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The Seven Year Itchby George Axelrod |
| Richard Sherman roams restlessly around his empty apartment, bemoaning the fact that his wife of seven years, and their son, have just walked out on him. Then, without warning, a gigantic flower pot tumbles down from an overhead balcony, nearly putting him permanently out of his misery. The jarring event has a strange effect on Richard. He now sees his marriage as wasted time and feels it necessary to exercise his libido as quickly as possible. Suddenly reborn, he invites the delectable doll who lives on the floor above down for an evening of temptation. The night doesn’t quite go the way he thought it would, as morality and guilt sneak into his head. In his conscience—literally following him about the apartment—a soul-struggle of heroic and hilarious proportions ensues. | |
Villagers Theatre
Death of a Salesman
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Death of a Salesmanby Arthur Miller |
| The story revolves around the last days of Willy Loman, a failing salesman, who cannot understand how he failed to win success and happiness. Through a series of tragic soul-searching revelations of the life he has lived with his wife, his sons, and his business associates, we discover how his quest for the “American Dream” kept him blind to the people who truly loved him. A thrilling work of deep and revealing beauty that remains one of the most profound classic dramas of the American theatre. | |
Critics Choice
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Critics Choiceby Ira Levin |
| A play in three acts, Critic’s Choice tells the story of theater critic Parker Ballantine whose second wife, Angela, writes a play which is produced on Broadway. The play is awful and Parker must decide whether or not to review the play honestly. | |
The Brick and the Rose
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The Brick and the Roseby Lewis John Carlino |
| An expressionistic reading, in which ten actors, portraying forty-seven characters, are seated on stools behind music stands. A powerful and compelling drama. The entire action takes place in front of back drops. This is the kaleidoscopic drama of a young boy of the slums from the moment of his birth in a charity hospital, until his tragic death. In an effort to find something besides “hardness and hitting out, and twisted people all afraid”, Tommy turns to narcotics, and thus creates his own world: one in which he is not constantly gnawed by an acute awareness of the meaninglessness of what is going on around him. He meets Alice, in whom he sees his life-long search for beauty: the rose behind the hard brick city. He knows that he has only touched this beauty for an instant, and he sees it moving farther away from him. At last, in a final escape from the squalor around him, he takes an overdose of narcotics, and ends his search. | |
A Phoenix Too Frequent
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A Phoenix Too Frequentby Christopher Fry |
| In this version of the famous Matron of Ephesus, we have a fresh retelling of the story of a pious widow—and her maid—who mourns for the death of her recently deceased husband in the tomb where his bier lies awaiting internment. The maid is not quite so pious, yet both women begin to suffer the pangs of a self-imposed hunger. There are signs that they also are unhappy over the loss of male company, but not until a handsome guard appears does the widow begin regretting her noble experiment in withdrawing from the world. The guard is invited to keep the ladies company, and he in turn invites them to partake of his food. Before long the widow is ready to forget her pious devotions and shows indications of returning speedily to a worldly and pleasant life which she had too soon decided to give up. | |
The Man in the Dog Suit
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The Man in the Dog Suitby Albert Beich and William H Wright |
| Oliver is being groomed by his in-laws for a position in the family business: banking. Shy and ineffectual under ordinary circumstances, Oliver discovers that he can be bold and independent when wearing the dog costume he had acquired for a masquerade ball. Donning it on the proper occasions, he can even outface his in-laws. They, in turn, are appalled at the thought of Oliver’s wearing the dog suit in public. When he wears it to work at the bank he’s told he must choose between the dog suit and his job. To his delight, he discovers that his wife is as bored with their stuffy life as he is, and they suddenly decide to head for the great woods of Oregon, where Oliver can pursue his dream of being a tree surgeon. The in-laws are shocked, except for one: As Oliver leaves, his brother-in-law takes over the dog suit, and another hilarious rebellion is apparently on its way. | |
Volpone
The Still Alarm. The Stronger. No Exit
Ladies in Retirement
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Ladies in RetirementAugust 14 – August 29, 1964by Edward Percy and Reginald Denham |
| Miss Fiske, ex-actress, lives in a remote house with her companion, Ellen Creed. Ellen, who has devoted her life to her sisters, Louisa and Emily (simple-minded maiden ladies), invites them to visit her. These eccentric persons make themselves at home, but when Miss Fiske reminds Ellen it is time for them to go back, they are unwilling to do so. Miss Fiske and Ellen quarrel, and Ellen prepares to send her sisters to London. She has, however, secretly told them that they shall always remain with her. The sisters go for a drive, though Miss Fiske thinks they are leaving for good; the servants have been sent away (by Ellen), and Ellen and Miss Fiske are left alone together. On the return of the sisters Miss Fiske is gone—on a trip, Ellen says—and all three sisters settle down in what they regard as their own home. Meantime, Albert, nephew of the Creed sisters, who had paid a secret visit and got money from Miss Fiske, turns up again. He has robbed a bank and determines to hide with his aunts. Learning that Miss Fiske is away, and suspecting something, he pieces together the evidence. With the help of the maid Lucy, he lays a trap for Ellen, by reproducing in pantomime, in the moonlit living room, the scene of Ellen’s murder of Miss Fiske. Ellen, who faints when she sees what she imagines is the ghost of her victim, plays a courageous but losing game. Knowing that Albert and Lucy realize what she has done, she plans for the security of her sisters and gives up to the police. | |