The Playwrights Database
STEPHEN SPOTSWOOD
Nationality:
USA
email:
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Stephen Spotswood received his MFA in Playwriting from Catholic University in 2009. He is the winner of the 2007 Paula Vogel Award, the 2009 Mark Twain Award for Comic Playwriting and the 2010 Christopher Brian Wolk Award. Previously produced works include: We Tiresias (Best Drama, Capital Fringe Festival 2012); When the Stars Go Out (Bright Alchemy Theatre); Sisters of Ellery Hollow; the Resurrectionist King (Active Cultures Theatre); Off A Broken Road (Imagination Stage); A Cre@tion Story for Naomi (Bright Alchemy); Born Normal and Gilgamesh, who saw the deep. He is a member of the Forum Theatre artist ensemble, an artistic associate with Pinky Swear Productions, and frequent Dramaturg at Theater J. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, author Jessica Spotswood
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7 Lessons On Suicide
Synopsis:
Elderly sisters, Euney and Bea, are hosting a party in their unassuming suburban home. the only thing the guests have in common is that they all plan to commit suicide before the afternoon is up. When Stanley learns that his ex-girlfriend, Hannah, is attending the party, he infiltrates the group in an attempt to put a halt to the festivities. But when the bodies start piling up, Stanley and Hannah both have to come to terms with why theyre there and what reasons there are to go on livin
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Capital Fringe Festival 2010
Organisations:
Zero Hour Theatre
1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 4 Other: -
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Aaronsville Woman, The
Synopsis:
Half a lifetime ago, Evie Beecher managed to escape a violent home life which left her physically and emotionally scarred. Twenty-years of travel and study made her one of the world's foremost forensic anthropologists. And so, when ancient human remains are unearthed in the small, rural town of Aaronsville, the old bones provoke Evie to do something she never thought she would-to go home again. there she unearths a past she has tried hard to forget and come to terms with Samantha, her childhood friend turned lover, who has fashioned a life for herself as a minister. the play weaves together the growth and eventual violent dissolution of Evie and Sam's relationship in the past with Eve's investigation in the present-an investigation not only into the ancient skeleton, but into her own history.
Notes:
Winner: 2007 Paula Vogel Award; 2010 Christopher Brian Wolk Award
1st Produced:
Northern Kentucky University as pArt of the 2007 Year End Series Festival 2007
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1st Published:
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Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 4 Other: -
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Achieving Escape Velocity
Synopsis:
In the midst of their parents messy divorce, twin wunderkinds Susan and John are turning their treehouse into a rocketship that will allow them to escape their world before it falls apart entirely
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Genre:
Short play
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: 1
Further Reference:
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Born Normal
Synopsis:
Janes family has always been a little different. Her mother was born with wings, her sister can raise the dead (though with a species and weight limit), and her baby brother has memory troubleshe remembers what other people forget. Shes always been the normal one, the shy one, the overlooked one. But when the all-too-common ailments of divorce and cancer threaten to break her family apart, Jane discovers shes the only one who can keep it togethe
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1st Produced:
Capital Fringe Festival 2008
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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Genre:
65 min one act
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Cre@tion Story For Naomi
Synopsis:
Naomi Birdsong-Schultz is a brilliant 16-year old terrified of finding her place in the world. When her nights become plagued by dreams of her dead grandfather, she turns to her online friends for help and begins a journey through the worlds creation myths. Its a journey that reveals one of her cyber-friends to be something other than they say they are and threatens to obliterate her cherished isolation. From the Big Bang to the Popol Vuh to Coyotes most death-defying trick, Naomi examines the tales we tell to create ourselves, and what we have to sacrifice before the story is done.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
DC Arts Center, 2438 18th St NW, Washington, DC. 13 Jan 2011
Organisations:
Bright Alchemy Theatre
1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
one act 60 min
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Eleanor Gantry's Daughters Come Home
Synopsis:
The Gantry sisters managed to survive their strange, violent youth. But when they return home to be at their mother's deathbed, they begin to unearth old crimes--ones that threaten to tear their family apart unless they figure out how to bury the bodies for good.
Notes:
Page-to-Stage Festival 2014. The three-day, Center-wide Page-to- Stage event offers a series of free readings and open rehearsals of plays and musicals being developed by local, regional, and national playwrights, librettists, and composers.
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Genre:
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Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
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Eulogy
Synopsis:
In the present, a brilliant girl named Lulu is struggling with the sudden death of her brother, which is threatening to tear her family apart. Determined to save her family, Lulu begins looking for a way to eradicate grief forever. Many years in the future, Lulu's granddaughter Nyssa is dealing with her grandmother's recent death. Refusing to take the Shot-the grief cure that her grandmother developed decades earlier-Nessa invites outrage from her family and confusion from her friends. When these two brilliant girls find a way to communicate across time, they find in each other a kindred spirit grappling with the same problems. But it will take some adventurous friends and the uncovering of long-lost family secrets before either girl has a chance to find peace. And, even then, not everyone is guaranteed a happy ending.
Notes:
This play was developed through a devised theatre process as part of Imagination Stages Speak Out On Stage, Sr. class. the characters were originally performed by students ages 13 to 18. However, age-appropriate casting is always welcome.
1st Produced:
Imagination Stage Apr 2010
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 5 Female: 7 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Fire Burn
Synopsis:
the three weird sisters of Macbeth struggle with the question of whether or not to interfere with the fate of the Scottish king while attempting to change their own destinies. But when one of them decides to break the cycle of fate, it thrusts her far into the future - one where Macbeth is fiction and cauldrons have been replaced by computers. there she puts her new family at risk to regain the one she lost and break free of the tragic bonds of fate.
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Genre:
Play/Drama 2 acts, 90 minutes
Parts:
Male: - Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Gilgamesh, who saw the deep
Synopsis:
Gilgamesh, king of ancient Uruk and the most powerful man in the world, has grown bored and listless. To spur their hero to action, the gods present him with Enkidua man created by the gods, and Gilgameshs only equal. the two men form a powerful bond and set off on great adventures. But when Gilgamesh spurns the affections of Ishtar, goddess of sex and war, she retaliates by killing Enkidu. His friends death sends Gilgamesh on a journey to the underworld and beyond, on a quest to confront the gods and demand they tell him why they cursed humanity with Death
Notes:
This play was originally created in a devised process that included a group of actors and a director. the play has been performed with as few as 13 actors and as many as 17. Creative casting, especially in terms of race and gender, is encouraged.
1st Produced:
Capital Fringe Festival 2008
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
60 min one act
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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In the Forest, She Grew Fangs
Synopsis:
Lucy is the forgotten girl at her high school--ghosting through the hallways unnoticed, except for when she's being tormented. She figures her life is over before it's begun. Until she finds something in the dark forest--something that fills her dreams with teeth and claws. This bloody deconstruction of Little Red Riding Hood takes the familiar elements of werewolves, teen lust, and high school bullies and puts them through a blender, until you don't know the difference between the victim and the monster. Thriller. Recommended for age 13 and up. Mon. at 7:30 p.m.
Notes:
The Kennedy Center hosts its 11th annual Page-to-Stage festival, featuring more than 40 D.C.-area theater companies. This three-day event offers free readings and open rehearsals of plays and musicals being developed by local, regional, and national playwrights, librettists, and composers
1st Produced:
Organisations:
Washington Rogues
1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
90 min one act
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 6 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Last Burlesque, The
Synopsis:
Darcy was raised by fire-eaters, contortionists, and clowns. It's only natural she'd fall for a woman who pierces her body with hooks, dangles from the ceiling, and disrobes for an audience. Burlesque, sideshow. Drama. Recommended for mature audiences.
Notes:
the Kennedy Center hosts its 12th annual Page-to-Stage festival, featuring more than 40 D.C.-area theater companies. This three-day event offers free readings and open rehearsals of plays and musicals being developed by local, regional, and national playwrights, librettists, and composers.
1st Produced:
Organisations:
Pinky Swear Productions
1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Maddy Lee: A Southern tragedy
Synopsis:
Maddy Lee was born and raised in the bayou. Taught by her aunt to control the spirits of the land, to bend nature and people to her will, Maddy has used this power to survive a brutal childhood with her father, but when she falls in love with Jason, she gives it all up, killing her Father and handing over her familys land to her new love. Years later, when their love has withered, Maddy is threatened with exile from her new life. To survive, she must travel back to the place she left behind and find the power that she gave up for Jason. But to regain the woman she once was, she must sacrifice the life she and Jason made together - an act that leads to murder and much worse. An adaptation of Euripedes Medea set in the Depression-era South, Maddy Lee asks what a woman is willing to sacrifice to regain her power.
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Genre:
Play/Drama 2 acts 120 min
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 4 Other: chorus
Further Reference:
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Man In the Powder-Blue Suit
Synopsis:
Naomi remembers the moment her childhood came to an end. On a roadtrip through the Arizona desert with her parents, little Naomi meets a man who will teach her about Heaven, Hell, and the fragility of life.
Notes:
part of the Source Festival
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1st Published:
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Music:
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Genre:
ten min play
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Miranda Is Morning
Synopsis:
Miranda has spent her entire life taking care of Helen, her agoraphobic mother-a woman who, to Miranda's knowledge, never strayed farther from her Washington, D.C. home her entire life. So following Helen's death, when Miranda finds out that her mother's last wish is for her ashes-contained in an old hatbox her mother used to store postcards-be scattered off a pier in San Francisco, she's understandably confused. When she finds out that Helen's ghost will be accompanying her, she's horrified. Mother and daughter's road-trip takes them into the heart of a very strange America. Along the way, Miranda discovers the story of her missing father, Randall, whose own journey and subsequent death 30 years previous, left Helen a terrified shut-in. Traveling from the American heartland to an underworld populated by a ghostly circus where death is a prerequisite, Miranda learns that not even the grave can keep family from being family, and is given one last chance at reconciliation.
Notes:
Winner: 2009 Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting
1st Produced:
Catholic University Drama Department 2008
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama 2 acts 100 min
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Nightmare of Mr Nibbles
Synopsis:
Marci and Millie are delinquent to the point of murder, and their mother is wrapped around their little fingers. But when she brings home a new pet - a gentle, articulate Mexican sewer rat shes mistaken for a stray dog - the balance of power in the house threatens to shift. Someones got to go, and that someone isnt leaving alive.
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Genre:
Short play
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Off A Broken Road
Synopsis:
In a country coming out of a long war, theres a small town: isolated, battered, and on the losing side. Here, courage does not come from the heart, but is picked and processed and sold by the ounce. But this towns Courage ran out long ago. And now its citizens are being forced to take refugees into their homespeople whose country their soldiers were fighting just a few months ago. Winners and losersthe dead, the living, and the lostwill be forced to overcome their fears. Or let the war begin again.
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1st Produced:
Imagination Stage -
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama 90 min
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 12 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Resurrectionist King, The
Synopsis:
It's 1884 and times are hard at the struggling theatre Comique. But Vigo Jansen, DC 's most infamous grave robber, is determined to put on a one-man show. An amusing backstage Drama about life, death and the theft of our earthly remains. Based on actual events
- dctheatrescene.com
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Joe's Movement Emporium, 3309 Bunker Hill Road Mount Rainier, MD 30 Mar 2011
Organisations:
Active Cultures Theatre
1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
100 min comedy Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Sisters of Ellery Hollow
Synopsis:
Sisters Elsie and Abby have led a hard, strange childhood, secreted away in the remote town of Ellery Hollow. Orphaned at a young age, they face a populace that hates and fears them, and the only people that understand or care for them are those few who are even more of an outsider than they are. But Elsie and Abby have learned to cope by translating their lives into a series of tall tales: from their impossible birth to their adoption by the strangest of caretakers, to an eventual confrontation with the Hairy Man of the Forest - a terrible creature with a secret that threatens to destroy their tiny family.
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1st Produced:
Capital Fringe Festival 2011
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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Genre:
60 min one act
Parts:
Male: - Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Skin and the November Sky
Synopsis:
Harry has spent his entire life retreating from society and immersing himself in his paintings. Gwen, his latest model, lost the use of her legs as a child. Newly arrived in the city, this is her first attempt to create an autonomous life in a hostile world. From their disastrous last meeting to their unlikely first, this play peels back the layers of a strange and surprising friendship.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Locally Grown Festival 2011
Organisations:
Theater J
1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Tall Tales Of the Sisters Of Ellery Hollow, The
Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
Catholic University Of America (MFA Playwrights)
1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
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Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
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Thin Man Retires, The
Synopsis:
George has just retired and, with the encouragement of his wife, has taken up private detecting as a second career. When he takes on his first client, a woman who believes her husband is having an affair, he not only stretches his detecting skills, but learns something valuable about himself and his marriage in the process.
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
Round House Theatres Heyday Players
1st Published:
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Music:
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 2 Other: -
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Valiant Mister Taylor, The
Synopsis:
Based on the story of the Brave Little Tailor, this the story of how Taylor, an elderly retiree, defeats the bullies preying on the residents of the Pleasant Acres retirement home.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
Round House Theatres Heyday Players
1st Published:
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Music:
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Genre:
short play for Seniors
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
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We Tiresias
Synopsis:
Capricious gods, forbidden love, false prophets, true seers, ancient kings, bandit queens, switched genders, eyes plucked out in fistfuls and a healthy dose of gallows humor. Is the future of mankind a comedy or a tragedy?
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Fort Fringe - Shop, Washington DC Capfringe 15 Jul 2012
Organisations:
Stephen Spotswood
1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
Drama 70 minutes
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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When the Stars Go Out
Synopsis:
When the Stars Go Out tells the story of Naomi, a lead scientist at the nation's largest observatory, who is having the most stressful day of her life. She's seven months pregnant; her husband is an astronaut on a two-year mission to the edge of the solar system and doesn't know he's going to be a father; and she's burying a best friend for the second time. As her mind conjures a litany of worst-case scenarios that could befall her husband in the depths of space, she comes face to face with the question of whether she can have this child on her own and whether she wants to be a mother at all.
Notes:
The Kennedy Center hosts its 10th annual Page-to-Stage festival, featuring more than 40 D.C.-area theater companies. This three-day event offers free readings and open rehearsals of plays and musicals being developed by local, regional, and national playwrights, librettists, and composers.
1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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Genre:
one act 75 min
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Women Folk
Synopsis:
Lucy Bunyon is unsatisfied with her marriage and preparing for a divorce, but her fellow wives help her discover that she can be capable of fantastic feats herself.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
Round House Theatres Heyday Players
1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: - Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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