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J Michael Yates

J MICHAEL YATES  

 Nationality:    Canadian/ USA
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    n/a


J. Michael Yates was born in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and did graduate degrees at the Universities of Missouri and Michigan. He is a widely published author of poetry, fiction, drama, translations, and philosophical essays. He has edited several anthologies and several literary magazines. His work has been translated into most of the western languages and several of the eastern ones and his drama for radio, television, and stage have been produced both nationally and internationally. His last rank as a university professor was Distinguished Professor. He has won many literary prizes including the Major Hopwood Awards (both poetry and drama the same year) and the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts and Sciences from University of Missouri. He has also been a logger, a powder monkey, a motorcycle racer, a broadcasting executive, a broadcaster, an advertising executive, a print salesman, a commercial photographer, a publisher. He retired after seventeen years as a Maximum Security Prison Guard and SWAT team member. Now, he and his wife teach languages, history of ideas, and science in their home in Vancouver, B.C.

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below is a list of J Michael Yates's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

 Abstract Beast, The         Border, The         Broadcaster, The         Calling, The         Net, The         Night Freight         Panel, The         Passage of Sono Nis, The         Pluto's Republic         Poet in an Arctic Landscape         Quarks: Three Plays         Realia         Search for the Tse Tse Fly         Secret of State         Sinking, The         Theatre of War

Abstract Beast, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
A cocktail party.

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "The Abstract Beast: New Fiction and Drama" published by Sono Nis Press   -

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:
Drama for stage, radio, TV., and film Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:   The Body; The Mind

Further Reference:
-

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Border, The

Synopsis:
A satirical attack on the idea of borders.

Notes:
The play begins with the sounds of An elevator descending, doors opening, burst of street sounds And man's footsteps.

1st Produced:
C.B.C. Network    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
The Soft Review,   -

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 for stage, radio, TV., and film Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Broadcaster, The

Synopsis:
The broadcaster accompanied by the program director and the time salesman arrives at the apex of his career. We know this because the call letters of the station are TOP. There is no way, obviously, but downhill from here. This is a metaphor for any enterprise man undertakes which is solitary. The thrust of the play covers takes us through the various levels of his diminution.

Notes:
A broadcaster in control room with one door leading out And the usual glass windows, hotline light , turn tables, etc.

1st Produced:
C.B.C    1967

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Sono Nis Press, Victoria in the book the abstract beast, 1971   -

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:
Radio and stage drama Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Calling, The

Synopsis:
The human voice, played off against the silence of a telephone. A meditation on the nature of the artist, the problem of "keeping a great poison pure."

Notes:
Bed, side table with phonograph on her side of the bed, dresser, closet door, room door, table Across the room near Audience (presuming proscenium-different if in the round) on which the telephone rests And beside which A chair is positioned. Inasmuch As this is not naturalistic work, clutters, (such As wall pictures, gimcrackery, vases of flowers, etc) Aren't necessary. Virtually the entire Action takes place in illusory (stage) darkness. The first lines should be delivered in total stage darkness. The lights should then be reinstated up Almost imperceptibly reaching whatever maximum the director decides. Perhaps they should hit maximum just before HE gets out of bed to Answer the telephone. At the outset, cloying romantic instrumental music is playing on the phonograph, low, behind the dialogue.

1st Produced:
C.B.C. Tuesday Night    1975

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playwrights Canada, 1974   -

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:
Drama for stage, radio, TV., and film Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Net, The

Synopsis:
A cocktail party.

Notes:
The set is A highly Abstract design: boardwalk wharf, broadside view of boat (gillnetter). Interwoven throughout the Action Are tapped sound effects of wind, moan of ropes, And squeak of hulls Against the wharf, lapping water, gulls And other sea birds. The drum which holds the net must seem Absurdly outsize d by comparison with those of real gillnetters. The play begins with HE in A boat on the rear deck working while SHE is sitting in the boat out of his way. HE is working noisily, muttering Almost under his breath. The OLD FISHERMAN comes onstage walking heavily down the boardwalk toward the young man's boat.

1st Produced:
CBC Stage    1975

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Interstate Magazine, 1972   -

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:
Drama for stage, radio, TV., and film Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  extras

Further Reference:
-

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Night Freight

Synopsis:
A man and a woman encourage the attack of invisible robber and rapist, with horrifyingly comic results. A metaphorical accumulated little experience.

Notes:
The implied setting for the play is in A dark street with A sidewalk, board-fence, garbage cans, And trash At night; however, props Are not necessary. The movement in this play is random to circular.

1st Produced:
Scarborough Players    1972

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Performing Arts in Canada, 1972   -

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:
Drama for stage, radio, TV., film Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:   Invisible Criminal

Further Reference:
-

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Panel, The

Synopsis:
Spoof of talk shows.

Notes:
The off-stage Announcer speaks in An intimate, Asinine, confidential whisper At All times. The theme music used At the first should be woven in And out of the program At the director's discretion. The script will support A great deal of rhythm-change in delivery And stylization of voices. The canned Applause should sound extremely tinny. Try to find A cut of canned Applause that has A distinguishing whistle or cheer-use that exclusively throughout the play. Just A few bars of the usual gray And sprightly melody they play At the beginning of panel program start the play.

1st Produced:
C.B.C. Network    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in: "The Abstract Beast" published by Sono Nis Press    -

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:
Drama for stage, radio, TV., and film Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Passage of Sono Nis, The

Synopsis:
A man awakens one morning in his second storey apartment to the sound of running in the street. He goes through a process of realization that if he remains in the apartment he will starve to death. His task then becomes to join the runners in the street without being trampled by them.

Notes:
This play has been mounted with A variety of sound And visual media, sometimes with Sono Nis fixed in one place onstage, And sometimes with mime-his And or/that of A chorus. My directions Are scant because I Am selfish: I want to see what directors And producers do with my work.

1st Produced:
Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indiana    1970

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:
Dramatic Monologue, One man Show Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Pluto's Republic

Synopsis:
A virginal, Aristotelian philosopher with no vices who is eight feet tall and weighs four hundred pounds has finally arrived at an answer to all philosophical questions. As he begins to deliver this message to his students, he massively "infarcts" and drops to the floor like a bag of boulders. The usual calls are made and a paramedic team shoots great forking volts of electricity into him. He returns to life but instead of being grateful he is enraged because he reasons that his heart attack and death are part of the syllogism of his existence. He leaps off the hospital bed, destroying much hospital equipment and races out of the university hospital and the rest of the play is built on the events stressing the heart in any way he can: outrageous exercise, sex, heroic volumes of alcohol, and smoking- which occur in the service of his attempting to retrieve his death. He eventuates in a courtroom suing the cosmos for lost of death.

Notes:
All voices require extraordinary flexibility And command of the Accents indicated. The play begins in A rather hollow seminar room where Grettison's galumphing And ringing footsteps could be heard As he prepares to speak.

1st Produced:
C.B.C. Network    -

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:
Drama for stage, radio, TV., and film Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  3 m voices

Further Reference:
-

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Poet in an Arctic Landscape

Synopsis:
A poet goes to the high arctic to roll in the metaphor for a new book. The best logistical package he can put together includes an American patronized facility called Great Bear Lodge located on Great Bear Lake. He is a landed immigrant Canadian/ex-patriot American who has no love at all for nation states let alone the United States of Canada. The lodge is a paradise for rich alcoholics (which he isn't) and he soon runs a foul of patriots assembled there. The rest of the play, the scenes not set in the lodge itself, deal with relationships between individuals, the friction between living and making art and the problems of place for Inuit and Arctic Indians.

Notes:
Commissioned by C.B.C Network

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:
Drama for stage, radio, TV., and film Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Quarks: Three Plays

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:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Realia

Synopsis:
All the books of the library of human existence has been taken out of the library and stacked and they have replaced the trees. Outside the library, we have the book forests and inside the library everything "real" is on exhibit in the library. There is some argument whether the some of the exhibits are metabolic or robotic. The play begins with the new librarian arriving to take his position and being perceived by the elder librarian and there is instant conflict about the generational phases of the doctrine of realia.

Notes:
Tchaikovsky music from the Nutcracker Suite should be played throughout the production of this play.

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:
Drama for stage, radio, TV., and film Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  narrator

Further Reference:
-

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Search for the Tse Tse Fly

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Here Are some general production suggestions. It is obvious that the flat is the Axial scene, the others orbital. The problem of moving the Hypnotist from the flat scenes to the various vignette scenes can be handled in many ways., In my directions, I have e used stage blackout for the most part. This technique could be combined with various others or An entirely Brechtian philosophy could be Adopted: leave the stage fully lighted At All times, have the Hypnotist walk from scene to scene, bring stage-hands on to change scenes with no Attempt to conceal their movements or to sustain on the part of the Audience "willing suspension of disbelief". The play may be stylized to virtually Any extent. However, Any Attempt to render the script naturalistically would be insipid. Like All my plays, the informing Aesthetic of this one is Abstract, "irrealistic."

1st Produced:
C.B.C. Network    1975

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Playwrights Co-op,   -

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:
Drama for stage, radio, TV., and film Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:   Misc. males:5; Misc. females: 3

Further Reference:
-

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Secret of State

Synopsis:
A black comedy exploration of a military state.

Notes:
Should be set in A city square.

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:
Drama for stage, radio, TV., and film Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Sinking, The

Synopsis:
A man who dwells on a dome (a small mountain in the far north) builds an ocean-going boat in his driveway with no navigable seas within a thoUSAnd miles. As he goes out one morning he resumes work on the boat, he hears a sound and notices that the boat on its carriage is sinking through his asphalt driveway. The drama is in the sinking of the boat which takes its captain down with it.

Notes:
From door to house, A platform with A ladder up to it implying the prow of A boat, on the platform toward the back A mast-like structure with A cross member. The sinking Aspect can be handled with A follow spot which moves up As the "boat" goes down. Female can have her own spot which lights her when she is outside.

1st Produced:
C.B.C. Network    1975

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
D.N.A. tape magazine, 1971   -

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:
Drama for stage, radio, TV., and film Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Theatre of War

Synopsis:
Theatre of War

Notes:
Bomb burst on the horizon, sporadic machine-gun And rifle-fire, mortars-general Atmosphere of A theatre of war, mixed with various cuts And instrumentalizations of Bach's ART OF THE FUGUE. Music And gunfire to be woven in And out of the play At the producer's discretion.

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in Abstract Beast Ne Fiction and Drama" published by Sono Nis Press 1971   -

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:
Drama for stage, radio, TV., and film Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  1            Other:  extras

Further Reference:
-

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