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JASON SHERMAN (1962 - ) |
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Nationality: Canadian Email: n/a Website: n/a |
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Literary Agent: Kensington Literary Representation |
Critically acclaimed playwright Jason Sherman's plays include An Acre of Time; It's All True; Patience; Reading Hebron; The Retreat; and Three in the Back, Two in the Head. He has received Canada's Governor General's Literary Award for Drama (and been nominated three other times) and the Chalmers Canadian Play Award (twice, along with three other nominations). Dubbed the enfant terrible of the Canadian stage, his work is uncompromising, challenging, and driven by an unerring sense of dialogue and theatricality. His plays, always political to some degree, encompass characters rarely seen in today's drama, characters who face the tough questions, the big issues, and the difficult journeys many dramatists shy from. In the words of the late Canadian theatrical legend, Urjo Kareda, "The theatrical vitality of Jason Sherman's plays starts from the sheer size of his central characters: the size of their desires, the size of their imagination, the size of their intelligence."
Plays by Jason Sherman
Acre Of Time | ||
| 1st Produced: | Tarragon Theatre, Toronto, ON | 2001 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Playwrights Guild of Canada, | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0887546099 | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #48594 | |||
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/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Based on the novel by Phil Jenkins | |||||
| A surveyor uncovers the history of an acre of land near the Ottawa River, A barren rectangle that contains the memories of all who passed through it, from the last native hunter to the first white settler. But the one person she most wants to bring back from the dead remains the most elusive - her daughter. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Brian Quirt | ||
| 1st Produced: | Rehearsed reading at Playwrights Workshop,Toronto | 1996 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #122740 | |||
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: | n/a | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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It's All True | ||
| 1st Produced: | Tarragon Theatre, Toronto, ON | 1999 | ||||
Company: | Necessary Angel Theatre Company | |||||
| 1st Published: | Playwrights Canada Press, | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0887545948 | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #31876 | |||
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/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | 5 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
| New York 1937. Art and politics collide when the government padlocks the doors of the theatre non the opening of Marc Blitzstein's, "The Cradle Will Rock". The director, Orson Welles, marches the actors and most of the audience down Seventh Avenue and finds another theatre, and in one brilliant stroke makes theatre history. As much a play for our times as it is about an historical event. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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League Of Nathans, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | 1992 | |||||
Company: | Orange Dog Theatre | |||||
| 1st Published: | Scirocco, | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-1896239156 | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #31877 | |||
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/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 4 | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | Winner of the Chalmers Canadian Play Award | |||||
| The League of Nathans re-unites three friends from Canada at a synagogue in Spain. Their childhood "league" had its own rituals, including a search for God using flashlights in the night sky. Now, Nathan Isaacs has become a boorish businessman, wisecracking about the Spanish locals, yet straining to recapture the spirituality and mysticism of the League's night-time meditations; Nathan Abramowitz, wellspring of the group's youthful questioning, has given up on synagogue; Nathan Glass, who hated being recognizably Jewish as a child, has become an unapologetic settler on the West Bank. Their re-union brings all three lives into sharp focus, contrasting their individual choices and beliefs. A multi-faceted examination of how loyalties can be shared even though one's values refuse to be uncritically aligned, The League of Nathans forces an audience to confront itself. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Merchant of Showboat , The | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Playwrights Guild of Canada, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #31878 | |||
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: | n/a | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: |
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Further Reference: | - | |||||
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None Is Too Many | ||
| 1st Produced: | 1997 | |||||
Company: | co-production with the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre | |||||
| 1st Published: | Playwrights Guild of Canada, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #31879 | |||
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/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 5 | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | An adaptation of the book by Irving Abella and Harold Troper about Canada's refusal to admit Jewish refugees into the country before, during and after WWII | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Patience | ||
| 1st Produced: | Tarragon Theatre, Toronto, ON | 1998 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Hushion House 2000 | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0887545573 | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #31880 | |||
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/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 3 | ||
Parts other: | doubling | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
| Sherman's hero, Reuben, is a man who, like David Mamet's Edmond, finds his life in freefall. More or less simultaneously he is deserted by his wife, sacked from his job and confronted by the death of a brother. As Reuben reels around Toronto, everything conspires to point up the empti ness of his life: an old friend lectures him on the vanity of materialism, a showtune-singing rabbi exposes his lack of faith. And, even when salvation seems to come in the form of reunion with an old flame, it turns out to be a chimera. - Billington, Guardian | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Place Like Pamela, A | ||
| 1st Produced: | Walking Shadow Theatre, Toronto | 1991 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #122741 | |||
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: | n/a | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Reading Hebron | ||
| 1st Produced: | Under The Umbrella Festival at Theatre Centre, Toronto | 1995 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Playwrights Canada Press, | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0887545337 | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #31881 | |||
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/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 2 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
| Dr. Baruch Goldstein killed 29 praying Muslims at the tomb of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In Reading Hebron, Sherman probes this intensely volatile event. How do an oppressed people become an oppressor? How complicit are those who stand on the sidelines? And how can the state of Israel be guilty, when it is simply defending its right to exist? With black humour, excerpts from the official inquiry, and culminating in a surreal Passover dinner where the guests include Noam Chomsky and Goldstein himself, Reading Hebron shows the fallacy of interpreting the massacre as the act of a lone gunman. Regardless of where you may stand, as a participant or observer, for or against either side, this play is a potent reminder that no issue is simple, or isolated, and truth is always more complex than governments, media, and interest groups will make it. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Remnants | ||
| 1st Produced: | - - - | - - - | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Playwrights Canada Press, | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-08875457164 | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #91569 | |||
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/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
| Joseph has risen to be advisor to the Prime Minister. A boat full of Jewish refugees has come ashore and Joseph is sent to send them away but he finds his brothers are amongst the refugees | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Retreat, The | ||
| 1st Produced: | Toronto | 1996 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Playwrights Canada Press, | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #31883 | |||
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/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 3 | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | A film producer is drawn to a script telling the story of a 17th century mystic, and then falls for the writer | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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Three in the Back, Two in the Head | ||
| 1st Produced: | Angel Theatre, Toronto | 1994 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | Playwrights Canada Press, | ISBN/ASIN: | 978-0887545344 | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #31884 | |||
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/Drama | |||||
| Parts: | Male | 4 | Female | 1 | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
| The action in Three in the Back, Two in the Head surrounds a fictional scientist and weapons designer, Donald Jackson, an idealist who believes by creating a missile defence shield, he is working for peace. When, after a lifetime of work, the West rejects his "Snowman" system, he flogs it to the highest bidder, "rogue states" and all. As the play begins, Donald has been killed under shadowy circumstances in Europe, and his son, Paul, travels to CIA headquarters in an attempt to learn the truth. What ensues, in a collage of 14 layered, time-shifting scenes, is a deeply chilling probe of personal and political loyalties, state and individual morality, leading to the inevitable and biting conclusion that strength is the only weapon for survival, and all of us are complicit in keeping it that way. | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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To Cry Is Not So | ||
| 1st Produced: | Theatre Smith-Gilmour, Toronto | 1991 | ||||
Company: | n/a | |||||
| 1st Published: | I don't think it has been published. Try emailing Playwright or Agent where listed at top of page. | ISBN/ASIN: | - | |||
| Music: | - | doollee no | #122742 | |||
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: | n/a | |||||
| Parts: | Male | - | Female | - | ||
Parts other: | - | |||||
Notes: | - | |||||
Synopsis: | n/a | |||||
Further Reference: | - | |||||
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