The Playwrights Database
FRANCES YA-CHU COWHIG
(1983 - )Nationality: USA
email: Click here to contact Website: Click here
Literary Agent: Antje Oegel International UK represented by Harriet Pennington Legh, Troika Talent
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's play Lidless, produced at the Contemporary American Theatre and Edinburgh Festivals and soon to be produced by Interact Theatre in Philadelphia, P73 Productions in New York and Trafalagar Studios on the West end, received the Yale Drama Series award, an Edinburgh Fringe First award, the Keene Prize for Literature, and the David Calicchio emerging American Playwright Prize. She has received residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell, Ragdale, and the Santa Fe art Institute, and is under commission from South Coast Rep and Seattle Rep. Her plays have been developed at the Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival, Seattle Rep, PlayPenn, the alley Theatre, Ojai Playwrights Conference, the Playwright's Foundation and Yale Rep. Frances received an MFA in Writing from the James A. Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin, a Ba in Sociology from Brown University, and a certificate in ensemble Created Physical Theatre from the Dell'arte International School of Physical Theatre. Her work has been published by Glimmer Train and Yale University Press. Frances was born in Philadelphia, and raised in Northern Virginia, Okinawa, Taipei and Beijing.
Research: Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)
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below is a list of Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
410[Gone] Lidless Unusual Unions World of Extreme Happiness, The410[Gone]
Synopsis:
Where do we go when we die? In Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's dark and dazzling 410[GONE], that all depends on how you play the game. The stakes couldnt be higher when a young woman goes in search of her lost brother in the Land of the Deada dominion ruled by the Chinese Goddess of Mercy and the Monkey King, where time is suspended, and an arcade dance console holds the key to transmigration. On this fantastical journey into the underworld, a sister and brother must face the ultimate question: If there is no love without pain, what does it mean to love?
Notes:
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1st Produced:
University Of Texas At Austin Oct 2008
Organisations:
High Tide Festival
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc. NY (2014) 978-0822230960
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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Top of PageLidless
Lidless is a work of extraordinary intelligence and finely-balanced sensibility. It marries the implacable logic of a Greek tragedy with an all-too-modern setting. It's been fifteen years since Guantanamo, fifteen years since Bashir last saw his U.S. army interrogator, alice. Bashir is now dying of a disease of the liver, an organ that he believes is the home of the soul. He tracks down Alice in Texas and demands that she donate half her liver as restitution for the damage wrought during her interrogations. But Alice doesn't remember Bashir; a PTSD pill trial she participated in while in the army has left her without any memory of her time there. It is only when her inquisitive fourteen-year-old daughter begins her own investigation that the fragile peace of mind that alice's drug-induced oblivion enabled begins to falter.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
University Of Texas At Austin 39845
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Yale University Press (September 14, 2010)
Methuen Drama, London 978-1408152881
Methuen Drama, London 978-1408152881
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: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
Top of PageUnusual Unions
Synopsis:
Five new short plays about the bonds we form with each other, performed in five unusual spaces around our building. Please note that this is a promenade performance and will involve walking, standing and stairs, with no seating available.
Notes:
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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:
short promenade piece
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageWorld of Extreme Happiness, The
When Sunny is born in rural China, her parents leave her in a slop bucket to die because she's a girl. She survives, and at 14 leaves for the city, where she works a low-paying factory job and attends self-help classes to improve her chances at securing a coveted office position. When Sunny's attempts to pull herself out of poverty lead to dire consequences for a fellow worker, she is forced to question the system she's spent her life trying to master and stand up against the powers that be. Savage, tragic and desperately funny, The World of Extreme Happiness is a stirring examination of a country in the midst of rapid change, and individuals struggling to shape their own destinies.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, London (2014)>>> 978-1472529886
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: with doubling
Further Reference:
Top of Page