Bow-Wow Club, The
Synopsis:
the infamous Bow Wow Club achieved their reputation with girls as teenagers growing up in Harlem in the late seventies and early eighties. It is twenty years later, and the five members of the group have not been together in the same place at the same in that long. Fun loving, gregarious, Kirk Bright and his wife Dee invite the Bow Wow Club to their new home for a Fourth of July reunion. Kirk, who still lives in the past, thinks that the weekend will be filled with reminiscing about the good old days. What he has not contemplated is that, all of the members of the club have changed, including himself. Outspoken, volatile, Sal Anderson is married to Bev, and they are still grieving over the death of their son just eighteen months earlier to a policemen's bullet. To further the pain, only one member of the club, Kirk, attended the funeral. Alex Earle, the former fat kid, is now a re-invented Afro-centric professor who attends the reunion with his dreadlocked, bohemian white wife, Freida. the charismatic Lester McMichael is now a super star entertainer and flies in from France with his twenty - year old supermodel girlfriend, Loita. Chuck Hooter has not been seen in years. His secret is unveiled when he comes to the reunion with his white male lover, Perry. Chuck's lifestyle choice, and the fact that only one member of the club attended Julius' funeral, creates the major tidal waves that test their friendships. Though questions about all their lives are brought to the forefront, it's more than fireworks that explode, before these friends realize just how much they still need each other for survival in today's world.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatic Publishing Company & Algonquin Anthology, 1999/2005 -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Caseload
Synopsis:
Set in the cold sterile halls of a treatment center somewhere outside New York City, Caseload follows eight patients from all walks of life who share one goal: to pull themselves out of their various addictions. there's Maggie, a young black woman from Harlem; Vinnie, a Harvard graduate from Bay Ridge; Sonia, a Puerto Rican secretary from the Lower East Side; Eddie, a small time drug dealer from the South Bronx; Fran, a white ex-streetwalker from East New York; Chaz, an African-American Julliard graduate; Emily, a former socialite from the Hamptons; and Tyrone, a thug from Bedford-Stuyvesant. All are challenged by their primary counselor, Adonis Collins, a former drug addict whose tough-love methods encourage recovery through spirituality. Treatment director Emma Thompson takes the by-the-books approach of recovery through bureaucratic standards. This intense Drama delves into the deepest and often most uncomfortable places in the human spirit and provides an honest look at one of the only alternatives available for addicts in recovery. em>Caseloadattempts to answer questions of what methods work and whether or not the bureaucratic protocol is effective or harmful in treating addicts.
Press Release
Notes:
music And lyrics by Mark Bruckner
1st Produced:
Organisations:
WorkShop Theatre Company
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
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For the Love of Freedom
Synopsis:
For the Love of Freedom is a historical Drama about the Haitian Revolution and Independence 1791 - 1820. It is the story of the first and only slave revolt that resulted in the liberation of a people and the creation of the first independent free Black country on the western hemisphere. the trilogy follows the rise of the revolution under Toussaint L'Overture, Haitian independence and the defeat of Napoleon's army under Jean Jacque Dessalines and Haiti's rise to a world power under Henri Christophe. the play is written in three parts, Toussaint - the Soul - Rise and Revolution. Dessalines - the Heart - Blood and Liberation. Christophe the Spirit - Passion and Glory
Notes:
For the Love of Freedom is the recipient of 17 Award nominations by the NAACP And Ovation Award Committees in LA. Levy Lee Simon was nominated for two NAACP Awards And An Ovation Award for Best Playwright.
1st Produced:
Greenway Court Theatre 2001
Organisations:
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Historical Drama
Parts:
Male: 20 Female: 15 Other: 3 African Drummers
Further Reference:
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God the Crackhouse and the Devil
Synopsis:
An upper middle class African American man ventures into a crackhouse in the South Bronx where he meets and a born again prostitute addict. She not only changes his life but the lives of all of those around her due to her connection and faith in God as she can save everyone but herself.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
Circle Repertory LAB
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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Guest at Central Park West
Synopsis:
A dinner party is in progress when Terrence Barlow, a homeless drifter, shows up at the Central Park West apartment of African American Professor Charles Watts and his wife, Professor Nina Odood Watts. the dinner party in honor of Charles winning a Pulitzer Prize for his book "the Eyes of Peace", and is attended by white professors Eric Engles and his wife, Professor Jennifer Engles, who are having marital problems. But the bigger issue is that Charles has received death threats because of the accUSAtory tone of his book and treating phones call are being made. When Terrence shows up only Charles Watts knows who he is, which causes the already nervous guest a bit of paranoia. Terrence Barlow has a brilliant, scintillating mind and had attended Harvard with Dr. Watts. He also has lived a life of danger and is now homeless. How he became homeless and why he is at the apartment of the Watts on this night becomes the mystery behind the Drama in "the Guest at Central Park West." the debates and tension are high and is only heightened at the arrival of Nina's bi-racial daughter Lisa and her boyfriend, the white dread-locked thug rapper Seth. In the end, the "guest" Terrence has a lot to say about what will happen with their lives as this Drama reaches life and death proportions and a surprise ending.
Notes:
Dramatic Production of the Year. - AUDELCO Awards 2007
1st Produced:
St. Phillips Theatre, New York City 2007
Organisations:
the H.A.D.L.E.Y. Players
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Mama Still Sings
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
With music by Mark Bruckner
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
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Genre:
One act
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Same Train
Synopsis:
Same Train is a non-traditional play, which fuses original music and song with spoken word monologues to tell different stories in the African-American experience. the stories are connected through the remembrances of an ageless blues storyteller, and performed by three actors accompanied by two female singers, who are the embodiment of the women in the stories. Each of the pieces are complete unto themselves, but at the end of the play, fragments, themes and images are woven together to unveil a statement about the same train of life that we all are riding on.
Notes:
a collaborative venture between Playwright Levy Lee Simon, Composer/Lyricist Mark Bruckner
1st Produced:
Algonquin Theater, NY 2008
Organisations:
Algonquin Productions
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Dramatic Play with Music Musical
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 2 Other: 2
Further Reference:
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Smoke Club
Synopsis:
-
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
- 2006
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
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Stuttering Preacher, The
Synopsis:
about a handsome, speech-challenged ladies man, and a proud Black woman tired of deceitful, game-playing men and bad relationships.
nytheatre.com
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Henry Street Settlement 2006
Organisations:
New Federal Theatre & Black Spectrum Theatre
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
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Genre:
Short play One Act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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