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Henry Beissel

HENRY BEISSEL

  (1929 - )

Nationality:    naturalised Canadian
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Playwrights Guild of Canada  

born in Cologne

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

        Are You Afraid Of Thieves?         Curve, The         Emigrants, The         En Attendant Gaudreault (Waiting For Gaudreault)         For Crying Out Loud         Glass Mountain, The         Goya         Grand Tirade At the Town Hall, The         Hedda Gabler         Improvisations For Mr X         Inook And the Sun         Noose, The         Poems New And Selected         Season Of Blood         Stones To Harvest         Thistle In His Mouth , A         Trumpet For Nap, A         Under Coyote's Eye         Waiting For Gaudreault



Are You Afraid Of Thieves?

Synopsis:
the play portrays three couples and the myriad games they invent to pretend they are having a marvellous time

Notes:
from Louis Dominique Lavigne

1st Produced:
Universite du Quebec    1973

Organisations:
La Troupe Brin'si

1st Published:
Simon & Pierre, 1978   -

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:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Curve, The

Synopsis:
Two brothers worry about a dangerous highway. they petition for action, and the very man they petition becomes a victim of the road's lethal curve. the play deals with ethics and moral responsibility

Notes:
Original Playwright - Tankred Dorst

1st Produced:
University of alberta    1963

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playwrights Co-op, Toronto, 1985   -

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 One act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Emigrants, The

Synopsis:
two immigrants in discussion on New Year's eve. Politics and philosophy between intellectual a and ditch digger

Notes:
Original Playwright - Slawomir Mrozek

1st Produced:
Saidye Bronfman Centre, Montreal.    1981

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, 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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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En Attendant Gaudreault (Waiting For Gaudreault)

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Andre Simard. Translated by Henry Beissel & Arlette Franciere

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Les editions Lemeac, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1976   -

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 Farce

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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For Crying Out Loud

Synopsis:
a play for young adults. Ricky, a teen-ager, wakes up to find there has been a revolution and he is now Ruler of the World, with his Father Field Marshal and his english teacher Secretary of State. after a series of mind-boggling adventures,, he is mercifully returned to his own bed and-his own life when his alarm clock rings

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Char-Lan Theatre Workshop, Williamstown, Ontario.    1975

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Canadian Drama, 1975   -

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 for young adults One act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Glass Mountain, The

Synopsis:
a parable about the dehumanization of the modern world

Notes:
Original Playwright - Tor Age Bringsvaed. Written with Per Brask

1st Produced:
University of Winnipeg, Manitoba.    1990

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
PaJ, 1989   -

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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Goya

Synopsis:
the aged Spanish artist attempts a self-portrait and is forced, through a series of flashbacks, to take stock of his own life

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Montreal Theatre Lab    1976

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playwrights Co-op, Toronto,    -

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:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Grand Tirade At the Town Hall, The

Synopsis:
a woman begs an oriental emperor to return her husband, one of his soldiers. With strong Brechtian overtones, an argument ensues between the wife, her supposed husband, and two office

Notes:
Original Playwright - Tankred Dorst

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playwrights Co-op, Toronto, 1985   -

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 One act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Hedda Gabler

Synopsis:
a lucid and strongly Canadian translation of the Ibsen classic

Notes:
Original Playwright - Henrik Ibsen

1st Produced:
Saidye Bronfman Centre, Montreal.    1982

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playwrights Co-op, Toronto,    -

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:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Improvisations For Mr X

Synopsis:
a modern everyman is forced to confront the moral abyss into which his life has fallen when a theatre troupe picks him from the audience to improvise a play about himself.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Unproduced    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Improvisations for Mr. X & the Noose, Cormorant Books, 1989   -

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:
Tragi Comedy Tragedy

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Inook And the Sun

Synopsis:
lnook, an eskimo boy, sets off with his Father in search of the sun to save his family from starvation. they meet a bear and the Father is killed, nook, after killing the bear, meets various spirits which aid, scold, menace and admire him. a chorus of giggling seals provides comic relief as nook journeys under the sea. after solving 3 riddles, nook finds and marries the sun. a play for children and adults, combining poetry, fantasy and reality

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
the Stratford Festival, Canada    1973

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playwrights Co-op, Toronto, 2001   -

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:  5            Female:  5            Other:  puppets

Further Reference:
-

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Noose, The

Synopsis:
Mike has a confrontation with his twin brother who has hanged himself and has left a tape explaining the suicide

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
University of Winnipeg    1985

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Improvisations for Mr. X & the Noose, Cormorant Books, 1989   -

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 One act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Poems New And Selected

Synopsis:
eugeniou piles on the agony. His central figure, Tina, has been wrenched from her immigrant Cypriot parents by the social services on grounds of emotional abuse". Reared by foster parents, an underage, psychologically wrecked Tina gives birth to a daughter, Rosie, and chooses to kill herself rather than yield her child to intrusive social workers. and when Rosie grows up and finds her groom has been accidentally killed on the eve of her wedding, she takes her own life and that of the twins she is carrying in her womb. It's a grisly family saga, but that doesn't make it a classical Drama. In Greek tragedy the gods are essentially just in that they represent the laws of the universe; in eugeniou's version, suicide and infanticide stem from remediable flaws in the social system. and although he accurately conveys the cultural gap between the immigrant Cypriot community and case workers ("We're not english, we're very emotional people," says one of the former), he takes it as a given that intervention is always

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Mosaic, 1987   -

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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Season Of Blood

Synopsis:
No reader will fail to be touched by the disturbing juxtaposition of images of senseless political violence in Latin America and images of growth and fecundity of spring in eastern Canada. - Gary Geddes

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Mosaic, 1984   -

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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Stones To Harvest

Synopsis:
an affirmation of faith in the ultimate goodness of mankind, the importance of deep and honest relationships, and the inherent potential in every individual for personal happiness and fulfilment

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
MOO, 1993   -

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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Thistle In His Mouth , A

Synopsis:
everybody's caught up in a fractured world that they can't even see, what's happening is unfathomable but they have a suspicion, Shepard

Notes:
Poems by Peter Huchel

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Cormorant Books, 1987   -

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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Trumpet For Nap, A

Synopsis:
a marionette play. Napoleon, a lowly dishwasher, possesses a magic trumpet, which brings joy to the world. But it lands him in a series of both pleasant and unpleasant events

Notes:
Original Playwright - Tankred Dorst

1st Produced:
Little Angel Theatre, London, England.    1970

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playwrights Co-op, Toronto, 1985   -

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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  20 puppets, 1 narrator

Further Reference:
-

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Under Coyote's Eye

Synopsis:
the true story of Ishi, the last Stone age Indian. When Ishi is found outside an Oroville, California slaughterhouse in 1911, an expert deciphers his language and communicates with him

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Other Theatre, Chicago    1978

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playwrights Co-op, Toronto,    -

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:  2            Other:  doubling

Further Reference:
-

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Waiting For Gaudreault

Synopsis:
the play deals with a group of house painters who are renovating the facade of an Unemployment Insurance Office. a discussion ensues among them about the weariness of their lives and working conditions

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Simon & Pierre,    -

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 One act

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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