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GETTING OUT
First Produced - 1977 Humana Festival, Actors Theatre
of Louisville.
A young woman
struggles to re-enter the world after eight years in prison,
contending with environmental forces as she attempts to
assimilate her former and present selves.
more....
THIRD AND
OAK: The Laundromat. First Produced - 1978
Actors Theatre of Louisville.
A young woman whose husband hasn't come home encounters an
older widow in a laundromat in the middle of the night.
Produced for television by HBO, directed by Robert Altman,
starring Amy Madigan and Carol Burnett. First published:
1980 Dramatists Play Service. Can be performed alone or
with The Pool Hall to form a complete evening.
THIRD AND OAK:
The Pool Hall. First Produced - 1978
Actors Theatre of Louisville.
A young DJ arrives at the Pool Hall next door to match wits
and pool play with the man who has stood in for his father.
Originally written for Joe Morton. Film starring James
Earl Jones and Mario Van Peebles produced by Gladys
Nederlander, available from Turner Classic Movies. First
Published 1985 - Dramatists Play Service. Can be performed
alone or as the second act in a complete evening.
CIRCUS
VALENTINE First produced - 1978-79 Humana
Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville.
A small family circus confronts the end of their run as the
Ringmaster makes a decision that saves two lives, but
sacrifices everybody else. Many good monologues, often
heard in auditions.
First Published by Smith & Kraus in
Marsha Norman Volume I: Collected Plays.
THE
HOLDUP First Produced - 1983 San Francisco.
Based on Marsha's Grandfather's stories of his childhood in
New Mexico, a coming of age tale for a young man at odds
with his rancher brother, and America's entry into the
modern world. Archie encounters the last member of the Hole
in the Wall gang, a gorgeous former bordello girl who now
owns a hotel, and the approach of World War I. A comedy for
four people, which prompted the San Francisco reviewer to
comment, "Who does she think she is, Neil Simon?" First Published - 1987 Dramatist Play Service, NY.
'NIGHT,
MOTHER First Produced - 1982 Cambridge, MA.
Jessie, an overweight epileptic young woman who lives with her
widowed mother, announces her intention to commit suicide
in this Pulitizer Prize-winning play. It receives high
praise for its unflinching portrayal of Jessie's deliberate
choice to destroy herself in the face of her mother's
mounting terror.
more...
TRAVELER
IN THE DARK First Produced - 1984 Cambridge, MA.
Starring Hume Cronyn and Sam Waterston. A doctor is forced
to re-evaluate everything in the light of the death of his
nurse and friend. This is Marsha's play about faith and the
failure of intelligence to see us through the hard times. First
Published - 1991 Dramatist Play Service, NY.
LOVING DANIEL BOONE First
Produced- 1991-92 Humana Festival, Actors Theatre of
Louisville.
Commissioned for the 200th anniversary of the Kentucky, a
woman who works in a history museum has found a way to
travel back in time and live with Daniel Boone. The man who
is sentenced to community service in the museum, falls in
love with her and has to travel back to Boonesboro to fight
Daniel Boone for her. Originally directed by Gloria Muzio,
Marsha believes this is her funniest play. Published by The University Press of Kentucky in
By Southern
Playwrights: Plays from Actors Theatre of Louisville and by
Smith & Kraus in Marsha Norman Volume I: Collected Plays.
SARAH AND ABRAHAM
First Produced - 1987-88 Humana Festival, Actors Theatre of
Louisville.
An improv theater company works its way toward a classical
production of the Bible story, revealing that the same
gender and marital conflicts that existed in Bible days are
still present in the rehearsal room. Some feel this play is
about the moment when power on earth shifted from women to
men. Published by Smith
& Kraus in Marsha Norman Volume I: Collected Plays.
TRUDY BLUE
First Produced - 1994-95 Humana Festival, Actors Theatre of
Louisville.
A woman who has received a diagnosis of a terminal illness
tries to make sense of her life, her fantasies, her future,
and her alter-ego, the main character in her novels. Published by Heinemann in
A Decade of
New Comedy: Plays From the Humana Festival; by Smith & Kraus
in Marsha Norman Volume I: Collected Plays; and by Smith &
Kraus in Humana Festival '95, The Complete Plays.
LAST DANCE First Produced - 2003 Manhattan Theatre Club Stage II, Off
Broadway, NY.
Directed by Lynne Meadow, and based on a Colette short
story, the play is the story of a southern poet who gives up
her last young lover to complete her life's work. Original
production starred JoBeth Williams and Lorenzo Pisoni. Published by Samuel French.
LOVE'S
FIRE: FRESH NUMBERS BY SEVEN AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHTS
First Produced - 1998 Joseph Papp Public Theater/Newman
Theater, Off Broadway, NY.
MERRY
CHRISTMAS First Produced - 1979 Humana Festival,
Actors Theatre of Louisville.
A family copes with their
mother’s sudden deafness when she is released from the
hospital for Christmas.
THE
SECRET GARDEN First Produced - 1990 Norfolk,
Virginia.
The story is set in the early years of the 20th century.
Mary Lennox, a young English girl born and raised in
the British Raj, is orphaned by a cholera outbreak when she
is eleven years old. She is sent away from India to
Yorkshire, England, to live with relatives whom she has
never met. Her own personality blossoms as she and a young
gardener bring new life to a neglected garden, as well as to
her sickly cousin and uncle.
more...
THE RED
SHOES First Produced - 1993 George Gershwin
Theatre, New York.
Based on the famous movie, the musical featured choreography
by Lar Lubovitch.
THE
COLOR PURPLE First Produced - September 2004 - Alliance
Theatre in Atlanta, GA.
The story of The Color Purple centers on Celie, a
woman who endures insurmountable hardships within her own
family and struggles to find her identity and love.
Published by Hardcover, Carroll & Graf.
more...
THE
TRUMPET OF THE SWAN: A NOVEL SYMPHONY First
Produced December, 2009 - A Kennedy Center Commission - Part of the Kennedy Center's season-long initiative Broadway: The Third
Generation
Though Louis is a trumpeter swan, he can't communicate like
the rest of his family because he was born without a voice.
To overcome this obstacle, he learns to play a real brass
trumpet he got from his father. more...
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