The Playwrights Database
MELANIE MARNICH
Nationality: USA
email: n/a Website: n/a
Literary Agent: William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, LLC represented by Derek Zasky
Melanie Marnichs plays include Quake, Blur, Tallgrass Gothic, Calling All, Beautiful Again, these Shining Lives, and the Storm Coming. She has been a resident playwright at New Dramatists since 2005. Her play, A Sleeping Country, premiered at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park as winner of the Mickey Kaplan New American Play Prize. Her play, Cradle of Man, received the 2007 Carbonell Award for Best New Work of the Year and was a finalist for the 2006 Weissberger Award. Tallgrass Gothic was recognized as Best New Script by the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2006. In 2005, her play, these Shining Lives, was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the Weissberger Award. Two of her plays, Quake and Tallgrass Gothic, have premiered at Actors Theatre of Louisvilles Humana Festival of New American Plays. Her adaptation of Katie Courics book, the Brand New Kid, premiered at the Kennedy Center in November 2006. Her awards include, two McKnight Advancement Grants and two Jerome Fellowships from the Playwrights Center, the Samuel Goldwyn Award, an Ohio Arts Council Grant, the Otis Guernsey New Voices Playwriting Award and the Melvoin Award from Northlight Theatre (Chicago). Her plays have been produced or developed at New Yorks Public Theater, Londons Royal Court Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Arena Stage, Portland Center Stage, the Actors Studio, Geva Theatre, Hyde Park Theatre, American Theater Company, HeRe and Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Commissions include, the Kennedy Center, Guthrie Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Arena Stage and South Coast Repertory. She is a Core Member of the Playwrights Center and a writer on the Showtime series, the Big C.
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below is a list of Melanie Marnich's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Beautiful Again Bill Of (W)Rights Blur Boy A Ball A Bat, A Calling All Cradle Of Man, The Dive Gone Goth Heaven And Hell (On Earth): A Divine Comedy Quake Right To Remain, The Sleeping Country, A Slide/Over Sparrow Project, The Tallgrass Gothic these Shining Lives This Sleeping CountryBeautiful Again
Synopsis:
In this off-center domestic comedy, Jack Cuzzo is seeking transformation through bigger and better hairdos and his enticing barber, Doris Bodoni. Jacks daughter, Lou, is seeing ghosts. And his wife, Katie, refuses to see the shifting reality thats taking shape in her own home. Jack believes success is finally within his reach (as a condiment salesman), but this potential throws his longstanding perception of himself - and of those who love him - for a loop. This Italian-American family maneuvers through their world with tremendous humor, oblivious passion, and a slightly metaphysical curiosity as they try to redefine and reinforce their identities.
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Genre:
Comedy/Drama Comedy
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 3 Other: -
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Top of PageBill Of (W)Rights
Synopsis:
Bill of (W)Rights is a political funhouse growing from a moment in history when self-censorship abounds and the populace is increasingly governed by fear. Nine playwrights offer ten plays, each based on one of the U.S. Constitution's first ten amendments. these pieces focus less on government interference and more on the interpersonal, from a Father and daughter facing a criminal trial to the silence of an unfaithful husband "pleading the fifth" to his family -- not to mention a company of actors yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater. the creation of the script, encompassing a diversity of voices and opinions, was itself an act of democracy, demonstrating that theatre can be a voice of revelation and revolution.
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1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York -
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Genre:
80-90 min Comedy/Drama
Parts:
Male: 13 Female: 10 Other: (10-24 actors possible)
Further Reference:
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Top of PageBlur
Synopsis:
Life is wonderfully safe in the eccentric world of Dot Di Prima and her mother, until the day Dot is diagnosed with a genetic disease that will cause her to gradually lose her vision. Now Dot must learn how to find and create relationships with friends and family guided by her heart rather than her sight. With the help of her boyfriend, best friend, and a wayward priest, Dot discovers the kind of vision needed not only to prevail over this disease -- but to thrive with spirit, humor, and hope.
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1st Produced:
Manhattan Theatre Club
131 West 55th Street, New York, NY 10019 2001
131 West 55th Street, New York, NY 10019 2001
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1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York -
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Genre:
80-90 min Comedy/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 3 Other: (6-7 actors possible: 3-4 males, exactly 3 females)
Further Reference:
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Top of PageBoy A Ball A Bat, A
Synopsis:
When Dad and Son take Grandpa to a baseball game, Grandpa is shocked to see that the game he loved so much has been ruined by corporate involvement and the legalization of performance-enhancing drugs. From an outrageous score to a quadruple play, Grandpa realizes that his beloved pastime has become a work of science fiction and takes control of the story, inspiring his son and grandson to find what is truly great about the game of baseball.
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Celebrating And exploring themes from America's favorite pastime, the Baseball Plays: 7th Inning Stretch is A collection of short comedies And Dramas from the Mile Square theatre's Annual event. From A couple Arguing over the use of steroids (Off Base by theresa Rebeck) to A priest's fight to preserve the Abandoned lot where the local children play ball (Asphalt Green by Rogelio Martinez), to A marriage dissolved over fantasy baseball (Fantasy League by Lee Blessing), this collection captures the love, frustration, And nostalgia surrounding this beloved sport.
1st Produced:
Mile Square Theatre, Hoboken, NJ 18 Jul 2005
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1st Published:
in the Baseball Plays: 7th Inning Stretch, Playscripts Inc -
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Genre:
10 min comedy Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
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Top of PageCalling All
Synopsis:
It's the last night of Pledge Week at Twin Ports Public Television, and the telemarketing crew is fighting apathy, dwindling donations, and angry former patrons. As management enforces desperate new tactics and the gang rebels, someone (or something) out there begins to call on the callers to change their ways, and possibly change the world.
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1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York -
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Genre:
55-65 min Comedy/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageCradle Of Man, The
Synopsis:
Jack and his wife Bonnie have been to Africa many times. At the hotel they are staying in is also anthropologist Debra with her husband Latin teacher Mason. Bonnie seduces Mason who in twenty years of marriage has never been unfaithful Jack's mother is going to leave him $3 million - unaware that he is dying from cancer of the spine
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1st Produced:
Florida Stage 2006
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Genre:
comedy
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDive
Synopsis:
Sammie, Sara, Dolly and Donnie are caught up in their own comically existential apathy. the only activities they enjoy are self-destruction and self-absorption. But their world explodes in an instant when Sammie sees a woman fall, then fly, from a window. Her leap jolts them into reality by opening their eyes to the potential of a single life.
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1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York -
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Genre:
10-15 min Comedic Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageGone Goth
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
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Genre:
short play One Act
Parts:
Male: - Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageHeaven And Hell (On Earth): A Divine Comedy
Synopsis:
In this comic anthology - a collection of scenes and monologues - an array of devilishly talented playwrights put a contemporary spin on a fascinating eternal obsession. Grappling with their own diverse experiences of vice and virtue, salvation and damnation, characters from the twentysomething generation interpret their world with amusing revelations and surprising insights
Notes:
written by Robert Alexander, Jenny Lyn Bader, Elizabeth Dewberry, Deborah Lynn Frockt, Rebecca Gilman, Keith Glover, Hilly Hicks, Jr., Karen Hines, Michael Kassin, Melanie Marnich, Jane Martin, William Mastrosimone, Guillermo Reyes, Sarah Schulman, Richar
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1st Published:
Humana Festival 2001: the Complete Plays, ed Tanya Palmer & Amy Wegener, Smith & Kraus, 2001 -
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Genre:
Short Play One Act
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageQuake
Synopsis:
Lucy is on a cross-country mission, looking for the love of her life. Her journey takes her across the American landscape, through hilarious and eccentric relationships in which time and emotion pass in a warped instant. When her quest becomes intertwined with that of a quirky female serial killer (an astrophysicist gone bad), the landscape changes once again, as they cross state lines and faultlines, exploring the geography of the human heart.
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1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York -
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Genre:
70-80 min Comedy/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 3 Other: (5-17 actors possible: 2-11 males, 3-6 females)
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Top of PageRight To Remain, The
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Contained in: "Best American Short Plays 2003 - 2004" published by Applause Theatre Book Publishers 2006 978-1557836960
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Genre:
Short play
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSleeping Country, A
A dreamy new comedy about sleep lost and hope found. In New York City, a desperate woman becomes certain that she has the Worst Insomnia in the World. In a search for answers, she travels to Venice to chase down the fabulous (and sleepless) Countess who might be a distant relative and hold the remedy to her dilEmma - as well as the key to her heart. Gregg Henry directs the area premiere of a humorous but poignant play about facing your fears and knowing the difference between not sleeping and being truly awake.
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 2010 978-0-8222-2449-5
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To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Comedy
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSlide/Over
Synopsis:
High school students Trish, Steph, David, Scott, and Jay form a tight-knit, eccentric clique. Jay, who happens to be gay, throws the whole group off-balance when she kisses Scott. the friends have to grapple with this event as Jay pursues an attraction that transcends labels. Realistic conversations are interspersed with wild dream sequences and a cell phone chorus, as the friends all try to come to terms with change, potential, and shifting identity.
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1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York -
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Genre:
20-30 min A serious comedy
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSparrow Project, The
Synopsis:
In this cryptic and spare Drama, Sara and Sammie are twenty-something twins leading a life of studied isolation, decadence and denial in a one-room New York apartment. theyre sustained by a distant trust fund and their own brand of odd ennui. their relationship to each other, simultaneously intense and innocent, forces them to bring in an outsider to blast apart their embryonic connection.
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1st Produced:
Hidden theatre/the Playwrights Center 2001
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Genre:
Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageTallgrass Gothic
Synopsis:
the longing, isolation, desire and fear of the classic Jacobean tragedythe Changeling are transported to the Great Plains of the Midwest in this haunting tale. At the center of the story is Laura, whose need to leave her small, rural home and controlling husband is ignited when she falls in love with a man who offers her escape and a future. But in this place where history and its ghosts populate the landscape, Laura's hunger for a new beginning sets off a violent chain of events that leads her not out of town, but to a profound (and terrifying) understanding of her true nature.
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1st Produced:
Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival 2004
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1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York -
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Genre:
75-80 min Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of Pagethese Shining Lives
In this Drama centering around Catherine Donahue and her three coworkers / friends, the new financial independence of women working in the post-war 1920s is both liberating and exciting. the women earn a comfortable living painting watch faces glow-in-the-dark. This new vision of freedom is shattered when one by one the women begin to fall ill to mysterious ailments. they discover the source of their sickness is radioactive paint used for the watches, and decide to seek retribution in the form of a class-action lawsuit against their employer, Radium Dial Company. Though the women are doomed to die, their struggle to fix what is broken demonstrates the power of the female spirit despite the curbing of womens newly won social freedoms during the Great Depression.
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1st Produced:
Centerstage, Baltimore 2008
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 2010 978-0-8222-2448-8
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Genre:
Drama/Comedy
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageThis Sleeping Country
Synopsis:
Julia Fricassi, self-diagnosed as the worst insomniac in the world, simply cannot sleep, and its becoming a problem. Her psychiatrist and best friend from childhood, Dr. Midge, is stumped, and her fiance is starting to feel the effects as well. When Midge finally offers an explanation, Fatal Familial Insomnia, Julia tracks down the only family to have ever been afflicted by it to see if she could be related and thus have the disease. Her journey leads her to Venice where she gets to know her Italian potential family, each with more than a few oddities about them. As she spends time in Italy, she begins to get to the bottom of her sleeplessness through an investigation of her own deepest fears and repressed anxieties.
Notes:
Winner: Mickey Kaplan New Play Prize (2008).
1st Produced:
Cincinnati Playhouse, Cincinnati 2008
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Genre:
comedy
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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