The Deploration of Rover
This play is included in the collection:
Play Description
Fido is angry that Rover, in spite of being sick, continues to act on his desires.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (3 male)Short Drama (about 30 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
Press Quotes
“These strange, wonderful, heartbreaking plays go beyond magic realism into something very deep and primal. No matter where he began, in fairy tale or phone sex, Robert Chesley always took his audience someplace new. He could shift from the silly to the dangerous to the tender in the blink of an eye. His plays are not period pieces, but startling glimpses of a recent past that tell us things we badly need to know about our present and future.” —Christopher Bram
“Without question, Robert Chesley is the most incisive gay playwright at work in America today.” —Mark Thompson, The Advocate
“Robert Chesley wrote gut-wrenching plays.” —Linda Winer, Newsday
Author(s)
Robert ChesleyPlaywright, Composer, Author, Activist. B.A. in Music, Reed College, Portland, Oregon. Robert Chesley is best remembered as a playwright, though he was also an author, critic, and composer. He was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, and taught in private schools in upstate New York for nearly ten years before settling in New York City in 1976. He relocated to San Francisco in the early 1980s where he became a part of the gay theater scene. Chesley composed during the ten-year period 1965 to 1975 and his compositions were almost exclusively for voice. Between 1966 and 1970 he composed 53 songs, mostly to texts by American poets including Emily Dickinson, Willa Cather, and James Agee, and including sixteen settings of the British poet Walter de la Mare. There are also several choral works from the 1970s, with texts by Gertrude Stein and Walt Whitman among others. His few instrumental works include the score to a 1972 film by Erich Kollmar, the "Sonata for Guitar and Harpsichord" (1974), and the "Little Concerto for Two Flutes and String Orchestra" (1968), which was revived in 1991 in a Benson Series concert of Downtown Music Productions, conducted by Mimi Stern-Wolfe. The transformation of Robert Chesley, composer, to Robert Chesley, playwright, roughly coincided with his move to San Francisco. In 1984 the city's Theatre Rhinoceros produced his first one act, HELL, I LOVE YOU and in 1984 Chesley's NIGHT SWEAT became the first produced full-length play to deal with AIDS. In all, Chesley wrote ten full-length and twenty-one one-act plays. Several works were premiered posthumously, and all of his major plays have been published. Robert Chesley died of AIDS in San Francisco at the age of 47 on December 5, 1990.
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
Play Description
A trilogy of interconnected one-act plays, whose subject matter is the AIDS epidemic. In (WILD) PERSON, TENSE (DOG) Dog and Buck, former lovers, run into each other at a bar. Both now have AIDS. Buck’s disease is in the advanced stages, and Dog refuses to recognize and acknowledge their shared past and, inevitably, their shared future. In THE DEPLORATION OF ROVER Fido is angry that Rover, in spite of being sick, continues to act on his desires. And in HOLD Dog reminisces with Lad, his lover, as he undresses him, but Lad, who has died of AIDS, exists now only in Dog’s imagination.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (5 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$19.95 Collection Description
This collection includes seven one-act plays: 1920s: ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE, 1930s: THE RIVER JORDAN, 1940s: BILL BATCHELOR ROAD, 1950s: ODD NUMBER, 1960s: FOG, 1970s: FAIRY TALE, 1980s: POUF POSITIVE. UNTOLD DECADES is a unique concept: seven one-act plays, each in a different setting with different characters, which together trace the romantic comedy of gay male love over seven decades of the twentieth century. From the secret sophistication of the international gay scene in the ’20s through such variations as the poverty of the ’30s, wartime revelry of the ’40s, Cold War paranoia of the ’50s, ghetto ritualization in the ’60s, coming of age in the post-liberation ’70s, to the plague-filled ’80s, these plays range widely in style and tone. But all display the deft touch and dazzling insights of a masterful comic mind. 1920s: ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE: A writer and a fan are flattered and embarrassed when acquaintances try to fix them up at a black-tie party. 1930s: THE RIVER JORDAN: 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. 1940s: BILL BATCHELOR ROAD: 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. 1950s: ODD NUMBER: Brad and Edgar realize they’re in love. Brad is in the Air Force and has a few months left to serve. An officer arrives at the house, which belongs to a lesbian couple who have been entertaining men from the air base, and the neighbors have reported it. The officer is a closeted gay man and blackmails Brad in return for not reporting him. 1960s: FOG: Fag and Stud meet up in Central Park. Stud describes how when he first arrived in New York as an intellectual he couldn’t find a partner, so he took up body building. Now he can’t find a partner because men are afraid of him. 1970s: FAIRY TALE: 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. 1980s: POUF POSITIVE: Bob, a playwright, tries to cheer up his ex-lover, Robin, who has AIDS. But the only thing it seems that will really cheer Robin up is for Bob to write a funny AIDS play.
Plays in This Collection
Short Drama (about 30 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 
Play Description
A comedy with songs about students falling in and out of love.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (3 female, 5 male)Full Length Comedy (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00 Play 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
$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
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
Play Description
Dog and Buck, former lovers, run into each other at a bar. Both now have AIDS. Buck’s disease is in the advanced stages, and Dog refuses to recognize and acknowledge their shared past and, inevitably, their shared future.
Production Info
Cast: 2 total (2 male)Short Drama (about 30 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 Play Description
When Trent brings Felix home to New Orleans to meet his father and homophobic grandfather, the family’s demons come slithering into the light. Watchful ghosts, sinister hustlers, and a myriad of parasites lead Felix on a Southern Gothic journey to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (4 male)Full Length Drama (about 105 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95 Play Description
Arrogant young Puerto Rican Fatima, who works as a counter girl at a fast-food restaurant, has been arrested for the murder of 14 people, poisoned at her workplace. Young attorney Jeremy has been assigned to defend her and asks a Latina colleague, Maritza, to be his translator. But Fatima refuses to talk to anyone but Maritza, and she's enough of a manipulator to get her way. Fatima claims she has been blessed — or cursed — with psychic powers. By merely clasping the hand of an individual, she says, she can immediately grasp everything about him/her including past, future, and innermost secrets. She tells Maritza that her murders were mercy killings: She “read” each of her victims and killed them because they wanted to die. Maritza is first incredulous, then indignant at Fatima's playing God. She firmly resists letting Fatima clasp her hand, but Fatima is persuasive, constantly shifting from pugnacious, foul-mouthed street girl to wise and wily seductress to gentle, compassionate young woman. Maritza finally offers up her hand, yielding her secrets and placing her fate in Fatima's grasp.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (3 female, 3 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
Play Description
Brad and Edgar realize they're in love. Brad is in the Air Force and has a few months left to serve. An officer arrives at the house, which belongs to a lesbian couple who have been entertaining men from the air base, and the neighbors have reported it. The officer is a closeted gay man and blackmails Brad in return for not reporting him.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (3 male)Short Comedy (about 45 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary 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
Play Description
Bob, a playwright, tries to cheer up his ex-lover, Robin, who has AIDS. But the only thing it seems that will really cheer Robin up is for Bob to write a funny AIDS play.
Production Info
Cast: 1 total (1 male)Short Comedy (about 15 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes