- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
Press Quotes
“One has to be wary of one-man shows about historical figures: more often they float on the personality of the actor rather than the quality of the memories themselves. Yet Owen S Rackleff, as a culler of Escoffier anecdotes into dramatic form, distinguishes himself with a rich flow of miscellanea about this legendary French chef of the early part of this century.” —Kip Gould, Other Stages
Author(s)
Owen S RackleffOwen S Rackleff (July 16, 1934 – October 28, 2009) was a playwright, actor, and an assistant professor of Humanities at New York University. His plays include JAVELIN, which starred William Marshall, FROM THE CLASSIFIEDS, and UNCLE MONEY, which, according to one critic, contained "some of the funniest and most biting moments on any stage in Manhattan." Rackleff also wrote several works of nonfiction, including a Book-of-the-Month Club selection entitled Rembrandt's Life of Christ as well The Secrets of Superstitions, published by Doubleday. His first novel Eric's Image was published in 1982. As an actor, Rackleff appeared Off-Broadway as the Professor in Ionesco's THE LESSON, at the Harold Clurman Theatre; in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of CATSPLAY, in ARMS AND THE MAN at the Playwrights Horizons, and, of course, as Escoffier. In Rochester, at the GeVa Theatre, he was the General in WALTZ OF THE TOREADORS. His film and TV appearances included The Dain Curse, A Question of Honor, The Bloodhound Gang, and All My Children.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 1/1/1983 |
| Pages | 36 |
| ISBN | 9780881450002 |
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:
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
Play Description
JONAH is a rumination on the story of the man and the sea. Jonah’s a man on the run. He hops a Greyhound to Joppa and then grabs a cabin on the ocean-bound Carnival Princess. Drinking away his sorrows at the ship’s Grass Skirt Grill, the lounge band Sheila and the Lovetones plays him into a stupor before he tumbles into the waves. Len Jenkin’s JONAH is a contemporary retelling of the unfaithful servant; some love stories about the evil city of Ninevah, a Dairy Queen, and of course, the whale.
Production Info
Cast: 9 total (4 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 10 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00Play Description
As he is making preparations to set out on what will become his final sea journey, Joshua Slocum (hounded by an unsympathetic offstage second wife), tells us about his previous Great Adventure when, in 1895, he set out on a three-year journey in his 34-foot sloop the Spray to prove that a man could sail around the world alone. In vivid anecdotes, he shares the tale of his unprecedented 46,000 mile journey, when (years before radio or G P S systems), he sailed through sun and storm, blazing heat and relentless cold, through hunger and delirium, across the world's great oceans and seas, battled wind and waves to traverse the world's two great capes, fought pirates and savages, and put into port in some of the wildest, weirdest and most inhospitable lands around the world. Slocum takes us with him on his epic adventure, told with humor and originality through the eyes of a weather-beaten sea salt who, against all expectation, did what no one had ever done before. Based on Slocum's own account of his epic journey.
Production Info
Cast: 1 total (1 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Single Set
Period Costumes
$10.95–$15.00Play Description
Eric Overmyer’s sparkling adaptation and synthesis of Beaumarchais’s THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO and Ödön von Horváth’s FIGARO GETS A DIVORCE. FIGARO/FIGARO follows the iconic characters of Figaro, Susanna, the Count and Countess Almaviva, and other favorites through the ups and downs inherent in all relationships — husband and wife, master and servant, family ties and the like.
Production Info
Cast: 17 total (6 female, 11 male)Full Length Drama (about 160 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Period Costumes
$10.95Play Description
This classic French farce was written in 1907. It is, perhaps, Feydeau’s best known play, and its intricate choreography draws together two classic farce plots — that of the suspicious wife who sets a trap to expose her faithless partner, and the venerable comic device of mistaken identity.
Production Info
Cast: 14 total (5 female, 9 male)Full Length Comedy (about 200 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Period Costumes
$10.95Play Description
Racine's 1677 reworking of Euripides's HIPPOLYTUS, celebrated for its tragic construction and the richness of its language. Consumed by an uncontrollable passion for her young stepson and believing Theseus, her absent husband, to be dead, Phèdra confesses her darkest desires and enters the world of nightmare. When Theseus returns, alive and well, Phèdra, fearing exposure, accuses her stepson of rape. Unable to see beyond her impassioned words to his own son's protestations, heartbroken and overcome, Theseus banishes Hippolytus and wishes him dead. But when the gods are always listening, you should be careful what you wish for.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (5 female, 3 male)Full Length Drama (about 160 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$10.95–$15.00Play Description
A comical, anachronistic, and witty retelling of the Greek myth, composed “after Kleist by way of Molière with a little bit of Giraudoux.”
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (2 female, 5 male)Full Length Comedy (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$10.95Play Description
The best known play by one of the most performed French playwrights — a sparkling 18th-century comedy of manners based on the simplest of plot devices, the exchanging places of master and valet, mistress and maidservant.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (2 female, 4 male, 1 bit part)Full Length Comedy (about 120 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$15.00Play Description
Molière's classic comedy comes to uproarious new life in a clever and contemporary adaptation Christopher Bayes and Steven Epp. The traditional story of a girl feigning illness to avoid an unwanted wedding erupts into hilarity when a pretend physician proves that love and laughter remain life's best medicine.
Production Info
Cast: 10 total (3 female, 7 male, doubling)Full Length Comedy (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
Originally written to protest thoughtless urban renewal, THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT has remained remarkably up-to-date. When it was first revived, the actor Georges Wilson wrote, “It is a prophetic play in the sense that the dangers denounced more than twenty years ago have become true and immediately observable in everyday life. The theme is alienation. The Madwoman tells us, 'Poor fools, take the time to breathe, you soon will be the living dead, mindless robots.'” Today, the play speaks to environmental concerns, the destruction of the natural world, and the manipulation of world financial markets.
Production Info
Cast: 12 total (6 female, 6 male, flexible casting)Full Length Drama (about 130 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Period Costumes
Play Description
The country you love and the values it represents are being destroyed by a misguided leader. You can continue to live in relative comfort by not involving yourself, or you can take action to save the democracy you love. Set outside of Rome in the villas and hillsides of Tusculum, the play chronicles those entangled in Julius Caesar's world of manipulation and power.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (2 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 145 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
Play Description
A husband and wife stay together by force of habit, their relationship based on nothing solid. The wife’s aggression and bitterness and the husband’s selfishness and irresponsibility are revealed, and their ferocious animosity unleashes such powerful comedy that it obscures the underlying darkness.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (2 female, 2 male)Short Comedy (about 60 minutes)
Single Set
Period Costumes