The Playwrights Database
JON SPANO
(1965 - )Nationality: USA
email: Click here to contact Website: n/a
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Jon Spano's National Treasure is a "fascinating and moving play" (broadwayworld.com). Treasure premiered at the 2007 Samuel French Festival and was produced by Emerging Artists Theatre for their fall 2007 one-act festival. Real Smiles, produced in collaboration with the 2006 Fresh Fruit Festival, is a "well-written play, full of sharp-witted dialogue, deftly exploring issues of playing versus relating, loyalty versus searching, friendship versus sex, jealousy versus trust, the fear of aging. . .and could almost be an argument for gay marriage," writes nyTheatre.com. Mr. Spano's additional one-act plays - including Two Birds With One Stone, Mixed Signals, Bill's Window, and Heart Alone - have been produced by Love Creek Productions, Impact Theatre, and Theatre for the New City. Readings in New York include the full-length Drama, Patrimon - winner of American Theatre Coop's 2003 national playwriting competition - at the Neighborhood Playhouse, and Send Me, at Circle East (formerly Circle Rep Lab). New full-length works include Joey Variations, Dangle, Ghost In the City, and an adaptation of Chekhov's the Lady With the Dog. Mr. Spano is a former dancer who toured Europe in productions of West Side Story, Hair, and EvitA. He has performed Off-Broadway at the Public Theatre (Peggy and Jackson) and at Duo Theatre (La Belle du Monde, Studio). Mr. Spano studied acting with William Alderson and Sanford Meisner. Mr. Spano, a graduate of New York University, is a member of Theatre Communications Group, AFTRA, Emerging Artists Theatre, and the Dramatists Guild.
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below is a list of Jon Spano's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Dangle Eighth Wonder Family Comes First Ghost in the City Joey Variations Just Us Labor Day Weekend Lady With the Dog, The National Treasure Real Smiles Sweat, TheDangle
Synopsis:
At SUNY Brockport, Ariel and Dahlia Rosen drove the boys crazy with desire. Today, Ariel half-heartedly pursues her acting career, while Dahlia has abandoned show business altogether in favor of a humdrum life as a bank teller. Ariel's last-ditch attempt at fame is to marry her college sweetheart, Jeff Gutton, a rising soap opera star who also had a brief fling with Dahlia. Jeff is flying from Los Angles to New York to pick up Ariel and whisk her back to Hollywood where they will presumably live happily ever after as the Lunt-Fontaine's of daytime Drama. Ariel, planning her going away party and running last minute errands, is caught off guard when Dahlia shows up early, threatening the balance Ariel tries to maintain on the day of her move. Caught between Ariel and Dahlia's rivalry over Jeff, show business, and their weight, is Ariel's roommate Marco, whose upcoming CATS audition is overshadowed by Rock Hudson's death from AIDS. A series of missteps cause lives and relationships to unravel, rekindle, and disintegrate. But as Ariel, Dahlia, Jeff, and Marco desperately pursue romance, success, and instant gratification, ambitions clash with flawed humanity changing their lives in ways they could have never imagined.
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Genre:
Play/Drama
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Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
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Top of PageEighth Wonder
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in the Best Ten-Minute Plays 2011, Smith & Kraus; (June 1, 2012) 978-1575257822
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Genre:
10 min play
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
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Top of PageFamily Comes First
Synopsis:
the family that lays together stays together
- nytheatre.com
- nytheatre.com
Notes:
part of EATFest - Spring 2009
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Organisations:
Emerging Artists Theatre
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Genre:
Short Play
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: - Other: -
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Top of PageGhost in the City
Synopsis:
Performance artist Alec Goodwin struggles to keep his sanity and his home in New York City's Hell's Kitchen, where redevelopment and the specter of a powerbroker threaten to displace people and to destroy the soul of a once artistic and affordable neighborhood. Monique Kaufman, the aggressive and sexy daughter of a real estate developer wooing Alec, is a walking poster girl for "selling out" and "building up." Ricky, Alec's transgendered upstairs neighbor, is a fighter on a mission, but is his determination to save his home enough to save the artist whom he loves? As worlds, genders, class, commerce, and art collide, only one thing is for sure: money rules. Until it doesn't.
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
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Top of PageJoey Variations
Synopsis:
Joey - a young world-weary dancer forced into a court-ordered rehab program after collapsing on-stage from a drug overdose - confronts Rita, his transgendered substance abuse counselor who champions Joey's sobriety. But forced to choose between commerce and art, between a legitimate income and an illicit trade, Joey rebukes the psychological cliches of therapy and embarks on a private, inner journey that only reinforces his anguish. As Rita's efforts fail to rehabilitate him, a test of wills leads to an event that allows Joey to discover that even a disillusioned soul can be reborn. As disenchantment wears away the spark of youth, Joey relives the loss, heartbreak, disappointment, and violence of his past. But Joey's world of human disconnection, and of the crashes and burns from which he seeks escape, still holds miracles. Ultimately, Joey is reborn when the unexpected yields him the courage to leave the past behind and embrace the possibilities of the future.
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 2 Other: male parts are inter-racial
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Top of PageJust Us
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the Best 10-Minute Plays Of 2012. Published by Smith and Kraus, Inc. -
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Genre:
ten min
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Male: - Female: - Other: -
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Top of PageLabor Day Weekend
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Genre:
Ten Min
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Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
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Top of PageLady With the Dog, The
Synopsis:
When handsome playboy Tray Rove beds young and beautiful Anna Surge while on vacation in South Beach, what begins as a fling quickly blossoms into a once-in-a-lifetime love affair. the two lovers soon realize that the constraints of social expectations have rendered their lives unfulfilled and incomplete. Tray and Anna return to their respective spouses and families but separation only fuels their longing. As they negotiate the terms of their relationship, Tray and Anna conceal their passion in the shadows of a conformist world that prefers the safety of materialistic comfort to the risk of honest self-expression and true happiness. Transfigured from a Russian culture into a Western one, this re-imagining of Chekhov's short story the Lady With the Dog combines actual text and scenarios from the original work with contemporary settings and dialogue. This piece Dramatizes the ways in which an affluent society chooses conformity over individuality and favors external appearances over internal passions.
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adaptation of the short story by Anton Chekhov
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Genre:
adaptation One Act
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
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Top of PageNational Treasure
Synopsis:
A malodorous occurrence forges an unlikely bond between Barry and Melissa, two strangers who meet at the Lyceum theatre for a memorial tribute to the late, great stage actress Lydia North. As Barry and Melissa discover the deeper meanings of human frailty, secrets are revealed and illusions shattered.
Notes:
part of Emerging Artists theatre presents EATfest, the fall edition of the company's short play series
1st Produced:
Producers Club, NY 2007
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Emerging Artists Theatre
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Genre:
Play/Drama One Act
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Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
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Top of PageReal Smiles
Synopsis:
Two men on vacation in Provincetown end their Platonic relationship over a sexual misunderstanding then consequently consider the possibility of something deeper. In the process, the men transform themselves and each other. While on vacation in Provincetown, two best friends - the forlorn Zed and the freewheeling Matt - confront their shared history over Zed's ex-boyfriend. As Matt's secrets are revealed, what initially appears to be a motive of jealousy and betrayal is actually a case of unrequited love. As the men's friendship dismantles they are forced to confront their individual loneliness and angst as well as the difficulty of forming intimate connections in a society of surfaces and images. But in their world of smoke and mirrors, is the deeper connection each man longs for actually closer than he realizes? Will Zed and Matt's new awareness spark inner transformation and redefine their relationship? Real Smiles juxtaposes artifice and imitation against the genuine and "the real" in the realms of friendship, postmodern society, and intimacy
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1st Produced:
Fresh Fruit Festival 2006
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To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
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Male: 2 Female: - Other: -
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Top of PageSweat, The
Synopsis:
How much of your past can you hide to achieve the future you seek?
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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
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Male: - Female: - Other: -
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