Plays by Michael Brady
Collection Description
This collection includes three full-length plays: TO GILLIAN ON HER 37TH BIRTHDAY, TWO BEARS BLINKING, and KORCZAK’S CHILDREN. TO GILLIAN ON HER 37TH BIRTHDAY: A grieving widower must accept his wife’s death to save himself and his relationship with his daughter. TWO BEARS BLINKING: Mysterious lights appearing on canyon wall attract a group of people to a ranch in New Mexico. KORCZAK’S CHILDREN: The story of Janusz Korczak who strove to give the children of the Warsaw Ghetto a sense of normalcy despite the horrific conditions.
Plays in This Collection
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
Press Quotes
TO GILLIAN ON HER 37TH BIRTHDAY
“… Though TO GILLIAN begins as a simple dramatization of its hero’s obsessive mourning, it gradually expands to become a richer form of family drama … [Mr Brady] writes with a rueful sophistication that keeps his story’s sentimentality at bay … TO GILLIAN is peppered with sharp, evenhanded observations about the tenuous ties that connect husbands and wives and parents and children … if TO GILLIAN is a play that sends a ghost flying out of [the] heavens, its appeal derives from its author’s keen sensitivity to life down here on earth.” —Frank Rich, The New York Times
“This first major work by Michael Brady has well-dimensioned characters, solid conflict, piquant writing and gives off a warm, affirmative glow … When it has become not uncommon to encounter plays with no sympathetic characters, audiences will respond affectionately to everyone In GILLIAN. Working on a small canvas, the author is in impressive control of his material …” —Richard Hummler, Variety
TWO BEARS BLINKING
“A play with a fresh point of view that combines compassion, a sense of humor, and emotional honesty, with complex, articulate characters who merit sympathy and attention.” —Miami Herald
“A memory play — mysterious and poetic.” —Miami Backstage
KORCZAK’S CHILDREN
“KORCZAK’S CHILDREN draws its drama from the reality of the Warsaw Ghetto — honest, relentless and heartbreaking.” —Will Sonzski, Boston College Biweekly
“Within every great tragedy there are small tragedies. And because they are simpler to grasp, the numbers more manageable, small tragedies wring our souls more painfully than the large. KORCZAK’S CHILDREN is a wrenching story dramatically told.” —James Brady, Advertising Age
Author(s)
Michael BradyMichael Brady's first play, SARA, was produced by Equity Library Theatre in 1980 at Lincoln Center. KORCZAK'S CHILDREN won the first Jesu Award in Playwriting and was produced by the Boston College Dramatics Society in 1982. TO GILLIAN ON HER 37TH BIRTHDAY was developed through the literary department of The Ensemble Studio Theatre and M Square Entertainment and moved to Circle-in-the-Square. GILLIAN was awarded the Oppenheimer Award for best play of 1983, and was produced as a film in 1996 by Sony Pictures. Other stage works include: TWO BEARS BLINKING, produced by New Theatre of Miami, SEMPER FI, produced by The Gloucester Stage Company, and HARD TIME, Main Street Stage, North Adams, Massachusetts. TO GILLIAN ON HER 37TH BIRTHDAY, KORCZAK'S CHILDREN, SEMPER FI, and TWO BEARS BLINKING are published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc. Michael's play TITLES was given a staged reading in July 2013 by the Berkshire Playwrights Lab in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. TITLES received another reading at Memberfest at The Ensemble Studio Theatre in November 2013. Both readings were directed by Giovanna Sardelli. Mr. Brady is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Ensemble Studio Theatre. In addition to his writing, Michael served for several years as the Program Officer for Artists for the Massachusetts Cultural Council, overseeing a grant giving program for literary, visual, and performance artists. He lives in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts with his wife, Patricia Jacobsen-Brady.