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Oliver Hailey

OLIVER HAILEY  (1932 - 1993)

 Nationality:    USA
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    ICM Partners  


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

 24 Hours Am         24 Hours Pm         About Time         And Baby Makes Two         And Furthermore         And Where She Stops Nobody Knows         Animal         Bar Off Melrose, The         Child's Play: A Comedy For Orphans         Continental Divide         Crisscross         Father, The         Father's Day         First One Asleep, Whistle         For The Use Of The Hall         Hey You, Light Man!         Home By Hollywood         I Can't Find It Anywhere         I Won't Dance         Kith And Kin         Orphan         Picture         Red Rover, Red Rover         Round Trip         Triptych         Who's Happy Now?

24 Hours Am

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "a.M./P.M.", Dramatists Play Service, New York,    -

Music:
-

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-

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24 Hours Pm

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "a.M./P.M.", Dramatists Play Service, New York,    -

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

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-

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About Time

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Los angeles    1982

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "a.M./P.M.", Dramatists Play Service, New York,    -

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

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Further Reference:
-

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And Baby Makes Two

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Los angeles    1981

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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-

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-

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And Furthermore

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Pittsburgh    1977

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

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Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

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-

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And Where She Stops Nobody Knows

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Los angeles    1976

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

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Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

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Animal

Synopsis:
This humorous, touching and revealing monologue is concerned with an exasperated mother who attempts to entice her twelve-year-old daughter (unseen) out of the tree (imaginary) in which she has taken refuge. In the course of her brief recital the woman, her daughter, her late husband (who fell to his death climbing a tree) and the very nature of their lives together are revealed with startling and affecting clarity and compassion.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Mark Taper Forum, in Los angeles    1965

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1970   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Bar Off Melrose, The

Synopsis:
depicts a Happy Hour at a neighbourhood bar

Notes:
written with members of the playwrighting workshop

1st Produced:
Los angeles    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, London, 1987   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy with music

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  Large Cast

Further Reference:
-

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Child's Play: A Comedy For Orphans

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New Haven, Connecticut    1962

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Continental Divide

Synopsis:
Lucille and Cullum are wealthy New Yorkers living as virtual prisoners in their lavish Fifth avenue apartment, the entire block being held in a state of siege by rebelling domestic servants. They are, however, allowed a visit by their new in-laws, "Mr. John" and Mae, who hail from arkansas and qualify as simple folk themselves. Thereafter the complications multiply uproariously, as the urbane Cullum struggles (at no small peril) to be civil to the surly Mr. John (who is in the garbage business and a confessed murderer as well); while his wife tries to persuade Mae (who is dazzled by "money people") that she need not repay their hospitality by cleaning house furiously and doling out copious samples of her homemade pickled pigs feet. and so it goes until, in a final irony, Lucille (with Mr. John) runs the blockade disguised as her house guest-leaving Cullum to hold the fort and fend off the down-home ministrations of her starry-eyed replacement.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Washington D.C.    1970

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1973   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Crisscross

Synopsis:
Confrontation between crucifix making father and hippie son who hopes to fill Santa's empty sack and give everything away.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Los angeles    1969

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1970   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
One act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Father, The

Synopsis:
One of Strindberg's most famous works, the play deals with a brilliant but erratic military officer and scientist who clashes with his wife on the question of whether their daughter should be sent away for her schooling or kept at home. a renowned misogynist, Strindberg used the play to dramatize what he considered to be the weaknesses and failings of women, and the diabolical way in which they sought to poison the hearts and minds of the men who had the misfortune to love them. But while Strindberg's view of the female sex may have been somewhat lopsided, in the present adaptation the mother-her thoughts, and feelings, and aspirations-is given equal attention. While the laws of the time gave a father unreasonable control over his children, and the mother was forced to use her wiles to fight against this, the present version makes it clear that this was not always done with the sinister reasons which Strindberg ascribed in mind. Here the father and the mother are given equal voice-making, at last, for a fair fight, and conveying a heightened theatricality which brings added power to one of the modern theatre's truly great plays.

Notes:
Original Playwright - August Strindberg

1st Produced:
Philadelphia    1984

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1984   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Father's Day

Synopsis:
Left with their alimony, their children, and neighboring apartments on New York's posh Upper East Side, three divorcees share their loneliness, their often hilarious thoughts on sex and marriage, and their bitter memories of lost trust and closeness. When their ex-husbands arrive for a Father's Day reunion they are all, at first, as civilized and sophisticated as the situation demands-but then the veneer begins to crack, and beneath the fusillade of funny lines their aching emptiness and hurt show through. In the end they face the truth about themselves and the rejection that they must accept, as the biting humor of the play gives way to a moment of touching, revealing, yet quietly shattering resignation.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Los angeles    1970

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1971   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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First One Asleep, Whistle

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York    1966

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Fischer, Frankfurt, 1967   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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For The Use Of The Hall

Oliver Hailey
The time is winter, the place a chilly summer house on Long Island, where allen and Charlotte, after twenty spendthrift years together, are "hiding out" -burning bogus art works for heat and raiding a neighbor's back porch for food. They are joined, unexpectedly, by Terry, a nun facing a crisis of belief, and then by Martin, a failed Broadway playwright, and his new wife. Terry and Martin are brother and sister and Charlotte, years ago, was the girl whom Martin's mother had chosen as his intended bride. But this, like so many well meant plans, never came to pass-nor, for that matter, did most of the hopes and dreams which all had held in their promising, and much happier, youth. The house they had come together in belonged to Bess, departed mother of Martin and Terry, who appears as a "vision" now and again to evoke the past or comment on the present-and to bring into focus the funny, albeit desperate and ultimately touching, plight to which all these zany yet very human and believable people have come.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Trinity Square Repertory Company, Providence, R.I.    1974

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1975   978-0822204169

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Hey You, Light Man!

Synopsis:
ashley Knight (real name Orville Sheden), a leading man, has decided to live onstage in the set of his current hit. The play being a sophisticated comedy, the set is quite lavish. as he is settling down, brandy in hand, a woman comes out of the empty orchestra and asks directions for getting out of the theatre. She has fallen asleep during the performance, and now the doors are locked. This is Lula Roca, a rather plain and frumpy young widow whose husband, a stagehand, was recently killed by a falling sandbag. ashley persuades her to come onstage, and then to stay with him for the night. Soon she is drawn into the realms of illusion in which ashley has sought escape from his own rather drab reality. The next morning she goes off to round up her best friend to show her the magical life into which she has fallen, and while she is gone ashley is visited by his oafish son-the inescapable reminder of the limiting responsibilities from which he has tried to remove himself. From then on, it is a matter of conflicting worlds. Eventually the pressure of the "outside" one forces the two lovers to flee to another theatre, this time with a drab, prison set, but ashley (with an assist from the light man) manages to conjure up a sense of excitement and beauty just the same. In the end, however, the truth must be faced. Sooner or later reality will come nipping at their heels, with responsibilities that cannot be ignored. Their idyll is illusive at best. ashley goes back to his family, Lula to what's left of her own life-a little sadder, but a little wiser too.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New Haven, Connecticut    1962

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "The Yale School of Drama Presents", Dutton, New York, 1964   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Romantic Comedy Comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Home By Hollywood

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New London, Connecticut    1964

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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I Can't Find It Anywhere

Synopsis:
On Memorial Day, a mother and father try to visit the grave of their son who was killed in Vietnam

Notes:
in Holidays

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
contact actors Theatre of Louisville,    -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Short Play One act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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I Won't Dance

Synopsis:
a paraplegic's brother, a Hollywood celebrity, is murdered, whodunit as relationships develop between paraplegic, his sister and young starlet

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Buffalo    1980

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, NY, 1982   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Comedy/Drama Comedy

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Kith And Kin

Synopsis:
Coming together for the funeral of their father (whom they all detested and, on occasion, tried to kill off) three bothers assemble at the family homestead in rural Texas. The eldest, Darryl, is a thrice-divorced ne'er-do-well who relishes the memory of having forcibly introduced his siblings to the world of aberrant sex; Big Boots, the middle brother, is a confused and threatening type who has been serving a jail sentence for strangling his wife; while Tommy Joe, the youngest of the three, is a "sensitive" sort who gives piano lessons and has been looking after Little Boots, his brother's young son, during the latter's stay in prison. Completing the cast are Charlene, the town bawd, whose favors all the brothers have shared, but who now believes that she is on the verge of a permanent relationship with Tommy Joe; and Sarah, the recently widowed (and now pregnant) housemaid who has also conceived a desperate, but unrequited, passion for Tommy Joe. Trouble looms when Big Boots, who now earns his living massaging males in Dallas, demands the return of his son, much to the distress of his brother. Questions of sexual confusion arise hilariously from the rowdy, macho confrontations which ensue, and long-standing resentments test whether blood is, indeed, thicker than water. In the end, however, a sort of tenuous truce is achieved, with passions still simmering but with the reassuring hope that family feeling will, in the long run, bring order out of the antic chaos which still reigns as the curtain falls.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Dallas Theatre Centre    1986

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Orphan

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Los angeles    1970

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

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Picture

Synopsis:
Enlisting the help of two fellow students, Jay attempts a "demonstration" to reenact (and perhaps fathom) a disconcerting episode from his past. The action centers on a photo of a back-country, East Texas wedding party which Jay has hung over his desk, and the violence which erupts from the normally placid "Little David" (impersonated by one of the other students) in reaction to Jay's cruel taunts about the bumpkins shown in the picture. But this time, at the crucial moment, the person playing "Little David" balks at attacking Jay-so the third student (who has been assuming the part of "al") steps into the role and sends Jay crashing to the floor. For a moment the demonstration becomes all too real-and when Jay offers the others their pay for taking part in it "al" disdainfully passes his share on to "Little David." Then they go, leaving Jay to recall the chilling, even darker nature of the original event, and to ponder the reverberations that still emanate from it.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Off-Off-Broadway's Caffe Cino, New York    1965

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1970   -

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

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Genre:
play One act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Red Rover, Red Rover

Synopsis:
The setting is a comfortable middle-class living room, probably suburban, and the time is early morning. Three couples, after a pleasant party, are preparing to leave for their homes, but the host suggests that, because of the hour, they all stay over. Uneasy at first, the other couples agree, and while their intention is to go to their separate rooms the inevitable complications result. Before long there is a mix-up of partners which reveals not only latent desires but also frustrations, enmities and dissatisfactions heretofore unspoken. In the end it appears that none of them will ever be, or feel, quite the same again, and that their marriages may now be in jeopardy. But, in the surprising conclusion, a quite different situation develops as the three couples decide to go on living as a group-hoping to find in a communal arrangement the excitement and fulfillment which have eluded them in their separate relationships.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Minneapolis    1977

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1979   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Round Trip

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Kalamazoo, Michigan    1984

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

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Triptych

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Los angeles    1978

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

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Who's Happy Now?

Synopsis:
The setting is an East Texas small-town bar, and the action covers three periods in the main character's life, at six, sixteen and twenty. He and his resilient, but resigned, mother frequent the bar so that the boy may at least get to know his father-who comes there every day with his girlfriend, a waitress named Faye Precious. as the years pass a sort of whimsical accommodation is achieved between these very different people, and the boy grows up divided between avenging his mother for the father's disloyalty and getting back at him for his own hurts, while still trying to win the paternal love and approval he so desperately wants. The son's talent for song writing eventually gives him the means to get away-but when he asks his mother to join him she refuses. Once before she had tried to leave, but couldn't, and she has learned that it is better to shed her pride and keep even a share in the man she loves than to stand on this and have nothing.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Mark Taper Forum in Los angeles    1967

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Random House, New York, 1969   -

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

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Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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