About Spontaneous Combustion
Play Description
Human spontaneous combustion is not something that most people worry about, but Amalia Parker does, and that’s why she won’t sleep with Rob. Sex with someone she doesn’t care about might not be so dangerous, but with the man she truly loves? A definite possibility. This is the kind of logic that only makes sense in the Parker household, where Mom cooks obsessively, Dad has turned the house into an 18-hole golf course, and ancient maiden Aunt Emily does laundry and practices the family art of selective sight. A sweet, quirky comedy.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (4 female, 2 male)Full Length Comedy (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
Press Quotes
The critics on Sherry Kramer’s plays:
DAVID’S REDHAIRED DEATH: “Sherry Kramer’s extraordinary 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.” —The Chicago Reader
THINGS THAT BREAK: “… a terribly difficult, painfully beautiful play … This is a wildly imaginative piece of work.” —Nelson Pressley, The Washington Times
THE WALL OF WATER: “THE WALL OF WATER quickly bursts through the dam of conventional theater for two hours of the kind of inspired and breathtaking chaos so rare on America’s stages that we may have forgotten the word for it. The word is farce.” — Margaret Spillane, New Haven Independent
WHAT A MAN WEIGHS: “… its view of sexual politics becomes more and more complex, funny, and biting.” —Time
WHEN SOMETHING WONDERFUL ENDS: “As timely as it is revealing, and as witty as wise.” —Austin Chronicle
Author(s)
Sherry KramerSherry Kramer's work has been seen at theaters across the country and abroad, including the Humana Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Yale Repertory Theatre, Soho Rep, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York's Second Stage, Woolly Mammoth, and The Theater of the First Amendment. She holds an MFA in Fiction from the Iowa Writers Workshop, and an MFA in Playwriting from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. She was the first national member of New Dramatists. She is also an affiliated writer at The Playwright's Center. She is a recipient of NEA, New York Foundation for the Arts and McKnight Fellowships, the Weissberger Playwriting Award, and a New York Drama League Award (WHAT A MAN WEIGHS), the LA Women in Theater New Play Award (THE WALL OF WATER), the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award (DAVID'S REDHAIRED DEATH), and commissions from The Moscow Arts Theatre/Iowa International Workshop (THE DREAM HOUSE) and the Audrey Skirball Kenis Foundation (THE MAD MASTER). Other plays include: WHEN SOMETHING WONDERFUL ENDS, HOW WATER BEHAVES, THINGS THAT BREAK, A THING OF BEAUTY, ABOUT SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION, NAPOLEON'S CHINA (music theatre piece with Ann Haskell and Rebecca Newton), THE MASTER AND MARGARITA (music theatre adaptation with composer Margaret Pine), THE RELEASE OF A LIVE PERFORMANCE, PARTIAL OBJECTS, THE WORLD AT ABSOLUTE ZERO, HOLD FOR THREE, CAKE, NANO AND NICKI IN BOCA RATON, IVANHOE, AMERICA, THE LONG ARMS OF JUPITER, THE RULING PASSION, THE END OF RADIO, THE LAW MAKES EVENING FALL, and THE BAY OF FUNDY: AN ADAPTATION OF ONE LINE FROM THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE.
Special Notes
If original stage producers credits appear in bold below, all licensees are required to include them in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:
Originally produced by Brass Tacks Theatre
In addition, the following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypub.com
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