
Nehru; Gandhi's wife Kastrubai. Even Winston Churchill steps on stage, along
with a bevy of English antagonists. And finally, the key figure in the conflict
with Gandhi, the Moslem leader, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, whose uncompromising
position eventually catapults into the fiery Hindu-Moslem conflict. Amidst
the incisive analysis of power politics. BAPU presents humor and
warmth where none might seem to exist. A moving and lyric poetry on a bare-bones
stage. Book. $8.00. Royalty - $30 -$20.
***
BECAUSE
by Stephen Avery
Cast: 18 men and 4 women. A drama in 13 scenes. Set: area staging. Not since
Clifford Odets' WAITING FOR LEFTY has there been a play that conveys the
pain of unemployment as Stephen Avery's BECAUSE. An indictment of
a system that punishes individual ity and integrity and rewards mindless
conformity. Avery, a writer with a total dedication to his art, has a gift
of conveying his theme through his characters in a very life-like way. This
is a tragedy that will leave the audience moved but thinking. Book $5.00.
Royalty $30-$20.
***
BED-TIME STORY
by Virginia Morrow Black
Cast: 6 men and 7 women. Three acts. Comedy. Set: a bedroom.
A newly-married couple, Amanda and Jerry Longsworthy, settling down in Beaverbrook,
Ohio, are hoodwinked by an auctioneer into buying five so-called antique
sets of bedroom furniture, believing that, in the re-selling of the furniture,
they will be able to afford expensive furnishings for their dreamhouse.
BEDTIME STORY is an up-beat, wholesome, fast-paced comedy; family
entertain ment at its best. Book $5.00. Royalty $35 - $25.
***
BEFORE THE MORNING
by Herschel S. Steinhardt
Cast: 8 men and 4 women. Three acts. Drama. Set: area staging.
Eugene Thaler is an 18 year old who is being smothered by motherly love
and doesn't realize it. His mother, Celia, has driven off her husband, Alfred,
and Eugene's fianceé, Barbara. Barbara really loves Eugene, but can't
overcome Celia's hold on him. It is not till Eugene, sick and confused,
finds himself in a passionate embrace with his mother that he realizes something
is radically wrong. Horrified, Eugene runs off to Florida, without money,
a place to stay or a job. BEFORE THE MORNING is a variation on a
classic dramatic themefrom Euripides' HIPPOLYTUS, Racine's PHAEDRA to Howard's
THE SILVER CORD. "Steinhardt's writing is unaffected and discerning
as to characterization." The Detroit Free Press. Book $6.00.
Royalty $35 - $25.
***
BLIND TRANSFER
by Dorothy Randle Clinton
Cast: 11 men and 3 women. Three acts. Whodunit. Set: area staging.
A low-key murder mystery. J.C. who wasn't much of a human being and nobody
had much affection for, has been murdered. J.C.'s brother Blass is a study
in contrast. Blass is proper to the point of being a plastic prig. His chief
concern is always: what will others think. Bob Fosse and Hoyt Badler are
two cops assigned to solve the crime. They methodically interview everyone
connected with J.C. and freely express their suspicions based on the their
personal opinions of the assortment of characters questioned. The play captures
the work-a-day realism of the police on a murder investi gation. The audience
won't easily guess the the murderer. Book $5.00. Royalty $25 - $20.
***
BOG
by David Lawrence
Cast: 9 men and 1 woman and extras. Three acts. Aburdist farce. Set: area
staging. Every society has taboos. Roll up all our society's taboos and
you have the absurdist, very irreverent farce called BOG. BOG
has something in it to offend just about everyone. Underlying the acid
satire, BOG beats out the theme that who determines "Reality"
depends on who has the microphone. Book $6.00. Royalty $30-$20.
***
B.S. AT THE BASTILLE
by John Liam Joyce
Cast: 10 men and 2 women. Two acts. Set: dressing room.
Not many of us have visited a quick change dressing room backstage at a
Broadway theatre or know the people that work in one as caretakers of the
costumes and dressers for the actors between scenes. This is the unique
pleasure of B.S. AT THE BASTILLE the focus is on the backstage dressers.
The on-stage actors in the play-within-a-play provide the supporting cast
as they drift in and out for a change of costume. No backstage melodramatics
here, no hype. Just real-to-life people going about making a living, which
just happens to be serving up the fantasy that keeps the audience out-front
entertained. This is theatre at its most authentic. B.S. achieves
something only the best of plays achieveIt admits us into the company of
folks most of us would not otherwise have the opportu nity of meeting. Book
$6.00. Royalty $30-$20.
***
C'EST LA LÉGION
by Francis Gallagher
Cast: 18 men. Two acts. Drama. Set: area staging.
C'EST LA LÉGION is a dramatic celebration of the most unique
fighting force in the world Légion Étrangère
or French Foreign Legion. A disciplined professional military corps of volunteers
founded in 1831, the Foreign Legion has fought in all of France's wars since
and been romantized in the popular imagination as the refuge of criminals,
unrequited lovers, rich and poor alike. C'EST LA LÉGION is
set at Sidi-Bel-Abbès, Algeria, home base of the Legion in 1961,
when Algeria was in revolt against France and one regiment of the Legion
supported the Algerians. The play brings to life the world of proud mercenaries
who have forsaken their countries, men whose motto is "Legio Patria
Nostra" (the Legion is Our Fatherland). Book $10.00 Royalty $30-$20.
****
CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION
by Louis Valentine
Cast: 9 men and 2 women. Three acts. Drama. Set: A mud hut.
Death squadsrecruited from prisons and insane asylums, armed with M-16s,
and trained by the CIAhave been assigned by their government to slaughter
entire villages, and make it look like it was done by the Communists. Reason:
"to fool the gringosso they will keep sending all those millions to
fight Communists." Two of these blood-thirsty soldiers commandeer the
humble hut of Ceferino and his two children. In the condition they are in,
stoned with pot and drunk with corn liquor, Ceferino knows why they have
picked his hut. They have spotted his beautiful daughter, Melisa, and he
knows that before the night is over these mad dogs will rape his daughter
and murder him and his young son, Tulio. CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION is
drama and suspense at it best. It is also a vivid picture of what it is
like for young children to grow up in contemporary Cen tral America. The
playwright has lived most of his life in Honduras and has first-hand knowledge
of the "phony" wars and tells it like it really is. CHILDREN
OF THE REVOLUTION is a play for a director with a social conscience.
It is for audiences who want dramas of substance. Book $10.00. Royalty -
$35 - $25.
***
COLUMBUS DISCOVERS AMERICA
by John V. Falconieri
Cast: 8 men and 1 woman and extras. A serious farce. Two scenes and Epilogue.
Set: area staging. COLUMBUS DISCOVERS AMERICA puts an original spin
on the big event of 1492. God is a player. God allows Columbus to discover
a new world to reward Columbus for his courage and Queen Isabella for her
faith. Before the Lord comes into the picture, the logic of the Queen's
learned advisors is irrefutable. A humorous dramatization of the profound
truth: All things are possible for God and those who believe. Book $4.00.
Royalty $15-$10.
***
A COMPUTER WHIZ AT KING ARTHUR'S COURT
by Dick W. Zylstra
Cast: A minimum of 8 men and 5 women. Musical comedy. Two acts. Set: area
staging. COMPUTER WHIZ updates Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee.
It pokes fun at government bureaucracy, taxes, inflation, deficit spending,
war and football, yet offers heart-warming romance, sus penseful intrigue
and delightful humor. It contrasts language, beliefs and attitudes of the
Sixth Century with those of a modern American. With continuous fast-paced
action and minor set changes, A COMPUTER WHIZ is a whizbang to stagetwo
hours of delightful entertainment with sixteen original songs. Book $8.00.
Royalty - $35 - $25.
***
CON FOR PREMIUM JOHN
by Francis Gallagher
Cast: 8 men and 3 women. Two acts. Comedy. Set: a speakeasy.
December, 1932. New York City. A speakeasy. Prohibition and the Great Depression
are the back ground. In a plot worthy of O'Henry and with characters that
could have stepped out of Damon Runyon, playwright Gallagher spins an hilarious
tale (based on a true story!) of an indestructible Scotsman who a gang of
low-life is trying to bump off to collect on an insurance policy. Book $8.00.
Royalty $30-$20.
***
^^^
DAVID
by Daniel Wolf
Cast: 7 men and 1 woman. (Extras required, doubling possible.) Libretto
for musical. One act. Set: area staging. DAVID is a musical based
on the Biblical story of God's rejection of Saul, blessing of David, the
slaying of Goliath, and David's selection as new King of Israel. DAVID
can be staged inexpensively and unpretentiously without sacrificing
artistic merit. Sets and costumes need not be elaborate. DAVID has
appeal for all audiences. Children and young people will especially enjoy
the Goliath scene with its accompanying "Freedom Song" as well
as various military marches and battle scenes. Adults will appreciate the
poignancy of David's relationship with Jonathan. Book $4.00. Royalty $20-$10.
[Music is separate.]
***
THE DAY BED
by Jesse Kulberg
Cast: 7 men and 5 women. One act. Comedy. Set: a furnished room.
Eddie is married and he is poor. He has always been poor. His wife works
and he works part-time and goes to schoolSomeday he will be an attorney
and get out of povertyOr will he? THE DAY BED takes us through one
morning of Eddie's reflections. His father, his mother, an old army buddy,
and his wife are all shadows that enter into Eddie's dialogue with himself
on the proposition of whether it is worth going on. Book $7.00. Royalty
$15 - $10.
***
DEAR OLD GOLDEN RULE DAYS
by Francis Hoffmann
Cast: 8 men and 6 women. Comedy. Two acts. Set: a kitchen. CRUNCH TIME!
Yes, it's coming up crunch time for the parochial school system in a small
southern Colorado city. Like a car that's run out of gas ($$$), the system
is coasting to a stop and much to the dismay and consternation of the Garth
familywith the exception of Pop Garth, who happily sees an end to his having
to pay tuition. Mom Garth fears for the future of her six teenaged children.
Further beclouding the picture is her two sons' misfortunes on the football
field; they've never beaten their most hated rival: a much larger, tax-endowed
public high school. Uncle Ant'ny, Mom Garth's bachelor brother, meanwhile
carries on a one-man letter-writing campaign to get a Constitutional amendment
for tax aid for private schools. Teenage romances also abound in this grab-bag
play. Once again, playwright Hoffmann applies his unique brand of humor
to the life of southern Colorado. Book $6.00. Royalty $35-$25.
***
DILEMMA WITH EMMA
by Virginia Morrow Black
Cast: 7 women, 11 men. Three acts.Comedy. Set: living room.
Emma, a mischief-loving, mercenary, delightfully ostentatious, matriarch
of a wealthy, Upper Penin sula family, has just breathed her last in a bedroom
offstage, and family and friends are arguing over what to do with the body
all have different versions of what Emma wanted. When cemetery workers crash
into the funeral services announcing they have struck oil preparing a grave
for Emma, ever mercenary Emma sits up in her casket! Book $5.00. Royalty
$35 - $25.
***
DRACULA 69
by Alexander Panas
Cast: 8 men and 3 women. Fourteen scenes. Comedy. Set: area staging.
This is not the same old, hashed-over Dracula story. Any resemblances is
purely coincidental. In this one Dracula is the romantic hero, and Van Helsing
is a mad scientific genius who wants to take over the planet. Van Helsing
is after Dracula to get some of that immortal blood flowing in his veins.
To do this, Van Helsing enlists the aid of FQ I, the code name of one of
his operatives. FQ I's mission is to seduce Dracula! Once FQ I is impregnated
by the Immortal, it'll be scientific child's play for Van Helsing to make
himself immortal. The characters are as good as a James Bond movie, and
DRACULA 69 is perfect for the director with a flair for intrigue,
comedy and stage pyrotech nics. Book $11.00. Royalty - $35 - $20.
***
DUST TO DUST
by Virginia Morrow Black
Cast: 6 men and 6 women. Three acts. Comedy. Set: a living room.
A practical joker gets his come-uppance in this light situation and character
comedy. Cordelia and Jake have the job of scattering Uncle Jasper ashes
to the ocean. Jake gets things mixed up and the plot begins. DUST TO
DUST is recommended for college, community, summer stock, dinner theatre.
Book $5.00. Royalty $35-$25.
***
ELAINE
by Adam L. West
Cast: 5 men and 8 women. Six scenes. Romance. Set: area staging.
ELAINE is a sequel to JON (infra). However, it can stand on
its own. Elaine, as a young girl, lived with her father in France during
his diamond smuggling days and shares his passions and intensity for life
and love. In later life she goes back to England and enters school. Upon
graduation she marries Stanley Cranston, the son of the groundskeeper at
her school. Stanley Cranston's father allows them to stay married only ten
years so Elaine can go into the convent to join her parents, who are both
there as "nuns." The rest of the story is as delightfully complex
as a Victorian novel as Elaine is driven out of the convent and money from
Jon's diamond smuggling days comes into play. In between all this the conversation
of Fathers Vladimir and D' Mittim provides a running commen tary and sardonic
relief. Book $5.00. Royalty $30 - $20.
***
AN END IN SIGHT
by Richard France
Cast: 6 men and 4 women. Two acts. Tragic comedy. Set: day room of an asylum.
Professor Unger is a man of the hour, late fifties, an educator at the height
of his powers (which is to say, a splendid performer), and this is his day
to shine. He is also an asylum inmate, which means Professor Unger can be
cut off at any time. This, plus the fact that time itself is running out,
give Professor Unger an urgency to get it all out. Then there is Miss Lamb,
a forty year old who plays at being twelve; Miss Skewis, a veteran of asylums;
Joe Blue, an animal in human form, Putt Putt, who has witnessed the unspeakable,
and many more characters that mix it up in this unsavory comedy about life
in the day room of a play that makes most of us uncomfortable to even think
about. Book $6.00. Royalty $30-$20.
***
THE FAMILY JEWELS
by John Fiero
Cast: 6 men and 5 women. Comedy. Two acts. Set: Mexican cantina and a living
room. Abrigail
Farthingham and her grandson, Edward, are *in a comic struggle against her
conniving nephews, Robert and Jeffery Farthingham. They want her property
for a big land deal, but she is determined to hold on and reopen her rehabilitation
center for former convicts. Using skills learned from former clients of
Abigail's center, Edward steals the family jewels from his uncle's safe.
He and Abigail then hock them to fund their "Track or Treat" servicea
combination bookmaking and send-out -only bordello. Although Robert accidentally
discovers this and threatens criminal charages, they turn it into a hilarious
Mexcian stand off with counter threats, some help from Robert's wife, and
revelations of Jeffery's aberrant behavior. Book $8.00. Royalty - $35-$25.
***
FAUSTA
by Ted Perry
Cast: 15 women (doubling possible). 38 French scenes. Set: abstract or realistic,
depending on productions. Professor Krula is rehearsing a group of her college
students in her all female cast adaptation of Christopher Marlowe's DOCTOR
FAUSTUS, in which she will play the title role. The production is being
staged in a shopping mall. Professor Krula's personal life and glimpses
of the lives of the cast and mall shoppers are interspliced with the Marlowe
play. The contemporary stories highlight the present-day relevance of Marlowe's
theme as well as providing relief from the tragedy, much as DOCTOR FAUSTUS
makes use of numerous comic interludes. In FAUSTA, the transitions
between the original Marlowe text and Perry's scenes are often abrupt and,
as the play progresses, the distinctions between these levels of reality
begin to blur. FAUSTA breathes fresh vigor into a classic and makes
the power of Marlowe's verse more than palpable to modern audience that
might think twice about sitting through a full-length Elizabethan tragedy.
Book $6.00. Royalty $30-$20.
***
THE FEAST OF THE DANCING MONKEY
by Tom Eagan
Cast: 11 men and 10 women (doubling essential). Comedy-drama. Two acts.
Set: area staging. Buddy Luccissi, a bum from Brooklyn, is about to marry
an upstate, uppperclass Doris Beauford, but things don't quite work out
the way they are supposed to. Buddy finds himself in Guatemala mis taken
for an arch-rival of the corrupt Generalissimo Guano, and thrust into saving
the beautiful Juanita from becoming Guano's bride. Book $7.00. Royalty $40-$20.
***
FLESH, FLASH AND FRANK HARRIS
by Paul Stephen Lim
Cast: 8 men and 5 women. Two acts. Set: multi-scene, area lighting.
Frank Harris, whose autobiography was banned as pornography, was a friend
of Oscar Wilde and Bernard Shaw, and an influential London editor. It is
a story with epic rangefrom Ireland, to Kansas, to work on the Brooklyn
Bridge, to London society, to France, to a walkup flat in Italy. Lim's technique
is remarkablea young, a middle-aged, and an old Frank Harris share the stage
simultaneously. "Few plays dare to pit the collective imaginations
of the audience against the
singular imagination of the playwright. The latest from Paul Stephen Lim
is that particular kind of daring, provocative playa mentally exhausted
audience was left applauding. Lim has become the most noteworthy of our
regional playwrights," Michael McGrath, The Kansas City Star.
"It is worth a trip to the East Village to see Paul Stephen Lim's lively
FLESH, FLASH & FRANK HARRIS," N.Y. Theatre Voice. Book
$11.00.Royalty - $35-$20.
***
FRITZ AND HARRIET
by George Haessler
Cast: 10 men and 2 women. Three acts. Biography. Set: area staging.
Chronicles a period in the life of violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler.
The play opens in the winter of 1935 and spans the war years. The curtain
comes down on a scene in the autumn of 1948. In between, we get a glimpse
of the day to day life of a musical genius. Book $8.00. Royalty $30 -$20.
***
GRANDMA WAS A LION TAMER
by Donna Roberts
Cast: 7 men and 6 women. Three acts. Comedy. Set: a living room.
Lily lives with her two grandchildren, Jack and Jill, and her maid/cook/good
friend Mandyand also, Nero, a lion. Lily used to do a circus lion
act and old Nero retired along with her to a home in New Orleans. The problem
is: What is going to happen to Jack and Jill and old Nero when Lily passes
on? Mandy is a good cook and good at mysterious chants, but she is outranked
in the guard ianship department by mean Aunt Judith. Why is Judith mean?
Well, for one thing, she doesn't approve of the relaxed way Lily is rearing
Jack and Jill. And worse, mean Aunt Judith wants to get rid of poor of old
Nerowhich really makes her mean. Lily dies and Jack and Jill contrive to
let everyone think she is still alive to keep mean Aunt Judith off their
back. They get a little help from Nero, and the ghost of Lily. Book $10.00.
Royalty - $25 - $15.
***
THE HAND OF THE POTTER
by Herschel S. Steinhardt
Cast: 4 men and 5 women, and extras.Two acts. Drama. Set: area staging.
"They sneer at me for leaning all awry:/What! did the Hand then of
the Potter shake?" The Rubaiyat. Many years ago, April and Peter
were students and lovers. Then Peter got into a fight with the thief who
headed the graduate department. Peter was arrested and struck on the skull.
He disappeared out of April's life. Still carrying the torch for Peter,
thirty-five years later, April, volun teering to work with the mentally
handicapped, finds Peter as one of the clients. But, he doesn't recognize
her. A beautiful, positive-spirited play that says what we would all like
to believeLove conquers all. It is also a play that should promote some
compassion for the more than three million schizophrenics in America. Book
$6.00. Royalty $30-$20.
***
HIGHER LOVE
by David H. Nathan
Cast: 15 men and 6 women. (doubling possible). Four acts. Comedy. Set: area
staging. Nathaniel has died and come before a heavenly board of examiners
who will determine his fate. Molly is in the same fix. The heavenly board,
at the suggestion of one of the judges, a Woody Allen-type with a fondness
for practical jokes, decides that Nathaniel and Molly are a perfect match
for challenging their character flaws. Nathaniel and Molly are each given
an assignment with respect to the other and then the two of them are send
on a journey that would make Dante cringe. HIGHER LOVE is an update
on afterlife that will carry the audience through four realms of laughter.
Book: $6.00. Royalty $30 - $20.
***
HOMERICA
by Paul Stephen Lim
Cast: 9 men and 5 women. Three one acts.Comedy. Set: a basement.
Three one acts, each of which can stand on its own, but are bound by place
and theme and two characters. The subject is the sexual revolution. In "Bull's
Books" a bookstore closes; in "Sammy's Swingles" the place
has been taken over by a singles bar. In "Mothers Superior" the
bar has been converted by a group of Irish nuns into a surrogate mothers
business. HOMERICA premiered at the University of Kansas in 1977
and was subsequently produced in England at Leicester University in 1983.
"Outrageous satirewickedly funny," Leicester Mercury. "A
freaked-out farcea kind of 'You Can't Take It With You' as revisualized
by Heoronymus Bosch," The Kansan City Times. "A dazzling,
virtuoso kind of theatre! HOMERICA ultimately shows the destructive,
regressive, dehumanizing effects of so-called sexual freedom with dire consequences
for the entire human race. The play comes to this bleak vision through three
acts, each more crazily comic than the lastpervading the whole, however,
is Lim's verbal wizardry and an electrifying theatricality," John Bush
Jones, Kansas City Star Magazine. "One of the most effective
social dissertations of today," University Daily Kansan. Book
$10.00. Royalty- $30 - $20.
***
THE HOUSE OF KARAGIAN
by Alexander Panas
Cast: 14 men and 7 women. Three acts. Drama. Set: area staging.
Behind the posturings of world powers is the armaments manufacturers, and
the leading armaments manufacturer on the eve of World War I is Sir Basil
Karagian, a citizen of the world, born in Constantinople of Greek descent,
a citizen of France, manufacturing arms in England. He has just been assassinated,
and his 35 year old son, Nicholas, a frequent sanatorium patient, is now
head of the family and company. Sir Basil's daughter, Athena, has broken
off and started her own armaments company. It is believed by the British
and Greek governments that Sir Basil's murder had something to do with his
acquisition of a new weapon, the Z-600 gun. The Z-600 is reputedly so superior
a weapon it would insure victory to whichever side held it exclusively.
Who killed Sir Basil? What has happened to the plans for the Z-600? THE
HOUSE OF KARAGIAN is a detective story of international intrigue. Book
$12.00. Royalty - $50 - $25.
***
THE HOUSE THAT ATE THEIR BRAINS
by Rolando Perez
Cast: Flexible 10 men and 5 women. Doubling possible. Absurdist comedy in
six scenes. Set: area staging. People's lives often get taken over by their
love of possessions. THE HOUSE THAT ATE THEIR BRAINS takes this premise
to the endth degree. Playwright Perez uses a house as the ultimate metaphor
to dramatize slavery to material things. We witness the moral and mental
disinte gration of a couple who start out wanting only a house to live in.
Slowly from concern about crab grass and the lawn and evenings with mindless
neighbors, the couple turn to stealing and finally murder to satisfy the
demands of their house. Book $5.00. Royalty $30-$20.
***
"H" IS FOR BOX
by Rolando Perez
Cat: 10 men and 1 woman. One act. Absurdist comedy. Set: area staging. "H"
wants "in," i.e. to make a living as a recognized artist. To achieve
his goal, "H" is willing to make his art conform with the demands
of the twins Silver and Smith, who guard the entrance to "in."
The twins (read "estab lishment") will only let "H"
in, however, when he accepts the role of a crude Hispanic stereotype. Once
"in," "H" is introduced to a circus of minorities, all
of whom are conforming to the stereotypes of the twins in order to make
a living. "H" IS FOR BOX attacks "familiar targets,"
in a highly original way. Book $4.00. Royalty $15-$10.
***
HAND OF FIRE
by Francis Gallagher
Cast: 8 men and 2 women. Drama. Two acts. Set: area staging.
HAND OF FIRE (originally entitled VINCENT) dramatizes the last two
years in the life of Vincent Van Gogh, the period in which he produced his
greatest work. Of the New York production the critics wrote: "An engrossing
and moving drama of the life of Van Gogh, his ruinous relationship with
Gauguin, his abortive search for love." Herald Tribune. "A
warm and engaging play." R. Watts, N.Y. Post. "Best of
new off-B'way plays." N.Y. Daily News. "What I like best
about the script is its quiet taste in an area where lurid melodramatics
usually prevails." Emory Lewis, Cue. "Mr. Gallagher manages
to capture the imagination of the audience and provoke the ageless question.
Why? Why did this man of goodwill and genius have to suffer?" Brooks
Atkinson, N.Y. Times. Book $8.00. Royalty $35-$20.
***
HANGING BASKETS
by Richard Chambers Prescott
Cast: 6 men and 5 women. A one act. Comedy. Set: apartment.
HANGING BASKETS is a satire on psychiatry. Jack and Jill are in therapy
for alcoholism and O.C.D. (obsessive compulsive disorder). Seven doctors
surround them, each representing a different school of psychotherapy, and
each doctor has a different direction to take the young couple in. Finally,
Jack and Jill experience a shared dream, discover some wonderful truths
about themselves and decide to give the boot to the crackpots they have
been paying to find a cure for them. HANGING BASKETS has been successfully
produced in Seattle, Washington. Book $3.00. Royalty $20-$10.
***
HUNGRY
by Stephen Avery
15 men and 6 women (doubling possible) Three one acts. Drama. Set: area
staging. People living on the edgein bars of the red-light district is the
subject of the title one act "Hungry" a master piece of the lower
depths of American society, more riveting than Elmer Rice, Upton Sinclair,
Lewis Sinclair, or Zola and Gorki combined could achieve. "The Choice"
is a study in lust, the quiet ten sion experienced by a working stiff torn
between a professional hooker in a bar and going home to his wife. In "Trevor"
we get into the mind of the "normal" nice guy next doorwho just
happens to be a serial killer. Mr. Avery writes powerfully and with authenticity
of those who are possessed of a soul hunger. Characters who are trying desperately
to fill the void inside. In sometimes brutal, often poetic, and always dramatic
terms, Avery brings to these lives a peculiar understanding and significance.
Book $6.00. Royalty $30-$20.
***
I WANT TO WRITE A JEWISH POEM
by Gary Pacernick
Cast: 10 men and 6 women. One act. Set: area staging.
I WANT TO WRITE A JEWISH POEM is a paean to the Jewish experience.
The story is told through one family's odyssey from Russia and Nazi Germany
to America. Family members tell of their struggle and suffering, which evoke
an entire culture. The central character wants to be a poet, but almost
everyone in his extended family tries to discourage him. They urge him to
build some thing substantial, i.e. to make a living instead of poems. Ironically,
it may be the poet who gives to the family something more enduring than
money can buy. "There is a resonance to those who walk about the earth/
looking for a place to eat, sleep, worship, make love, to stand until the
ground under their feet softens and there is a motion in the air as familiar
as their names,/ their destination un reachable in the pathless desert,/
as if were coal burning upon their speechless tongues." Pacernick captures
the resonance and the tongues are no longer speechless. Book $5.00. Royalty
$20 - $15.
***
IN MY END IS MY BEGINNING
by Francis Gallagher
Cast: 15 men and 3 women. Two acts. Historical drama. Set: area staging.
Whether Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, was plotting to overthrow Queen
Elizabeth of England is a question for the historians. IN MY END IS MY
BEGINNING , hewing as close to the historical record as one can, playwright
Gallagher has fashioned a Mary Stuart that is more martyr than con spirator
with designs on the English throne. While Gallagher's arch-villain is Queen
Elizabeth, the play focuses on Elizabeth's minions who are charged with
the ignoble duty of finding Mary guilty of treason, regardless of the facts.
Thomas Bromley, the Lord High Chancellor; Lord Brughley, the Lord High Admiral;
Howard of Effingham, the Secretary of State; Sir Francis Walsingham, and
Sir John Popham (one-time-highwayman now the Attorney General of England)are
as unsavory and hypocritical a lot of jurists ever assembled since the trial
of of Joan of Arc. IN MY END IS MY BEGINNING is excellent historical
drama with living breathing, very memorable characters. Book $10.00. Royalty
$30$20.
***
INSIDIOUS
by Stephen Avery
Cast: 15 men and 8 women. (Extras required, but doubling possible.) Drama.
Three acts. Set: area staging. INSIDIOUS is a close study of the
deterioration of a young lady brought down by drug addiction. Jenny is just
a young naive girl looking fir a little fun and affection, trusting too
much in her punkish, morally-lax and unpolished boy friend. Jenny's chief
weakness is a lack of discrimina tion in selecting her friends. INSIDIOUS
is an excellent play for parents and teens. Book $5.00. Royalty $30-$20.
***
INSPECTOR VASILI AND THE BIRD OF PARADISE CAPER
by Alexander Panas
Cast: 9 men and 3 women. Two acts. Farce. Set: a courtroom.
The most brilliant criminal detective of the New York City Police Department,
Inspector Antonio Vasili, is himself on trial for murdering an exotic dancer,
Tracey D'Ambois, better known as the Bird of Paradise. Vasili is, putting
it mildly, an eccentric, who solves his cases by the most unorthodox of
methods. His partner for five years testifies that Vasili, "never believed
in evidence as such." He would also talk to a murder victim, "it
was all part of his technique." In his last case, Vasili shot himself
in the arm. His most bizarre method, however, is using puppets to solve
crimes! Despite all the negative testimony on Vasili, the audience feels
that he is not guilty. Who then did murder the Bird of Paradise? There is
a surprising revelation on almost every other page of this mystery farce,
and the biggest surprise is who murdered the Bird of Paradise. Book $10.00.
Royalty - $50 - $25.
***
IRON MEN
by Francis Gallagher
Cast: 14 men and 2 women. Drama. Three acts. Set: 2: barroom and a skyscraper
under construction.
This is a very special very play, a challenge for the scene designer and
set construction. A unique play. A play that puts on stage a skyscraper
under construction and a bit of the lives of the men who work fifty
plus stories in the sky constructing the steel towers that are at the heart
of every down town in America. First produced on Broadway in the heart of
the Great Depression. IRON MEN ran for four weeks to bad reviews. This is
the revised version, in which Gallagher has "improved" the script
by putting in the language he wasn't allowed to in the 1930's. Book $10.00.
Royalty $30 $20.
***
JIHAD OF ARABIA
by Scott Nichols
Cast: 12 men and 2 women. (Extras required.) Comedy. Two acts. Set: area
staging. Muhammad Jihad, Supreme Commissar of Arabia, is seen as a threat
by Israel because he harbors the anti-Zionist terrorist Abu Dabah; because
he is advised by the likes of men like ex-East German Secret Police officer,
Fritz Krieg, and most of all because he is rumored to have developed an
Arab AIDS bomb. A whole masterful scene of JIHAD is devoted to Jihad's
review of his army, led by Jihad's fat younger brother, Sonny. Sonny, formerly
a tank repairman, has been promoted in the twinkle of an eye to Field Marshal
and General of the Immortal Guards Division when Jihad became Supreme Commis
sar. Jihad's bloated revolutionary rhetoric addressed to his cheering crowds
is in sharp contrast to the pathetic incompetence of of his entourage. JIHAD
OF ARABIA sheds satiric light on the dark mentality of Arab nationalist
dictators as well as news coverage as show biz, militarism and the Arab-Israeli
conflict. The preemptive Israeli attack on Jihad, his capture, the trial
for "war crimes" makes excellent drama. Book $6.00. Royalty $30-$20.
***
JON
by Adam L. West
Cast: 2 men. Six scenes. Historical romance. Set: area staging.
In the 1870's Jon Alencon, the devout, intense heir to a British title,
marries Gwen, a poor serving girl, and is thrown out by his family. He flees
in despair to France, and makes a fortune smuggling diamonds. He returns
to Britain, determined to live with Gwen at any cost. But he finds Gwen
bound to servitude in a convent. In a bizarre ruse, Jon smuggles himself
into the convent, but before he can get Gwen out, his genuine religious
conversion ensnares him in his own gambit, and the couple stays voluntarily.
Jon remains disguised as a nun! His body, exhumed seventy-six years later
in a rebuilding of the church, is found to be undecayed, which almost guarantees
recognition by the Church as a saint. The story is told as the conversations
of two eccentric devil's advocates in their basement office in the Vatican.
Book $4.00. Royalty $30 - $20.
***
THE KUKKURRIK FABLES
by Oscar Mandel
Cast: variable. 43 mini-plays. Set: area staging.
THE KUKKURRIK FABLES is a unique and invaluable collection. No theatre
director should be without a copy. THE KUKKURRIK FABLES dramatizes
forty-three original fables. An opportu nity for wide flexibility in productionfifteen
minutes or two hours worth of material can be used. The fables are suitable
for full staging or dramatic reading by a flexible cast. "Delightful
little talesbest described as modern Aesop Fables." Hollywood Reporter.
"the art of the piquant fable is the unusual pleasure running this
month at the New Hope Inn Mandel has mastered a precise form." Los
Angeles Times. "The fables are written in a slyly witty and highly
sophisticated style that keeps the audience chuckling en route to the barbed
'moral' at the end." Pasadena Star-News. "Droll and charming
fablesa complete oddball beastiary mocking the world and its follies."
L'Express, Paris. "The fablesare full of unexpected points and
deep lessons, biting jest and good-natured humorTruly a banquet!" Der
Bund, Bern, Switzerland. Book $5.00. Royalty - $50 - $25 (all). $10
- $5 (individually).
***
LEAD ME HOME
by Gerard Anthony Cox
Cast: 8 men and 3 women. Drama. Two acts. Set: living room.
LEAD ME HOME is a story of blind faith and a mystery that holds the
audience to the end. After a brief opening scene with her loving husband
David, Grace Drumuff is informed that her husband has just been killed in
a car wreck. Despite family and friends, the police and everyone, Grace
refuses to believe David is dead. The only thing that supports her conviction
is mysterious phone calls in which the person on the other end never says
anything. A long-time friend, Gale, tries to help Grace through a period
of mourning. Grace dismisses everyone and awaits David's return. The suspense
grows when the local service station mechanic shows up to sexually assault
Grace. Then there is a mysterious stranger (not David) and a N.Y. State
Trooper who we begin to suspect of evil designs. Only Grace's faith in David's
return, a faith that seems almost deranged, holds Grace's life together.
Book $4.75. Royalty $30-$20.
***
LET ME IN, I GOT MY OWN STRAITJACKET, EVERY BRIDGE HAS
A SPLASH & THE MAN IN THE PINSTRIPE SUIT
by Alexander Panas
Cast: variable. Three one act comedies. Set: area staging.
Waldo Katz appears in front of the Cartoola State Asylum with a straitjacket
and a good number of fine references that say he is a nut, a wildman, cuckoo,
etc. But he still finds it difficult to be admit ted because of the tremendous
number of applicants. You could go crazy trying to figure out the significance
of this absurd comedy. In "Every Bridge Has A Splash" a man and
a woman meet on a bridge that has a history of suicide jumps. Neither of
them has lived a life conducive to staying on the bridge. In "The Man
in the Pinstripe Suit" Alphone Devron steals a huge sum of money and
impersonates a British nobleman to win a wife. Do clothes make the man?
Book $4.00. Royalty - $35 - $25 (all three); $15 - $10 (individually).
***
LOVERS' PARTING
by Leonard L. Perlmutter
Cast: 3 men & 7 women. Two acts. Romantic comedy. Set: office/living
room.
Holding onto the past versus embracing the present is the theme. George
Romero, a highly success ful, middle-aged businessman is out for a new companion
in life, and has the ghost of his dearly beloved decease wife Loretta to
guide him. Trouble is George likes a very young girl and Loretta doesn't
think it would work out. Nor does George's son, John, who is ten years older
than the girl George has in mind. So, Greg Palmer, an advertising exec.,
sets up more dates for George. Book $4.00. Royalty $30-$20.
***
THE LILAC BUSH
by Matthew Maibaum
Cast: 13 men and 7 women. Tragic comedy. Three acts. Set: area staging.
Dr. Ev Peake is Head of the Psychology Dept. at a growing private university
with a full careera new book coming out; a new program in Applied Psychology
being launched; input into a state licensing law for psychology graduates,
classes to teach, and just selected Teacher of the Year. In contrast, Dr.
Roddy McKeon is a very unpleasant, self-absorbed, alcoholic eccentric working
on experiments with squid and coeds. McKeon has no regard for the paper
work that a growing university requires of even an experimental psychologist
if grant applications are to be funded. Dr. Peake and Dr. McKeon get into
a fight over missing forms just as the University Trustees and Accrediting
Committee enter. This one incident destroys Dr. Peake's career. A well-researched,
well-written tragic comedy, based on an actual incident. The pretence and
superficiality of the academic world are underlying themes. Book $5.00.
Royalty $30-$20.
***
MACBETH: TODAY'S SHAKESPEARE
Translated into Modern English
by Eric Zuesse
Cast: 23 men and 7 women (doubling possible). Five acts. Set: area staging.
While Shakespeare's plays are timeless and will be eternally valid and contemporary,
the terms and colloquial expressions of a language in a given era are strictly
bound to that time; a language is not timeless and eternally valid. To Italians,
Latin is now a foreign tongue; the Greeks no longer speak or understand
ancient Greek; and contemporary speakers of the English language, now four
centuries removed from Elizabethan England and the speech of Shakespeare's
plays, are already well on the way to speaking and knowing an English language
foreign to Elizabethan England, which present needless barriers to the understanding
and appreciation of a play by contemporary audiences. The Bard's plays,
in days of old, used to be quite popular among the illiterate masses. But
now, even highly literate audiences have difficulty with these dramas. It
is not the plays that have changed, but the language. The purpose of this
translation of MACBETH is to restore this Shakespearean drama to
its original status of both high and popular art. The objective of
this translation, in other words, is for the audience to experience Shakespeare
as the supremely eloquent writer we all recognize, yet to restore the immediacy
and intensity of impact which have been gradually lost to these plays due
to 400 years of change in the English language. Book $5.00. Royalty $30
- $20.
***
MAY I BORROW YOUR BEDPAN, PLEASE?
by Francis Hoffmann
Cast: 3 men and 18 women. Two acts. Set: area staging.
Franklyn Matthew Lofton, recuperating from a broken hip, checks into Snug
Harbor Nursing Center, a place over run with womenregistered nurses, licensed
practical nurses, nursing aides, physical nurses, physical therapists, dietitians,
activities directors, janitresses, and a legion of fellow "resi dents,"
almost all women. There are two other men at Snug Harbora randy, bed-bound
hundred -and-one-year-old crank and a Mr. Knack who quickly departs the
scene after choking to death on a candy. Lofton, who has all the charm and
mischievous hauteur of a Sheridan Whiteside, revenges the indignities imposed
on him as a "resident" by exacting a list of conditions under
which he will deign to serve as Snug Harbor's reigning St. Valentine's Day
King. Playwright Hoffmann has a consistent genius for capturing satirical
details. Book $4.50. Royalty $35-25.
***
MEMORABLE REGRETS
by John David Ballam
Cast: 5 men and 5 women. Five scenes Set: flexible area staging.
Alfred is in the process of arranging for the marriage of his ward, Robert,
son of Alfred's deceased brother. Alfred is delighted with Robert's choice
of a bride, Felice, but even more taken by her mother, Lady Herbert. He
cannot explain his attraction, but the audience soon discovers it: Lady
Herbert and Alfred had an illicit affair many years ago; Felice is actually
his daughter. This insight ful comedy-of-manners plays out an unusual story
of forgiveness amid the brilliant wit and cautious morals of late Victorian
England. Book $3.00. Royalty - $35 - $25.
***
MEN WITHOUT NAMES
by Herschel S. Steinhardt
Cast: 8 men and 2 women. (some doubling possible). Two acts. Drama. Set:
living room. MEN WITHOUT NAMES is a hard look at a so-called "charitable"
institution run supposedly for the benefit of the homeless and down and
out. In reality, Colonel Ash's "United Brotherhood Shelter" in
MEN WITHOUT NAMES is almost a prison run by a despot. If the men
do not slave at their appointed jobs or abide by the Colonel's own brand
of strict religious observance, then they are summarily thrust into cold
to fend for themselves. The story is dramatized from the point of Oscar
Love, a sixty year old man down on his luck, a recipient of the United Brotherhood's
largesse. MEN WITHOUT NAMES is a story of the truly poor without
all the hipe of artificial language and emotion found in plays that might
cover the same territory. MEN WITHOUT NAMES resonates with truth
and simplicity. Book $3.50. Royalty $30 - $20.
***
MISS ZARKOFF IS MISSING
by Christian Garrison and Tom Eagan
Cast: 12 men and 12 women. Two acts. Farce. Set: hotel lobby.
Turdevania is a dumpy little Eastern European Socialist Republic. When a
former Turd, now Ameri can citizen, offers a million dollar purse for a
contest, Turdevania opens its arms and pockets. Five American high school
girls are pitted against five Turd girls in the Turdevanian national sport
teedlewitz, better known to the rest of the world as hopscotch. The American
sponsor of the contest wants to open up the Turd market for his company's
products. Commissar Britz is hell-bent on making sure the million bucks
does not leave Turdevania. He needs it to replace the 500 thousand krochs
he has embezzled from the Turdevanian State Treasury. Book $5.00. Royalty
$35 - $25.
***
MOSTLY GHOSTS
by Rubin Battino
Cast: 15 men and 4 women. One act. Set: area staging.
A lot of people get knocked off in Shakespeare's Hamlet. But they
don't hang around after they do. There is only one ghost in Shakespeare's
Hamlet. In MOSTLY GHOSTS, Shakespeare's charac ters share
the stage with Battino's creations. When Polonius dies, his ghost hangs
around to com ment. Yorick's ghost puts in an appearance to whisper lies
into the ear of the gravedigger, which accounts for the gravedigger being
so witty with Hamlet. There there are the ghosts of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,
Gertrude Laertes, Claudius and Hamlet. An original concept, MOSTLY GHOSTS
is an excellent entertainment for audiences that know their Shakespeare.
Book $3.00. Royalty $15 - $10.
***
MURDER BY THE RULES
by Alexander Panas
Cast: 8 men and 4 women. Three acts. Comedy/suspense. Set: foyer of an inn/mortuary.
Edgar Allan Poe, master of the mystery story and originator of the detective
story, and the 19th Century's greatest actor, Junius Brutus Booth, have
a pact to meet each year at the equinox, and using whatever had occurred
to them during the year make of it a work of art, i.e. Poe will turn it
into a short story. This has been going on for ten years, when Booth shows
up at the agreed spot to find Poe apparently mad, and insisting that a young
lady's life is in danger. MURDER BY THE RULES, a comedy suspense,
re-creates an evening in which the two great talents join forces to solve
a murder. Performed at SMU, Stratford, CT, in Los Angeles and at several
other theatres around the country under the title THE LADY IN THE OBLONG
BOX. Book $5.00. Royalty - $35 - $20.
***
MURDER FOR ONE
by Tom Eagan
Cast: 5 men and five women. Full-length. Whodunit. Set Banquet hall.
MURDER FOR ONE is a dinner theatre audience participation whodunit.
Everyone in the audi ence assumes the role of a guest at a banquet to honor
billionaire philanthropist Harry Hamilton. Trouble is Harry was murdered
the morning of the banquet and the banquet audience is called upon to identify
the murderer from the wrangling, finger-pointing suspects gathered at the
head table. Surprises and twists keep the audience guessing right up till
the last moment. And even if an audi ence member was tipped off by someone
who saw the play the previous night, he may not have the right answer. Three
endings are provided. The audience will never know which ending will be
used for any given performance. Book $5.00. Royalty $35 - $20.
***
MY BODY
by Al Schnupp
Cast: 6 men and 7 women. Two acts. Drama. Set: a mental health institution.
Keri commits Kate to an institution after she discovers her lover has been
inflicting sexual harm upon herself. As a result of the initial examination
and hearing, the doctors learn that Kate is also displaying symptoms of
anorexia nervosa. Through counseling and fiery exchanges with Dr. Wendal,
her psychiatrist, Kate discovers her destructive actions are a result of
a negative body image as well as an inability to accept her lesbianism.
Kate's journey to wellness is primarily motivated by the help of fellow
patients. Kate begins to see her own situation in a new light and to accept
her sexuality. In the process, however, Kate ends her relationship with
Keri. Book $4.00. Royalty - $30 - $20.
***
1313 HELL STREET
by Alexander Panas
Cast: 12 men and 4 women. Two acts. Poetic suspense. Sets: suggestive.
Lou Fazuki, a fast stepper with a bum leg, is trying to escape the draft
during World War II. He visits an old girlfriend in one of the apartments
on Hell Street, where he waits anxiously for his one true love, Lorelei,
and encounters the strangest group of people: a prostitute carrying on an
imagi nary love affair with Albert Einstein become Clark Gable; Commodore
Lapratt, who keeps his beloved wife locked up while he makes love to her
sister; the Dragon, a demented fellow in long johns, who has fallen in love
with a plastic doll that he religiously fills every morning with hot water;
and the Four Horsemen, a vaudeville team reenacting scenes from World War
I. A brutal murder occurs, for which Fazuki is blamed. Everyone, seeking
a scapegoat for all their own "foible." finds the answer in Lou
Fazuki, Public Enemy Number One. In the Miami production the audience was
constantly on their feet, but then again, The Dragon was constantly under
their seats! Book $5.00. Royalty - $35 - $25.
***
PENNY STEALERS
by Gerald Anthony Cox
Cast: 4 men and 6 women. Two acts. Comedy/mystery. Set: a summer boarding
house.
A once elegant, Victorian ocean front home has been converted to a boarding
house for summer, weekly rentals. Marge Kielty, a widow approaching mid-life
is trying to keep the place going with the help of her son, Ted. The vacationers
including a very private, mystery couple from Kansas; two retired, spinster
sisters, and a honeymooning couple Suddenly Marge's weekly receipts, along
with other items, disappear. Who has taken what is the bulk of the Kielty's
meager financial assets and why? With humor, compassion, charm and, of course,
suspense, the mystery is resolved. PENNY STEALERS, as a work-in-progress,
received a collegiate mainstage production. It was enjoyed by audiences
of all ages, and was named the season's best production. Book $3.50. Royalty
$30-$20.
***
THE PHALLIC PHOBIA
by Alexander Panas
Cast: 5 men and 5 women. Two acts. Comedy. Set: area staging.
Verne LaVance, disenchanted playwright and man of no means, wakes up one
morning to find the lingerie remains of a woman and a marriage license in
his bed. But no woman. Who is she? He has no idea. Apparently, he went to
a bar the previous evening and blacked out. What happened after that, he
cannot remember. Verne returns to the bar and discovers to whom he is marriedone
Harriet Jethro, who, strangely enough, is running for Mayor of New York,
but even worse, is engaged to a millionaire Greek, Joe Bacon. Verne follows
them home, and as Harriet and Joe embrace, Verne enters with a pistol to
claim his wifeThis is just the beginning. A fine challenge for a director
interested in pure farce and for actors who can move a mile-a-minute. Book
$6.00. Royalty - $35 - $25.
***
PLAYS & PLAYTHINGS
by Rolando Perez
Cast: Variable. Nine one acts. Comedy and drama. Set: area staging.
From the inscrutable absurdist "I Can't Open It" to the realistic
comedy "The Exchange," Perez exhibits a virtuoso ability to maintain
the suspense and create well-defined characters through different styles
of presentation. Several of the plays are minor masterpieceslate night commercial
TV talk shows will never be the same after you stage "the Losing Game."
In the title one act "Play things," a business executive is treated
to a dose of masochistic pleasure in a brothel to expiate for the damage
he does at work. "The Regular" lays bare the shallow bar scene
environment. In "Proper Words" the audience is schooled in which
is more importantwords or reality. A rich collection of one acts that make
an excellent evening of theatre. The plays can also be performed separately.
Book $5.00. Royalty $30-$20 (all nine); $15-$10 (separately).
***
THE PORTABLE CORPSE
by Donna Roberts
Cast: 7 men and 5 women. Three acts. Whodunit. One set: a sitting room.
Six college students, from various parts of the country, have won a visit
to the Maine ocean front home of the famous author Arthur Thurston Rodgers.
Very soon after the young writers are wel comed by Mr. Rodgers' nephew and
social secretary, it is discovered that their host has been mur dered. An
inept Inspector W. Holmes, who suffers under the delusion of being a descendent
of Sherlock, is called in to investigate. We discover one of the college
students is toting a gun and rifling thru desks. What is more there a secret
passage in the house. Who took the ignition coils out of all the cars? Why
are the ever-so-proper butler and the famous author's ex-wife separately
moving the body from place to place? While looking out the window, did dumb
Peggy really see a subma rine? Was Arthur Thurston Rodgers involved in more
than writing best selling novels? Book $5.00 Royalty - $30 - $20.
***
THE POWER OF THE DOG
by Herschel S. Steinhardt
Cast: 8 men and 3 women, (doubling possible). Three acts. Set: area staging.
A penniless peddler, Joe, who upon falling in love, wants desperately to
make a small fortune. In search of his fortune, he overlooks a very rare
old world painting that is given to him free. When he finally does find
out that the painting would make him wealthy, he frantically tries to get
it back from the tourist shoppe owner, "Miserable" Ezra. THE
POWER OF THE DOG is a comedy and a morality play wrapped in one. It
speaks of how we too often are blind to the true value of things we take
for granted. Book $3.50. Royalty $30 - $20.
***
PROPHET AND LOSS
by Frederick Kramer
Cast: 8 men and 6 women. Five acts. Tragedy. Set: area staging.
Telemachus is a depressed middle-aged man who is exhausted by his job that
leaves him no time to think, talk or read. All he can do when he comes home
evenings is find the energy to watch junk TV. He would like to break free
of his middle-class urban life, but he is dominated by dreams of his deceased
father whose myths control him. Finally, Telemachus gets up the courage
to quit his job and stay home while his wife works. The realizations that
he comes to are unbearable. Book $5.00. Royalty - $35 - $25.
***
QUOTAS!
by Scott Nichols
Cast: 6 men and 3 women; extras. Two acts. Black comedy. Set: area staging.
If you think a National Endowment for the Arts is a good, read QUOTAS!
In December, 1938, in the northwest provincial town of Staraya Russa of
the USSR, the District prosecutor Vasily Maximov has a problem: He has not
met his yearly quota for arresting and bringing to trial "enemies of
the people," or those "wreckers" of the new social order.
And so, the good prosecutor is eager to seize on a young woman abstract
painter, Dora Kaplan, for being an anti-revolutionary subversive who is
trying to pollute society by introducing foreign ideas, like well, abstract
painting! The whole thing would be a silly farce where it not based on factCommunism
did try to suppress and control all forms of art; only "social realism"
that glorified and romantized workers and towed the Party line was allowed.
The consequence of government attempt to control, finance or in any way
be involved with artistic expression is tragically dramatized in QUOTAS!
The play reaches the pitch of hilarity when a Soviet general, in all
seriousness, announces in open court that a particular Dora Kaplan abstract
painting is really a map of a secret military installation. The mumbo jumbo
of the Commissar for Cultural Enlightenment in the Union of Soviet Artists
is satire at its best. Book $4.00. Royalty $30-$20.
***
THE RETURN OF NICK GEORGE
by Alexander Panas
Cast: 8 men and 3 women. 15 scenes. Set: fragmentary.
Everyone thought that Nick George, the cinema actor of a thousand faces,
was dead! It was rumored that he had committed suicide after an incredible
scandal. But suddenly the actor is returning for another big movie. Everyone
is excited and everyone is frightened. But why? Old skeletons creak out
of the closet as the play begins to unfold. Everyone is very nervousThey
know from the first day of shooting on the new film that Nick George is
back for revenge. He will exact his retribution and turn the tables on everyone.
A spoof on the incredible hogwash of power politics in Hollywood,
where egos fly like pigeons and are shot down just a rapidly. It is a show
for an ingenious director, that gives the actors a chance to tear into the
scenery. Book $5.00. Royalty - $30 - $20.
***
RICHARD III and THE TWO PRINCES
by Francis Gallagher
Cast: 10 men and two women. Historical drama. Two acts. Set: Area staging.
Sir Sidney Thompson, the producer/director/chief actor of a contemporary
stage company is captivated by the idea of his scholarly stage manager,
George Mills, that King Richard III got a bad rap from Shakespeare and Thomas
More. Sir Sidney has his theatre company improvise various scenes, based
on Mills' re search, that try to recapture what might have been the true
story of Richard III. Central to the in quiry is: Who killed the two young
Princes, heirs to the throne? Was it Richard III as Shakespeare would have
us believe? Or was it Henry Tudor who would wrest the crown from Richard
III in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth? RICHARD III and THE TWO PRINCES
thrusts us into the fascinating twilight days of the Middle Ages, the world
of the Plantagenets and the Tudors. All the actors assume multiple roles.
Book - $5.00. Royalty $30-$20.
***
ROMEO AND JULIET ARE LOVERS
by Jules Tasca
Cast: 6 men and 5 women. Two acts. Set: area staging.
The tragic story of Romeo and JulietAh, to love so intensely and to die
so young! But what if Romeo and Juliet had lived? In ROMEO AND JULIET
ARE LOVERS we have a domesticated, middle-aged Romeo and Juliet with
a young son of their own. Romeo's old friend Benvolio, now "a fat balding
man with a tooth missing," pops in to tell Romeo on the sly that Rosalineremember
Romeo's first love?is in town, and guess what ROMEO AND JULIET ARE LOVERS
would play superbly in repertory with the original. Book $5.00. Royalty
- $35 - $20.
***
THE ROYAL MILE
by Francis Gallagher
Cast: 14 men and 3 women.
Historical dramas with real-life heroes and heroines are rare these days.
But that is what playwright Francis Gallagher has whipped upafter extensive
researchin THE ROYAL MILE, which dramatizes two years (1556-57) in
the tumultuous reign of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland. The play will send
your audience scurrying for a history book, where they will find that Mary
Stuart was a a Catholic ruler in a country turning Protestant. And,
it is strongly suspected that she had fore -knowledge of the murder of her
husband (second husband) and rewarded the murderer, the Earl of Bothwell,
by marrying him. Well! What playwright Gallagher has done is to turn Mary
into a candi date for sainthood, which is what a Protestant minister
is pushing for in the Prologue and a Catholic priest is convinced of in
the Epilogue of THE ROYAL MILE ! Betwixt Prologue and Epilogue, we
have an historical romance of Bothwell and Mary. THE ROYAL MILE is
the stuff from which they made Errol Flynn movies in the 1930's, or whenever
was the last time Americans believed in pas sion, romance and heroics. Book
$5.00. Royalty $30-$20.
***
S'AGAPO or OO LA LA, NANA
by Alexander Panas
Cast: 12 men and 5 women. Three acts. Set: area staging.
In years past, Nana, a singer, and Dimitri, a mandolinist, were lovers,
and they played their music at The Parthenon of Parthenons, a Greek restaurant
in downtown, NYC. The famous musical duo was the toast of the town and their
love, the nectar of the gods. But a lover's quarrel split both the couple
and the restaurant. As the play opens, the two separate restaurantsGeorge's
Parthenon and John's Parthenonhave fallen on difficult times, but each thinks
the other is doing well. Nana and Dimitri have long since gone their separate
ways. But they are called back, each by one of the restaurants, to assist
with an emergencythe daughter of one group has fallen in love with the son
of the other group. S'AGAPO is a romantic comedy filled with Chekovian
characters, teenage love, old love, and still older love, and laugh-wrenching
conflicts. It is an excellent show for character actors. Sweet love and
honeyed laughs. Book $5.00. Royalty - $30 - $20.
***
SEED OF DARKNESS
by Lawrence Riggins
Cast: 5 men (principles) and 3 women (principles). 3 minor men's roles and
9 minor women's roles. Murder Mystery. Two acts. Set: area staging. New
York City, fall of 1849. Someone is murdering young women and mutilating
the bodies and the chief suspect is the master crime writer, inventor of
the detective story, Edgar Allan Poe. Poe has had some disastrous relations
with women. The love of his early life deserted him. The spectre of Elmira
Royster and visions of his tragic marriage con stantly haunt him. The murders
seem to parallel Poe's own stories. Could the great writer be a psychotic
killer?! A suspenseful drama and a glimpse into the painful romantic life
of one of literature's greatest geniuses. Book $4.00. Royalty $30$20.
***
SINGING ACRES
by Richard Maibaum
Cast: 20 men and 10 women. Three acts. Drama. Set: farm. It is the 1930's,
the time of the Great Depression. The Gilkies are about to be evicted from
their ancestral home because they can't meet their mortgage payments. Suddenly,
a Stranger appears and rallies the Gilkies and a handful of other farmers
in the same situation, to stand and fightfight the sheriff, the judge, the
marshals, and the federal soldiers sent against them. Who is this galvanizing
stranger? A reincarnation of John Brown! This crazy idea, that a man hanged
some seventy years earlier reappears to lead others for freedom and justice,
is played out in a naturalistic setting with characters as convincing as
anything in GRAPES OF WRATH. The theme is timeless; the charac ters unforgettable.
SINGING ACRES is epic drama at its best for any generation in distress.
Book: $5.00. Royalty $30 - $20.
***
16 POINTS ON A HURRICANE'S COMPASS
by Louis Phillips
Cast: 12 men & 4 women. Two acts. Comedy/drama. Set: area staging.
16 POINTS ON A HURRICANE'S COMPASS is a continuation of THE BALL-ROOM
IN ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL, which opened the stage saga of a Greek-American
family settled in a small town in Massachusetts. In 16 POINTS it
is August,1955, and Massacusetts is threathened by Hurricane Connie. The
Janetakis clan, headed by George and Pendakis, is in the business of creating
"a special mood-provoking environment for bars, lunges, restaurants
and all other establishments willing to take the plunge." They are
presently involved in setting up a hurricane environment for a bar co-owned
by Angelo DeSica and Rita Foscolo. Elaine Janetakis has decided to leave
George, and shows her independence by going off to the summer cottage for
a fling with a sailor she has picked up in a bar. Book $5.00. Royalty $30.00$20.00.
***
SLIME MONSTERS DON'T USE ROPES
by Phil Darg
Cast: 2 men and 1 woman (major roles). Large cast of minor roles that can
be doubled up on. One act. Comedy. Set: Italian restaurant.
Kathy is treated to a series of bizarre experiences as her two companions,
Todd and Russ, sit oblivi ously by discussing a sci-fly movie they've seena
criminal attacks a cop eyeing Kathy, and then chases Kathy around with a
knife. She is saved by a pan-wielding cook, who in turn is shot to death
by a mysterious man in a black robe. Four other black robes join in and
start holding a devil wor shipping ceremony. Kathy is gagged and bound and
about to be sacrificed when five tough monks come on the scene. On and on
it goes. SLIME MONSTERS DON'T USE ROPES is a satirical farce on how
out of touch with reality movie fans can be. Book $2.50. Royalty - $15 -
$10.
***
SLY TIMES
by Matthew Maibaum
Cast: 14 men and 4 women. Three acts. Set: interior and exterior.
Ms. Tarnople, an elderly, kindly Jewish widow and apartment owner allows
a young, charming, unemployed college dropout con-artist to move into her
house in exchange for some work he prom ises to do about the place. Soon
her guest has invited two other friends to stay with him, and being the
kindly lady she is, Mrs. Tarnople allows them to stay. What she doesn't
know is that all three of her guests are hooked on drugs, and will do anything,
moral or immoral, legal or illegal, to secure their supply. A comedy with
characters that have an authentic ring. Book $5.00. Royalty - $30 - $20.
***
SOLDIER
by Francis Gallagher
Cast: 19 men plus extras. Two acts. Drama. Set: area staging.
In December, 1944, in the Ardennes Offensive (Battle of the Bulge) there
occurred an incident, ever after referred to as the Malmedy Massacre, in
which seventy unarmed American prisoners of war were slaughtered by Waffen
SS Nazi soldiers. After the war, the Allied War Crimes Commission prosecuted
the German commander of the unit responsible for the murders. SOLDIER
dramatizes the trial of Lt. Colonel Joachim Peiper, flashback battle scenes,
and the aftermath of the trialhow Peiper was help prisoner for ten years
but never executed, his post war civilian work with Mercedes -Benz in Italy,
his retreat to a small French village, and his final battle with French
Communists in 1976. SOLDIER is a suspenseful, well-researched, action
saga and character study of an heroic figure who may have been hounded through
his life for something he was not responsible for. The achievement of SOLDIER
is it makes three-dimensional and even sympathetic someone most Americans
would not identify with. Book: $5.00. Royalty $50-$20.
***
TALES OF MYSTERY & IMAGINATION:
THE EDGAR ALLAN POE SHOW
by L. Don Swartz
Cast: 6 men, 3 women, 4 boys and 5 girls. Two acts. Set: a basement.
"Mr. Swartz's script contains enough of Poe's works to give an insight
to the l9th Century author," Len Delmar, Tonawanda News, NY.
The frame story has a small group of contemporary children discovering one
of the Master of Mystery's secret writing places in an ancient basement.
Conduct ing a seance, the children are able to communicate with the ghost
of Poe. Integrated into the action are some of Poe's most memorable works
presented dramatically, with music and dance"The Mask of the Red Death,"
"The Tell-Tale Heart," The Cask of Amontillado," "The
Raven," and "Annabel Lee." Book $4.50 Royalty $30-$20.
***
TANKER STIFF
by Francis Gallagher
Cast: 14 men and 4 women. Three acts. Drama. Set: area staging.
From his personal experience on tankers, playwright Gallagher has written
a love story set in an unlikely placeaboard an ocean-going tanker. Jack
Miller is the Purser on the S.S. Golden Plover. Miller is determined never
to get involved romantically. At sea he's safe. But, at the moment, the
S. S. Golden Plover is docket at a German port shortly after World War II
and into his ship office runs Corinna, a beautiful German waif. Miller is
hooked and so is Corinna. The villain is the Authorities, who want to send
Corinna over to the Commies in East Germany. The extent to which the non
-romantic Miller, now in love, goes to save Corinna is the substance of
TANKER STIFF. Book: $5.00. Royalty $35-$20.
***
TELL MAMA GOOD-BYE
by Robert L. Tecklenburg
Cast: 10 men and 1 woman. Two acts. Drama. Set: area staging.
TELL MAMA GOOD-BYE is an historical drama set in a midwestern army
camp during World War I. A young white woman has been sexually assaulted.
Three black soldiers, all from the South, are accused of committing the
crime. A courtmartial is hastily convened to try the three men, each separately,
for rape. The nearby community is outraged over the crime. Public opinion
forces the mayor to demand harsh retribution from the camp commandant. Passion
and prejudice battle reason, ambition holds sway over impartially, compassion
must overcome revenge. Book. $3.50. Royalty $35 - $20.
***
* * *
THE TREE
by Richard Maibaum
Cast: 11 men and 3 women. Eight scenes. Drama. Set: a lonely spot in out-lying
fields.
A rural community north of the Mason-Dixson line in the 1930's. A white
girl, Ruth, is sitting waiting for her fiancee. a young Negro, David, who
is a friend of Ruth's, comes along and they chat. David sings her a song,
and then runs home to get his banjo to play for her. When he comes back,
Ruth has been murdered. Ignorant white men, who come on the scene, jump
to the conclusion David murdered Ruth, and they lynch him. The rest of the
play tracks the consequences of the lynching, particularly the psychological
consequences on the real murderers. Book $5.00. Royalty $30 - $20.
***
THE VIOLET CAFE
by Jesse Kulberg
Cast: 9 men and 5 women. One act. Drama. Set: a small shabby barroom.
Bill and Violet are part owners with Jack and Rita of a barroom across from
a veterans' hospital. Brin, a patient from the mental ward of the hospital,
has escaped and unbeknownst to the proprietors of the Cafe, Brin is hiding
in the attic of their establishment, where he observes everything that goes
on below. At night he has been sneaking down for food, which Bill is accusing
Jack of eating. One evening Violet discovers Brin. Brin is quite a charmer.
For a brief episode Violet's life is opened to possibilities that her nose-to-the-register
husband Bill could never envision. Violet decides not to reveal Brin's presence
to those searching for him. When Bill finds out her deception, it is incompre
hensible to him; an act of personal betrayal. Or is it? Book $3.00. Royalty
- $15 - $10.
***
WIGGLING IN THE RAIN
by Matthew Maibaum
Cast: a basic cast of five major roles and seven small parts, and four extras.
Comedy. Four scenes in short version and three in expanded version. Set:
area staging.
It is the story that had to be told. A sensitive, mature, caring, articulate
organ tells all about what it is like to be him: making babies happen and
doing a little liquid waste disposal business on the side. He trades never-ending
verbal brickbats with his two work companions, and grumbles about the environment
suite he has to wear, while at the same time letting us see and hear what
sperms talk, think and worry about on that long ride to parts unknown, surrounded
by white blood cells, bacterias, fat globules and other colorful characters.
To us, it may be romance or fun, but to our main characters in WIGGLING
IN THE RAIN it can be just a job. And none of us, or them, may really
know why we're here or where we're really going. No adult language; just
microscopic sophistication. A science fiction comedy that is a cross between
Sartre's "No Exit," "Fantastic
Voyage" and "The High and the Mighty." Anti-sexist, anti-racist
and anti-derisionist in its perspec tives. Book $3.00 short version; $4.00
expanded version. Either version: Royalty $30 - $20.
***
WILLIE THE SHAKE
by Tom White & Nick Andrews
Cast: 6 men and 7 women. Two acts. Set: a stage.
A college course brings a group of students and their professor into the
country to produce A MID SUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. WILLIE THE SHAKE is
a backstage story. "Love and romance are the pulse of WILLIE THE
SHAKE The end result is a tribute to our strength as a unified people..."
The Daily Texan. "Lessons on life, love, and the demands of
intense inter-personal relationships transform each of the characters."
Third Coast Magazine. "...an amiable comedy full of scatalogical
humor and the problematic interpersonal relationships of characters who
talk in encounter-groupese." Austin American-Statesman. "...wholesome
entertainment in the best sense of the word." Alex Plaza, The Austin
Press. Book $5.00. Royalty $35 - $20.
***
THE WINE CELLAR
by Francis Gallagher
Cast: 10 men and 2 women. Two acts. Set: wine cellar.
April 25, 1945, BerlinThe Nazi Third Reich is melting away quicker than
summer snow. In the cellar of a pre-war fashionable cafe, a cross-section
of Germans huddle together and debate how Hitler came to power and what
the future holdsThe Soviets are about to arrive. Blood is about to spill.
Some, like Billie, the owner of the Cafe and Hans Havel, former representative
in the Weimar Republic, refuse to attempt escape; Berlin is their home and
they predict the City will rise again out of the ashes. Some, like Faust,
will stay and fight the lost battle. When asked why he joined the SS Faust
replies, "For the same reason my ancestors joined the Roman legions."
With excellent charac ter delineation, THE WINE CELLAR is a superb
portrait of the character of a people that have written a good portion of
the history of the 20th Century; a timely, meticulously researched drama
that gives historical perspective to the unification of Germany and the
selection of Berlin as the nation's capital again and well may shed insight
on the future destiny of Germany. THE WINE CELLAR premiered at Actors'
Playhouse, Nashville, Tennessee in 1992. Book $4.00. Royalty $40 -$20.
***
THE WOODEN INDIAN
by Jesse Kulberg
Cast: 12 men and 5 women. Two acts. Comedy. Set: area staging.
Mike, a Harvard educated chief of an oil wealthy Indian tribe, falls in
love with Kathy Gordon, a New York sales clerk. He marries her and finds
out at the wedding that she married him for his money. An ordinary millionaire,
under the circumstances, might easily file for divorce. Not so for the chief
of an American Indian tribe. Matters are complicated by the Chief's family
and tribal council, who are not your conventional collection of Indians.
They put on the feathers only for the tourists, and are in reality more
interested in cattle raising, trips to Paris, etc. Mike's tribe and family
fall in love with Kathy, and think Mike is crazy to want to divorce her.
"What's wrong with marry ing for money?" Mike's mother asks. Further,
a property settlement requires the approval of none other than the Secretary
of the Interior. And that is where things really get complicated. A romantic
comedy that incorporates a satire on how the government handles or mishandles
Indian affairs. Book $5.00. Royalty $30 - $20.
***
WRITER'S BLOCK & OTHER GRAY MATTERS
by Elisabeth Grace and Richard Prescott
Cast: 37 roles. 15 men and 22 women. (Doubling possible: Minimum cast: 11
actors: 5 men and 5 women.) Collection of one acts, skits, blackouts. Comedy.
Set: area staging.
A whimsical and imaginative collection. The title piece, "Writer's
Block" is a blackout in which gnones drop a black cube on a writer's
work causing the writer to drop her pen and take off for the day. "Umbrella"
is a brief conversation between a couple waiting for a traffic light to
change. "In Blind Date" a male student is crestfallen when a blind
female student fails to notice him. In "Under ground" three women
are riding a subway. it is not the one you would expect who pulls a gun
and shoots the other two dead. In "Monsters in the Closet" a woman
is afraid to open her closet. In "Wisdom" a reporter tries to
interview a family on the death of their son. "Sweet Dreams" finds
a caretaker of cryogenically preserved "clients" awakening a woman
because she (the caretaker) is lonely and wants someone to talk to. The
one act HANGING BASKETS (infra) is also included. Book $4.00. Royalty
$30-$20.
***
THE YEAR OF THE RAT
by Francis Gallagher
Cast: 17 men and 5 women and extras. Three acts. Love story. Set: area staging.
1945, Chungking, China, a U.S. Naval Weather Station behind the Japanese
lines at the close of World War II. An unlikely setting for a love story.
Yet that is what THE YEAR OF THE RAT isan interacial love story.
John Cary, Chief Petty Officer at the Naval Station, has fallen in love
with Golden Bells, an actresses and daughter of a well-established Chinese
family, the House of Kan. Everything conspires to keep the lovers from marrying,
not the least of which is the Chinese suspi cion of foreigners. As for John
Cary, he is willing to quit the Navy and even renounce his citizenship if
they stand in his way of marrying Golden Bells. Book $5.00. Royalty $35-$20.
***
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