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Susan Yankowitz

SUSAN YANKOWITZ  (1941 - )

 Nationality:    USA
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    Robert A Freedman Dramatic Agency  


Susan Yankowitz is a playwright, novelist and librettist. Her best-known plays include PHAEDRA IN DELIRIUM, TERMINAL1969, TERMINAL 1996, (collaborations with Joseph Chaikin's Open Theatre), A KNIFE IN THE HEART, and NIGHT SKY, which has been performed throughout the U.S. and in translations world wide. In music theatre, she is bookwriter/lyricist for TRUE ROMANCES with Elmer Bernstein, SLAIN IN THE SPIRIT with Taj Mahal and CHeRI with Michael Dellaira. She was a 2006 resident artist at HERE with her mixed-media play, THE LUDICROUS TRIAL OF MR. P. Her work has been honored by the NEA, Guggenheim, Rockefeller and NYFA foundations, among others.

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

 Acts of Love         Alarms         America Piece         Baby         Basics         Boxes         Cage, The         Ha-Ha Play, The         Knife in the Heart, A         Lamb, The         Mukhtaran Mai (Pakistan)         Night Sky         Nightmare         Phaedra in Delirium         Positions         Qui Est Anna Marks? (Who Done It?)         Revenge, The         Seven         Slaughterhouse Play         Still Life         Terminal         That Old Rock-a-bye         Tragical-Comical Trial of Madame P and Other 4-Legged and Winged Creatures, The         Transplant         True Romances         Under The Skin         Wicked Woman Revue         Wooden Nickels

Acts of Love

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
Atlanta    1973

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
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Alarms

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:

Company:
Monstrous Regiment

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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America Piece

Synopsis:
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Notes:
written with Provisional Theatre

1st Produced:
Los Angeles    1974

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
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Baby

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1st Produced:
New York    1983

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-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
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Genre:
Original story

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Basics

Synopsis:
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Notes:
in Tabula Rasa

1st Produced:
New York    1972

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Boxes

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Notes:
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1st Produced:
New York    1972

Company:
-

1st Published:
in "Playwrights for Tomorrow II", University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1973   -

Music:
-

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Cage, The

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1st Produced:
New York    1965

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1st Published:
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Ha-Ha Play, The

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Notes:
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1st Produced:
New York    1970

Company:
-

1st Published:
in Scripts 10", New York, October, 1972   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
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Knife in the Heart, A

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Genre:
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Lamb, The

Synopsis:
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1st Produced:
New York    1970

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1st Published:
-   -

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Genre:
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Mukhtaran Mai (Pakistan)

Synopsis:
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Notes:
part of Journeys is A series of stirring monologues from courageous women Around the world engaged in the dangerous struggle for human rights. Each of these remarkable And heroic leaders tells An inspiring story of commitment.

1st Produced:

Company:
Vital Voices Global Partnership

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Night Sky

Synopsis:
Night Sky explores what the noted author and physicist Steven Hawking has called the two remaining mysteries-the brain and the cosmos-as the play looks at what happens to a bright, articulate astronomer, her family and her career when she is struck by a car and loses her ability to speak conventionally, a condition known as aphasia. As she is left to express herself in an alternately funny, poetic, confusing and profound hodgepodge of words, astronomer Anna, her daughter, fianciż˝, and colleagues face uncommon challenges of the mind and spirit as they discover new ways to communicate, and what it really means to listen. Night Sky is inspired by and dedicated to the memory of the late actor, director, playwright and founder of the Open Theatre, Joseph Chaikin, himself affected with aphasia following a stroke in 1984. Having recovered sufficiently to continue writing, directing and performing until his death in 2003, Mr. Chaikin commissioned Ms. Yankowitz to write a play that dealt with aphasia. Night Sky is that play

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Judith Anderson Theatre, NY    1991

Company:
Women's Project

1st Published:

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Nightmare

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
New Haven, Connecticut    1967

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

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Phaedra in Delirium

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
Classic Stage Company    1998

Company:
Women's Project

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Positions

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
in Up

1st Produced:
New York    1972

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
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Parts:
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Further Reference:
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Qui Est Anna Marks? (Who Done It?)

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
Paris    1978

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
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Further Reference:
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Revenge, The

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
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1st Published:
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Genre:
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Seven

Synopsis:
A collaboration of seven award-winning women playwrights, SEVEN is based on personal interviews with seven women leaders of the Vital Voices Global Partnership network who have triumphed over huge obstacles to create major changes in human rights in their home countries. In the seven interwoven stories we see the commonality of challenge and of bravery, and in the individual monologues that follow, we experience each fascinating whole true story.

Notes:
written by Paula Cizmar, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel, Carol K. Mack, Ruth Margraff, Anna Deavere Smith And Susan Yankowitz

1st Produced:
-    -

Company:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY (2009)   978-0-8222-2351-1

Music:
-

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Genre:
Documentary

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  7            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Slaughterhouse Play

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York    1971

Company:
-

1st Published:
in "New American Plays 4", Hill and Wang, New York, 1971   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
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Further Reference:
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Still Life

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York    1977

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
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Further Reference:
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Terminal

Synopsis:
A look at death. The piece starts with the cast chanting the word "death" over and over. There is a portrayal of embalming. The dying imagine their coming Judgement

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York    1969

Company:
Open Theatre

1st Published:
in "Three Works by the Open Theatre", Drama Book Specialists, New York, 1974   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
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Further Reference:
-

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That Old Rock-a-bye

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Cooper Square Theatre, New York    1968

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Tragical-Comical Trial of Madame P and Other 4-Legged and Winged Creatures, The

Synopsis:
This provocative work utilizes actors, puppets, songs, animation and interactive video to relate actual cases chronicled in legal textbooks like The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals (1906) and the media, ones in which a veritable Ark's-worth of species, from mammals to insects, were prosecuted for vandalism, bestiality and other "crimes against humankind."
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Gerald W. Lynch at John Jay College, NY    29 Nov 2010

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Transplant

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Omaha    1971

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
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Further Reference:
-

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True Romances

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
music by Elmer Bernstein

1st Produced:
Los Angeles    1977

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
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Further Reference:
-

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Under The Skin

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Wicked Woman Revue

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York    1973

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Genre:
Monologues for

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Wooden Nickels

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York    1973

Company:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

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Apart from very popular and world touring productions, many performing arts events are largely forgotten about in a matter of months. Traces may remain in various collections, but few collecting agencies, such as libraries, catalogue each flyer or program individually. Hence, unless one knows that an event took place at a certain time in a certain place, tracking down such an event as part of a research project is often a matter of chance. Where research needs to be carried out on high profile and well-documented productions only, this is not a problem. However, both the historian and the analyst will attest that the cultural, political, or sociological context in which a performing arts event takes place is also of major importance, as are the other events that took place in close proximity, either in place or time. A good overview of such productions provides us with a 'social document' that can greatly enhance cultural studies in ways that extend far beyond the narrow confines of theatre history. For instance, data such as this can be used to monitor the health of communities, particularly when used in association with data obtained from other social science disciplines. When one researches a particular playwright one might want to know about all the productions of plays by that author; if one wants to investigate what choices a particular audience had over a period of history and compare this to, say, an ethnic breakdown of the population, one would need to know broadly all the events that took place during that time. If one wanted to do a statistical analysis on the shift in popularity of a genre over one or more generations, it is important to have knowledge of most of the relevant major and minor performance events that took place. In this context, issues of aesthetic quality and the professionalism of a production - which will of course have an impact on such studies - are not the determining factors when deciding to include or exclude events, since all events are the raw material for such research.