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Oliver Mayer

OLIVER MAYER

  (1965 - )
Nationality:    USA
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    n/a

Oliver Mayer is the author of thirty plays, including his two newest: BLOOD MATCH, inspired by Lorca's Bodas de Sangre; and THE SINNER FROM TOLEDO, inspired by the short story by Chekhov of the same name. Recent plays include FORTUNE IS A WOMAN, about the life and work of Machiavelli; and MEMBERS ONLY, the sequel to his groundbreaking play BLADE TO THE HEAT. Other plays include DARK MATTERS, WALLOWA: THE VANISHING OF MAUDE LERAY and THE WIGGLE ROOM, as well as DIAS Y FLORES, LAWS OF SYMPATHY, and YOUNG VALIant. "The Hurt Business: a Critical Portfolio of the Early Works of Oliver Mayer, Plus," is published by Hyperbole Books; "Oliver Mayer: Collected Plays" and "Dark Matters and Other Plays" are published by NoPassport Press. He also wrote the libretto to the opera AMERICA TROPICAL, and has written the words to several choral works. Oliver is Associate Professor of Dramatic Writing at the USC School of Theatre. He is the winner of a USC Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching and a Zumberge Individual Award for his playwriting, as well as a USC Mellon Mentoring Award for Excellence in Faculty Mentoring of Undergraduates.

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

         Blade To the Heat         Blood In Spite Of It All         Blood Match         Bold As Love         Conjunto         Dark Matters         Dias Y Flores         Dirty Fraud, The Widowed Pimp         Fortune Is A Woman         Joe Louis Blues         Joy Of the Desolate         Laws Of Sympathy         Members Only         Ragged Time         Road To Los Angeles         Rocio! In Spite Of It All         Sinner From Toledo, The         Wallowa: the vanishing Of Maude LeraV         Wiggle Room         Yerma In The Desert         Young Valiant

Blade To the Heat

Synopsis:
1959, the world of boxing, music, sexuality, and how it all converges on the championship bout between two men who are fighting for more than a title.

Notes:
revised production produced: Mark Taper Forum Los Angeles 1996

1st Produced:
Joseph Papp Public Theatre     1994

Organisations:
New York Shakespeare Festival

1st Published:
DPS, and the Hurt Business: Oliver Mayer's Early Works, Plus   

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. - - Gay, theme/character full length

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Blood In Spite Of It All

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Blood Match

Synopsis:
Set in Sinaloa Mexico in the present day, the play looks at the lovers' triangle in the world of the farming of heroin for poppies, to the music of Gloria Trevi, and prayers to Santa Muerte and Jesus Malverde.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Scene Dock Theatre     14 Feb 2015

Organisations:
USC MFA Spring Repertory 2015

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:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  7            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Bold As Love

Synopsis:
Inspired by Arthur Lee and the band LOVE, and their friendship with Jimi Hendrix, this play explores the various revolutions of the 1960s - musical, political and sexual - as well as the dark side of the strides made in integrating music and love in a vicious time.

Notes:
Developed at the Mark Taper Forum.

1st Produced:
-    

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Conjunto

Synopsis:
Set in World War II 1940s in Southern California, the play charts the ownership of a Burbank strawberry farm at the moment of Japanese American internment, when the Mexican foreman is asked to buy the farm for $1 and hold it until the war ends. Ownership grows more complex when the Japanese wife of the owner decides to stay incognito and a romance ensues with the Mexican.

Notes:
Produced at Borderlands Theatre and at Playwrights' Arena, and at Teatro Vision

1st Produced:
Teatro Vision, San Jose Ca     2004

Organisations:
Teatro Vision, Borderlands Theatre

1st Published:
in Collected Plays, NoPassport Press, CA (2007)   

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:
Comedy/drama

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dark Matters

Synopsis:
Two particle physicists happen down the same dark alley and come to the same transformative idea, and try to charm the same transformative woman. Songs by Leonard Cohen and Donna Summer.

Notes:
Developed at Teatro Vista, Pasadena Playhouse, Cara Mia, Playwrights' Arena, LAByrinth Theatre Co, Plays & Players, and Rosemary Branch, London.

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dark Matters, and Other Plays, 2014   

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:
Comedy/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dias Y Flores

Synopsis:
Mediation on love - gay, straight and filial - and the changing Latino face of the Lower East Side, all seen through the prism of the Arabian Nights.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Company Of Angels, Los Angeles     01 Jan 2009

Organisations:
Company of Angels

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:
Comedy. - - Gay/Lesbian, of interest

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dirty Fraud, The Widowed Pimp

Synopsis:
Freely translated from Cervantes' ENTREMES entitled "Trampagos" this play is set in a decidedly Blaxploitative urban America and utilizes the vernacular of the street to tell an age-old tale around pimps and whores.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Clark Library, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California     2014

Organisations:
Playwrights' Arena

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:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Fortune Is A Woman

Synopsis:
the life of Machiavelli seen through the connections between his politics and his interest in the theatre, set against the women in his life -- daughter, wife, mistress and the goddess Fortuna.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Joe Louis Blues

Synopsis:
1942 in Manhattan, during the championship reign of Joe Louis, at a time when black people, male and female - even Joe Louis - strained for the chance to really be themselves.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Tiffany Theatres, Los Angeles     2001

Organisations:
Tiffany Theatres

1st Published:
in Collected Plays, NoPassport Press, CA (2007)   

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:  1            Female:  7            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Joy Of the Desolate

Synopsis:
A 17-year-old from the Pima Reservation makes it to the Ivy Leagues and experiences sex, love, betrayal and song for the first time, all the while running from the history of his people - only to run into the one person who knows him for who he really is.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Apple Tree, Chicago     2000

Organisations:
Apple Tree

1st Published:
the Hurt Business: Oliver Mayer's Early Works, Plus (2008)   

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:  5            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Laws Of Sympathy

Synopsis:
America seen through its newest immigrants, two Somali Bantu women - economics, work, cultural differences, sex - as they try to sift between the truths and lies they've been told by the Voice of America.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Playwrights Arena, Los Angeles     01 Feb 2009

Organisations:
Playwrights Arena

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:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Members Only

Synopsis:
The sequel to BLADE TO THE HEAT, set in 1982 at the very beginning of the AIDs crisis. Quinn, Vinal and Sarita are now in their 40s, and still visited by the shadow of Mantequilla. To the music of Laurie Anderson, Willie Colon and Pat Benatar, and inspired by OEDIPUS AT COLONUS, each searches for absolution from guilt and for a way to make sense of the past.

Notes:
Developed at INTAR, LAByrinth Theatre Company and La Jolla Playhouse

1st Produced:
-    

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:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Ragged Time

Synopsis:
1898 in a Deep South of the Mind. A blind black streetsinger buys a Mexican child to be his lead boy; the two of them come face to face to the real America - then and now.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Black Dahlia Theater, Los Angeles     2003

Organisations:
the Black Dahlia Theatre

1st Published:
in Collected Plays, NoPassport Press, CA (2007)   

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:
Comedy/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Road To Los Angeles

Synopsis:
Set in a town near the Mexican border, this play follows a group of young people who lack direction until challenged and inspired by a Siqueiros-like artist who paints revolution on walls.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

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:
Comedy drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Rocio! In Spite Of It All

Synopsis:
Set in the world of Spanish TV circa the 1970s, the play follows the rivalry between two popular music divas - Rocio del Rio and Inez Maduro - and the Young Man who seeks them out: not sure if he wants to be with them, or to be them. Live Spanish songs translated for fun thoughout. Inspired by the life and music of Rocio Jurado and Iris Chacon.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
King King Nightclub/Theatre, Hollywood CA     2006

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
The Hurt Business: Oliver Mayer's Early Works, Plus (2008)   

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:
Cabaret

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Sinner From Toledo, The

Synopsis:
Set in 13th century Barcelona at the beginning of the Spanish Inquistion, the play examines how far a man is willing to go to receive absolution from sin, and how much he loves his wife who is accused of being a witch. Taken from the original short story by Chekhov.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
NYC     2015

Organisations:
Vladar Theatre Company

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:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Wallowa: the vanishing Of Maude LeraV

Synopsis:
Based on the true story of a septuagenarian woman lost in the Wallowa Mountain Range for 13 days, a place once considered holy by the Nez Perce, one of the densest forest regions in the world.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Wiggle Room

Synopsis:
Phil and Luke inherit an hotel from their father. They discover three very beautiful sisters are staying there permanently

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Yerma In The Desert

Synopsis:
Yerma�is desperate for a child, but her husband Juan shies from her touch. How can she reconcile her urge for motherhood, maintain her sense of honor, and still do her job without going mad?� Set in an elite university,�YERMA�IN THE DESERT focuses on the custodial and public safety staff who clean up the mess and tell no tales in a Trumpian dystopia where personal grudges lead to deportation and worse.� Using the music of The Five Stairsteps, Juan Luis Guerra and Ricky Martin, the play creates a world both romantic and deadly.� Even in this dry place,�Yerma�craves the wet�closeness of love.

Notes:
The play�is inspired by�Federico Garcia Lorca's play�YERMA, but brings the story into an immediate present informed by current issues of�immigration, racism, sexual identity and gender inequality.�

1st Produced:
Greenway Court Theatre, LA     17 Nov 2017

Organisations:
Urban Theatre Movement

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:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Young Valiant

Synopsis:
the awakening machismo of a teenage boy threatens to disrupt his parents loving relationship. . . .the crazy child of parents too difficult to forget.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Casa 0101 Los Angeles     2005

Organisations:
CASA 0101

1st Published:
the Hurt Business: Oliver Mayer's Early Works, Plus (2008)   

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 One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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