|
|
American Plays
American plays by playwright: C
TheatreBooks stocks plays in English from around the world and, of course, all
plays published in Canada. We stock and sell plays from Samuel French Ltd., Dramatists Play Service and Dramatic Publishing Co., and the leading play publishers
in Great Britain. We carry books on all aspects of theatre production, as well
as opera and dance.
If you don't find the title or playwright you are looking for, please stop by the
store and ask, or contact us at action@theatrebooks.com,
by phone at 416.922.7175, toll-free at 1.800.361.3414 or by fax at 416.922.0739.
Plays
are also listed by playwright, by last name.
A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M /
N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W /
X / Y / Z
If you are unsure of the author's name, please to to our search
engine and enter the title of the work you are interested in.
 Embraceable Me
Victor L. Cahn
Edward is smart, shy, and quirky, while Allison is sexy, dramatic, and vulnerable. Embraceable Me is a comic and passionate "He said -- She said" that traces the twenty-year journey of these unlikely friends as they struggle to resolve their feelings for the most important people in their lives. 1m, 1f. Softcover, 70 pp. $11.99.
 Roses in December: A Play in Letters
Victor L. Cahn
In this play of letters, a young official in a college alumni office invites a celebrated but reclusive author to the thirty-fifth reunion of his class. When he declines, she charmingly prods him, and thereby begins a witty and revelatory correspondence that becomes part mystery, part memory, and part romance. 1m, 1f. Softcover, 43 pp. $11.99.
 Too Old for the Chorus, But Not Too Old to Be a Star
Marie Cain, Mark Winkler & Shelley Markham
This is a smart, funny musical revue about men and women who find themselves suddenly 50! Set in their neighborhood retro coffee shop, five characters express, over 18 musical numbers, the gamut of their frustrations and joys. 3m, 2f . Softcover, 60 pp. $11.99.
 Shakespeare's
R & J
Joe Calarco
Four actors with no set, no costume changes,
and no props bring the essence of this classic play vividly alive with the sheer
theatricality of the timeless story. $9.99.
 Marble
Marina Carr
A premonition of impending disaster precedes a collision between the conscious and subconscious lives of two married couples. Hidden fantasies and passions conflict with the calls of friendship and fidelity. The characters' everyday existences and their struggles to accept mortality provide the backdrop to Marble's exploration of the tragedy of dying of an empty heart. 2m, 2w. Softcover, 51 pp. $11.99.
 Almost, Maine
John Cariani
On a cold, clear, moonless night in the middle of winter, all is not quite what it seems in the remote, mythical town of Almost, Maine. As the northern lights hover in the star-filled sky above, Almost's residents find themselves falling in and out of love in unexpected and often hilarious ways. Knees are bruised. Hearts are broken. But the bruises heal, and the hearts mend--almost--in this delightful midwinter night's tale. Softcover, 75 pp. $10.99.
 The Rant
Andrew Case
A taut drama exploring racial bias and the slippery path to justice. One summer night in Brooklyn, a sixteen-year-old boy is gunned down by the police. When the department closes ranks around the accused officer, an investigator assigned to the shooting takes what she knows to a tabloid reporter. But she quickly learns that the story she fed to the press is still only part of the truth. Alone, she must wade through prejustice, deceit, and a volley of anonymous threats to find where culpability and truth really lie. 2m, 2w. Softcover, 51 pp. $11.99.
 When The World Was Green (A Chef's Fable)
Joseph Chaikin & Sam Shepard
A hauntingly lyrical memory play, When The World Was Green is steeped in the elliptical, poetic style for which Shepard is justly celebrated. With only two characters, an old man who was once a superb chef, and a young reporter who comes to interview him in the prison where he has been locked up for many years after poisoning a man he mistook for his cousin. Softcover, 34 pp. $10.99.
 The Piano Teacher
Julia Cho
Mrs. K is an elderly widow who lives by herself in a small suburban town. She whiles away her time reminiscing about her late husband and the children she taught long ago as a piano instructor. One day, she finds herself compelled to call her old students, but is it out of loneliness or some other, darker need? As Mrs. K discovers, it may not be what we cannot know that troubles us the most; it may be what we cannot bear to know. Softcover, 36 pp. $10.99.
 A Song For Coretta
Pearl Cleage
On February 6, 2006, people began lining up at dawn outside of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Chirch to pay their respects to the late Mrs. Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose body lay in state in the small sanctuary. When a cold rain began to fall at sunset, those who had thought to bring umbrellas shared them with those whose resolve was the only thing not dampened by the drizzle. At close to midnight, the crowd had dwindled to a determined few. The five fictional characters in this play are at the end of that long line of mourners. Softcover, 40 pp. $10.99.
 Bourbon at the Border
Pearl Cleage
Bourbon at the Border takes a look at the lives of two ordinary people
who gave everything they had to the African-American freedom struggle
but who have now been largely forgotten. In telling May and Charlie's
story, Bourbon at the Border puts a human face on the unknown soldiers
of the civil rights movement by refusing to romanticize them even
as it honours their specific sacrifices and the price they paid.
M-2, F-2. Softcover, 65 pp. $9.99.
 My Buddy Bill
Rick Cleveland
On a visit to the White House, a dog-loving screenwriter reprimands Buddy, the First Dog, for piddling on the Oval Office rug. Little does he know that this canine interaction will spark a lasting friendship with President Clinton and give him a rare and hilarious glimpse into the private life of the most talked about president in history. 1m. Softcover, 28 pp. $11.99.
 My Pal George
Rick Cleveland
President Clinton's unlikely canine consultant finds himself crossing party lines in this sequel to My Buddy Bill. George W. Bush calls on Clinton's unofficial advisor to train his Scottish Terrier, Barney, not to "urinificate" on White House furnishings. Taking him from the Lincoln Bedroom to the Crawford Ranch, the task of curing Barney's incontinence affords us a poignantly funny peek into the private life of Dubya. 1m. Softcover, 32 pp. $11.99.
 The Momologues
Lisa Rafferty, Stefanie Cloutier & Sheila Eppolito
This original comedy about motherhood rips away the gauzy mask of parenthood to reveal what all mothers know but don't always talk about: that it's overwhelming and exhausting, but also very, very funny. 4f. Softcover, 46 pp. $11.99.
 Huck Finn
Eric Coble
The great American novel comes to life in a thrilling new adaptation. This timeless tale of friendship, laughter, and humanity is perfect for school productions, touring, and introducing a whole new audience to Mark Twain's definitive novel. 10m, 9w (doubling, flexible casting). Softcover, 40 pp. $11.99.
 Offices
Ethan Coen
Hiring and firing are antisocial acts. Workplace pressures make for nasty competition. And the work itself can be meaningless and alienating. Accordingly, the three short plays that make up Offices are comedies. 7m, 2w. Softcover, 60 pp. $11.99.
 Almost An Evening
Ethan Coen
In Almost an Evening, three short plays unsuccessfully tackle important questions. In Waiting, someone waits some where for some time. In Four Benches, a voyage to self discovery takes a British intelligence agent to steam baths in New York and Texas, and to park benches in the U.S. and U.K. In Debate, cosmic questions are taken up. Not much is learned. 7m, 2w. Softcover, 54 pp. $11.99.
 Five Course Love
Gregg Coffin
Three actors play fifteen different characters in five different restaurants on the hunt for one true love. The evening begins at Dean's Old-Fashioned All-American Down-Home Bar-B-Que Texas Eats, where a blind date goes charbroiled wrong. One after another, each couple at each restaurant have their turn, and come what may, the results are both humorous and touching. Softcover, 53 pp. $10.99.
 The Boys From Siam
John Austin Connolly
Based loosely on the lives of the 19th century brothers Chang and Eng Bunker (the original "siamese twins"), The Boys from Siam is the haunting and lyrical story of the conjoined twins Pigg and Pegg. Edward Albee writes in his forward that the word is "a beautifully realized concentrated universe. It takes big chances along the way...and makes us care--really care." Softcover, 119 pp. $15.95.
Bash'd
Chris Craddock & Nathan Cuckow
An attempt to avenge an act of gay-bashing, results in the tragic deaths of Jack and Dillon. Condemned to walk the earth and tell their cautionary tale forever, their angelic personae TBAG and FEMINEM have entralled wildly enthusiastic audiences all over North America with the rap opera rhymes of this tragic tale ever since. 2m. Softcover, 94 pp. $16.95.
 Dusty and the Big Bad World
Cusi Cram
When the producers of an animated children's show hold a competition to find a model family, the 15,000 entries lead to unexpected results. From all of the letters received, the producers pick Lizzie Goldberg-Jones and her family to be featured on the most popular animated PBS show in America. Her parents are exemplary role models -- and they are 2 men. 1m, 3f, 1 girl. Softcover, 73 pp. $12.99.
 Avec Schmaltz
Mart Crowley
This two-act comedic collision seems, at first, like a straightforward romp about marital grumblings. But there are all sorts of surprising complexities in the failed marriage of Kit, the WASP flame-haired rich girl, and Manny, the wry, wise-cracking Jewish TV composer, which has produced two precocious, sassy children. 3m, 2f. Softcover, 97 pp. $11.99.
 Remote Asylum
Mart Crowley
In the heat of a blazing summer, three physically and spiritually exhausted Americans try to "get away from it all" at a friend's fabulous cliff-side villa on an island in the Mediterrananean. While there, each of them are forced to deal with their fears of loneliness and mortality. 5m, 3f. Softcover, 74 pp. $11.99.
 The Band Plays
Matt Crowley
Softcover, 245 pp. $20.95.
 Beauty of the Father
Nilo Cruz
This play by the Pulitzer Prize-winner Nilo Cruz is set in Andalusia, Spain, where the restless ghost of the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca still wanders the streets and converses with the living. Beauty of the Father is about a young American girl who travels to this part of the world to meet her estranged father and becomes romantically involved with his Moroccan companion. This passionate triangle explores the conflict between love and sacrifice. Softcover, 52 pp. $10.99.
 A Bicycle Country
Nilo Cruz
Three characters whose lives seem to be moving nowhere set out to build a dream,
even if that dream seems perilous. This stirring portrait of three Cuban exiles
and their harrowing journey across the Caribbean Sea examines the universal themes
of freedom and oppression, hope and survival. 2 m,1 w. Softcover, 42 pp. $9.99.
 Anna in the Tropics
Nilo Cruz
Anna in the Tropics is set in Florida in 1929 in a Cuban-American cigar
factory, where cigars are still rolled by hand and "lectors" are
employed to educate and entertain the workers. The arrival of a new lector
is cause for celebration, but when he begins to read aloud from Anna Karenina,
he unwittingly becomes a catalyst in the lives of his avid listeners, for whom
Tolstoy, the tropics and the American dream prove a volatile combination. M-5,
F-3. Softcover, 62 pp. $9.99.
 Culture Clash in America
Culture Clash
Culture Clash is Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza. Since 1984,
this award-winning, one-of-a-kind trio has been storming the nation's stages
and wowing audiences with their unique blend of hilarious comedy and shrewdly
observed social satire. Based on interviews with residents of communities across
the U.S., these four plays -- Bordertown, Nuyorcian
Stories, Mission Magic Mystery Tour and Anthems --
paint an unforgettable portrait of life in the United States and what it means
to be American. Softcover, 225 pp. $23.95.
Back to top |
|
