Plays by Janet Neipris

Janet Neipris
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Description

This collection includes three full-length plays: A SMALL DELEGATION, ALMOST IN VEGAS, and THE AGREEMENT. A SMALL DELEGATION: Three American professors come to teach in China the summer before Tiananmen Square. ALMOST IN VEGAS: When Margie decides she wants a child, her affair with Louis, a married man, gets complicated. THE AGREEMENT: A husband and wife, cheered on by their respective lawyers, hastily and hilariously divide the spoils of their marriage.

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Reviews

Press Quotes

A SMALL DELEGATION

“This compelling play, set in China in 1988, just one year prior to the Tiananmen Square massacre, is a serious study of the political atmosphere of the country during that year. The drama also examines the enormous barriers which hinder understanding between east and west.” —Gemini Williams, Summer Pennsylvanian

“Neipris’s method is one of accretion, piecing together a complex mosaic. We come to see each individual in the drama attempting to cope with a political system that seems almost random in its changeability. Neipris’s even-handedness in dealing with her characters is such that even as we blame the system for Sun’s fate, we also blame Remy — and ourselves by extension, since her instincts are our own. Written from a western perspective, this feels like an inside job in its merging of illusion and reality.” —Clifford Ridley, The Inquirer (Philadelphia)

ALMOST IN VEGAS

“A wonderfully moving and touching play.” —Patrick O’Connor, Backstage

“Neipris is trying to touch something deeper than the funny bone. The play becomes a study of decent people trying to understand their own needs and the lovers who cannot fulfill them.” —Walter Goodman, The New York Times

THE AGREEMENT

“This is a funny and wise play. Neipris has a wonderful ear for the way people talk when they are trying to say the right thing in an unfamiliar and unnerving situation.” —DJR Bruckner, The New York Times

“Funny and sad at the same time, and that is always a tall order.” —Nels Nelson, Daily News (Philadelphia)

About the Author

Author

  • Janet Neipris

    Janet Neipris's plays have been produced at major theatres in the U.S. and internationally, including the National Theatre, London, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York, The Women's Project, Goodman Theatre, Chicago, Arena Stage, D.C., Studio Theatre, D.C., Center Stage, Baltimore, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Milwaukee Rep., the Annenberg Center, Philadelphia, and The China Youth Arts Theatre, Beijing. Her awards include two NEA's in playwriting, two Rockefeller Grants to Bellagio, 1990, for A SMALL DELEGATION, about Americans in China the year before Tiananmen Square, and in 2004, A QUESTION OF COUNTRY, based on a true story about the friendship between a black woman and a white woman during apartheid and the impossibility of it post-apartheid. Other awards include a USIA Grant, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship, 1995-2000, O'Neill Center Playwright in Residence, 2002. In 2004 she received a New York University Faculty Research Grant to visit South Africa to research a new play, and in 2008, a New York University Presidential Fellowship for her play about South Africa. Her first agent was the fierce Helen Merrill. The second was the marvelous Lois Berman. She is currently well represented by the good Patricia McLaughlin at Beacon Artists Agency. Janet Neipris is the author of STATUES, EXHIBITION, THE BRIDGE AT BELHARBOUR, BRUSSELS SPROUTS, SUNDAY AT FIVE ON THE COTE D'AZUR, ACTS OF LOVE, OUT OF ORDER, 703 WALK HILL, ALMOST IN VEGAS, NATIVES, LOOK MA WE'RE DANCING, AFTER MARSEILLES, THE AGREEMENT, A SMALL DELEGATION (original music by Tan Dun, set design by Ming Cho Lee), and A QUESTION OF COUNTRY. She has also written for film, BBC, and the NPR's Earplay Series. A composer, she wrote the score and co-authored the book and lyrics for the children's musical JEREMY AND THE THINKING MACHINE, which was produced by the National Theatre, London. She also composed an original score for DEATH OF A SALESMAN, at the Sharon, Ct. Playhouse, music for Paul Celan's BLACK MILK OF MORNING, NOTES ON A LIFE, music and lyrics, Women's Project, NYC, and music for Circle Repertory Theatre, where she was an original member. Anthologies include Contemporary Women Playwrights and Best Short Plays. She was keynote speaker at the Prindle Institute for Ethics, DePauw University, on The Moral Responsibility of the Artist. She is currently working on a book of collected short stories, Blue Hills. As Chair of Graduate Playwriting and Screenwriting, Department of Dramatic Writing, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, she has educated some of the country's leading playwrights and screenwriters. Her book To Be a Playwright (Routledge Publishers) is used widely in universities. Master Class in Dramatic Writing is forthcoming from Routledge Publishers in 2016. She has taught playwrights and screenwriters in China, Indonesia, Florence, Prague, London, and South Africa. She is a member of Writer's Guild of America East, PEN, and served on the Dramatists Guild Council Tony Committee, and founded and chaired their Dramatists Guild Fellows Program. Her plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing and Samuel French. Her plays and letters are in the Harvard University Houghton Theatre Collection. www.janetneipris.com

About the Book

Book Information

Publisher BPPI
Publication Date 1/1/2000
Pages 160
ISBN 9780881451665

Special Notes

Special Notes

Licensees are required to include the original stage producers credits 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:
The following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
Plays by Janet Neipris is produced
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com