The Hopper Collection
Play Description
THE HOPPER COLLECTION follows the story of a married woman, Marjorie, obsessed by an encounter with the New England artist Edward Hopper
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (2 female, 2 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
Press Quotes
“Based on the evidence of HOPPER … Mat Smart is a talent worth keeping an eye on for some time to come. HOPPER is an impressive debut. It’s — yes — smart, as well as fresh, funny and full of unexpected turns and curiously evocative moments. Still more impressive is the skill with which Smart has created an individual voice for each character. Daniel may complain of ‘the endless hell that is having a wife that doesn’t love you but still wants to talk’ — with a wonderfully meaningful emphasis on that final word. But even more than his cleverly evolving situations and wry observations, it’s the way these characters talk that marks THE HOPPER COLLECTION as the work of a very promising artist.” —Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle
“A work of art … Albee’s influence on Smart is all to the good as the play progresses … The twenty-six year-old is wise beyond his years about how people live, and don’t live, their lives. There is a measure of innocence as well as experience in Hopper’s painting, and those two qualities are apparent in Smart’s play as well. Real theatrical flair.” —Ed Siegel, Boston Globe
“Intriguing … acerbic and touching! Clever and slightly absurdist … the barbed sophistication and the innocence at the heart of the play.” —Carolyn Clay, Boston Phoenix
“Wonderfully crazy-funny characters … Sparks fly! Smart proves he’s a talent worth watching.” —Terry Byrne, Boston Herald
Author(s)
Mat SmartMat Smart is the recipient of the 2014 New Voices Award from the William Inge Center for the Arts. Plays include: NAPERVILLE (Slant Theatre Project in Fall 2014), TINKER TO EVERS TO CHANCE (Geva in May 2014), THE STEADFAST (Slant, published by Dramatists Play Service), SAMUEL J. AND K. (Williamstown Theatre Festival, Steppenwolf and Passage Theatre), THE HOPPER COLLECTION (Magic Theatre and Huntington Theatre Company, published by Broadway Play Publishing), THE 13TH OF PARIS (City Theatre, Seattle Public Theatre, Horizon Theatre, Public Theatre of Maine, Warehouse Theatre and LiveWire in Chicago), THE BEBOP HEARD IN OKINAWA (O'Neill Playwrights' Conference) and THE DEBATE OVER COURTNEY O'CONNELL OF COLUMBUS, NEBRASKA (Slant, Chalk Rep, Bryant Lake Bowl, Boone's Bar and Theatre 502). An alumnus of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and Ars Nova's Play Group, he is currently a Core Writer at the Playwrights' Center, a member of the Dorothy Strels in New American Writer's Group at Primary Stages, and was an inaugural member of The Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm. He has been commissioned by South Coast Rep and Huntington. He has received two Jerome Fellowships and a McKnight Advancement Grant. He is a co-founder of Slant Theatre Project. Undergrad: University of Evansville. MFA: UCSD. An avid baseball fan and traveler, Mat has been to all 30 of the current MLB stadiums, all 50 states and 6 continents — including a stint working as a janitor at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. His newest play, THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ANTARCTICA, has received readings at Primary Stages, the Playwrights' Center, and The New Harmony Project. He lives in Manhattan.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 10/10/2007 |
| Pages | 80 |
| ISBN | 9780881453539 |
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:
Originally produced by the Magic Theater, 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
A Stephen King–like thriller involving a haunted church, supernatural happenings, and — of course — a homicidal maniac. From the bestselling playwright of THE WOMAN WITH 27 CHILDREN.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (3 female, 2 male, Child Actor)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$11.95–$15.00
Play Description
A witty and touching play, inspired by the author’s mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (4 female, 3 male)Full Length Comedy (about 100 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
$11.95–$15.00
Play Description
An adoptee searches for her natural mother, seeking to discover who she is from the person from whom she came.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (4 female, 2 male, Multiethnic Cast)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
When Amelia’s mother receives Compassionate Release from her prison sentence, Amelia’s carefully constructed world is threatened. Twenty-six years of living vicariously through her beloved TV characters doesn’t prepare her for the actual drama of her mother’s return or the advances of a charming co-worker. The ticking clock of her mother’s illness means Amelia must decide if her fictional life is safer than the possibility of her own story.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (3 female, 1 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
During a seemingly normal fishing trip weekend in the woods of Northern Wisconsin a marriage of thirty years implodes, leaving an entire family to face truths about the lives they live and the relationships they have with each other.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (2 female, 3 male)Full Length Drama (about 85 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
A black comedic look at the parents in Peter Pan. It is set in the present, in an upscale townhouse. Mrs Darling is a socialite and George Darling is a white collar criminal with the US Attorney’s Office closing in. George has decided that he must escape to Switzerland, but his wife refuses to believe that his problems are real. She goes off to receive an award for her work with “brownish” children. George then confides in Nana, his dog and drinking companion, his disappointment in the devolution of his marriage. Upon Mrs Darling’s return, they notice that their children, Wendy Peter, and Michael to are missing — it takes them awhile, though, as they only speak to their children through the intercom. The Darlings proceeded to try to retrieve their children, each in his own way. In doing so, they explore their commitment to parenthood and to each other.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (2 female, 2 male)Full Length Comedy (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
A devastating play about the impact of addiction, THE LONG RED ROAD introduces us to Sammy, who has fled his past and landed in South Dakota, where he is slowly drinking himself to death. When his young daughter arrives desperate to reunite with her father, he must decide between the self-hatred that consumes him and the responsibilities he’s tried to leave behind.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (3 female, 3 male, Native American Cast)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
$0.00–$15.95
Play Description
East meets West meets mayhem in this Muslim-American family comedy evoking universal themes of faith, culture, belonging, and desire. TEN ACROBATS adds a new chapter to the American immigrant narrative.
Production Info
Cast: 10 total (4 female, 6 male)Full Length Comedy (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00
Play Description
A young woman returns home to find her gauche and uneducated beautician mother has hired The Perfect Daughter, taken a handsome young cowboy lover, is learning French, and is adopting a buffalo. What is Mom up to? Has this lower-middle-class older woman who is taking on all these airs lost her mind? And where did her sudden wealth come from? These are only a few of the mysteries lawyer Vicky and her ineffectual husband have to figure out in this fast-moving comedy which explores the mother-daughter relationship and the nature of familial and many other kinds of love.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (4 female, 2 male)Full Length Comedy (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$11.95–$15.00
Play Description
This witty and passionate play explores the story of a man with Alzheimer’s and at the same time turns into “a travel guide to Middle America conducted by aliens from outer space.” The play has a wonderful comic sensibility, but this is a chillingly painful play addressing postmodern society’s collective nervous breakdown.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (3 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
$15.95
Play Description
THE GABRIELS trilogy chronicles a year in the life of a neighboring family who reunite in real time at three different points across 2016 to celebrate, remember, and wait for the world to change. History and politics, art and culture, love and hate are all on the table as the Gabriels gather in the kitchen of the house they grew up in — ultimately revealing the deep, human impact of one of the most extraordinary years in American history. Part Three, WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE: It is election night as the Gabriels economic woes worsen. They have worked hard and played by the rules, and yet they are slipping from the middle class. Is there hope to be had?
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (5 female, 1 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
On an island in Maine, two men of the cloth — a Bishop and a disgraced former priest — conduct an investigation into the disappearance of a young priest. As his story is recounted, we see the young priest, Edmond, and a parishioner, Sheila, meet. Sheila wants Riley, her eleven-year-old son who has Canavan’s disease, to receive communion. Edmond tries to educate a child considered incapable of communication. As Edmond becomes more involved with Sheila and Riley, he begins to question his religious and human role. In need of her own spiritual guidance and companionship, Sheila challenges Edmond’s humanity, while also threatening his priesthood.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (2 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 95 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes