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Tennessee Williams

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

  (1911 - 1983)
Nationality:    USA
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    ICM Partners  UK agent Casarotto Ramsay and Associates

Born Thomas Lanier Williams in Columbus, Mississippi, 26 March 1911. Educated at the University of Missouri, Columbia, 1929-31; Washington University, St. Louis, 1936; University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1938, A.B. 1938. Clerical worker and manual labourer, International Shoe Company, St. Louis, Missouri, 1934-35; held various jobs, including waiter and elevator operator, New Orleans, 1939; teletype operator, Jacksonville, Florida, 1940; worked at odd jobs, New York, 1942, and as screenwriter for MGM, Hollywood, 1943; fulltime writer from 1944; distinguished writer-in-residence, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 1980. Recipient: American Academy gold medal, 1969; New York Drama Critics Circle award, 1945, 1948, 1955, 1962; Sidney Howard award, 1945; Donaldson award, 1945, 1948; Pulitzer prize, 1948, 1955; medal of freedom, 1980. L.H.D.: Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1982. Member, American Academy, 1976. Died 25 February 1983.

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

         27 Wagons Full Of Cotton         Adam and Eve on a Ferry         American Blues         And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens         At Liberty         Auto-Da-Fe         Baby Doll         Battle Of Angels         Beauty is the Word         Big Game, The         Cairo! Shangai! Bombay!         Camino Real         Candles to the Sun         Case Of the Crushed Petunias, The         Cat On A Hot Tin Roof         Cavalier for Milady         Chalky White Substance         Clothes For A Summer Hotel         Confessional         Creve Coeur         Dark Room, The         Day on Which a Man Dies, The (An Occidental Noh Play)         Demolition Downtown: Count Ten In Arabic - then Run         Eccentricities Of A Nightingale, The         Enemy, The: Time         Escape         Fat Man's Wife, The         Frosted Glass Coffin, The         Fugitive Kind         Garden District         Glass Menagerie, The         Gnadiges Fraulein, The         Green Eyes         Headlines         Hello From Bertha         Hot Milk At Three In the Morning         House Not Meant To Stand         I Can't Imagine Tomorrow         I Never Get Dressed Till After Dark On Sundays         I Rise In Flame, Cried the Phoenix         In Masks Outrageous and Austere         In the Bar Of A Tokyo Hotel         Interior Panic         Kingdom Of Earth: the Seven Descents Of Myrtle         Kirche, Kitchen, und Kinder         Lady Of Larkspur Lotion, The         Last Of My Solid Gold Watches         Lifeboat Drill         Long Goodbye, The         Long Stay Cut Short, The; or, The Unsatisfactory Supper         Lord Byron's Love Letter         Lovely Sunday For Creve Couer, A         Magic Tower, The         Me, Vashya!         Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, The         Mister Paradise         Moony's Kid Don't Cry         Municipal Abattoir, The         Mutilated, The         Night Of the Iguana, The         Not About Nightingales         Notebook Of Trigorin, The         Now the Cat With Jeweled Claws         One Arm         One Exception, The         Orpheus Descending         Out Cry         Palooka, The         Parade, The         Perfect Analysis Given By a Parrot, A         Period of Adjustment         Pink Bedroom, The         Portrait Of A Madonna         Pretty Trap, The         Pronoun "I", The         Purification, The         Recluse and his Guest, A         Red Devil Battery Sign, The         Remarkable Rooming House of Mme LeMonde, The         Rose Tattoo, The         Seagull, The         Seven Descents of Myrtle, The         Slapstick Tragedy         Small Craft Warnings         Something Cloudy, Something Clear         Something Unspoken         Spring Storm         Stairs To the Roof         Steps Must Be Gentle         Strange Play, The         Strangest Kind Of Romance, The         Streetcar Named Desire, A         Suddenly Last Summer         Summer And Smoke         Summer at the Lake         Sunburst         Sweet Bird of Youth         Talk To Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen         Ten Blocks On the Camino Real         Tennessee Laughs         Thank You, Kind Spirit         These Are the Stairs You Got to Watch         This Is an Entertainment         This Is the Peaceable Kingdom         This Property Is Condemned         Three Players Of A Summer Game         Tiger Tail         To Heaven In a Golden Coach         Travelling Companion, The         Two Character Play, The         Two On A Party         Vieux Carre         Why Do You Smoke So Much, Lily?         Will Mr Merriwether Return from Memphis?         You Touched Me!
27 Wagons Full Of Cotton

Synopsis:
In order to boost his own cotton ginning business, Jake Meighan sets the local Syndicate Plantation ablaze. the superintendent of the Syndicate Plantation sends over 27 wagons full of cotton for ginning, and turns aside his suspicions that Jake is the arsonist in exchange for apparent sexual favors from Jake's wife, Flora.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Dixon Hall; Tulane University, New Orleans     1955

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other One Act Plays, New Directions, NY, 1946   

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:
One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Adam and Eve on a Ferry

Synopsis:
Here, Tennessee Williams gives a comic portrait of D.H. Lawrence as someone who functions as an analyst for repressed women. As he sits embroidering on the porch of his villa, Lawrence is visited by Miss Ariadne Peabody. Adopting a Sherlock-Holmesian intuition, Lawrence divines that spinsterish Miss Peabody met a man aboard a ferry, he propositioned her, but in her passionate excitement she forgot his name and where they were to meet. Happily, Lawrence helps Miss Peabody recover her memory.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Mister Paradise and Other One Act Plays, Samuel French, London, 2006   

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 One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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American Blues

Synopsis:
MOONY's KID DON't CRY. A short play about a worker, his wife and child. (1 man, 1 woman.) the DARK ROOM. A tragic sketch about an Italian woman and a welfare worker. (1 man, 2 women.) the CASE OF the CRUSHED PETUNIAS. A delightful, humorous playlet. (2 men, 2 women.) TEN BLOCKS ON the CAMINO REAL. A lyrical fantasy. (13 men, 3 women, 10 dancers, flexible casting) the LONG STAY CUT SHORT, OR, the UNSATISFACTORY SUPPER. A moving sketch about an old servant. (1 man, 2 women.)

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
short plays collection One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens

Synopsis:
Candy Delaney is a successful New Orleans interior decorator and landlord who is also a drag queen approaching "her" ~ birthday. On the rebound from a seventeen-year relationship, Candy has picked up a rough, vicious sailor, Karl, on whom she lavishes money. On the day of the dreaded birthday, Karl walks out and it's left to the two queens who live upstairs, Alvin and Jerry, to comfort Candy.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Kennedy Center, Washington DC     April 2004

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Mister Paradise and Other One Act Plays, Samuel French, London, 2006   

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 One Act. - - Gay, one act

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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At Liberty

Synopsis:
Drama about a trapped, frustrated Mississippi actress dying of consumption

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in American Scenes, ed William Kozlenko, Day, NY, 1941   

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:
One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Auto-Da-Fe

Synopsis:
A young postal worker struggles with his sexual repression. His frustration ends in an attack on a female boarder in the cottage and the eventual burning of the cottage, his mother, and the female boarder.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1947

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other One Act Plays, New Directions, NY, 1946   

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:
One Act. - - Gay, theme/character one act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Baby Doll

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Battle Of Angels

Synopsis:
As in its later, and substantially rewritten version (entitled Orpheus Descending) the play deals with the arrival of a virile young drifter, Val Xavier, in a sleepy, small town in rural Mississippi. Taking a job in a store his smouldering animal magnetism draws out the latent sexual passion in the love starved store keeper, whilst her husband lies dying upstairs. A sense of inevitable tragedy grows and there is a denouement of overwhelming and chilling intensity.

Notes:
revised As Orpheus Descending (produced 1957)

1st Produced:
Wilbur Theater. Boston, Mass     1940

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Pharos-New Directions, Murray, Utah, 1945   

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:  11            Female:  11            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Beauty is the Word

Synopsis:
the play concerns the life of a South Pacific missionary, his wife, their servant and the wife's niece and her husband.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The University Of Missouri At Columbia     1930

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 One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Big Game, The

Synopsis:
Tony, a vigorous young footballer, is about to be discharged from the men's ward. In contrast, the other two occupants are a terminally ill youth, Dave, and Walton, a middle-aged patient about to undergo surgery for a brain tumour. When Tony leaves, Walton introduces Dave to the concept of eternity by looking at the stars. Walton dies during the operation and the play ends with Dave, alone, contemplating the stars.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Mister Paradise and Other One Act Plays, Samuel French, London, 2006   

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 One Act

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Cairo! Shangai! Bombay!

Synopsis:
the first of William's plays to be academically produced. Two sailors look for two prostitutes while on shore leave.

Notes:
the manuscript is not published, And the short descriptions Allude the possibility of two female prostitutes, but it is not clear if the sailors ever meet them.

1st Produced:
Rose Arbor Playhouse; Memphis, Tennessee     1935

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 One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Camino Real

Camino Real
In this phantasmagorical play, the Camino Real (pronounciation: Ca-mino Real) is a long highway, a dead end, a police state in a vaguely Latin American country, a nightmare, and an inescapable condition. Characters from history and literature-Don Quixote, Casanova, Camille, Lord Byron-inhabit a place where corruption, starvation, indifference and greed have immobilized anyone who tries to escape. then, into this netherworld, the archetypal Kilroy arrives-a sailor and all-American guy with "a heart as big as the head of baby." Like others before him in the Camino Real, Kilroy is robbed, conned, turned into a patsy, and he very nearly breaks. . .but not quite. When this experimental epic opened on Broadway in 1953, it confounded the critics, but not the audiences. the play's iconic/ironic humor, playful conceits, and towering concerns about society's demand for conformity, the courage of the artist, and the power of compassion have made it a classic.

Notes:
revised version of Ten Blocks on the Camino Real

1st Produced:
New York     1953

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions, 1953   

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:
Fantasy. - - Gay, theme/character full length

Parts:
Male:  26            Female:  10            Other:  extras, doubling possible

Further Reference:
-

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Candles to the Sun

Candles to the Sun
the first full-length play by novice playwright Thomas Lanier Williams to be produced, Candles to the Sun was premiered by the Mummers, a semi-professional and socially aware theatre troupe in St. Louis on March 18, 1937, and received rave reviews in the local press. Set in the Red Hills coal mining section of Alabama and dealing with both the attempts of the miners to unionize and the bleak lives of their families, the play, according to St. Louis Star-Times critic Reed Hynds, is "an earnest and searching examination of a particular social reality set out in human and Dramatic terms."

Notes:
Williams has A nervous breakdown After working At the International Shoe Company in St. Louis. He recovers in Clarksedale, Mississippi At his maternal grandparents' home And writes Candles, which he submits to the Dramatists Guild Contest in New York. He Attends the University of Washington where he befriends A group of student And poets And finds himself highly influenced by the poetry of Hart Crane.

1st Produced:
Wednesday Club Auditorium. St. Louis, Mo     1937

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions Publishing Corporation (August 30, 2004)   

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:
10 scenes Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  11            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Case Of the Crushed Petunias, The

Synopsis:
Delightful, humorous comedy-fantasy

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Cleveland     1957

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in American Blues: Five Short Plays, Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1948   

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:
One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

Synopsis:
In a plantation house, a family celebrates the sixty-fifth birthday of Big Daddy, as they sentimentally dub him. the mood is somber, despite the festivities, because a number of evils poison the gaiety: greed, sins of the past and desperate, clawing hopes for the future spar with one another as the knowledge that Big Daddy is dying slowly makes the rounds. Maggie, Big Daddy's daughter-in-law, wants to give him the news that she's finally become pregnant by Big Daddy's favorite son, Brick, but Brick won't cooperate in Maggie's plans and prefers to stay in a mild alcoholic haze the entire length of his visit. Maggie has her own interests at heart in wanting to become pregnant, of course, but she also wants to make amends to Brick for an error in judgment that nearly cost her her marriage. Swarming around Maggie and Brick are their intrusive, conniving relatives, all eager to see Maggie put in her place and Brick tumbled from his position of most-beloved son. By evening's end, Maggie's ingenuity, fortitude and passion will set things right, and Brick's love for his father, never before expressed, will retrieve him from his path of destruction and return him, helplessly, to Maggie's loving arms

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
The Morosco Theatre. New York City     1955

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions, New York, 1955   

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. - - Gay, theme/character full length

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  5            Other:  4c

Further Reference:

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Cavalier for Milady

Cavalier for Milady
One of Williams' final written works (completed 2 years before his death), A CAVALIER FOR MILADY is an outrageous and disturbing snapshot into the life of a young, troubled woman who spends her life adorned in children's clothes, emotionally deprived, heavily medicated and sequestered from society. While her bombastic and hedonistic mother spends her evenings revelling in flamboyant sexual trysts with male escorts, Nance plays out her sexual fantasies with the balletic apparition of Vaslav Nijinsky. A CAVALIER FOR MILADY is Tennessee Williams' final portrait of his mother, sister and himself.

Notes:
To mark the 100th birthday of one of the greatest playwrights in history, the Cock Tavern theatre has the honour of producing two new And never-before-seen Tennessee Williams plays. Renowned for the naked transparency of his writing, this play proffer A final, poignant glimpse from beyond the grave into the mind of A tortured genius.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Good Night Out Presents

1st Published:
contained in "The Traveling Companion and Other Plays", New Directions. Samuel French Inc but they are just the performing rights holder   

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 One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Chalky White Substance

Chalky White Substance
Sc-fi post nuclear war and will your boyfriend sell you out to the authorities - if the price is right? Yes.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
contained in "The Traveling Companion and Other Plays", New Directions. Samuel French Inc but they are just the performing rights holder   

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 One Act. - - Gay, one act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Clothes For A Summer Hotel

Synopsis:
the play begins outside the North Carolina asylum where Zelda Fitzgerald is receiving treatment for her mental disorder. She is visited by her husband, Scott, now reduced to hack writing in Hollywood and trying desperately to control his drinking. their meeting is deeply disturbing for them both, and as Scott realizes that Zelda will never recover, the action shifts to a series of flashbacks which illuminate the causes of their sad plight. We see them in younger, happier, but inescapably destructive days-she in a tempestuous affair with a young French aviator; he matching wits with an acerbic Ernest Hemingway. And, throughout, the drinking, the wild extravagance, and the steady erosion of talent and potential. In the end we are back at the hospital, sure of what must come, but moved by the memory of what once was

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Washington, D. C.     1980

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, London,    

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:
Ghost Play

Parts:
Male:  13            Female:  14            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Confessional

Confessional
Confessional is, in essence, an early draft of Tennessee Willliams's Small Craft Warnings, itself not one of the playwright's celebrated works, and it should really have been left to the academics.

Notes:
This was the first play by Tennessee Williams that had an openly gay character

1st Produced:
Maine Theatre Arts Festival, Bar Harbor     Jul 1971

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "Dragon Country" published by New Directions   

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:
Gay characters one act

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
TR 31/2011

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Creve Coeur

Synopsis:
Four very different women cross paths on a Sunday morning. Dorothea is thinking of moving out of the apt that she shares with Bodey so she can better entertain her lover the principal at the school she teaches at. When she discovers he is engaged to another woman, she decides to stay with Bodey.

Notes:
Creve Coeur is the title of work As presented At Spoleto Festival. Title changed to A Lovely Sunday for A Creve Coeur for NY production

1st Produced:
Spoleto Festival, Charleston, South Carolina     1978

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:
2 scenes One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dark Room, The

Synopsis:
Tragic sketch about an Italian woman and a welfare worker

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
London     1966

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in American Blues: Five Short Plays, Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1948   

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:
One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Day on Which a Man Dies, The (An Occidental Noh Play)

Day on Which a Man Dies, The (An Occidental Noh Play)
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
contained in "The Traveling Companion and Other Plays", New Directions. Samuel French Inc but they are just the performing rights holder   

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 One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Demolition Downtown: Count Ten In Arabic - then Run

Synopsis:
Two families attempt to cope with life in a post-revolutionary America

Notes:
the play was produced Along with the Lady of Larkspur Lotion

1st Produced:
Carnaby Street Theatre, London     1976

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "the Theatre of Tennessee Williams VI", New Directions, New York, 1981   

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 One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Eccentricities Of A Nightingale, The

Synopsis:
the action takes place in Glorious Hill, Mississippi, shortly before the First World War. Alma Winemiller, a sensitive and lonely young woman, has become increasingly restive and disturbed by the fear that she will remain a spinster. Hemmed in by her stern minister father, and her deranged mother, she makes a final, and almost desperate attempt to win the man of her choice-a young doctor whose social-climbing mother frowns on his attachment to Alma. the play centers on the complex relationship between these two; her touching attempts to sway his emotions; and his uncertainty as to where his heart should lead him. In the end there is to be only one truly beautiful moment between them-for neither can break the ties of family and position which draw them apart and which, inevitably, defeat Alma's hopes for a new and fuller life.

Notes:
revised version of Summer And Smoke

1st Produced:
Nyack, NY     1964

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions, New York, 1965   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Enemy, The: Time

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in theatre, NY, 1959   

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Escape

Synopsis:
Three prisoners in a bunk-house play cards and listen while their ceilmate makes a run to the railtracks with guards and dogs in hot pursuit. Finally, they hear gunshots but when they see the guards return with a body they believe Billy's free at last.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Mister Paradise and Other One Act Plays, Samuel French, London, 2006   

Music:
-

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Genre:
play One Act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Fat Man's Wife, The

Synopsis:
It's New Year's morning 1938. Vera and her husband Joe, an influential theatre producer, are returning from a party, at which a young playwright, Dennis Merriwether, has paid great court to Vera. Rather than compromise his art, Dennis has decided to quit New York for Acapulco and wants Vera to accompany him. But Vera sends him away; she is, after all, the fat man's wife.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Mister Paradise and Other One Act Plays, Samuel French, London, 2006   

Music:
-

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Genre:
play One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Frosted Glass Coffin, The

Synopsis:
the setting is the street facade of a low-priced Miami hotel of the sort which caters to aged pensioners. It is morning and the old men at the Ponce de Leon Hotel gather to watch the daily line-up of oldsters at the cut-rate restaurant across the street, chuckling at the thought of the consternation that will result when the doors open and the waiting customers discover that prices have been raised. But then a sad note is struck-one of their fellow guests has passed on, leaving a blind and helpless husband. But it is a loss that none will face squarely, for the nearness of death is what all of them must live with and joke about. For are they not all living in frosted glass coffins, through which light, and life, can just barely be perceived?

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, London,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
One Act

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Fugitive Kind

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
St Louis     1937

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Garden District

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
includes Something Unspoken, Suddenly Last Summer

1st Produced:
New York     1958

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions, New York, 1958   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Glass Menagerie, The

Synopsis:
Amanda Wingfield is a faded, tragic remnant of Southern gentility who lives in poverty in a dingy St. Louis apartment with her son, Tom, and her daughter, Laura. Amanda strives to give meaning and direction to her life and the lives of her children, though her methods are ineffective and irritating. Tom is driven nearly to distraction by his mother's nagging and seeks escape in alcohol and the unrealistic world of the movies. Laura also lives in her own illusions. She is crippled, and this defect, intensified by her mother's anxiety to see her married, has driven her more and more into herself. the crux of the action comes when Tom invites a young man of his acquaintance to take dinner with the family. Jim, the caller, is a nice ordinary fellow who is at once pounced upon by Amanda as a possible husband for Laura. In spite of her crude and obvious efforts to entrap the young man, he and Laura manage to get along very nicely, and momentarily Laura is lifted out of herself into a new world. But this crashes when, toward the end, Jim explains that he is already engaged. the world of illusion that Amanda and Laura have striven to create in order to make life bearable collapses about them. Tom, too, at the end of his tether, at last leaves home.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Civic Theatre. Chicago, Il     25 Dec 1944

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Random House, NY, 1945   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
Theatre Record Vol IV (1984) Page 0770 - [Theatre: New End]
Theatre Record Vol V (1985) Page 0471 - [Theatre: Greenwich]
Theatre Record Vol IX (1989) Page 0312 - [Theatre: Theatre Royal - Brighton]
Theatre Record Vol IX (1989) Page 1570 - [Theatre: Royal Exchange - Manchester]
Theatre Record Vol XII (1992) Page 1132 - [Theatre: Theatre Royal - Bristol]
Theatre Record Vol XIV (1994) Page 1095 - [Theatre: Octagon - Bolton]
Theatre Record Vol XV (1995) Page 1279 - [Theatre: Donmar Warehouse]
Theatre Record Vol XV (1995) Page 1684 - [Theatre: Comedy]
Theatre Record Vol XVI (1996) Page 0105 - [Theatre: Dundee Rep]
Theatre Record Vol XVII (1997) Page 0100 - [Theatre: Emlyn Williams - Mold]
Theatre Record Vol XVIII (1998) Page 0089 - [Theatre: Royal Lyceum - Edinburgh]
Theatre Record Vol XVIII (1998) Page 0833 - [Theatre: BAC (Battersea Arts Centre)]
Theatre Record Vol XVIII (1998) Page 1257 - [Theatre: Minerva - Chichester]
Theatre Record Vol XVIII (1998) Page 1554 - [Theatre: Palace - Watford]
Theatre Record Vol XIX (1999) Page 1536 - [Theatre: Theatre Royal - York]
Theatre Record Vol XXIII (2003) Page 1500 - [Theatre: Byre - St. Andrews]
Theatre Record Vol XXVII (2007) Page 0168 - [Theatre: Apollo]
Theatre Record Vol XXVIII (2008) Page 0084 - [Theatre: Royal Lyceum - Edinburgh]
Theatre Record Vol XXVIII (2008) Page 0442 - [Theatre: Royal Exchange - Manchester]Theatre Record Vol XXX (2010) Page 0265 - [Theatre: Salisbury Playhouse]
Theatre Record Vol XXX (2010) Page 1297 - [Theatre: Young Vic]
Theatre Record Vol XXXIII (2013) Page 0316 - [Theatre: Octagon - Bolton]
Theatre Record Vol XXXIV (2014) Page 0905 - [Theatre: Dundee Rep]

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Gnadiges Fraulein, The

Synopsis:
As outlined in Variety: "the GNADIGES FRAULEIN (translatable as 'the Gracious Lady') is the justification of the word 'slapstick' in the overall title. It's a far-out tragic-comedy in the genre of the theatre of the Absurd, with a touch of the theatre of Cruelty. It's quite funny at times, though basically and finally sad. the scene is a rickety bunkhouse, for 'permanent transients' in a place called Cocaloony Key, obviously off the southern tip of Florida. the characters include a kooky society gossip columnist, the frowsy crone who runs the place, a demented former Viennese vaudevillian, a Cocaloony bird (evidently a local name for a pelican) and a tomahawk-brandishing, war-whooping, blond-wigged Indian." the interplay of these characters, antic in both appearance and behavior, forms the heart and meaning of the play. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, it becomes both fascinating and deeply affecting as the underlying humanity of each "grotesque" is made real through what they are, and do, and what happens to them.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
Tragi Comedy One Act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Green Eyes

Green Eyes
Written as America's unrest with the war in Vietnam reached a fever pitch, Green Eyes graphically reveals the effects of war through the sexual fantasies of a newlywed couple honeymooning in New Orleans. He's an impotent soldier, traumatized by his participation in the war; she's a ravenous woman determined to satisfy her most deviant desires. In a single electrifying scene, Green Eyes restages the horrors of war as an unhinged lovers' quarrel, exploring the disturbing subjectivities that exist in the grey areas where sadomasochistic desire and domestic violence overlap.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
contained in "The Traveling Companion and Other Plays", New Directions. Samuel French Inc but they are just the performing rights holder   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  1 boy

Further Reference:

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Headlines

Synopsis:
Plea for pacificism, prepared as a curtain raiser for Irwin Shaw's "Bury the Dead." Four short black-out bits. One involves an Armitise Day speech by a local senator, a send-up of a legendary politician and two short skits about local school and social life.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Wednesday Club Auditorium By The Mummers (An Amateur Theatre Group In St. Louis, Mo.)     1936

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Sketch

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Hello From Bertha

Hello From Bertha
A prostitute suffers schitzoid dillusions while grasping on to her past loves. She is stricken with "acquired" diseases.

Notes:
PBS TV February 6, 1961

1st Produced:
Bromley, Kent, Uk     1961

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other One Act Plays, New Directions, NY, 1946   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Hot Milk At Three In the Morning

Synopsis:
"A man who formerly worked in the forests and now holds a monotonous job rebels against the added burdens of a new baby and a nagging wife. . .He accuses his wife of forcing him into marriage and is about to walk out on her when she shoves the sick baby into his arms. . .His rebellion is forgotten" Williams, Edwina Dakin. Remember Me To Tom

Notes:
This work was Adapted to become Moony's Kid Don't Cry.

1st Produced:
University Of Missouri     1932

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  1 infant

Further Reference:
-

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House Not Meant To Stand

House Not Meant To Stand
Set during Christmas 1982, Williams called this surreal comedy his "Southern Gothic Spook Sonata". It begins when Cornelius and wife BElla return one stormy midnight from the funeral of their eldest son to learn daughter Joanie is in an asylum and younger son Charlie is in bed with his pregnant, holy-roller girlfriend. Cornelius - who has political ambitions and a litany of health problems - is trying to find a large amount of moonshine money his BElla has hidden somewhere in their collapsing house. His efforts are disrupted by a stream of remarkable characters - both living and dead!. This gothic comedy contains many familiar Williams' themes - eccentricity, hysteria, madness, sexual misconduct, disappointed lives, untimely death, and a once-great southern family fallen on hard times. the central metaphor is announced by the title, referring to an elderly couple's mansion, which - not unlike Poe's House of Usher - is literally falling apart, representing the physical and mental decay of its occupants. A dark, expressionistic comedy by one of America's greatest playwrights

Notes:
Nov. 8-23, 1980. One-act 'workshop version,' titled "Some Problems for the Moose Lodge." Performed As one of three one-act plays comprising the program "Tennessee Laughs." Goodman's Studio theatre. Chicago. Directed by Gary Tucker. With Les Podewell As Cornelius, Marji Bank As Bella, Scott Jaeck As Charlie, And Rachel Stephens As Jessie.

1st Produced:
New York     1981

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions (April 17, 2008)   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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I Can't Imagine Tomorrow

I Can't Imagine Tomorrow
there are only two characters, a man and a woman. She is ill, perhaps mortally so, and living alone in her dark house. the man, her only friend and equally solitary, dreads returning to the airless hotel room that has become his home. He tries to reach out to her, to help her, but it is too difficult, perhaps too late, for her to respond. their confrontation, sometimes gentle, sometimes tense, becomes a revealing and moving emotional experience as they accept the need to face alone the terrors that might be more easily met together

Notes:
televised 1970

1st Produced:
Bar Harbor, Me     1971

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Dragon Country", New Directions, New York, 1970   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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I Never Get Dressed Till After Dark On Sundays

Synopsis:
Previously unpublished, I NEVER GET DRESSED TILL AFTER DARK ON SUNDAYS was penned immediately after Tennessee's relese from rehab in 1970, and during intense student demonstrations. After this public battle with substance abuse and depression, his work was eagerly anticipated. It is a play-within-a-play, plagued by the disinterest of its money-driven director and compacent actors despite the efforts of the alcoholic playwritht to reveal its essential tragedy. Two lovers struggle amidst the smut and sleaze in the French quarter of New Orleans, but it's only after the "curtain" falls that the actors face the true story of the playwritht's pen.

Notes:
To mark the 100 birthday of one of the greatest playwrights in history, the Cock Tavern theatre has the honour of producing this never-before-seen Tennessee Williams play: I NEVER GET DRESSED TILL AFTER DARK ON SUNDAYS. Renowned for the naked transparency of his writing, this As-yet unperformed And unpublished play (to be published At the end of this production, on Williams' birthday 26 March) proffers A final, poignant glimpse from beyond the grave into the mind of A tortured genius.

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Good Night Out Presents

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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I Rise In Flame, Cried the Phoenix

Synopsis:
the author refers to his work as "imaginary." the basic facts, however, are well known. there are three characters, Lawrence himself, Frieda and Bertha Brett, and the scene is a sunporch at a small retreat in the Alpes Maritimes. We see Lawrence at the very end of his career, in fact the very day he dies, and recognize him as the erratic, inspired, ill-tempered genius who was never able to come to terms with life. Yet he stands revealed here as the man who, in Mr. Williams' words, ". . . felt the mystery and power of sex, as the primal life urge, and was the life-long adversary of those who wanted to keep the subject locked away in the cellars of prudery."

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1953

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions, New York, 1951   

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:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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In Masks Outrageous and Austere

Synopsis:
Tennessee Williams goes for broke in his final work, exploring the surreal, the nefarious, and the erotic in ways never before attempted by the great American master. the richest woman in the world, her gay husband and his young lover are thrust into a mystery world, defined by disorientation and paranoia, where they are held captive by omnipotent corporate forces. A cast of bizarre characters enters their increasingly threatening environment, and tensions reach a fever pitch as trust among the three protagonists begins to disintegrate. In Mask Outrageous and Austere takes its characters - and its audience - to a wholly unique theatrical realm that's every bit as thrilling as it is dangerous.
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Culture Project at 45 Bleecker theater
45 Bleecker Street New York, NY 10012     05 Apr 2012

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc. NY (2015)   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay, full length

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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In the Bar Of A Tokyo Hotel

Synopsis:
As Clive Barnes outlines: "Superficially the play is about the painter-famous, rich and lost-and his wife, who find themselves in a Tokyo hotel. the wife, wildly promiscuous, tries to seduce the Japanese barman in the hotel bar. the artist is in his room, naked on a canvas with a spray-gun, trying to develop a new technique, almost confident that he has invented color. Almost confident, but not quite, for he lacks confidence the way an anemic man lacks blood. the artist, in the final stages of some spiritual or physical dissolution, at last joins his wife in the bar. But she has sent to Manhattan for his picture dealer and friend. She then goes out, presumably to find a man. A few days later the dealer arrives in Tokyo. the wife, determined to be free, tries to persuade the friend to take the artist back to New York, under sedation if necessary. But the artist foils her plans by dying. Suddenly, with the bleakness of loss, she finds that she too has nowhere to go."

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Eastside Playhouse. New York City     1969

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1969   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Interior Panic

Interior Panic
An early version of "A Streetcar Named Deasire"

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in "The Magic Tower and Other One Act Plays" published by New Directions 2011   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Kingdom Of Earth: the Seven Descents Of Myrtle

Synopsis:
Lot is a weak and ailing youth who suffers from an attachment to the memory of his late mother. He has come to his ancestral home, a derelict house on the edge of a soon to be flooded river, with his new bride, Myrtle, a television actress. Somewhat reminiscent of Blanche Dubois from Williams's classic play A Streetcar Named Desire, Myrtle is a luckless young woman trapped in a world of romantic illusions, one of which is to nurse Lot back to health so they can consummate their marriage. Myrtle soon discovers, however, that Lot only wants to use her to steal the deed to the property from his embittered half-brother, Chicken, a Stanley Kowalski type, brimming with masculinity and assertiveness. . .and a few romantic plans of his own.

Notes:
Produced in New York As the Seven Descents of Myrtle

1st Produced:
New York     1968

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Esquire", New York, February, 1967   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy/Drama, 2 acts Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  Chicken, Lot and Myrtle

Further Reference:
Theatre Record Volume XXXI (2011) Issue 09 Page 461

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Kirche, Kitchen, und Kinder

Kirche, Kitchen, und Kinder
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1980

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
contained in "The Traveling Companion and Other Plays", New Directions. Samuel French Inc but they are just the performing rights holder   

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:
Outrage For the Stage One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Lady Of Larkspur Lotion, The

Synopsis:
Powerful sketch about derelicts

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1947

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other One Act Plays, New Directions, NY, 1946   

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:
Sketch One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Last Of My Solid Gold Watches

Synopsis:
A character cketch about a salesman

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Laboratory Theatre (Los Angeles, Ca)     1947

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other One Act Plays, New Directions, NY, 1946   

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:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Lifeboat Drill

Synopsis:
A married couple, in their nineties, are aboard a cruise ship. their difficulties with life preservers, and basically life in general, are explored.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Ensemble Studio Theatre (New York, NY)     1979

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "the Theatre of Tennessee Williams VII", New Directions, New York, 1981   

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:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Long Goodbye, The

Synopsis:
Dream play set in a mid-western American city about a man's memories of his fallen sister

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New School For Social Research (New York, NY)     1940

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other One Act Plays, New Directions, NY, 1946   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Long Stay Cut Short, The; or, The Unsatisfactory Supper

Synopsis:
Moving sketch about an old servant

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
London     1971

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in American Blues: Five Short Plays, Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1948   

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:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Lord Byron's Love Letter

Synopsis:
A romantic story involving the poet

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1947

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other One Act Plays, New Directions, NY, 1946   

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:  1            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Lovely Sunday For Creve Couer, A

Synopsis:
the time is 1935, the place St. Louis, where Dorothea, a youngish high school teacher, rooms with Bodey, a plain but kind-hearted German-American spinster. Hopelessly romantic, Dorothea dreams of marriage with her sometime beau, the principal of the school, and Bodey, in an attempt to spare her feelings, hides the morning newspaper, which carries a notice of the principal's engagement to another. Bodey also hopes to make a match between Dorothea and her fat, cigar-smoking brother, and tries to persuade Dorothea to join them for a picnic at Creve Coeur, a nearby amusement park. their departure is delayed by the arrival of Helena, a snobbish, tart-tongued art teacher, who wants Dorothea to share an apartment with her in a better part of town. Inevitably, a struggle evolves between Bodey and Helena, with Dorothea, lost in her dream world, caught between them. In the end reality shatters Dorothea's fond hopes, and brings her rudely back to earth-but not without clear evidence that, somehow, she will find the strength to recover and go on.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Spoleto Festival (Charleston, South Carolina)     1979

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions, New York, 1980   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Magic Tower, The

Magic Tower, The
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
St Louis     1936

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in "The Magic Tower and Other One Act Plays" published by New Directions 2011   

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:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Me, Vashya!

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-     1937

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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Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, The

Synopsis:
As George Oppenheimer describes "We first encounter Mrs. Goforth in one of her three villas on the southern coast of Italy frantically endeavoring to complete her memoirs before her death. However, there is still life in the old girl as she bullies her attractive female secretary, spits venom at a visitor whom she dubs "the witch of CApri," makes propositions to a handsome young itinerant poet over half her age, and dictates night and day, either to the secretary or to any number of tape recorders scattered about the premises, her vapid and ridiculous memories which she believes will form an important social commentary. . . To the triple homes of Mrs. Goforth comes Chris Flanders, the young poet, who because of his past presence in the company of so many elderly women at the time of their deaths has won the mocking nickname of "the angel of death." At first we take him to be, as does Mrs. Goforth, a hustler who is willing to sell his poems, his mobiles, or his body to susceptible and lonely ancients. To Mrs. Goforth, who has lived a full and promiscuous life and is in mortal fear of relinquishing it, Chris comes as an answer to a carnal prayer, a last fling before she is forced to face ultimate loneliness. then she discovers that he is unwilling to give in to her seductions at any price, that his is a spiritual nature which seeks only to allay her fears and soothe her pain. Until almost the very end she refuses to believe in his virtue. Her life has been so hedged in viciousness that she cannot accept readily anything but venality."

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Spoleto, Italy     1962

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions, New York, 1964   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy about death

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  4            Other:  doubling

Further Reference:
-

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Mister Paradise

Synopsis:
A wealthy, eager college girl makes a surprise visit to the eponymous Mister Paradise in his squalid New Orleans surroundings. Having discovered a book of his poetry written 15 years earlier, she is determined to make him famous. Horrified, he explains that "Gabriel has not yet blown the horn" and that Anthony Paradise, his pen-name, will only be famous when Jonathan Jones is dead. they part, he telling her to watch the obituaries, she promising that his future is safe in her hands.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Mister Paradise and Other One Act Plays, Samuel French, London, 2006   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
play One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Moony's Kid Don't Cry

Synopsis:
"A man who formerly worked in the forests and now holds a monotonous job rebels against the added burdens of a new baby and a nagging wife. . .He accuses his wife of forcing him into marriage and is about to walk out on her when she shoves the sick baby into his arms. . .His rebellion is forgotten" Williams, Edwina Dakin. Remember Me To Tom

Notes:
Hotmilk At Three in the Morning is so similar to Moony's Kid Don't Cry that they Are often refered to As the same work

1st Produced:
Los Angeles     1946

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in American Blues: Five Short Plays, Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1948   

Music:
-

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Genre:
One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  1 infant

Further Reference:
-

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Municipal Abattoir, The

Synopsis:
In a Spanish-speaking dictatorship, a clerk, who has been condemned to death, asks a student the way to the Municipal Abattoir. the student tells him to save himself but the clerk says he can't because he's been a Municipal Employee too long to disobey. the student changes tack and orders the clerk to take his gun and shoot the general as his motorcade passes by. But the clerk is too cowed and finally asks the audience the way to the abattoir.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Mister Paradise and Other One Act Plays, Samuel French, London, 2006   

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:
play One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Mutilated, The

Synopsis:
As described in Variety: "is about a pair of alternately friendly and quarrelsome floozies in a fleabag hotel in the French quarter of New Orleans in the 1930s. Margaret Leighton plays the one who has inherited an income just sufficient to give her pretensions and keep her supplied with wine. Kate Reid plays a raucous hag just out of jail on a shoplifting charge. the would-be genteel lady is morbidly sensitive about being physically mutilated, having had a breast removed. Her harpy companion, Williams seems to be saying, is spiritually deformed, having suffered the cruelty of fellow humans. the implication is that all of us are maimed in some form or other. the play is written as a sort of Christmas parable, with a chorus of incidental characters singing hymns resembling carols. To project the idea further, the final scene presents the embattled cronies reunited in friendship and happiness, believing the Virgin has entered the room. Perhaps the moral is that love conquers mutilation."

Notes:
Produced on Broadway As A double bill with the GNADIGES FRAULEIN under the omnibus title of SLAPSTICK TRAGEDY. A haunting, compassionate study of the lonely And maimed of this world, And the painful Adjustments which they must make in reconciling themselv

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Drama One Act

Parts:
Male:  9            Female:  4            Other:  chorus

Further Reference:
-

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Night Of the Iguana, The

Night Of the Iguana, The
John McClain's outline of "Within the brokendown environs of a cheap Mexican resort hotel [Williams] has created a mood of pervading loneliness and despair as intrusive as the Equinoxial storm that stirs sudden lightning flashes and gushes through the tattered room. the desolation, the emptiness are in his people: the tough, sex-starved widow who runs the hotel; the neurotic, defrocked minister, and the gentle maiden lady from New England. Thrown together in this squalid setting their human needs become explicit, and from their conflicts comes the realization that life must be endured, and that the spirit will somehow survive even beyond the limits of anguish. Mr. Williams veers off in many philosophic directions in this searing pastorale, but he is chiefly concerned with the relationship of the Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon and Miss Hannah Jelkes, the sad, fortyish lady who travels the world with her grandFather ('the oldest practicing poet in the world'), painting quick portraits, for a fee, while the nonagenarian recites poetry to hotel guests. Rev. Shannon, having been relieved of his cloth for sexual irregularities, has landed at the Costa Verde hotel, near Acapulco, on the verge of one of his periodic mental breakdowns. the proprietress, an old friend, is prepared to offer him a bed and will, in fact, share it with him if he wishes. But then Miss Jelkes and her grandpa arrive, penniless but prepared to offer their services to the guests in return for lodging. there is a strange and immediate rapport between the discredited clEric and the lonely artist. the play's most poignant moments-scenes of enormous compassion-grow out of the understanding of these two people, their mutual need for companionship and roots, their final moments of nobility in small gestures of unselfishness to aid one another."

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Spoleto, Italy     1959

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions, New York, 1962   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Not About Nightingales

Synopsis:
Written in 1938 and based on an actual newspaper story the play follows the events of a prison scandal which shocked America when convicts leading a hunger strike were locked in a steam-heated cell and roasted to death. Williams later said: "I have never written anything since that could compete with its violence and horror." Its sympathetic treatment of a Black character and of a transvestite might have kept the play suppressed and unproduced during its own time. But its flashes of lyricism and compelling dialogue presage the great plays Williams was yet to write.

Notes:
Royal National theatre, London, March 5-April 30, 1998. Alley theatre, Houston, TX June 10-July3,1998

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French Inc   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Originally 1-act. Revised.20 episodes. - - Gay, theme/character full length

Parts:
Male:  22            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Notebook Of Trigorin, The

Synopsis:
On his Uncle Sorin's lakeside estate, Constantine's new play premieres to disdainful reactions from the family and friends who have gathered: Masha; her future husband Medvedenko; Dorn, a lecherous doctor; Shamrayev, manager of the estate; and his wife Polina. Constantine's mother, the famous actress Madame Arkadina (and prima donna), is not one to suppress her true feelings on her son's contribution to the theatre: She abhors it. Humiliated, Constantine sulks over his life, his art, and dotes on the play's star, the woman he loves, Nina, who is infatuated with Madame Arkadina's companion, the established writer Boris Trigorin. Since Trigorin is the object of affection for Nina, as well as Madame Arkadina, he becomes the object of scorn and jealousy for Constantine. In an attempt to explain his brooding, morbid nature, Constantine presents Nina with a dead seagull, which he has just shot-a sacrificial symbol of events to come. Before the evening is over the characters' dreams, infidelities, and self-deceptions will be revealed: Nina's reluctance to love Constantine; Trigorin's lust for Nina; Masha's love for Constantine and boredom with her new husband; Dorn's insecurities on his aging appearance and his affair with Polina; and Sorin's constant pleadings with his sister Arkadina to accept and encourage his nephew, her son. Two summers later finds Constantine the successful writer; Masha, a drunk, lamenting her love for Constantine; Madame Arkadina, haggard and struggling to hold onto Trigorin; and Nina, returning to the lake after her failed acting career and rueful involvement with Trigorin, seeking sympathy and understanding from the disturbed Constantine, who still loves her enough to take his own life.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Anton Chekhov ( the Sea Gull)

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1997   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Adaptation

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Now the Cat With Jeweled Claws

Now the Cat With Jeweled Claws
Conversations in a restaurant between two women friends, two male (homosexual) lovers, and the homosexual male manager. A cocktail-laden lunch with Madge and Bea inexplicably turns into a song-and-dance number. these not-so-genteel society ladies banter about urban conditions and the ridiculous art of seduction, while hustlers in pink leather jackets contemplate the Mystic Rose'.

Notes:
Written 1981. A luncheon table At the window of A restaurant. Outside the window, there is A deserted street, with the marquee of A cinema visible. the feature playing At the cinema is Defiance of Decency, which is followed by four stars.

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "Now The Cat With Jewelled Claws And Other One Act Plays" published by New Directions 2016   

Music:
-

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Genre:
2 scenes One Act. - - Gay, one act

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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One Arm

Synopsis:
A young sailor becomes the Fleet boxing champion. Leaving the service he becomes a hustler. then an accident robs him of an arm. He resembles a piece of antique sculpture and becomes the centre of attention for both men and women

Notes:
-

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:
Gay, full length

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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One Exception, The

One Exception, The
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
contained in "The Traveling Companion and Other Plays", New Directions. Samuel French Inc but they are just the performing rights holder   

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:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Orpheus Descending

Synopsis:
As the New York Times describes, the play tells ". . .of a woman storekeeper and a handsome, guileless youth who comes in off the highway. A guitar-player, he is a rural Orpheus who descends to rescue his love-not in Hades, precisely, but amid the intrigue, gossip and violence of a hot-tempered town. . .ORPHEUS DESCENDING is one of Mr. Williams' pleasant plays, with characters determined to free themselves from corruption, with some sensitive philosophical comments in passing about the loneliness of the human being condemned in his world to solitary confinement for the whole of his life. Mr. Williams is in a more humane state of mind than he has been in several years. . .the introduction of the musical vagabond to the friendless woman who keeps the store, their humorous talk, their serious talk, the simplicity of their liaison after they have come to know each other-all this Mr. Williams has written in his best style of mood, lyricism and tenderness."

Notes:
Orpheus Descending is known in other forms As Battle of Angels And As the Fugitive Kind

1st Produced:
Matin Beck Theater. New York, NY     1957

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions, New York, 1958   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  10            Female:  9            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Out Cry

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Subsequently revised And Available under the title the TWO-CHARACTER PLAY. NOTE: the Author prefers that the version entitled the TWO-CHARACTER PLAY be presented by nonprofessional groups, though Applications to produce OUT CRY will Also be considered.

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

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:
Drama, full length

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Palooka, The

Synopsis:
the Palooka is a spent boxer. Next to him on the bench awaiting his first professional fight is a starry-eyed youngster who hopes to make it big like his hero, former champion Galveston Joe. the Kid supposes that Joe retired wealthy and glorious, and the Palooka wistfully agrees. But as the Palooka walks out lifelessly to get slaughtered again, the Trainer gives the brutal truth: old timers in the crowd still recognize the has-been - despite changing his name from Galveston Joe

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Mister Paradise and Other One Act Plays, Samuel French, London, 2006   

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 One Act

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  -            Other:  flexible

Further Reference:
-

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Parade, The

Parade, The
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
contained in "The Traveling Companion and Other Plays", New Directions. Samuel French Inc but they are just the performing rights holder   

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 One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Perfect Analysis Given By a Parrot, A

Synopsis:
A delightful scene about two fading, overdressed doxies, members of the Ladies' Auxiliary of the "Sons of Mars," who hit town for the annual convention. But, in their search for "boys" and a "high old time," they wind up separated from their party, in a third rate bar, drinking beer and trying hard to be cheerful. Each is soon finding fault with the other, and they are resigned to a miserable time when the door bursts open, and a pair of "Sons of Mars," in all their blue-and-white glory, leap-frog in to save these damsels-in-distress.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1958   

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:  1            Female:  2            Other:  2 non-speaking walk-on men

Further Reference:
-

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Period of Adjustment

Synopsis:
As described in the NY Times: "Mr. Williams is telling the story of two marriages at points of acute crisis. One couple has just broken up after five years together. the other has not been able to come to terms in one day of wedlock. Both couples are living through a period of adjustment. the phrase is tinged with irony. the play examines the sources of the crisis. Ralph Bates, a former war hero, has in-law trouble. George Haverstick, a war buddy who unexpectedly visits him on Christmas Eve with his bride of a day, has the shakes; his difficulty seems to be a fear of impotence. the end is happy, as comedy requires. the four go to bed-in the right combinations." In calling his play a "serious comedy," Mr. Williams puts his finger on its most unique aspect, for this is a work which combines a humorous viewpoint with deep-seated concern for a very real, human situation.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Miami     1959

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions, New York, 1960   

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:
SerioComedy Comedy

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Pink Bedroom, The

Synopsis:
the Woman berates her tedious, negligent lover whom she knows has two-timed her. As the quarrel reaches a crescendo, she turns him out and slams the door on him. then she calls to his replacement, a younger man, who's waiting in the other room

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Mister Paradise and Other One Act Plays, Samuel French, London, 2006   

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:
play One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Portrait Of A Madonna

Synopsis:
A sketch of a demented spinster

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Los Angeles     1946

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other One Act Plays, New Directions, NY, 1946   

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:
Sketch One Act

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

Top of Page Top of Page

Pretty Trap, The

Pretty Trap, The
This is the New York premiere of a one-act version of the Glass Menagerie. It's about a mother awaiting the arrival of her daughter's gentleman caller.
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Acorn Theatre, 410 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036     03 Aug 2011

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in "The Magic Tower and Other One Act Plays" published by New Directions 2011   

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:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Pronoun "I", The

Pronoun
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
contained in "The Traveling Companion and Other Plays", New Directions. Samuel French Inc but they are just the performing rights holder   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Purification, The

Synopsis:
Poetic Drama in New Mexico

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Dallas, Tx     1954

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other One Act Plays, New Directions, NY, 1946   

Music:
-

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Genre:
One Act

Parts:
Male:  9            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Recluse and his Guest, A

Recluse and his Guest, A
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "Now The Cat With Jewelled Claws And Other One Act Plays" published by New Directions 2016   

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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Red Devil Battery Sign, The

Synopsis:
the action of the play begins in the cocktail lounge of a slightly seedy Dallas hotel, where the rebellious wife of a powerful and corrupt industrialist (known only as the "Downtown Woman"), having been subjected to violent electro-shock treatments and disabling drugs, is being virtually held prisoner. When she encounters King Del Rey, once the leader of a successful mariachi band, until he was disabled by a brain tumor, the Woman senses that he is both a kindred spirit and, perhaps, the means by which she can free herself at last. their attraction is immediate and tempestuous but King, demeaned by the fact that his present condition makes him his hard-working wife's "invalid dependent," holds back from total commitment. As their stories unfold we learn that the Woman, daughter of a crooked Texas politician and wife of the grasping president of the Red Devil Battery Company (which symbolizes the dehumanizing power of the military-industrial complex) has knowledge of a right-wing plot to assume national power; and that King still clings to the hope that his health will be restored and he will again join forces with his talented daughter, a gifted singer known as La Nina. But it soon becomes apparent that time has run out for both of them; the forces which seek to hold the Woman in bondage are too powerful to foil; and La Nina, who has become the paramour of a gun-toting Chicago hoodlum, is aware that her Father is a doomed man. In the stirring, theatrically explosive conclusion of the play, King, after a final but futile attempt to save the Woman, falls dead from a massive stroke, while she is seized by a marauding band of homeless youths who have been poised at the outskirts of the city, and carried off as their leader's prize-and to the nightmare-desolation of a decadent civilization in the throes of self-destruction.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Schubert Theatre Boston, Massachusetts     1976

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, London,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
2 act Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  18            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Remarkable Rooming House of Mme LeMonde, The

Remarkable Rooming House of Mme LeMonde, The
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
contained in "The Traveling Companion and Other Plays", New Directions. Samuel French Inc but they are just the performing rights holder   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Rose Tattoo, The

Rose Tattoo, The
Serafina delle Rose is a restless widow whose intense and absorbing instinct for love drives everything before it. the figure of this extraordinary woman dominates the small town where she and her friends are living and embodies the exultation and danger of unbridled passion. Her story, and that of the lover she chooses and the daughter she denies, are forged into a play of power, humanity and soaring emotion.

Notes:
Winner of the 1951 Tony Award for Best Play. One of the Author's most beautiful And powerful plays. Set Among A colony of Sicilian fisherfolk on the American Gulf Coast, it is the story of A woman for whom love was stronger than death

1st Produced:
New York     1951

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions, New York, 1951   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  9            Female:  14            Other:  -

Further Reference:
Wearing - the London Stage 59.12

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Seagull, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Anton Chekhov

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
Adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Seven Descents of Myrtle, The

Synopsis:
A dying man, Lot, brings his new former showbiz wife to his childhood home where his half brother still lives. His brother, Chicken, begins to psychologically torture his sister-in-law, scaring her with the prospect of drowing in the impending flood, because he suspects the marraige is a scam to prevent him from getting the house when his brother dies. While she suffers Lot goes insane, dressing in his mother's clothes and a wig and disapears into the parlor never to be heard from again.

Notes:
aka Kingdom Of Earth

1st Produced:
New York    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
2 acts Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  Chicken, Lot and Myrtle

Further Reference:
-

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Slapstick Tragedy

Synopsis:
Viscious scavenger birds repeatedly attack an ex-vaudeville singer as she attempts to gather fish for her supper. the implication of the two plays is that all of us suffer in one way or another

Notes:
includes the Mutilated (9m 4f) And Gnadiges Fr!ulein, the (3m 3f) (aka the Latter Days Of A Celebrated Soubrette)

1st Produced:
Longacre Theatre. New York City     1966

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, New York (2 vols.), 1967   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Double Bill Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  9            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Small Craft Warnings

Synopsis:
the scene is a rundown bar on the Southern California coast, where a group of lonely and disparate individuals, rejected by "normal" society, come together in their need for human contact and understanding. One by one each tells his tale with poetic eloquence and force, revealing the desperate emptiness of his existence, and inspiring a moving compassion of rare dimension. In the final essence, the characters become embodiments of the fears that lurk in all of us, and the frailties that so often make us less than we would wish to be-both in our hearts and in the eyes of others.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Truck and Warehouse Theater, New York     02 Apr 1972

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1972   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Gay characters full length

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Something Cloudy, Something Clear

Synopsis:
the scene is a beach shack on Cape Cod, during the summer of 1940, where August, a fledgling playwright, is rewriting the play intended for his Broadway debut. He is distracted by his infatuation for Kip, a handsome Canadian dancer and draft dodger, who is visiting with a wealthy and protective young girl named Clare, reputedly his sister. When Clare, who is not all she claims to be, goes off with a gangster friend, August takes advantage of her absence to lay suit to the sexually ambivalent Kip. But while he wins his case, there is as much pain as pleasure in their liaison, as Kip proves to be both terminally ill and unable to reciprocate August's obsessive passion. And, as a counter theme, August must also negotiate with the fawning, penny-pinching producers, whose crass commercialism he turns aside with a fierce defense of his artistic integrity. In the end we know that his play, like his sexual compulsion, will come to grief-but we are also aware that the artist, and the vision he must pursue, will remain undaunted and undiminished despite all the obstacles and frustrations that surely lie ahead.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-     1981

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay, full length

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Something Unspoken

Synopsis:
Character sketch in which two characters are developed with remarkable insight. A play with an underlying current of irony and horror.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
York Theatre, New York City     Jan 1958

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other One Act Plays, New Directions, NY (revised), 1953   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Sketch One Act. - - Lesbian, theme/character, one act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Spring Storm

Synopsis:
Heavenly has almost everything a young woman could desire, but when she is forced to decide between respectable suitor Arthur and handsome wild lover Dick, her actions cause a chain of consequences that tear their lives apart.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Iowa City     1938

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Stairs To the Roof

Synopsis:
Based on Williams's experience as an employee of the International Shoe Company, Stairs details the emotional and mental suffocation of factory work.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Pasadena Playhouse. Pasadena, Ca     1945

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  17            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Steps Must Be Gentle

Synopsis:
a kind of posthumous debate between Grace Hart Crane and her poet son Hart

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
22nd Tennessee Williams Festival, New Orleans     2008

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New York, Targ Editions, 1980   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Dramatic reading

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Strange Play, The

Strange Play, The
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "Now The Cat With Jewelled Claws And Other One Act Plays" published by New Directions 2016   

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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Strangest Kind Of Romance, The

Synopsis:
A lonely man tossed by life and hectored by his landlady finds happiness only with an alley cat.

Notes:
This play grew out of Williams' short story, the Malediction

1st Produced:
Theatre De Champs Elysees (Paris, France)     1960

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other One Act Plays, New Directions, NY, 1946   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Sketch One Act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  1 cat

Further Reference:
-

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Streetcar Named Desire, A

Synopsis:
the play reveals to the very depths the character of Blanche du Bois, a woman whose life has been undermined by her romantic illusions, which lead her to reject-so far as possible-the realities of life with which she is faced and which she consistently ignores. the pressure brought to bear upon her by her sister, with whom she goes to live in New Orleans, intensified by the earthy and extremely "normal" young husband of the latter, leads to a revelation of her tragic self-delusion and, in the end, to madness.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Barrymore Theatre. New York City     1947

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions, New York, 1947   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  6            Other:  3 or 4 minor roles

Further Reference:

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Suddenly Last Summer

Suddenly Last Summer
Kerr, in the NY Herald-Tribune, describes: "This, says Mr. Williams through the most sympathetic voice among his characters, 'is a true story about the time and the world we live in.' He has made it seem true-or at least curiously and suspensefully possible-by the extraordinary skill with which he has wrung detail after detail out of a young woman who has lived with horror. Anne Meacham, as a girl who has been the sole witness to her cousin's unbelievably shocking death, is brought into a 'planned jungle' of a New Orleans garden to confront a family that is intensely interested in having her deny the lurid tale she has told. the post-dilettante's mother is, indeed, so ruthlessly eager to suppress the facts that she had the girl incarcerated in a mental institution and she is perfectly willing, once she finishes her ritualistic five o'clock frozen daiquiri, to order the performance of a frontal lobotomy. A nun stands in rigid attendance; a doctor prepares a hypodermic to force the truth; greedy relatives beg her to recant in return for solid cash. Under the assorted, and thoroughly fascinating, pressures that are brought to bear, and under the intolerable, stammering strain of reliving her own memories, Miss Meacham slowly, painfully, hypnotically paints a concrete and blistering portrait of loneliness. . .of the sudden snapping of that spider's web that is one man's life, of ultimate panic and futile flight. the very reluctance with which the grim, hopeless narrative is unfolded binds us to it; Mr. Williams threads it out with a spare, sure, sharply vivid control of language. . .and the spell is cast."

Notes:
Presented Off-Broadway with Something Unspoken under the collective title Garden District

1st Produced:
York Theater, New York, NY     1958

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions 1958   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
One Act. - - Gay, theme/character full length

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Summer And Smoke

Synopsis:
the play is a simple love story of a somewhat puritanical Southern girl and an unpuritanical young doctor. Each is basically attracted to the other but because of their divergent attitudes toward life, each over the course of years is driven away from the other. Not until toward the end does the doctor realize that the girl's high idealism is basically right, and while she is still in love with him, it turns out that neither time nor circumstances will allow the two ultimately to come together.

Notes:
revised As Eccentricities of A Nightingale

1st Produced:
Dallas     1947

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions, New York, 1948   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Summer at the Lake

Synopsis:
Donald desperately seeks refuge from his hectoring mother who perpetually nags him on topics that seem alternately trivial and all too painfully pertinent to his future. At every available opportunity he flees to the lake where he swims alone. Finally, he doesn't return.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Mister Paradise and Other One Act Plays, Samuel French, London, 2006   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
play One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Sunburst

Synopsis:
A retired actress Miss Sails, falls hostage to two young men scheming to steal her priceless sunburst diamond. But Miss Sails is no Southern Belle. . .

Notes:
-

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:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Sweet Bird of Youth

Sweet Bird of Youth
As New York Newsday describes: "Its two central characters are the Princess, an aging motion picture actress in flight from her latest screen disaster, and Chance Wayne, a young hustler whom she has picked up. Taking advantage of her drunkenness and his youth and good looks, he manages to lure her to the Southern town of his birth in order to see again a young girl with whom he has had an affair and whom he still loves. Word of his arrival spreads like contagion through the small town. Boss Finley, a political despot and Father of the young girl, is especially interested. What Chance does not know is that unwittingly he has infected the girl and ever since the Boss, his sadistic son and his toadies have lain in wait for his return and for their revenge. Chance's scheme is to use the Princess to promote a motion picture career for himself and his girl. Naturally this falls afoul and in the end the avengers are about to close in on the passively waiting Chance, who has been deserted by his patroness and far worse, by his youth."

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Coral Gables, Florida     1956

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions, New York, 1959   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  15            Female:  7            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Talk To Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen

Synopsis:
"Morning-After" scene of moving Drama wherein a wife decides to leave her husband under tragic circumstances.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Westport, Connecticut     1958

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other One Act Plays, New Directions, NY (revised), 1953   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Ten Blocks On the Camino Real

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
In 1948, Elia Kazan first workshopped these scenes At the Actors Studio, And that work grew into the full-length play Camino Real

1st Produced:
-     1948

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in American Blues: Five Short Plays, Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1948   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
One Act

Parts:
Male:  13            Female:  3            Other:  10 dancers (flexible casting

Further Reference:
-

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Tennessee Laughs

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
includes Some Problems For the Moose Lodge, A Perfect Analysis given By A Parrot, the Frosted Glass Coffin

1st Produced:
Chicago     1980

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
the Frosted Glass Coffin in "Dragon Country", New Directions, New York, 1970   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Three 1 Act plays One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Thank You, Kind Spirit

Synopsis:
Mother Duclos is a spiritualist dispensing succour, on payment of a fee, to the troubled people who come to her chapel. But a woman incites everyone to turn against her, and they strip the chapel of its religious artefacts. Desolate, Mother Duclos is comforted finally by the crippled little girl who returns to say that she still believes.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Mister Paradise and Other One Act Plays, Samuel French, London, 2006   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
play One Act

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  7            Other:  1g extras

Further Reference:
-

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These Are the Stairs You Got to Watch

Synopsis:
Carl, veteran usher at the third-rate Joy Rio Cinema, is showing the ropes to a schoolboy, newly hired to work in the summer holidays. the boy is introduced to the sleazy workings of the cinema by being instructed not to let patrons go upstairs. However, the patrons are hell-bent on going upstairs, including the seductive Gladys who's determined to get the boy to follow her

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Mister Paradise and Other One Act Plays, Samuel French, London, 2006   

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 One Act

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  optional extras

Further Reference:
-

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This Is an Entertainment

Synopsis:
A Count and Countess try to withstand an attack of an alien, unseen enemy for their base in an European hotel.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Geary Theatre, San Francisco, Ca     1976

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:
2 acts Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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This Is the Peaceable Kingdom

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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This Property Is Condemned

Synopsis:
the story of a 13 year old girl living on a railroad embankment in Mississippi. She's been abandoned by her parents and her sister died. She dropped out of school and lives alone.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New School For Social Research (New York, NY)    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other One Act Plays, New Directions, NY, 1946   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Dramatic Dialogue One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

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Three Players Of A Summer Game

Synopsis:
A former athlete (Brick), now an alcoholic, has an affair with the widow of his deceased doctor. He is left by her and, due to his broken leg, he is at the mercy of his wife who drives him everywhere he has to go.

Notes:
This play started As A short story by the same name And was turned into the Award winning Cat on A Hot Tin Roof.

1st Produced:
White Barn Theatre, Westport Ct    

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:
Dramatic Dialogue One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Tiger Tail

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Atlanta    

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

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To Heaven In a Golden Coach

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Bromley, Kent    

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Travelling Companion, The

Synopsis:
Conversation between an aging homosexual and a young hustler, who are traveling together.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Irish Reperatory Theatre (New York, NY).    

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:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Two Character Play, The

Synopsis:
Two actors, a brother and sister, meet in the empty playhouse where their theatre company is scheduled to perform that evening. But apparently the other actors have deserted them, and absconded with their money, so the two decide to perform the "Two-Character Play," extemporizing the parts not memorized or not yet written. Thus the play-within-a-play begins, and it proves to be so compelling, and so deeply affecting, that soon both they and the audience are no longer sure as to where the play stops and real life takes over. In the end unanswered questions linger, but, with them, overtones of larger truths revealed and deeper meanings brought into light at last.

Notes:
aka Out Cry

1st Produced:
London    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions, New York, 1969   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Two On A Party

Synopsis:
The friendship between a straight woman and a gay man. Billy and Cora cavort and drink their way up and down the Eastern Seaboard

Notes:
First performed under the overall title "Three On A Party". Based on the short story "Two On A Party" by Tennessee Williams

1st Produced:
Theatre Rhinoceros, San Francisco    

Organisations:
Word For Word

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:
Gay one act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Vieux Carre

Vieux Carre
the place is a rooming house in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the time the late Thirties. As narrated by the Writer, a young man recently arrived from St. Louis, the action is concerned with interlocking lives of the various residents: a tubercular, homosexual painter; a doomed young girl and her coarse lover; two aging "ladies" living in near poverty; and the eccentric irrepressible landlady, who veers from cruelty to sentiment in her treatment of her charges. Filled with evocative memories, and sharply etched portraits of its singular characters, the play centers first on the Writer, and his seduction by the Painter; and then probes into the fateful love of the young girl for her stud-she dying of leukemia, and he torn between his debt to her and his urge to escape the consequences of her condition. It is a play of echoes and remembrances, a series of engrossing scenes, sometimes brutally candid sometimes delicately poetic, which are woven together into a rich and revealing tapestry, glinting with theatricality and throbbing with the feel of life.

Notes:
May 16, 1978. Playhouse theatre. Nottingham, UK

1st Produced:
St. James Theatre. New York City    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
New Directions, New York, 1979   

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:
Play/Drama. - - Gay, theme/character full length

Parts:
Male:  9            Female:  9            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Why Do You Smoke So Much, Lily?

Synopsis:
Mrs Yorke struts and preens herself in the mirror of her fashionable apartment while daughter, Lily, does nothing but chain-smoke and make cynical comments. Driven to near insanity by her overbearing mother, Lily can hear her mother's fretful, incessant voice even when she's not there. Her entrapment is total; there is no escape.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Mister Paradise and Other One Act Plays, Samuel French, London, 2006   

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 One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Will Mr Merriwether Return from Memphis?

Synopsis:
A lonely woman and her friend wait for Mr. Merriwether to return home, and while they wait they see apparitions of historical characters such as Rimbaud and van Gogh.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Key West, Florida    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
contained in "The Traveling Companion and Other Plays", New Directions. Samuel French Inc but they are just the performing rights holder   

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:
2 act Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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You Touched Me!

Synopsis:
Hadrian comes home to find his family and home under the control of his overwhelming spintress aunt. Eventually, Emmie, the spintress, loses control over the family and persues an unsuspecting Reverend.

Notes:
written with Donald Windham, suggested by A story by D. H. Lawrence

1st Produced:
Cleveland Playhouse. Cleveland, Oh    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, NY, 1947   

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:
3 acts Comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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