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Robert Ardrey

ROBERT ARDREY

  (1908 - 1980)
Nationality:    USA
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a

Robert ardrey (b. October 16, 1908, Chicago, Illinoisd. January 14, 1980, South Africa) was an American playwright and screenwriter who returned to his academic training in anthropology and the behavioral sciences in the 1950s. educated at the University of Chicago, 1927-30, Ph.B. 1930 (Phi Beta Kappa). Married Helene Johnson in 1938 (divorced, 1960); Berdine Grunewald, 1960; has three children. Theatre and film writer until 1958. Lecturer and consultant on the evolutionary origins of human behaviour, 1958-80. Recipient: Sergel Drama prize, 1935; Guggenheim fellowship, 1937; Sidney Howard Memorial prize, 1940; Theresa Helburn memorial award, 1961; Willkie Brothers grant, for anthropology, 1963. Fellow, Royal Society of Literature. (manuscript collection: Boston University)

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

         Casey Jones         God And Texas         How To Get Tough About It         Jeb         Shadow Of Heroes         Sing Me No Lullaby         Spar Spangled         Stone And Star         Thunder Rock
Casey Jones

Synopsis:
Casey Jones idolised his locomotive and neglected his family. He always felt his best on board it - like a king. Casey is slowly loosing his sight and when this becomes apparent to the Railroad Company he is dismissed. He refuses to take a pension from them. Alone is a run down lodging house now blind he stumbles around cursing the Railroad Company

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Fulton Theatre, NY     1938

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:  9            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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God And Texas

Synopsis:
The battle of the Alamo

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-     1938

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, nd   

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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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How To Get Tough About It

Synopsis:
Kitty a waitress in a cheap café has been in love with a union racketeer but he abandons her. She moves into the houseboat of a boat builder and they get along fine. Having engineered a strike the racketeer comes back and claims Kitty

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Martin Beck Theatre, NY     1938

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:  10            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Jeb

Jeb
The making of a militant. Afro-American Jeb is dismissed from the services after World War Two with an aluminium leg having lost his whilst fighting. He has learnt one skill in the army - how to operate an adding machine. But in the Southern town where he lives operating adding machines is a white man's job

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Martin Beck Theatre, NY     1946

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Plays of Three Decades, Atheneum, NY, 1968   

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:  9            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Shadow Of Heroes

Shadow Of Heroes
Story of the Hungarian uprising and of the events leading to it.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
London ( As Stone And Star)     1958

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Collins, 1958   

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:
Historical

Parts:
Male:  11            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
Wearing - the London Stage 58.266

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Sing Me No Lullaby

Synopsis:
as atkinson tells it, "some Illinois college friends of 1938 who have a country reunion at Christmas of the present time. as students, most of them had what were known as progressive political ideas in 1938. One of them, a brilliant mathematician, placed his faith in Soviet Russia then. the Stalin-Hitler pact shook all that faith out of him in 1939. By the present time he is one of the dispossessed. Because of his college political associations, no one will employ him, no one will rent him an apartment, no one will associate with him, no one will clear him, no one will adjudicate his case. Mr. ardrey doesn't solve the problem. But the contribution he has made in the last act is a clear and perceptive statement of this nameless, formless situation and an estimation of what it is doing to America. . .Mr. ardrey. . .is a man of principle and taste. In SING Me NO LULLaBY he has performed the function of a writer. He has found the words to describe something that is vague and elusive but ominous. and he has got far en

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Phoenix Theatre, NY     1954

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

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:
-

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Spar Spangled

Synopsis:
Polish immigrant Mary Dzieszienewski has five American born children. One is in the State Prison on a trumped up charge. He escapes and hopes to murder the politician who framed him and get back inside before he is missed

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
John Golden Theatre, NY     1936

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, NY, 1936   

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:  7            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Stone And Star

Synopsis:
The story of the Hungarian Uprising and the events that led to it

Notes:
The UK title of "Shadow Of Heroes"

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "Best Plays 1961 - 1962" published by Dodd Mead   

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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Thunder Rock

Synopsis:
the action passes in a lighthouse on Lake Michigan. Charleston, the keeper, has taken a job there to flee from a detestable world. Opposing Charleston's pessimism, Streeter, his friend, says he is giving up his job to become an active member of society again. Streeter believes our world can be brought out of its chaos if people do something about it. Filled with this determination, he leaves to become an aviator. Charleston retreats further into a fantastic world of his own building. the people of this world are half a dozen of the 60 who were shipwrecked 90 years ago. Believing that "Mankind's got one future-in the past," Charleston breathes life into these creatures of his imagination. they live again on the stage. as he talks to them we see passengers as they really were, each seeking sanctuary from a disturbed europe, running away from life, yet needing the same hope and strength as Charleston himself. Charleston's sincerity convinces these creatures that he really has the courage to lead his fellowmen in

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Mansfield Theatre, NY     1939

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1940   

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:  8            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
http://www.Theatrerecord.org/, Theatre Record Vol XV (1995) Page 1631

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