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Adele Edling Shank

ADELE EDLING SHANK

  (1940 - 2014)
Nationality:    USA
email:    n/a     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    n/a

Adele Edling Shank, died Nov. 27 in San Diego. She was 74, has written numerous plays which have been produced throughout the United States and in England. Her full-length works include six plays in the California series-Sunrise, Winterplay,Stuck: A Freeway Comedy, Sand Castles, The Grass House, andTumbleweed. They are a series of independent but interconnected plays set in various California locations. Other full-length plays includeWar Horses, Rocks in Her Pocket, With Allison's Eyes, The Wives of the Magi (an ecumenical play for December), and Sex Slaves. These plays have primarily premiered at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. Her work has also been developed and/or produced by the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Second Stage (NY), Los Angeles Public Theatre, Paines Plough (London), Show of Strength (Bristol, England), LA Actors Theatre, the La Jolla Playhouse, the Women's Project (NY), Playbrokers (SF), Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and several productions in the Humana Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. Shank's short play Dry Smoke was used as the text for a chamber opera with music by Victor Kioulaphides which was produced by the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, New York. Her radio adaptation of Stuck was produced by Slovak Radio. She did the text for a dance theatre piece, Jardin Blanc, with English choreographer Yolande Snaith and the Yolande Snaith Dance Company which premiered in Brighton, England in 2004 before touring England and performing at The Place in London as part of Dance Umbrella. An American version followed. Her adaptation of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse with composer Paul Dresher and director Les Waters was produced at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2007. Shank is the recipient of numerous awards including an NEA Playwriting Fellowship, Rockefeller Playwrights-in-Residence Grant, and a Dramatists Guild/CBS Award. At UCSD she served as department chair and as Head of Playwriting for several years. She recently retired from full-time teaching but continues to be active in the department and in the playwriting area. She is an editor of TheatreForum, an international theatre journal published at UCSD. - http://theatre.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/AdeleShank/

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below is a list of Adele Edling Shank's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         67201         Back Story         Dry Smoke         Grass House, The         Jardin Blanc         Love and Fantasy in the Afternoon         Mopping Up         Rocks In Her Pocket         Sand Castles         Sex Slaves         Stuck: A Freeway Comedy         Sunset/Sunrise         To the Lighthouse         Tumbleweed         War Horses         Winterplay         With Allison's Eyes         Wives of the Magi, The

67201

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
part of "I'm a Stranger Here Myself"

1st Produced:
University of California, San Diego    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
n Facing Forward: One-Act Plays and Monologues by Women. Leah Frank, editor. New York: Broadway Play Publishing   -

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:
One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Back Story

Synopsis:
When Fthan is born in the worst blizzard of the century, two-year-old sister Ainsley nearly sacrifices a toe trying to clear a path for the baby's arrival. That initial gesture of devotion blossoms into a tale of sibling loyalty, rivalry and love that spans two decades. Inspired by Joan Ackermann's narrative "Back Story," each of the eighteen playwrights in this collective creation puts a distinctive spin on Ainsley's and Fthan?s amusing and poignant struggles with life, with each other, and with the phantom dad who abandoned them for the wilds of Alaska

Notes:
by Joan Ackermann Courtney Baron Neena Beber Constance Congdon Jon Klein Shirley Lauro Craig Lucas Fduardo Machado Donald Margulies Jane Martin Susan Miller John Olive Tanya Palmer David Rambo Fdwin Sanchez Adele Fdling Shank Mayo Simon Val Smith. Based

1st Produced:

Organisations:
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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:
Dramatic Anthology

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dry Smoke

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
part of "I'm a Stranger Here Myself"

1st Produced:
University of California, San Diego    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
n Facing Forward: One-Act Plays and Monologues by Women. Leah Frank, editor. New York: Broadway Play Publishing   -

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Grass House, The

Synopsis:
Following on from "Sand Castles". Anemone is going to marry Moon Hawk, the guy she met in Sand Castles, a former drug addict who has turned his life around with the help of his brother Ben and his wife Naomi. They are hosting the wedding at their cabin in Humboldt county where they farm marijuana. Guests are Linda Blue, Iris, and a surpriseAnemones father, an East coast judge. Serenity performs the wedding ceremony. Late that night, tucked under the quilt Naomi so painstakingly made but didn't get finished, Anemone and Moon Hawk decide they can't stay here.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Magic Theatre, San Francisco    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in "Plays in Process"; published by Theatre Communications Group,    -

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Jardin Blanc

Synopsis:
together the unique talents of a visual artist, a theatre and garden designer, a writer, a lighting designer and two composers to create a piece of extraordinary beauty. Set in a futuristic garden of white, translucent and luminous forms, Jardin Blanc intertwines a surreal language of dance, human behaviour, text, music and song.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Brighton: Gardner Arts Centre    06 Oct 2004

Organisations:
Yolande Snaith Dance Company

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
dance theatre

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Love and Fantasy in the Afternoon

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
One act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Mopping Up

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
part of "I'm a Stranger Here Myself"

1st Produced:
University of California, San Diego    -

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
One act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Rocks In Her Pocket

Synopsis:
the ghosts of Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf and Diane Arbus turn up at a conference called: "Women in the Arts - Why Suicide?" - but only the maid can see them.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Hen & Chicken, Bristol    1993

Organisations:
Show of Strength Theatre

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Sand Castles

Synopsis:
On a California beach, two vacationing couples, one about to break up, one stable but dispassionate, interact with a bizarre collection of characters: a prostitute, her streetwise business-manager daughter, a young surfer bum, a crazed dope-dealing surfer, and a mysterious paraplegic

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in West Coast plays,    -

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Sex Slaves

Synopsis:
Len a New York film maker has gone to the Philippines to make an action movie and to meet his mail order bride. Starkweather is backing the film - but he wants a porno film made - and it must include a scene with a donkey.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Reading: Playbrokers, San Francisco    -

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Stuck: A Freeway Comedy

Synopsis:
A group of co-workers organise a car pool. the women in one car, the men in the other. they organise things so that they are together in the same traffic jam in the morning for a picnic of coffee and doughnuts and in the evening for martinis

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Magic Theatre, San Francisco    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in "Plays in Process"; published by Theatre Communications Group,    -

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Sunset/Sunrise

Synopsis:
the following summer after the family gathering of "Winterplay". Josh is still in the car and Aunt Gem arrives with her new very much younger husband.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in "West Coast Plays number 4",    -

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay, theme/character full length

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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To the Lighthouse

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Based on the novel "To the Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf

1st Produced:
Berkeley Repertory Theatre    23 Feb 2007

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Tumbleweed

Synopsis:
the third part of "Sand Castles" and "the Grass House". Anemone, now pregnant, and Paul (who has renounced his Moon Hawk moniker) have been on the road. They land in a small town in the Imperial Valley and are given shelter in a house in the country. The house is being farmed by two Chicano brothers, one of whom had a high school thing with the now adult daughter of the house. The thing bursts into adult passion. Anemone desperately wants Paul to agree to settle down, but all seems hopeless when the house is burned to the ground. The last scene is a macabre Thanksgiving dinner on the burned slab of a house.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Los Angeles Theatre Center    -

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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War Horses

Synopsis:
the rivalry between actors William Macready and Edwin Forrest leading to the Actor Riots of 19th Century New York

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Magic Theatre, San Francisco    -

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Winterplay

Synopsis:
A family gathers for Christmas. the oldest son brings his boyfriend. the youngest son, Josh, decides that he is going to live in his car. the sister, Anne, has so many allergies she lives in a stainless steel room and sends a video link-up.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Contained in "Plays in Process"; published by Theatre Communications Group,    -

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay, theme/character full length

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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With Allison's Eyes

Synopsis:
Julia and David's daughter Allison is killed in an accident and they agree to have her organs donated. they track down the people who benefited from this and one is a lesbian.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
[reading] La Jolla Playhouse, La Jolla, California    -

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Lesbian, theme/character, full length

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Wives of the Magi, The

Synopsis:
A Buddhist monk tells Magus Jabbar Khan to watch for a sign, but it takes him a while to realize that the star is blinking at him. When he sets off his wife, Amirana, sends word to the other two tribes in this world that she has found a lost young woman who must belong to one of their tribes. The Magi of those tribes have also set off on their quest and their wives (the North African Shaharazad and the Viking Hedwig) overcome centuries of hatred and suspicion and come to see this strange girl for themselves. She turns out to be a pregnant Mayan princess. The women become friends and are all thrilled when Xquic gives birth to a daughter. They celebrate in a naming ceremony drawn from many cultures. The men return, also having become friends on their journey, and the world is united.

Notes:
written by Theodore Shank and Adele Edling Shank

1st Produced:
[reading] Magic Theatre, San Francisco    -

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

Booksellers:

Genre:
A Mayan, Christian, Music Hall, Jewish, Calypso, Buddhist Play with Music

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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