doollee banner
The Playwrights Database
contact doollee


Susan Hansell

SUSAN HANSELL

  
Nationality:    USA
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    n/a

Susan Hansell first wrote for the stage by constructing texts for San Francisco Bay Area dancers, choreographers, and performance artists, including herself. As a result, stylized movement and physical elements remain theatrical aspects in her plays. Early pieces can be viewed on YouTube, have been published in More Monologues for Women by Women (Heinemann), and are highlighted by the ensemble production of 14 Ladies in Hats (Project Artaud). Subsequently in New York City, Susan Hansell began to write full-length plays with ensemble casts, including My Medea, a selection of the Best American Short Plays series (Applause); and American Rose, commissioned and produced by Sightlines at The Ohio Theatre, NYC. New plays by Susan Hansell include the historically-driven three-act experimental drama Every Concentrated Fragment (one act of which was presented at the 2017 William Inge Festival and will premier at the Tucson Players Community Playhouse 2018 Festival, July 13-29.); the full-length experimental satire, Waiting for a Table at the Garden of Eden, from which a ten-minute stand-alone excerpt (In the Beginning...) was presented at the Midwest Dramatists Conference in 2017; and, An Ocean of Bees, a post-apocalyptic futuristic-comedy which was presented in excerpt as a staged-reading by the Bechdel Group in New York City at The Tank on March 5, 2018. Susan Hansell is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

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

Buy Plays with Doollee

Each page of doollee.com has links to play/book outlets, either directly to the Publisher, through Stageplays.com and Amazon to the second hand and 1st editions of AbeBooks. These links will automatically take you to the relevant area obviating the need for further search.
AbeBooks.co.uk   AbeBooks.com   Stageplays.com   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.ca
whether you are a Playwright who wishes to make their entry definitive, an unlisted Playwright or a User with a tale to tell - we want to hear from you.
download WORD submission template

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

         14 Ladies In Hats         American Rose         Every Concentrated Fragment         It Means Dick         Little Kings         Mary Mary         My Medea         Ocean of Bees, An         Rollover Othello         Waiting for a Table at the Garden of Eden         We Are All Dick 3         What Do We Have Here?
14 Ladies In Hats

Synopsis:
80 minute character series that explores the tension between expression and repression in the lives of contemporary American women and girls.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Project Artaud     07 Apr 1988

Organisations:
Centerspace

1st Published:
Heinemann - More Monologues for Women by Women, 1996   

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 Performance Series

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

American Rose

Synopsis:
90 minutes. An ensemble cast portrays the changing lives of American women who enter war production workplaces and wartime situations during the 1940s. Their stories are juxtaposed with additional roles iconic of U.S. female individuals from the WWII period.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Ohio Theatre, NYC     06 Mar 1997

Organisations:
Sightlines Theatre Company

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:
ensemble cast

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  8-12            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Every Concentrated Fragment

Synopsis:
In the full-length versions of this play, four actors create multiple roles in an examination of the pressures placed on intellectuals, artists, and ordinary women who live in extraordinary times. In Part One, the actors come alive as under-appreciated historical personages faced with decisions of monumental significance during the 1930s. In Part Two, the actors become French female Partisan resisters arrested on the eve of the Paris deportations during WWII. In Part Three, the actors step outside the characters they have created in order to make a contemporary contribution to the period drama they are about to stage. 4 females. The one-act version of this play feature only the second part (above) and explores the relationships, lives, and the life-outcomes of four factually-based French female Partisan resisters arrested on the eve of the Paris deportations to Auschwitz during WWII.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Community Playhouse, Tucson AZ     13 Jul 2018

Organisations:
Tucson Players

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:
Historically-driven Experimental Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

It Means Dick

Synopsis:
45 minute sequel and second act to We aRe aLL DICK 3, with one additional Human added to the mix of the First Two (above), as the (subsequent) Three continue to examine their cosmological position/s

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Spot Literary Magazine, 2007   

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:  1            Female:  1            Other:  1

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Little Kings

Synopsis:
60 minutes. Five family members exist as present-day fractured-fairy-tale-versions of characters from King Lear, via an originally conceived satire that sends-up 400 years of human civilization and family history. A hilarious and thought-provoking tour de force. 2 female, 2 males, 1 of either.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Oasis 10.1 Jan.-Mar. 2002   

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:
Satire, Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  1

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Mary Mary

Synopsis:
15 minutes. A holiday-themed speed-play presented in 3 vivid snapshot flash-acts. Each act is set in the same suburban California family home at Christmas Dinner; each dinner takes place in a different, consecutive decade.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Inflatable Magazine 5e Winter 1999   

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:
Holiday Satire

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

My Medea

Synopsis:
90 minutes. A vibrant, accessible, and relevant re-telling of Medea, imbued with current events cut from the American landscape. Large ensemble, both males and females.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
University Players Theatre     Mar 2005

Organisations:
Cal Rep

1st Published:
Applause - the Best American Short Plays 1996-97 (1998)   

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:
Contemporary Tragedy

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  multiple

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Ocean of Bees, An

Synopsis:
80 minutes in two acts or 40 minutes in one act. The earth and its resources have collapsed. Four characters remain to represent the human species. Will they find their humanity? Available also as a stand-alone ten-minute play, The Bee Orchard.

Notes:
Roles may be played by male-identified and female-identified or trans actors.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Bechdel Group Reading Series

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:
Experimental

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Rollover Othello

Synopsis:
25 minutes. A stylized satire that achieves an emotional wallop presents Oth, Desdie and I. in a contemporary police house, where they "talk" over their various consummations and conflicts.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Harold Clurman, NYC     1999

Organisations:
Love Creek

1st Published:
Oasis 5.1, Jul-Sep 1996   

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:
experimental adaptation

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Waiting for a Table at the Garden of Eden

Synopsis:
100 minutes. Contemporary versions of Adam and Eve are placed in the Here and the Now among the events and temptations that distract us. Two actors explore their tragicomic world through original uses of language and send-up scenes, in a play that asks: Is a happy ending possible for the progenitors of the human race?

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Annual Conference Festival     Sep 2017

Organisations:
Midwest Dramatists

1st Published:
SpotLit Press, 201   

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:
Experimental Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

We Are All Dick 3

Synopsis:
Two actors present their love/story mash-up by way of re-imagined Richard the Third material, with romantic subplots and cultural machinations spun from current news and entertainment factories. A stand-alone compressed-comedy-drama of warring-yet-peace-making female/male relationships composed as a classic 60-minute one-act play.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Oasis 11.3, Oct-Dec 2003   

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:
Satire

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

What Do We Have Here?

Synopsis:
50 minutes. In a poignant comedy, two new friends, both originally from the East Coast and recently relocated to Southern California, search for an affordable Emergency Room on the Eve of 9/11. A naturalistic and classical one-act that can be staged with as few as 3 actors or as many as an ensemble, if desired, of any ethnicity, with 2 females and 1 male required at minimum.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

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:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page