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Rita Anderson

RITA ANDERSON

  
Nationality:    USA
email:    n/a     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    n/a

Rita Anderson holds an MFA Creative Writing and an MA Playwriting. Early Liberty was performed at Texas State University in 2012, and Rita has had several plays produced at national conferences and festivals. A winner at the Kennedy Center (KCACTF), she went on scholarship to the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's Writing Intensive (CF 2012). Her full-length, Frantic is the Carousel, was the National Partners American Theatre (NAPAT) nominee for 2013, and she is this year's recipient of the Ken Ludwig Playwriting Award and Scholarship for best body of work. Her play "Crying Room" will be produced at the Yolo Solo Fest in February 2014, and her full-length, Saint Somebody, made Harvard-dramaturg Heather Helinsky's published list, "Plays I've Been Privileged to Read that I Hope Find an Artistic Team in '14."

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

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

         (Mama) King Chronicles         27 Club, The         Annidversities         Art of Martyrdom, The         Body Politic, The         Crying Room         Death On The Half-Shell (Parts I & II)         Early Liberty         E-races         Frantic is the Carousel         Gliders (The Thirteenth Year)         Return To Sender: The Minnie Cox Story         Saint Somebody         Simone at Home         Sister Sarah Speaks and Sings         Things You Find In A Bird's Nest         Woman Hollering Creek
(Mama) King Chronicles

Synopsis:
The story of Alberta King - the mother of Martin Luther King Jr

Notes:
Part of "365 Women A Year Festival 2016"

1st Produced:
Rover Dramawerks Theatre, Plano, Texas     2016

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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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:
Historical drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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27 Club, The

Synopsis:
Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Amy Winehouse meet up in the afterlife in limbo. When Winehouse suggests that they create a 60s girl group called The Soul Sisters of Suicide, the women drink, they fight over who's the most famous, and they play Truth or Dareuntil someone figures out why they are there and they band together to get out.

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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:
one act 30 min

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Annidversities

Synopsis:
Lara, Harry, and Siobhan are a modern family struggling to stay together after Lara all but disappears from grief. Harry feels abused, partly because Siobhan idolizes her birth father, a deadbeat dad who bills himself a genius. For Lara, dreams die hard and injustice torments, especially when old wrongs aren't redressed. Is love unconditional, and can victims forgive a perpetrator who doesn't deem himself guilty? Annidversities travels backwards, isolating nine events to reveal who it is that Lara meant to be, Once upon a time.

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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:
-

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Art of Martyrdom, The

Synopsis:
A behind-the-scenes look at Hrosvitha, the first female playwright, and an exploration of how her secret plays got out and about the 10th century nun's secret playfulness.

Notes:
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1st Published:
http://www.indietheaternow.com/Play/the-art-of-martyrdom   

Music:
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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:
one act 30 min

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  7            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Body Politic, The

Synopsis:
Rita Anderson's brand new short play, The Body Politic, is in the queue for Flashfest 2014 to be held at the Manhattan Theatre Club on 43rd Street. What an exciting line-up of one-minute plays!

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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:
one minute play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Crying Room

Synopsis:
Brangelina, Elvis and baby bumps

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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 comedy

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Death On The Half-Shell (Parts I & II)

Synopsis:
Part I: Part film noir, part sci-fi, Threes is a spin on the urban legend: All actors die in threes, as three old actorsformer classmates whose careers took very different turnsmeet up at the Advance Obituary Office after their fifteen-minutes of fame has faded and the gig is up. Part II: Final Conversations explores a Mother's wish to have one real conversation with her Son before he's accidentally killed. --One morning before school she suddenly knows that he has an hour to live. With a kitchen-sink approach she attempts to get it right, using often absurd methods to reach him, none of which alters destiny.

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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:
-

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Early Liberty

Synopsis:
Life is about paying attention to the right things, but what happens when the people and places you consider safe aren't? What is "safe" and who spells "Home"?When Mark Haywood follows the beacon into Lighthouse Cove nothing is what it seems. But if Mark's world is falling apart-despite increasingly-frantic efforts to keep it together, then the hotel proprietor and his family need a special kind of rescue from each other. Just what will it take for Selma to grow up and for Mark to wake up? Can these dueling opposites save the hotel and find a way to be together? Set in 1985 on the Atlantic shore, Early Liberty explores the limits and boundlessness of love and hope, and the darker side of what it means to dream. Early Liberty is a play about false fronts and true love, about crossed wires and yardsticks we never measure up to. This dramatic love story is especially relevant now, especially as regards women's status, and the parallels between the idealized Reagan Era and the "world as it is today" to reveal that "the more things change, the more they stay the same."

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Texas State University     2013

Organisations:
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1st Published:

Music:
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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:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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E-races

Synopsis:
Roberta Goode's world comes unglued after 9-11 and her troubled self splits in two. With the wind gone from her marriage, Roberta battles the harpies next door and her own doubts as she searches for meaning, drifting to an old love and then into a dangerous flirtation with a soldier she meets at a bar who is deploying to Afghanistan. In this update of an ancient Greek voyage through the underworld of fear to identity, Roberta Too, her stronger self, narrates the heroine's dark journey back to herself, her home, and to her husband and son.

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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:  4            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Frantic is the Carousel

Synopsis:
When a rock is dropped from a bridge near a university, the worlds of three couples who are all somehow affiliated with the college are forced into collision and, as the tragic details unfold, an alarming degree of overlap is revealed. --Differences (in gender, age, sexual orientation and social status) affect who we are, but are any of us as unique as we hope or as alone as we fear? Or are our lives more intertwined than seems possible, and just how random is circumstance? Set in the present, action spans one day.

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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:
-

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Gliders (The Thirteenth Year)

Synopsis:
Gliders is about finding your way through life's warzones. The play follows three generations of women who are trapped by time and place (society of 1969) but also by family tradition and the roles each is forced to play--to include maintaining an unholy covenant of silence about abuse. Set during the nine days of the Apollo moon landing mission, the play uses the historical event as a backdrop for exploration (of all kinds), and for what it feels like to be lost in space as the women glide in/out of reality and/or the present.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Staged Reading In Cincinnati, Oh, At Women Writing For A Change     16 Aug 2014

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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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:  1            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Return To Sender: The Minnie Cox Story

Synopsis:
The story of the first black American postmistress until she was chased out of Mississippi

Notes:
Part of "365 Women A Year Festival 2017"

1st Produced:
Rover Dramawerks Theatre, Plano, Texas     2017

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Saint Somebody

Synopsis:
When an African-American deserter wanders into the camp of the Irish Brigade outside of Gettysburg, conflicts intensify, but the soldier has brought an old statue that his family calls Saint Somebody, since they don't know her name. Based on real events, the play suggests one solution as to how the Brigade of 600 held back Confederate troops at The Wheatfield when they were outnumbered by unbelievable thousands. What the Irish Brigade neededand foundwas a miracle. Set in1863, action spans three days (July 2-5th).

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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:
-

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Simone at Home

Synopsis:
An exploration of the complex private life of Simone De Beauvoir, and the contradictions between her philosophies and politics as played out in her relationships with Jean-Paul Sartreand with American-novelist, Nelson Algren.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
http://www.indietheaternow.com/Play/simone-at-home   

Music:
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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:
one act 30 min

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Sister Sarah Speaks and Sings

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
The Other Otter www.theotherotter.com   

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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Things You Find In A Bird's Nest

Synopsis:
After serving 30 years in prison for the murder of his girlfriend, Charles Wicklow receives a strange visitor who is hellbent in finding out the truth about what really happened in his cold, cold case, but who can tell if she is a reporter, a detective, a mob informant, or a guide from the futurebecause her story keeps changing. Part mystery, part psychological haunting, the play is a journey into the shadows of the heart and mind, as much as it is a path into the past.

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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:
Thriller

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Woman Hollering Creek

Woman Hollering Creek
The Dressy BBQ Fish Tacos restaurant is hoping to get into the "Guinness Book Of Records" for having the biggest ball of dental floss

Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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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:  2            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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