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Joe Besecker

JOE BESECKER

  
Nationality:    USA
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a

Joe Besecker there have been over thirty productions of his 25 full length plays. Tennessee in the Summer (suggested by the life of Tennessee Williams) received its third Los Angeles production directed by Barbara Bain of Mission Impossible fame. It was nominated for two Los Angeles Ovation awards and played for nine months. Bee-eye (his play based on Edward albee) was nominated for three Bay area Critics Circle awards, including Best Production. He also won a Los Angeles Drama-logue award for achievement in Writing for this play. Mary in the Hydrangea Bush (about a straight 4-way) played to critical acclaim at the Theatre of Yugen. His play the Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars played the San Francisco Fringe in 2002 and won the Best of the Fringe. Other plays by Joe at the Fringe were Crime and Variations, his play about Stephen Sondheim (2003), Paper Dolls, about how gay men in San Francisco dealt with the aIDS crisis in the 80's (2005), Visiting Bertha, which dealt with the characters of Tennessee Williams' the Fugitive Kind (2006). the Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars played at the Edinburgh Fringe in august (2007). His play Tennessee in the Summer is part of the new season at the New Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. It opens January 2009. He has just completed his new play the Play Reading Play concerning the first reading of Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf. eight of his plays have been published by Dialogus Publishing. He has recently completed his screen play Cezanne's apples.

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below is a list of Joe Besecker's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Annual St Valentine's Day Zin Tasting, The         Bee-eye         Birthing Of the Little Potato Head Baby, The         Boats         Crimes And Variations         Dance Atop the Glorious Red Fez, The         Dead Heads         Fools Rush Inn         Heather Myers: A Peg Novak Mystery.         Just Like Me         Keep As New         Last Of the Nuns, The         Last Voyage, The         Loving Fathers         Margaritas         Mary In the Hydrangea Bush         Miss Teressa Sitting Down         Paper Dolls         Play Reading Play, The         Sandy Dennis At the Maisonettes         Tennessee In the Summer         Visiting Bertha         Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars, The         Writer's Group, The         Zinnia Rosenblatt

Annual St Valentine's Day Zin Tasting, The

Synopsis:
Robert newly published novel exposes the secrets of all is friends. they are very angry and are eager to greet him at their annual wine tasting. the play examines the responsibilities of the artist and its consequences. a witty, bitchy ensemble piece.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Studio eremos, San Francisco    1984

Organisations:
J. B. enterprises

1st Published:
Dialogus,    -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Bee-eye

Synopsis:
Devera is a panicked recent academy award nominee on the run. the hot-shot young writer, Bee-eye, and Peggy are on their honeymoon but all Bee-eye wants to do is write. Devera's brother, Thumper, has run away from his wife and kid. Thy all share a veranda in Puerta Vallarta with Edward albee and his discontent lover.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Mission Cultural Centre, San Francisco    1988

Organisations:
J. B. enterprises

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Birthing Of the Little Potato Head Baby, The

Synopsis:
an absurdist piece full of 70's flavor. a screwball sister lands on the San Francisco doorstep of her closeted, paranoid brother

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Boats

Synopsis:
Sexually addicted Joy ann and her jealous lover, Matthew, have returned to her Pennsylvania home for Christmas eve. Joy ann finds her stepbrother, Boats, has his girlfriend pregnant and only wants to pay for half the abortion. Her dying grandmother is addicted to pain pills. and her mother is still a bitter alcoholic. Joy ann has found her missing father--a burned out Hippie poet with low morals. Is she bringing him home for her mother? Or to satisfy her own sexual fantasy?

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Studio eremos, San Francisco    1987

Organisations:
J. B. enterprises

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Crimes And Variations

Synopsis:
Stephen Sondheim has written a musical about the King brothers killing their Father with a baseball bat. the critics have not received it well.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
exit Theatre SF Fringe    2003

Organisations:
JB enterprises

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dance Atop the Glorious Red Fez, The

Synopsis:
an absurdist look at John Cage and Merce Cunningham and Jasper Johns. Three young slackers see themselves in the tradition of the above three. the become stars in Tom Stoppard's new play Little Hooch Piece about the relationship of Cage-Cunningham and Johns which leads them to direct contact and an understanding of the original three.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay/Lesbian, of interest

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dead Heads

Synopsis:
Melody is pregnant with a gay porn star who is kept by a rich lover. the plan to murder him and run to New Mexico. a mysterious stranger appears at their motel and there is a double cross and then a triple cross. a sly comedy-mystery-Drama.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
SOMaR Theatre, San Francisco    1990

Organisations:
JB enterprises, John Simms Theatre Co.

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay, full length

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Fools Rush Inn

Synopsis:
Straight porn star Dakin is in love with the lesbian director Mara who loves the neurotic actress Loretta who loves gay actor Weazer who loves the straight porn star Dakin. the four of them find themselves together in an isolated cabin on New Years eve.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Studio eremos, San Francisco    1988

Organisations:
J. B. enterprises

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay, full length

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Heather Myers: A Peg Novak Mystery.

Synopsis:
Whittaker and Chuck have invited their straight neighbors to their house in Clearlake. ariel Plumb might have drowned her boyfriend, Wolfgang. Dan and Lucille are worried when their stud son, Josh, insists that the woman who appears and insists she is his current girlfriend, Heather Myers, actually is an imposter. Detective Peg Novak, the lesbian local police, investigates and uncovers several hidden secrets of everyone. Suggested by the play Catch Me If You Can. This is a gay version.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Just Like Me

Synopsis:
the twins, Brenda and Bobby, are home in St. Louis for the funeral of their psychiatrist father. Brenda, a Pulitzer prize winning playwright, is block and for material, she picks up a handsome, schizophrenic street person who insists he was the man in the hotel room with Tennessee Williams when he choked to death. He wants to dig up the body and drop it in the ocean where Williams always wanted to be. Brenda and Bobby attempt to make this happen while their theatre critic mother, Helen, looks on with disapproval.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Intersection for the Arts    1994

Organisations:
Intersection for the Arts

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Keep As New

Synopsis:
Julie's teenaged nephew has suddenly disappeared from his bedroom. and then, as in Ten Little Indians, one by one all the other characters disappear. Her nephew's novel found in his computer reveals he had quite a sex life with Julie's neighbors. a comedy-mystery.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Last Of the Nuns, The

Synopsis:
Kevi and theresa are the illegitimate daughters of adolph Hitler stuck in a Carmelite orphanage run by nuns with secrets even more shocking. a witty, absurdist, dark comedy.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
ashland, Oregon    1986

Organisations:
New Playwright's Theatre

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Last Voyage, The

Synopsis:
Cary Grant and Leonard Bernstein are runaway lovers on the Queen Mary in 1963 with Liza Minelli along.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay/Lesbian, of interest

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Loving Fathers

Synopsis:
Two young gay men lust after their own fathers.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
SF Fringe    2008

Organisations:
JB enterprises

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay/Lesbian, of interest

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Margaritas

Synopsis:
Four women get loaded in a Mexican restaurant and reveal their sexual secrets.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Seattle, Washington    1986

Organisations:
alice B Theatre

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Mary In the Hydrangea Bush

Synopsis:
Two straight couples have just had a drunken four-way the night before. How do they face one another and continue? Or do they? Six scenes between alternating couples forced into the same time frame that morning creates a Southern Gothic with a hovering Edward allen Poe full of mystery and wit.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Theatre Nyugen, San Francisco    2001

Organisations:
J. B. enterprises

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Miss Teressa Sitting Down

Synopsis:
a mystery within a mystery within a mystery. an existential glance at ritual and hidden layers of reality. are Vince Jr. and Shane really the children of Vince Foster? the say they are but Miss Teressa suspects they may have appeared in the apartment in Washington DC she shares with her lover, his ex-male lover and the new young sexually ambiguous roommate loaded with information she revealed to a man she fell in love with in a chatroom.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay/Lesbian, of interest

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Paper Dolls

Synopsis:
an examination of how a segment of the gay community dealt with the aIDS crisis in the 80's.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
SF Fringe    2004

Organisations:
JB enterprises

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay/Lesbian, of interest

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Play Reading Play, The

Synopsis:
a fantasy of Edward albee's reading of Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? In l962 with Bette Davis, James Mason, Natalie Wood and Tony Perkins reading the parts in the play within a play within a play.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Sandy Dennis At the Maisonettes

Synopsis:
an experimental play. the actors play multiple parts. Sandy Dennis, Mia Farrow, Tennessee Williams, Peter O'Chello and Jack Straw (the gay previous owners of Big Daddy's plantation in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Nathan, the insane psychiatrist-- and Gustav Flaubert. Highly theatrical and intellectually engaging. Takes place at the Maisonettes Hotel in New Orleans.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
SOMaR theatre    -

Organisations:
J. B. enterprises

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Tennessee In the Summer

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Valencia Rose, San Francisco    1985

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Visiting Bertha

Synopsis:
Recreates Bertha. . .a character from Tennessee Williams' FUGITIVe KIND and places her in Christmas eve in St. Louis as a whore with three suitors.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
SF Fringe    2006

Organisations:
JB enterprises

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
exit theatre    2002

Organisations:
SF Fringe Festival

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Writer's Group, The

Synopsis:
the Tuesday night Writer's Group are upset because their prime member has dropped out and is writing a play that has revealed all their secrets

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Zinnia Rosenblatt

Synopsis:
there has been a recent double suicide in Lori's country cabin. Was it her ex-husband and his new wife? While cleaning the mess with her daughter, Samantha, and her daughter's new boyfriend, Skillet, secrets of the past emerge. Her ex-husband appears claiming he is Zinnia Rosenblatt and has been reincarnated. a distressed mother appears claiming her son and his lover were the ones who killed themselves in the cabin. and is Skillet the adopted son who was returned to the orphanage many years ago because he ate too much and now intends revenge? a playful, intense, cerebral mystery.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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