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John Freedman

JOHN FREEDMAN

  (1954 - )

Nationality:    USA
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    n/a

John has written or edited and translated nine books about Russian drama and theater, including Silence's Roar: The Life and Drama of Nikolai Erdman and Provoking Theater: Kama Ginkas Directs (co-authored with Ginkas), and his play Dancing, Not Dead won The Internationalists' Global Playwright Contest in 2011. He has been the theater critic of The Moscow Times since 1992; a columnist for Plays International since 1994; the editor of the Russian Theater Archive for Harwood Academic Publishers (1992-2002); and has frequently contributed to the New York Times and other periodicals.

Research:    Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)

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

        Almost Aivazov         Bald/Brunet         Black Monk, The         Circuit Breaker         Common Values         Dancing, Not Dead         Dulcey and Roxy in City Hall         Epilogue         Flying         Frozen In Time         I Am Me         I Am the Machine Gunner         I Won         Kitchen         Letter To Dima Bilan         Love Of Karlovna, The         Market From Above, The         Meeting About Laughter, A         Mozart's Last Mistake         Natasha's Dream         Nijinsky         Northern Wind         Polar Truth, The         Religion as Grounds for Pragmatism or The Pocket Mahatma         Repress And Excite         Rothschild's Fiddle         Russian National Postal Service, The         Schooling of Bento Bonchev, The         Simpleton, The         Someone Else         Suicide, The         Tanya-Tanya         Warrant, The         YoU



Almost Aivazov

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Maksym Kurochkin

1st Produced:
Rehearsed Reading At University Of Mi, Ann Arbor    12 Mar 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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Bald/Brunet

Bald/Brunet
an aging musician reluctantly is drawn into dialogue by a strange figure who may be his friend, his double, or his conscience, and a woman who may or may not want to comfort him. But the more he tries to answer the questions put to him, the less he understands the life he has lived.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Daniil Gink

1st Produced:
Stanislavsky Theater (In Russian)    1991

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Harwood academic, 1996   3718657813

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Black Monk, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Kama Ginkas. Based on a short story by Anton Chekhov

1st Produced:
Breaking String Theater, Austin, Texas    Aug 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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Circuit Breaker

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Maksym Kurochkin

1st Produced:
Bell Foundry, Baltimore    10 Feb 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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Common Values

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Maksym Kurochkin

1st Produced:
Rehearsed Reading At University Of Mi, Ann Arbor    12 Mar 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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dancing, Not Dead

Synopsis:
an elderly, but feisty and attractive mother returns home following the funeral of her husband with her beautiful but dependent daughter. as they engage in small-talk, the peculiar details of the women's relationship with their men begin to emerge in unexpected detail. Did the mother kill her husband? Does the daughter love her husband, or is he nothing but a hindrance to her freedom? the astonishing, and, perhaps, supernatural, appearance of the daughter's great-grandFather causes plenty of consternation, but also explains much about this unusual family of extraordinarily strong women.

Notes:
Translated into Russian by Alexei Burykin.

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:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dulcey and Roxy in City Hall

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Maksym Kurochkin

1st Produced:
Breaking String Theater, Austin, Texas    02 May 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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Epilogue

Synopsis:
Natasha sends a love letter to her favourite pop singer

Notes:
Original Playwright - Yaroslava Pulinovich. Part of ^The Natasha Plays" three monologue short plays

1st Produced:
Towson University    -

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Flying

Synopsis:
the hip, attractive, wealthy and successful employees of a popular youth-oriented television station slip and slide through an easy, glamorous lifestyle until, unexpectedly for them, the conflicting influences of money, drugs and burgeoning spirituality began to unravel their neat lives. the catalyst in the changes that begin overtaking them is the appearance in their midst of an innocent young woman from distant Siberia, and a suspicious, but lovelorn, policeman.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Olga Mukhina. This translation was developed in A workshop for the New Russian Drama: Voices in A Shifting Age project mounted by Towson University And Philip Arnoult's Center for International theatre Development. Directed by Yury Urnov.

1st Produced:
Towson University (Staged Reading)    Nov 2008

Organisations:
Towson University Department of Theatre Arts

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Frozen In Time

Synopsis:
Bringing capitalist enterprise to the town of Ragweed

Notes:
Original Playwright - Mikhail Durnenkov

1st Produced:
Towson University    Apr 2010

Organisations:
Towson University Department of Theatre Arts

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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I Am Me

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Alexandra Cichkanova

1st Produced:
Studio 6, New York    14 Sep 2013

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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I Am the Machine Gunner

Synopsis:
In this one-man monologue a young gang member in a tough, provincial Russian city mixes the story of his own violent life with the stories of heroism his beloved grandFather used to tell, eventually arriving at some hard conclusions about heroism, honor and violence.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Yury Klavdiev. Directed by David M. White

1st Produced:
Marder Theatre, Towson University    40151

Organisations:
Generous 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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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I Won

Synopsis:
Natasha Vernikova an overachiever who will stop at nothing to get her way

Notes:
Original Playwright - Yaroslava Pulinovich. Part of ^The Natasha Plays" three monologue short plays

1st Produced:
Towson University    -

Organisations:
Towson University Department of Theatre Arts

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Kitchen

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Maksym Kurochkin

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Letter To Dima Bilan

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Yaroslava Pulinovich

1st Produced:
Charlestown Working Theater, Boston    08 Jun 2011

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Love Of Karlovna, The

Synopsis:
a young woman living in a communal apartment is in despair because the love of her life has abandoned her and left the country. She is surrounded, however, by great and eccentric friends who do everything in their power to buoy her spirits. they party, engage in long late-night conversations, and generally go about living the life any young person should - loud, lively and independent. the spirit of love lost, however, is a mighty and, sometimes, terrible transforming force that cannot be denied.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Olga Mukhina

1st Produced:
Contemporary Play School (In Russian)    1998

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
theatreForum 1999   -

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Market From Above, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Maksym Kurochkin

1st Produced:
Rehearsed Reading At University Of Mi, Ann Arbor    12 Mar 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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Meeting About Laughter, A

Synopsis:
In the Soviet Union in the 1930s a meeting has been called among workers to discuss what to do about the problems of comedy: "Laughter in our day is no laughing matter!" the authorities are insistent that good comedy is necessary in the new workers' paradise, but they want to make sure that the right things and the right people are being skewered by comic writers. Homer, Shakespeare and Jewish jokes are all discussed in a free-for-all that arrives, sort of, at the conclusion that jokes about Jesus Christ and and personal telegrams are acceptable on the condition that they do not "deliver blows to the head" or "arouse instincts -"

Notes:
Original Playwright - Nikolai Erdman And Vladimir Mass. March - April, 2002 in seven Australian towns. Directed by Cecelia Specht And Jasper Bagg

1st Produced:
Chambers Theatre Company, Australia    2002

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "a Meeting about Laughter: Sketches, Interludes and theatrical Parodies by Nikolai erdman with Vladimir Mass and Others", 1995   -

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Mozart's Last Mistake

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Dmitry Minchyonok

1st Produced:
St Olaf College    04 May 2011

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
http://citd.us/phillips-bookshelf   -

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Natasha's Dream

Synopsis:
Natasha Banina aged 16 falls in love

Notes:
Original Playwright - Yaroslava Pulinovich. Part of ^The Natasha Plays" three monologue short plays

1st Produced:
Towson University    -

Organisations:
Towson University Department of Theatre Arts

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Nijinsky

Nijinsky
Nijinsky, the great Russian ballet dancer, always ready to fly off into the land of unfettered inspiration and creativity, is confronted by an amorphous character called the actor, who constantly seeks to pull the great dancer back into the world of reality. their battle, which leads to the verge of a duel, just might be a Dramatization of the dueling, schizophrenic personalities that the real Nijinsky revealed in his famous memoirs.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Alexei Burykin

1st Produced:
814 Theatrical Association (In Russian)    1993

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "Two Plays From The New Russia" published by Harwood Academic 1996   978-3718657803

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Northern Wind

Synopsis:
In cut off from the world forbidding mountains valley north wind blows constantly, almost year-round bringing snow and cold. the cold and the limited resources of the few inhabitants of the valley gathered in a close community, where the survival of all depends on the survival of everyone. In the valley gets a Scientist, a modern magician. Struck difficult living conditions in the valley, Scientist decided to help the courageous, hardworking and kind people. Blowing rock, scientist has filled the gorge through which the north wind burst into the valley. Valley thawed from the eternal snows. Life became easy and hearty. Mutual aid and assistance to the neighbor became unnecessary, and people changed - everyone was for himself. Accusing Scientist the causes of own fall, residents of the valley have decided to kill him. Scientist, running out of the valley, finds out that the earthquake threatens to destroy the dam, covering the valley from the north wind. Scientist decides to stay to warn residents of the danger and help them fix it. they can do it only together.

Notes:
Original Playwright - IgorYakimov

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:
translation of drama, fairy tail in three acts

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Polar Truth, The

Synopsis:
Several young people who have contracted HIV come together in an abandoned building in the northern Russian city of Norilsk. Despairing and lonely, they slowly begin banding into a "new society," rejecting the prejudice, stupidity and violence of "regular" society. they must, however, defend their newfound "freedom" from those who would take it away from them.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Yury Klavdiev. First presented As part of the New Russian Drama: Voices in A Shifting Age project mounted by Towson University And Philip Arnoult's Center for International theatre Development. Directed by Joseph Ritsch.

1st Produced:
Towson University    12 Nov 2009

Organisations:
Towson University Department of Theatre

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  Up to 8 male            Female:  Up to 3 female            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Religion as Grounds for Pragmatism or The Pocket Mahatma

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Maksym Kurochkin

1st Produced:
Rehearsed Reading At University Of Mi, Ann Arbor    12 Mar 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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Repress And Excite

Synopsis:
a successful and popular actor travels briefly to his hometown in a small city and is confronted by his past, his sins, his indiscretions, his doubts about his own success. When an old friend asks him to apeak at a benefit dinner for an old colleague and rival, he cannot bring himself to do it, thus setting in motion a chain of connected and unconnected events that strike him, his wife and his friends to the core.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Maksym Kurochkin

1st Produced:
Et Cetera Theater (In Russian)    39060

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
theatreForum (in English), 2008   -

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:
Ironic, satirical meloDrama Translation

Parts:
Male:  10            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Rothschild's Fiddle

Synopsis:
Yakov Ivanov, nicknamed Bronza, is a coffin maker, but people are not dying fast enough for him to turn a profit. To make extra income, he plays the fiddle in a local Jewish band. Like many ordinary provincial people, he dislikes Jews, especially the wimpy redhead Rothschild. Once, being in a really foul mood, he even threatens to beat him up, sending Rothschild into tears of fear. everything in Yakov's life turns up a loss. He counts the money he loses by not working on Sundays and holidays; he moans about daily expenses and forces his wife of fifty-two years to drink hot water instead of tea. When she falls ill and dies, Yakov begins to question his relationship with his place in the universe. He has an epiphany: the only way to save money is to die. Lying in a grave one doesn't have to be fed or clothed; over years of peaceful rest, it's a windfall of millions. even though he had abused his wife and neglected his marriage, Yakov can't go on alone. Only two days after she passes way, he takes to his own deathbed. He regrets making wrong choices, being mean to his wife, forgetting that they once had a baby and that the child died. He regrets being mean to the Jew and frightening him. Overwhelmed with grief and feeling of eternal loss, he picks up the fiddle and produces the most beautiful, visceral melody, which Rothschild overhears and, despite his fear of Yakov, comes closer to enjoy. they both weep. Finally, when a priest asks Yakov to confess his sins, he whispers: "Give Rothschild the fiddle.".

Notes:
Original Playwright - Kama Ginkas After Anton Chekhov. This play was performed in New Haven in Russian, Accompanied by English supertitles drawn from Freedman's complete translation

1st Produced:
Yale Repertory Theatre And Moscow New Generation Theater    2004

Organisations:
co-production of the Yale Repertory Theatre and the New Generation Theater of Moscow

1st Published:
in theatreForum, 2004   -

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Russian National Postal Service, The

Synopsis:
In 1991, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ceased to exist. For its 293 million inhabitants, life would change irrevocably. Some stood poised to benefit from this change-personally, ideologically, financially. Others, especially the elderly, struggled to come to grips with its meaning. the Russian National Postal Service presents the story of one man in the midst of these historical events: Ivan Sidorovich Zhukov. as he gets older, Ivan Sidorovich's world grows smaller and smaller. He has lost his wife and his friends. Post-Soviet inflation has devalued his pension. even his television set has broken down. the routines and the certainties that once sustained him have now completely collapsed.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Oleg Bogaev

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Schooling of Bento Bonchev, The

Synopsis:
The future and love and sex are now thought to be a myth dreamed up by poets of old. Bento's tutor believes that they were real and Bento believes this and is the star pupil. That is until he has a great change of mind. He subverts the professor's seminars. He refuses to acknowledge proof brought back from an archaeological dig of a porn dvd of people actually doing it

Notes:
Original Playwright - Maksym Kurochkin

1st Produced:
Towson University    -

Organisations:
Towson University Department of Theatre Arts

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Simpleton, The

Simpleton, The
In this play of mystification, an arsonist prowls through a theater grumbling about the presence of spectators. Will they stop him burning down the corrupt, inhuman theater he works in? Thus begins a violent power-play that not only draws the entire company into conflict, it also separates the rebels from the sycophants in a way that nobody could have expected. In the age-old tradition of Russian theater, this piece tackles the timeless problems of personal freedom and inner independence running up against the brick wall of civic responsibility.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Sergei Kokovkin

1st Produced:
Laboratory Theater (In Russian)    Nov 1994

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Routledge (23 Feb 2000)   978-9057550812

Music:
-

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Genre:
Tragifarce Translation

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Someone Else

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Pyotr Gladilin

1st Produced:
Stage Island International Theater Forum, Estonia    12 Aug 2013

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

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Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Suicide, The

Suicide, The
Semyon Podsekalnikov lies in bed with his wife Masha wondering if there is any liverwurst left over from dinner. He is hungry. But the nocturnal tete a tete between the husband and wife turns into an argument and Semyon storms out angrily. His has been jobless for as long as he can remember and he is on edge. Masha thinks he might be suicidal and goes to their neighbor Kalabushkin for help in averting disaster. Instead, disaster is what she brings down on her husband and herself. Kalabushkin decides to make some money speculating on Semyon's despair. For a fee, he tells disgruntled people that Semyon may commit suicide and that he might be convinced to leave a note publicizing their causes. Thus begins a crazy parade of supplicants - among them the intellectual Grand-Skubik, the butcher Pugachyov, the writer Viktor Viktorovich and the ladies of ill-repute Cleopatra Maximovna and Raisa Filippovna- who dearly want to use Semyon's death for their own purposes. Semyon, meanwhile, thinks he might make a nice living if he could play the tuba. But according to the tuba instruction book he buys, he first needs to buy a piano in order to learn how to play the scales. If he could afford a piano, he wouldn't need to play the tuba. It's a vicious circle he cannot escape. the heart of "the Suicide" is the way a simple man suddenly finds himself on the brink of extinction when a few unthinking words run up against a duplicitous action or two. By extension, it exposes the foul nature of those who would distort words and exploit others to achieve their selfish and dastardly ends.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Nikolai Erdman. Meany Studio theater At Washington State University, February, 2003. Directed by Mark Vail

1st Produced:
Oregon State University    2000

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "The Major Plays of Nikolai Erdman" published by Harwood 1995   978-3718655823

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

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Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  11            Female:  10            Other:  a choir, 9 male extras, 2 female extras

Further Reference:
-

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Tanya-Tanya

Tanya-Tanya
Vasily Okhlobystin is a hospitable man approaching that age when he suddenly realizes there is no turning back to youth. He loves Tanya, who, although angry at her husband for his not-so-innocent flirtations with a Girl also named Tanya, cannot and will not return Okhlobystin's affections. Tanya does move into Okhlobystin's house along with his other house guest, the delightfully obtuse and ferociously independent Zina, long enough to get a perspective on her husband's behavior. Zina loves Okhlobystin, who sees in her little more than an outlet for his flirtatious energy. Ivanov's jealousy of his wife leads him to ignore the Girl, who suffers her rejection so deeply she is barely able to tolerate the devotion which the Boy heaps on her. He drowns his sorrows by courting the significantly older Zina, who, out of pity and understanding, encourages him more than Okhlobystin would have her do. In the middle of this highly ironic swarm of fluctuating affections, the comic figure of the Worker-named Uncle Vanya-appears to repair the damage done to Okhlobystin's house by the jealous Ivanov. the play rings with laughter, hope and music, and it rings with the transparent but insistent warning that behind the intense joys of life something potentially dark and hollow lurks.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Olga Mukhina

1st Produced:
California Institute Of The Arts School Of Theater    2005

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Two Plays by Olga Mukhina", Routledge (26 Jan 1999)   978-0203989494

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

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Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Warrant, The

Warrant, The
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "The Major Plays of Nikolai Erdman" published by Harwood 1995   978-3718655823

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

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Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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YoU

YoU
the Moscow of this play is caught in the grips of an unidentified war that no one wants to acknowledge. It doesn't matter that "heroes" are coming home from the front, and that airplanes are strafing the city - no one pays any attention. Old and young are busy falling in love, climbing the heights of bliss or falling clumsily into the despair of losing love. Who has time to think of war when life is so rich and deceitful? and who are those two strange old women who repeatedly interrupt the goings-on, spouting a mix of nonsense and wisdom? What are they trying to say?

Notes:
Original Playwright - Olga Mukhina

1st Produced:
Lark Theater (Workshop)    2001

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Two Plays by Olga Mukhina", Routledge (26 Jan 1999)   978-0203989494

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:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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