The Playwrights Database
JON BASTIAN (1962 - )
Nationality: USAemail: Click here to contact Website: n/a
Literary Agent: n/a
author of many short plays, produced in and around La; screenwriter of "Who Gets to Water the Grass", contributing screenwriter for "Random Shooting in La"; writer for TV's Seventh Heaven (episode "Hoop Dreams"); fellowship winner, Chesterfield Writers Film Project; invited participant, SCR CoLab, Lincoln Center West Directors Lab, Interact Theatre Company Lab, Filmmakers Foundation Writers Project; founding member and director, the Golden West Playwrights; founding and emeritus member, the alliance of La Playwrights (aLaP); founder, publisher and contributing writer, filmmonthly.com. Co-Founder, Co-artistic Director, the Los Angeles Writers Center. In association with Che'Rae Adams, have established an organization dedicated to the development of stage and screenplays; website is at http://lawriterscenter.com
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below is a list of Jon Bastian's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Bill & Joan Heretics Of Alexandria, The Man Upstairs, The Noah Johnson Had A Whore Petty Treasons Pornocracy Screamin' Monkey Love!Bill & Joan
Synopsis:
Mexico City, 1951. Writer and junkie Bill shoots and kills his speedfreak wife Joan in front of guests at a cocktail party. Was it an accident, a murder or a bizarre form of suicide? Viewed through the skewed lens of Bill's own mind as he's interrogated by the Mexico City Police, Bill & Joan is a phantasmagorical illusion populated by the real and the imagined, a journey through the complicated relationship of two people bound to complete each other -- or destroy each other. a finalist for the Lois and Richard Rosenthal New Play Prize at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Bill & Joan, like its subjects, breaks all the rules and has no limits.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
the Road Theatre Company
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
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Genre:
Historical Drama
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageHeretics Of Alexandria, The
Synopsis:
alexandria, egypt, 415 a.D. as religious fanatics struggle to take control of the city, one woman, the pagan philosopher Hypatia, stands between them and the destruction of freedom and truth. When an ancient document purported to be an eyewitness account of Christ's Crucifixtion comes into Hypatia's hands, the Christian bishop, Cyril, will do anything to get it, using a former student of Hypatia's, now a priest, as his instrument. But the priest may have been more than Hypatia's student, and the document may tell a very different story than the one everybody knows. Winner, 2001 New Century Writers awards.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
the Company Rep 2001
Organisations:
the Company Rep
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
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Genre:
Historical Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageMan Upstairs, The
Synopsis:
the Man Upstairs is the story of Stella, whose husband amir has committed the unspeakable crime of being born to Muslim parents. When shea?Ts asked to do her patriotic duty and help the government spy on her neighbor, she has to choose between resisting and incriminating herself, or complying and endangering her husband. at the same time, a young friend whoa?Ts come to borrow her phone is caught in the dilEmma, hiding secrets of his own. Set in a near future that might-yet-be, the Man Upstairs is a timely dark comedy about paranoia, prejudice and the power of love.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Independently 2005
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
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageNoah Johnson Had A Whore
Synopsis:
Jeremiah Bentonville, former stage magician, has discovered the joys -- and profits --of working as an undertaker on the battlefields of the American Civil War. What does it matter if he inflates the casualties a little bit? the living don't notice the dead, and it's just so easy to make a fortune doing the business of war. Noah Johnson, Jeremiah's apprentice, is trying to learn his master's cynical ways, until the discovery of a pornographic locket and the arrival of a beautiful young widow searching for her husband's body complicate matters. as Noah conducts his own business with the widow, Jeremiah's suspicions grow. He, more than anyone, should know an illusion when he sees it. then, the North informs Jeremiah that they suspect he's cheating them. But they won't hang him, provided he can prove his numbers. Tomorrow morning at dawn -
Notes:
SCR New Plays Prize Winner; PeN West Award Finalist. Subsequent Production: Renegade theatre experiment, San Jose Ca, As Noah Johnson , opening July 17th, 2007. Notes: Official title changed, per the playwright, to Noah Johnson As of 2007, for Artistic reasons.
1st Produced:
South Coast Repertory 1992
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
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Genre:
Black Comedy Comedy
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PagePetty Treasons
Synopsis:
London, 1725.This city is a wicked place where wild gangs run free and mothers sell their own children for money for gin. When a man's severed head is found on the banks of the Thames, the local magistrate thinks the identity of the killer is obvious, determined to prove that Catherine Hayes killed her husband, whether she did or not. It doesn't help that Catherine lives with her two teenaged lovers and that her husband was a violent man. It doesn't matter, except to one man -- Jack Frye, the executioner, who comes more and more to question whether murder is ever right, even when the king commands it. a true story.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
the Road theatre 1994
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:
Historical Drama
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PagePornocracy
Synopsis:
Based on the true story of Marozia - lover of one pope, mother of another, and a woman who would have ruled the world, had not her other son intervened. a play in verse, highly stylized and bordering on the absurd, with all the good things: the grotesque and macabre, Grand Guignol, comedy both high and low, murder, incest, a hint of cannibalism, puppets, the World Cup, decapitations, betrayals, immurement, and a very old story that relates to today's headlines in ways the original participants could have never imagined - plus the origin of the story of Pope Joan. Fun for the whole family, if the family name is Borgia. . . and a warning for those who, in this modern age, have fallen asleep.
Notes:
In Act I, An Actor plays A female part And An Actress plays A male; in Act II, they play A male And female, respectively. Also, other than the lead male, the other Actors perform several puppet shows in various styles in Act I.
1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
the La Writers' Center
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:
Black Comedy Comedy
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageScreamin' Monkey Love!
Synopsis:
Money. . . sex. . . scams. . . real estate. . . That's what family's for. . . anton and Michelle are ready to pull their big scam and con unsuspecting senior citizen Richard out of everything -- until Richard throws a screamin' monkeywrench into the works. He wants to play matchmaker, although his skills in that area are somewhat lacking. Now, anton and Michelle have to play Richard's game while playing their own and keeping their other agendas secret. add into the mix the world's most annoying slacker brother, a mother just released from prison and a famous porn star turned madame, and by the time the game is over, no one will know what hit them. as lies pile upon lies and everyone schemes against everyone else, Screamin' Monkey Love! explodes into a low farce about high crimes and petty thieves.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Independently 2004
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:
Comedy/Farce Comedy
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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