n/a

-

1990

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American Theatre Magazine, NY - November

1989

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Play/Drama

8

5

flexible

Notes: Comprised of a panoramic series of short scenes and monologues, with thirteen actors playing some forty-three characters

Synopsis: Freely translated as "Where are you from?" the title of the play refers to the increasing tide of illegal aliens who flee north to the United States from the economically and politically oppressed countries of Latin America. Seeking jobs and freedom from persecution, the refugees are, more often than not, met with indifference and even hostility, regardless of their circumstances, and deported back to their home countrieswhich can often mean certain death. In a series of sharply drawn scenes and monologues, with thirteen actors portraying more than forty characters, the author explores the individual stories of a cross section of refugees and those with whom they come in contact: overworked and increasingly cynical lawyers who try to win amnesty for them; a group of Catholic nuns who risk imprisonment to provide sanctuary; judges and immigration officials who must enforce often antiquated and even inhuman laws; and U.S. citizens of Hispanic descent who are torn between allegiance to their new country and compassion for those fleeing persecution and poverty in their old. A moving plea for understanding and forbearance, the play also becomes, in the end, a searing indictment of this nation's immigration policies and a disturbing reminder of the terrible toll which these can exact, whether intentionally or not.

Ensemble Studio Theatre, NY

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One-Act Play Marathon

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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Drama

One Act

3

3

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: The setting is the cluttered living room (and front porch) of an old frame house near the campus of a Catholic men's college in the Midwest. It is a summer night in the pre-Vietnam sixties, and the occupants of the house, three laid-back male students are filling in their time with beer and rock music while waiting for classes to begin. They are visited by several young local ladies of their acquaintance, and while the resulting repartee is lively and often hilarious, deeper concerns are soon revealed. One of the girls, shy and a bit awkward, is unable to convey her feelings to one of the boyswho is equally clumsy in sensing her attraction. And another girl, a sexual tease fresh from an overseas jaunt, threatens to disrupt things further by flirting indiscriminately. Ultimately the play is a touching and revealing examination of the nature and vulnerability of friendship, and sad-funny conflicts which, regardless of time or place, are an unavoidable part of the process of moving into young adulthood.

Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival, KY, USA >>>

1980-81

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Dramatists Play Service, Inc. and by Applause in Best Short Plays 1982.

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One Act

-

2

-

Notes: part of Shorts.

Synopsis: about two secret gorgers who meet in a hotel room while attending a women's conference. One is a simple, country mouse, married to a mechanic; the other a brassy city dweller whose husband is a wealthy businessman. Inevitably their conversation gets around to their favorite topicfoodbut the funnier their exchanges become the more we are made poignantly aware of the deprivation and disappointments which have led them to compensate with compulsive over-eating.

Hartford Stage Company

1983

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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Comedy

4

4

1b 2g

Notes: -

Synopsis: The place is an affluent suburb in a mid-sized American city, the time the "possible future," when the national economy has slid from recession into depression and even worse. The action of the play follows the plight of some representative families as they face conditions never before imagined: job loss, businesses collapsing, the country club besieged by squatters, and their friends and neighbors turning into hoarders, cadgers and thieves. Their attempts to survive while all is tumbling down are sometimes hilarious and sometimes genuinely moving as they turn curtains into clothes, dream up new ways to make zucchini appetizing, and fight over jobs they would have spurned in better days. But while told in broad, comic strokes, their story is also a moral tale, for while the times are out of joint the resourcefulness and resiliency of the people remain strongand, with this, the conviction that if the spirit is undaunted, renewal and recovery are sure to come in time.

Off Off Broadway, NY

1978

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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Comedy Drama

Comedy

2

2

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: Described by the author as "the waking and sleeping dreams of Paul Hogan, the son, on a Sunday afternoon," the play is comprised of flashbacks and fantasies that illuminate the steady disintegration of a family dogged by the father's growing madness. A manic-depressive lawyer, whose career is destroyed by his illness, the father withdraws from reality, into surreal mood swings, leaving his wife and children impoverished and embittered. The action takes place largely in the mind of the son, Paul, as he drifts in and out of sleep while debating whether to visit his father in the institution where he has been confined. Memories are interspersed with interludes of vaudeville humor, where past and present are distorted into scenes of wild, cartoon-like fantasy. But guiltand terrorcannot be laughed away and, as the line between sanity and madness grows thinner, we are made movingly aware that the son, while fighting to avoid the fate of his father, may, inevitably, come to share it.

Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival, KY, USA >>>

1985-86

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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Play/Drama

1

3

1b

Notes: -

Synopsis: The action of the play is set in Cleveland on the day before young Conor Staiger is to undergo an operation which he will not, for long, survive. Then, in flashbacks, we meet Conor's parents, Marty and Casey, whose marriage has not proved strong enough to stand the strain of their son's tragic illness. At first it was Marty, the happy-go-lucky "flower child" who seemed the irresponsible and immature partner while Casey was the well-adjusted and purposeful one. But, as Conor's condition worsened, it was Casey, feeling helpless and defeated, who escaped to California and a new life, leaving Marty to find the residual strength to deal with their shared crisis. Coming back from Conor's operation, Casey also has a reunion with her best friend, Phyllis, who, still unmarried and living at home, senses that it is loneliness, rather than despair, that is the greatest evil. And, in the end, when Casey refuses to give up her new life, it is Phyllis who moves into the disrupted marriage and takes her friend's placejoining the very much changed Marty in sharing the sad but necessary task of helping Conor through the agony of his final months.

-

1977

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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Comedy Drama

Comedy

2

2

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: The scene is Kelly's apartment in a rundown section of Cleveland, flanked by universities and now infiltrated by middle-class hippies. Kelly, a laid-back young artist who is finding it difficult to paint, ekes out a meager living helping his friend Clint make custom furniture. Also on hand are Clint's lover, Prandy, a free-spirited "drop out" who now works as a waitress; and Prandy's vulnerable and somewhat "up-tight" younger sister, Maura, who is half-heartedly completing college. The central action of the play involves the complicated and sometimes stormy interaction of these four highly individualistic protagonists, each of whom, in his or her own way, has rejected the conventions of traditional middle-class life. The crisis of the play comes when Prandy announces that she is pregnant and Clint, who had previously planned to take off for parts unknown, refuses to change his plans despite her condition. Prandy's embittered decision to have an abortion drives a wedge between her and her more conventional sister, a rift which is widened still further when Maura embarks on an affair with the much older (and disturbingly haphazard) Kelly. In the end, when Clint returns from his wanderings, a reconciliation of sorts is achieved among the fourimpelled by the deep-seated affection and concern that they feel for each other, but also tempered by the hurt and anger which have tested, and yet perhaps deepened, their fated interdependence.

-

-

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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Play

One Act

-

2

-

Notes: written by Mary Gallagher and Ara Watson

Synopsis: deals hilariously with two very competitive mothers whose daughters are in the semi-finals of a local moppet beauty contest. One mother is a gossipy veteran who coolly keeps a score card along with the judges; the other, a first-timer, is anxious and ill-at-ease. When both daughters win there is a truce between thembut the finals are still to come.

-

1988

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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Comedy Drama

Comedy

2

2

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: Karla, a would-be novelist, and Nick, a soap opera actor, meet by chance in a park overlooking the Hudson River. Their encounter leads on, in short order, to a rendezvous at Karla's apartment, and the exciting possibility that true love might have come along at last for both of them. But Nick, cautious that real friendship and mutual respect might be dashed on the shoals of physical passion, begins to retreatleaving Karla confused and hurt. She gets little comfort from her brittle, man-hungry friend, Lydia, who sees sex as an end in itself, and prefers the clandestine company of other women's husbands. Nor is Nick given much support by his easygoing roommate, Alan, a fellow actor who returns in disarray from a disastrous tour with a children's theatre company. Nick wants to work things out with Karla but can't seem to understand his own motives; Karla is ready to take up again with Nick but doesn't know how to cope with his (and her) sense of withdrawal. Matters are further complicated when Nick meets the tipsy Lydia in a bar and, not knowing of her connection with Karla, goes home with her; while Alan and Karla also find solace in each other when Nick fails to show up at her apartment but Alan does. Eventually, after a series of varied, cleverly constructed scenes, replete with sharp and continuously amusing dialogue, an accommodation of sorts is reachedwith all four principals hardly the richer but certainly the wiser for their experiences.

-

-

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Contained in: "The Backstage Book Of New American Short Plays 2004" published by Back Stage

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One act

-

-

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: -

-

-

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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Three Related Short Plays

-

-

2

flexible

Notes: written by Mary Gallagher and Ara Watson

Synopsis: An Off-Broadway hit, this triple bill by two of our theatre's most promising and imaginative women writers includes plays by each author which were presented with great success by the Actors Theatre of Louisville and a third work jointly written for the New York production. Ranging in mood from high comedy to near tragedy, the plays are unified by a common theme; each contrasts women from different social or intellectual levels in situations where they react with attitudes characteristic of their backgrounds.LITTLE MISS FRESNO (jointly written by both authors) deals hilariously with two very competitive mothers whose daughters are in the semi-finals of a local moppet beauty contest. One mother is a gossipy veteran who coolly keeps a score card along with the judges; the other, a first-timer, is anxious and ill-at-ease. When both daughters win there is a truce between thembut the finals are still to come. (2W)FINAL PLACEMENT (written by Ara Watson). The scene is the Tulsa office of a child welfare caseworker. A mother guilty of child abuse is intent on regaining the custody of her son, even though he has been put up for adoption by the courts. Despite her poverty and ignorance she displays a touching eloquenceand a disquieting menaceas she attempts to stave off the inevitable. (2W)CHOCOLATE CAKE (written by Mary Gallagher) is about two secret gorgers who meet in a hotel room while attending a women's conference. One is a simple country mouse, married to a mechanic; the other a brassy city dweller whose husband is a wealthy businessman. Inevitably their conversation gets around to their favorite topic "food" but the funnier their exchanges become the more we are made poignantly aware of the deprivation and disappointments which have led them to compensate with compulsive over-eating. (2W)

-

-

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

1998

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Play/Drama

5

4

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: When Marlin Carroll sells the family farm without telling his son, he sets in motion an inexorable trap for his two childrenthe idealistic Rafe, and the strong, beautiful Ruby, who cling with equal stubbornness to their opposing dreams. The sale of the farm brings in two strangers who become catalysts for the events that follow: Evan Brooks, a wealthy young investor and developer, and Dylan, a handsome, lonely drifter who survives by telling people what they want to hear. As Ruby and her desperately unhappy mother, Ceelie, both look to Dylan for magical escape, Rafe determines to buy back the farm at any cost. Dylan falls in love with Ruby, but his longing for a home grows as strong as his need for her. When Brooksthe man with all the moneyis also attracted to Ruby, the whole family, along with Dylan, begin to see her as the answer to their prayers. As the characters are entwined in threads of anger and violence, their conflicting dreams and needs converge in a catastrophe that changes them forever.