The Playwrights Database
ARCH BROWN
(1936 - 2012)
Nationality:
USA
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Literary Agent:
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Filmmaker, photographer, playwright, and philanthropist Arch Brown died of natural causes at his home in Palm Springs, California, on September 3, 2012. He was 76 years old. Brown gained famed during the 1970s and early 1980s as the director of a series of feature-length gay pornographic films, including, among others, the Night Before (1973), Five Hard Pieces (1977), Harleys Angels (1977), Dynamite! (1978; starring Jack Wrangler), So Many Men, So Little Time (1979) and All Tied Up (1981). During this period, he also worked as photographer, taking erotic photographs that appeared in gay slicks such as Mandate and Honcho. In the late 1970s, Brown began writing plays, which he continued to do until very recently. His first play, News Boy, was his most successful, receiving an Off Broadway production in 1979; centering on the coming-out of the gay son of a conservative politician, the play was later produced by numerous community Theater groups around the country. A 1998 comedy by Brown, FReeZe!, received the eric Bentley Playwriting Prize that year and has been produced several times. During the last decade of his life, Brown founded and ran the Thorny Theater, in Palm Springs, which mounted several gay-themed plays each season; the Theater closed in 2010. Born Arnold Krueger in Chicago on June 2, 1936, Brown attended Northwestern University before moving to New York City in the late 1950s. there, he met his life partner, Bruce Brown, whose last name he used professionally. Following Bruce Browns death in 1993, Arch Brown established the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation, which gives grants to LGBT playwrights and to Theater groups mounting LGBT-themed plays and which has sponsored periodic literary competitions awarding prizes to playwrights and fiction writers whose works are based on, or inspired by, a historic person, culture, event, or work of art. Among the works the Foundation awarded recognition through its literary grants were plays by Carolyn Gage (the Last Reading of Charlotte Cushman), David Brendan Hopes (St. Patricks Well), David Johnston (CAndy & Dorothy), Quiara Alegria Hudes (Pennsylvania for Stargazers), and novels by Jameson Currier (Where the Rainbow ends), Harlan Greene (the Lost Light), Raymond Luczak (Men With their Hands), and Merlyn A. Hermes (the Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet). Browns remains will be interred at a cemetery in Charlotte, Michigan, in a grave next to that of Bruce Brown. there are no survivors. (Photo via the Arch and Brown Brown Foundation) Obit: http://www.lambdaliterary.org/features/rem/09/22/arch-brown-filmmaker-and-playwright-is-dead-at-76/
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Bottom Drawer, The
a son finds a letter from his late cruel mother. even in death she wont let go
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Staged Reading Palm Springs, Ca 2004
Organisations:
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Music:
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Genre:
Family Tragedy One act. - - Gay, one act
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Brut Farce
a gay bedroom farce for four actors playing their own love interest
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Artists Unlimited New York 1985
Organisations:
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Music:
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Genre:
Gay Ole Farce One act. - - Gay, one act
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: - Other: four actors eight characters
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Church Island Woman
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Genre:
Gay, one act
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 3 Other: -
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Comebacks
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Notes:
part of For the Love Of Sam! - A play in three parts
1st Produced:
- 1991
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Genre:
a search for spotlights One act. - - Gay, one act
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Doubletalk
Milt's lover is out. Jean has left his leathers out. Rod's feelers are out. Sam's lenses are out
Notes:
a comedy of errors in two Acts
1st Produced:
Wings Theater, 154 Christopher Street, Basement, New York, Ny 10014 -
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Genre:
Farce One act. - - Gay, one act
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: - Other: doubling
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Frank Lee, My Dear
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Notes:
to be performed with Ships That Piss In the Night
1st Produced:
- 1978
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Genre:
Comedy of Violence and Vaporub One act. - - Gay, one act
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: - Other: -
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Freeze
Synopsis:
Paul and adopted son Philip hire a house in the country for the spring and summer. But the unseasonable weather turns everything upside dowwn.
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1st Produced:
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1st Published:
TnT Classic Books (www.TnTClassicBooks.com), -
Music:
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Genre:
comedy. - - Gay, full length
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 2 Other: -
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Living Arrangements
a pansy, faded rose, tigerlily, bird of paradise and a snapdragon all face eviction
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1st Produced:
Workshop Production Phoenix, Az 2003
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Genre:
Mellow Drama One act. - - Gay, one act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: -
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News Boy
Tim confused about his sexuality comes to New York to discuss it with his ex-college room mate Hank. Hank is out with his latest boyfriend but his flatmate Bill is in. they are attracted to each other and end up in bed. Tim comes to New York each weekend now to stay with Bill and they fall in love. Meanwhile, Tim's mother Barbara is running for political office. She makes a speech condeming homosexuals. then the media find out about Tim. Barbara tries to force Tim to publicly deny his sexuality.
Notes:
could be performed with Sex Symbols. From A concept by Bruce Allen Brown
1st Produced:
Shandoi Theater, New York 1979
Organisations:
the Glines
1st Published:
Music:
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Genre:
political and parental comedy One act. - - Gay, one act
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 1 Other: 1 m/f
Further Reference:
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Pantheon
Various gods from different religions judge who is to get into Heaven or who wont
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1st Produced:
Loa Angeles, Ca 2001
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Genre:
Un-Godly Comedy One act. - - Gay, one act
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 5 Other: doubling possible
Further Reference:
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Pas De Cinq
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Notes:
part of For the Love Of Sam! - A play in three parts
1st Produced:
- 1986
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Genre:
a dance for five One act. - - Gay, one act
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Peace By Peace
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Notes:
a cruel comedy of comeuppance
1st Produced:
- 1997
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Music:
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Genre:
One act. - - Gay, one act
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: - Other: 1
Further Reference:
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Samson
the letters sent between three men over the period of a year
Notes:
part of For the Love Of Sam! - A play in three parts
1st Produced:
14th Street Theatre, 344 East 14th Street, New York, Ny 10003 1988
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Music:
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Genre:
a play in the third person One act. - - Gay, one act
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Seeing Red
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Notes:
a prologue And An epilogue for Peace by Peace
1st Produced:
- 1993
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Music:
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Genre:
One act. - - Gay, one act
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Sex Symbols
Gay reporter has a crush on a soap opera star
Notes:
could be performed with News Boy
1st Produced:
Glines At The Shandol Theatre New York -
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Music:
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Genre:
love, lust, lies or libel One act. - - Gay, one act
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Ships That Piss In the Night
Four men look for love in all the wrong places
Notes:
to be performed with Frank Lee, My Dear
1st Produced:
14th Street Theatre, 344 East 14th Street, New York, Ny 10003 -
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Music:
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Genre:
black(leather) comedy One act. - - Gay, one act
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: - Other: -
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Two Married Men
Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
Gay Theatre of New York 1981
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
Gay full length
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
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Variations On A Scheme: A Comic Fugue For Five Unaccompanied Voices
Synopsis:
Tina works for ari and loves Pierre. ari lives with Pierre but loves Ben. Ben is married to angie and seduces Pierre
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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Genre:
Gay, full length
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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