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Tom Topor

TOM TOPOR

  (1938 - )
Nationality:    USA
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a

Tom Topor (born 1938) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. Topor was born in Vienna, Austria, and was brought to London in 1939, where he remained until he came to New York City in 1949.[1] He earned his bachelor's degree at Brooklyn College in 1961. Topor is the author of the 1980 play and 1987 screenplay Nuts, which became a starring vehicle for Barbra Streisand. He also wrote the screenplay for the 1988 film, The Accused, which starred Jodie Foster. Topor won the Writers Guild of America Award for his screenplay for the 1990 made-for-television film, Judgment, which he also directed. In 1996 he won the Dilys Award for his novel, The Codicil. Topor's works tend to involve courtroom drama, psychological drama, docudrama, melodrama, social problems, crime, and/or sexual abuse issues.[2] Prior to his career as an author, Topor was a reporter for the New York Post, covering stories in police stations, courtrooms, hospitals, and psychiatric wards.[3] He also did some reporting for the New York Daily News and the New York Times. Topor's career as a playwright began in 1969 with a series of one-act plays staged Off-Off-Broadway. This culminated in a run of his play Nuts on Broadway from April 28, 1980 into August of that year. Anne Twomey, in the lead role, received a Tony Award nomination for her performance. The play was published in 1981, and was made into a film of the same name starring Barbra Streisand and Richard Dreyfuss in 1987, with Topor himself adapting it into a screenplay. Topor's other plays include Answers, Romance: Here to Stay, But Not For Me, Coda (L'Orchestre des ombres in French), Up the Hill, and The Playpen. His other novels include Tightrope Minor and Bloodstar. His additional screenplays and teleplays include Word of Honor (co-writer) and Perfect Murder, Perfect Town (from the book by Lawrence Schiller). - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Topor

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

         Answers         Boundary County, Idaho         But Not For Me         Day of The Painter, The         Dearly Beloved         Here To Stay         Nuts         Playpen         Up the Hill

Answers

Synopsis:
Having been detained for questioning, in a crime about which he claims to know nothing, a suspect is grilled by two persistent police officers. they call him "Byron" (although he insists this is not his name) and their initially bantering attitude turns steadily more ominous as they attempt to force a confession. Ultimately, in a scene of shattering intensity, they succeed-but disturbing questions linger. Have justice and truth indeed been served? Or has another hapless victim been sacrificed to society's inexorable need for retribution at any cost?

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Off Off Broadway    -

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

Music:
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Genre:
Drama One Act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Boundary County, Idaho

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Published:
Contained in: "the Best American Short Plays 1998-1999" published by Applause Books,    -

Music:
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Genre:
One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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But Not For Me

Synopsis:
about the odd things that people do, and don't do, for love

Notes:
part of Romances

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Samuel French, NY,    -

Music:
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Genre:
One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Day of The Painter, The

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Published:
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Genre:
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Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Dearly Beloved

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Genre:
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Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Here To Stay

Synopsis:
husband and wife as hopelessly inept bank robbers

Notes:
part of Romances

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Samuel French, NY,    -

Music:
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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

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Nuts

Synopsis:
In a courtroom watching a woman fight for her total future. Filmed with Barbra Streisand

Notes:
Dear Doollee:

I happened to look up Tom Topor, sometime playwright, And noticed that for "Nuts" you listed the first production As having been on Broadway At the Biltmore.
Incorrect. No unknown playwright, even Topor, is first produced on Broadway, despite what someone may have said to you. It was first produced At the WPA theatre, when it was in its infancy, it may have subsequently died As A toddler, but that is where we did it-way off Broadway. I played Levinsky-get it, Levin, Levinsky, Tom stole my name plus A lot of my input. Hey, let it go. I couldn't do the show when the great impresario Alexander Cohen was supposed to stagger in from the nearest bar And see it. I had to shoot A pilot in LA. I only do that when I have to eat. Tom took it personally, And when I returned A week later he refused to speak to me. Tom was very busy with A crack team of has-beens putting his show together. Only A Mr. Dewars was Able to take up Any of his time.
He was going to Broadway with the incredibly talented And the unrelentingly dull, Anne Twomey. Fashion model turned Broadway fashion model that speaks.
I thought he was taking A risk going with An understudy in the lead male role, A gentile understudy, in fact, when you look up typical goy in the dictionary-there is A picture of this guy. But Al Cohen had given the nod, the understudy stays. It was this brave pioneering spirit that made Mr. Cohen what he was. A clueless failing producer who would have put A monkey with An Accordion in the role if it meant he, A.C., could once Again see his name in lights. Paging Bialystock.
Topor went on to incredible success. Nuts ran for. . . . .well. . ..a few months. But the movie. . ..the movie was. . . . .a dismal failure.
So, you got it wrong when you said Mr. Topor was first produced on Broadway.

Insincerely,

Charles Levin, the bitter, isolated, wretch, who spends each day counting his money from movies And television. He's An Animal.
Grants Pass, Oregon
Kathy's Farm
Charles Levin [gronamox@gmail.com]

1st Produced:
WPA Theatre, Off Off Broadway, NY    1979

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Samuel French, NY, 1981   -

Music:
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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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Playpen

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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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

Booksellers:

Genre:
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Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Up the Hill

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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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

Booksellers:

Genre:
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Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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