2009 YEAR OF PLAYS

Jan. 15–Feb. 15 • American Buffalo • BY David Mamet • DIRECTED BY Ruff Yeager Drama. Full-length. 3 males.     In a Chicago junk shop three small time crooks plot to rob a man of his coin collection. Its existence came to light when the collector found a valuable "buffalo nickel" in the shop. The three plotter punks fancy themselves as businessmen pursuing the legitimate concerns of free enterprise. In reality they are Donny, the stupid junk shop owner; Bobby, a spaced-out young junkie Donny has befriended; and finally "Teacher," a violent paranoid braggart. But their plans come to naught and in reality are futile, vulgar verbal exercises..   • Best American Play, New York Drama Critics' Circle Award 1976-77 •"Gripping drama. … Mamet's first trip to Broadway. It will hardly be his last." NY Times •"Mamet is an actor's playwright. [He] senses the possibilities inarticulateness affords a savvy actor." Women's Wear Daily •"It isn't often that a play with a dramatic intensity of American Buffalo comes to the Broadway theatre." NY Post           March 1–April 5 • Killer Joe • BY Tracy Letts • DIRECTED BY Lisa Berger Black comedy. Full-length. 3 males, 2 females.     Killer Joe is hired by the greedy Smith family, a dim-witted clan wanting to do away with mother to get her insurance money. Killer Joe decides to bed the Smith daughter as a retainer against his final payoff. Before it's over, nearly everyone is bloodied.   "Set in Dallas, Killer Joe revels in its white trash stereotypes, and gives you permission to do the same; it's pulp fiction which has it both ways, deriving humor from dirty realism. It's slick, it's well constructed, it knows exactly where it's going." NY Daily News Boston Marriage & Psychopathia Sexualis have switched slots         April 19–May 24 • Boston Marriage • BY David Mamet • DIRECTED BY Mark Stephan (Switched dates with Pschopathia Sexualis) Comedy.  Full-length. 3 women.     Anna and Claire are two bantering, scheming "women of fashion" who have long lived together on the fringes of upper-class society. Anna has just become the mistress of a wealthy man, from whom she has received an enormous emerald and an income to match. Claire, meanwhile, is infatuated with a respectable young lady and wants to enlist the jealous Anna's help for an assignation. As the two women exchange barbs and take turns taunting Anna's hapless Scottish parlor maid, Claire's young inamorata suddenly appears, setting off a crisis that puts both the valuable emerald and the women's futures at risk. To this wickedly funny comedy, Mamet brings his trademark tart dialogue and impeccable plotting, spiced with Wildean wit.   • "Brilliant.…One of Mamet's most satisfying and accomplished plays and one of the funniest American comedies in years." NY Post • "Devastatingly funny…exceptionally clever…demonstrates anew [Mamet's] technical virtuosity and flexibility." NY Times • "Wickedly, wittily entertaining…What makes the play…such brilliant fun is its marriage of glinting period artifice and contemporary frankness." Boston Phoenix • "[Mamet's characters] are at each other's throats with a wit akin to characters out of Wilde and a vengeance not unlike those from Pinter, Edward Albee, or Mamet himself." Boston Globe           June 7–July 5 • Bad Night in a Men's Room off Sunset Boulevard by Ira Bateman-Gold Directed by J. Marcus Newman Oct. 1—Oct. 25 • Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf  • BY Edward Albee Drama. Full-length. 2 men, 2 women.     George, a professor at a small college, and his wife, Martha, have just returned home, drunk from a Saturday night party. Martha announces, amidst general profanity, that she has invited a young couple—an opportunistic new professor at the college and his shatteringly naïve new bride—to stop by for a nightcap. When they arrive the charade begins. The drinks flow and suddenly inhibitions melt. It becomes clear that Martha is determined to seduce the young professor, and George couldn't care less. But underneath the edgy banter, which is crossfired between both couples, lurks an undercurrent of tragedy and despair. George and Martha's inhuman bitterness toward one another is provoked by the enormous personal sadness that they have pledged to keep to themselves: a secret that has seemingly been the foundation for their relationship. In the end, the mystery in which the distressed George and Martha have taken refuge is exposed, once and for all revealing the degrading mess they have made of their lives.   • Winner of the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play. The Broadway production of this play was a shattering and memorable experience and proclaimed the author as a major American playwright. • "This is a Big One." NY Journal-American • "… A scorching, scalding, revealing and completely engrossing drama." Women's Wear Daily • "… A brilliant piece of writing." NY Herald-Tribune           Nov.1–Nov. 29 • Psychopathia Sexualis  • BY John Patrick Shanley  (now switched with Boston Marriage) Comedy. Full-length. 3 men, 2 women.     Arthur, an obscure young painter struggling in the art world of Manhattan, announces to his self-satisfied friend, Howard, that he is engaged to be married. To whom? Asks Howard. The answer is to Lucille, a powerful, attractive, no-nonsense Texas socialite, a kind of wealthy Annie Oakley. But, Arthur confides to Howard, there are three problems: 1. Arthur is a fetishist, and Lucille doesn't know. He cannot make love without being in proximity to his father's argyle socks. 2. Arthur's psychiatrist, Dr. Block, unable to cure Arthur of his fetish, has stolen said socks. 3. Arthur's wedding night is fast approaching, and he needs his socks back. Howard vows to retrieve his friend's socks from the wily Dr. Block. This brilliant if unconventional shrink proceeds to reduce Howard to a sniveling wreck. We finally meet the robust Lucille, in her wedding dress, as her friend Ellie (Howard's wife) blurts out all the bad news. At this point, Arthur enters and begs Lucille's forgiveness, which he obtains. Lucille resolves to go to this Block character and rescue her man's socks. Lucille and Dr. Block fight it out for the soul and the socks of Arthur. Lucille wipes the floor with the clever psychiatrist. Her secret weapon? A hearty store of common sense and razor-sharp country wit. Block finally resorts to trying to seduce her. When she cries help, Arthur and Howard burst in and save her. Arthur reclaims his socks (as each man must), and he and Lucille are married.   "A smart new comedy about men and their befuddlements and a shrink who may just be the personification of evil.…The play's first half is perfectly poised between daffy comedy and believable human neurosis which Shanley combines so well that although you never know what wacky thing is coming next, you believe it when it comes." LA Times" • "A salty boulevard comedy with a bittersweet theme.…Shanley's craft…is actually at high tide…thought-provoking depths." NY Magazine • "It's great fun to watch the sparks fly and great scene material for auditions and classes." BackStage • "Shanley is a wicked writer.…In the mouths of savvy socialites and other members of the Manhattan elite, his dense, witty prose sings. A tour de force of witty, barbed dialogue." Variety           Dec. 6–Dec. 27 • A Christmas Show TBA                 RETURN TO TOP