Special Forces
Play Description
An action-adventure about a mission behind enemy lines during the Gulf War.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (1 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
Press Quotes
“Action sequences that offer a straight-faced microcosm of US 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.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 11/26/2012 |
| Pages | 64 |
| ISBN | 9780881455427 |
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
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
O JERUSALEM centers around an American State Department official who becomes entangled in Middle Eastern politics before and after September 11, 2001. Along the way, the protagonist encounters a Palestinian woman from his past.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (3 female, 2 male)Full Length Drama (about 110 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
Recovering alcoholic John Owens was estranged from his family for decades before his son, a Marine, was killed in Afghanistan. Now, six years later, he receives an invitation to meet his widowed daughter-in-law and his grandson for the first time. From the streets of Los Angeles to a cramped apartment in Phoenix, he prepares to face the ghosts of his past. But nothing can prepare him for the people he'll really meet along the way — and their capacity for forgiveness.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (1 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
A groundbreaking masterpiece of the modern theatre. The play tells the tale of a poor soldier, a barber in the army, who is overwhelmed by the military and forced to become a human guinea pig for quasi-medical research. Consumed by jealousy over his lover’s infidelity, Woyzeck is driven to despair, to madness, and to murder. Poignant and grotesque, insightful and all-too-human, the play broke every theatrical mold of its time, paving the way for theatre as we know it today.
Production Info
Cast: 16 total (4 female, 12 male, doubling, bit parts, children, extras)Full Length Drama (about 120 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
SOMEWHERE IN THE PACIFIC takes place on a troop ship at the end of World War II. The ship's captain is haunted by the death of his son in battle, and the young marines under his command are terrified and restless as they are stalked by an invisible enemy.
Production Info
Cast: 9 total (9 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
Play Description
Alma tries to reckon with injuries suffered by her beautiful daughter, Monique, while serving in the U.S. military in Iraq — injuries so severe that she no longer has a face.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (4 female)Short Drama (about 40 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
A play about love, sex, ambition, and the Arab American experience, ROAR is the story of a Palestinian American family living in Detroit in the wake of the first Gulf War. Karema and Ahmed Yacoub work long hours in their liquor store while their teenage daughter, Irene, relentlessly pursues a career as a pop star. All hell breaks loose when a notoriously sexy and scandalous relative, Hala, gets thrown out of Kuwait and arrives on the doorstep without a return ticket.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (3 female, 2 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
MORE LIES ABOUT JERZY explores the life of a celebrated Polish writer, who comes under fire when the veracity of his award-winning Holocaust memoir is questioned. A startling meditation on art, truth, celebrity, and the artist’s responsibility to his subjects and himself.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (2 female, 5 male, doubling)Full Length Drama (about 120 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
A satirical piece which turns its sharp eye on political correctness, office politics, sexual harassment, religious persuasions, and societal and cultural norms. The actors don’t know which role they’ll play until the audience decides for them at each performance. The actors forge their own unique interpretations in any one of the 40,320 possible casting combinations that could confront them, creating a unique and hilarious interpretation of the show every night.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (4 female, 4 male, Flexible Casting)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$0.00–$15.95
Play Description
Two college professors have left their homeland for a country that soon devolves into a war zone. They’re accustomed to lives of comfort, but it’s hard to get comfortable when you’re chained to a radiator. HOSTAGES explores the intricacies of human nature when it’s deprived of personal contact and torn from the pleasantries of everyday life.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (3 male)Full Length Drama (about 80 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
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