- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
Press Quotes
“This masterly transposition of the gaiety of Schnitzler’s Vienna into the tragic-comic gay life of New York shows us the foibles of our universal search beyond the thrill of encounter, towards the vision of pure love. So many-faceted that everyone will laugh a little, and identify a little. And there’s sure to be controversy among those who insist on an entirely uncritical picture of the gay community. And yet not one of the characters is without deep human sympathies; by an author who has dare to write, without romanticizing, nor criticizing, nor hiding much, of the many levels of gay life, as he has lived it and observed it.” —Judith Malina
Author(s)
Eric BentleyEric Bentley was born in England in 1916, became an American citizen in 1948, in 1998 was inducted into the (American) Theatre Hall of Fame, and in 2011 won a gold medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Scholar, critic, teacher, performer, translator, and, finally, playwright , he has had many books published and many plays and adaptations performed. Several of his critical works have become classics, notably The Playwright as Thinker, Thinking about the Playwright, and The Life of the Drama. Today, nine of his plays are published by Northwestern University Press in three volumes entitled RALLYING CRIES, MONSTROUS MARTYRDOMS, and THE KLEIST VARIATIONS. Four more Bentley titles have recently been published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc: ROUND ONE, ROUND TWO, A TIME TO DIE AND A TIME TO LIVE, and THE STERNHEIM TRILOGY.
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
Bryan Prize for Drama by the Fellowship of Southern Writers
Play Description
The two worlds of pornography and nuclear testing collide during a film shoot in the Marshall Islands.
Production Info
Cast: 9 total (2 female, 7 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00Play Description
In JERKER, alternatively titled “The Helping Hand, A Pornographic Elegy with Redeeming Social Value and A Hymn to the Queer Men of San Francisco in Twenty Telephone Calls, Many of them Dirty,” J.R. and Bert’s anonymous telephone-sex relationship continues to evolve into something deeper until Bert’s health begins to fail.
Production Info
Cast: 2 total (2 male)Full Length Drama (about 70 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
Two women find that they have everything in common until the death of a brother drives them apart. Part stand-up comedy, part stand-up tragedy for two. The redhaired mythology that glorifies and empowers two women leads them into a big love, but can't lead them safely out again. A play about the heaviness of the things we carry.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (2 female, 2 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
Play Description
Bill and Bob entertain young troops who are to be sent overseas to fight. They keep photo albums and correspond as often as possible. The young men put down Mrs B Batchelor as next of kin so that Bill and Bob will be notified if they're killed. When the father of one of the dead soldiers arrives, seeking to discover who Mrs B Batchelor is, he is stunned to learn that his son took part in gay parties and sex.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (3 male)Short Comedy (about 45 minutes)
Single Set
Period Costumes
Play Description
To earn a little money Ray goes with rich men but only when sufficiently drunk. His regular client, John-Bo, is giving him up to get married, and John-Bo's friend Aegis arrives to take him to the wedding rehearsal. Ray persuades Aegis to take him home, and they continue to see each other. But after a trip to Europe together, Ray worries that Aegis will desert him when they arrive in New York. Ray, who still has to get drunk to have sex, has difficulty grasping that Aegis is in love with him and has no intention of letting him go.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (4 male)Short Comedy (about 35 minutes)
Single Set
Period Costumes
$11.95–$15.00Play Description
At the height of the AIDS crisis, Adam searches for answers, comfort, and a new place for sexuality as he witnesses the decline and inevitable loss of his beloved best friend.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (2 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
Play Description
Sphinx & Amos, a country-pop duo, are the gay equivalent of Simon & Garfunkel. After their breakup, Sphinx pursued an unsuccessful acting career in Hollywood. Amos has finally had his first solo concert, and Leon, his manager, has arranged a surprise for him afterwards: Sphinx who has seen the error of his ways and wants them to get back together again.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (3 male)Short Comedy (about 35 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
What would happen if you found that impossible love was indeed possible? And what would happen if two of these couples were a drag queen and a woman, and a priest and a boy?
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (1 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00Play Description
A young man who is dating an attorney feels himself drawn more and more to an older blind man in his search for intimacy.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (3 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95Play Description
The true story of two actors who hired themselves out to the Long Beach Police Department in 1914 to entrap “social vagrants” in public restrooms. Thirty-one men were arrested, and the ensuing scandal led to an ordinance against “oral sodomy” in California.
Production Info
Cast: 2 total (2 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$15.00Play Description
David Drake's smash hit one-man show, here reconceived for an ensemble of twelve, tells the story of his call to gay pride and activism through a series of vignettes exploring thoughts and emotions shared by a whole generation of gay men and women.
Production Info
Cast: 12 total (12 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes