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Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1987

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Adaptation

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Book by Studs Terkel

Made up of eighteen monologues connected by brief concerted sections, and divided into six segments (fantasies, nightmares, hallucinations, sweet dreams, broken reveries and visions), the play uses the voices of real people to convey, with striking effectiveness, a sense of what America and its people are, both in truth and in fantasy. Ranging from the rich and famous (Ted Turner, Arnold Schwarzenegger) to the obscure (a farmer, a bellhop, a Hare Krishna disciple) to hard-bitten cynics and hopeful optimists, the diverse monologues weave an evocative tapestry out of the simple truths and cogent observations which emerge when people speak their minds with honesty and candour. And, taken together, the various segments and speeches blend into a moving theatrical experience which is revealing, often very funny, frequently moving and sometimes disturbing - but which always speaks from and to the heart of this great and singular nation in all its richness and diversity.