The Playwrights Database
GARY EARL ROSS
(1951 - )Nationality: African American
email: Click here to contact Website: Click here
Literary Agent: Susan Schulman Literary Agency represented by Susan Schulman
Gary Earl Ross, b 12 Aug 1951, is a retired University at Buffalo professor and the author of more than 200 published short stories, poems, essays, scholarly articles, and op-ed pieces. His books include the Wheel of Desire, Shimmerville, Dots, and Blackbird Rising. His plays, performed in the United States, Canada, England, and China, include Sleepwalker: the Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Picture Perfect, the Best Woman, Murder Squared, the Scavenger's Daughter, the Mark of Cain, and Matter of Intent, winner of the Edgar Award from Mystery Writers of America. Other honors include the Emanuel Fried Outstanding New Play Award, a LIFT Fiction Fellowship, a Saltonstall Foundation Playwriting Fellowship, and public radio commentary awards from the New York Associated Press and the New York Broadcasters Association. Ross is a member of the Just Buffalo Literary Center, the Dramatists Guild of America, Mystery Writers of America, Ujima Theater Company (where he is resident playwright), and the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association, for which he has served as president, Almanack editor, and area chair for Film and for Comics-Cartoons-&-Video-Games.
Research: Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)
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below is a list of Gary Earl Ross's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Best Woman, The Mark of Cain, The Matter of Intent Murder Squared Picture Perfect Scavenger's Daughter, The Sleepwalker: the Cabinet of Dr. CaligariBest Woman, The
In a near future marked by war in the Middle East and bitter cultural conflict at home, America stands on the edge of the most profound election in its history. For the first time, both major party presidential candidates are women. Dr. Nea Gilchrist, former Secretary of State and the first African-American woman Vice President, must distance herself from Sam Houston Bullard, the conservative Republican President to whom she owes her political success. Senator Amanda Dean Styles, a white northeastern liberal and the widow of Brendan Styles, a charismatic Democratic presidential candidate, must emerge from the shadows of the tragedy that shaped her political future. Tonight is their first debate . . .
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Theaterloft, Buffalo, NY
09 Mar 2007
Organisations:
Ujima Company
1st Published:
the Writer's Den, 2007 978-1430308089
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Political Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 males (1 black, 1 white) Female: 5 females (2 b., 2 w. 1 b or w) Other: 2 voiceovers (1m., 1f.)
Further Reference:
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Top of PageMark of Cain, The
Synopsis:
Ossian Cain, a widowed black doctor with a new young wife and baby, buys a home in a white part of a northern industrial city and rents a room to his dentist brother Marcellus. It is 1925, and the Klan has grown in the North after the success of Birth of a Nation. Someone organizes a white mob to threaten the house with rocks and taunts. During the confrontation, a white man is shot, and the entire family is arrested for murder. the baby is given to a caretaker in the colored community, and the Cains are held in jail to face the death penalty. Charles Durham, defender of the damned, comes to town to represent the family.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
2nd Street Theater, Bend, Oregon
04 Oct 2013
Organisations:
Stage Right Productions
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:
African-American, Social Drama, History, Mystery, Courtroom Drama
Parts:
Male: 7 (2 black, 5 white) Female: 3 (2 black, 1 white) Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageMatter of Intent
It is 1960. Kennedy and Nixon are vying for the presidency as lunch counter sit-ins spread throughout the South. Sam Cooke and Chubby Checker are on the radio. the Untouchables and Perry Mason are on TV. In Buffalo, NY, Black women lawyers can be counted on a single hand. One of them, Temple Scott, is locked in the courtroom fight of her life. there is no doubt the young woman the press calls "the Negro Lizzie Borden" murdered her employer, and a DA facing re-election is determined to send her to the chair. To save Mae Lou McKitchen from death, Temple must uncover the truth. Murder is always a matter of intent.
Notes:
Winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Mystery Play of 2005.
1st Produced:
Theaterloft In Buffalo, NY
01 Apr 2005
Organisations:
Ujima Company
1st Published:
the Writer's Den, 2007 978-0578025100
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:
African-American, Mystery, Courtroom Drama
Parts:
Male: 7 males (3 black, 4 white) Female: 5 females (3 black, 2 white) Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageMurder Squared
4 stories. 4 crimes. 4 surprises. One evening of mystery and the unexpected. Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Twilight Zone, Murder Squared is a celebration of the classic suspense short story.
Notes:
Staged Reading RLTP theater, Oct. 2008
1st Produced:
Theaterloft, Buffalo, NY
27 Nov 2010
Organisations:
Ujima Company
1st Published:
the Writer's Den, 2012 978-1105898310
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:
Mystery and Suspense
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 3 Other: 1 gender neutral host
Further Reference:
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Top of PagePicture Perfect
Criminal psychology professor Marcus Micheaux and his mystery writer wife Beverly Hatcher have the perfect life-until condemned serial killer Gunther Creel, whom Marcus has interviewed extensively for his research, paints a portrait of them. After Creel's execution the painting, hanging over the couple's fireplace, gradually begins to change-and so do Marcus and Beverly, until, along with their friends, they are entangled in a web of betrayal, madness, and murder.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Tsc Theater , Knoxville, Tn
17 Feb 2007
Organisations:
Tennessee Stage Company
1st Published:
the Writer's Den, 2007 978-1430308133
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:
Mystery, Thriller, Supernatural
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageScavenger's Daughter, The
Part African-American family drama and part murder mystery, the Scavenger's Daughter explores the impact of senile dementia and mental instability. When their Father John Pickett is diagnosed with Alzheimer's, middle-aged Alan, Brian, and Connie find themselves in a virtual war with their unstable stepmother Ruthie, who at every turn thwarts their efforts to secure John's care and the family's financial stability. the play unfolds in flashbacks as Detective Maxine Travis works her way through sibling conflicts, family secrets, and a case long cold to understand why Ruthie picked up a gun and pulled the trigger.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Theaterloft, Buffalo, NY
11 May 2012
Organisations:
Ujima Company
1st Published:
the Writer's Den, 2012 978-1105896798
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:
African-American Social Drama/ Psychological Drama/Mature themes/Language/Mystery
Parts:
Male: 3 black Female: 3 black Other: 1 voiceover, gender neutral
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSleepwalker: the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
A stage adaptation of the classic 1919 German Expressionist silent horror film, the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. After a mysterious doctor with a zombie-like slave comes to a small mountain village for the annual fair, bodies begin to pile up, and a courageous medical student vows to unmask the killer. A psychological exploration of madness and symbolism, Sleepwalker is a black and white play adaptable to any size stage and calls for costumes and sets limited to black, white, and gray.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Towne Players, Kenmore, NY
11 Oct 2002
Organisations:
Towne Players
1st Published:
NextGen./ Writer's Den, 2007-13 / 2013 978-1304054326
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:
Mystery, Thriller
Parts:
Male: 5-6 Female: 2-3 Other: 7 gender neutral roles, non-speaking roles for passersby/crowds.
Further Reference:
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