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Jon Marans

JON MARANS

  
Nationality:    USA
twitter     email:    Click here to contact     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    ICM Partners  

Old Wicked Songs, 1996 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama, winner of New York Drama League , L.A. Drama Logue Award, included in Otis Guernsey's Best Plays of 1996-97. First presented in Philadelphia by the Walnut Street Theatre, then in NYC at Playhouse 91, then moving to the Promenade Theater, produced by Daryl Roth. In england, Old Wicked Songs started at the Bristol Old Vic, transferring to London's West end at the Gielgud Theater starring Bob Hoskins and James Callis. the play has been produced throughout the U.S. and translated and produced in a dozen countries around the world. Other shows: A Strange and Separate People at the Penguin Rep in Stony Point, NY & to move off-B'way in the upcoming season. (NY Times: "A potent, absorbing new play. Mr. Marans has a superb eye and ear for emotional complexity, for the little details of couplehood and for the inner lives of human beings trying to work through major life challenges." the JOURNAL: "A new play about Orthodox Jews illuminates universal truths about faith. Jon Marans' play. . .unfolds with surprise revelations and churning emotions. Its key to engaging an audiences of all faiths, or no faith, is the uniqueness of its people".) Jumping For Joy, Laguna Playhouse directed by Richard Stein and also at the Independent Theater as part of the 2003 International Adelaide Theater Festival ("Unforgettable. . .Captivating and beautiful. JUMPING FOR JOY is something wondrous. . .Marans demonstrates a masterful ability to balance humor and horror on a knife-edge." the Orange County Register); a 1999 musical based on Studs Terkel's "Coming of Age" entitled Legacy (book by Jon Marans, lyrics by Ronnie Gilbert  part of the original blacklisted folk group "the Weavers") San Jose Repertory Theatre, concerning a group of political activists and anarchists who are still alive and kicking, all at least 70 years old; the musical Irrationals (book & lyrics Jon Marans, music by Edward Thomas) Village Theater in Seattle in 2002 and at ATA, NYC, 2004 about the travails of a high school geometry teacher whose young son committed suicide. Child Child, winner of the Preston Jones Award and the first of a trilogy (including Jumping for Joy) about the Mavin family. Opportunity Knocks won the Backdoor Theater Award. Jumping for Joy and Old Wicked Songs are both published by Dramatists Play Service. In film, Mr. Marans was a story editor/script doctor for Stonebridge, Michael Douglas' production company at Columbia Pictures, instrumental in the development of numerous films including Black Rain about the YakuzA. And in TV was a staff writer/lyricist for the 1991 "New Carol Burnett Show" on CBS and wrote in 2003-2004 for Cookin' in Brooklyn, a "comedy-reality" show on the Discovery ChAnnel produced/directed by Yuri Sivo. Mr. Marans is a graduate of Duke University in mathematics and music and also studied at both the BMI & ASCAP Musical Theater workshops.

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

         Child Child         Cost Of the Erection, The         Cover Up, The         Irrationals         Jumping For Joy         Legacy Of the Dragonslayers         Old Wicked Songs         Opportunity Knocks         Raw Space, A         Searching For Y         Short Stuff Vi: Awakenings         Strange And Separate People, A         Temperamentals, The         Wath Of Connie

Child Child

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Cost Of the Erection, The

Synopsis:
A woman has purchased an apartment overlooking the Hudson River. At first she wanted her architect husband to design it but as their marriage has hit the rocks she gets him to compete for the job against a much younger hotshot architect

Notes:
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1st Produced:
2nd Stage, Hollywood     04 Feb 2012

Organisations:
Blank Theatre Company

1st Published:
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Music:
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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:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Cover Up, The

Synopsis:
There is a cover up going on in the Taggart family

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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:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Irrationals

Synopsis:
A group of teenagers and their problems

Notes:
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1st Produced:
American Theatre Of Actors, 314 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019     2004

Organisations:
Shenango Productions

1st Published:
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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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Jumping For Joy

Synopsis:
In this dark comedy, wily, manipulative emily Mavin has summoned her uptight Manhattanite brother, Michael, to their family home in Maryland, using the excuse that their father, Samuel, has suffered a mild heart attack. emily is a bright, functioning schizophrenic and is certain her father's death is imminent and expects Michael to take his father's place, feeding and caring for her. She insists Michael begin immediately, without ever returning to his wife and daughter in Manhattan. Meanwhile, the big question, what will become of emily after Samuel dies, also troubles Michael. Michael, unable to emotionally handle emily and unwilling to inflict her wild mood swings on his New York family, plots to place her in a group home for schizophrenics while Samuel hopes to have emily move up to New York and live with Michael and his family. As each one maneuvers to make their individual plan succeed, something entirely different occurs. We begin to see the complex relationship that exists between the caregivers and those receiving care and observe the fine line that separates normalcy from insanity in each member of this family. Interestingly, as the conniving, jockeying and wicked game-playing continue late into the night, Samuel and Michael start to see the beauty and strength of emily and finally begin to look at her in a new light.

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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
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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:
Dark Comedy Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Legacy Of the Dragonslayers

Synopsis:
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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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Old Wicked Songs

Synopsis:
Hoping to reconnect with his music and shatter the artistic block that's plagued his career, Stephen Hoffman, a young American piano prodigy, ventures to Vienna in the spring of 1986. He is assigned to an elderly vocal teacher, Professor Josef Mashkan, who gives Stephen the "Dichterliebe" song cycle by Robert Schumann. Although Stephen resents having to study simple vocal accompaniment, he slowly realizes that he is in the hands of a master-teacher. It's a grudging realization at best for Stephen, as he and Mashkan approach each other from such opposite ends of experience. It seems impossible at first that they will ever get along, much less work together. their dichotomies abound: One is european, one American; one old-fashioned, the other modern; one passionate, the other technically precise; and finally, one a seeming anti-Semite, and the other a Jew-a theme partly expressed by the play's allusions to Kurt Waldheim's campaign for Austria's presidency. When Stephen visits Dachau, at the insistence of his Jewish parents, the whitewash of official German history fills him with rage, and he channels this anger into his art-and against Mashkan as well. Stephen soon discovers that Mashkan's anti-Semitic remarks mask a darker history; he is a Holocaust survivor who would rather die than confront his demons. Stephen urges Mashkan to tell his story-for his sake as well as for Stephen's-but eventually, only music-their one common bond-helps release the burning emotions of the teacher and helps melt the frigidity of the student.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Playhouse In The Park, Cincinnati     1997

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1997   

Music:
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Genre:
full length Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Opportunity Knocks

Synopsis:
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1st Produced:
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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:
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Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

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Raw Space, A

Synopsis:
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Notes:
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1st Produced:
Riverside Theatre, Bristol, Pa     31 Jan 2012

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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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:
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Parts:
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Searching For Y

Synopsis:
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Notes:
Music by edward Thomas; lyrics by Jon Marans; book by Jon Marans

1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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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:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Short Stuff Vi: Awakenings

Synopsis:
the Barrow Group theatre Company finishes their 23rd Anniversary Season with their sixth festival featuring a collection of New York and World Premiere short plays centered around a single theme. the program includes new works by Jon Marans, Lisa ebersole, Mark Borkowski, Cathy Tempelsman, John Yearley, Rich Stone, Craig Allan Pospisil, and Jay Rehak.
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Barrow Group
312 West 36th Street, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10018     17 Jul 2010

Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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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 play

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Strange And Separate People, A

Synopsis:
a three character play about a young Orthodox Jewish wife and mother who is unexpectedly caught up in a love triangle that challenges her life, faith and place in a new and different world.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Penguin Rep, Stoney Point, NY     2005

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
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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:
full length Play/Drama. - - Gay, full length

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Temperamentals, The

Synopsis:
the Temperamentals tells the story of two men-the Communist Harry Hay and the young Viennese refugee and designer Rudi Gernreich-weaving together the personal and the political to tell a relatively unknown chapter in gay history. It explores the deepening love between two complex men, while they build the first gay rights organization in the United States pre-Stonewall. This is the perilous, unpredictable world these men inhabit as their impossible dream of forming such an unheard of organization becomes a reality. they must navigate their relationship in new and surprising ways. the Temperamentals is an intimate portrayal of the men who created history and the epic struggles they overcame. the characters consist of the actual men who founded the Mattachine Society, as well as prominent figures of the time such as Frank Tavener of the House Un-American Committee and the director Vincente Minnelli.
- press release

Notes:
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1st Produced:

Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 2010   

Music:
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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. - - Gay/Lesbian, historical characters

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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Wath Of Connie

Synopsis:
Connie Frederick was a huge television with her variety show hit in the 60s and 70s. Things are different now and the studio decides to bring in some new young edgy and outrageous writers. Connie is not at ease with the material they write but must decide whether to go with it and continued success or quit

Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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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:
Black comedy

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
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