doollee banner
The Playwrights Database
contact doollee


Thomas Bradshaw

THOMAS BRADSHAW

  (1980 - )
Nationality:    USA
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Antje Oegel International  

according to the New York Times, playwright Thomas Bradshaw's work is "likely to leave you speechless." a professor of playwriting at MEdgar evers College, Bradshaw has been named one of the top 10 playwrights to watch by Time Out New York and Best Provocative Playwright in 2007 by the Village Voice. His plays include the Bereaved, Dawn, Southern Promises, Purity, Strom Thurmond Is Not a Racist and Cleansed. He is currently working on commissions from Soho Rep (where he was a 2008-2009 Streslin Fellow) and the Goodman Theater.

Buy Plays with Doollee

Each page of doollee.com has links to play/book outlets, either directly to the Publisher, through Stageplays.com and Amazon to the second hand and 1st editions of AbeBooks. These links will automatically take you to the relevant area obviating the need for further search.
AbeBooks.co.uk   AbeBooks.com   Stageplays.com   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.ca
whether you are a Playwright who wishes to make their entry definitive, an unlisted Playwright or a User with a tale to tell - we want to hear from you.
download WORD submission template

below is a list of Thomas Bradshaw's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Ashes, The         Bereaved, The         Boy's Dream, A         Burning         Carlyle         Cleansed         Dawn         Fulfillment         Intimacy         Job         Mary         New York Living         Prophet         Purity         Southern Promises         Strom Thurmond Is Not A Racist         Ten

Ashes, The

Synopsis:
It's hard to be a white supremacist these days. as a result of constant taunting, these aryan Brothers decide to go undercover.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Reading At NYtw    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Bereaved, The

Synopsis:
In the Bereaved, Carol is a lawyer who believes that she has a fatal heart condition. With unpaid college loans and no life insurance, she fears for the welfare of her 15 year-old son and her underemployed husband. In a world of drug dealing, teen pregnancy, racism and mindless violence, how can a dying woman insure the future well being of her fragile family?
- press release

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Wild Project, NY    40065

Organisations:
Partial Comfort Productions

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Boy's Dream, A

Synopsis:
When a 14 year old boy's mother dies of a drug overdose, he moves to New York to pursue his dream of becoming an actor. His impromtu guardians help him to bury his mother and discover his sexuality.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Gay full length

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Burning

Synopsis:
In emotionally charged intersecting stories spanning two eras, a contemporary black painter, who depicts shocking racial violence in his art but hides his race from the press, goes to Berlin for a gallery show only to find that his work has been misinterpreted. and in the mid-'80s an ambitious teenage boy, recently orphaned, comes to New York to become an actor and is taken in by a gay couple in the industry as they are preparing the debut of a new Broadway play. In searing and graphic tales of self-invention and sexual identity, Burning attacks the pretenses of the worlds of art and theatre.
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Acorn Theatre, 410 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036    14 Nov 2011

Organisations:
the New Group

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay, full length

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Carlyle

Synopsis:
How a Black American became a Republican

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Workshop at Goodman's New Stages, Chicago    2014

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Cleansed

Cleansed
a new play about a black doctor, his white wife, and the challenges their mixed-race daughter faces growing up in a white-bread Indiana town. From being taunted by Skinheads to becoming a Skinhead, Cleansed explores the underbelly of racial identification in America. Sometimes the hate you have for yourself overwhelms anything anybody else could feel for you

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Walkerspace    2005

Organisations:
Immediate Theatre Company

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama One act

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Dawn

Dawn
Dawn revolves around Hampton, an abusive alcoholic who has completely alienated his wife and children. Can he stop drinking and make up for the past, even amidst some very dark revelations of incest and pedophilia? Dawn is one father's story of redemption and reconciliation-with a twist
- press release

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  4            Other:  plus 1 male or female character and 1 male voice over

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Fulfillment

Synopsis:
Michael has a new girlfriend. He has just bought the apartment of his dreams. What could possibly go wrong?

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Flea Theatre, New York    11 Sept 2015

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Intimacy

Synopsis:
Matthew has been surfing the porn sites on the net since he was eleven. Now a senior at High School he decides to make a porn film just like the ones that he thinks of as the golden age from the 1970s. He recruits friends and family members to take part.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Acorn Theatre, New York    22 Jan 2014

Organisations:
The New Group

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Job

Synopsis:
In Job, Thomas Bradshaw takes on a sacred biblical text to explore issues of faith. How low will God go? Bradshaw calls his play an honest, un-cynical adaptation of the book of Job.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Flea
41 White Street, New York, NY 10013    31 Aug 2012

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Mary

Synopsis:
at the height of what Time magazine dubbed aIDS hysteria in 1983, college student David invites his boyfriend home to his parents' house in Virginia where nothing has changed since the 1800sincluding the slave quarters

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

New York Living

Synopsis:
a biting satire of young thespians dealing with lost jobs, expensive apartments and sexual frustration - all while trying to win a Tony award.

Notes:
the Flea theater has commissioned six playwrights to create ten-minute plays that explore the impact of the current economic crisis on the younger generation. Presented under the title the GReaT ReCeSSION, the evening features new work by Thomas Bradshaw, Sheila Callaghan, erin Courtney, Will eno, Itamar Moses And Adam Rapp - All writers recently nurtured by the Flea. the plays will be performed by the Bats, the resident Acting company of the Flea

1st Produced:
Flea Theater, NY, USA >>>    20 Nov 2009

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Ten Min

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Prophet

Synopsis:
a man wakes up one morning and decides he must kill himself. He is angry with himself for not hitting his wife every time she has an independent thought (as abraham and Moses would have done'. after she dies and God reveals to him that he is the new Prophet, the man takes a new wife, dresses her in slave chains, and begins to preach his newfound gospel of male domination. Simultaneously humorous and disturbing, Bradshaw's Prophet explores controversial issues in startling and unexpected ways.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Performance Space 122

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Satire

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Purity

Synopsis:
In Purity, a refined and prominent African-American english professor's life is turned upside down when a new, 'more black' professor is hired in his department and challenges his authenticity, his marriage to a white woman, and his entire way of life. This way of life consists of literature, booze, cocaine binges, and pedophilia. From realism to fantasy, Purity takes us on a journey from the Ivy League to the ante-bellum South to the fields of ecuador and back again, ending on a note of shocking violence

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
75 min Dark Satire

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  some doubling possible

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Southern Promises

Southern Promises
When the master of the plantation dies, he wills his slaves to be freed, but his wife doesn't think that good property should be squandered. Pandemonium ensues. the play pulls from the true stories of slave narratives from the Great escapes including that of Henry Box Brown, a 19th century Virginia slave who escaped to freedom by arranging to have himself mailed to Philadelphia abolitionists in a dry goods container. Southern Promises provides a unique portrait of the Old South
- press release

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  2            Other:  with doubling

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Strom Thurmond Is Not A Racist

Synopsis:
Inspired by a true story, Strom Thurmond is Not a Racist is an absurdist look at the life of Senator Strom Thurmond. after fathering a child with his black maid as a young man, the extremely white Strom Thurmond became one of the country's greatest segregationists; all the while playing daddy to his bi-racial daughter essie Mae Washington Williams. How could someone live such a duplicitous life? It happens. Winner of the American theater Coop's National Playwriting Contest in 2005

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Walkerspace    2005

Organisations:
Immediate Theatre Company

1st Published:

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Satire One act

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  2            Other:  doubling, flexible casting possible

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Ten

Synopsis:
To celebrate their 10th anniversary, Partial Comfort Productions will present TeN, is a single evening of 10 short plays by 10 writers helmed by 10 directors and featuring a cast of 10 actors.
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
written by Samuel D. Hunter, Thomas Bradshaw, Robert O'Hara, Laura Marks, Chad Beckim, Ross Maxwell, edith Freni, Jonathan Caren, Greg Keller, Sam Marks

1st Produced:
Wild Project
195 East 3rd Street, New York, NY 10009    18 Sep 2012

Organisations:
Partial Comfort Productions

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
short play

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page