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American Plays
American plays by playwright: D
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 /
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If you are unsure of the author's name, please to to our search
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 The Awesome 80s Prom
Ken Davenport
The Awesome 80s Prom is a brand new blast-from-the-past party in the style of Tony 'n Tina's Wedding and The Donkey Show, set at Wanaget High's Senior Prom...in 1989! All your favorite characters are at the prom, from the captain of the football team to the asian exchange student, and they're all competing for prom king and queen. The audience decides who wins! Softcover, 49 pp. $11.99.
 The American Nightmare
Phillip Hayes Dean
Thunder in the Index is about a hip young black man named Joshua Noon, confined in a mental hospital and who engages in a comedic verbal duel with his physician, who is not what he seems. (2M, 1W, plus two brief bits for men.) This Bird of Dawning Singeth All Night Long centers on two women, one white and the other black, who the latter claims are twin sisters, setting off a confrontation yielding racial tension and distrust. (2W.) In Dream of Passion, a couple attempts to exorcise themselves from a powerful show business figure who dominates their bodies and spirits, ending with tragic results. (1M, 1W.) Softcover, 72 pp. $10.99.
 Love-Lies-Bleeding
Don DeLillo
Three people gather to determine the fate of the man who sits in a straight-backed
chair saying nothing. He is Alex Macklin, who gave up easel painting
to do land art in the southwestern desert, and he is seventy now,
helpless in the wake of a second stroke. The people around him are
the bearers
of a complicated love, his son, his young wife, the older woman --
his wife of years past -- who feels the emotional tenacity of a love
long-ended. Love-Lies-Bleeding explores a number of perilous questions about
the value of life and how we measure it. M-2, F-2. Softcover, 99
pp. $21.00.
 Milk
Emily DeVoti
Meg and Ben are a creditor away from losing their family farm. To the rescue flies a high-powered businessman, offering a tidy sum for a taste of farm life and the pure, raw milk that goes with it. Milk is an elegant parable of change set on the cusp of a shifting American landscape. 3m, 3f. Softcover, 88 pp. $11.99.
 Stick Fly
Lydia Diamond
The LeVays, an affluent African American family, gather in their vacation home on Martha's Vineyard, joined by the housekeeper's daughter, who is filling in for her mother. Dr. LeVay, a respected neurosurgeon and hopeless philanderer, has two sons -- one has followed his footsteps, and the other is a struggling novelist. Each brings along his current girlfriend to meet the family for the first time. But Mom is conspicuously absent, and conversations about race, economics, and politics and the sharp barbs they elicit can only distract from her absence for so long. The tension rises and family dynamics are revealed as the play reaches a climax when an old family secret finally comes out. M-3, F-3. Softcover, 134 pp. $18.50.
 Becky's New Car
Steven Dietz
Have you ever been tempted to flee your own life? Becky Foster is caught in middle age, middle management and in a middling marriage -- with no prospects for change on the horizon. Then one night, a socially inept and grief-struck millionaire stumbles into the car dealership where Becky works. Becky is offered nothing short of a new life ... and the audience is offered a chance to ride shotgun in a way that most plays wouldn't dare. 4m, 3w. Softcover, 65 pp. $11.99.
 Yankee Tavern
Steven Dietz
Just when you thought you'd heard every crazy 9/11 conspiracy theory, a stranger walks into the Yankee Tavern. There, inside the walls of this crumbling New York tavern, a young couple finds themselves caught up in what might be the biggest conspiracy of all. 3m, 1w. Softcover, 59 pp. $11.99.
 Last of the Boys
Steven Dietz
Ben and Jeeter fought in Vietnam, and for thirty years they have remained united by a war that divided the nation. Joined by Jeeter's new girlfriend and her off-the-grid, whiskey-drinking mother, these friends gather at Ben's remote trailer for one final hurrah. As the night deepens, the past makes a return appearance, and its many ghosts come flickering to life. This is a fierce, funny, haunted play about a friendship that ends - and a war that does not. Softcover, 64 pp. $10.99.
 tempOdyssey
Dan Dietz
"It wasn't me. It was the black hole." With these words, a temp worker named Genny launches us on an epic, fantastical journey through corporate America, Appalachia, astrophysics and beyond. TempOdyssey tells the story of a young woman who's convinced she's the goddess of death. Fleeing the imminent creation of the black hole on one side of the country, she lands smack in the middle of a bomb manufacturing company on the other. Her only hope lies in the unlikely guise of a nameless temp who considers himself immortal. Can he help Genny cast off her dark mythology once and for all? Or will she explode, taking all of downtown Seattle with her? Dan Dietz melds the absurdity of contemporary cubicle life with the epic poetics of Greek mythology, and thee results are hilarious, horrifying and ultimately uplifting. Softcover, 60 pp. $10.99.
 Paragon Springs
Steven Dietz
In this vibrant, often funny, and highly theatrical re-imagining of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, Steven Dietz puts the lure of capitalism and the greed of small-town self-interest squarely on trial -- laced with Dr. Stockman's lasting cry that "the majority is always wrong!" This is an entertaining and illuminating drama -- set amid the birth of radio and the final roar of the 1920s -- about the human cost of our political gamesmanship. 6m, 4w. Softcover, 81 pp. $11.99.
 Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure
Steven Dietz
The world's greatest detective has seemingly reached the end of his remarkable career when a case presents itself that is too tempting to ignore. The King of Bohemia is about to be blackmailed about a notorious photograph, and the woman at the heart of this crime is the famous opera singer, Irene Adler. In this spirited, fast-moving adaptation, Steven Dietz presents Holmes at the height of his powers - surrounded by all the elements that fans of his exploits have come to expect: danger, intrigue, wit, humour and surprise. Softcover, 67 pp. $10.99.
 Inventing Van Gogh
Steven Dietz
A haunting and hallucinatory drama about the making of art, Inventing
Van Gogh is the story of the final Van Gogh portrait, painted just
before the artist's death, which has never been seen... until now. Patrick
Stone, a contemporary painter, is hired to forge his final masterpiece
and finds himself squaring off, across the years, with Van Gogh himself.
The result is a compelling mystery about the obsession to create and
the fine line that seperates story from myth. 4M, 1W. Softcover, 66 pp.
$9.99.
 Dead Ringer
Gina DiIorio
Tyrus Cole, a horse trainer, lives on a ranch with his invalid sister Mary. Because he can't watch her during the day, Tyrus has Mary confined to a root cellar. When Dwight Foley arrives at the ranch seeking help with his horse, he and Mary fall in love and begin plotting the demise of Tyrus and their eventual escape. Their plan escalates and in the end, the three find themselves trapped in a complex web of greed and secrets. 2m, 1f. Softcover, $11.99.
 Still Life
Alexander Dinelaris
With her star on the rise, photographer Carrie Ann inexplicably shuts down at the pinnacle of her career. Lost, and afraid to even pick up her camera, her sudden descent in interrupted by an unexpected romance with Jeff, a trend analyst who becomes determined to help her move on, even while facing his own uncertain future. 4m, 4w (doubling). Softcover, 80 pp. $11.99.
 PIGmalion
Mark Dunn
Inspired by Pygmalion, this gentle, warm-hearted comedy re-imagines Eliza Doolittle -- now the daughter of a pig farmer -- as a girl who sells homemade pork rinds while dreaming of moving up in the world. Enter Professor Henry Higgins, the man who Eliza enlists to help her take the country out of her speech and give her some semblance of refinement. 9m, 8f. Softcover, 82 pp. $12.99.
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