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Amazon All Stars: Thirteen Lesbian Plays (edited by Rosemary Keefe Curb, Applause Books, NYC

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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

Lesbian Musical

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12

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Synopsis: a zany musical comedy about a women's softball team. Kelly, the left fielder, is truly "out in left field," preferring her fantasies to reality. This makes for some great lesbian-style Walter Mitty scenes. When Jan, the new short stop, decides to test her sexual prowess with Kelly, both women are brought to a crisis about the way they see themselves and the world. Amid various subplots and subterfuges, team spirit triumphs, and everybody's a winner. Who could resist "Come Out for the Team," "When Women Do It to Each Other," or "Ya Gotta Get Under the Glove"?

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Poetry Reading

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Synopsis: This is a poetry reading by the famous Imagist poet herself. The reading is interlaced with tormented confessions from Lowell's diary as a teenager, observations on the art of writing poetry, her version of the historic rupture with Ezra Pound, witty rebuttals to her critics, and her notorious demonstration of how to unwrap a cigar as if one were undressing a woman!

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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Synopsis: a farcical, but profoundly engaging excursion into the hidden world of ethics for women who are both survivors and perpetrators of abuse toward women. The format is a play-within-a-play, where a radical feminist theatre company comes together in order to perform a courtroom drama.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Exorcism in 1 Act

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Synopsis: Artemisia And Hildegarde is a complex and powerful two-woman show, featuring two of the most famous women artists in history, together on an explosive arts panel about survival strategies for women artists

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Excerpted in More Monologues for Women, By Women, ed. by Tori Haring-Smith, Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH

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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

Olympic Musical

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8

8

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Synopsis: The play traces Babe's career from high school basketball star, to Olympic gold medalist in track, to vaudevillian sideshow, to first woman on the professional golf circuit. Her struggles for athletic achievement parallel her personal struggles for recognition and acceptance by her mother and sister. Babe's lesbianism emerges against a backdrop of feminine stereotypes and heterosexist constraints.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Vendettin 1 Act

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10

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Synopsis: a theatrical tour-de-force, combining the farcical romp of comic strip characters with the conventions of an old-fashioned murder mystery in a plot which not only rewrites the history of musicals from a woman's point of view, but which also tackles the most divisive social issue of the 90's: violence toward women. A play with many layers!

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Skirmish in 1 Act

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Synopsis: Two "gangs" from rival Off-Off Broadway productions of Romeo and Juliet meet in an alley to rumble, sixteenth-century style. Female-to-male transgender meets lesbian cross-dressing, and lesbian butch squares off against male machismo in this swashbuckling gender-bender!

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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One Act

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6

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Synopsis: takes up where Arthur Miller's Crucible leaves off. This play opens with Miller's anti-hero stumbling into the boundary lands where women's lives are lived, a territory so marginal to patriarchy that it has escaped by Proctor and his creator's awareness.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Monologue

Play/Drama

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Synopsis: This work is based on the real Calamity Jane. Vulgar, debauched, and raunchy, Jane is considered a freak by women and a laughing stock by men. Without the strictures of compulsory heterosexuality, she might have had the freedom to live the life of a roughrider without having to pass as a man. She might have been given the place in history which was accorded to her sidekick, James Butler Hickok. And she might have found a way to satisfy her frustrated desire for acceptance by women. Jane is a butch woman who had the misfortune to be born in an era before lesbian culture. She is a feisty woman with a keen sense of humor, who has kept herself going with a number of destructive myths which are familiar to all of us.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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Play/Drama

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6

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Synopsis: a play which looks at the dramatic change in the institution of marriage over the last forty years. Kay, in her early thirties, is married to a man over twice her age. Finally confronting the facts about their age discrepancies, she begins to move toward establishing her own life.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Culinary Monologue

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Synopsis: Mary Mallon, dubbed "Typhoid Mary" by a hostile press, never admitted that she was a typhoid carrier. Her persistent refusal to defer to medical experts infuriated George Soper, a sanitation engineer for New York City. He built his career on tracking down Mary and incarcerating her. In this monologue, Mary speaks for herself. An Irish emigrant, she traces the story of her persecution back to the Potato Famine, all the while eyeing and chopping potatoes for the stew pot in the kitchen of the mysterious institution where she cooks.

International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival at The Connolly Theatre

2008

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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Drama

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Synopsis: Countess Markiewitz was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in Dublin. Her sister Eva Gore-Booth live with her female companion and they published a lesbian journal. Three women meet to rehearse a play about them

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

For Women Drummers

One Act

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5

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Synopsis: This one-act for five women drummers explores the dramatic uses of the language of the drum

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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One Act

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Synopsis: In October 1923, Eva Le Gallienne Was Raped in her dressing room during the Broadway run of Liliom, a play in which she performed the role of Julie Jordan, the battered girlfriend of an abusive, alcoholic carousel operator. Entr'acte takes place in the private sanitarium on the night of the rape, after Eva has checked herself in. In a state of post-traumatic hyper-arousal, she waits for a "friend" to arrive.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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Play/Drama

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13

2g

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Synopsis: A radical feminist retelling of the traditional Purim story from the Bible - a retelling that foregrounds the part of the story that is glossed over in the patriarchal text, namely, the sexual colonization of women

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

For Radio Or Stage

One Act

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3

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Synopsis: THE Evil That Men Do (title taken from a Shakespeare play) is the story of Dr. Frances ("Frankie") Kelsey's fight to keep thalidomide out of America. The play traces the development of her friendship with Dr. Barbara Moulton, who resigned from the FDA and was testifying against the agency's corruption at the time when Frances was hired. In her courageous act of befriending a whistle-blower, Frances was laying the foundation for her subsequent battles with the drug companies.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Murder Mystery

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Synopsis: Dr. Lorraine Livingstone leads women's tours to ancient, sacred sites of goddess worship. She and five members of her tour are gathering at an inn on the Burren of Western Ireland for a tour of Celtic sites. The guests include a feuding lesbian couple on their way to China to adopt a baby, a celebrated author of best-selling murder mysteries, a frivolous divorcee, and a mysterious last-minute arrival of African descent.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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One Act

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Synopsis: Harriet Tubman Visits A Therapist is a gripping confrontation between two women who share the same oppression, but whose definitions of survival are in direct conflict

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in Harrington Lesbian Fiction Quarterly, Vol. II, Harrington Park Press, Binghamton, NY

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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

Twelve-Step Spoof

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Synopsis: Five women come together for a regular meeting of Heterosexuals Anonymous, an organization designed to help women overcome their unmanageable addictions to men. The women share their experiences of automatically deferring to men, of battering, of rape, of sex discrimination, and of inability to relate to the males in their own families

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Historical One-Act

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Synopsis: In 1912, Jane Addams was witness to a strange phenomenon, as thousands of immigrants flocked to Hull House in response to the rumor that there was a "Devil Baby" there. The Devil Baby was supposedly an infant with hooves, horns, and tail. According to folk myths, this incarnation of the devil was the result of a drunken husband's curse that he'd rather see a devil in the house than another baby.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Propaganda Piece

One Act

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Synopsis: a satirical piece about what might happen if surrogate mothers become a commodity in the corporate world. The two chief executive officers are concerned about the bad publicity which might result from a worker's desire to gain control over the distribution of the goods. (The mother has decided to keep the baby.)

Bakehouse Theatre, Adelaide, Australia

2003

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inPerforming Autobiography, ed. Lynn Miller, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI

2003

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

One-Woman Lesbian Play

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(plus one very brief walk-on part

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Synopsis: a moving one-woman show about the greatest American actress of the nineteenth century. Charlotte Cushman, a large butch woman, was very "out" about her lesbianism, cross-dressing to play men's roles and referring to her partner as "my wife."

staged reading, Music in a Box, the Dramatists Guild, NYC.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Cabaret Musical Revue

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Synopsis: a sparkling all-women cabaret musical incorporating seven separate historical vignettes onto a single set, a backstage dressing room.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Childrens Musical

Youth Audience

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1

1c

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Synopsis: This musical adaptation of Antoine de Saint Exupery's classic tale differs radically from previous adaptations, which have been elaborate and spectacular - and unsuccessful. This adaptation, designed for black-box production, focuses on the heart of the story, instead of its exoticism, rendering the material both more coherent and more accessible to children

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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One Act

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Synopsis: Louisa May Alcott has locked her alter-ego, Jo March, out of her study in order to finish Little Women alone. Jo manages to break in. She confronts Louisa about her desire to end their collaboration. Louisa admits her intention to have Jo burn all her writing and marry the aging and self-righteous Professor at the end of the book

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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One Act

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Synopsis: explores the complex relationship between a Black woman and a white woman, who loved each other as children, were separated at puberty, and who find themselves at mid-life divided by race, class, and politics

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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One Act

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Synopsis: Ostensibly arguing about The Taming of the Shrew, a lesbian couple come to grips with their own marital struggles and break their deadlock around the issue of sex

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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One Act

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5

2g

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Synopsis: a suspenseful thriller exploring the interface of misogyny, racism, and homophobia in the public schools

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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One Act

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Synopsis: Cornelia Crosby, a 19th century lesbian, was the first licensed hunting guide in Maine. Six feet tall and known as "Fly Rod," she led fishing and hunting expeditions for wealthy vacationers in the Rangeley Lake district

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in Night of 1,000 Playwrights, Rain City Projects, Seattle

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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

Play in One Minute

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Synopsis: a one-minute monologue by a woman of any age, race, ethnicity, physical ability, sexual orientation, or class background --- who telephones her father and confronts him with her memory of his sexual abuse of her.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Civilized Conversation in 1 Act

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Synopsis: The play opens in 1969, with Dr. Evelyn Bateman, a white college professor, interviewing Miss Lydia Aholo, a ninety-two-year-old Native Hawaiian. Miss Aholo is the hanai ("adoptive") daughter of Queen Liliuokalani, the last queen of Hawai'i. Dr. Bateman is preparing to write the first Western biography sympathetic to the Queen, detailing her overthrow by the US government.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Just Possibly the Worst One-Act Play Ever Written

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Synopsis: This is a hilarious "actors nightmare" for playwrights, guaranteed to delight audiences, whose attempts to follow the action are constantly frustrated by the dramaturgical liberties of this "poorly-written" play. The incoherencies and inconsistencies build to a frantic climax, as the artistic director, faced with a plethora of plot difficulties, resorts to the cheesiest playwriting device of all.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

About Women in the Anti-War Movement

One Act

2

2

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Synopsis: Radicals is a play about straight women during the late sixties. The play illustrates the damaging effects of compulsory heterosexuality on women who must express affection for each other through each other's boyfriends. An explosive play, examining the roots of violence between women.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Anti-War Play in 1 Act

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Synopsis: This is a scathing social satire, along the lines of Shirley Jackson's electrifying short story "The Lottery." The Rules of the Playground demonstrates how the everyday social conditioning of women is exploited as a means of enabling the perpetuation of male violence. Women's collective failure to identify war as an unacceptable expression of male aggression, and our acceptance of it along male-identified terms of "political expedience," is depicted as nothing less than complicity - a complicity that renders us victims and betrayers.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Lesbian Midsummer Night's Dream

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Notes: Winner Best Stageplay, Moondance International Women's Film Festival,Boulder, CO

Synopsis: a riotous romp across the slippery terrain of Lesbian romance, as the goddesses on Olympus come down to earth to recruit among Sappho and her followers

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Herbooks

1994

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

One-Woman Lesbian Play

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Synopsis: Joan of Arc led an army to victory at seventeen. At eighteen, she arranged the coronation of a king. At nineteen, she went up against the entire Catholic church . . . and lost. Her trial lasted five months, and the testimony by witnesses was carefully transcribed by notaries. Twenty years after her death, a new trial was authorized, and again detailed records were kept. There was testimony by her childhood playmates, by her parents, by the women who slept with her, by the soldiers who served under her, by the priests who confessed her, by those who witnessed and administered her torture. She is the most thoroughly documented figure of the fifteenth century. So why do the myths about the simpleminded peasant girl, the pious virgin, still pervade the history books? Joan was anoretic. She was a teenage runaway. She had an incestuous, alcoholic father. She slept with women. She died for her right to wear men's clothing. She was defiant, irreverent, more clever than her judges, unrepentant, and unfailingly true to her own visions. In The Second Coming of Joan of Arc, Joan returns to share her story with contemporary women. She tells her experiences with the highest levels of church, state, and military, and unmasks the brutal misogyny behind male institutions.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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Play/Drama

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9

2g extras

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Synopsis: A radical retelling of the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty," The Spindle exploits the conventions of children's theatre to give adult audiences a child's-eye-view of incest and its effects on the survivors.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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Tragedy

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10

extras

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Synopsis: Based on a true story, Stigmata is a five-act tragedy about the extraordinary life of the 16th century, Italian nun, Benedetta Carlini

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

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Comedy

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5

1g extras

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Synopsis: This is a rollicking farce about the world's most dysfunctional family, a doctor with a penchant for assisted suicide, and a lesbian housekeeper with a crush on her employer. An over-the-top comedy about leaving, being left, and what it takes to stay.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page

Lesbian Drama

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9g

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Synopsis: A gothic thriller, Ugly Ducklings examines the unhealthy turns that relationships between girls can take when they are not allowed their natural expression. The so-called "Ophelia Syndrome" comes alive as the cabin of younger girls, their self-esteem still reinforced by the primacy of their relationships, comes into contact with the older girls who have begun to turn against themselves and each other in their attempts to conform to the pressures of compulsory heterosexuality.

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I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com
or the playwright direct where their email is shown at the top of the page