Drawing War
Play Description
A boy’s best friend has died after an accident whilst cleaning his gun. It is Christmas Eve, and he talks to his friend’s father after a church service. Next day he goes to his friend’s house to give cookies to the father and the brother of the dead boy. He is soon caught up in a whirlwind of events. First they all go and see the grandmother, then they go to bail out the mother from jail, and all the time he is being used as a sounding board for a family who have not yet come to terms with the death
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (2 female, 3 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
Press Quotes
“The work of a young artist with great talent.” —Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune
“Written with a detached compassion that recalls Chekhov and presented with an air of mystery that suggests the early plays of Pinter or even the films of Ingmar Bergman, this is a slice-of-life sketch that takes the viewer some days to work through — and to get over.” —Albert Williams, The Chicago Reader
About the author:
“Perhaps the city’s closest equivalent to a young [David] Mamet.” —Chris Jones, The Chicago Tribune
“One of the most prolific, intelligent, and innovative playwrights to write in Chicago in years, maybe decades.” —Jack Helbig, PerformInk
“The bard of midwestern angst.” —Lucia Mauro, Chicago Magazine
“Make no mistake. This is an author worth watching, and listening to.” —Michael Phillips, The Chicago Tribune
Author(s)
Brett NeveuBrett Neveu's work has been produced by a number of theaters, including the Royal Shakespeare Company, A Red Orchid Theatre, Strawdog Theatre Company, TimeLine Theatre Company, American Theater Company, Spring Theatreworks, Aardvark Theatre and 29th Street Rep. He has developed plays with The New Group, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Victory Gardens Theater, The 42nd Street Workshop Theater, Marin Theatre Company and is a resident-alum with Chicago Dramatists. He has been commissioned by The Royal Court Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club (Sloan Commission), Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, TimeLine Theatre Company, Writers' Theatre and Strawdog Theatre. Mr. Neveu is the recipient of The Goodman Theatre's Ofner Prize for New Work and the Emerging Artist Award from The League of Chicago Theatres. He is also an ensemble member of A Red Orchid Theatre. Several of his plays have been published through Broadway Play Publishing. Mr. Neveu has taught writing at Northwestern University, DePaul University, and Second City Training Center.
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:
First produced by Chicago Dramatists
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
Related Plays
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
An audacious and dark comedy about a ten-year reunion of a son’s high school graduation that coincides with the one-year anniversary of the next-door neighbor’s death.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (3 female, 2 male)Full Length Comedy (about 85 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$19.95Play Description
Set in Buffalo, New York in the 1940s, ANCESTRAL VOICES is a bittersweet story, perceived through the eyes of young Eddie, whose family is turned inside out when his grandmother unexpectedly divorces his grandfather in order to marry his grandfather’s best friend. Simultaneously, the outside world is undergoing temporal changes, and we follow the family through the ensuing decades of war and social upheaval. Written to be performed informally, with actors reading from scripts.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (2 female, 3 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$11.95–$15.00Play Description
A delightful seriocomedy about a prominent civil rights attorney who is a schlemiel on the home court in his relationships with his intractable aging father and budding lawyer son.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (3 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
Play Description
A comedy with tragic overtones, THESE FLOWERS ARE FOR MY MOTHER concerns husband, Adam, and wife, Eden, who are locked in a custody battle for their gifted son, Alan, whom Eden believes is in need of her nurturing to realize his potential. While the boy is the master of ceremonies for much of the play, the action revolves around which parent will get him and whether he will be able to achieve a compromise solution involving boarding school and summer camp. Another driving element is the pursuit of Eden by child psychologist, Dr Wright, who is fascinated by her while being available to either parent as a hired “expert witness.”
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (1 female, 3 male)Full Length Comedy (about 110 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
Play Description
Set in a cornfield in the Midwest, HIDDEN PARTS depicts the troubled reunion of a young concert pianist, his estranged farmer parents, and their teenage gypsy niece.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (2 female, 2 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$11.95Play Description
Summer, 1957. The streets of Greenwich Village sizzle with the insistent rhythm of jazz. Accompanied by their grandmother, two teenage sisters from the country visit their married cousin in the city. Soon, the young women have embarked on their own private missions involving love, a forgotten child, and a lost mother. Set against the bustling backdrop of New York at mid-century, FRANNY'S WAY is a sensual, provocative ode to desire, longing, and the bittersweet collision of youth and adulthood.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (4 female, 1 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
Darwin and Jo Smith, and their seventeen-year-old son, Ronnie, seem to be the typical Middle American conservative family. Darwin works as a systems analyst. Jo teaches community college. Ronnie is a high school baseball standout with big league aspirations. One night before dinner, they are paid a surprise visit from Commander Abraham Lincoln of Central Security, who claims to have information concerning their daughter, Lucy, an American soldier. Lincoln claims that Lucy was captured by the enemy in a foreign war and decapitated. But, thanks to the top-secret Operation Hydra, military doctors have been able to save her life by surgically reattaching her head. A combination of intense drama and surreal dark comedy, HOME FRONT explores the personal and social consequences of war.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (2 female, 3 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$11.95–$15.00
Play Description
Unemployed mailman Humbert Lavoignet has fallen into a six-month trance. When he awakes, he announces that God has ordered him to do something wonderful, and he sets about building a tower made of junk. With echoes of Don Quixote, THE WONDERFUL TOWER OF HUMBERT LAVOIGNET is a play about genius, vision, and divine obsession.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (1 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
When Thomas D’Angelo pays a long overdue visit to his Italian grandparents, he soon finds himself caught in the middle of the ongoing, if farcical, war between the two. His grandmother, intent on plumping him up with home cooking, is sure she’ll win him over to her side. His grandfather, meanwhile, surreptitiously schemes to make Thomas his ally. Never mind that Thomas has come, in part, to seek advice over the strained relationship he has with their son, his father. He has his hands full just trying to restore calm to the household. But as he works to negotiate a peace between his grandparents, he finds within himself the possibility to resolve the struggles he faces with his father. With echoes of John Patrick Shanley’s Moonstruck and Joe DiPietro’s Over the River and Through the Woods, GRANDMA SERAFINA’S is as marvelous and memorable a confection as her famous tiramisu.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (1 female, 2 male)Full Length Comedy (about 50 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
An urban family of three is faced with a medical crisis upon a second financial crisis. Structured as a memory play, this story for four actors highlights the surfacing identify of a young man caught between filial loyalty and freedom. As the mother attends to both men, a domineering father is in free fall.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (2 female, 2 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
This stark, disquieting drama depicts the eleventh-hour effort of a hired tutor to transform the life of a very bright, self-destructive teenager before a Columbine tragedy occurs in San Diego.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (1 female, 3 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes