The Playwrights Database
JAN MAHER
Nationality: USA
email: Click here to contact Website: Click here
Literary Agent: n/a
Jan Maher is a writer and educator whose writing credits include a novel, Heaven, Indiana; one-act plays Ismene and Intruders; Most Dangerous Women (a documentary readers' Theater play co-authored with Nikki Nojima Louis); and books for educators Most Dangerous Women: Bringing History to Life through Readers' Theater; and History in the Present Tense: engaging Students through Inquiry and action (co-authored with Douglas Selwyn). Her play as We Were: Nine Days in October, set during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, is available for college, community, and commercial production. For information, email doghollowpress(at)aol.com.
Research: Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)
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below is a list of Jan Maher's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
As We Were: Nine Days In October Intruders Ismene Most Dangerous Women Solitaire To Die For Widow's WalkAs We Were: Nine Days In October
Synopsis:
doghollowpress (at) aol.com.
Notes:
Twelve roles for college-aged performers; passes the Bechdel test.
1st Produced:
Reading At Suny Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY Apr 2012
Organisations:
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1st Published:
doghollowpress@aol.com -
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:
Drama - full-length
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 7 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageIntruders
Synopsis:
Myrna Waite, an aspiring painter, is alone for the summer while her children visit with their father. She falls asleep on the sofa, and awakens to the presence of a knife-wielding intruder. He's a strange fellow, at first threatening, then vulnerable, named Billy. they chat. She makes him tea. they spend a night together, each finding something in the Exchange That is healing and liberating; but he hides when Myrna's mother stops by the next morning. after mom leaves, he asks Myrna to paint him. He falls asleep on the sofa. Hearing a knock on the door, Myrna hides. an attendant enters to check on Billy. the play ends with the question: which has dreamed the other? Or have they somehow dreamed each other?
Notes:
Designated Best of Fest in New City theater Playwrights Festival, 1988.
1st Produced:
New City Theater, Seattle, Wa 1988
Organisations:
Local access
1st Published:
Rain City Projects, 1992 -
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:
One-act Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageIsmene
Synopsis:
In plays by aeschylus and Sophocles, we learn that Oedipus the King kills his Father and marries his mother. they have four children: Polynices, eteocles, antigone, and Ismene. Polynices and eteocles kill one another in a dispute over who should rule the city. antigone runs afoul of uncle Creon because she insists on proper burial for Polynices; she ends up committing suicide. Ismene is the sole survivor, and she is never heard of again. . .until now. Haunting small parks some 3,000 years later, still looking for resolution, she finds Martha: someone who finally recognizes her and listens to her story. This allows Ismene to do for herself what no one else has done for her: become a monument.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
New City Theater, Seattle 1989
Organisations:
Local access
1st Published:
Rain City Projects, 1992 -
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:
One-act Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageMost Dangerous Women
With Most Dangerous Women, Jan Maher has created a unique gift for teachers and indeed anyone concerned about the fate of the world, in the form of a play in which an extraordinary assemblage of women speak from the stage about war and peace, they speak in clear and compelling language, often with song and poetry, and what they tell their audience, of any age, both educates and inspires. If it were to be performed in schools across the country we might well see a new generation of young people dedicated to ending the scourge of war. - Howard Zinn, author, a People's History of the United States
Notes:
Continually updated script Available from the playwright. Contact doghollowpress (at) Aol.com.
1st Produced:
Museum Of History And Industry, Seattle, Wa Sep 1990
Organisations:
Local access
1st Published:
Heinemann, Mar 2006 978-0325009100
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:
Documentary with music
Parts:
Male: Variable 0 - 2 Female: 9-24 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSolitaire
Synopsis:
Four women play Solitaire, and speak interwoven monologues: Sam is a poet and young mother, Wilma a battered woman in a shelter, Betty Grace a crusty iconoclastic senior citizen, and Lydia a woman struggling to regain her mental health. each feels quite alone until, at the end of the play, they begin to sense the presence of the others.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
New City Theater, Seattle, Wa 1989
Organisations:
Local access
1st Published:
doghollowpress (at) aol.com. -
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:
One-act Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageTo Die For
Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
Provincetown Theater Spring Playwrights' Festival, Provincetown, Ma 2014
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
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:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageWidow's Walk
Synopsis:
an arrogant man awaits his lover, not realizing that the old hag he is talking with is actually that very woman. She pretends to be. . .old? Or is she actually pretending to be young? In any case, she is extremely lethal.
Notes:
Finalist, Actors theatre of Louisville National Ten-Minute Play Contest, 1991.
1st Produced:
New City Theater, Seattle, Wa 1990
Organisations:
Local access
1st Published:
technique, 1995 -
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:
10-minute
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 1 Other: 1 - 4 musicians
Further Reference:
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