n/a

New York

1964

-

in "War and Four Other Plays", Dramatists Play Service, New York

1967

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

Drama

One Act

3

2

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: A delightfully acerbic spoof of the unreal world of show business, and the fradulent sentiment from which it is contrived. Successfully produced on the National Educational Televison Network.

Cafe La MaMa, NY, USA >>>

1965

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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

Three 1 Act Plays

One Act

-

-

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: INTERVIEW. As Norman Nadel describes "Four masked, smiling interviewers interview a scrubwoman, a house painter, a banker and a lady's maid. It is commonplace and familiar enough, except that suddenly, the most innocent statements are foreboding. As the interviews progress, we are stung by the intensity and viciousness of the contest. The questioners are trying to destroy the dignity of the four clients, and the latter fight to hold their self-respect. It is never resolved. Abruptly the scene changesa street, a subway, a psychiatrist's office, a confessionalbut throughout, this compelling involvement continues. And the sense of familiarity continues as well. We are not seeing something new, except in the bizarre design of the play itself, but we are recognizing something which has been before us all the time. Therein lies the shock effect of AMERICA HURRAH and its power, as well. None of it is happening to others; it is happening to usor rather, it is recalling things that have happened to us. We are thrust into awareness. The insulation burns off, and we have no choice but to perceive." (4M, 4W). TV. As recounted by Walter Kerr of the NY Times: "In a television studio, three very normal workers glance at the monitor now and then, where busy performers with striped facesthey look like so many up-ended zebrasgo through all the violent, cloying, synthetic motions that pass for companionable entertainment on the national airwaves. But there is no relation between the workers and the work; a yawning gulf, big enough to drown us all, has opened between the real concerns of real people and the imaginary concerns of our imaginary archetypes. One of the real workers nearly strangles to death on a bone in his chicken-salad sandwich. But the burly chanteuse who pours affection across the land as though she were an open fire hydrant of boundless goodwill goes right on beaming her thousand good nights. Disaster is irrelevant in a time of eternal delight." And suddenly we become aware of the desperate futility of our efforts to shield ourselves from coming to grips with what is by simulating a cozy escape into what might be. The spectacle is funny, sad and alarming, all at the same time. (4M, 4W). MOTEL. As the NY Post describes: "Three giant colorfully styled dolls, with actors within: a motel landlady on Route 666 and the guy and the blonde, more or less out of IN COLD BLOOD, who have taken a room there for the night. Nobody speaks except the landlady, and she in the excellent recorded Great Plains voice of Ruth White. While the landlady spiels 15 minutes of platitudes about the hooked rugs and self-flushing toilets and other features of her motel, guy doll and blond doll crawl and draw graffiti on doors and walls and rip or smash everything in sight&" to the tune of a booming rock 'n roll number, leading up to a driving, galvanizing finish. And a finish, furthermore, which not only shocks but gives pause. In a real sense we are the mindless dolls, and their actions reflect the ugly impulses which lurk in all of usfinding an outlet in actions which can only leave us feeling ashamed and concerned, and aware of the aching emptiness at the heart of our modern way of life. (3M or 3W in "doll" masks and bodies; off-stage voice).

Boulder, Colorado

1990

-

-

-

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

-

Play/Drama

-

-

-

Notes: -

Synopsis:

New York

1979

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

1979

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

Drama

One Act

-

1

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: In the words of in the New York Times this is "vintage van Itallie" a perceptive, articulate and always arresting evocation of big city life captured through the complex characterization of an itinerant "bag lady." "The play is not, as one might expect, a literal transcription from the street, but a poetic interpretation by a discerning playwright and actress." NY Times. "What Mr. van Itallie, Ms. Chaikin, and their collaborators have in fact done is give New York City a voice and an image" Village Voice.

Cambridge, Massachusetts

1986

-

-

-

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

-

Adaptation

16

8

-

Notes: Original Playwright - Jean Genet

Synopsis: -

Cafe La MaMa, NY, USA >>>

1966

-

-

-

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

-

-

-

-

-

Notes: written by Leonard Melfi and Jean Claude Van Itallie

Synopsis: -

New York

1977

-

Grove Press, New York

1977

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

-

Adaptation

9

5

extras

Notes: Original Playwright - Anton Chekhov

Synopsis: The action takes place at the country estate of Madame Ranevskaya, an estate famed for its beautiful cherry orchardand soon to be sold at auction unless the delinquent taxes are paid. As the play begins Madame Ranevskaya has returned from Paris, where she has frittered away the last of her fortune on a cynical young lover, and it is soon apparent that neither she, nor her family and friends, can come to grips with the crushing reality which they must face, or truly fathom the loss which threatens them. Instead they continue to go on as if nothing had changed, and only the rich merchant Lopakhin, the nouveau riche son of a peasant, seems to realize the gravity of the situation. Ironically it is he who bids successfully for the estate and who sets his men to felling the trees as, in the bittersweet finale, Madame Ranevskaya departs again for Paris and the fragile promise of a new and perhaps better life.

Cafe La MaMa, NY, USA >>>

1965

-

-

-

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

-

-

-

-

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: -

Manhattan Theatre Club, NY, USA >>>

1983

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

1983

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

Two Related Short Plays

-

-

-

-

Notes: includes Sunset Freeway, Final Orders

Synopsis: In SUNSET FREEWAY, a young actress on her way to an audition is trapped in traffic. Nibbling away at a generous supply of snacks, she primps and chatters on about her life and career hopes, oblivious to the increasingly menacing reports on the car radio of an impending nuclear disaster resulting from computer error. (1 woman). In FINAL ORDERS, two astronauts soaring through space dutifully follow a prearranged daily schedule until even their brief moments of amusement seem programmed. And, just as dutifully and dispassionately, they execute orders to detonate the nuclear device entrusted to their care as they hurtle toward oblivion. (2 men).

Denver

1971

-

in "Seven Short and Very Short Plays", Dramatists Play Service, New York

1975

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

Comedy

One Act

1

1

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: A biting satire in which a frowzy housewife, absorbed in her TV is visited by an eccentric rapistwhose demands are somewhat different from what might be anticipated.

New York

1975

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

1976

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

Collaborative Piece

Musical

4

4

-

Notes: music by Richard Peaslee. Created by members of New York's famed Open Theatre

Synopsis: The action begins, once upon a time, in the village of People Who Fish in the Lake, where everyone longs nostalgically for the Golden Time, when happiness and harmony reigned supreme. In quest of what has been lost the haughty king sends a traveler off in pursuit of the beast that is stifling the kingdoma search filled with uncertainty and lurking terrors. As she progresses in her journey the traveler is beset on every side, and her task grows more complex: How will she find the beast? How will she recognize him? How will she kill him? Scenes of high humor alternate with those of dark menace as she presses on, building inexorably into a brilliant and evocative mosaic which, in the end, distills and expresses the very elements of the life force itself.

2004

-

-

-

-

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

-

-

-

-

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: -

Manhattan Theatre Club, NY, USA >>>

1983

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

1983

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 Act

2

-

-

Notes: in Early Warnings

Synopsis: two astronauts soaring through space dutifully follow a prearranged daily schedule until even their brief moments of amusement seem programmed. And, just as dutifully and dispassionately, they execute orders to detonate the nuclear device entrusted to their care as they hurtle toward oblivion.

-

-

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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

-

-

-

-

-

Notes: -

Synopsis:

Los Angeles

1967

-

in "Seven Short and Very Short Plays", Dramatists Play Service, New York

1975

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

Drama

One Act

1

1

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: A girl sings; a soldier speaks of love and war; and a sense of the very nature of our tortured universe is poignantly evoked.

Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts

1977

-

-

-

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

-

-

-

-

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: -

-

-

-

in "Seven Short and Very Short Plays", Dramatists Play Service, New York

1975

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

Drama

One Act

2

1

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: Two doctors examine a patient (played dually by an actor and a dummy) methodically dismembering the dummy to prove that it is in the best of health.

New York

1964

-

in "War and Four Other Plays", Dramatists Play Service, New York

1967

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

Drama

One Act

1

1

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: Humurous, fantastic, and yet telling in its perceptions, this brief but arresting exercise in absurdist style delights and intrigues both by what is said and what is left unsaid.

New York

1964

-

in "War and Four Other Plays", Dramatists Play Service, New York

1967

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

Drama

One Act

1

1

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: Gay Paris, a young American tourist, a dashing Italian guide, and romanceall handled with a marvelously stylized tongue-in-cheek approach which treats the play as if it were a movie being filmed.

La MaMa ETC, NY >>>

1965

-

in "America Hurrah", Coward McCann, New York

1967

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

Fugue

One Act

4

4

-

Notes: part of American Hurrah. aka Pavane

Synopsis: As Norman Nadel describes "Four masked, smiling interviewers interview a scrubwoman, a house painter, a banker and a lady's maid. It is commonplace and familiar enough, except that suddenly, the most innocent statements are foreboding. As the interviews progress, we are stung by the intensity and viciousness of the contest. The questioners are trying to destroy the dignity of the four clients, and the latter fight to hold their self-respect. It is never resolved. Abruptly the scene changesa street, a subway, a psychiatrist's office, a confessionalbut throughout, this compelling involvement continues. And the sense of familiarity continues as well. We are not seeing something new, except in the bizarre design of the play itself, but we are recognizing something which has been before us all the time. Therein lies the shock effect of AMERICA HURRAH and its power, as well. None of it is happening to others; it is happening to usor rather, it is recalling things that have happened to us. We are thrust into awareness. The insulation burns off, and we have no choice but to perceive."

Off-Off-Broadway

-

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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 with Music

4

3

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: Creating a mosaic of imaginative and stylistically diverse scenes, interspersed with original songs, the author provides a close and revealing examination of our American penchant for selecting leaders who remind us as much as possible of ourselves. Sharply satiric, the action underscores not only the platitudes and tawdriness of American politics, but also the blind reflexiveness of the voters. We do, in effect, get what we deserveand it is increasingly apparent that the line between president and king, democracy and monarchy (or even totalitarianism), has grown slimmer than we might care to contemplate.

Pasedena, California

2004

-

-

-

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

-

Play/Drama

2

1

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: The sexy, witty love triangle of a king, beautiful scientist marquise, and Voltaire, the most famous man in Europe. A passionate, painful, incandescent voyage to enlightenment and revolution.

-

-

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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

-

-

11

2

flexible casting

Notes: from the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov

Synopsis: The devil, his acrobatic cat and other colorful cronies come to Stalin's Moscow to wreak hilarious surreal havoc on the lives of writers, critics and bureaucratniks who have lost touch with their feelings. Satan sends some to the madhouse, stages a devilish play within a play, and gives the lyrical Margarita a whirlwind witch's ride climaxing in a satanic masked ball as she searches for her lover, a writer known as "Master." The novel Master is writing appears simultaneously on stage. His work, politically suppressed, focuses on the moral dilemma of Pontius Pilate in biblical Jerusalem. The characters in his book and the characters on the streets of Moscow, cast similar lights and shadows around them even as they live in separate worlds.

Kent, Ohio

1979

-

-

-

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

-

Adaptation

5

2

extras

Notes: Original Playwright - Euripides

Synopsis: classic tale of Medea and her love for Jason

La MaMa ETC, NY >>>

1965

-

in "America Hurrah", Coward McCann, New York

1967

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 Act

3

3

in "doll" masks and bodies; off-stage voice

Notes: part of American Hurrah

Synopsis: As the NY Post describes: "Three giant colorfully styled dolls, with actors within: a motel landlady on Route 666 and the guy and the blonde, more or less out of IN COLD BLOOD, who have taken a room there for the night. Nobody speaks except the landlady, and she in the excellent recorded Great Plains voice of Ruth White. While the landlady spiels 15 minutes of platitudes about the hooked rugs and self-flushing toilets and other features of her motel, guy doll and blond doll crawl and draw graffiti on doors and walls and rip or smash everything in sight&" to the tune of a booming rock 'n roll number, leading up to a driving, galvanizing finish. And a finish, furthermore, which not only shocks but gives pause. In a real sense we are the mindless dolls, and their actions reflect the ugly impulses which lurk in all of usfinding an outlet in actions which can only leave us feeling ashamed and concerned, and aware of the aching emptiness at the heart of our modern way of life.

Cherry Lane Theatre, New York

1973

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

1973

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/farce

-

5

3

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: The action is set in the chic living room of a U.S. Senator, during a cocktail party. Present are the Senator; his wife; his schizophrenic bisexual son (played by two actors); a beautiful young woman who may be the son's fiancee; a rather pompous Harvard professor; a quietly efficient butler; and a lady mystery writer from next door. It is the mystery writer who holds the key to the bizarre events that follow, as she explains to the actors and the audience what will happen next and what part each character will play in the action about to follow. At the snap of her fingers each sequence begins, as this one is stabbed, that one drinks poisoned coffee, another is blown upuntil only the mystery writer and the true culprit remain. But, as the "corpses" keep popping up to add to the conversation, the plot continues to thickenproviding both a delightful metaphysical spoof and a scathing assessment of the social and political hypocrisy of our disjointed times.

New York

1982

-

in "Wordplays 1", Performing Arts Journal Publications, New York

1980

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

-

-

-

-

-

Notes: music by Steve Gorn

Synopsis:

New York

1973

-

in "Open Theater", Drama Book Specialists, New York

1975

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

-

-

-

-

-

Notes: written with Sam Shepard and Megan Terry

Synopsis:

Cafe La MaMa, NY, USA >>>

1965

-

-

-

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

-

-

-

-

-

Notes: National Education Television filmed THREE PLAYS FROM LA MAMA. They were PAVANE by Jean Claude Van Itallie, FOURTEEN HUNDRED THOUSAND by Sam Shepard, and THE RECLUSE by Paul Foster. Tom O'Horgan directed the entire program.

Synopsis: -

Los Angeles

1969

-

in "Seven Short and Very Short Plays", Dramatists Play Service, New York

1975

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

Drama

One Act

1

1

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: While their taped voices carry on a random, but revealing, conversation, two people regard each other silentlyas still as two photographs.