American Plays: New & Featured

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.

Vivien Leigh: The Last Press Conference
Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh is holding her last press conference in a theatre, taking questions from members of the press ... but it is an illusion, a metaphor for the kaleidoscope of memories that cascade through her consciousness moments before her death at 53. A lively biography of a theatrical icon and motion picture legend, this play captures the woman behind the mask. 1w. Softcover, 42 pp. $11.99.

Speckled Birds
Shirley Lauro
Though teenaged Angie lives in a small, wealthy town, she is poor and marginalized. Deserted at birth by her mother, her father killed in War, she lives in a trailer with her ailing but loving Grandma. Despite all of this, she is able to find some solice in Theo. Together they gain the courage to begin their journeys towards adulthood, resolving family problems and taking actions to utilize their talents. 2m, 3f. Softcover, 67 pp. $11.99.

Rantoul and Die
Mark Roberts
Rallis and Debbie's marriage has reached its expiration date. In fact, it's soured and stuck to the bottom of the carton. She wants him to pack his stuff and hit the bricks, but he's clingin' to the past like a cat on a screen door. How far will a man go to hang on to his fair lady? It's a thin line between love and hate. A kiss and a punch. An ice cream cone and a bottle to the back of the head. 2m, 2f. Softcover, 45 pp. $11.99.

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.

Radio Free Emerson
Paul Grellong
When a beloved Rhode Island radio talk-show host dies, his estranged son, Al Gregory, returns home for the funeral. Hijacking the farewell broadcast of his father's show, Al ignites the airwaves as he begins preaching his morally questionable philosophy, based on a warped reading of Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance. Loosely based on Ibsen's The Wild Duck, this play examines the funny, dark and sometimes violent consequences of following desires unchecked. 5m, 3w. Softcover,78 pp. $11.99.

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.

Moving Bodies
Arthur Giron
Moving Bodies is about Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman as he explores nature, science, sex, anti-Semitism, and the world around him. This epic, comic journey portrays Feynman as an iconoclastic young man, a physicist with the Manhattan Project and confronting the mystery of the Challenger disaster. 6m, 4f. Softcover, 75 pp. $11.99.

Love Drunk
Romulus Linney
Love Drunk is a comic drama of sex, love and alcohol addiction. An older man, having picked up a younger woman in an Appalachian diner, takes her to his mountain home, where they battle their passions, their destinies, and each other. 1m, 1w. Softcover, 44 pp. $11.99.

Jailbait
Deidre O'Connor
Through the course of one dizzying night at a club, Jailbait follows the parallel stories of two fifteen-year-old girls, desperate to grow up, and two thirty-something men who are looking to be twenty-one again. 2m, 2f. Softcover, 55 pp. $11.99.

Impressionism
Michael Jacobs
Katherine Keenan runs a small art gallery with her assistant, Thomas Buckle; each is hiding from a world that shattered them. Thomas has been hurt by what he's seen behind his camera as a world-traveling photojournalist, and Katherine has been disappointed by incredibly failed relationships. Through gradually opening up to each other, they find that love is not always painted in the style of Realism, and they discover the art of repairing broken lives. 4m, 4f. Softcover, 55 pp. $11.99.

Hello Herman
John Buffalo Mailer
Video games, violent movies, Marilyn Manson, the Internet, Prozac, or fame? What moves a teenager to cross the line and become a high-school shooter? More importantly, how do we stop it? Focusing on a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and a 16-year-old mass murderer, Hello Herman is a mind-blowing examination of how tragic events like Columbine and Virginia Tech continue to happen. 8-13m, 4-6w (doubling). Softcover, 54 pp. $11.99.

The Good Negro
Tracey Scott Wilson
In The Good Negro, three emerging black leaders try to conquer their individual demons as the local KKK fights for its old way of life, and everyday black men and women must overcome their fears -- all under the ever-watchful eye of the FBI. 7m, 2w. Softcover, 84 pp. $11.99.

Goldfish
John Kolvenbach
A young man raises his father. Then he leaves home. He meets a young woman who undoes him. The young woman has her own story: a woman who is a force of nature. It's a play about legacy -- how do we become who we are? -- and it's about leaving home. We raise our children to leave us, to walk out into the world. But then they do. 2m, 2w. softcover, 56 pp. $11.99.

Gizmo Love
John Kolvenbach
Locked in an office by an unseen producer, Hollywood veteran Manny McCain takes on the assignment of his life: to shape the sloppy opus of a gifted, guileless young writer into the next great crime noir. When Max and Thomas, two career criminals arrive, all hell breaks loose. A reckless comedy, a satire and a valentine, a drama of fathers and sons, and a collision between the real world and the world of our imaginings, Gizmo Love is like nothing you've seen before. 4m. Softcover, 60 pp. $11.99.

The Gingerbread House
Mark Schultz
Brian and Stacey want a better life, the life they deserve. Raising two children has left them unsatisfied, running back and forth endlessly from work to Little League games. Seemingly at a dead-end, they decide to ditch their little bundles of responsibility. However, as they begin to enjoy the fruits of the good life, Stacey begins to suspect that hapiness is just the ability to turn a blind eye to horror. And she's finding it hard to be happy. 4m, 3w. Softcover, 62 pp. $11.99.

Filthy Talk for Troubled Times and other plays
Neil LaBute
Set in a barroom in Anytown, USA and populated by a group of everymen (and two everywomen), Filthy Talk for Troubled Times is a series of frank exchanges exploring the innumerable varieties of American intolerance. A unique snapshot of the times, the play -- seldom allowed production by the author since -- provides a compelling look at the early thinking and evolution of one of our great theatre artists. Also included are six more shorter works by LaBute. Softcover, 165 pp. $16.95.


Fabuloso
John Kolvenbach
Kate and Teddy are trapped in soggy, lifeless marriage. Then Teddy's old friend Arthur arrives, bearing chaos, knives, songs and his fiancee. Fabuloso is a domestic farce about the pleasure in bedlam and a working metaphor for bringing up babies. 2m, 2w. Softcover, 64 pp. $11.99.

Emilie
Lauren Gunderson
Passionate. Brilliant. Defiant. Tonight, 18th century scientific genius Emile du Chatelet is back and determined to answer the question she died with: love or philosophy; head or heart? In this highly theatrical rediscovery of one of history's most vibrant, witty, and intriguing women, Emilie defends her life and loves and ends up with both a formula and a legacy that permeates history. 2m, 3f. Softcover, 76 pp. $11.99.

Emilie's Voltaire
Arthur Giron
Emilie's Voltaire is a passionate comic-drama that explores the love affair that scandalized all of Europe between Voltaire, the greatest wit of his time, and the beautiful scientist Emilie du Chatelet. It takes place before the French Revolution. 1m, 1f. Softcover, 54 pp. $11.99.

East 10th Street: Self Portrait with Empty House
Edgar Oliver
Edgar Oliver weaves a fantastical and hilarious voyage through the dark and strange rooms of his East Village tenement building, inhabited by a dwarf cabalist, a possible Nazi, the landlord's former wet nurse and other memorable persons. Edgar leads the audience up to the final room, his own, at the top of the derelict stairs, wherein lie the secrets of his family and the unbelievable odyssey that brought him there. 1m. Softcover, 19 pp. $11.99.

Coming Home
Athol Fugard
Years ago, Veronica Jonkers departed for the big city in the brave New South Africa, set on making her dreams of fame and fortune come true. In Coming Home, Veronica returns to Nieu Bethesda several years later to die of AIDS, but she is determined to first secure a future for her child, bright word-loving little Mannetjie. 4m, 1w. Sotcover, 50 pp. $11.99.

Curse of the Starving Class
Sam Shepard
The setting is a famhouse in the American West, inhabited by a family who has enough to eat but not enough to satisfy the other hungers that bedevil them. The father is a drunk; the mother a frowzy slattern; the daughter precocious beyond her years; and the son a deranged idealist. Through the course of the play, the characters become a metaphor for the underside of American life -- benighted innocents pursuing a dream that remains beyond their reach. 7m, 2f. Softcover, 68 pp. $11.99.

Clarence Darrow's Last Trial
Shirley Lauro
The story takes place in 1932, the last time Clarence Darrow pleads a major case in a criminal court of law. Set in various places in Chicago and Hawaii, Darrow, along with his wife, Ruby, travels to Honolulu to defend a Pearl Harbor Naval Lieutenant accused of shooting a Hawaiian who allegedly led a gang rape on the Lieutenant's wife. 4m, 4f. Softcover, 83 pp. $11.99.

All Through the Night
Shirley Lauro
Set during and after the Third Reich, this is a stylized and surrealistic play inspired by interviews with German gentile women. With a minimal set, minimal props, and an unconventional time frame, the play sweeps from the womens' teen years through adulthood during WWII and beyond. During the course of the story, we see how the Nazi Regime impacts their lives as they struggle over work, religion, marriage, and motherhood. 5f. Softcover, 99 pp. $11.99.

Becky Shaw
Gina Gionfriddo
In Becky Shaw, a newlywed couple fixes up two romantically challenged friends: wife's best friend, meet husband's sexy and strange new co-worker. When an evening calculated to bring happiness takes a dark turn, crisis and comedy ensue in a wickedly funny play that asks what we owe the people we love and the strangers who land on our doorsteps. 2m, 3w. Softcover, 71 pp. $11.99.

Humana Festival 2009: The Complete Plays
Adrien-Alice Hansel & Marc Masterson
Includes On the Porch One Crisp Spring Morning by Alex Dremann, Absalom by Zoe Kazan, Roanoke by Michael Lew, Wild Blessings: A Celebration of Wendell Berry adapted by Marc Masterson and Adrien-Alice Hansel, Under Construction by Charles L. Mee, Slasher by Allison Moore, 3:59am: a drag race for two actors by Marco Ramirez, Ameriville by UNIVERSES, The Hard Weather Boating Party by Naomi Wallace, and Brink! Softcover, 444 pp. $24.50.

Dawn
Thomas Bradshaw
Dawn revolves around Hampton, an abusive alcoholic who has completely alienated his wife and children. Can he stop drinking and make up for the past, even amidst some very dark revelations of incest and pedophilia? This is one father's story of redemption and reconciliation -- with a twist. 2m, 4f. Softcover, 68 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.

The Metal Children
Adam Rapp
In small-town America, a young adult novel about teen pregnancy is banned by the local school board, igniting a fierce and violent debate over abortion, religious beliefs, and modern feminism. When the novel's directionless New York City author arrives in town to defend the book, he finds that it has inspired a group of local teens to rebel in strange and unexpected ways. A timely and unforgettable drama about the failure of urban and heartland America to understand each other, The Metal Children explores what happens when fiction becomes a matter of life and death. m5, f4. Softcover, 102 pp. $17.95.

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Southern Promises
Thomas Bradshaw
When the master of the plantation dies, he wills his slaves to be freed, but his wife doesn't think that good property should be squandered. Pandemonium ensues. Inspired by the true story of Henry Box Brown who escaped to the north by mailing himself in a box, Southern Promises provides a unique portrait of the old south. 6m, 2f. Softcover, 51 pp. $11.99.

Elephant's Graveyard
George Brant
Elephant's Graveyard is the true tale of the tragic collision of a struggling circus and a tiny town in Tennessee, which resulted in the only known lynching of an elephant. Set in September of 1916, the play combines historical fact and legend, exploring the deep-seated American craving for spectacle, violence and revenge. 10m, 3f, 2 non-gender. Softcover, 53 pp. $11.99.

School
David Mamet
School is a brief comic discourse on recycling, poster design and the transmission of information. 2m. Softcover, 19 pp. $6.99.

Lower Ninth
Beau Williamson
E-Z is a rebellious young man brimming with anger. Malcolm is a reformed addict who has found strength through religion. After a devastating hurricane hits their neighbourhood, they find themselves stranded on the roof of a house, with a corpse. 3m. Softcover, 40 pp. $11.99.

The Ladies Man
Charles Morey
In Belle Epoque Paris, the recently married Dr. Hercule Molineaux tells "one tiny, little, hardly noticeable lie" to cover an innocent but embarrassing indiscretion. From that single untruth, a cascade of increasingly convoluted deceptions, misunderstandings and mistaken identities unfold in this hilariously zany and infectiously charming farce.
4m, 4f. Softcover, 80 pp. $11.99.

Other Hands
Laura Wade
In a world of systematic, high-speed technology, some people expect to live life as efficiently as the machines they depend on. But in an age where things that don't work and can't be mended are thrown away, what do we do with something as human and messy as love? 2m, 2f. Softcover, 68 pp. $11.99.

Kicking a Dead Horse
Sam Shepard
When a successful art dealer's horse dies, while riding through the desert, he finds himself in quite the prediciment. What unfolds is an eighty-minute monologue which covers the fate of his marriage, his career, politics, and eventually the nature of the universe. 1m, 1f. Softcover, 34 pp. $11.99.

Enron
Lucy Prebble
In Enron, one of the most infamous scandals in financial history is tranformed into a theatrical epic. Mixing classical tragedy with savage comedy, the play follows a group of flawed men and women in a narrative of greed and loss which reviews the tumultuous 1990s and casts a new light on the financial turmoil in which the world finds itself in 2009. Softcover, 114 pp. $21.95.

Tales of Desire
Tennessee Williams
"I cannot write any sort of story," said Tennessee Williams to Gore Vidal, "unless there is at least one character in it for whom I have physical desire." These five transgressive Tales of Desire -- The Mysteries of Joy Rio, One Arm, Desire and the Black Masseur, Hard Candy, and The Killer Chicken and the Closet Queen -- show the iconic playwright at his outrageous best. Softcover, 104 pp. $12.50.

Lydia
Octavio Solis
The Flores family welcomes Lydia, an undocumented maid, into their El Paso home to care for their daughter Ceci, who was tragically disabled in a car accident on the eve of her fifteenth birthday. Lydia's immediate and seemingly miraculous bond with the girl sets the entire family on a mysterious and shocking journey of discovery. Set in the 1970s on the Texas border separating the United States and Mexico, Lydia is an unflinching and deeply emotional portrait of a Mexican immigrant caught in a web of dark secrets. 4m, 3f. Softcover, 82 pp. $12.99.

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Last modified August 8, 2010.
Please note that all prices are in Canadian dollars. All prices are subject to change without notice.