The Playwrights Database
JOSEPH CHAIKIN (1935 - 2003)
Nationality: USAemail: n/a Website: Click here
Literary Agent: n/a
Joe Chaikin, who died in his sleep on Sunday, June 22, was for four decades as significant a figure as the American theater has yet produced. actor, director, writer, and founder of the Open Theatre, he influenced the lives of innumerable artists worldwide. Plagued his whole life by chronic heart disease, in 1984 he suffered an aphasic stroke from which he recovered sufficiently to direct, write, and even perform for two decades more. Joe once said that, since he had not been expected to survive past puberty, he considered every further day of his life a miracle. The Voice invited Joe's friends and colleagues to share their memories of the miracle, which appear this week and next.
- Michael Feingold
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below is a list of Joseph Chaikin's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Savage/Love Shut Eye Struck Dumb Texts Tongues Tongues (And New Writing Inspired By It) Us War In Heaven, The When The World Was GreenSavage/Love
Romantic love in all its aspects
Notes:
Written by Joseph Chaikin And Sam Shepard
1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Contained in: "Sam Shepard Seven Plays" published by Faber and Faber 1985 978-0571136155
Music:
-
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Booksellers:
Genre:
Monologue play
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageShut Eye
Synopsis:
a newlywed couple falls asleep at the dinner table etc; physical feats and ecstatic songs with intimate reflections
Notes:
conceived And created by Joseph Chaikin And the Company. Text by Deborah Stein
1st Produced:
Organisations:
Pig Iron Company
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Comic Musical Fantasy Comedy
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageStruck Dumb
Synopsis:
Born in Lebanon, the aphasic hero of "Struck Dumb" lives in Venice, California. "These words are about wonder. When an earthquake shakes the brain, and you stumble out alive, there's an odd exhilaration. . .like a baby, you begin all over again doping out the world with the intensity of a Talmudic scholar." - Dan Sullivan, La Times.
Notes:
written by Jean-Claude van Itallie And Joseph Chaikin
1st Produced:
Taper Too, Los Angeles, Ca 1991
Organisations:
Mark Taper Forum
1st Published:
in "Best One-act Plays:1990-1991", Applause, New York, 1991 -
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:
monologue, 50 minutes
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageTexts
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
adapted from Samuel Becket by Joseph Chaikin And S Kent
1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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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: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageTongues
Synopsis:
on his deathbed a man hears voices and sees visions from his past and from his future
Notes:
written with Sam Shepard
1st Produced:
San Francisco 1978
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
in "Seven Plays", Bantam, New York, 1981 -
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:
piece for voice and precussion Piece
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageTongues (And New Writing Inspired By It)
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
- 1997
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:
National Library of Scotland ref: 7:84 Theatre Company Scotland - acc.12911/79
Top of PageUs
Synopsis:
America and Vietnam, anti war protest
Notes:
Music by Richard Peastee; lyrics by Adrian Mitchell; original text by Denis Cannan (aka Tell Me Lies; Adaptors of documentary material: Michael Kustow And Michael Scott; directed by Peter Brook. Majot contribution from Charles Wood. Developed with works
1st Produced:
Roundhouse, London 1966
Organisations:
1st Published:
Calder & Boyers, London, 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: - Female: - Other: Large Cast
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageWar In Heaven, The
Synopsis:
a piece about an angel trapped between two dimensions
Notes:
broadcast 1985 written with Sam Shepard.
1st Produced:
London 1987
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
New American Library, New York, 1986 -
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:
Monogue for radio
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
National Library of Scotland ref: 7:84 Theatre Company Scotland - acc.12911/192
Top of PageWhen The World Was Green
a hauntingly lyrical memory play, WHEN THE WORLD WaS GREEN is steeped in the elliptical, poetic style for which Shepard is justly celebrated. Sketched out in just a handful of scenes is a world of sensual delight, of great journeys to distant lands, and exotic food piled as high as a mountain, glistening in the sun. But as always, the beauty of Shepard's landscape is only skin-deep. Under the surface lies a family vendetta that has lasted for seven generations. The play has only two characters, an old man who was once a superb chef and a young reporter who comes to interview him in the prison where he as been locked up for many years after poisoning a man he mistook for his cousin. Their eight conversations are interspersed with a sequence of monologues in which both characters recall incidents from their childhood. These link together to form a tender narrative of regret and loss through which they transcend their memories and reach mutual forgiveness and love.
Notes:
written by Joseph Chaikin And Sam Shepard
1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 978-0822220657
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, full length
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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