When Trent brings Felix home to New Orleans to meet his father and homophobic grandfather, the family's demons come slithering into the light. Watchful ghosts, sinister hustlers, and a myriad of parasites lead Felix on a Southern Gothic journey to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1."Tom Jacobson's galvanic drama HOUSE OF THE RISING SON, boasts some of his trademark qualities, such as shrewd scientific metaphors and astute ruminations on social issues. Those heady ideas are embellished here with the sublime pleasures of a well-spun yarn chock-full of surprises. Equal parts ghost story and unorthodox family drama, this gripping play is further blessed with an unmistakable whiff of Tennessee Williams-style lyricism. Beginning in contemporary L A, the story quickly shifts to New Orleans, where Jacobson capitalizes on the city's eternal aura of mystery and occultism ... Expect the unexpected, as the intricate narrative incisively explores issues of family dynamics and gay relationships in startlingly fresh ways. Ingeniously pondering how nature balances the good and bad effects of parasitic organisms, Jacobson forges profound reflections on symbiotic human relationships. The first act ends with a humdinger of a surprise that sets the stage for a mind-blowing second act, full of humor, poignancy, suspense, and food for thought. Possibly Jacobson's finest work to date, this sinfully rich concoction is the theatrical equivalent of a multicourse gourmet meal." -Les Spindle, Backstage"... the prolific Jacobson at his witty yet heartfelt best ..." -F Kathleen Foley, Los Angeles Times"... the gay community, publicly uncloseted for barely fifty years, is late in bringing its paranormal yarns to the campfire. Tom Jacobson takes a giant step forward with his engrossing, provocative HOUSE OF THE RISING SON ..." -Bob Verini, Variety
A beautiful young girl who rises her parent's ballroom dancing act to film stardom. Inspired by the life of Rita Hayworth."DIOSA is a naked look back to the era of the casting couch ... [The play] leads the audience into feeling the raw desperation, humiliation and inner chaos of Josefa's life. [It] reminds us of the glitz and glitter of Rita Hayworth's Hollywood. However playwright Edwin Sanchez does not fail to convey that life for women in this profession, in the 1930s, was both ugly and glamorous, bitter as well as sweet." -Christine LeFoll, The Chronicle"Although DIOSA at the Hartford Stage Company utilizes the backstage of a movie set, this is not your upbeat 'makin it big' kind OF 42ND STREET or SINGIN IN THE RAIN. Edwin Sanchez's play that is roughly akin to the life of Rita Hayworth is punctuated with Latin dancing that makes it a kind of Strictly Ballroom for the stage, with a dark edge ... Sanchez's play explores the underbelly of the Golden Age of Hollywood ... is at once a charming and alarming examination of family life, and stardom. The play is most engaging when mocking Hollywood's stock stereotyping." -T E Gilchrist, Metroline"What price Hollywood stardom? For Josefa, a teenage Latina dance, it is nothing less that the surrender of body, identity and psyche. Modeled loosely on film goddess Rita Hayworth, Josefa is the protagonist of Edwin Sanchez's DIOSA, which is infused with Latina dance and set against the backdrop of the tawdry glitter of 1930's Hollywood." -Ellen Pfeiffer, Boston Globe
Two women find that they have everything in common until the death of a brother drives them apart. Part stand-up comedy, part stand-up tragedy for two. The redhaired mythology that glorifies and empowers two women leads them into a big love, but can't lead them safely out again. A play about the heaviness of the things we carry."... Sherry Kramer's inventively structured, colorfully written and frequently lyrical play ... The narrative fluidly shifts back and forth between the present and the span of a few days two years earlier, when Jean and Marilyn met and Jean received the fateful phone call from home informing her of David's death ... this thoughtful meditation on loss ..." -Douglas J Keating, The Philadelphia Enquirer"... Kramer is working with some provocative material: Jean and Marilyn, a pair of red-haired temptresses (or so they like to think), meet in an enchanted boudoir setting of bent willow and diaphanous draperies, find that they share a million and one likes and dislikes, old boyfriends, nasty habits and family patterns, and fall in love because of that almost magical twinship ... Kramer does, however, have a way with verbal imagery. Woven through the script are wonderful references to fairy tales - Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel ... The playwright is also adept at monologues chock-full of telling details ..." -Pamela Sommers, The Washington Post"... All the scenes are interspersed with lines from previous scenes and foreshadowings of things to come, so there is a coiled, spiralled tension instead of the suspense of an ordinary linear plot. Except for their monologues about death - and the one opening the second as is a stunner - the actresses are always in duet ... DAVID'S REDHAIRED DEATH is a stirring, annoying and difficult piece of work. But an absorbing one ..." -Elizabeth C Donahoe, The Washington Blade"... Kramer's play is like a puzzle: after slowly and painstakingly connecting a series of dots, one uncovers an integrated image out of what appeared to be chaos ..." -Mary Shen Barnidge, Reader (Chicago)
This collection contains 15 short plays. Here are a few things that reviewers have said about some of his other plays:on ICARUS: "Sánchez's lyrical, often soaring portrait of dreamers is one of the sweetest, most affirming plays..."Mark de la Viña, San Jose Mercury Newson THE ROAD: "Sánchez's excellent, compelling drama...the heart-rending text..."Robert Kent, Next Magazineon UNMERCIFUL GOOD FORTUNE: "Since graduating from the Yale School of Drama in 1994, Edwin Sánchez has won more fellowships and foundation grants than most playwrights receive in a lifetime. Go see UNMERCIFUL GOOD FORTUNE and you will understand why. The drama's premise is intriguing, and the action often riveting, but what really sets the play apart is the dialogue."Virginia Gerst, Pioneer Press
CHECKS & BALANCES tells the story of a young music student who comes to New York to attend a prestigious music conservatory and gets a part-time bookkeeping job with the founder, a woman well into her 80s who appears to be losing her memory. Upon inspection of her finances, he uncovers numerous checks written to the maid, which lead him on a journey of unexpected twists and turns that in the end challenge his own values and ethics. The play explores issues regarding immigration (both legal and illegal), class, privilege, the definition of family, as well as how society chooses to deal with its aged. "Any great comedy should make you think. And make no mistake, Oren Safdie's CHECKS AND BALANCES, is a great comedy. It's the kind that makes you laugh honestly but guiltily at all the ways life is unfair; how the best intentions can end in ruin; and how sometimes the truth does anything but set you free."The Source, Northwest Arkansas "The story itself is thought provoking, with subtle undertones that challenge societal ideas of family, the elderly and entitlement. These undertones, in combination with Safdie's sophisticated yet clever dialogue, make the show simply spectacular… The characters evolve beautifully on stage." City Wire, NWA
"It wouldn't be the first time a reckless marriage led straight to hell. Rarely, however, has a spouse-however demonic-turned out to be literally Satan. Which somewhat raises the stakes for three sisters hoping a mysterious suitor will rescue them from desperate financial straits in THE DEVIL'S WIFE… Loosely adapted from an ancient Italian folk tale…playwright Tom Jacobson's delightfully creepy new postmodern fable makes an entertaining and thought-provoking debut… …the story [is situated] in an ambiguous but vaguely Spanish-American Gothic setting that stylishly befits Jacobson's whimsical mash-up of fairy-tale tropes and modern sensibilities. As in the original legend, the Prince of Darkness successively woos three sisters in the guise of Nicolas Mastema, a wealthy, suavely seductive lawyer who promises to salvage their endangered family estate if one of them will marry him. The only catch: His bride must never open the door to his cellar, which reportedly offers that which each visitor most desires. Oh, and there's a curious business involving a wooden staff bequeathed by the sisters' late father that Nicolas seems way too eager to acquire. THE DEVIL'S WIFE is a smart, satisfying thrill ride.Naturally, the temptation to cross the forbidden threshold proves impossible to resist, first for the beautiful but haughtily insecure Bonita, then for the sweet-tempered sexpot, Dulce. It's left to the brainy Sofia to try to outwit Nicolas with a strategy that ultimately pits heaven against hell… Jacobson's signature intelligence and wit are never in short supply, and running a little more than an hour the play elegantly poses an ever-deepening volley of sophisticated theological and philosophical questions. …THE DEVIL'S WIFE is a smart, satisfying thrill ride with a unique supernaturally tinged caution against depending on the kindness of strangers."Philip Brandes, Los Angeles Times
"It's tough to imagine 'a comic, gymnastic extravaganza about family aggression,' but the Omaha Magic Theater has done it. Avant garde playwright Megan Terry's new play GOONA GOONA concerns child abuse as told to Punch and Judy, the story of a nuclear family meltdown is stylized to absurdity… GOONA GOONA may be the best play the Magic Theater has staged."Roger Catlin, Omaha World-Herald "Megan Terry's GOONA GOONA turns out to be a racy, raucous and instructive piece of avant garde action theater somewhere this side of Grand Guignol and Artaud's theater of cruelty. It's a 'musical' that is also educational, not only about family violence but also about a whole clutch of middle-class American attitudes. It plays like a cross between a circus and a surrealist sermon… The play is a fascinating, always interesting exploration of the uses of the stage."Joan Bunke, The Des Moines Register
On the eve of his departure from Paris, Benjamin Franklin and his French contemporaries avoid goodbyes by engaging in charades and parlor games. The passions of revolution are overshadowed by the intensity of personal relationships in this structurally inventive play within a play. "…the power of BALLOON is its density…magnificence…poignancy… Encountering BALLOON bears some resemblance to being overwhelmed while assembling a giant jigsaw puzzle, but then relishing its finished design."The Times (London) "It's absolutely first-rate…serious, intelligent, challenging, a play that's humane in its concerns, vividly theatrical, and gracefully written with one sharp epigram after another…full-blooded drama, layered with meaning…intriguing conceit…the individual in history, both as shaper and thing shaped…a play about the shapes of lives and the fates of nations."The Record "…intriguing…arresting ideas…full of an engaging playfulness, an admirable seriousness."Women's Wear Daily "[Sunde] converts our text book history into flesh and blood passions… People achieving greatly, now and then crippled by arrogance and intolerance, suffering mightily, dazzled by possibilities, devastated by disappointments yet continuing and surviving are what she dramatizes."The Villager
A United States Army medic stationed in World War II Liberia must traverse various cultures and characters to solve his fiancée's grisly ritual murder. Cast is three women and five men, all characters are African-American or Liberian.
A very black and hilarious comedy about love, sacred and profane, in Lydia's Eternal Acres Funeral Home, which is enlivened by two amorous morticians and a couple of really attractive corpses. "In the midst of death, there is life and love-sacred, profane, unrequited and almost always dysfunctional-in Christi Stewart-Brown's very black, five-character comedy (counting two corpses). Scarcely fare for the squeamish, with its excursions into heterosexual and homosexual couplings among the living and dead, the play…nonetheless comes off as a caustic, funny, sharp-eyed and skillfully performed autopsy on the difficulties of love… MORTICIANS IN LOVE may be morbid, but it has a heart."Lawrence van Gelder, The New York Times "… a morbid, pervy, and very funny farce… Sure, it's strange, but strangely touching too."Joe Brown, The Washington Post "What relationship is more tender and romantic than the one between a shy, sensitive female mortuary owner and a handsome, buffed, naked corpse? Christi Stewart-Brown's charmingly morbid comedy is so cheerful and upbeat, you'll hardly believe that you're watching a play about bisexual necrophilia."Paul Birchall, Back Stage West
This collection includes 15 comic one-acts: REUNIONS, THE NEWS, LITTLE DUCK, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, NIGHT RULES, LIGHT YEARS, LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD, NEGOTIATION, GUILT, BLEEP THIS BLEEP, OF TWO MINDS, BEATLES FOREVER, AT THE BEACH, FREE WILL, and COMPLETE UNKNOWNS. REUNIONS: Graduates return to show off the incredible things they've become. THE NEWS: Karen has some really weird news. As people realize what it is they start acting really weird. LITTLE DUCK: A children's television company blends sweetness with sadism. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT: What begins as a romantic rendezvous between two college students turns into something else entirely when the boy's mother visits, and a terrible truth is revealed. NIGHT RULES: Young parents battle the forces of darkness. LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD: The classic fairytale, thoroughly bastardized. NEGOTIATION: An employer and a freelancer try to settle on a fee, and a job, and a species. GUILT: Someone is guilty of something. BLEEP THIS BLEEP: Four people who seem to be in a reality show seem to share certain basic values until they seem to start strangling one another. OF TWO MINDS: A mother and her teenage daughter become involved with the same man. BEATLES FOREVER: Four female fans have a ticket to ride with The Beatles. AT THE BEACH: Mid-life love. FREE WILL: Eight iconic characters from different Shakespeare plays wind up on an island. Comedy/tragedy/romance ensues. COMPLETE UNKNOWNS: Ellen has written a play. Molly intends to produce it."Aronson has demonstrated he has a keen sense of what makes a good one act. Madcap mayhem worthy of the Marx Brothers without censorship. Bravo." -CurtainUpREUNIONS"The play takes a decidedly loopy turn, and the delight is all the more piquant for being a surprise. From then on, the alumni who show up (including a major celebrity whom you'll know but never guess) have, suffice it to say, unusual résumés. That the reunion proceeds with every familiar emotional trapping nonetheless is funny and even touching." -New York TimesTHE NEWS"Touching and surreal. Depicts that strange period of time when one realizes the death of a loved one is inevitable and that knowledge makes time with the person change shape; even the cell phones take on a new, magical meaning." -VarietyLITTLE DUCK"Highly amusing look at the boiling sexual intrigue and artistic warfare behind the scenes of a children's television program. These battles explode in a Bacchanalian conclusion that makes the murderous gunslingers of the Wild West look rather civilized." -New York TimesIN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT"A mother's surprise visit to her son at college reveals the shocking extent of his emotional instability." -New York TimesNIGHT RULES"Takes its on-target premise to the horizon of absurdity. The denouement is a wicked reversal of rules about who sleeps in whose bed, and the logic is priceless. Aronson has nailed these parental holy wars and couples' skirmishes with a keenly observant eye." -Village VoiceLIGHT YEARS"Deft shifts in the tone and meaning of Mr Aronson's dialogue that you only catch when they trigger emotional explosions ... the shock of totally unexpected passions ... it all works perfectly." -New York TimesLITTLE RED RIDING HOOD"An adult re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood ... has moments of real richness. Mr. Aronson clearly has a respect for words and uses them well, creating humor and depth ..." -nytheatrereviewOF TWO MINDS"Mordantly funny. The playwright finds a formula for family and love in an age of fractured marriages, lack of communication and yearning for union." -New York Times
A Feydeau farce re-imagined in a mental ward."Leave any expectations of conventional theater at home. Billed as half farce and half romance, THE ART ROOM is a relentlessly wicked little comedy by Billy Aronson. Aronson's script tosses the audience into the lives of four mental-ward patients, along with the nurse who cares for them and the husband of the newest arrival. All of the patients seem to have multiple personalities upon which to draw. And when added in with the nurse's double life, the husband's philandering, a stage full of doors, and the occasional lice check, things certainly become - in a word - crazy. The craziness has a tenderness to it, which makes a lot of the twitches, outbursts, and mistaken identities enjoyable." -Gina Perille, Boston Globe
A sly, funny, twisted, and surreal sex farce in which the parents of schoolchildren ponder how to spend a day free from work and the duties of parenthood."Good sex comedy should surprise you with how long it can keep its premise up and satisfying. By that measure, Billy Aronson's new farce, FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, is a humdinger. But it gets A's in other departments too, like playing well with others, and having something interesting to say when the panting stops." -Avila, San Francisco Bay Guardian"... the rapid fire of witty dialogue and never wasting an opportunity for laughter ... FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL is an engaging and thoughtful comedy. What starts as a lighthearted subversion of suburban life slows its speed in the end and takes on a philosophical mood ..." -Jennafer McCabe, The Daily Californian"... a highly sophisticated sex farce that skewers middle-class suburbanites (we would have once called these characters 'yuppies') and their values. It is sly and witty and shifts from realism to surrealism at will. It has the kind of barb and bite that might be found in sources stretching from the plays of Molière to the novels of John Updike, and creates the sort of alternate reality found in Edward Albee's humorous satires. This is edgy, tricky stuff ..." -Punch Shaw, Star Telegram (Dallas)
Based on historical incident, the play chronicles the first race riot in Los Angeles history: the 1871 lynching of 18 Chinese men by a mob of 500 "people from all nations." Tom Jacobson's fiercely theatrical retelling brings to light the remarkable, culturally diverse 19th-century Wild West town that exploded into the metropolis we know today."THE CHINESE MASSACRE (ANNOTATED), Tom Jacobson's rousing new play, is like a fun day at Disneyland. Jacobson chronicles the 1871 lynching of 18 Chinese men by a mixed-race mob, historically considered to be Los Angeles's first race riot. Actors break the fourth wall by expounding on exposition and commentating on chaos, thus the 'annotated' in the title. With 14 astounding actors playing over 30 parts, the characters' contrapuntal conversations can be cacophonous, and the masterful dialects are sometimes unintelligible, but this hugely theatrical historical interpretation is an imaginative, sprawling epic that captivates and charms. With actors popping up and down like shooting gallery targets, gunfights, reenactments of the past, delicious historical tidbits, and clever, tongue-in-cheek dialogue, THE CHINESE MASSACRE (ANNOTATED) is a theatrical Frontierland - but better. You won't see mass murder, syphilis, and herb-induced abortions at the Happiest Place on Earth." -Tony Frankel, Los Angeles Theater"THE CHINESE MASSACRE manages to be emotionally moving and intellectually stimulating as well, but the emotional impact is mostly due to the sheer drama of its events rather than their presentation within Jacobson's play. This might be exactly what Jacobson intended. The (ANNOTATED) in the subtitle means that actors frequently stop the proceedings and speak from the sidelines directly to the audience, offering historical footnotes, candid confessions of the artistic license taken by the playwright, and comparisons of their own comments to the techniques employed by Brecht in his epic theater - which was designed to make spectators think about what's happening, at the expense of emotional reactions." -Don Shirley, L A Stage Times"THE CHINESE MASSACRE is a prodigiously researched, self-consciously Brechtian parable about what may be L A's first officially recorded race riot in 1871. A number of 'annotators' playfully interrupt the action to identify historical inaccuracies that have been interjected for the flow of the story - and, citing Brecht's style of epic theater, to prevent the play's larger ideas from being overpowered by our emotional reaction to various lynchings and other brutalities depicted on the stage. Those ideas swirl around the essences of ethnic bigotry that just seem to keep recycling themselves, like our race riots, as the decades roll by." -Steven Leigh Morris, L A Weekly
Susan is a career woman with a seemingly perfect life, complete with sensitive husband and a brand new bundle of joy on the way. Beginning at the moment a very pregnant Susan goes into labor, the play follows her journey as she becomes a new mother, with a frighteningly inexplicable newborn to care for. Employing both realistic and surrealistic elements, BABY'S BLUES explores one woman's descent into postpartum depression, but also brings into focus the difficult challenge of becoming a mother for the first time, as well as the fine line that sometimes exists between health and madness."BABY'S BLUES makes a strong impact through powerful dialogue ... It takes an emotional dilemma and winds it tighter and tighter and tighter to a wrenching peak, leaving us vibrating with the final impact ... BABY'S BLUES has undoubted immediacy." -Christopher Rawson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette"Tammy Ryan's fiercely emotional and darkly disquieting play takes a frank and sympathetic look at one mother's descent into serious psychosis brought on by the birth of her first child. Ryan works overtime to keep the story real yet understandable. It's a tensely orchestrated hundred minute journey unrelieved by intermission, yet there are moments of humor and irony." -Alice T Carter, Tribune Review
"Remarkable…ADULT acquires a kind of quiet force."The Village Voice "It's a blessing and relief to see people on stage like Stanley and Tara: beautifully drawn…treated with rough, cuffing affection by their portraitist… Masciotti has made brilliantly two rich characters… Her character work can't be surpassed."Time Out New York "Christina Masciotti treats her characters with a kindness and patience that are usually accorded to only the very young or very old… This playwright has a distinctive gift for finding an original poetry in everyday speech."The New York Times
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