The Playwrights Database
JOHN J HANLON
(1968 - )Nationality: USA
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Literary Agent: n/a
John J. Hanlon is an educator and translator who lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. a graduate of the Yale School of Drama MFA program in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, he was trained in translation by James Magruder. He is now the American translator for Ukrainian/Russian playwright Maksym Kurochkin. Mr. Hanlon holds degrees in Russian Language and Literature, Liberal Studies, and English and American Literature. He has taught courses in literature and Drama to juniors and seniors at several independent schools around the country. Perennial course offerings include American Literature, Shakespeare's Plays, Russian Literature, and Modern european Drama. Mr. Hanlon is also an actor and has run a number of high school Theater programs, including the one at his current post, the Jackson Hole Community School. Favorite directorial efforts include Edward Bond's the Tin Can People and Edward albee's a Delicate Balance. Favorite past roles include Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, Doc in Crimes of the Heart and Richard Hannay in the 39 Steps.
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below is a list of John J Hanlon's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Colonel Pilate Cube for the President, A Fighter Class "Medea" Mooncrazed Right of the Captain of the R.M.S. Carpathia,the Vodka, Fucking, And TelevisionColonel Pilate
Synopsis:
From one of europe's most exciting new playwrights, aleksey Scherbak, comes this poignant morality tale for our times. "Colonel Pilate" tells the story of a single individual's attempt to follow his conscience while working in a system that seems to have an intractable will of its own. after interrogating a young man called "ali" who has been linked to numerous bombings, the Colonel becomes convinced of the detainee's innocence and releases him. His subordinates, flabbergasted, take matters into their own hands, refusing to let ali go. What ensues is a struggle between the individual and the enormous organism that he has come to depend on for everything from a sense of purpose to his daily bread. a band of three soldiers tries to comprehend these events as they unfold - and to keep the resulting tension from driving them apart. Resonating with biblical undertones, the play shifts deftly between the perspectives of the enlisted men, the career officers, local citizens, a nurse nicknamed "Josephina," and a beautiful "loyal" reporter. Set in a distant land, where an occupying power has outlasted its welcome, "Colonel Pilate" releases questions that are lurking just beneath the surface of our lives, demanding to be addressed.
Notes:
Original Playwright - Aleksey Scherbak. This translation was commissioned by the Lark Play Development Center, New York, NY, where it received a workshop and staged reading as part of the hotINK Festival of new international plays in 2012.
1st Produced:
Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga (Tennessee, USA) Nov 2014
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Asymptote http://asymptotejournal.com/ (April 2013 (selected scenes)) -
Music:
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Genre:
Drama/comedy
Parts:
Male: 11 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageCube for the President, A
Synopsis:
A young inventor bursts into the office of the Chairman of the State Energy Commission. He has a new invention. A small cube that has an inexhaustible supply of electric power. The Chairman calls the Minister for Energy. The Minister calls a prominent left wing politician. The politician calls the President
Notes:
Original Playwright - Viktor Podlubny
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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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:
Translation
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageFighter Class "Medea"
Synopsis:
John Freedman, the Moscow Times theater Critic calls Maksym Kurochkin "the most imaginative playwright in Moscow today." Mr. Kurochkin's plays have been staged throughout Russia and around the world. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious prizes, including "the Boldest experiment of the Year" award from the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily for his play Kitchen and the "Russian anti-Booker" award for experimenting with new avenues in Drama. His play Kitchen, a smash-hit in Moscow, has been credited with helping to steer Russian theater away from revivals, back toward contemporary work. Mr. Kurochkin also writes for Russian film and television, as well as Maxim, a popular Russian-language cultural journal. He resides in Kiev. In Fighter Class 'medea', a world war has erupted between men and women. as the women raze New York City, an anti-aircraft battery, composed of an international team of soldiers, fights to defend itself and escape the threat of domestic slavery. the piece is ideally suited for one male and three female players - not the other way around, as it may first appear. . .
Notes:
Original Playwright - Maksym Kurochkin
1st Produced:
Lark Play Development Center, New York, NY 2004
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Translation
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 3 Other: None - but the genders of the four roles are flexible
Further Reference:
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Top of PageMooncrazed
Synopsis:
This play is a Russian fantasia for today - a theatrical rumination on the Cyrano de Bergerac story enhanced by Kurochkin's signature flights of imagination and brilliant dialogue. the Cyrano figure in this play is older than the one in popular film adaptations, and Kurochkin shifts the focus away from the typical swashbuckling and romantic poetry toward Cyrano's lesser-known scientific inclinations. the settings oscillate between 17th-century France, where the visionary poet-scientist struggles to be understood, and 21st-century Russia, where a frustrated newspaper columnist struggles to hold together a life coming apart at the seams. Other alluring figures inhabit both locales; the play, however, illuminates not so much the relationships between its characters as the spaces that keep them apart. Ultimately, it asks profound questions about artistic integrity, the purpose of work, and the nature of reality itself. a sprawling yet galvanizing theatrical romp with a big heart at its core, Mooncrazed takes its audiences on an unforgettable journey and leaves them musing about the universe they thought they knew.
Notes:
Original Playwright - Maksym Kurochkin
1st Produced:
NYU Tisch Studio Theatre, 2010
Organisations:
hotINK Festival of New Plays
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:
Drama/Comedy
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 4 Other: One non-speaking role
Further Reference:
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Top of PageRight of the Captain of the R.M.S. Carpathia,the
Synopsis:
This giddy romp of a play imagines a future for the captain of the one vessel that managed to rescue survivors from the Titanic disaster. Invested with a special right - eternal life - he has taken to exploring the world by sea, in search of something worth dying for. Now, trying to save a great city from sliding into decay, he has assembled a crew of misfits to help him fulfill his mission. When they are suddenly captured by the royal naval, they must put their heads together to devise a plan that can save them all - and give the Captain what he has been seeking. the wildly imaginative Maksym Kurochkin throws us into a tumultuous day at sea, with the Captain and his crew of five souls passionately clinging to life - along with a samurai, who has turned up for no apparent reason. In the end, both the Captain and the samurai find their purpose, the crew turns into a family, yet the mystery remains: who will inherit the right of the Captain of the R.M.S. Carpathia? Who wants to have eternal life - and what is the price that must be paid for it?
Notes:
Original Playwright - Maksym Kurochkin
1st Produced:
Breaking String Theater, Austin, TX Mar 2012
Organisations:
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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:
mystery / tragedy
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 2 Other: Several extras (sailors, angels of death, et al.)
Further Reference:
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Top of PageVodka, Fucking, And Television
Synopsis:
In Vodka, Fucking, and Television, the three title figures vie for position in the life of a thirtysomething playwright, who is undergoing a very "Russian" artistic crisis. Determined to get his muse back, the playwright (also known as the Hero) has vowed to jettison one of these debilitating vices from his life. It is up to each of them to convince the Hero that Vodka - or Fucking, or Television - is not the one who should go. as conflicting accusations are hurled around the room, tempers flare, and the Hero is forced both to confront his past and to recognize his true self. Can he figure out what he needs to revivify his creative genius in time to save his waning career? astute in its social observations, Vodka, Fucking, and Television is a gritty domestic comedy that leaps from rapid-fire exchanges of blistering insults to inspired arias lionizing the best things left in contemporary Russia. along the way, it stirs up questions about what all of us, Russians and Americans alike, are doing with our lives - and what we could do without.
Notes:
Original Playwright - Maksym Kurochkin. the Hero must be played by A male, And Fucking must be A played by A female; the other two characters may be played by men or women.
1st Produced:
Dad's Garage, Atlanta, Ga 2007
Organisations:
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1st Published:
http://www.theatreforum.org/, Winter/Spring 2008 -
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:
Translation
Parts:
Male: 1-3 Female: 1-3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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