doollee banner
The Playwrights Database
contact doollee


Beth Henley

BETH HENLEY

  (1952 - )
Nationality:    USA
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Abrams Artists Agency  

Born in Jackson, Mississippi, May 8, 1952. B.F.A. in Theatre, Southern Methodist U., one year in acting in M.F.A. program, U of Illinois. Written TV pilot for Morgan's Daughters, Para-mount. Recipient: Co-winner Great American Playwriting Contest, actor's Theatre of Louis-ville, 1978; Pulitzer Prize.

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 Beth Henley's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Abundance         Am I Blue?         Control Freaks         Crimes Of the Heart         Debutante Ball, The         Family Week         Impossible Marriage         Jacksonian, The         Laugh         L-Play         Lucky Spot, The         Miss Firecracker Contest, The         Motherhood Out Loud         Redesign         Revelers         Ridiculous Fraud         Signature         Sisters Of the Winter Madrigal         Wake Of Jamey Foster, The

Abundance

Synopsis:
Bess Johnson and Macon Hill are mail-order brides who meet while waiting for their husbands to pick them up to start life in a small town in the Wyoming Territory in the 1860s. Bess is a romantic while Macon Hill is exuberant and determined about getting on with life in the West, one that promises to be full of possibility. the husbands arrive. Bess, expecting Mike Flynn, gets his bother, Jack. Macon's husband is William Curtis, a widower with one eye and a scarred face. Life becomes very difficult for Bess and Jack, and Bess is constantly abused and totally unappreciated. they struggle-and fail-to make ends meet. On the other hand, Macon is hardly tolerant of William, although the couple is affluent. One Christmas eve, in a rage, Jack burns down the cabin. Macon and William take the couple in and start living together for a longer time than expected. Bess and Macon, having forged a strong bond, decide that some day they will strike out on their own, though Macon is reluctant to actually do so. Some time, lat

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Costa Mesa, California     1989

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Am I Blue?

Synopsis:
Begins in a seedy New Orleans bar where John Polk Richards, a college freshman whose fraternity brothers have paid his way into a bordello as an eighteenth birthday present, is bolstering his courage with liquor. He is approached by ashbe, a fey young creature who invites him to the littered apartment which she shares with her absent father. as high strung and flaky as John Polk is nervous and tentative, ashbe initiates him into her secret fantasy life as she tries to bridge the loneliness which infuses them both. She strings Cheerios to make a necklace and then nibbles at them; puts blue food coloring in John Polk's rum and Coke; lets him hear the sea in her favorite conch shell; and finally, invites him to make love to her-an offer which he politely declines. Sometimes wildly funny, sometimes gently affecting, the play is a wonderfully resourceful study of two young people, both unsure and apprehensive, whose unexpected encounter becomes, for both of them, a valuable lesson in coping with life-now and in the future.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Dallas     1973

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1982   -

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 One act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Control Freaks

Synopsis:
Sister Willard (a troubled woman who struggles with three personalities: Sister, Spaghetti and Pinkie) returns from jury duty to discover her brother, Carl, has married Betty. Carl and Betty have big plans to open up Furniture World. all they need is Sister's signature on the papers, and the building will be theirs. Paul, the owner of the building, is invited over to sign the papers and have cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Sister decides to "set her cap" for Paul because she wants Carl to see that "she can get a man." Betty doesn't like this plan because she is secretly and very sexually involved with the seductive Paul. Murder, mayhem and memories unfold as these four desperate characters vie for ultimate control.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Chicago     1992

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:
Drama One act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Crimes Of the Heart

Crimes Of the Heart
Three indomitable southern sisters are fighting to deal with their hopes and troubles. Babe, twenty-four, is out of jail on bail. She has just shot her husband, Senator Zachery Botrelle, because, "she didn't like his looks." Meg, twenty-seven, has flown in from Los Angeles, where her career as a singer has collapsed and she has been reduced to working as a clerk in a dog food company. Lenny, the oldest, has just turned thirty and feels she will never find love because she has been afflicted with a "deformed ovary" and can never bear children.

Notes:
Winner of the 1981 Pulitzer Prize

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Viking Press, New York, 1982   978-0670247813

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:  2            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Debutante Ball, The

Synopsis:
This stunning comic Drama, set in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, begins the morning of Teddy Parker's debutante ball, that archetypal phenomenon in Southern culture known as a maiden's "coming out." Teddy's mother, the beautiful and formidable Jen Parker Turner, has willed this event into being. Ostracized from polite society ever since she was accused and-under much speculation and gossip-acquitted of the murder of her wealthy husband, Jen has been looking to Teddy's coming-out gala to revive her and her family's reputation. as the play unfolds, various secrets emerge: an unwanted pregnancy, an illicit romance, self-mutilation, mendacity and murder. Polite facades crumble and ugly truths twist and polka across the ballroom floor. This is a play about the price of secrets and the power that love and lovelessness hold over our lives.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Costa Mesa, California     1985

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
University of Mississippi Press, Jackson, 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:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Family Week

Synopsis:
a year after the death of her son, Claire checks into a recovery center in the desert, searching for a way to cope. When her mother, daughter, and sister arrive to participate in "family week," long-dormant traumas collide with recent tragedies in surprisingly comical, shocking, and deeply moving ways. United in this family struggle, the women rage and reach out in an effort to reconcile their love with the way things are.
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
MCC Theater

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Impossible Marriage

Synopsis:
the entire action of the play takes place in Kandall Kingsley's beautiful and mysterious garden. Kandall's youngest daughter, Pandora, is to be wed to edvard Lunt, a worldly artist twice her age. Kandall does not think the match to be at all suitable. Flora, Pandora's older sister, who is expecting a child at any moment, plots to break off the marriage. Unexpectedly, Sidney Lunt, the groom's son, arrives with a note from his mother in which she vows to throw herself from an attic window if the marriage goes forward. even Reverend Lawrence who has come to wed the couple has secret hopes and desperate desires. Throughout this wildly funny and moving play the characters struggle heroically with the impossibility of finding an allegiance between their civilized duties and primitive desires.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Arclight Theatre, NY     2005

Organisations:
Indigo Productions

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

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Jacksonian, The

Synopsis:
Jackson, Mississippi, 1964. When his wife kicks him out, respectable dentist Bill Perch moves into the seedy Jacksonian Motel. There, his downward spiral is punctuated by encounters with his teenage daughter, a gold-digging motel employee, a treacherous bartender, and his now-estranged wife. Revolving around the night of a murder, THE JACKSONIAN brims with suspense and dark humor and unearths the eerie tensions and madness in a town poisoned by racism.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    978-0822231462

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:
Dark Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Laugh

Synopsis:
The West. The 1920s. Mabel's had a hard few weeks. A dynamite accident at a gold mine has left her wealthy but orphaned, and she's shipped off to a calculating aunt whose nephew is charged with seducing her to control Mabel's fortune. This hapless courtship reveals a shared love of silent movies and a plan for greater things. A story of mishaps and moxie, the romance of Hollywood and ultimately a Hollywood-caliber romance.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Studio Theatre, DC, USA >>>     11 Mar 2015

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc. NY (2015)   -

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:
slapstick comedy 120 min

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

L-Play

Synopsis:
a fascinating study of style, character and rhythm. the play is written in twelve scenes. each scene has a unique style and is a mini play in itself. the element that unites these pieces is that each scene title begins with the letter L. the scenes include: "Learner," a young student struggles to gain the affection of his beloved through poetry; "Lunatic," an isolated woman fights going mad, goes mad, and after circling the edge finds redemption; "Leaving," a piece performed in masks in which a granddaughter seeks to find the secrets of her dying grandmother's life; "Loser," a small-town guy tries to get his best friend to hit on his girlfriend to test her loyalty. the final piece, "Life," is primarily a dance where the primitive family of Ones encounters the Shoe who presents them with the terrible joy of life.

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:
Drama One act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Lucky Spot, The

Synopsis:
the place is Pigeon, Louisiana, the time Christmas 1934-at the low point of the American Depression. Reed Hooker, a compulsive gambler, has won a rundown rural dance hall in a poker game, and hopes that it will make his fortune. assisted by the faithful Turnip and an underaged waif named Cassidy (whom Reed also won at cards and whom he has made pregnant), Reed has christened the place "the Lucky Spot" and is preparing for the grand opening. Cassidy, hoping that Reed will divorce his present spouse and marry her, has secretly arranged for his estranged wife, Sue Jack, to have Christmas parole from the prison where she was committed for doing away with Reed's last ladylove. But as Sue Jack and Reed detest each other (or think that they do) her unexpected arrival starts the fur flying-particularly after the volatile Sue Jack, who is supposed to stay on the wagon, comes across both a loaded pistol and a jar of good southern moonshine. Complications multiply (except for the rather forlorn, weak-ankled Lacey), and the sinister Whitt Carmichael (to whom Reed owes money) turns up with a dispossess order. In the end the Lucky Spot proves not to be so lucky, but Reed and Sue Jack do discover that what they think is hate is really love-and the others, in one very funny way or another, also get their just desserts.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1987

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1987   -

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

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Miss Firecracker Contest, The

Synopsis:
Carnelle, twenty-four, is striving to win the Miss Firecracker Con-test - a beauty contest held every Fourth of July in her hometown, Brookhaven, MS. Carnelle's two cousins, elain and Delmount, both return home in time to see her through the contest. elain, a fading beauty, has left her rich husband in Natchez. Delmount, twenty-eight, recently released from a lunatic asylumn is intent on selling the house and "every stick of furniture in it." Popeye Jackson, twenty-three, appears on the scene to make Carnelle's costume for the contest - she can hear voices through her eyes.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Victory Theatre, La, Ca     1980

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1985   -

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:
full legth Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Motherhood Out Loud

Synopsis:
Utterly unpredictable, Motherhood Out Loud shatters traditional notions about parenthood, unveils its inherent comedy and celebrates the deeply personal truths that span and unite generations. Motherhood Out Loud reveals with illuminating insight the humor, raw emotions and rocky roads we experience in life.
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
Written by Leslie Ayvazian, Brooke Berman, David Cale, Jessica Goldberg, Beth Henley, Lameece Issaq, Claire LaZebnik,Lisa Loomer, Michele Lowe, Marco Pennette, Theresa Rebeck, Luanne Rice, Annie Weisman And Cheryl L. West.

1st Produced:
59e59 theaters
59 East 59th Street, New York, NY 10022     04 Oct 2011

Organisations:
Primary Stages

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    978-0822225898

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:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Redesign

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Town Hall, New York     2002

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:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Revelers

Synopsis:
the play takes place in a cottage on the shore of Lake Michigan where devotees of Dash Grey, the charismatic artistic director of Chicago's Red Lantern theatre, have come to commemorate his death. Jasper Dale (Dash's ex-lover) is in charge of the elaborate proceedings. In a desperate attempt to save the struggling Red Lantern theatre, Jasper taints the event by including Kate Spoon, a wealthy, talent-free matron, who insists on being regarded as an artist. as the play proceeds, Caroleena Lark, a psychic orphan, who has sacrificed her life for the theatre discovers that Kate Spoon is going to have her fired. Other complications occur when eddy Canary, a middle-aged homeless playwright, shows up hoping to resurrect his love affair with Victor Lloyd. Victor, or Vickie, is a beautiful, modestly gifted protege of the deceased who has become a success in Hollywood. She arrives in a state of nerves having nearly been blown to bits in a high-tech science-fiction adventure film written and directed by the young Hollywood genius Timothy Harold.

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

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Ridiculous Fraud

Synopsis:
a disastrous New Orleans wedding rehearsal dinner is the latest in a series of unfortunate events that befall the Clay brothers in Beth Henley's boisterous and bittersweet new comedy. Daddy's in jail for fraud, Uncle Baites has taken up with a panhandler, and Lafcad's just called off his own wedding. What family doesn't have its ups and downs? Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Crimes of the Heart, Henley returns to her Southern roots with a vengeance in RIDICULOUS FRaUD, an equally outsized and even more achingly poignant saga of three grown brothers trying to outrun a family history that tends to the worst-case scenario.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service Inc, NY, 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:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Signature

Synopsis:
Two brothers, Boswell and Maxwell, are living in Los Angeles in the year 2052. Knowing he is seriously ill, Boswell seeks to revive his fame as a once acclaimed art philosopher. In his obsession to leave a legacy, a signature, he pushes away the love of a young woman (named William) who is a dedicated worker on the Splat Out Crew. the younger brother, Maxwell, becomes so distraught when his wife, L-Tip, divorces him on video divorce that he calls up the euthanasia Hot Line and requests to be "euthed" because of a broken heart. Max is thus transformed into an icon of twenty-first-century romantic love and suddenly discovers the wonders of glamour and the price of fame.

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:
Drama, full length

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Sisters Of the Winter Madrigal

Synopsis:
Calaih and Taretta, the orphaned daughters of Joshua the Cow Herder, live together in a hut outside a medieval village. Calaih, a girl with beautiful long red hair, roams the hills with her cow and falls desperately in love with Stephan, the Shoemaker's son. Taretta, the older sister, is a ravishing seductress who is the most sought after prostitute in the land. Fortune changes for the two sisters when the High Lord proclaims he will marry Calaih because he is obsessed with her glorious hair, and Taretta's arm becomes afflicted with a menacing disease.

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:
Drama One act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Wake Of Jamey Foster, The

Synopsis:
the scene is a small town in Mississippi, where the family of Jamey Foster, a failed poet and would-be historian, who was kicked in the head by a cow while consorting with his mistress in a pasture, have gathered for his wake. the mourners, who include Jamey's estranged wife; her sister and brother and the brother's fey girlfriend; Jamey's upwardly mobile brother and his oppressively doting wife; and an eccentric family friend who raises pigs - all seem to agree on one point - none of them really liked the deceased very much. But on most other matters they are far apart, and as old enmities flare up the play explodes with bizarre humour and zany revelations. In the end a tenuous truce is reached as those assembled prepare to depart for the final rites - but it is abundantly dear that the lives on which Jamey had a baleful effect in his lifetime may well be changed for the better by his untimely demise.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Hartford, Connecticut     1982

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1983   -

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

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page