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American Plays
American plays by playwright: H
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 /
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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.
 What is the Cause of Thunder?
Noah Haidle
After twenty-seven years on the same soap opera, Ada is starting to confuse her art and her life. But after so many years of acting, her art is her life. Haidle's poignant comedy brings us the hilarity of daytime drama alongside the harsher, but often equally funny, realities of life. 2w (doubling). Softcover, 69 pp. $11.99.
 Persephone or Slow Time
Noah Haidle
Meet Demeter, an exquisite statue of the Greek goddess, as she's being created during the Italian Renaissance. Those who admire her see only stone and fortitude, but her thoughts and desires are all too real; she pines for her lost daughter's return and for the love of her sculptor, Giuseppe. Giuseppe, however, is too busy lusting after the city's most popular artist's model to notice Demeter's pain. Fast-forward 500 years:
Demeter stands in a present-day American city park. She has become a symbol of hope amidst illicit activity and a target for more than just pidgeon droppings. Witness to human foibles both hilarious and horrible, Demeter is desperate for someone -- anyone -- to hear her thoughts. And when her life seems bleakest, redemption comes in the unlikeliest of forms. M-2, F-2. Softcover, 70 pp. $11.99.
 Saturn Returns
Noah Haidle
An astrological phenomenon presupposes that when the planet Saturn completes its cycle every thirty years of a human's life, that life is affected by deep trauma and change. This play follows Gustin, a radiologist living in Grand Rapids Michigan at the age of 88, 58, and 28.
M-3, F-1. Softcover, 56 pp. $11.99.
 Vigils
Noah Haidle
Two years ago the Widow's husband, a fireman died in a burning building trying to save a baby. Instead of grieving, she keeps his Soul in a box in her bedroom and takes it out for conversation and the occasional hug. This premise is further complicated when a friend of the husband comes calling for a date with the Widow. M-3, F-1, 1 child. Softcover, 55 pp. $11.99.
 Kitty Kitty Kitty
Noah Haidle
Kitty, a suicidal housecat, finds his true love in his clone, the first successfully cloned housecat, Kitty Kitty. They give each other hand jobs, but Kitty Kitty doesn't love Kitty back. So Kitty decides to make another clone of himself, the title character Kitty Kitty Kitty. But something goes wrong in the cloning process, and he makes more copies of himself, each one more retarded than the last. The final clone, Kitty Kitty Kitty Kitty Kitty, communicattes in nothing but grunts and yells and drool. Kitty Kitty Kitty is a comedy about love, unrequired love, regret and hand jobs. Softcover, 47 pp. $10.99.
 Mr. Marmalade
Noah Haidle
Lucy is a four-year-old girl with a very active imagination. Unfortunately, her imaginary friend Mr. Marmalade doesn't have much time for her. Not to mention he beats up his personal assistant, has a cocaine addiction, and a penchant for pornography and very long dildos. Larry, her only real friend, is the youngest suicide attempt in the history of New Jersey. Mr. Marmalade is a savage black comedy about what it takes to grow up in these difficult times. 4M, 2W (doubling). Softcover, 52 pp. $10.99.
 Rag and Bone
Noah Haidle
Two brothers, Jeff and George, run The Ladder Store, which is actually a front for their business in black-market hearts. In the world of Rag and Bone, hearts are bought and sold for people who can't feel enough. The play begins when George steals the heart of a poet. The play then follows the poet with no heart; a hooker with a heart of gold; T-Bone, her pimp who feels too damn much; and the Millionaire, who eventually receives the poet's heart and sees a whole different world. Jeff and George recently lost their mother, but they put her heart into George's body, and all of a sudden he's wearing a dress, drinking martinis and cooking pot roasts. This is a heartfelt comedy about the limits of feeling, and the consequences of either feeling nothing or too damn much. 5M, 2W. Softcover, 61 pp. $10.99.
 Aphrodisiac
Rob Handel
Misogyny, mystery and politics collide in this dazzling, cynical black comedy. 1M, 2F. Softcover, 48 pp. $11.99.
 Millicent Scowlworthy
Rob Handel
A girl found murdered in the cellar on Christmas morning. A massacre at the high school. The grownups of the community want to forget, but the children have begun to meet in the middle of the night to remember. Nine teenagers gather at an overgrown memorial and reenact the story. Softcover, 7M 5F, 59 pp. $11.99.
 Hank Williams: Lost Highway
Randal Myler & Mark Harelik
Hank Williams: Lost Highway is the spectacular musical biography of the
legendary singer-songwriter frequently mentioned alongside Louis Armstrong,
Robert Johnson, Duke Ellington, Elvis and Bob Dylan as one of the great innovators
of American popular music. M-7, F-3. Softcover, 63 pp. $12.95.
 One Night a Week
Richard Harris, Mary Stewart-David & Denis King
This heart-warming, toe-tapping musical chronicles several months in the life of a beginners tap dancing class set in the gym of an old YMCA community centre in the suburbs. 1m, 9f . Softcover, 131 pp. $11.99.
 Murderers
Jeffrey Hatcher
Three comic monologues about revenge, blackmail, sex, money, jealousy, justice and murder. Performed seperately, the tales depict desperate passions, old wounds and cold calculations that intersect in the sundrenched world of The Riddle Key Luxury Retirement Village in Florida. Each story is a cat-and-mouse mystery featuring culprits who tell how they decided to commit the perfect crime and what tripped them up along the way. Softcover, 42 pp. $10.99.
 Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright
Eric Simonson & Jeffrey Hatcher
In this new play about the famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, audiences get a good look at the master builder at three distinct phases of his life and career. Each part of the play has its own style: a multi-scene "epic" style covering three decades of part one; a compressed "country weekend" comedy a la Chekhov for part two; and a single setting for part three's final encounter between Wright and a young couple living in one of his earliest houses built half a century before, played out in real time. The play also allows for a development in the play's design that mirrors the architectural ideas of Wright himself. WORK SONG is about a man who wanted to create the perfect home for the American family but could never build one for himself. 6M, 2W (4 extras). Softcover, 83 pp. $10.99.
 Murder by Poe
Jeffrey Hatcher
A dark and dreadful night. A woman in white lost within a wood, and the only
shelter is a house full of murderers. Mixing funhouse tricks, Grand Guignol
and a deadly game of cat and mouse, Murder by Poe is a theatrical
imagining of some of Poe's most famous tales of terror. As each haunted figure
tells a story of crime and mayhem, the woman must solve the puzzle of the house
and the riddle of the man who ushers her into its mysteries. Softcover, 40
pp. $9.99.
 The Fifth Column
Ernest Hemingway
The Fifth Column, Hemingway's only full-length play, is a moving portrait of the effects of war on soldiers, civilians, and the correspondents sent to cover it. Written in 1937, while Hemingway was in Madrid as a correspondent for the North American Newspaper alliance, the play was recently revived for the New York theater. This edition can be easily used in stage productions. Softcover, 92 pp. $13.99.
 Ridiculous Fraud
Beth Henley
A disastrous New Orleans wedding rehearsal dinner is the latest in a series of unfortunate events that befall the Clay brothers in Beth Henley's boisterous and bittersweet new comedy. Daddy's in jail for fraud, Uncle Baites has taken up with a panhandler, and Lafcad's just called off his own wedding. What family doesn't have its ups and downs? Softcover, 57 pp. $10.99.
 Tooth and Claw
Michael Hollinger
Reptile specialist Schuyler Baines -- "the Savior of Giant Tortoises" and the first female director of the Charles Darwin Research Station -- arrives in Galapagos full of ideas and idealism. But when she becomes aware of an exploding black market that threatens to destroy the islands' fragile ecosystem, Schuyler shuts the industry down, sparking a deadly, survival-of-the-fittest conflict with native fishermen. A bold, theatrical exploration of evolution, extinction, and the ever-present nature of Darwin's "struggle for life". 8m, 2w (doubling). Softcover, 82 pp. $11.99.
 Urinetown: The Musical
Greg Kotis and Mark Hollman
In a Gotham-like city, a depletion of the earth's water supply has lead to
a government-enforced ban on private toliets. The priviledge to pee is regulated
by a single malevolent company that profits by charging admission for one of
humanity's most basic needs. Amid the people, a hero has risen who will lead
them to freedom. An innovative and acclaimed new musical. Softcover, 103 pp.
$21.00.
 Christmas Belles
Nicholas Hope, Jessie Jones & Jamie Wooten
A church Christmas program spins hilariously out of control in this Southern farce about squabbling sisters, family secrets, a surly Santa, a vengeful sheep and a reluctant Elvis impersonator. Softcover, 60 pp. $10.99.
 Between Us
Joe Hortua
Carlo and Joel have been close friends since graduate school days. Now years have passed, and together with their wives, Grace and Sharyl, they're buying homes, having kids and growing up. But two nights in each other's homes reveal how far they've also grown apart. Between Us explores the ways we change, the compromises we make, and the price we pay for our life choices. Softcover, 56 pp. $10.99.
 Tea
Velina Hasu Houston
Four women come together to clean the house of a fifth after her tragic suicide upsets the balance of life in their small Japanese immigrant community in the middle of the Kansas heartland. The spirit of the dead woman returns as a ghostly ringmaster to force the women to come to terms with the disquieting tension of their lives and find common ground so she can escape the limbo between life and death, and move on to the next world in peace--and indeed carve a pathway for their future passage. 5W. Softcover, 41 pp. $10.99.
 Christmas Shorts
Matt Hoverman
An engaging evening of hilarious short holiday comedies. A wonderful alternative for theatres tired of mounting the traditional seasonal play. Christmas Shorts offers five original plays that humorously comment on holiday themes: family, the nativity, Xmas cards, and elves. Softcover, 51 pp. $11.99.
 Chasing Manet
Tina Howe
From within the walls of a lockdown nursing home a rebellious painter and a boisterous matriarch plot their escape to Paris. 3m 4f. Softcover, 75 pp. $11.99.
 Sweet Storm
Scott Hudson
Rural Florida, September 1960. Young revival preacherman Bo Harrison sweeps his lovely bride, Ruthie, up into the tree house he's built as a surprise for their wedding night, unaware that the fury of an infamous storm is rolling in from the gulf. Ruthie, recently paralyzed from the waist down, tentatively finds her way in their "honeymoon suite in the sky" -- and in the mystery, wonder and promise of her role as a newlywed. The human heart's wild longing for union in conflict with its abiding need for self-preservation. 1m, 1w. Softcover, 38 pp. $11.99.
 A Steady Rain
Keith Huff
Joey and Denny have been best friends since kindergarten, and after working together for several years as policemen in Chicago, they are practically family: Joey helps out with Denny's wife and kids; Denny keeps Joey away from the bottle. But when a domestic disturbance call takes a turn for the worse, their friendship is put on the line. The result is a difficult journey into a moral gray area where trust and loyalty struggle for survival against a sobering backdrop of pimps, prostitutes and criminal lowlifes. m2. Softcover, 65 pp. $16.95.
 Moonlight and Magnolias
Ron Hutchinson
1939 Hollywood is abuzz. Legendary producer David O Selznick has shut
down production of his new epic, Gone with the Wind, a film adaptation
of Margaret Mitchell's novel. The screenplay, you see, just doesn't
work. So what's an all-powerful movie mogul to do? While fending
off the film's stars, gossip columnists, and his own father-in-law,
Selznick
sends a car for famed screenwriter Ben Hecht and pulls formidable
director Victor Fleming from the set of The Wizard of Oz. Summoning
both to his
office, he locks the doors, closes the shades, and on a diet of bananas
and peanuts, the three men labor over five days to fashion a screenplay
that will become the blueprint for one of the most successful and
beloved films of all time. M-3, F-1. Softcover, 60 pp. $9.99.
 Yellow Face
David Henry Hwang
In this mock-documentary play, David Henry Hwang puts himself center stage as he uses the controversy over color-blind casting for Miss Saigon and the racially motivated federal investigation of his own father to explore Asian identity and the ever-changing definition of what it is to be an American. Softcover, 70 pp. $18.95.
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