n/a

n/a

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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Play/Drama

6

7

-

Notes: Another component of the nine-play cycle entitled "The Orphan's Home." Produced both as a play and as a major motion picture, 1918 expands still further the playwright's close examination of the saga of the Robedaux family of Harrison, Texas, and, in part

Synopsis: Having been exempted from military service in World War I, Horace Robedeaux is back home in Harrison, Texas. He and his wife Elizabeth, along with their infant daughter, are now settled in a new house built for them by Elizabeth's father, Mr. Vaughn. While their fortunes have improved, the nation reels from a spreading flu epidemic which soon reaches Harrison and infects Mr. Vaughn and Horace. During Horace's illness his daughter also contracts the flu and dies bringing to the young parents a sadness which even the armistice can do little to allay. In time Elizabeth becomes pregnant again, and the play ends with brightening prospects for all: the nation is finally at peace; Horace and Elizabeth are blessed with a healthy baby boy; and even Elizabeth's wayward younger brother, who had been of deep concern for Mr. Vaughn, shows signs of finally coming to terms with the responsibilities of adulthood.

National, London

2002

In Yer Space

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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

-

-

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: set against the Texan depression and telling of Horace Jnr's passion of becoming an actor

New York

1986

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

1986

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Comedy

One Act

2

2

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: The setting is the living room of Robert and Dolores Henry's home in Harrison, Texas; the time 1929. Dolores, once a high-school beauty queen, is now the scourge of her hen-pecked husband, who comes home from the office hungry and tired to find that there will be no dinner tonight. The reason is that Dolores has, at last, been able to arrange a date for her visiting niece, Sarah Nancy, and she wants Robert out of the way. But the young man, a would-be mortician goes out the window as the bookish, rebellious Sarah Nancy refuses to play the flirtation game and, instead, makes it abundantly (and hilariously) clear that she considers Felix to be a boring oaf. Sarah Nancy's attitude delights her uncle as much as it distresses her aunt, who retires from the field with a sudden sick headache. However, the two young people, left alone by their nosy elders, find a common interest at lastand, as the curtain falls, they are contentedly, and wordlessly, pouring over a stack of wonderfully corny old high-school yearbooks.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Play/Drama

-

3

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: In funny, moving, engaging monologues, three sisters spin the tale of their family and an era. Their father, the eponymous carpetbagger, was a former Union soldier who used his post as county treasurer and tax collector to amass a Texas plantation of twenty thousand acres. Preserving that plantation through the vicissitudes of their lives becomes a central issue for his daughters, Cornelia, Grace Anne and Sissie. With echoes of The Three Sisters and King Lear, THE CARPETBAGGER'S CHILDREN explores the bonds of a family to the land that has shaped their identity, influenced their destiny and, like the family itself, undergone dramatic change with the passage of time.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Play/Drama

8

3

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: Sheriff Hawes, honest and sincere peace officer, wearied with his job and its usual run of irritating problems, such as runaway boys, small robberies and the like, is making plans for his retirement. A local boy, Bubber Reeves, escapes from the penitentiary where he is serving a life term. He heads for his hometown, obsessed with the idea of killing Hawes who has become for him the symbol of all he hates. The town is terrified of Bubber and wants him killed. Hawes is determined to take him alive and send him back to the penitentiary. Eventually Hawes traces Bubber to a cabin, but Bubber does not want to be captured and forces Hawes to kill him. Heartbroken over his failure, Hawes goes back to the jail to resign immediately, but his wife convinces him that he is needed in his job, and he decides to continue.

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

1983-84

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Play/Drama

3

5

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: As gentle and warm as the spring night in which it takes place, the play is a mosaic of conversations and encounters that occur during a party at the home of a well-to-do family in Harrison, Texas in 1914. The Vaughns are substantial, God-fearing folk who expect their children to accept their standards, which sometimes seem unreasonable and oppressive to their lovely, romantically inclined daughter, Elizabeth. Secretly engaged to the rather rakish Horace Robedaux, Elizabeth announces her determination to break free, despite her parents' objections, and as she and her sister gossip about the others present, it is soon apparent that their elders are not always their betters and that the previous generation is often guilty of the very sins against which they warn their offspring. But, as the play ends, Elizabeth, while still restless, is not yet quite bold enough to really defy her parentsand to challenge the powerful but reassuring restraints that the times and a way of life have bequeathed to her and her contemporaries.

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Grove Press, New York

1989

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Play/Drama

8

6

-

Notes: One of the later plays included in "The Orphan's Home," a nine play cycle which chronicles the lives of the Robedaux family of Harrison, Texas. While maintaining the story of Horace Robedaux as its central theme, COUSINS develops the scope of the saga by

Synopsis: It is 1925. Horace and his wife, Elizabeth, have two sons, and Horace is making a modest living as proprietor of his own clothing store. Called to Houston due to his mother's sudden illness and impending surgery, Horace and Elizabeth and other relatives, converge on the hospital waiting room. The action of the play then delves into developments in other branches of the clan. Horace's sister, Lily Dale, has married well and is now a mother, as well as mistress of a large house replete with a baby grand piano in the parlor and two Packards in the garage. Spoiled as ever, she also has ambitions for a musical careersuccess in which has been predicted by a fortune teller. Cousin Lola and her husband, Monty, relate how Horace turned down a chance at a fortune in an oil prospecting dealan opportunity which has enabled them to plan a grand tour of Europe. After Corella, Horace's mother, pulls through her surgery successfully, they all disperse, only to meet again during a surprise visit to Horace's store in Harrison several months later. Lily Dale has been cheated out of $2000 by an unscrupulous music publisher, who promised her fame and fortune; and Lola and Monty, just returned from their trip, are all too glad to be home, having found Europe to be a place full of "four-flushers." The play ends on a poignant note, with Horace and Elizabeth sharing memories with a tipsy, ne'er-do-well cousin. And we become aware that Horace has found a stability within himself and his marriage which will hold him steady for the future, in contrast to the dissolute cousinwho is a reminder of earlier, and less happy periods, in Horace's own life.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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Drama

One Act

3

7

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: Horace, a boy of sixteen, is visiting his sister who has arranged a date for him with Emily Crews, the prettiest and most popular girl in town. The date is for a dancebut Horace claims that he doesn't know how to dance. His sister coaches him a little, persuades him he'll do very well, and goes off to call for Emily. And in Emily's living room, waiting for her to appear, he discovers that Emily is being forced by her mother to go to the dance with him; and in great humiliation he leaves. He finds himself in a soda fountain where he meets Mary Catherine, a young girl who, like Horace, lacks confidence and so cripples her own considerable abilities and attractiveness. The two lonely young people are drawn to each other. Horace asks Mary Catherine to another dance, but at the same time his sister and Emily's mother again arrange for Horace to escort Emily, this time with Emily's cooperation, because she's unhappy about the way she treated Horace. But Horace stands firm; he's asked Mary Catherine, he wants to take Mary Catherine and he will. And he does. As Horace and Mary Catherine are about to leave for the dance they admit to each other their fears of not being good enough dancers, of not being popularbut, secure in the knowledge of one another's liking and respect, they start off for their first dance with more confidence and happiness than they've ever felt before.

New York

1982

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

1982

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Drama

One Act

2

2

-

Notes: part of The Roads To Home

Synopsis: In THE DEAREST OF FRIENDS, it is several months later, and Vonnie is facing the crisis of a husband who is involved with another woman and who wants a divorce. Mabel and her husband, Jack are sympathetic to Vonnie's plight but, again, cannot bring themselves to face its disturbing implications.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Play/Drama

4

7

1b

Notes: One of the final works in the nine play cycle entitled "The Orphan's Home," which follows the lives of the Robedaux family of Harrison, Texas. Others in the cycle include Lily Dale, Courtship, Roots in a Parched Ground, The Widow claire, Valentine's Day,

Synopsis: The play begins by introducing the next generation of Robedauxs in the person of Horace's son, Horace Jr., who comes home from school to find that his maternal grandfather, Henry Vaughn, has died suddenly of a heart attack. From this point, two main storylines are traced in the play. One deals with young Horace's coming to terms with the concepts of life, death and familial relationships. He finds that his mother, Elizabeth, is expecting another baby; he listens to, and asks many questions about, the widely contrasting accounts of his two grandfathers; and he endures the fussing of his paternal grandmother, who's fearful that his love of reading will make him too introspective and "ruin him" for the real world. He must also come to grips with the drowning of Gertrude, a young black girl who was his confidante and friend. The other storyline concerns "Brother" Vaughn, Henry Vaughn's dissolute son, who, in the short time during which he has control, heads his late father's farms and other holdings on a course toward rapid ruin. When his mother takes back control of the estate, Brother heads off to Galveston, where he subsequently kills a man in a drunken brawl. Through all of this, Horace Sr. maintains his own counsel, although he stands up to his mother concerning his son's love of reading, and he comforts his wife, Elizabeth, through the crises affecting her family. But he refrains, even when asked, from interfering in the family's affairs and, as the play ends, the suggestion is strong that things are subtly, but inexorably, beginning to flow his way.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Drama

One Act

4

3

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: It is a simple story, chiefly one of mood and character in which the protagonist is an old man who lies dying and worrying about what will happen to the daughter who has cared for him. His other children, for whom he sacrificed so much, have now left home and have their own lives, which they will not alter to include any provision for their sister. Then a distant cousin, whom the old man had helped in past years, comes and offers the daughter a home with her on the place which the old man had helped her to buy. The daughter is provided for and the gentle old man can die peacefully.

Princeton, New Jersey

1989

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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

4

8

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: a 12-character human comedy about a family that must confront its past as it prepares for its future

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Play/Drama

4

8

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: Frankie, a traditional girl from a traditional town, has been leading an untraditional life. For over twenty years she has been Fred's girlfriend, and though she longs to be married, Fred has never askeduntil now. Why the change of heart? Fred's mother may be dying, and she would like to see her son married before she goes. But that's only part of the reason. There's the other embarrassing matter of another woman, a younger woman, who is suing Fred because she claims to have quit her job after Fred proposed to her. As if that weren't trouble enough, both Frankie and the other woman will be having Fred's child.

London

1972

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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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Notes: -

Synopsis:

Pittsburgh

1988

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Play/Drama

14

5

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: It's 1935 in Harrison, Texas. George Tolliver has decided to run for county attorney general, but his older, and more successful, brother Leonard tries to dissuade him because the family's backing has already gone to another local lawyer, his brother-in-law, Billy. George runs, though, after lashing out at the more successful Leonard for less than moral support in the past. At the same time, their late father's brother Virgil appears on the Tolliver family's doorstep, asking for shelter now that he's old and broke. It's a hard decision for the widowed Mrs. Tolliver since Virgil once abandoned them years ago when they needed money; still, they take him in. Within days, Leonard's wife Margaret is found out to be having an affair with Wally Smith, her husband's handyman. On the very same afternoon, both of Margaret and Leonard's young boys drown while swimming in the river with Wally. Believing this to be a punishment for her adultery, Margaret has a breakdown and is institutionalized. In his grief, Leonard lets his law practice crumble and in despair reveals to his mother that he's always known his father committed suicide and did not die accidentally. Things aren't made any easier when Margaret's brother, Billy, murders his sister's lover&and now a neighbor wants to blackmail the Tollivers with a packet of love letters sent from Margaret to Wally Smith. Eventually, Margaret returns home to beg her husband's forgiveness. At first Leonard refuses, but he realizes he does want to start over again and he forgives Margaret before she shoots herself with the gun Leonard was going to use on himself. George, having had to make up for Leonard's absence, has rediscovered his calling as a lawyer and has finally risen to the responsibilities of his own new marriage, impending fatherhood and leading the sorrowful Tolliver household.

Philco Television Playhouse

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Drama

One Act

7

4

extras

Notes: -

Synopsis: A tender story of a kindly, childless couple who become interested in a boy whose aunt and uncle, migrant workers, have deserted him. Though the boy, John Turner, yearns for the return of his relatives, he comes to accept the fact that they have indeed left him behind, and turns to the couple who have befriended him and finds a permanent home with them.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Drama

One Act

10

8

flexible

Notes: -

Synopsis: In THE LAND OF THE ASTRONAUTS Phil, who always wanted to be an astronaut, finally heads to Houston to try and find a job with the space station, just to be near the astronauts. His wife Lorena realizes something is wrong when, back at their home in Harrison, there is no word from Phil right before the long-awaited tap dance recital in which their young daughter, Mabel Sue, will dance. Lorena begins her search in Harrison, and with the help of good neighbors and off-beat lawmen and women, finds Phil wandering around Houston, preparing to go into space, but really half-crazed over his own failures. Taking him home, Lorena helps Phil find his mythical utopian land in his home and family.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Comedy/Drama

Comedy

15

7

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: Not only does town busybody Fannie Mae bring medication to the residents of a nursing home in Harrison, Texas, she also brings the gift of gab and a thorough command of local knowledge, useful among folks who are inclined to forget the years of their births or their religion. Her conversation starters allow the home's residents to swap stories and reminisce about their lives, revealing rich and complex histories that both burden and sustain them in the present. Like a piece of Mozartian chamber music, THE LAST OF THE THORNTONS carries you along with droll humor to a conclusion that resonates with gorgeous poignancy.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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Play/Drama

5

8

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: Laura Dennis lives with Lena Abernathy in Harrison, Texas. Her mother left Harrison years ago, after her father killed his cousin then died when Laura was very young. Writing to her mother, who now lives in far away South Dakota, Laura is convinced that once her mother realizes how grown up and ready for the world Laura is, she will want Laura to visit, or better yet, come live with her. Laura's uncle comes to visit once in a while, supplying the much needed money for Laura's upbringing and trying to care the best he can though he really doesn't want to be a big part of her life. Laura loves her home in Harrison and the woman who cares for her, but is restless. A high school senior, she is discovering herself, her burgeoning sexuality and wondering about life ahead; all these things are confusing and exciting. A polite, sweet girl, Laura also hears stories about her family's past: why her mother left and her father killed a man. She discovers an acquaintance across the street, Velma, is really a distant cousin, which both intrigues and repels her as Velma is a dependent, sometimes raving alcoholic, yet she may know the history of her family no one else will tell her. Over the course of several weeks, while Laura waits for an answer from her mother, she learns of her mother's infidelities and her father's jealousies. Parallel lives and stories also fill Laura's world as she begins dating Stewart, who abruptly drops her to go to visit his old girlfriend who has moved to Atlanta. Another classmate, Harvey, seems also involved with that girl when he is accused of making her pregnant; the reason she moved away. Denying he is the father and revealing any number of the boys could have been, he is forbidden out of the house since the girl's father has threatened to kill him. A quiet, sensitive boy, Harvey has expressed interest in Laura and wanted to ask her to the school dance. He is forbidden to do so, not because of past indiscretions or present threats, but because, as finally revealed to him by his adoptive parents, he is Laura's half-brother by her mother and her father's cousin, the one her father killed. Shaken by all that's happened to him Harvey disobeys his parents and takes a walk in town. In front of the movie house he is shot and killed by the pregnant girl's father. Laura hears the news about Harvey's death and her connection to him, just after she receives a letter from her mother saying she wants nothing to do with her. Feeling she lost her mother, and a brother she never knew well, Laura is devastated. Yet, she tries to find something in the day to sustain her. She accepts what help she can get from those who love her through what is now a crossroads in her young, now saddened life.

New York

1986

-

Grove Press, New York

1988

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Play/Drama

4

3

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: After the death of his alcoholic father, and his mother's remarriage, young Horace Robedaux remained in Harrison, Texas, clerking in a dry goods store. When his mother invites him to visit her and his teenage sister, Lily, in Houston, Horace eagerly accepts, hoping to resettle and find more promising employment. Once in Houston, Horace is confronted by his gruff, surly stepfather, who dotes on his spoiled sister, Lily, but dislikes Horace intenselyand shortly orders him to leave. Horace's departure, however, is delayed by a sudden bout of illness, which forces him to stay on for several weeks as an invalid. This gives him the chance to reestablish his relationship with his sister, whose memories of their late father are as bitter as Horace's are forgiving. In the end Horace returns to Harrison, convinced that during his brief stay the demons of the family's past have been exorcised and that he, as well as his mother and sister, can now face the future with a renewed strength of spirit.

New York's Ensemble Studio Theatre

1988

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

1989

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Comedy/Drama

One Act

3

2

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: The character of the title is Stanley Campbell, publisher of the local newspaper in Harrison, Texas, who has taken to climbing the pecan trees in the Courthouse Square when he is in his cupswhich, of late, is most of the time. He also makes threatening phone calls to his brother-in-law, whom he suspects of having an affair with his wife and to a former family friend who embezzled the Campbell inheritance. His antics are borne patiently by his cheerfully resigned mother (who clings pathetically to the belief that there is still much to be thankful for and that her children are well and happy) and by his brother (who holds himself responsible for the loss of the family fortune). However Stanley's wife, Bertie Dee, has had enough of his accusations and drunkenness and has taken to locking him out of the house. And, throughout the play, it is evident that the malaise which grips the nation (the Great Depression of the 1930s) has not spared Texas nor the Campbell family, and while the rich, down-home dialogue of the play abounds in trenchant humor and revealing reminiscences the underlying sense of pain and discouragement shadows all that is said and doneas these are people for whom early promise has given way to defeat and disillusionment and the unsettling realization that they are helpless to reverse their fate.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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Drama

One Act

2

5

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: The play is set in a boarding house in a small town on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Three unmarried women, Alma Jean, Cutie and Miss Rowena, have lived there for years, watching the life of the town. Helen Crews, after a disagreement with her mother, also moves in; Helen had been engaged to Harvey Weems, a charming but weak young man, and the two mothers had managed to break off the engagement. Now Harvey, in love with Helen, but not strong enough to defy his mother, comes every night to Helen's window to call her name. Ralph Johnston, an attractive young man, has just moved to town, and into the boarding house, where he becomes very much interested in Helen. Thanks to Ralph's love, Helen is at last able to leave the town and go off to a happy life of her own and marriage, and Harvey, the midnight caller, is left behind, still calling for her.

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Play/Drama

7

6

-

Notes: -

Synopsis: The play takes place in Harrison, Texas, jumping back and forth between 1923 to 1963. Following the Weems family as it grows up, we watch its members find their places in society. Of the main characters: Mr. Weems is a banker with a heart. He cannot easily stand up against his wife, but puts money away for his daughter, Laura Lee, to do with as she wishes, knowing everyone tries to run her life. Mrs. Weems is a busybody who can't see how emotions guide people's decisions so she thwarts them by interaction or ignorance. Their son, Sherman, grows up to be the banker his father never wasa banker who is doesn't consider another person when it comes to money. He is in a bitter marriage, but won't leave because his wife has threatened to expose his adultery, thereby threatening his career. Laura Lee only wants to love, and to get away from her family, mostly her mother. On bad advice, Laura Lee never married, and though she doesn't live in regret, she feels the loss of the two men she loved. As an adult all she wants now is a house, but everything she tries, everywhere she turns, she is told no; money comes first and she has no control over her own finances. In an almost final blow, her brother Sherman sells the house she wants to another buyer because the price was, in his opinion, too high for Laura Lee, but not for his other buyer, who got for an even lower price. Laura Lee had the money, and asked Sherman to arrange the sale through the bank, but her family has always sabotaged chances for independence, especially where money was involved, and this time was no different. At the age of 60, Laura lives in an apartment with her mother, bitterly agreeing to live there until she can find a house for them both. When she learns her brother and mother agree that two old women should not move into a house, Laura collapses and soon dies. Mrs. Weems, at 93, finally, has an inkling of what her life has been when she says that living that long is her punishment. What's left of the Weems family seems to fade into the landscape.

New York

1982

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

1982

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