The Playwrights Database
JEFF WANSHEL
(1947 - )Nationality: USA
email: Click here to contact Website: n/a
Literary Agent: n/a
Jeff Wanshel. Mr. Wanshel's plays, includingthe Disintegration Of James Cherry, Isadora Duncan Sleeps With the Russian Navy, and Auto-Destruct have been seen at: A.C.T. (San Francisco), the American Place (NYC), B.B.C. Radio (London), Circle Rep (NYC), the Dodgers at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, La Jolla Playhouse (San Diego), Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center, Magic Theatre of San Francisco, Manhattan Theatre Club, Music Theatre Group/Lenox Arts Center (NYC/Stockbridge, Mass.), National Playwrights Conference (Waterford, Connecticut, National Theatre of the Deaf, Yale Repertory Theater (New Haven) and many others. Mr. Wanshel has worked with directors such as Des McAnuff and John Madden, actors such as Meryl Streep, Linda Hunt and Tony Shalhoub, and collaborated with critics who should have known better, among them Martin Esslin, Michael Feingold and Richard Gilman. He is published by Playscripts, Inc. and Dramatists Play Service. Mr. Wanshel has garnered sundry awards including two NEA grants, three Rockefeller Awards in Playwriting and two grants from the New York State Council on the Arts. His adaptation of Thurber's "the Greatest Man in the World" (the American Short Story, PBS) was nominated for a Writers Guild Award ("Best Comedy Adaptation") and is published by Dell in the American Short Story Vol. 2.His Metamorphosis in Miniature, a Kafka adaptation for director Martha Clarke, won him an Off-Broadway Obie Award ("Best New American Play").
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below is a list of Jeff Wanshel's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Auto-Destruct Diamond Cut Diamond Disintegration Of James Cherry, The Double, The Dream Come True, A Fog And Mismanagement Fun In Nuclear Park General Brutus Gogol's Wife Holeville Isadora Duncan Sleeps With the Russian Navy Metamorphosis In Miniature, A Modern Entrepreneur Night Catching Up Ophelia Rhesus Umbrella, The Robot Hotel Slice Of Pie, A Suspended Target: Jersey Times and Appetites of Toulouse-Lautrec Trifling Divide, A ("Show Of Kindness") Wild Goose, TheAuto-Destruct
Synopsis:
Briefly described, the action of the play is "the story of a man who robbed the Bank of Mexico and married a gas station attendant." To be sure, there's a bank robbery; a double-cross; a get-away scene; and a passel of sneaky, slimy Mexican heavies who, after being shot, shortly reappear in different costumes. And the hero does marry the person who repairs his car-although with identities shifting so rapidly it's not always easy to tell who's who. But, in this wildly funny parody of the Hollywood western, it is the action that counts, and the zany, offbeat, imaginative lunacy that the author provides in nonstop profusion.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
the Magic Theater of San Francisco 1972
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Comedy
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDiamond Cut Diamond
Synopsis:
What you see may deceive you in this comic mystery/meloDrama, when millionaire Sir Charles Vandrift and his suave secretary Seymour are repeatedly tricked by a cunning swindler and the seductress on his arm. As the action shifts cinematically from the dazzling Riviera to fashionable Paris to a panic at the London Stock Exchange, can Sir Charles capture these audacious masters of disguise, bring them to trial at the Old Bailey, and make the charges stick?
Notes:
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1st Produced:
the Cricket Theatre (Minneapolis, MN, United States) 1989
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York -
Music:
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Genre:
90-100 min Comedy/Drama
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: 3 Other: 7 males, 3 females (10-50 actors possible: 7-25 males, 3-25 females)
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDisintegration Of James Cherry, The
Synopsis:
After announcing at the outset that what follows is his "nightmare," young James Cherry leads us through a series of hilarious and revealing episodes from his life. Awful things keep happening to those around him, and for some reason it always seems to be James Cherry's fault. His grandparents fall down stairs to their deaths; his Father is eaten by crocodiles; his sister leaps off the roof. When James goes off to the big city to pursue an acting career, his roommate is devoured by the pig he keeps as a pet; his car is eaten by a large truck; he accidentally shoots his agent during the course of an audition. And through it all James Cherry, innocent, earnest, agreeable-and perhaps doomed without knowing it-goes on trying to piece together the bizarre elements and people of his existence into something reasonable and acceptable. But as his knowledge of what he is up against grows he can only go deeper and deeper into his nightmare-and on to the disintegration that inevitably awaits.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center 1969
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDouble, The
Synopsis:
the adventures of Mr. Golyadkin (and Mr. Golyadkin), in which a meek St. Petersburg clerk meets his mirror image, who befriends, betrays, and annihilates him. Quoth Nabokov: "the best thing he ever wrote" (concerning the Russian original, mind you).
Notes:
Adapted from the Dostoevsky novella
1st Produced:
Shenandoah Playwrights Festival 1992
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
Adaptation
Parts:
Male: 8 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageDream Come True, A
Synopsis:
One-act adaptation of a surrealist fiction. A washed-up producer stages a one-night-only performance starring a burnt-out Romeo in a play without dialogue crafted by an enigmatic femme fatale
Notes:
from the story by Juan Carlos Onetti
1st Produced:
unproduced -
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
One Act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageFog And Mismanagement
Synopsis:
Aboard an enormous ocean liner, a beautiful young woman is abducted by a malignant and lecherous dwarf with supernatural powers. SEE lovely young Virginia MacKintosh sexually possessed during the dance of the serpentess! SEE magical W.B. Bogus juggle two balls simultaneously! GROAN with passenger Turner Slotpole who hasn't seen his virgin bride since the monster ran off with her!
Notes:
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1st Produced:
University of Rhode Island 1975
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageFun In Nuclear Park
Synopsis:
Written in a pop-cartoonish, science-fiction B-movie style, "Fun in Nuclear Park" is a comedy which follows the intrigues and exploits of detective Tick Dacy as he spars with public officials, scientists, and all manner of villains to uncover an explosive secret. the play's subtitle, "A Science-Fiction Detective-Thriller Political-Satire," hints at the play's unique structure, which blends Wanshel's considerable knowledge of the subject in an artful, humorous fusing of eclectic styles.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Serial readings at colleges in Westchester County, NY 2003
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
Sci Fi Satire
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageGeneral Brutus
Synopsis:
Roman legions invade China with disastrous result. Warlike Shakespeare upside down, inside out and backward. Referenced Vietnam; might apply to Iraq as well, with tweaking
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Williams College 1972
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
War Play
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: 6 - infinity (all men)
Further Reference:
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Top of PageGogol's Wife
Synopsis:
Stage version of the underground classic tragic farce concerning the tempestuous Russian's passion for a rubber balloon. Pokes fun at biography and romantic meloDrama; spoofs male fantasies of a passive, pliable, ever-willing woman.
Notes:
from the story by Tommaso Landolfi
1st Produced:
Music Theatre Group / Lenox Arts Center in Stockbridge 1983
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
One Act
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageHoleville
Synopsis:
Something's not-quite-right in Holeville. Is it Gus, who's new in town? Or Rich and Sal (who's not captain of the football team or president of the senior class, he's . . . "disturbed")? Will Mom and Mr. Frisks, a Doberman Pinscher, get back from the supermarket to their endangered trailer at the edge of an abyss before a deadly game of "scapegoat" reaches an inevitable climax?
Notes:
songs And direction by Des McAnuff
1st Produced:
Dodgers at the Brooklyn Academy of Music 1979
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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Genre:
Rock Musical Musical
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: 4 or 5 M. 1 W; plus musicians, if done with music
Further Reference:
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Top of PageIsadora Duncan Sleeps With the Russian Navy
Synopsis:
As the play begins we are in Hollywood, where a failed author has been offered a contract to write a film on the life and loves of Isadora Duncan. Reluctant at first, he decides to go ahead with the project, and as he creates the various scenes which will in time become the movie, these are acted out by the real-life participants-including Stanislavsky, Walt Whitman, Rodin, Gordon Craig and, of course, Isadora herself. As he probes ever more deeply into the marriages, lovers, and often shocking exploits of her life, the writer comes to regard Isadora as the first modern woman: totally free and unfettered by convention. But, inevitably, the demands of Hollywood must be met, and the truth distorted by the realities of the box office. the result is a pitched battle between the now dedicated author and the crass producer-a battle which yields scenes of colorful action and wild hilarity, but which, in the final essence, serves to enhance the timeless image of this uninhibited, deeply creative, and undeniably great artist.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, 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:
Entertainment
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: 7 or 8 M, 2 or 3 W; plus 2 kids if you've got them
Further Reference:
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Top of PageMetamorphosis In Miniature, A
Synopsis:
Full-length (but brief) adaptation of the Kafka story fashioned for director/choreographer Martha Clarke
Notes:
music by Noa Ain.
1st Produced:
Music Theatre Group / Lenox Arts Center, NYC 1981
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
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:
Adaptation
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageModern Entrepreneur
Synopsis:
A parking valet in Los Angeles borrows money from a drug dealer to start a car wash
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
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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Top of PageNight Catching Up
Synopsis:
When a lucid dreaming experiment goes awry, a man cast adrift in a phantasmagoric world of violent sexual jealousy struggles to fight his way back to the "real". Structurally innovative, the action branches off from core ("root") scenes in corkscrewing variations
Notes:
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1st Produced:
reading at Sundance Theater Lab 1996
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
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:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageOphelia
Synopsis:
Being the tragicall Historie of OPHELIA, Maide of Denmark. Newly Revised and Reduced to almost half againe as it was by Wan-shel, after the true Coppie by Shake-speare, from the lost original by Kyd; in which the Maide's part is Greatlie more Prominent. Featuring a Ghost, a Sword Fight, a Drowning, Poetry and Mayhem.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
National Theatre of the Deaf (US Tour, , United States) 1992
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York -
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:
70-80 min Tragical-Comical-Historical
Parts:
Male: 7 Female: 2 Other: 7 males, 2 females, 8 either (9-25 actors possible: 7-15 males, 2-10 females)
Further Reference:
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Top of PageRhesus Umbrella, The
Synopsis:
the setting is a laboratory, where scientists are probing into the nature of love by experimenting with giant Rhesus monkeys. the son of one of the scientists is in love with the daughter of another-but she is committed to her father's research. the solution: the son dresses in a monkey suit; thereby fooling the nearsighted scientists; winning the fair maiden; and bearing out the theory that while love between Rhesus monkeys is an impossibility, love between a monkey and a human being may well be the wave of the future
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Yale Rep Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut 1970
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
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:
Comedy One Act
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageRobot Hotel
Synopsis:
Joey Tobacco (from "Target: Jersey"), in Singapore with moll Flo, runs into a robot revolt. An ultra-debased "Honeymooners" set in an ultramodern state just like everywhere else but more so.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
read at the Yale Drama Alumni Project in Los Angeles 1996
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
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:
One Act
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSlice Of Pie, A
Synopsis:
With his pull at the polls and the coppers in his pocket, "sunny psychopath" Dion O'Banion's Irish Northside gang plucked Chicago's ripe plums. then a certain Mr. Torrio and Mr. Capone drew them into an uneasy coalition. A comedy turns bloodbath, as American stories will.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
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:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: 13 or 14 M, 1 W
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSuspended
Synopsis:
When three tourists meet in the shadow of the pinnacle monasteries at Meteora, Greece, all is not as it seems. Men vs. women; America vs. Europe; marriage vs. sex slavery
Notes:
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1st Produced:
- -
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
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:
One Act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageTarget: Jersey
Synopsis:
When a flying saucer moors off the Jersey coast and abducts two mobsters cruising the turnpike for a handsome spot to dump toxic waste, earth's fate hangs on the pride of Prosaic: men whose intelligence doesn't budge the needle on an alien scale
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Read at the Magic Theater of San Francisco 1991
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
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: 3 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageTimes and Appetites of Toulouse-Lautrec
Synopsis:
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, in rebellion against the constraints of his breeding and background, heads for Paris and, to the dismay of family and friends, takes up residence in a bordello. In art school his radical ideas bring him into conflict with his conservative teachers. Lautrec's natural milieu is more the bistros and fleshpots of Montmartre than the staid ateliers of the Academy, and as his life becomes drunken and dissolute his art flourishes, producing the posters and paintings which now symbolize Paris of the "belle epoque". As it bleeds in and out, we come to realize that one "reality" underlying the play is an asylum for alcoholics where Lautrec is confined. Will they keep him there forever ("like in a bank vault", as he says) or can he draw his way out? Punctuating the action are authentic songs of the period written by Aristide Bruant and others (with updated English lyrics) and sung and danced (with piano and accordion accompaniment) by such famed entertainers of the time as Jane Avril, Yvette Guilbert, and La Goulue
Notes:
Lyrics by Michael Feingold
1st Produced:
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play with songs Musical
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageTrifling Divide, A ("Show Of Kindness")
Synopsis:
When a can-do American salesman turns up in the court of "the Scourge of the Desert" and tries to interest him in a bridge between neighboring countries separated less by a picayune river than centuries of bad blood, the Khazami sheik mistakes him for a gun-seller hawking an intriguing new weapon (the Gatling Gun) and showers him with gifts. then the real gun-seller shows up. This politically incorrect comedy puts a spotlight on man's capacity for self-deception in pursuit of self-interest
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Read at Shenandoah 1995
Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
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: - Female: - Other: 6 or 7 M, 2 or 3 W
Further Reference:
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Top of PageWild Goose, The
Synopsis:
After searching twenty years, Joseph Cleary finds the fabled bird, has it stuffed, and returns triumphantly to America, where, as spiritual advisor to millions, he flies, dies, and reincarnates live on television
Notes:
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1st Produced:
the Magic Theatre of San Francisco 1977
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
Booksellers:
Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 6 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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