- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
Press Quotes
“Action sequences that offer a straight-faced microcosm of U S blundering in Iraq … Hilarious scenes limning the hell-yeah, know-nothing spirit that many fear now dominates our military personnel … Like an eccentric novella that holds attention … [A] half queer Casablanca homage, half American-policy-in-Iraq docudrama that is perversely interesting. Fisher is a kick.” —Dennis Harvey, Variety
“Witty, thought-provoking and inventive … Engrossing and entertaining.” —Rob Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle
“Low-key hilarity, understated and allusive wit, unexpected grace, and distant but bitter sadness in this canny exploration of war through the prism of gender.” —Robert Avila, Bay Guardian
“A sobering tale of modern combat in which romantic notions of war are trammeled … SPECIAL FORCES is designed to be lean and mean, much as the current Iraq war was conceived to be. But unlike the war, the play actually succeeds in its terseness.” —Richard Dodds, Bay Area Reporter
Author(s)
John FisherJohn Fisher has written and directed over twenty works for the stage, both plays and musicals with original music and lyrics. His shows include the long-running MEDEA: THE MUSICAL, COMBAT! and THE JOY OF GAY SEX, all of which have been performed in many cities (NYC, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles) and have received numerous awards (Critics Circle, NEA Grant, Glickman, Backstage, GLAAD.) His plays have been performed Off-Broadway in New York City. He has directed many plays by other authors in local premieres (SF Bay Area) or major revivals. These shows include NOT ABOUT NIGHTINGALES, RED SCARE ON SUNSET, BENT and THE PHILANDERER. He also worked with major regional theatres, including Yale Rep and ACT.
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:
First produced by Theater Rhinoceros in San Francisco
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
$11.95–$15.00
Play Description
Trapped in horrendous and cramped living conditions with his father and grandfather, Rosario Cortez battles to break his family's cycle of poverty and remove his son from the violence and squalor of the urban ghetto.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (1 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$11.95–$15.00
Winner of the 1993 Tony Award for Best Play
Play Description
In the first part of Tony Kushner's epic, set in 1980's New York City, a gay man is abandoned by his lover when he contracts the AIDS virus, and a closeted Mormon lawyer's marriage to his pill-popping wife stalls. Other characters include the infamous McCarthy-ite lawyer Roy Cohn, Ethel Rosenberg, a former drag queen who works as a nurse, and an angel.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (3 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 180 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
Midway through Albert Camus's The Stranger, an Arab is killed. Leaping from this moment and working backwards through possible histories of tangled romance, ethnic conflict, and random violence, Betty Shamieh has crafted a play inspired by this unnamed character. Infused with elements of Middle Eastern oral storytelling traditions and set in French Algiers on the brink of revolution, THE STRANGEST is an absurdist murder mystery about three Algerian brothers who vie for the love of the same woman. Their bitter rivalry ends with one brother being inexplicably gunned down by a French stranger.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (2 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
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
$15.00
Play Description
The play chronicles the selfless acts of Janusz Korczak, the teacher and director. Korczak strove to give the children of the Warsaw Ghetto a sense of normalcy despite the horrific conditions and eventually chose to leave with them for the Treblinka death camp.
Production Info
Cast: 13 total (4 female, 9 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$11.95–$100.00
Play Description
A paean to gay life and its idiosyncrasies, TEN PERCENT REVUE has proven a hit across the country with audiences of all persuasions. An uncompromisingly delightful musical revue.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (2 female, 2 male)Full Length Comedy (about 75 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$11.95–$15.00
Play Description
A fantastical/political/historical exploration of life in the Soviet Union in the earliest dawn of Perestroika. In scenes ranging from the inner chambers of the Politburo to a secret chamber beneath Lenin’s Tomb to a medical facility near a radioactive disposal site in Siberia, SLAVS! considers the difficulty, the failure, and the abiding importance of Socialism and of ongoing efforts towards building collective societies and a more just world.
Production Info
Cast: 10 total (3 female, 7 male)Full Length Drama (about 80 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00
Play 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–$15.95
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
RUNDOWN is the story of Pay, a Vietnam veteran, who is involved in a civilian massacre, and his best friend, Spear, a radical antiwar activist, whose activities lead to the death of two American soldiers.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (1 female, 3 male)Full Length Drama (about 110 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00
Play 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