doollee banner
The Playwrights Database
contact doollee


Marsha Norman

MARSHA NORMAN

  (1947 - )
Nationality:    USA
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    Creative Artists Agency NY  represented by Olivier Sultan

Marsha Norman: won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for her play 'night, Mother and a Tony Award for the book to her musical The Secret Garden. She is Co-Chair, with Chris Durang, of the Playwriting Program at The Juilliard School. Her newest projects include the book for the musical King Kong and a play about trafficking and violence toward women worldwide. She won a Peabody Award for her work in television and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation. She won the Margo Jones Award, the Sidney Kingsley Award, and the William Inge Lifetime Achievement Award in Playwriting. She writes and lectures frequently on playwriting and the musical book. She serves on the board of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She is a Founder and President of The Lilly Awards Foundation and serves on the Steering Committee of the Dramatists Guild of America.

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

Buy Plays with Doollee

Each page of doollee.com has links to play/book outlets, either directly to the Publisher, through Stageplays.com and Amazon to the second hand and 1st editions of AbeBooks. These links will automatically take you to the relevant area obviating the need for further search.
AbeBooks.co.uk   AbeBooks.com   Stageplays.com   amazon.com   amazon.co.uk   amazon.ca
whether you are a Playwright who wishes to make their entry definitive, an unlisted Playwright or a User with a tale to tell - we want to hear from you.
download WORD submission template

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

         140         Caraboo Princess of Javasu         Circus Valentine         Color Purple, The         D Boone         Getting Out         Holdup, The         In Your Arms         Last Dance         Love's Fire: Fresh Numbers by Seven American Playwrights         Loving Daniel Boone         Master Butchers Singing Club, The         Merry Christmas         Night, Mother         October Sky         Red Shoes, The         Sarah And Abraham         Secret Garden, The         Third And Oak: the Laundromat         Third And Oak: the Pool Hall         Traveler In the Dark         Trudy Blues         Trumpet of the Swan

140

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Pit, London     1998

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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Caraboo Princess of Javasu

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Music by Jenny Giering; lyrics by Beth Blatt; book by Marsha Norman

1st Produced:
-     2005

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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Circus Valentine

Synopsis:
An exploration of the private struggles facing a small family circus in its final days perfoming in a shopping mall parking lot

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Marsha Norman I, Smith & Kraus,    

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:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Color Purple, The

Color Purple, The
musical based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. It tells the story of a woman who, through love, finds the strength to triumph over adversity and discover her unique voice in the world. the score by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray features gospel, jazz, ragtime, and the blues.

Notes:
book by Marsha Norman; music And lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis And Stephen Bray

1st Produced:
Broadway Theatre, NY     01 Dec 2005

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
Original cast recording: EMI (0946 3 42954 2 0) 2005

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:
160 min Musical

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  5            Other:  Large ensemble

Further Reference:
apply for a license: www.theatricalrights.com/contact-us/

Top of Page Top of Page

D Boone

Synopsis:
In a cluttered historical museum, a cleaning woman disillusioned in love seeks romance and adventure with a mythic hero. Leaving her dustpan, broom and several men behind, the woman pursues her historic fantasy by fighting Indians and British alongside Daniel Boone--but she finds herself pursued by her most unlikely lover. This magical comedy travels the timewarp of love to put a human face on heroics--then and now

Notes:
aka Loving Daniel Boone

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
By Southern Playwrights: Plays From Actors Theatre Of Louisville, Edited by Michael Bigelow Dixon and Michele Volansky, the University Press of Kentucky, 1996   

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:
Two Acts Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Getting Out

Getting Out
Released from prison "Arlene" returns to a rundown apartment in Louisville, intent on starting her life over. Rebellious and disruptive as a young girl, she has found strength in religion and wants to put her youth (as "Arlie") behind her. But her struggle to find her way in the present (as "Arlene") is counterpointed by flashbacks of her past (as "Arlie"), her two personalities being represented by two performers, who sometimes appear on stage simultaneously. We meet the guards and prison officials with whom "Arlie" waged a running battle; and the unfeeling, slatternly mother, the lecherous former prison guard, the pimp ex-boyfriend, and the touchingly friendly neighbor with whom "Arlene" is confronted in the present. Ultimately the play, like life, offers no simple answers-but it conveys, with heartrending honesty and compassion, the struggle of someone fighting for her life against incredible odds.

Notes:
Marymount Manhattan theatre, Off Broadway, NY, 1978

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Avon, New York, 1980   

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 2 Acts Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Holdup, The

Holdup, The
In 1914 in a remote shack on the New Mexico prairie, two young brothers, Archie and Henry Tucker, await the eventual arrival of a wheat threshing crew. Instead they are visited by "the Outlaw," a grizzled, aging gunfighter who has shot his injured horse. they are also joined by Lily, a former dance hall girl who now owns the biggest hotel in town and a new car. Henry, the hot-headed older brother, is also an avid student of western lore. After recognizing that the Outlaw is indeed the genuine article, he pumps him for stories of his glory days and then, to his fatal regret, tries to beat him to the draw. After Henry's demise the action moves back and forth from high comedy to affecting sentiment. Lily consoles Archie by indoctrinating him into the rewarding mysteries of sex, as the Outlaw, in a rare fit of repentance, makes a stab at committing suicide. Now with his first flush of manhood, Archie decides to go off to battle in World War I, while the Outlaw-cowed at last-meekly follows Lily off to her shiny Bu

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
San Francisco     1983

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1987   

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 Comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

In Your Arms

Synopsis:
A company that has amassed an astounding 18 Tony Awards, 4 Pulitzer Prizes, 6 Pulitzer finalist distinctions, 3 Emmys, and 2 Academy Awards joins forces at the Globe for an exuberant world premiere dance-theatre musical! Ten of America's best theatrical storytellers (the minds behind such hits as The Full Monty, Driving Miss Daisy, M. Butterfly, and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike) join director-choreographer Christopher Gattelli (Newsies, The King and I) and composer Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime) to create a ravishing evening that glides, leaps, and twirls through the giddy extremes of romantic love. This unique event ranges across eras and cultures and tells its stories through the universal language of dance, from classical ballet to swing to tap to ballroom to jazz to flamenco and more. In Your Arms is as intoxicating as a sunset cocktail and as exhilarating as a first kiss.

Notes:
Music by Stephen Flaherty; Vignettes by Douglas Carter Beane, Nilo Cruz, Christopher Durang, Carrie Fisher, David Henry Hwang, Rajiv Joseph, Terrence McNally, Marsha Norman, Lynn Nottage, and Alfred UhryDirection and Choreography by Christopher Gattelli; Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; Conceived by Christopher Gattelli and Jennifer Manocherian

1st Produced:
Old Globe Theatre, CA, USA >>>     24 Sep 2015

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:
dance theatre

Parts:
Male:  11            Female:  12            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Last Dance

Synopsis:
An ageing poet has decided that she has had enough and plans to give away her much younger lover. He however thinks that she wants to marry him

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French Inc, New York   

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:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Love's Fire: Fresh Numbers by Seven American Playwrights

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Joseph Papp Public Theater/Newman Theater, Off Broadway, NY     1998

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:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Loving Daniel Boone

Synopsis:
A museum cleaning woman finds herself in Kentucky in 1778

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French Inc, New York   

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:  7            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Master Butchers Singing Club, The

Synopsis:
German immigrant butcher and a sideshow performer meet in a small American town

Notes:
Based on the book "The Master Butchers Singing Club" by Louise Erdrich

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:
Adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Merry Christmas

Synopsis:
A family copes with their mother's sudden deafness when she is released from the hospital for Christmas

Notes:
in Holidays

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:
Short Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Night, Mother

Night, Mother
the scene is the living room/kitchen of a small house on an isolated country road, which is shared by Jessie and her mother. Jessie's Father is dead; her loveless marriage ended in divorce; her absent son is a petty thief and ne'er-do-well; her last job didn't work out and, in general, her life is stale and unprofitable. As the play begins Jessie asks for her father's service revolver and calmly announces that she intends to kill herself. At first her mother refuses to take her seriously, but as Jessie sets about tidying the house and making lists of things to be looked after, her sense of desperate helplessness begins to build. In the end, with the inexorability of genuine tragedy, she can only stand by, stunned and unbelieving, as Jessie quietly closes and locks her bedroom door and ends her profound unhappiness in one fatal, stunning and deeply disturbing moment-a moment never to be forgotten by those who have witnessed, and come to understand, her plight.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Cambridge, Mass     1982

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Hill and Wang, New York, 1983   

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:  -            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

October Sky

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Music and lyrics by Michael Mahler; book by Marsha Norman, Aaron Thielen

1st Produced:
Marriott Theatre, Lincolnshire, Il     19 Aug 2015

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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Red Shoes, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1993

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:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Sarah And Abraham

Synopsis:
Day one, we begin the rehearsal process of an improvised Drama based on the Biblical story of Sarah and Abraham. Conflicts intensify as the lives of the performers and those of their Biblical counterparts begin to intersect.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Smith & Kraus in Marsha Norman Volume I: Collected Plays,    

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:
Two Acts Musical

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Secret Garden, The

Secret Garden, The
Mary Lennox is orphaned in India and sent to live in her Uncle's manor on the Yorkshire moors. Cared for by the maid and housekeeper, the sad and lonely Mary befriends a robin who leads her through the gardens of Misselthwaite Manor. As she explores, Mary discovers a rusty old key to a magical garden which has been locked up for years. Misselthwaite Manor holds another mystery; Mary's sickly cousin Colin. Along with the Manor's gardener Dickon, the children regenerate the garden and as it blossoms so do the lives of Mary and Colin.

Notes:
musical by Lucy Simon with book And lyrics by Marsha Norman; novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett

1st Produced:
Norfolk, Virginia     1990

Organisations:
-

1st Published:

Music:
Original Broadway cast: Sony (48817) 1991

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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  12            Female:  10            Other:  1 boy 1 girl

Further Reference:

Top of Page Top of Page

Third And Oak: the Laundromat

Third And Oak: the Laundromat
the setting is a dreary, empty laundromat at 3 A.M. Alberta, a rather formal older woman, enters and begins to sort her laundry. She is soon joined by Deedee, a brash and rough spoken young woman who, at first glance, seems to be the complete opposite of the reserved, carefully spoken Alberta. As they go about their chores a conversation begins, and it becomes apparent that Alberta might prefer to be alone. As for Deedee, her natural ebullience leads her to reveal more than Alberta cares to know about her childhood and, although she makes light of it, the heartache she feels now that her husband is cheating on her. In time Alberta unbends, confessing that her own life is not as tidy as Deedee had assumed. In the end, the two hear each other out and come to a better understanding of how to deal with the isolation and rejection that life can inflict.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Louisville     1978

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1980   

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 One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Third And Oak: the Pool Hall

Third And Oak: the Pool Hall
the scene is a rundown pool hall next door to the laundromat; the time, again, is shortly after 3 A.M., Shooter, a successful young black disc jockey, stops by to visit the owner, Willie, a bosom friend of his late father. But their meeting is not easy. Willie brings up memories of the close trio known as "the Three Blind Mice," which was comprised of Shooter senior, himself and another pool shark named George, whose daughter, Sondra, the younger Shooter has married. Recalling their glory days, Willie is resentful of Shooter's success, his philandering, and the gulf which time and circumstance have opened between them. the appearance of a young white girl (Deedee from THIRD AND OAK: the LAUNDROMAT) who brings over Shooter's laundry and is obviously smitten by him, only serves to deepen Willie's distrust. But gradually, as Shooter reveals both the tensions and uncertainties of his present life and his compassionate respect for the way in which Willie and the others had dealt with the problems of their own time

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Louisville     1978

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1985   

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:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Traveler In the Dark

Traveler In the Dark
A brilliant surgeon and cancer researcher, Sam basks in the aura of success and adulation that his career has brought him. But suddenly his world is shattered when his longtime nurse and confidant, Mavis, dies on the operating table because he failed to detect the seriousness of her condition in time. Gathering up his neglected wife and possessively loved son, he returns to the home of his aging father, a revivalist preacher with whom he has long been at odds. Guilty about his relationship with Mavis, his childhood sweetheart whose love he never returned, and jealous of his father's affection for her, Sam finds that the older man is unable, or unwilling, to assuage the guilt that torments him. In essence the play becomes an eloquent, deeply felt debate about the conflict between science and religion-Sam's growing doubts about the values he has lived by and his father's flinty unwillingness to relax his own strongly held beliefs. As the play ends there is a tentative reconciliation between Father and son, with

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Cambridge, Mass     1984

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1991   

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:  2            Female:  1            Other:  1boy

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Trudy Blues

Synopsis:
Determined not to submit to mid-life malaise, a successful writer named Ginger embarks on a wildly irreverent spiritual journey. Her traveling companion and guide is Trudy Blue, the main character from her new novel. This comic, sexy, revisionist Doll's House for the 90s investigates what happens after "happily ever after."

Notes:
MCC theater, Off Broadway, NY, 1999

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Heinemann in A Decade of New Comedy: Plays From the Humana Festival; by Smith & Kraus in Marsha Norman Volume I: Collected Plays; and by Smith & Kraus in Humana Festival '95, the Complete Plays, 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:
Comedy One Act

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Trumpet of the Swan

Trumpet of the Swan
E.B. White's classic novel is now a brilliant symphonic concert experience for the whole family. THE TRUMPET OF THE SWAN, like all of White's novels, concerns a youngster who must overcome a problem. In Louis's case, he is a trumpeter swan born without a voice; he cannot make the magnificent "ko-hoh" that all trumpeter swans use to find mates, ward off foxes and rule the lake. On an epic journey of challenge and discovery, Louis finds the gift of music through his father's heartbreaking and heroic love. Louis vows to pay back a debt his father incurred to get Louis a trumpet, an instrument that gave his son a voice, a purpose and eventually, the love of his life.

Notes:
Music by Jason Robert Brown. Based on the novel Trumpet of the Swan" by E B White

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
Original cast recording: P S Classic 2011

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 with music

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
apply for a license: www.theatricalrights.com/contact-us/

Top of Page Top of Page