Composers and their stage works 



 

The Harry and Sam Dialogues

Comedy. Karen Ellison : 2 men. Unit Set

Harry and Sam are old friends who like to pass the time posing outlandish questions of one another. "If y'd had the choice would ya rather love a woman whose top half was a fish and whose bottom half was a woman or a woman whose top half was a woman and whose bottom half was a fish?" Harry asks. "Good question," responds Sam. The questions are off the wall, but they slowly reveal the two men's characters, and allow them to take stock of each other while avoiding mundane, but important, life matters. These life matters are woven into their interchanges hints about their lives apart from one another. Harry andhis wife, Marge, are having troubles. In the first scene, Harry mentions he's sleeping on the couch; in the next he is sleeping in his car; later he asks Sam if he can stay at his house; and after that, he jokes that he is sleeping in another state. Sam is wrapped up in New Age books, and tries to dispense their philosophy to enhance the dialogues. But when Harry finds one of Sam's books in Marge's possession, he realizes Sam is having an affair with Marge. Sam apologizes and tries to explain, but the event drives them apart and they do not speak for a time. The two are incomplete without each other however, and the incident forces Harry to reconsider his chosen form of communication (or lack thereof) and to work on his marriage and salvage it. In the final scene, Harry and Sam meet by chance in their favorite bar and reconcile, with Harry using an analogy of dunking Ding-Dong's in what you thought was milk, but which turns out to be orange juice, to say that you don't throw away years of friendship or marriage because of one mistake, which is as much his fault as theirs.
ISBN: 0-8222-1380-X

Harry Outside

Play. Corinne Jacket. 3 men, 4 women. Exterior

A famous and successful architect, Harry Harrison (after confinement, for a mental breakdown), can no longer accept the restrictions and second-rate standards of modern sòciery. He cannot even bear to stay indoors and has, instead, set up his studio in a clearing in the woods. As he labors on a new and absorbing project his life is intertwined with others, family and friends, who, in various ways, love and admire him. From this skillful, and often funny, interplay of characters and action emerges an incisive and affecting indictment of our contemporary way of life - capped by Harry's decision to destroy his secret project, lest it too become merely a "container for people," rather than the work of art it was intended to be.
ISBN: 0-8222-0498-3

Harvest

Play. Ellen Dryden
M2 (35, 40) F5 (18, 30, 60). A chapel, a living-room.

The Fenton family are gathered in their village chapel for the funeral of their oldest member. Marian, who has moved away and is now an outsider, is critical of the close-knit family; she is furious to hear that her brother has given up university to remain at home. After a final confrontation with Peter, the minister, she slips quietly away as the family sing a hymn heartily in the chapel, which is now beautifully decorated for the Harvest Festival.
ISBN 0 573 11171 5

The Harvesting

Play. John Bishop. 7 men, 4 women. Unit Set

The place is Mansfield, Ohio, the time 1976 during the celebration of the nation's bicentennial. As the play begins a police radio reports the murders of the wife of a leading citizen and her lover. A team headed by chief detective John Torski immediately swings into action. Suspicion, at first, centres on the victim's husband, a ruthless local businessman named Bim Miller, a classmate and former friend of Torski's - until he too is murdered. Thereafter, the fascinating trail of clues leads, step by step, through a series of revealing interrogations which, in the end, piece together a chilling tale of hidden crime, festering guilt, alienation and eventual retribution - violently exacted by a tortured, long-lost son who has never forgiven - or forgotten - the sins of his unloving parents.
ISBN: 0-8222-0499-1

Harvey

Mary Chase : Comedy 6M 6F 2 Interior sets

One of the longest running comedies in Broadway and West End history, Harvey has endeared generations of audiences with the relationship of the amiable Elwood P Dowd and his best friend, the 6'1" tall white rabbit which only he can see. Elwood's family are finally driven to committing him into Chumley's Rest home for the mentally disturbed, and here the fun really starts when Doctor Chumley becomes convinced he, too can see Harvey and, believing that the rabbit is a spirit of good fortune, attempts to charm him away from Elwood. The madness is catching as everybody soon believes that Harvey is as large as life.
ISBN: 0 85676 137 0

Harvey

Comedy. Mary Chase. 6 men, 6 women. 2 Interiors.

When Elwood P. Dowd starts to introduce his imaginary friend Harvey, a six-and-a-half foot rabbit, to guests at a dinner party, his sister, Vera, has seen as much of his eccentric behaviour as she can tolerate. She decides to have him committed to a sanitarium to spare her daughter, Myrtle Mae, and their family from future embarrassment. Problems arise, however, when Vera herself is mistakenly assumed to be on the fringe of lunacy when she explains to doctors that years of living with Elwood's hallucination have caused her to see Harvey also! The doctors commit Vera instead of Elwood, but when the truth comes out, the search is on for Elwood and his invisible companion. When he shows up at the sanitarium looking for his lost friend Harvey it seems that the mild-mannered Elwood's delusion has had a strange influence on more than one of the doctors. Only at the, end does Vera realize that maybe Harvey isn't so bad after all.
ISBN: 0-8222-0500-9

The Hasty Heart

Comedy/Drama. John Patrick 8 men, 1 woman. Interior

The story tells of a wounded Scottish soldier whose last few weeks of life, spent in a convalescent ward of a hospital in the Orient, are changed by the sympathetic treatment his fellow patients try to give him - and his stubborn rejection of this. The man's extreme independence of spirit nearly wrecks the good intentions of those who want to make him happy, but at last - particularly after he falls in love with the nurse - he learns the great lesson of love for his neighbour.
ISBN. 0-8222-0501-7

Haunted

Play. Eric Chappell | M4 (30s, 40s, middle age) F2 (30s). A study.

Nigel Burke, aspiring playwright, is neurotic and agoraphobic and hasn't written a word for three months, to the chagrin of his wife, agent and friends. He is visited by the mysterious Potter, who knows of Nigel's interest in Byron and gives him a goblet used by the poet. Drinking from the goblet brings about subtle changes in Nigel's confidence and manner-and then, out of nowhere, Byron himself appears! Haunted is a flippant and exciting play from the author of Natural Causes.
ISBN 0 573 01794 8

The Haunted Honeymoon

Mystery/Comedy. Jonathan Troy. 7 men, 5 women. Interior

Dan and Lisa Morgan are honeymooning in England; and they visit an ancient castle with their tour group. Suspicious run high when they suddenly find themselves trapped in the forbidding Egyptian room of the castle, and are greeted by a voice announcing that he is the reincaknation of Osiris, and that they have been chosen as sacrifices to the god, Thoth. Their abductor has provided food and sleeping accommodations, but the first order of business is to protect themselves from his mad scheme (and perhaps each other), which leads to a series of chilling (and often 'funny) events. But terror mounts as the elusive Osiris strikes first one and then another - until it becomes evident that he must be one of them. The final outcome masks his true identity until the last possible moment, and will hold the audience breathless until the truth is known and the killer brought to justice.

The Haunted Through Lounge and Recessed Dining Nook at Farndale Castle

Comedy. David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jnr
M 1(20) F5 (20-50). A through lounge, car, bedroom.

The ladies of the Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society make yet another spectacle of themselves, complete with their harassed producer and some extremely vigorous sound effects, in this sinister, spine-chilling mystery of murder and mayhem that is guaranteed to bring the house down, or at least a substantial part of the set.
ISBN 0 573 01615 1

The Haunting of Hill House

Andrew Leslie, adapted from the novel by Shirley Jackson : Suspense 3M 4F Interior set

Cut off from the outside world by its remote location and shunned by all who know its forbidding and sinister reputation, Hill House has remained empty and silent except for the daily visits of its grumbling caretaker, Mrs. Dudley. Its isolation is broken by the arrival of Dr. Montague, an investigator of supernatural phenomena who has been granted a short lease by the present owner. His mission is to delve into the morbid history of the house and to come to grips with the occult forces which have made it uninhabitable for many years. He is joined by three others, all unacquainted, but all having their particular reasons for accepting Dr. Montague's invitation to share his Hill House sojourn. Their visit begins with jovial informality, but their sensibilities are soon jolted by strange and eerie occurrences. As they struggle to disguise their mounting fears they are joined. by Dr. Montague's wife and a friend, who have come to Hill House for purposes of their own. They too are absorbed by the supernatural, but their approach is via direct communication with the departed spirits - a type of psychic research which is regarded fearfully by Dr. Montague and which, as subsequent events bear out, brings on a crisis in which the evil forces of Hill House are goaded to a new and, for one of those present, fatal fury.
ISBN: 0 8222 0504 1

Having Our Say, The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years

Drama. Emily Mann | 2 women. Interior.

The original music composed by Baikida Carroll for the Broadway production is available. Write to Dramatist Play Services for particulars

Having Our Say opens as 103-year-old Sadie and 101 year-old Bessie Delany welcome us into their Mount Vernon, New York, home. As they prepare a celebratory dinner in remembrance of their father's birthday, they take us on a remarkable journey through the last hundred years of the American nation's history, recounting a fascinating series of events and anecdotes drawn from their rich family history and careers as pioneering African-American professionals. Their story is not simply African American history or women's history. It is our history, told through the eyes of two unforgettable women as they look not only into the past, but also ahead into the 21st century.  

Hay Fever

Comedy. Noel Coward
M4 (young, middle-age) F5 (young, middle-age, elderly). A hall.

The Bliss family are ultra-Bohemian. One Saturday, they all casually announce that they have invited guests for the weekend, and each Bliss is furious. When the guests arrive, they suffer an uncomfortable tea and then, after dinner, have to play a word game which only the family understand. The evening is capped by a histrionic display by the whole family which succeeds in sending their terrified guests scuttling away by the first train the following morning. Period 1925
ISBN 0 573 01174 5

Haywire

Comedy. Eric Chappell
M2 (20s, 50s) F4 (20s, 30s, 50s, 70s). A living-room.

Alec Firth is having an affair with his assistant, Liz, and has organized his domestic life so that they can go to Spain on holiday without making Alec's wife Maggie remotely suspicious. What could possibly go wrong'? The answer: plenty. On the doorstep, in dizzyingly rapid succession, are: Phoebe, Alec's mother, who has discharged herself from her old people's home; Alec's son Jamie, with a broken ankle; and his daughter Mandy, heavily pregnant and not planning to marry the child's father ...
ISBN 0 573 01798 0