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American Plays
American plays by playwright: G
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.
 FUBAR
Karl Gajdusek
Mary and David, camped out amidst the boxes her abused mother left behind, are unpacking in a small San Francisco apartment. Outside, people self-actualize like crazy, riding the bubble. When Mary herself is the victim of an unprovoked act of violence, it leads the pair down different paths of addiction and realization. Meanwhile, Richard is a benevolent drug dealer working on his book while Silvia wants to use the internet to double her life. FUBAR is the story of four people trying to recognize the people they are becoming in a time that's totally "fucked up beyond all recognition". 3m, 2f. Softcover, 79 pp. $12.99.
 Parallel Lives
Mo Gaffney & Kathy Najimy
In Parallel Lives, two Supreme beings plan the beginning of the world
with the relish of two slightly sadistic suburban wives decorating
a living room. With great wit and a feminist sensibility, this play
reexamines
the ongoing quest to find parity and love in a contest handicapped
by capricious gods -- or, in this case, goddesses. Softcover, 134
pp. $9.99.
 Mombo
Alan Gelb
The mother-child relationship, which, for so many people, is the paradigm for all relationships to come, is profoundly felt, highly complicated and genuinely multi-faceted. Mombo explores this unique relationship through nine short plays, each of which examines the contours of this dyad. Softcover, 49 pp. $10.99.
 Ug, The Caveman Musical
Jim Geoghan
Ug and his feisty tribe of Neanderthals are feasting on a tasty dinner of wild boar when he decides to tell one of his many feats of bravery by reenacting the event. Without knowing it, Ug has invented theatre. So gripping and lifelike is this new form of entertainment, that the tribe decides to stage the performance for a rival group; however, rehearsals and creative differences cause nothing but friction. It seems that the problems that face theatre artists of today, have roots that go way back. 6M, 2W. Softcover, 69 pp. $10.99.
 Suitcase or, Those That Resemble Flies from a Distance
Melissa James Gibson
The boyfriends of two Ph.D. candidates are trying to talk their way in to the
women's apartments. Dissertations go nowhere: objects get found; boyfriends
won't get lost; love figures in there somewhere. M-2, F-2. Softcover, 128 pp.
$9.99.
![[sic]](../../images_s/sic_gibson.jpg) [sic]
Melissa James Gibson
Melissa James Gibson has demonstrated that language can be both an
instrument of intimacy and a weapon of defense in her new play [sic].
This is a unique play that is as witty and wise as it is stylistically
groundbreaking and unexpected. 3M, 2W. Softcover, 130 pp. $9.99.
 The Miracle Worker
William Gibson
Based on the remarkable true story of Hellen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan, this inspiring and unforgettable play has moved countless readers and become an American classic. William Gibson's timeless masterpiece is now available in paperback for the first time from Scribner. Softcover, 112 pp. $13.99.
 Tattoo Joint
Jason Gileno
A blind tattoo artist named Joint has his reclusive lifestyle turned
on end when a woman of flawless beauty comes to him with a problem.
Alexandra believes that, through error, she has been born into the
wrong body. She also believes that Joint has the power to make her
invisible. Strange, dark, and comic, Tattoo Joint explores the nature
of art and beauty and its effects on the unsuspecting artist. Softcover,
70 pp. $15.00.
 Blue Surge
Rebecca Gilman
Ms. Gilman's last play, Boy Gets Girl, was acclaimed
by Time Magazine as the best play of 2000. This play received at The Goodman Theatre
in Chicago in July 2001 and will premiere in NYC, Spring 2002. This is an intimate
look into the class struggle in America today told with sharp delineation of character
and. pitch-perfect dilaogue and effortless use of humour, both biting and silly.
$19.00.
 Boy Gets Girl
Rebecca Gilman
The winner of many American and British awards probes the dark side of relationships
in the 1990's with rich insight and compelling characterizations in this, her latest
play, which moves to Broadway from a sold-out off-Broadway run. SC $19.00.
 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.
 After Ashley
Gina Gionfriddo
After Ashley is a funny and affecting story about a teenage boy navigating the joys and terrors of life -- all through the distorting prism of a media firestorm. When a family tragedy deals the Hammond family a dose of dubious celebrity, Justin finds himself paralyzed, unable to fully grieve or grow up. The only bright spot is a girl, only Justin can't decide if she's a saving angel or a self-interested groupie. In a world as weird as this one, she might just be both. 4M, 2W. Softcover, 79 pp. $10.99.
 U.S. Drag
Gina Gionfriddo
Two young women in Manhattan seek love and happiness, but they'll
settle for rent money. Along the way, they volunteer for a community
advocacy
group called SAFE ("Stay Away From Ed") named for an elusive
serial attacker terrorizing the city. M-4, F-4 (doubling). Softcover,
56 pp. $9.99.
 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.
 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.
 Modern Orthodox
Daniel Goldfarb
In a Manhattan coffee shop, Ben, an Upper West Side financial consultant,
meets Hershel, an Orthodox jewel merchant, to buy an engagement ring.
Despite their initial dislike for each other, their fates are intertwined,
and a emotionally destitute Hershel comes to live with Ben and his
fiance Hannah. Together they learn to see beyond their differences
in this
touching comedy about love, sex, faith and friendship. M-2, F-2.
Softcover, 55 pp. $9.99.
 Grace
Mick Gordon & A.C. Grayling
Grace is an eminent scientist committed to a view of the world without God, a view which puts her in direct conflict with her son, Tom, when he decides to become a priest. M-2, F-2. Softcover, 74 pp. $23.00.
 The Wind Cries Mary
Philip Kan Gotanda
Loosely based on Hedda Gabler, this play is set on a college campus
in the late '60s. Amidst the turbulent anti-war demonstrations and beginnings
of Asian-American identity politics, we follow an extraordinary young woman,
Eiko Hanabi, through the course of several days' events which will alter her
life forever. Eiko is a woman caught on the cusp of a world changing from Oriental
to Asian American in a different political and radical climate. 3M, 3W. Softcover,
69 pp. $9.99.
 PEN
David Marshall Grant
PEN is about a Long Island family at a pivotal moment in their lives. Confined to a wheelchair, Helen and her son, Matt, are locked in a relationship where love, guilt, recriminations and the ever-present desire to make things right all share centre-stage. PEN is a sly, perceptive play about the deep bonds that hold a family together and the harsh truths that tear them apart. Softcover, 65 pp. $10.99.
 The Good Counselor
Kathryn Grant
Race, drugs and difficult memories all come into play while public defender Vincent Heffernan, an upstanding church-going man, takes on Evelyn Laverty as a client, who stands accused of killing her baby. 2m 3f. Softcover, 75 pp. $11.99.
 The Voysey Inheritance
Harley Granville-Barker & David Mamet
For generations, the Voysey family business has been secretly skimming money from its clients' accounts. When Edward, designated to take over the firm from his aging father, discovers the embezzlement that has been keeping his relatives in a life of luxury, he must weigh the trappings of wealth and the imperative to preserve his family's good name against the better principles of his conscience. But moral righteousness turns to self-protection when he comes to understand fully the consequences of his "inheritance." One hundred years after the first publication of The Voysey Inheritance, David Mamet resurrects Harley Granville-Barker's classic investigation into the capitalist soul in this brilliant adaptation. Softcover, 58 pp. $10.99.
 Life Interrupted: The Unfinished Monologue
Spalding Gray
Spalding Gray died in early 2004, and though never completed, Life
Interrupted is rich with brave self-revelation, masterfully
acute observations of wonderfully peculiar people, penetrating wit and
genuine humour, an irresolvable
fascination with life and death, and all other attributes of Gray's singular
and unmistakable voice. This volume also include two additional monologues,
as well as many of the eulogies that were delivered by his friends and
family at memorial services held at Lincoln Center and in Sag Harbor.
Hardcover, 255 pp. $27.95. Also available as an audio CD. The pieces
are read by award-winning playwright Sam Shepard. $19.95.
 The House in Town
Richard Greenberg
The time is New Year's Eve, 1929. In an elegant New York brownstone on "Millionaire's Row", Sam Hammer, a Jewish Department store tycoon and his non-Jewish wife Amy bid their last few guests farewell with a parting wish: "A better year ahead."The looming Great Depression is likely to put a crimp in the lavish lifestyle of of the Hammers and their friends - just as the rapidly rising giant London Terrace apartments across the street is about to rob their house of much of its light. Softcover, 60 pp. $10.99.
 Take Me Out
Richard Greenberg
Homosexuality has long been a taboo subject in the sports world, but Richard
Greenberg's tackles it head on in this witty and touching play. Controversy
ensues after the star player of the baseball team the Empires decides
to "out" himself during a press conference. This stunning work was
a 2003 Tony Award-winner. M -11.
David Greig: Selected Plays 1999-2009
David Greig
A collection of four plays by master playwright David Greig. Includes San Diego, Outlying Islands, Pyrenees, and the astonishing The American Pilot. Softcover, 555 pp. $35.95.
 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.
 The Miracle at Naples
David Grimm
A motley band of traveling commedia players in Renaissance Italy arrives in Naples just in time for the Feast of San Gennaro. The passions of the actors and the locals are ignited when lustful lovers romp through the town piazza seeking pleasure and discovering the many forms of love in this outrageously smart and bawdy comedy. 4m, 3w. Softcover, 67 pp. $11.99.
 Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh
Joel Gross
Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh is a dramatic love triangle set during the turbulent years around the French Revolution. Elizabeth Vigee le Brun, a beautiful, social-climbing portrait painter, uses her affair with Count Alexis de Ligne, a left-leaning philanderer, to get a commision to paint the naive young Queen Marie Antoinette. While Elisa uses the Queen to further her career and Alexis uses the Queen to further his political goals, both learn to love the woman they're exploiting. Softcover, 70 pp. $10.99.
 Landscape of the Body
John Guare
Moving back and forth in time, the action of the play is a mosaic of short scenes, monologues and orginal songs, all blending together into a revealing and affecting study of the American Dream gone awry. They play moves many levels. In one sense it is a murder mystery: a boy is found, and his mother is suspected of his killing. But, as the investigation of the crime proceeds, other themes emerge and combine with it. Landscape of the Body is a forceful, moving illumination of lives first betrayed and then destroyed by illusions that, inevitably, lie always behind comprehension and control. Softcover, 72 pp. $10.99.
 The Little Flower of East Orange
Stephen Adly Guirgis
In this unconventional family drama, celebrated playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis gives us a mother and son who must face a long family legact of abuse in order to find the true meaning of grace. Softcover, 108 pp. $17.50.
 The Den of Thieves
Stephen Adley Guirgis
Maggie is going through some changes in her life. She's just broken
up with her crazy boyfriend Flaco, is trying to quit shoplifting, and
give up her junk-food-binging ways. Things seem to be going alright,
when Flaco shows up with his new girlfriend Boochie and crazy plan to
steal $750,000 in drug money. Paul, Maggie's 12 Step sponsor is also
persuaded to join the caper to fulfill the legacy of his grandfather
- head of the infamous Den of Thieves. Things don't quite go as planned
by Flaco, and the hapless quartet find themselves tied to chairs and
totally immobile in the basement of a Tribeca Disco. They must now fight
for their lives by out-arguing each other as to who deserves to live
the most. The Den of Thieves is a fast-paced struggle for survival
twists in every direction imaginable. Softcover, 56 pp. $9.99.
 Our Lady of 121st Street
Stephen Adly Guirgis
In this dark, insightful and very funny comedy, we enter the Ortiz
Funeral Room. The body of beloved community activist and nun Sister Rose
has been stolen from the viewing room, and waiting for her proper return
are some of New York City's most emotionally charged denizens. The crowd
square off on each other, motivated by pain, rage and a scary desire to
come clean. 8M, 4W. Softcover, 57 pp. $9.99.
 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.
 Eclipsed
Danai Gurira
Their lives set on a nightmarish detour by civil war, the captive wives of a Liberian rebel officer form a hardscrabble sisterhood. With the arrival of a new girl who can read -- and the return of an old one who can kill -- their possibilities are quickly transformed. 5 w. Softcover, 69 pp. $11.99.
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