Book picks similar to
The Violet Hour by Richard Greenberg
plays
drama
theatre
theater
Abundance
Beth Henley - 1991
Macon and Bess are two mail-order brides, lured to the West by the promise of new beginnings through marriage to men they have never met. While waiting for their respective husbands-to-be, one bubbling with optimism, the other mousy and plain, the two women become instant best friends. As Abundance follows the two women through their friendship and adventures for the next 25 years, this Western epic unearths the dark underside of American mythology. A L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring: Ed Begley Jr., Gary Cole, Amy Madigan, Steven Weber and JoBeth Williams.
Someone Who'll Watch Over Me
Frank McGuinness - 1992
As victims of political action, powerless to initiate change, what can they do? How do they live and survive?Frank McGuinness explores the daily crisis endured by hostages whose strength comes from communication, both subtle and mundane, from humour, wit and faith.Someone Who'll Watch Over Me premiered at the Hampstead Theatre, London, in 1992 before transferring to the West End. On Broadway, it was awarded the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play and nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play in 1993.
Spring Awakening
Steven Sater - 2007
Inspired by Frank Wedekind’s controversial 1891 play about teenage sexuality and society’s efforts to control it, the piece seamlessly merges past and present, underscoring the timelessness of adolescent angst and the universality of human passion.Steven Sater’s plays include the long-running Carbondale Dreams, Perfect for You, Doll (Rosenthal Prize/Cincinnati Playhouse), Umbrage (Steppenwolf New Play Prize), and a reconceived version of Shakespeare’s Tempest, which played in London.Duncan Sheik is a singer/songwriter who also collaborated with Sater on the musical The Nightingale. He has composed original music for The Gold Rooms of Nero and for The Public Theater’s Twelfth Night in Central Park.
Fun Home
Lisa Kron - 2015
Moving between past and present, Alison relives her unique childhood playing at the family's Bechdel Funeral Home, her growing understanding of her own sexuality, and the looming, unanswerable questions about her father's hidden desires. Fun Home is a refreshingly honest, wholly original musical about seeing your parents through grown-up eyes.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: Tennesse Williams (York Notes Advanced)
Steve Roberts - 2007
One of his best-loved and most famous plays, it exposes the lies plaguing the family of a wealthy Southern planter of humble origins.
Tusk Tusk
Polly Stenham - 2009
Let's take check: Finn Bar, slightly ruffled but still in fighting form. Maggie, could do with a full night's sleep but otherwise all in order... Stay here. Don't answer the door. I'll go out and get some proper food.In a new flat, three children play hide and seek. Eliot wears a crown, little Finn, King of the Wild Thing's, draws on the walls. Maggie climbs them. Hiding from the world, needing to be found, their one shared focus a mobile phone. Will it ring? Who will call? And what are they waiting for?Tusk Tusk is a tale of family loyalty as an uncertain future circles. Polly Stenham's second play premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in March 2009.
All the Way
Robert Schenkkan - 2012
Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston played the lead role in the play’s celebrated Broadway performance at the Neil Simon Theatre, for which he was awarded the Tony Award for Best Actor. In this volume, Cranston provides a never-before-published illuminating and personal introduction to the play.All The Way tells the story of the tumultuous first year of the presidency of Lyndon Baines Johnson, thrust into power following Kennedy’s assassination and struggling to hold onto the White House in an election that forces him to make concessions. In 1964, this pivotal year in American history, he passes a landmark civil rights bill, but begins his fateful descent into Vietnam. LBJ is fiercely determined to lift the country out of the ashes and rebuild it into The Great Society—by any means necessary.
Hand to God: A New American Play
Robert Askins - 2017
But when the young members of the Christian Puppet Ministry put those teachings into practice, one devout young man's puppet takes on a shocking personality that no one could have expected. In this hilarious black comedy, a foul-mouthed sock puppet named Tyrone soon teaches those around him that the urges that can drive a person to give in to their darkest desires fit like a glove. In Hand to God, a "true tour de force" (New York Times), Robert Askins has written a play of "unerring perfection" (Huffington Post). The must-see hit of the 2015 Broadway season, starring Steven Boyer and Geneva Carr, garnered an Obie Award and five Tony Award nominations, including Best Play, following its sold out, critically acclaimed off-Broadway runs at MCC Theater and Ensemble Studio Theatre.
Gallathea and Midas
John Lyly - 1969
Lyly took up the story of two young women, Galatea (or Gallathea) and Phillida who are dressed up in male clothes by their fathers so that they can avoid the requirement of the god Neptune that every year "the fairest and chastest virgin in all the country be sacrificed to a sea-monster." Hiding together in the forest, the two maidens fall in love, each supposing the other to be a young man. "Galatea" has become the subject of considerable feminist critical study in recent years. "Midas" (1590) uses mythology in quite a different way, dramatizing two stories about King Midas in such a way as to fashion a satire of King Philip of Spain (and of any tyrant like him) for colossal greediness and folly. In the wake of the defeat of Philip's Armada fleet and its attempted invasion of England in 1588, this satire was calculated to win the approval of Queen Elizabeth and her court.
She Kills Monsters
Qui Nguyen - 2012
When Agnes finds Tilly's Dungeons & Dragons notebook, however, she stumbles into a journey of discovery and action-packed adventure in the imaginary world that was Tilly's refuge. In this high-octane dramatic comedy laden with homicidal fairies, nasty ogres, and 90s pop culture, acclaimed young playwright Qui Nguyen offers a heart-pounding homage to the geek and warrior within us all.
Elite Dangerous: Premonition
Drew Wagar - 2017
Disturbing encounters with unknown ships. Three great superpowers manoeuvre against each other. But are their destinies their own, or are they merely the puppets of some greater power? Since the loss of the Prism system in 3300, Lady Kahina Tijani Loren has operated on the fringes of Imperial society. Led by clues from a woman once thought dead, she is drawn into a conspiracy at the heart of humanity. To uncover the truth she must contend with dangerous enemies, navigate murky political waters, and – with the help of her friends – uncover the secret of the Formidine Rift. Premonition is the new story set in the Elite: Dangerous galaxy, shaped by player actions in the game.
The Waverly Gallery
Kenneth Lonergan
The play explores her fight to retain her independence and the subsequent effect of her decline on her family, especially her grandson. Inspired by Lonergan's own grandmother, it's an ode to an extraordinary woman, and to the humor and strength of a family in crisis. Kenneth Lonergan once again shows himself to have one of the keenest ears of any working playwright. Also the screenwirter of the deeply funny Analyze This, he's known for his incisive humor and brilliant knack for capturing the heart and soul of human interaction.