The Playwrights Database
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Darkness At Noon
Synopsis:
A former member of the Central Committee is in a Siberian prison camp. He refuses to confess to the crimes that have been fabricated against him and is executed
Notes:
Based on the novel "Darkness At Noon" by Arthur Koestler
1st Produced:
-
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Contained in: "the Best Plays 1950 1951" published by Dodd Mead 1951
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:
Adaptation
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Dead End
Synopsis:
against a brilliant setting, we are introduced to the street urchins, who only too readily turn to the devious methods of their elders in making their hard way in life; against a background of tenements and a magnificent east River apartment, standing side by side, we see unfold before us a story of gangsters and police, simple pleasures and vice, and of wealth flaunted in the face of poverty. a stirring story of young love is skillfully combined with the last efforts of a gangster to see his mother, and the young man's ultimate capture
Notes:
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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: 22 Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Detective Story
Synopsis:
the scene is the squad room and office in a New York police station. the playwright presents a fascinatingly realistic picture of routine cases brought into a metropolitan police station in the course of a day. Out of the welter of human misery, vice and stupidity there emerges the tragic and moving case of a decent young fellow who has stolen money from his employer. Though a woman who is in love with him comes to his help and the employer is offered everything that has been taken from him, the case has fallen into the hands of McLeod, a hardworking detective whose experience in police work has developed in him a mania for punishing all law breakers, whom he regards as incorrigibles. Nothing will satisfy him but brutal punishment. He is at work at the same time on a case involving an abortionist whose attorney, failing to move him by other means, forces McLeod's wife to confess to her husband that she had herself some years before made use of the services of the abortionist in question. Since McLeod worships his wife and finds in her the only happiness of his existence, his world collapses about him. the climax comes when McLeod gets involved with another prisoner who attempts to escape from the squad room with the aid of a revolver taken from one of the detectives. McLeod is shot and killed. This climax is a fitting end to McLeod's career. To the last, he had been bent upon doing what he considered his duty-in seeing that criminals obeyed the letter of the law at no matter what cost.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Hudson, NY
23 Mar 1949
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: 24 Female: 8 Other: several non-speaking extras and several of the males can be doubled): 20 total
Further Reference:
Wearing - the London Stage 50.54
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Lunatics And Lovers
Synopsis:
Boy meets good time girl but ends up happily in his wife's arms. The gangster turns out to be a puusy cat
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Broadhurst Theatre, New York
1954
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Contained in: "Theatre 55" published by Random House 1955
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:
Farce
Parts:
Male: 9 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Men In White
Moral issues surrounding abortion
Notes:
won the Pulitzer Prize
1st Produced:
Group Theatre
1933
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Covici Friede, New York 1933
Gollancz , London (1934)
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: 9 Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Night Life
Synopsis:
a wide assortment of characters gather in the play's setting: a gangster-run New York nightclub. they include a brutal and power-mad labor leader; a female singer who thinks she loves him; an idealistic young attorney haunted by memories of the man he had bayoneted in Korea; a foreign movie sex symbol with strong Lesbian leanings; and a weary old liberal, once a poet, now in the furniture business, who has drinking problems. While the sinister labor boss, who waits for news that his men have killed an honest union leader whom he had once worshipped, is the central figure in the action, the ex-poet is the focal point. Years ago, his son drowned while trying to save some strangers and his wife has never forgiven him. aware of his futility and the fact that he is looked upon as an old fool, he must give his own life to save the embittered young attorney from the labor man's knife. In the end, there is a moment of truth and revelation which probes deeply into the char-acters themselves and into the meaning of the play as a comment on modern society and its ills.
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: 17 Female: 7 Other: extras: 20 total
Further Reference:
-
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Patriots, The
Synopsis:
This beautiful tribute to the American spirit is a chronicle history of the important years in Jefferson's life. Winner of the Critics Circle award. the play requires a large cast of characters, most of them men, and a number of sets
Notes:
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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:
Historical Drama, full length
Parts:
Male: 18 Female: 5 Other: 20 total
Further Reference:
-
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Ten Million Ghosts
Synopsis:
World War One. The Allied troops are told not to attack or bomb a German munitions factory. This is because it is owned by an American tycoon. An American pilot does bomb it but dies in the attempt
Notes:
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1st Produced:
St James Theatre, New York
1936
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:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 28 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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World We Make, The
Synopsis:
Based on Brand's "the Outward Room." the play skillfully Dramatizes the struggles of a sensitive girl to discover happiness by finding her proper place in life.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Guild Theatre, New York
20 Nov 1939
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: 10 Female: 7 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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