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John Guare

JOHN GUARE

  (1938 - )
Nationality:    USA
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    ICM Partners  

John Guare is a leading American playwright, whose best known works include House of Blue Leaves, which won both an Obie and the New York Drama Critics Circle award for the Best American Play of 1970-71 and received four Tony awards during its 1986 revival, Four Baboons adoring the Sun which was produced at the Lincoln Center Theater in 1992 and was nominated for four Tony awards, and Six Degrees of Separation which received the New York Drama Critics Circle award in 1990 and the Laurence Olivier Best Play award in 1993.

Research:    Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)

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

         5 Story Walk Up: Seven Card Draw         Are You There, McPhee         Blue Monologue         Bosoms And Neglect         Chaucer In Rome         Cop-Out         Day For Surprises, A         Did You Write My Name In the Snow?         Elzbieta         Few Stout Individuals         Five Story Walkup         Four Baboons Adoring the Sun         Free Man Of Color, A         Gardenia         General Of Hot Desire         Gluttony         Golden Cherub, The         Greenwich Mean         His Girl Friday         Home Fires         House Of Blue Leaves, The         In Fireworks Lie Secret Codes         Kissing Sweet         Lake Hollywood         Landscape Of the Body         Lovliest Afternoon Of the Year, The         Lydie Breeze         Marco Polo Sings A Solo         Moon Over Miami         Muzeeka         New York Actor         Optimism: Or, The Misadventures Of Candide         Race To Urga, The         Rich And Famous         Six Degrees Of Separation         Something I'll Tell You Tuesday         Sweet Smell Of Success         Take A Dream         Talking Dog, The         theatre Girl         Three Kinds of Exile         To Wally Pantoni, We Leave A Credenza         Toadstool Boy, The         Two Gentlemen Of Verona         Woman at a Threshold Beckoning         Women And Water
5 Story Walk Up: Seven Card Draw

Synopsis:
This is an evening of dark tales about risk and reward, featuring never-before-produced short plays and monologues
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
written by Neil LaBute, John Guare, Clay McLeod Chapman, Quincy Long, Laura Shaine, Daniel Levin, Daniel Gallant

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
short play

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Are You There, McPhee

Synopsis:
A playwright rejects an invitation from an amateur theatre group in Nantucket to go to the first night of his one successful play. This is something he comes to regret. Plus puppets of Robert Redford and Jane Fonda; "Jaws"; abandoned children and a porn ring

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Berlind Theatre Auditorium, Princeton     04 May 2012

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Blue Monologue

Synopsis:
an artist retraces his life's journeys through New York City, across several continents and within the world of theater.

Notes:
the Thirteenth Street Repertory Company presents Five Story Walkup, An evening of new short plays And monologues by some of today's leading Dramatists, including John Guare, Neil LaBute, Quincy Long, And Clay McLeod Chapman. the following description is from the show's press release: "Follow the travails of mismatched lovers, A webcam provocateur, small-town philosophers, And urban pioneers As they strive to maintain or escape from their domestic situations. these works cover wide narrative territory, exploring cityscapes And rural settings, but Are tied together by An intimate focus on the bond between identity And home." Proceeds from this production will go towards Thirteenth Street Rep's Legal Fund.
nytheatre.com

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
One act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Bosoms And Neglect

Synopsis:
Scooper, a successful but emotionally insecure man edging reluctantly into his forties, has a problem relating to women. When he discovers that his aged, blind mother, Henry, has been hiding the fact that she is suffering from cancer he persuades her with some difficulty to undergo surgery. Faced with the honour of his mother's secret, he soon turns his attentions towards Deirdre, a beautiful but extremely neurotic girl and a compulsive liar, who he has noticed in the waiting room of their shared psychiatrist. their conversation, which is alternately funny, caustic, outlandish and filled with chary observations on modem life, leads them to discover a shared interest in literature as well as their mutual dependency on their "shrink" - whom neither can apparently live without. their fears lead to an altercation in which Scooper injures Deirdre's foot and she stabs him in the spleen, resulting in both being hospitalised alongside Scooper's mother, whose conclusions about her own let in life become a lesson for a

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Goodman Theatre, Chicago     1979

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1980   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Farce

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Chaucer In Rome

Synopsis:
In the Holy Year of 2000 in Rome, Matt has learned that his painting has given him a curable form of cancer. In return for survival, he must abandon paint for a new artistic medium. Ultimately he chooses to dress in religious garb, videotape pilgrims' intimate confessions and display the confessions as exhibits. along the way, "Father Matt" gets more than he bargained for with Ron and Dolo, the parents of his friend Pete, and his videotaping ends up entangling and destroying their lives. a scathingly funny satire on the warping hunger for fame, the moral pollution and desperation in the worship of icons, both religious and secular, and the betrayal involved in creating art, CHaUCeR IN ROMe brims with John Guare's inimitable wit and understanding.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
full legth Comedy

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  4            Other:  doubling

Further Reference:
-

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Cop-Out

Synopsis:
the corruptive and pervasive elements of police power.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Waterford, Connecticut     1968

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, NY, 1969   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Satire

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
National Library of Scotland ref: Traverse - Dep.256/Box 26/3

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Day For Surprises, A

Synopsis:
Zany and absurdist in style, this hilarious short play deals with the surprising day on which one of the stone lions in front of New York's Public Library left its perch long enough to devour one of the lady librarians. the victim was also the fiancee of a fellow worker-whose grief leads to an enormously funny recounting of their brief liaison. But, as the satiated lion resumes his customary perch, consolation is at hand in the form of another lady librarian, and we are aware that still more surprises are likely to come as life goes on its unpredictable way.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1970

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1971   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy-fantasy One act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Did You Write My Name In the Snow?

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New Haven, Connecticut     1963

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Elzbieta

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
part of 10x25. This is An All-commissioned one-act festival of ten-minute plays by 25 of the playwrights who have been produced At Atlantic theater Company since 1985. 10x25 will unite And reunite Atlantic ensemble members, playwrights, And frequent guest Actors And directors in three separate offerings of ten minute plays, which will run the gamut of theatrical styles And content. 10x25 will feature new works by David Auburn, Leslie Ayvazian, Annie Baker, Stephen Belber, Bekah Brunstetter, Moira Buffini, Jez Butterworth, Ethan Coen, Kia Corthron, Tom Donaghy, John Guare, Kevin Heelan, Tina Howe, Craig Lucas, David Mamet, Peter Parnell, David Pittu, Keith Reddin, Kate Robin, Kate Moira Ryan, edwin Sanchez, Sam Shepard, Lucy Thurber, Jeff Whitty, And Bill Wrubel.

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
10 min

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Few Stout Individuals

Synopsis:
a wonderfully screwy comedy-Drama that figures Ulysses S. Grant in the throes of writing his memoirs while battling throat cancer, crushing debt, the labyrinth of his memories and the haunting tragedy of the battle of Cold Harbor, all the while surrounded by a cast of fantastical characters, including the emperor and empress of Japan, the opera star adelina Patti and Mark Twain.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Comedy/Drama, full length Comedy

Parts:
Male:  9            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Five Story Walkup

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
by John Guare, Neil LaBute, Quincy Long, Laura Shaine Cunningham, Clay McLeod Chapman, Daniel Frederick Levin, Daniel Gallant

1st Produced:

Organisations:
13th Street Repertory Company

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Four Baboons Adoring the Sun

Synopsis:
eros, the god of love, narrates the action of the play in haunting passages akin to the Greek choruses of ancient tragedies. We meet Penny and Philip, newlyweds who have abandoned unhappy marriages to work together on Philip's archeological dig in Sicily. they bring along their nine children, hoping to instill in them a love of antiquity and a zest for the same impassioned living they've re-discovered in middle age. What they aren't willing to discuss with the children, however, is that their marriage originally began as an illicit affair, symbolically identifying with an half-buried statue of four baboons basking contentedly in the sun. Immediately, the children announce that they knew of the affair from the start, and worse, their eldest children, Wayne and Halcy, have fallen in love and are demanding permission to have sex. Forbidden to continue the relationship, the children escape during an earthquake that separates the two families. Penny and Philip find them just as they are making love on a hilltop. Fleeing his parents, Wayne climbs a cliff and accidentally falls to his death. Philip, his spirit broken, returns to the States for the funeral, but Penny stays behind. the play ends with Penny basking in the Sicilian sun, meditating with the deeper understanding of what the four baboons statue has come to symbolize to her: there they sit, blinded by the very sun they worship, yet drawn again and again, regardless of pain, to its life-giving warmth.

Notes:
music by Stephen edwards

1st Produced:
New York     1992

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "antaeus", New York, 1992   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Comedy/Drama with music, full legth Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  5b 4g

Further Reference:
-

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Free Man Of Color, A

Free Man Of Color, A
John Guare's new play is astonishing, raucous and panoramic. "a Free Man of Color" is set in boisterous New Orleans prior to the historic Louisiana Purchase. Before law and order took hold, and class, racial and political lines were drawn, New Orleans was a carnival of beautiful women, flowing wine and pleasure for the taking. at the center of this Dionysian world is the mulatto Jacques Cornet, who commands men, seduces women and preens like a peacock. But, it is 1801 and the map of New Orleans is about to be redrawn. the Louisiana Purchase brings American rule and racial segregation to the chaotic, colorful world of Jacques Cornet and all that he represents, turning the tables on freedom and liberty.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Vivian Beaumont Theater, NY     18 Nov 2010

Organisations:
Lincoln Center Theater

1st Published:
Grove Press (October 4, 2011)   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  13            Female:  7            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Gardenia

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Nantucket series

1st Produced:
New York     1982

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1982   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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General Of Hot Desire

Synopsis:
How does one write about the unknowable? a group of english Lit students attempt a condensed version of the Christian Bible, starting with a Shakespeare Sonnet. their knowledge of Bible stories combine with their modern-day sensibility to become an accusation against an apathetic and greedy God. their take on eden and the after-math compel them to combine love and knowledge to become the weapon against a God who frowns on those who have used their freedom from eden to see God as perhaps he really is: silent

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "the General of Hot Desire and Other plays", Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York,    

Music:
-

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Booksellers:

Genre:
Play One act

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Gluttony

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
in Faustus in Hell

1st Produced:
Princeton, New Jersey     1985

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:
-

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Golden Cherub, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New Haven, Connecticut     1962

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

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Greenwich Mean

Synopsis:
a and B are moving in together. as they unpack, their conversation reveals an excitement and a lover's trust in the future and in each other. But when an earthquake hits and a grabs onto boxes instead of B, new light is shed on the relationship. How long can it now last?

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "the General of Hot Desire and Other plays", Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York,    

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

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Genre:
Play One act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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His Girl Friday

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Version Of the Front Page (Hecht/Mcarthur) And the Columbia Pictures Film

1st Produced:

Organisations:
National Theatre Company

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  Large Cast

Further Reference:
-

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Home Fires

Synopsis:
German family in a funeral parlour on armistices day trace their assimilation into society.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1969

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, NY, 1969   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Farce

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  extras

Further Reference:
-

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House Of Blue Leaves, The

Synopsis:
a zoo keeper longs to write songs for the movies as the Pope and his aWOL son arrive.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Viking Press, New York, 1972   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Black Comedy Comedy

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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In Fireworks Lie Secret Codes

Synopsis:
the scene is a penthouse terrace on Manhattan's West Side, where a group of friends had gathered to watch the Macy's Fourth of July fireworks display on the Hudson River. as they sip wine and call out the changing colors, they also reveal the unrest beneath their apparent ease: one of the two male lovers who share the penthouse has decided to return to his native england; another couple sheepishly admits that they are fleeing Manhattan life for suburban New Jersey. the play ends as it began-good friends exchanging amusing anecdotes in the spirit of relaxed companionship-but the glints of truth which have emerged make it clear that their lives are more troubled and uncertain than appearances might suggest.

Notes:
in Holidays

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1981   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy 40 min One act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Kissing Sweet

Synopsis:
madcap spoof of TV advertising has been specially adapted and expanded by the author for stage presentation. antic and wildly funny in its approach, the play offers both a good-humored comment on our national preoccupation with deodorants and hair sprays, and also a sobering revelation of the self-justifying defensiveness with which our worst polluters excuse and perpetuate their actions

Notes:
First presented on New York's Channel 13 (educational Television) As part of FOUL!, A special program on pollution And conservation

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1971   

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:
Comedy One act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Lake Hollywood

Synopsis:
the first act finds us on the shore of Scroon Lake in New Hampshire in August 1940. agnes and andrew, a soap salesman, arrive at agnes' home which she shares with her sister, Flo. Flo would like nothing better than to have the home all for herself. also at the lake are Flo's oddly infantile new husband, Randolph, who intends to run for office, and Randolph's mother, Mrs. Larry, who speaks with a false German accent like a B movie Marlene Dietrich. the woods around the lake are ablaze, threatening the house, and many of their belongings have been brought down to the beach, including agnes' beloved credenza which has been in the family for some time. agnes' Uncle ambrose appears and shares with andrew his tale of Spencer Tracy's visit to Scroon Lake and his dream of turning the lake into Lake Hollywood, a retreat for Hollywood stars. the second act leaps forward fifty years to find us in New York City. agnes and andrew, now husband and wife, are preparing for a trip to the hospital where agnes must undergo an operation. Hildegarde, their daughter, along with her husband and child, come into the City from New Jersey to drive them to the hospital, but andrew and agnes escape the apartment and take a walk. along the way, they stop and have a meal at a restaurant where their waiter turns out to be a young man agnes knew when he was a child. He is kind to them, and agnes decides to leave the credenza to him, since no one in the family wants it. as they continue on to the hospital, we are left with the image of two people living their lives not with Hollywood magic but with the reality of their love and friendship as a couple.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

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:
Comedy Drama, full length Comedy

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  doubling

Further Reference:
-

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Landscape Of the Body

Synopsis:
Moving back and forth in time, the action of the play is a mosaic of short scenes, monologues and original songs, all blending together into a revealing and affecting study of the American Dream gone awry. the play moves on many levels. In one sense it is a murder mystery: a boy is found dead, and his mother is suspected of his killing. But, as the investigation of the crime proceeds, other themes emerge and combine with it. the boy's mother has come to New York to persuade her sister to come back to their home in Maine; the sister is killed in a bizarre accident and her sibling slips easily into her persona, moving into her apartment and taking over her job; and her son loses his country innocence and becomes involved in the often ugly street life of Greenwich Village. In the end all these various strands are drawn together into a shattering climax-a forceful, moving illumination of lives first betrayed and then destroyed by illusions which, inevitably, lie always behind comprehension and control.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Lake Forest, Illinois     1977

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1978   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy Drama, full length Comedy. - - Gay, theme/character full length

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Lovliest Afternoon Of the Year, The

Synopsis:
He and She first meet when She is feeding pigeons in the park, and He asks her for the plastic favor at the bottom of the Crackerjack box. He tells her that his wife takes all his money, bends the coins in her teeth, and shoots at his feet with a rifle with a blue silencer. She doesn't know what to make of him, but they begin to meet regularly, and gradually more of his story comes out. He tells her he is a seeing-eye person for blind dogs; that years ago his sister Lucy's arm was ripped off by a polar bear in the park zoo and that as a result she became covered all over with white hair; and then that he doesn't have a wife at all. He embarrasses her by singing at the top of his lungs-and She begins to wonder if he is not utterly mad. She is lonely and wants to be married, but is that the answer? the sight of a fat woman pushing two gross children in a perambulator increases her doubts, but then she notices that a blind dog walks beside her, and everything begins to make strange, awful and rather dismaying sense. the fat woman pulls out a rifle with a blue silencer and fires. He and She fall, mortally wounded. Was it all true? Does He really have a sister named Lucy? With his dying breath He proclaims that he does, and they expire contentedly, reaching out for each other as they tumble to the ground.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1966

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1968   

Music:
-

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Genre:
absurdist comedy One act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Lydie Breeze

Synopsis:
PaRT ONe: BULFINCH's MYTHOLOGY. the play begins on a deserted Nantucket beach in 1875 where the young Joshua Hickman awaits the return of his wife, Lydie, who has been off-island on a nursing assignment. She is furious that he has let her cherished gardenia plant wither and die in her absence while he is disheartened that the philosophical magnum opus on which he has labored for years has been rejected for publication. their discord reflects on the failure of the utopian community they had sought to establish in the house left to Lydie by her whaling captain father, the only other remaining member being amos Mason, a young man educated by Joshua who now talks of leaving to enroll at Harvard. When another former communard, Dan Grady, returns unexpectedly with an enormous amount of money that can make their dreams come true, the action quickens, as the old passion between Lydie and Dan is revived, and the jealous Joshua kills his rival. In the second act, Joshua, now in prison for murdering Dan, has written a memoir of what they tried to achieve. amos, now a politically ambitious lawyer, feels his future will be put in danger by publication of Joshua's revelations. He offers Joshua freedom if Joshua will destroy his book.PaRT TWO: the SaCReDNeSS OF the NeXT TaSK. PaRT TWO takes place in 1895. the hopes of this noble experiment had been destroyed by adultery, murder and suicide, and now those haunted by the tragedy gather to seek its expiation: the patriarch, Joshua Hickman, now pardoned for killing his wife's lover; his young daughter, Lydie, the namesake of her long-dead mother, a suicide; his oldest daughter, Gussie, the secretary-mistress of a U.S. Senator; and Jeremiah Grady, the long-lost son of the murdered lover. Moving from comedy to meloDrama to tragic destiny as it untangles the twisted strands of their lives, the play illuminates both the undying optimism that underlies the American ethos and, through the metaphor of syphilis, the endemic corruption that, so often, can reach beyond its own time to subvert the cherished hopes of the future.

Notes:
Nantucket series

1st Produced:
New York     1982

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1982   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Drama, full length

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Marco Polo Sings A Solo

Synopsis:
the time is 1999, the place an island off the coast of Norway. Stony McBride, a young movie director and adopted son of an aging Hollywood star, is writing a film about Marco Polo, in which, it is hoped, his Father will make a comeback. Stony is also attempting to deal with his attractive wife, a former concert pianist whose lover, a dynamic young politician who has gotten hold of the cure for cancer, is also on hand. adding to the rapidly multiplying complications are Stony's mother (a transsexual, as she later confesses); a friend named Frank (who has been in space orbit for the past five years); a maid (who is impregnated astrally by Frank); and another friend, Larry (who is fitted with a set of mechanical legs). there is also an earthquake; the discovery of a planet; and the birth of a new hero (Stony himself?); all coming together, within the bizarre action of the play, to yield some chilling, albeit very funny, glimpses of the future that may await us all.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Nantucket, Massachusetts     1976

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1977   

Music:
-

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Genre:
full legth Comedy. - - Gay, theme/character full length

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Moon Over Miami

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New Haven Connecticut     1989

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Muzeeka

Synopsis:
as the New York Times outlines, "It is done almost as a comedy, yet it isn't quite. Jack argue is the 'hero,' the middle-class man from Connecticut who works for Muzeeka, a piped-music company that inflicts its bland tunes on all America. He is the man who has made it, who tries to assuage his conscience through hypocritical verbiage. there is a series of episodes-argue chanting a hymn to a penny, argue loving his wife, argue loving a prostitute, argue fighting in Vietnam. If he could have been wherever he chose to be, he says, he would have chosen to be an etruscan, one of those ancient people who came and went 'a million years ago,' 'a whole civilization danced out of the earth.' Mr. Guare has written with thought, craftsmanship and beauty. His allusions are poetic-the traffic lights, for instance, that make the streets go from grass to blood."

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Waterford, Connecticut     1967

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1968   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Satire One act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  extras

Further Reference:
National Library of Scotland ref: Traverse - Dep.256/Box 26/3
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Bibliographies/VN_drama_bib.php

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New York Actor

Synopsis:
Several actors are sitting in a theater bar, reveling in success and failure-their own and that of their friends around them. Craig is back in New York after several seasons in Hollywood in a sitcom. So happy to be cast in an upcoming Broadway production, he doesn't mind revealing that Hollywood was not what he liked. the other stage actors agree, but would have loved the chance to do TV. there is an element of fear-that it all could disappear in a moment-along with the humor of what their lives have been like and the uncertainty of the profession. When one more actor joins them, and tells him of a part he just got, they all realize Craig's been fired and this guy is taking the role. Instead of rallying around, everyone goes their own way, leaving Craig with his greatest fear of being a has-been

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "the General of Hot Desire and Other plays", Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play One act

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Optimism: Or, The Misadventures Of Candide

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
written with Harold Stone, novel by Voltaire

1st Produced:
Waterford, Connecticut     1973

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Race To Urga, The

Synopsis:
How capitalism exploits the workers

Notes:
Music by Leonard Berstein; lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; book by John Guare. Based on the play "The Exception To The Rule" by Bertolt Brecht

1st Produced:
Mitzi Newhouse Theatrer, New York     01 Apr 1987

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Rich And Famous

Synopsis:
One of "the world's oldest living promising young playwrights," Bing Ringling is finally about to be produced-with play number 844. But, unfortunately, his lady producer, having had a series of successes, now yearns for a flop-so she can savor the sweet taste of failure and then make a comeback. Hoping to salvage his play, Bing tries to enlist the aid of his boyhood friend Tybalt Dunleavy, now a Hollywood star, but he too is having something of an identity crisis. Bing's odyssey leads on to hilarious confrontations with his musical collaborator anatol Torah (a wildly spaced-out composer); his oddball parents (who still cherish his dirty diapers); and his old girlfriend (now unhappily married and mired in the past). thereafter the phantasmagoria continues until, in the end, and as Clive Barnes puts it: "Bing is at the still center of his own nightmare, wandering like Ulysses through the cavernous passages of his life and finally determining just what it costs to be rich and famous."

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Lake Forest, Illinois     1974

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1977   

Music:
-

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Genre:
full legth Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  flexible

Further Reference:
-

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Six Degrees Of Separation

Six Degrees Of Separation
Inspired by a true story, the play follows the trail of a young black con man, Paul, who insinuates himself into the lives of a wealthy New York couple, Ouisa and Flan Kittredge, claiming he knows their son at college. Paul tells them he is the son of actor Sidney Poitier, and that he has just been mugged and all his money is gone. Captivated by Paul's intelligence and his fascinating conversation (and the possibility of appearing in a new Sidney Poitier movie), the Kittredges invite him to stay overnight. But in the morning they discover him in bed with a young male hustler from the streets, and the picture begins to change. after kicking him out, Ouisa and Flan discover that friends of theirs have had a similar run-in with the brash con artist. Intrigued, they turn detective and piece together the connections that gave Paul access to their lives. Meanwhile, Paul's cons unexpectedly lead him into darker territory and his lies begin to catch up with him. as the final events of the play unfold Ouisa suddenly finds herself caring for Paul, feeling that he gave them far more than he took and that her once idyllic life was not what it seemed to be.

Notes:
Winner of the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Play And the New York Drama Critics Circle Award

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Vintage, New York, 1990
Methuen Drama, London   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy/Drama, full length Comedy. - - Gay, full length

Parts:
Male:  13            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Something I'll Tell You Tuesday

Synopsis:
about to enter the hospital for treatment of what may be a more grave condition than the others suspect, agnes reassures her husband, andrew, and asks that they walk to the hospital together. But their daughter and son-in-law are on the way over to drive them, so they wait and are caught in a crossfire of bickering when the younger couple arrives. When the others go out to bring the car around, agnes and andrew take advantage of their absence to slip off. they are alone once more, just the two of them, as they were so many years ago before life and children and illness brought them to where they are now. they walk along slowly, enjoying the fine day, stopping for coffee, reminiscing about the past. and out of their serenity comes an odd but arresting fact. they realize that, looking back, what they miss most of all is what their daughter and her husband have now-the glorious, exhausting, infuriating, but exhilarating fights and the energy to make the most of them. This is what agnes will speak of on Tuesday-knowing that in her daughter and her husband she sees, and yearns for, the agnes and andrew of forty years ago.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Cafe Cino, New York     1966

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1968   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy/Drama One act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Sweet Smell Of Success

Sweet Smell Of Success
Based on the novel by ernest Lehman and the MGM/United artists motion picture. It's New York, 1952. Welcome to Broadway, the glamour and power capital of the universe. JJ Hunsecker rules it all with his daily gossip column in the New York Globe, syndicated to sixty million readers across America. JJ has the goods on everyone, from the President to the latest starlet. and everyone feeds JJ scandal, from J. Edgar Hoover and Senator Joe McCarthy down to a battalion of hungry press agents who attach their news to a client that JJ might plug. You can become no one if JJ turns on you.

Notes:
Music by Marvin Hamlisch; Lyrics by Craig Carnelia; Book by John Guare

1st Produced:
Martin Beck Theatre, NY     14 Mar 2002

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
Original cast recording: Sony (SK 89922) 2002

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Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  18            Female:  9            Other:  extras

Further Reference:
-

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Take A Dream

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1978

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Talking Dog, The

Talking Dog, The
a man takes his girlfriend hanggliding for the first time, prompting her to overcome her fears. She does it, and hears him say-in flight-I love you. She doesn't mention it, but glides again and again to hear it. When she realizes it may not be him, she decides it is nature talking, taking on a more profound meaning. But he thinks she can't take a joke and moves on, constantly searching for someone who understands him

Notes:
Original Playwright - Anton Chekhov

1st Produced:
Urbana, Illinois     1985

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "Orchards " published by Knopf 1986   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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theatre Girl

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Washington D.C.     1959

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Three Kinds of Exile

Synopsis:
With great psychological insight and arresting theatricality, John Guare presents us with three artists, all of whom forged complicated lives in exile, having struggled and suffered amid the cultural and political turmoil of eastern europe in the mid-20th Century. In Three Kinds of exile, the celebrated author of the House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation draws from the experiences of three real exiles from Czechoslovakia and Poland. Guare weaves the stories of these lives into a riveting Dramatic tapestry and probes the meaning of home, identity and how we carry the past with us.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Atlantic theater: Linda Gross theatre
336 West 20th Street, NY     2013

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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To Wally Pantoni, We Leave A Credenza

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1965

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Toadstool Boy, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Washington D.C.     1960

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Two Gentlemen Of Verona

Two Gentlemen Of Verona
the rock musical bringing together the Elizabethan and contemporary theatres in such a way that each nourishes and illuminates the other.

Notes:
written with Mel Shapiro, music Gait MacDermot, lyrics by John Guare

1st Produced:
New York Shakespeare Festival     1971

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Holt Rinehart, New York, 1973   

Music:
Original cast recording: Decca (440 017 565-2) 1971

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Genre:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  3            Other:  People of Verona and Milan

Further Reference:
-

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Woman at a Threshold Beckoning

Woman at a Threshold Beckoning
A juror has fantasies about a Middle Eastern woman charged with being part of the 9/11 attacks

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York     14/2011

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "Best American Short Plays 2003 -2004* published by Hal Leonard Corporation 2006   

Music:
-

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Genre:
One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Women And Water

Synopsis:
Centering the opening action of the play on the Civil War, the author fills the stage with a swirl of people and events to capture the awful trauma of this cataclysmic happening. We meet the young Lydie Breeze, a Nantucket lass serving as a nurse (who pins the wounded soldiers' valuables to her petticoat to protect them from theft); the brusque Dan Grady, a rough but charming Union army sergeant who tries to shield Lydie from danger as the tide of battle shifts back and forth; and, in brief cameos, such luminaries as Ulysses S. Grant and Robert e. Lee who, in setting forth their individual stories, cast a chilling light on the root causes of the national crisis. after the thunderous scenes of battle and disorder, the action of the play shifts to Nantucket, where Lydie, now returned home, awaits the arrival of her father, captain of the whaling vessel, Gardenia. But his return brings unhappy news: the Gardenia has burned at sea with the loss of its black crew-and there are suspicions of foul play, racial conflict and possible fraud. against this troubled background, exacerbated by a brutal showdown between Captain Breeze and his embittered son, and the Captain's subsequent suicide, Lydie determines to found an idyllic community of kindred spirits in the family homestead and to fight back against the corruption and materialism which have overtaken the times-an utopian scheme which, as the later plays make so eloquently clear, eventually founders on the unworkability of its own good intentions.

Notes:
Nantucket series

1st Produced:
Los Angeles     1984

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1990   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Drama, full length

Parts:
Male:  20            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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