The Playwrights Database
LANNIE HILL
Nationality: USA
email: Click here to contact Website: n/a
Literary Agent: n/a
Lannie Hill is an American author and playwright. He has published multiple plays (Uncle Alton, Spindrift, Her Eyes, Like Diamonds and There Are No Blue Flowers in the Tropics), an anthology of dramatic works, a volume of monologues (The Nine Monologues from Experience), an epic dramatic poem (ACKIA) and a novel (The Slave to Memory). He lives and works in New York City.
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below is a list of Lannie Hill's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Ackia Apocryphon Becket Schmecket Cabinet, The Country Vicar, The Her Eyes Like Diamonds Nine Monologues from Experience, The Spindrift Sweetest Thing, The There Are No Blue Flowers in the Tropics Translucence of Flesh, The Uncle Alton You Love MeAckia
Synopsis:
ACKIA reveals phantoms rising from the past in a legend of gods and heroes, blood and glory, pride and folly, lust and absolute devotion. ACKIA evokes the soaring emotions of heroism and desire amidst the ferocious horrors of combat. ACKIA broods upon the hope for fame and reveals the stunning brutality of its fulfillment. This Epic Dramatic Poem, set in The Chickasaw War of 1736, pits the contentious agendas of the French and the English in the Colonial American South against Native American society. ACKIA fuses the mythical and historical into a heroic poem of two half-brothers who are unknown to each other. One brother, Quouatchitabe, is the peace chieftain of the Chickasaw Indians. The other, Bienville, is the French governor, who leads an army to destroy the Chickasaw. Quouatchitabe and Bienville's mother is the goddess Thetis. She strives to shield both her sons as their worlds collide in a cataclysmic life and death struggle. The resulting tragedy reveals that even the combined might of the gods and their heroes cannot stay the turning wheel of Destiny.
Notes:
DANIELLE and Idyllwild Arts are pleased to announce the premiere of ACKIA, a fourteen-hour-long avant-garde sound performance of author Lannie Hill's Homeric poem of the same name set in the Chickasaw War of 1736. ACKIA combines the essence of sound with the concepts of abstraction and minimalism. Pre-recorded music and sound by artist Ivan Wong's ensemble, Ivan Wong's Plastic Products, melds with live sound manipulation during the dramatic reading, uniting as a visceral and emotional soundfield installation that brings Hill's epic to life on stage.
1st Produced:
William M. Lowman Concert Hall, Idyllwild Arts Academy, 52500 Temecula Road, San Bernardino National Forest, California, USA
25 Jun 2017
Organisations:
Danielle
1st Published:
Enfilade Media Group. August 28, 2012
Music:
-
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Genre:
epic
Parts:
Male: 8 Female: 2 Other: Cast of Hundreds
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageApocryphon
Synopsis:
Author Lannie Hill's strangely poetic Apocryphon discloses a common human longing: the need to believe in a supernal power. Six pilgrims leave an impressionistic train station in the middle of the night. Their destination is unknown. But their fates are entirely intertwined. They seek to find something higher than their own human faults. These six, representative of us all, have their towering failures. Like us, they want to find redemption through a higher ideal. They come forth, across the stage, bearing the manner of pity and forbearance: Ballie Jen is a tightrope walker, of sorts, who could never get in line. Benus Noches takes his turn as a womanizer and a drunk, the best at it ever. Bed-ridden Sally suffers as a victim of disease, who wants to die, but can't, can't ever. Howlin' Johnson rants as a prophet and a liar, always trusted, never quite honest, but ever above reproach. Dan Picayune has seen the loss of three wives and there is no end in sight. Dibelius is a demanding woman. Unfortunately, no man could ever stay with her. And no wonder, she can see right through everyone. Who then would assume the guise and gesture of the divine persona they seem to require? Could it be someone as fallible and human as the rest of us? Lastly, The Puppet Player materializes. Behold the tyrant who has invented the world or at least he claims to have. It doesn't take long for him to assume spiritual command. The pilgrims must grapple within and without if they are to believe in what they know to be true or to merely follow another charlatan into the ditch.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Enfilade Media Group, 2014
Music:
-
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Genre:
Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageBecket Schmecket
Synopsis:
A ribald piece of spoofery, in which the Standing Man and the Sitting Man have it out over the meaning of our lives. Winking at Becket, but not having the same wit or thought, this piece plows through out human condition and tells us that in the end all of us are left standing there, with our pants down.
Notes:
BECKET SCHMECKET continued the next year at The Triad
1st Produced:
Spring Theatre Works, Dumbo, Brooklyn, New York City
11 Dec 2003
Organisations:
Ben Roberts and Paul Bernstein
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
Parody/Spoof/Prank
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageCabinet, The
Synopsis:
THE CABINET FILES (The Demon of Vanity) is a multidisciplinary performance art piece conceived and performed by Emily Raw, Aaron Sheppard and Lannie Hill, featuring Victoria Ludden and Jennifer Moskovitz as improvising dancers.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Club Lone Wolf
26 Aug 2011
Organisations:
Dadealus & Son
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
performance art
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageCountry Vicar, The
Synopsis:
The Country Vicar is a ribald twenty-minute sermon, told in the only language that makes sense: British. The Vicar rails and pounds his podium, detesting and deriding the evils of drinking, gambling, and sex. Yet within the same short sermon, he becomes obsessed and undone by all three, leaving us with an ending that hasn't been seen on this continent. In our previous two runs, the audience has been tested. The Vicar starts out straight and narrow enough, so if you like him at first, you won't like him at the end. Either way, the audience is gloriously screwed. So audience members' perceptions of those in the costume of a holy man are twisted to the breaking point, whether one adheres to a particular religious point of view or not. As performed by Paul McWicker, The Country Vicar, sets out to demolish the audience's stymied, locked down perceptions of purveyors of religion. In a matter of twenty minutes, there are no perceptions left standing. There is only an audience, still seated or just having left in disdain, forced to make up their own minds or blow it off as pure prepostery.
Notes:
Paul McWicker was born in London, England. He flunked out of The Royal Academy of Acting, due to having many of his own brilliant ideas. Regardless of a few stints in jail for brawling and multiple misdemeanor arrests for public drunkenness, he has performed extensively in London's West End and has toured throughout the UK in School for Scandal, Julius Caesar, Arcadia and Bedroom Farce. Mr. McWicker doesn't particularly enjoy coming to America. However, when he can perform a work that isn't a lie or constitute a "commercial venture", he doesn't mind cutting a swath through our fair city, especially since there are so many pubs for drinking and brawling.
1st Produced:
Seventh Street Stage, East Village, New York City
22 Apr 2005
Organisations:
Al Dente Productions and Daedalus & Son
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
Long Monologue
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageHer Eyes Like Diamonds
Synopsis:
A forty-year-old farmer puts up a new fence along the road bordering his dairy. A school bus goes by. There is a beautiful, gifted junior on that bus. As the bus passes, the farmer looks up and sees the beautiful junior. And she sees him. So begins a hopeful yet controversial drama of deep love and affection, followed by harrowing tragedy, set in the late Twentieth Century American South. It is inevitable that the junior, Sandy, and the farmer, Will, through happenstance and Fate, come to believe that their lives have become numbingly dull. Sandy spends her time away from school, taking care of her mother, Odell. Odell was rendered invalid by the same car accident that killed her husband and Sandy's father. Sandy gets no help from her older brothers to take care of Odell. Sandy is on the verge of losing her sanity. Will has survived a marital engagement, which was broken off by a woman who thought herself above him. She didn't want to spend her life on Will's farm. Since then, Will has rarely left his farm. At this confluence of events, these troubled, yearning souls decide to escape, by driving late into the night, and as far as Will's car can take them. When Sandy and Will get back, the small town is determined and unkind to their love. Odell and the legal system separate them. Sandy and Will are forced to spend their time apart. In HER EYES, LIKE DIAMONDS, author Lannie Hill explores the intimate feelings of two desirous spirits in a passionate resolution to follow their hearts in this rural Southern love story.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
New York City
08 Apr 1999
Organisations:
Oberon Theatre Company
1st Published:
Skyline Books (in the anthology Selected Dramatic Works 1996 - 2003 by Lannie Hill), 22 mar 2006
Music:
-
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Genre:
Drama
Parts:
Male: 8 Female: 5 Other: A College Band, Extra Supporting Players
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageNine Monologues from Experience, The
Synopsis:
A woman sewn inside an elk against her will struggles to be reborn. A man descends to the bottom of a black ocean to discover what meaning may be lurking in the face of a yellow-eyed monster. A woman born to a grim Sisyphean task finds a door out of her anguish, but then fights to get back in. A man turned wolf, turns human again to save himself from his greedy compeers. Author and playwright Lannie Hill conjures nine memorable devolutions into our humanity with THE NINE MONOLOGUES FROM EXPERIENCE. Seeking what makes us do what we do, Hill struggles with us to find the moments, which define our existence. We confront the traps we may prevail over and the ones we cannot. Delving into the yearnings and human failings of Post-post Modern Life, THE NINE MONOLOGUES FROM EXPERIENCE reaches into the senses, eliciting odors, textures and feelings, which reveal the complexity of our human isolation.
Notes:
Contents: 1. what you see (for female or male); 2. The Alpha Male (for male); 3. Is This Euphoria? (for male or female); 4. Lizard King with Surf Nymphs (for male); 5. Along the Aztec Upwarp (for female or male); 6. The Sea Box (for male); 7. Sewn Up in Montana (for female); 8. Made Me (for male or female); 9. The State of Fading (for female or male)
1st Produced:
The Piano Store, Les, New York City
26 Feb 1998
Organisations:
Todo con Nada
1st Published:
Enfilade Media Group, August 14, 2013
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Monologues
Parts:
Male: Various Female: Various Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageSpindrift
Synopsis:
Two old men find themselves sharing a campfire on the beach, bordering the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Vic has been a wrestler in Memphis, a brutal and much lauded fish in a small pond. The other man, Glenn, has been a small time chop shop mechanic, a criminal with mental problems from the get go. One black, one white, both of them are originally from the same small town, upstate. Having encountered each other twice before in their long lives, they reveal the score of Time. Glenn pulled Vic from the waters in a shrimp boat accident. Vic helped Glenn recover from a suicide attempt. They have saved each other's lives. Tonight is their final and most fateful round of lies and confessions. They will decide whether to venture forth and face the future alone. Or bonded together, stand against the cruelties of the world.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Sammons Center For The Arts, Dallas, Texas
26 Jun 1989
Organisations:
Daedalus & Son
1st Published:
Enfilade Media Group, Nov 23, 2013
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: 2 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageSweetest Thing, The
Synopsis:
A car pulls into a parking lot in front of a cafe in a small southern town. A nervous man in the car watches a family leave the Diner. The man goes inside and meets the lone waitress. The man asks for dessert. She recites the menu. He wants pecan pie. She tells him they make the pie at the Diner and it's very sweet. This is what he wants. She serves him a slice of pie. He eats it. He asks for another slice. He eats it more quickly than the first. As the waitress refills the sugar shakers, the man asks for yet another slice of pie. She stops her task and serves the pie. She gets out her ticket pad to write his bill. He demands the other half of the pie. She is shocked, but she serves him. As he eats the rest of the pie, he asks the waitress if she has any knowledge about being married. She isn't, but she ponders her own future, wondering if love will come to her. Finishing the pie, the man confesses that his wife has left him. He becomes very ill. The waitress tries to help. He refuses and goes out to his car. The waitress cleans the counter. The man slumps in his car, dying. He hand opens to reveal a card, which reads: "I am a diabetic."
Notes:
THE SWEETEST THING was later written as a short film by the author. It was then co-directed by the author and Peppy Biddy. It starred William Laney and Miranda McBeth.
1st Produced:
The Theatre-Studio As A Part Of The Playtime Series, Midtown, New York City
28 May 2002
Organisations:
The Theatre-Studio
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Booksellers:
Genre:
One Act
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageThere Are No Blue Flowers in the Tropics
Synopsis:
THERE ARE NO BLUE FLOWERS IN THE TROPICS is a divisive, disturbing portrait of an unrepentant libertine and the women he beguiles. Over the course of a year, at the turn of each season, The Man enters his favorite formal garden in New York City. And there he strikes. The Man seduces and charms his way through the hearts of four women, each very strong and very unique. Petra, a research scientist, met him in Dallas. Her mother was crazy about The Man. So she decided that he was for Petra. But The Man could not be tamed. Enter Titania, a college student from the neighborhood. She is perhaps more hopeful about the future than the rest. But she mainly wants to get it on. Then Isabella, a landscape architect, from Sao Paulo comes on. Ill at ease with The Man's overtures, she fights him off, for a while, anyway. Lastly Donna appears. She has known The Man since college. Her many talents and careers make her more compatible with The Man. Could Donna bring The Man to heel and help him accept a conventional life? Author Lannie Hill challenges the sexes in this "whose side do you take" exposure of the feelings of women and The Man who can't quite bring himself to settle.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Skyline Books (in the anthology Selected Dramatic Works 1996 - 2003 by Lannie Hill), December 15, 2005
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 Length Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageTranslucence of Flesh, The
Synopsis:
Author Lannie Hill envisions the futurist Faustian "great man" as perfect grist for stark, curt satire in THE TRANSLUCENCE OF FLESH. In the near future, an extraordinarily gifted doctor and his colleague wife are determined to find a cure for their terribly disabled son. They have gone to great lengths and have failed to bring their child back to reasonable health. Then there is a call to war. The doctor is recruited by a Mephistophelian Colonel to join a covert branch of the military. The Colonel promises all the facilities the doctor and his wife can imagine, to help their son, as long as they follow his orders. As the war escalates, the doctor and his wife are pledged to work with a special Corps of Physicians, in an occupied land. Here the full horror of their vow to the Colonel becomes apparent. The Corps is detailed to engage in medical experiments on live human subjects. The doctor and his wife are greatly conflicted by their duty, but they are driven further to restore their son to normality. As the war effort declines, the Colonel exacts another oath from the doctor of even more damning fealty. With their army on the run, the doctor is commanded by the Colonel to create a Last Act device to obliterate the massive opposing army. The Colonel promises the doctor that his child will stand and walk again by the intercession of dark forces, if he actualizes the world destroyer. THE TRANSLUCENCE OF FLESH is a satiric contemplation on morality, asking would we go so far as to destroy the world to save the one we love.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Skyline Books (in the anthology Selected Dramatic Works 1996 - 2003 by Lannie Hill), December 15, 2005
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 Length Drama
Parts:
Male: 10 Female: 9 Other: Supporting Background
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageUncle Alton
Synopsis:
A man named Alton returns HOME after serving a ten-year stretch at Parchman Farm Penitentiary. His FAMILY is comprised of two nephews named John and Willy Lee. They see Alton as a heroic but terribly flawed human being. They still see the man who raised them. They also see a man who was unjustly condemned and broken by his community for doing what he thought was right. John sees Alton as a SHADOW of the man he was. Willy Lee sees his uncle through the lens of his own childhood. Willy Lee makes Alton author of all he knows and all he can hope to be. Willy Lee regards Alton as an infallible master of what it is to be a man, in spirit and in action. Alton uneasily attempts to fit in with the changed dynamic of his former family. But the PAST is as unforgiving as the people from the town. And the townsfolk have rejected Alton outright. Alton's former lover, now married to John, must reject his desperate overture, driving him further into the UNKNOWN. Then, Alton joins a cruel but inevitable pact with Willy Lee, forcing them both into a reckoning of MURDER and CATASTROPHE. "Uncle Alton" transfers the matter of humanity between hard existence and a spiritual realm, showing us the way to enlightenment is precious and inevitably requires the ultimate cost.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Theatre 141, French Hip Pocket, New York City
06 Jun 1991
Organisations:
Daedalus & Son
1st Published:
Dagenham House, November 15, 1995
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: 11 Supporting Roles
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageYou Love Me
Synopsis:
A Tall Man and a Sycophant confront the audience. It's them against you, in a blistering critique of how we live our lives. The Sycophant is on your side. The Tall Man wants knock your block off. Whom will you put in for?
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Seventh Street Stage, East Village, New York City
29 Jan 2005
Organisations:
Al Dente Productions and J. Knox Griffin
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Parody Challenge
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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