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Rick Karlin

RICK KARLIN

  
Nationality:    USA
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a

Rick Karlin has written plays and musicals as well as the serialized novels, "Tales of the Second City" and "Death on the Rocks" as well "Show Biz Kids" (available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com). He is also a widely read columnist covering food/cooking and travel. His columns have appeared in GayLife, Gay Chicago, Outlines, Nightlines, Chicago Free Press, Wisonsin Gazette, Bay Area Reporter, boiMAGazine, Florida Agenda, South Florida Gay News and the Miami Herald's Pallette magazine as well as on-line at ChicagoPride.com and OUtTraveler.com.

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

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

         Alice In Discoland         As Time Goes By         Boy Meats Whirl         Empty Nest         Fractured Fairy Tales         Full Of Beenes         Greece!         Ladies at Large         Mixed Doubles         Moving Day         Musical!         Scrapbook         Spin Cycle - A Musical In Two Loads         Suess On The Loose         Witches Among Us         Women At Large

Alice In Discoland

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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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As Time Goes By

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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:

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Boy Meats Whirl

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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:

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Empty Nest

Synopsis:
The late 1950s. Leo and Rose are moving out of the apartment in which they've lived their entire married life, to go to Florida to retire. Their second son, Adam is helping them move. During the course of the play we find out neither Leo nor Rose want to move, they're both doing so because they think the other wants to and Adam comes to terms with his father comparing him to his brother, who was killed in WWII

Notes:
Originally performed under the overall title: "Moving Day"

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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:
One act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

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Fractured Fairy Tales

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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:

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Full Of Beenes

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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:

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Greece!

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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:

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Ladies at Large

Synopsis:
Five plus-sized women appear in skits performing songs usually assigned to ingenues.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Talman Theater, Chicago     1983

Organisations:
Slightly Off Broadway

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Jukebox Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Mixed Doubles

Synopsis:
The present day, a gay couple, Michael and Harry, are moving into the renovated apartment, now a condo in a gentrified area. Michael's mother Edna is arriving and he hasn't told her that his lover is the same age she is. Mistaken identities abound.

Notes:
Originally performed under the overall title: "Moving Day"

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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:
Gay one act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

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Moving Day

Synopsis:
Act 1 "Empty Nest", set in the late 1950s. Leo and Rose are moving out of the apartment in which they've lived their entire married life, to go to Florida to retire. Their second son, Adam is helping them move. During the course of the play we find out neither Leo nor Rose want to move, they're both doing so because they think the other wants to and Adam comes to terms with his father comparing him to his brother, who was killed in WWII. In Act 2, "Mixed Doubles", set in the present day, a gay couple, Michael and Harry, are moving into the renovated apartment, now a condo in a gentrified area. Michael's mother Edna is arriving and he hasn't told her that his lover is the same age she is. Mistaken identities abound.

Notes:
Two one-acts set in the same apartment. In the first act the couple is moving out, in the second act a couple is moving in. A large dining room table serves as the connection between sets, it was built in the room and couldn't be moved out, so it has remained there for each tenant to use.

1st Produced:
[staged reading] Abyss Theater, Wilton Manors, FL     01 Mar 2015

Organisations:
GayWrites

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:
comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

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Musical!

Synopsis:
A parody of back stage musicals, however each expected outcome has a twist.Set in the 1950s, Lauren Lansbury, the "Bitch of Broadway" is returning to the stage in an attempt to save her failing movie career. During rehearsals for what appears to be a flop, the director (Lauren's first lover) Dirk Ector keeps inserting pieces he think will make the show a hit. Each piece is a parody of a type of song from a musical. For example, he suddenly has a bunch of sailors appear (chorus members) and they perform a number set in the South Pacific. In this story, the ingenue gets to replace the leading lady and she ruins the show, knocking down sets bumping into dancers, etc.

Notes:
The show was produced at the height of the generic food craze and is written as a generic musical. The cast was identified in the program by type; "Leading Lady", "Ingenue", "Wacky Sidekick" etc. All the numbers are listed in the program by their type, "love song", "ballad", "torch song", "big production number" etc. The sets and props all had UPC codes (which were new at the time the show was produced) visible.

1st Produced:
Talman Theater, Chicago     1984

Organisations:
Slightly Off Broadway

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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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  Assorted chorus playing multiple roles

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Scrapbook

Synopsis:
An ensemble piece about the lives of six characters from the 1950s through the 1970s. Each starts out as an archetype (prom king, jock, church girl, etc.) and we see them change as their lives take unexpected twists.

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1st Produced:
Crosscurrents Theatre, Chicago     1982

Organisations:
Slightly Off Broadway

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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:
Jukebox musical

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Spin Cycle - A Musical In Two Loads

Synopsis:
At the laundrette - Jon his new boyfriend and his ex-boyfriend, the straight woman who is in love with him and crazy bag lady

Notes:
Written by Rick Karlin and Frank DePaul

1st Produced:
-     1981

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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:
Gay/Lesbian musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

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Suess On The Loose

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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:
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Witches Among Us

Witches Among Us
Serena Woodruff owns a New York City nightclub where she performs with her friends Tristan Adair and Althea Andromeda. All three are witches, as are the patrons of the club. In an effort to clean up the city in preparation for the World's Fair of 1964-65, Mayor Wagner tasked his police commissioner (who is engaged to a "closeted" witch) to send his top detectives to harass various establishments with "undesirable" patrons, including Serena's club. One of the detectives falls in love with Serena, his partner, much to his surprise falls for her friend Tristan. Eventually both officers leave the force. The play culminates in a riot where the witches fight back against police harassment (a metaphor for the Stonewall Riots-the start of modern gay rights).

Notes:
Show is a metaphor with the McCarthy era "witch hunts" taken to the literal conclusion, hunting actual witches along with "commies, weirdos and queers."

1st Produced:
The Call, Chicago     2014

Organisations:
New American Folk Theater

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Gay/Lesbian musical

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  Assorted chorus play multiple roles; nightclub patrons, society patrons, police

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Women At Large

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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:
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Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

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