Frank’s Home
Play Description
A stunning play from one of America’s best contemporary playwrights, FRANK’S HOME is a lyrical, heartbreaking story about Frank Lloyd Wright, one of our greatest — if less than perfect — visionaries, a man who created a new architectural vocabulary but couldn’t create a home for himself and his family.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (3 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 110 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
- Productions
Press Quotes
“Richard Nelson’s lean, smart, incisive FRANK’S HOME, is not the first play to tap into a hubristic but wearying architect in his waxing years, increasingly preferring buildings to people, battling against parasites, real and imagined, in an attempt to maintain and burnish is artistic legacy. Henrik Ibsen did that more than a century ago with THE MASTER BUILDER. And this drama isn’t even the first to cast Wright in such a role. But none of these previous works quite achieved what Nelson achieves here — a thoroughly invigorating, tightly focused piece of Chekhovian drama, wherein chatter about work and art, petty domestic acts and personal bickering patently fail to mask deep vulnerability, resent and existential despair. It’s a sophisticated play that reveals a lot about the architect’s lot, but it does not get stuck within those boundaries.” —Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
“The theater critics, of course, will have the ultimate say on FRANK’S HOME, but for this architecture critic, the play is fascinating because it makes two long-departed architectural giants of Chicago, Wright and Louis Sullivan, come vividly to life. In doing so, the play burrows deep into the troubled souls of these two geniuses, especially Wright’s, revealing that even creative demigods possess all-too-human frailties and foibles.” —Blair Kamin, Architecture Critic, Chicago Tribune
“Nelson has a real feel for his characters’ emotional hunger and resentments … [And] the irony in Nelson’s play is as clear as a prairie vista: Wright built many houses, yet he never was able to create a secure home for himself. As he admits, he had no gift for people; he was an artist forever obsessed with a ‘moral quest’ for that abstract notion he refers to as ‘the beautiful.'” —Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun Times
Author(s)
Richard NelsonRichard Nelson's plays include the four-play series, THE APPLE FAMILY (THAT HOPEY CHANGEY THING, SWEET AND SAD, SORRY, REGULAR SINGING (Nominated for Outstanding Play in Drama Desk Awards 2014; Public Theater, 2010 – 2013), NIKOLAI AND THE OTHERS (Lincoln Center Theater, 2013), FAREWELL TO THE THEATRE (Hampstead Theatre, 2012), HOW SHAKESPEARE WON THE WEST, (Huntington Theater, 2008), CONVERSATIONS AT TUSCULUM (Public Theater, 2008), FRANK'S HOME (Goodman Chicago, Playwrights Horizons, 2007), RODNEY'S WIFE (Playwrights Horizons, 2004), WHERE I COME FROM (National Theatre Connections), MADAME MELVILLE (which ran in the West End starring Macaulay Culkin and Irene Jacob and opened in May 2001 Off-Broadway); GOODNIGHT CHILDREN EVERYWHERE (winner of Olivier Award for Best New Play, 2000), KENNETH'S FIRST PLAY (with Colin Chambers, RSC), THE GENERAL FROM AMERICA (at the RSC and the Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York), NEW ENGLAND (RSC and Manhattan Theater Club), MISHA'S PARTY (with Alexander Gelman, RSC and Williamstown Theater Festival), TWO SHAKESPEAREAN ACTORS (Tony nomination for Best Play, RSC and Broadway), COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF JAPAN (RSC Barbican), SOME AMERICANS ABROAD (Olivier nomination, Best Comedy; RSC, Lincoln Center and Broadway), LEFT, BETWEEN EAST AND WEST (Hampstead), PRINCIPIA SCRIPTORAE (winner of Time Out Award, RSC and Manhattan Theater Club), THE RETURN OF PINOCCHIO, AN AMERICAN COMEDY, BAL, CONJURING AN EVENT, RIP VAN WINKLE, JUNGLE COUP, THE KILLING OF YABLONSKI, THE VIENNA NOTES (Obie Award). His musicals include JAMES JOYCE'S THE DEAD (starring Christopher Walken and Blair Brown; Playwrights Horizons, Belasco Theatre, Broadway, Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, Kennedy Center, Washington; for which he received a Tony Award in 2000 for Best Musical Book), CHESS (the book for the Broadway musical), PARADISE FOUND (dir: Harold Prince and Susan Strohman), MY LIFE WITH ALBERTINE (with Ricky Ian Gordon; Playwrights Horizons), UNFINISHED PIECE FOR A PLAYER PIANO (with Peter Golub). His translations and adaptations include TYNAN starring Corin Redgrave (with Colin Chambers, RSC and West End), LOLITA with Brian Cox (National), Molnar's THE GUARDSMAN (Kennedy Center), Carriere's THE CONTROVERSY (Public Theater), Fo's ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST (Broadway), Strindberg's THE FATHER with Frank Langella (Broadway) and MISS JULIE (Yale Rep), Beaumarchais' THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO (the Guthrie and Broadway); Molière's DON JUAN, Ibsen's WILD DUCK and ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, Pirandello's ENRICO IV, Goldoni's IL CAMPIELLO, Erdmann's THE SUICIDE. With the esteemed translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, he was co-translated Chekhov's THE CHERRY ORCHARD, Gogol's THE INSPECTOR, Turgenev's A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY and Bulgakov's DON QUIXOTE. Films: Hyde Park on Hudson, staring Bill Murray and Laura Linney (Dir: Roger Michell), Ethan Frome, starring Liam Neeson (Dir: John Madden); Sensibility and Sense, staring Elaine Stritch and Jean Simmons (Dir: David Jones). Television: The End of a Sentence with Edward Herrmann (Dir: David Jones). Radio Plays include: HYDE PARK ON HUDSON, LANGUAGES SPOKEN HERE (Giles Cooper Award), EATING WORDS (Giles Cooper Award), ADVICE TO EASTERN EUROPE, AN AMERICAN WIFE (all BBC).
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:
Playwrights Horizons, Inc. and the Goodman Theatre produced the World Premiere
of FRANK'S HOME in New York and Chicago in 2006–2007
FRANK'S HOME was commissioned by Playwrights Horizons
with funds provided by The M.E.W. Commissioning Program
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–$15.95 Play Description
BIG BILL captures tennis player William Tilden’s turbulent life in a series of scenes that shift back and forth in time. Performed on a set that resembles a tennis arena, the play illuminates the sportsman’s distinguished career, extravagant style, personal travails, and, ultimately, his calamitous downfall. A fascinating look at the glory of sport, the power of fame, and the anguish of being an outcast.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (1 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 Play Description
Inspired by the life of Hatshepsut, a woman who ruled as a pharaoh in ancient Egypt. Under the guidance of Senenmut, her female lover, Hatshepsut usurps the throne from her son-in-law, Thutmose III. Full of intrigue, farce, and sexual politics, FIT FOR A QUEEN is a tragicomedy of epic proportions with a modern sensibility.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (4 female, 3 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 Play Description
Based on the true events surrounding the groundbreaking table tennis tournament that marked a decisive new chapter in US–China relations, PING PONG is the story of the extraordinary young man who played the game that changed the world and the political actors who were playing him. With Nixon and Mao on either side of the court, free-spirited hippie Glenn Cowan reaches across the net to usher in a fragile new friendship between two great countries in this funny, incisive, and wildly imaginative new play about the little moments of history that set up the big ones.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (3 female, 5 male, doubling, bit parts)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 Play Description
A factual dramatic account of the advancing history of the Brown v. Board of Ed Supreme Court decision in counterpoint with the personal drama of Senator Strom Thurmond's unacknowledged mixed race daughter, Essie Mae Williams Washington.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (3 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 85 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$35.00 Play Description
A fast-paced musical comedy in which a cast of five Dickens devotees bring hundreds of his best-loved characters to life in 90 minutes of madcap Dickensian mayhem. From Great Expectations complete with flaming bride, to A Christmas Carol in which Tiny Tim rocks the house with a soaring electric guitar solo, DICKENS (ABRIDGED) also features scenes from David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (5 female, 5 male, or any combination of males and females totaling 5)Full Length Comedy (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$15.00 Play Description
As the 19th century moves into the 20th century, the Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi struggles to hold together the proud ancient Chinese empire, which is being assaulted by foreign nations and the technological advances of the age. Following the arrest of a Young Actor who is playing her in the streets, she finds herself powerless at the pinnacle of power, trying to preserve traditional Chinese civilization against overwhelming forces for change.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (3 female, 5 male, optional extras: court attendants)Full Length Drama (about 130 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Period Costumes
$11.95 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 140 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 Play Description
Hounded out of his native England, Joseph Priestley hoped to secure a sanctuary along the banks of the Susquehanna. Would this refugee find America, that great experiment, to be the true democracy he had championed from across the sea? Would he finally be free to pursue his religion, his science, and his political beliefs in this new “land of liberty”? Controversy continued to swirl around him. Revolutionary comrades turned into bitter political opponents when it came time to actually govern the country they founded. The immigrant Priestley was drawn into the vortex of America’s first major crisis. “Freedom of Speech” had yet to be tested, and Priestley’s admirers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were engaged in a deeply polarized debate over the fate of our fledgling nation.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (3 female, 5 male, doubling, bit parts)Full Length Drama (about 120 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$11.95–$15.00 Play Description
This provocative chronicle, interspersed with fantasy sequences from Alice in Wonderland, traces the career of Charles Dodgson (better know as Lewis Carroll) from his first work on the immortal classic to his near downfall when accused of immorality.
Production Info
Cast: 11 total (4 female, 7 male, doubling)Full Length Drama (about 120 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00 Play Description
This play depicts the dramatic final year of the Woodrow Wilson White House when, on her husband’s urging, his new second wife, Edith (sometimes criticized as being “America’s First Female President”) hides the gravity of his illness from his Cabinet and the entire country, hoping to keep him in office long enough to achieve his goal: US entry into the League of Nations — in his view the only possible guarantor of future world peace. A pivotal moment in the play is the Woodrow Wilson/Henry Cabot Lodge confrontation over isolationism vs. internationalism — a topic as fraught with conflict then as it is today.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (2 female, 6 male)Full Length Drama (about 120 minutes)
Single Set
Period Costumes