Additional Guides
- Nilo Cruz Research GuideIncludes links and information on individual plays.
- Paula Vogel Research GuideIncludes links and information on individual plays.
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Introduction
Welcome to the curated list of plays for Drama of Diversity! Here you will find a slowly growing list of additional great works, which we want to continue building and refining with your help to add and subtract the plays that speak to you most deeply and affectively.
For the Theater 107 plays bibliography mini-term assignment you choose one play that you're interested in: use the tabs to look at suggestions from the topics you are interested in (some plays are listed in more than one category!). All plays listed here are available in online formats, although for some you will need to be sure you're logged onto the UCLA proxy or VPN to fully access Library resources.
If you don't see anything that interests you, OR you feel more adventurous and want to see what ELSE is out there-- follow this page down lower and use the research resources (play lists and monologue books) or the many full-text databases we have to try finding a new play of your own to read and evaluate. If you really like the play you find, and think other students in 107 might like to check it out too, then use the Recommend form to tell us a bit more about it, make your pitch, and we will look into adding it!
In addition to the option of pitching the plays you read to the curated list, you will turn in your report on the play to the Theater 107 class Bruin Learn page. This report is modeled after a typical "slush pile" report that might be made at a theater company while the theater is trying to formulate their next year's season. Your report should answer the following questions, in approximately one paragraph each:
- Summarize the plot of the play (what actually happens?) in one paragraph/2-3 sentences.
- Describe how the play is told--this is a question about the dramaturgical mechanics: what literary or performance devices are employed? Is it a realist drama? Camp or satirical? What's most notable to you about the way in which the plot is conveyed, promising or perhaps not so promising?
- Consider casting requirements: which types of actors are required for the main roles? Are there, in your opinion, opportunities for creative casting, or things to keep in mind while casting?
- Production requirements: think about what is required for the stage/playing space. Is the play flexible enough to allow a lot of artistic freedom for the designers or are most scenery pieces required by the script? You can add a couple sentences of your recommendation for the set/lighting/sound designs.
- Your personal recommendation on whether this play should be staged now, with justification. This is not just "is this play good?" --it is also about why now, how it would contribute to specific present dialogue and issues, and what it adds to the public conversation.
Drama of Diversity and plays in general are often about serious subjects, so note that there are some content advisories on the plays that contain certain themes, like sexual or physical violence. HOWEVER, KEEP IN MIND THAT WE MAY NOT BE ABLE TO ANTICIPATE ALL DIFFICULT TOPICS AND NOT ALL THEMES HAVE BEEN NOTATED, so you may find these types of events or issues in additional plays, not marked. It is of course impossible for others to fully anticipate which scenes and ideas every person might find upsetting. If there are specific issues or themes that you want to be sure to avoid at all costs, then contact your TA or professor and we will work with you more closely to help you choose a play.
Recommend a Play Title for This Course Guide
Selected Individual Plays and Anthologies
The Father by ISBN: 9780571327256Date: 2017-03-14Winner of the 2014 Molière Award for Best Play. In a darkly humorous and deeply poignant translation by Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller’s The Father is a tragi-comic mystery, a sobering and realistic family story, and an unsentimental, emotionally intense look at the world through the eyes of a man experiencing dementia.
For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday by ISBN: 9780573705342Date: 2018-01-01When Ann thinks of her father, she immediately remembers playing Peter Pan in her hometown theater in Iowa, particularly when he used to bring her flowers after her performance. Her memory is jogged by the fact that she and her four siblings are in their father's hospital room during his final moments. His death sparks a conversational wake that includes everything from arguments over politics to when each sibling realized that they grew up. A loving look at a family's view of death, life, and the allure of never growing up.
Burning Vision by ISBN: 0889224722Date: 2003-03-15Unmasks both the great lies of the imperialist power-elite (telling miners they are digging for a substance to "cure cancer" while secretly using it to build the atomic bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki); and the seemingly small rationalizations and accommodations people of all cultures construct to make their personal circumstances yield the greatest benefit to themselves for the least amount of effort or change on their part. It is also a scathing attack on the "public apology" as yet another mask, as a manipulative device, which always seeks to conceal the maintenance and furtherance of the self-interest of its wearer.
Keepers of the Morning Star: An Anthology of Native Women's Theater by ISBN: 0935626565Date: 2003-01-01The first major anthology of Native women's contemporary theater bringing together works from established and new playwrights. This collection, representing a rich diversity of Native communities, showcases the exciting range of Native women's theater today from the dynamic fusion of storytelling, ceremony, music and dance to the bold experimentation of poetic stream of consciousness and Native agitprop.
Sovereignty: A Play by ISBN: 9780810141407Date: 2020-02-15Log in for temporary e-access via HathiTrust. Sovereignty unfolds over two parallel timelines. In present-day Oklahoma, a young Cherokee lawyer, Sarah Ridge Polson, and her colleague Jim Ross defend the inherent jurisdiction of Cherokee Nation in the U.S. Supreme Court when a non-Indian defendant challenges the Nation's authority to prosecute non-Indian perpetrators of domestic violence. Their collaboration is juxtaposed with scenes from 1835, when Cherokee Nation was eight hundred miles to the east in the southern Appalachians. That year, Sarah's and Jim's ancestors, historic Cherokee rivals, were bitterly divided over a proposed treaty with the administration of Andrew Jackson, the Treaty of New Echota, which led to the nation's removal to Oklahoma on the infamous Trail of Tears. A direct descendant of nineteenth-century Cherokee leaders John Ridge and Major Ridge, Mary Kathryn Nagle has penned a play that twists and turns from violent outbursts to healing monologues, illuminating a provocative double meaning for the sovereignty of both tribal territory and women's bodies.The Thanksgiving Play/What Would Crazy Horse Do? by
Good intentions collide with absurd assumptions in Larissa FastHorse’s wickedly funny satire, as a troupe of terminally “woke” teaching artists scrambles to create a pageant that somehow manages to celebrate both Turkey Day and Native American Heritage Month.
What Would Crazy Horse Do?: Twins Calvin and Journey, the last two members of the Marahotah tribe, make a suicide pact to end the Marahotah when the grandfather who raised them dies. Then two white strangers knock on their door and the insular world of the twins is ripped wide open.
Cambodian Rock Band by ISBN: 9780573707247Date: 2019-11-01In 1978, Chum fled Cambodia and narrowly escaped the murderous Khmer Rouge regime. Thirty years later he returns in search of his wayward daughter, Neary. Jumping back and forth in time, thrilling mystery meets rock concert as both father and daughter are forced to face the music of the past. From playwright Lauren Yee (King of the Yees, The Great Leap) comes a story filled with horror, humor, pathos, and songs by the best unknown rock band in Cambodia! Content: violence
King of the Yees by ISBN: 9780573707254Date: 2018-01-01For nearly twenty years, playwright Lauren Yee's father, Larry, has been a driving force in the Yee Family Association, a seemingly obsolescent Chinese American men's club formed a hundred fifty years ago in the wake of the Gold Rush and the building of the transcontinental railroad. But when her father goes missing, Lauren must plunge into the rabbit hole of San Francisco Chinatown and confront a world both foreign and familiar.
Peerless by ISBN: 9780573705878Date: 2017-07-07Asian-American twins M and L have given up everything to get into The College. So when D, a one-sixteenth Native American classmate, gets "their" spot instead, they figure they've got only one option: kill him. A darkly comedic take on Shakespeare's Macbeth about the very ambitious and the cut-throat world of high school during college admissions. Content: ViolenceTea by
ISBN: 9780822221036Date: 2006-01-01Four women come together to clean the house of a fifth after her tragic suicide upsets the balance of life in their small Japanese immigrant community in the middle of the Kansas heartland. The spirit of the dead woman returns as a ghost ringmaster to force the women to come to terms with the disquieting tension of their lives and find common ground so that she can escape from the limbo between life and death, and move on to the next world in peace—and indeed carve a pathway for their future passage. Content: violence, sexual violence
You for Me for You by ISBN: 9781474276740Date: 2016-01-19As they attempt to flee the Best Nation in the World, North Korean sisters Minhee and Junhee are torn apart at the border. Each must race across time and space to be together again - navigating the perilous Land of the Free and the treacherous terrain of personal belief. Food has learned to sprint. Money is so fast it doesn't wait to be printed. Gossip travels swifter than germs.
Appropriate/An Octoroon by ISBN: 9781559364904Date: 2019-05-21An Octoroon: Judge Peyton is dead and his plantation Terrebonne is in financial ruins. Peyton's handsome nephew George arrives as heir apparent and quickly falls in love with Zoe, a beautiful octoroon. But the evil overseer M'Closky has other plans -- for both Terrebonne and Zoe. In 1859, a famous Irishman wrote this play about slavery in America. Now an American tries to write his own. Content: offensive language, slavery, stereotypes
Barbecue/BootyCandy by ISBN: 9781559364959Date: 2016-11-15Sutter is on an outrageous odyssey through his childhood home, his church, dive bars, motel rooms, and even nursing homes. The journey uncovers characters who are at once fascinating, zany, controversial, and even a bit smutty, painting a portrait of life as a societal outlier. Based on the author's personal experience, Bootycandy is a kaleidoscope of sketches that interconnects to portray growing up gay and black.
Beauty's Daughter, Monster, The Gimmick: Three Plays by ISBN: 9780375708718Date: 2000-10-17In these three pieces, the award-winning writer and performer celebrates the power of words to rescue the young black women she portrays from their constricted worlds. In the Obie Award-winning play "Beauty's Daughter," Diane yearns to free herself from her soul-deadening surroundings, where people drown their unfulfilled aspirations in drugs and alcohol. In "Monster," Theresa imagines a life in the rock-'n'-roll poetry bohemia of Manhattan's Lower East Side and away from her home in East Harlem, where she is scorned as a misfit. And in "The Gimmick," Alexis escapes her brutal reality among the library bookshelves, where she dreams of becoming a writer in Paris.
Fairview: A Play by ISBN: 9781559369527Date: 2019-08-27Winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Grandma's birthday approaches. Beverly is organizing the perfect dinner, but everything seems doomed from the start: the silverware is all wrong, the carrots need chopping and the radio is on the fritz. What at first appears to be a family comedy takes a sharp, sly turn into a startling examination of deep-seated paradigms about race in America.
Gem of the Ocean by ISBN: 9781559362818Date: 2008-04-01Set in 1904 Pittsburgh, Gem of the Ocean is chronologically the first work in August Wilson's decade-by-decade cycle dramatizing the African American experience during the 20th century--an unprecedented series that includes the Pulitzer Prize-winning plays Fences and The Piano Lesson. Aunt Esther, the drama's 287-year-old fiery matriarch, welcomes into her Hill District home Solly Two Kings, who was born into slavery and scouted for the Union Army, and Citizen Barlow, a young man from Alabama searching for a new life.
The Piano Lesson by ISBN: 9780452265349Date: 1990-12-01In his second Pulitzer Prize-winner, The Piano Lesson, Wilson has fashioned perhaps his most haunting and dramatic work. At the heart of the play stands the ornately carved upright piano which, as the Charles family's prized, hard-won possession, has been gathering dust in the parlor of Berniece Charles's Pittsburgh home. When Boy Willie, Berniece's exuberant brother, bursts into her life with his dream of buying the same Mississippi land that his family had worked as slaves, he plans to sell their antique piano for the hard cash he needs to stake his future.
Racism 101 by A short play set at an unnamed college: "There are no distinct characters or roles, and every student does not participate in this loose-tongue exchange. Most are on-lookers, and their silence may be seen as either timidity or as acquiescence in this group-mind flow."
Topdog/Underdog by ISBN: 1559362014Date: 2001-06-01Winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. A darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity is Suzan-Lori Parks latest riff on the way we are defined by history. The play tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke, foretelling a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment. Haunted by the past, the brothers are forced to confront the shattering reality of their future. Content: stylized violence
Until the Flood by ISBN: 9781786828408Date: 2020-12-29Missouri, 2014. Michael Brown, a black teenager, is shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. In this gripping and revelatory drama based on interviews from the aftermath of the shooting, Dael Orlandersmith journeys into the heart and soul of modern-day America - confronting the powerful forces of history, race and politics, and embodying the many faces of a community rallying for justice, and a country still yearning for change.
We Are Proud to Present a Presentation about the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known As Southwest Africa, from the German Sudwestafrika, Between the Years 1884 - 1915 by ISBN: 9781472585110Date: 2014-04-18I'm not doing a German accent. You aren't doing an African accent. We aren't doing accents. A group of actors gather to tell the little-known story of the first genocide of the twentieth century. As the full force of a horrific past crashes into the good intentions of the present, what seemed a far-away place and time is suddenly all too close to home. Just whose story are they telling? Award-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury collides the political with the personal in a play that is irreverently funny and seriously brave.
Cost of Living by ISBN: 9781559365970Date: 2018-10-23Winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Deftly challenges the typical perceptions of those living with disabilities and delves deep into the ways class, race, nationality, and wealth can create gulfs between people, even as they long for the ability to connect. Eddie, an unemployed truck driver, and his estranged ex-wife, Ani, find themselves unexpectedly reunited after a terrible accident leaves her quadriplegic. John, a brilliant PhD student with cerebral palsy, hires Jess, a first-generation recent graduate who has fallen on desperate times, as his new aide.
Harvest by ISBN: 9780953675777Date: 2003-10-01Om, a young man, is driven by unemployment to sell his body parts for cash. Guards arrive to make his home into a germ-free zone. When his brother Jeetu arrives unexpectedly, he is taken away as the donor. Om's wife Jaya is left alone. Will she too be seduced into selling her body for use by the rich Westerners?
Sweat by ISBN: 9781559365321Date: 2017-06-13Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In one of the poorest cities in America, Reading, Pennsylvania, a group of down-and-out factory workers struggle to keep their present lives in balance, ignorant of the financial devastation looming in their near future. Based on Nottage's extensive research and interviews with residents of Reading, Sweat is a topical reflection of the present and poignant outcome of America's economic decline.
Atypical Plays for Atypical Actors by ISBN: 9781783193172Date: 2016-09-27Atypical Plays For Atypical Actors is the first of its kind: a collection of dramas which redefines the notion of normalcy and extends the range of what it is to be human. From monologues, to performance texts, to realist plays, these involving and subversive pieces explore disability as a portal to new experience.- Cost of Living by ISBN: 9781559365970Date: 2018-10-23Winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Deftly challenges the typical perceptions of those living with disabilities and delves deep into the ways class, race, nationality, and wealth can create gulfs between people, even as they long for the ability to connect. Eddie, an unemployed truck driver, and his estranged ex-wife, Ani, find themselves unexpectedly reunited after a terrible accident leaves her quadriplegic. John, a brilliant PhD student with cerebral palsy, hires Jess, a first-generation recent graduate who has fallen on desperate times, as his new aide.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by ISBN: 9781408173350Date: 2012-09-24My name is Christopher John Francis Boone. I know all the countries of the world and the capital cities. And every prime number up to 7507. Christopher, fifteen years old, stands beside Mrs Shears's dead dog. It has been speared with a garden fork, it is seven minutes after midnight, and Christopher is under suspicion. He records each fact in the book he is writing to solve the mystery of who murdered Wellington. He has an extraordinary brain and is exceptional at maths, but he is ill-equipped to interpret everyday life.
Lydia by ISBN: 9780573698163Date: 2010-03-02Set in the 1970s on the Texas border separating the United States and Mexico, Lydia is an intense, lyrical, and magical play. The Flores family welcomes Lydia, an undocumented maid, into their El Paso home to care for their daughter Ceci, who was tragically disabled in a car accident on the eve of her quincea era, her fifteenth birthday. Lydia's immediate and seemingly miraculous bond with the girl sets the entire family on a mysterious and shocking journey of discovery.
Wit by ISBN: 9780571198771Date: 1999-03-29Published in the anthology, Leading Women: Plays for Actresses II. Margaret Edson's powerfully imagined Pulitzer Prize-winning play examines what makes life worth living through her exploration of one of existence's unifying experiences--mortality--while she also probes the vital importance of human relationships.
Anna in the Tropics by ISBN: 1559362324Date: 2003-09-01Winner of the 2003 Pulitizer Prize for Drama. This lush romantic drama depicts a family of cigar makers whose loves and lives are played out against the backdrop of America in the midst of the Depression. Set in Ybor City (Tampa) in 1930, Cruz imagines the catalytic effect the arrival of a new "lector" (who reads Tolstoy's Anna Karenina to the workers as they toil in the cigar factory) has on a Cuban-American family. Cruz celebrates the search for identity in a new land. Content: violence, consent issuesIronbound by
ISBN: 9780822235217Date: 2016-01-01At a bus stop in a run-down New Jersey, Darja, a Polish immigrant cleaning lady, is done talking about feelings; it's time to talk money. Over the course of 20 years, and three relationships, Darja negotiates for her future with men who can offer her love or security, but never both.- Lydia by ISBN: 9780573698163Date: 2010-03-02Set in the 1970s on the Texas border separating the United States and Mexico, Lydia is an intense, lyrical, and magical play. The Flores family welcomes Lydia, an undocumented maid, into their El Paso home to care for their daughter Ceci, who was tragically disabled in a car accident on the eve of her quincea era, her fifteenth birthday. Lydia's immediate and seemingly miraculous bond with the girl sets the entire family on a mysterious and shocking journey of discovery.
- Memory House by Date: 2005One winter night a woman bakes a pie as a girl tries to finish her college essay. As the deadline looms, unexamined issues of the girl's adoption from Russia, the rupture of her parents divorce, and the fear of leaving home break through the surface as the mother cajoles, deflects, and maneuvers around her own feelings of sadness and loss.
- ISBN: 9780822221036Date: 2006-01-01Four women come together to clean the house of a fifth after her tragic suicide upsets the balance of life in their small Japanese immigrant community in the middle of the Kansas heartland. The spirit of the dead woman returns as a ghost ringmaster to force the women to come to terms with the disquieting tension of their lives and find common ground so that she can escape from the limbo between life and death, and move on to the next world in peace—and indeed carve a pathway for their future passage. Content: violence, sexual violence
- You for Me for You by ISBN: 9781474276740Date: 2016-01-19As they attempt to flee the Best Nation in the World, North Korean sisters Minhee and Junhee are torn apart at the border. Each must race across time and space to be together again - navigating the perilous Land of the Free and the treacherous terrain of personal belief. Food has learned to sprint. Money is so fast it doesn't wait to be printed. Gossip travels swifter than germs.
- Anna in the Tropics by ISBN: 1559362324Date: 2003-09-01Winner of the 2003 Pulitizer Prize for Drama. This lush romantic drama depicts a family of cigar makers whose loves and lives are played out against the backdrop of America in the midst of the Depression. Set in Ybor City (Tampa) in 1930, Cruz imagines the catalytic effect the arrival of a new "lector" (who reads Tolstoy's Anna Karenina to the workers as they toil in the cigar factory) has on a Cuban-American family. Cruz celebrates the search for identity in a new land. Content: violence, consent issues
Culture Clash: Life, Death, and Revolutionary Comedy by ISBN: 1559361395Date: 1997-02-01Three plays from the award-winning Latino comedy trio. Culture Clash is a three-person troupe dedicated to weird and wacky - but pointed - explorations of Latino/Chicano culture. Volume contains: The Mission, A Bowl of Beings and Radio Mambo.
Access A Bowl of Beings online.- Lydia by ISBN: 9780573698163Date: 2010-03-02Set in the 1970s on the Texas border separating the United States and Mexico, Lydia is an intense, lyrical, and magical play. The Flores family welcomes Lydia, an undocumented maid, into their El Paso home to care for their daughter Ceci, who was tragically disabled in a car accident on the eve of her quincea era, her fifteenth birthday. Lydia's immediate and seemingly miraculous bond with the girl sets the entire family on a mysterious and shocking journey of discovery.
The Panza Monologues by ISBN: 9780292754058Date: 2014-01-06An original solo performance piece based on women's stories about their panzas--tú sabes--that roll of belly we all try to hide. Written, compiled, and collected by Virginia Grise and Irma Mayorga and fashioned into a tour-de-force solo performance, The Panza Monologues features the words of Chicanas speaking with humor and candor. Their stories boldly place the panza front and center as a symbol that reveals the lurking truths about women's thoughts, lives, loves, abuses, and living conditions.Real Women Have Curves: A Comedy by
ISBN: 9780871297259Date: 1996-12-01Set in a tiny sewing factory in East L.A., this is the outrageously funny story of five full-figured Mexican-American women who are racing to meet nearly impossible production deadlines in order to keep their tiny factory from going under. And while they work, hiding from the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service), they talk about their husbands and lovers, their children and their dreams for the future.
Zoot Suit by ISBN: 9781558854390Date: 2004-11-01Focusing on the events surrounding the Sleepy Lagoon Murder Trial of 1942 and the ensuing Zoot Suit Riots that turned Los Angeles into a bloody war zone, this is a gritty and vivid depiction of the horrifying violence and racism suffered by young Mexican Americans on the home front during World War II. Valdez's cadre of young urban characters struggle with the stereotypes and generalizations of America's dominant culture, the questions of assimilation and patriotism, and a desire to rebel against the mainstream pressures that threaten to wipe them out.
Awkward Stages: Plays About Growing Up Gay by ISBN: 9781604979084Date: 2015-08-10The plays in this volume, written by men who were in their late twenties and early thirties, affirm adolescents as subjects active in same-sex relationships. Sexual identity is important to the young men in their plays, in great part because they must define themselves against the prejudice and sanctions of family and social institutions.- Barbecue/BootyCandy by ISBN: 9781559364959Date: 2016-11-15Sutter is on an outrageous odyssey through his childhood home, his church, dive bars, motel rooms, and even nursing homes. The journey uncovers characters who are at once fascinating, zany, controversial, and even a bit smutty, painting a portrait of life as a societal outlier. Based on the author's personal experience, Bootycandy is a kaleidoscope of sketches that interconnects to portray growing up gay and black.
The Five Lesbian Brothers: Four PlaysISBN: 1559361662Date: 1999-06-01Includes: The Secretaries, Brave Smiles, Brides of the Moon, and Voyage to Lesbos. "The Five Lesbian Brothers are not only gaspingly hilarious and blithely subversive, they are fully capable of creating characters named Dawn, Patty and Peaches. Their work travels from the Pygo Moon System to the elite Tilue-Pussenheimer Academy to my favorite town in all world literature-Big Bone, Oregon." Content: [comedic] violence
Fun Home by ISBN: 9780573704574Date: 2015-08-01When her father dies unexpectedly, graphic novelist Alison dives deep into her past to tell the story of the volatile, brilliant, one-of-a-kind man whose temperament and secrets defined her family and her life. Moving between past and present, Alison relives her unique childhood playing at the family's Bechdel Funeral Home, her growing understanding of her own sexuality, and the looming, unanswerable questions about her father's hidden desires.
Hir by ISBN: 9780810133587Date: 2015-10-31Finalist, 2015 Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Drama. Discharged from the Marines under suspicious circumstances, Isaac comes home from the wars, only to find the life he remembers upended. Isaac's father, who once ruled the family with an iron fist, has had a debilitating stroke; his younger sister, Maxine, is now his brother, Max; and their mother, Paige, is committed to revolution at any cost. Content: sexual violence, violence, stereotypes
Indecent by ISBN: 9781559365475Date: 2017-12-12When Sholem Asch wrote God of Vengeance in 1907, he didn't imagine the height of controversy the play would eventually reach. Performing at first in Yiddish and German, the play's subject matter wasn't deemed contentious until it was produced in English, when the American audiences were scandalized by the onstage depiction of an amorous affair between two women. Paula Vogel's newest work traces the trajectory of the show's success through its tour in Europe to its abrupt and explosive demise on Broadway in 1923--including the arrest of the entire production''s cast and crew. Content: Holocaust/Shoah, violence
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo by
ISBN: 0822225654Date: 2013-09-12The lives of two American Marines and an Iraqi translator are forever changed by an encounter with a quick-witted tiger who haunts the streets of war-torn Baghdad attempting to find meaning, forgiveness and redemption amidst the city's ruins. Rajiv Joseph's groundbreaking play explores both the power and the perils of human nature.- Indecent by ISBN: 9781559365475Date: 2017-12-12When Sholem Asch wrote God of Vengeance in 1907, he didn't imagine the height of controversy the play would eventually reach. Performing at first in Yiddish and German, the play's subject matter wasn't deemed contentious until it was produced in English, when the American audiences were scandalized by the onstage depiction of an amorous affair between two women. Paula Vogel's newest work traces the trajectory of the show's success through its tour in Europe to its abrupt and explosive demise on Broadway in 1923--including the arrest of the entire production''s cast and crew. Content: Holocaust/Shoah, violence
My Name Is Rachel Corrie by ISBN: 9781559362962Date: 2006-09-01On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie, a twenty-three-year-old American, was crushed to death by an Israeli Army bulldozer in Gaza as she was trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home. My Name is Rachel Corrie is a one-woman play composed from Rachel's own journals, letters and emails - creating a portrait of a messy, articulate, Salvador Dali-loving chain-smoker (with a passion for the music of Pat Benatar), who left her home and school in Olympia, Washington, to work as an activist in the heart of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Nine Contemporary Jewish Plays by ISBN: 9780292709850Date: 2005-11-01This anthology brings together nine commissioned plays that have gone on to full production. Ellen Schiff and Michael Posnick have selected works that reflect many of the historical and social forces that have shaped contemporary Jewish experience and defined Jewish identity--among them, surviving the Holocaust, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the lives of newcomers in America, Israel, and Argentina.
Scenes from 68* Years by ISBN: 9781474298162Date: 2016-05-10A selection of intertwined vignettes telling the story of ordinary Palestinians at a very human level with mischievous humour. It offers snapshots of the routine of life in the shadow of occupation- we look into an Israeli household with a rebellious pro-Palestinian teenager, join a tediously long queue at an Israeli check point, and get swept into an absurd act of civil disobedience by Palestinian civilians in a desperate attempt to get worldwide media attention.
The Most Massive Woman Wins by ISBN: 9781623841355Date: 2009-08-11Available in the anthology, Plays for Women. Challenging, brutal and hilarious, four women of various shapes and sizes sitting in the waiting room of a liposuction clinic explore their perceptions of body image. The women reveal their experiences dealing with their weight issues through monologues, short scenes, and even schoolyard rhymes.- The Panza Monologues by ISBN: 9780292754058Date: 2014-01-06An original solo performance piece based on women's stories about their panzas--tú sabes--that roll of belly we all try to hide. Written, compiled, and collected by Virginia Grise and Irma Mayorga and fashioned into a tour-de-force solo performance, The Panza Monologues features the words of Chicanas speaking with humor and candor. Their stories boldly place the panza front and center as a symbol that reveals the lurking truths about women's thoughts, lives, loves, abuses, and living conditions.
- ISBN: 9780871297259Date: 1996-12-01Set in a tiny sewing factory in East L.A., this is the outrageously funny story of five full-figured Mexican-American women who are racing to meet nearly impossible production deadlines in order to keep their tiny factory from going under. And while they work, hiding from the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service), they talk about their husbands and lovers, their children and their dreams for the future.
- Beauty's Daughter, Monster, The Gimmick: Three Plays by ISBN: 9780375708718Date: 2000-10-17In these three pieces, the award-winning writer and performer celebrates the power of words to rescue the young black women she portrays from their constricted worlds. In the Obie Award-winning play "Beauty's Daughter," Diane yearns to free herself from her soul-deadening surroundings, where people drown their unfulfilled aspirations in drugs and alcohol. In "Monster," Theresa imagines a life in the rock-'n'-roll poetry bohemia of Manhattan's Lower East Side and away from her home in East Harlem, where she is scorned as a misfit. And in "The Gimmick," Alexis escapes her brutal reality among the library bookshelves, where she dreams of becoming a writer in Paris.
Dance Nation by ISBN: 9781786824837Date: 2018-11-13Somewhere in America, a revolution is coming. An army of competitive dancers is ready to take over the world, one routine at a time. With a pre-teen battle for power and perfection raging on and off stage, Dance Nation is a ferocious exploration of youth, ambition and self-discovery. Winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and The Relentless Award.
Fefu and Her Friends by ISBN: 9781555541637Date: 2017-06-20Fefu and seven friends gather at Fefu's house to rehearse a charity performance. Before and after their rehearsal, the women interact with one another, and share their thoughts and feelings about life along with their personal struggles and societal concerns.- The Five Lesbian Brothers: Four PlaysISBN: 1559361662Date: 1999-06-01Includes: The Secretaries, Brave Smiles, Brides of the Moon, and Voyage to Lesbos. "The Five Lesbian Brothers are not only gaspingly hilarious and blithely subversive, they are fully capable of creating characters named Dawn, Patty and Peaches. Their work travels from the Pygo Moon System to the elite Tilue-Pussenheimer Academy to my favorite town in all world literature-Big Bone, Oregon." Content: [comedic] violence
How I Learned to Drive by ISBN: 9781559365642Date: 1997Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and published in the e-book The Mammary Plays. Chronicles the relationship between Li'l Bit and Uncle Peck through a series of flashbacks as it progresses from friendship to something much darker during a series of driving lessons. Content: sexual violence, consent issues- Indecent by ISBN: 9781559365475Date: 2017-12-12When Sholem Asch wrote God of Vengeance in 1907, he didn't imagine the height of controversy the play would eventually reach. Performing at first in Yiddish and German, the play's subject matter wasn't deemed contentious until it was produced in English, when the American audiences were scandalized by the onstage depiction of an amorous affair between two women. Paula Vogel's newest work traces the trajectory of the show's success through its tour in Europe to its abrupt and explosive demise on Broadway in 1923--including the arrest of the entire production''s cast and crew. Content: Holocaust/Shoah, violence
- Memory House by Date: 2005One winter night a woman bakes a pie as a girl tries to finish her college essay. As the deadline looms, unexamined issues of the girl's adoption from Russia, the rupture of her parents divorce, and the fear of leaving home break through the surface as the mother cajoles, deflects, and maneuvers around her own feelings of sadness and loss.
- The Panza Monologues by ISBN: 9780292754058Date: 2014-01-06An original solo performance piece based on women's stories about their panzas--tú sabes--that roll of belly we all try to hide. Written, compiled, and collected by Virginia Grise and Irma Mayorga and fashioned into a tour-de-force solo performance, The Panza Monologues features the words of Chicanas speaking with humor and candor. Their stories boldly place the panza front and center as a symbol that reveals the lurking truths about women's thoughts, lives, loves, abuses, and living conditions.
- ISBN: 9780871297259Date: 1996-12-01Set in a tiny sewing factory in East L.A., this is the outrageously funny story of five full-figured Mexican-American women who are racing to meet nearly impossible production deadlines in order to keep their tiny factory from going under. And while they work, hiding from the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service), they talk about their husbands and lovers, their children and their dreams for the future.
What the Constitution Means to Me by ISBN: 9781559369640Date: 2020-12-01When she was fifteen years old, Heidi Schreck earned money for her college tuition by giving speeches about the U.S. Constitution. Deftly examining how the United States' founding principles are inextricably linked with our personal lives, Schreck also explores the ways in which their misuse has engendered violence and inherited trauma. Content: sexual violence, consent issues
Discovery Sources: Lists and Monologues
- Alternative CanonList of non-Western plays, plays by Black, Indigenous, people of color, by women and by queer writers from before 1945.
- Expand the Canon (Hedgepig Ensemble)Annual curated list of producible classic plays by women and underrepresented genders. Some titles available online.
- The Refocus Project at Roundabout Theatre CompanyThe Refocus Project is a multi-year project to elevate and restore marginalized plays to the American canon.
- UC Irvine: Drama TitlesThis UCI guide tags drama titles by cast and playwright identify categories, including gender, sexuality, nationality, and ethnicity. Many of the drama titles listed will also be available in UCLA collections.
The Kilroys List: 97 Monologues and Scenes by Female and Trans Playwrights, Volume One by ISBN: 9781559368568Date: 2017-03-20From The Kilroys, an advocacy group founded in 2013 to raise awareness for the underutilized work of female and female-identifying playwrights. The collection is comprised of monologues from a survey to locate the most highly-regarded, underproduced plays by women and trans playwrights.
The Kilroys List: 67 Monologues and Scenes by Women and Nonbinary Playwrights, Volume Two by ISBN: 9781559369541Date: 2020-06-09The Kilroys are back with a new collection of 67 monologues and scenes by women and nonbinary playwrights. This collection includes a monologue or scene from each play from the 2016 and 2017 editions of The List.
Monologues for Actors of Color: Men by ISBN: 9781138857247Date: 2016-05-26Roberta Uno has carefully selected monologues that represent African-American, Native American, Latino, and Asian-American identities. Each monologue comes with an introduction and notes on the characters and stage directions to set the scene for the actor.
Monologues for Actors of Color: Women by ISBN: 9781138857278Date: 2016-05-27Roberta Uno has carefully selected monologues that represent African-American, Native American, Latino, and Asian-American identities. Each monologue comes with an introduction and notes on the characters and stage directions to set the scene for the actor.
- Non-Binary MonologuesWebsite that collects and shares monologues written for non-binary actors.
Major Databases for Online Plays
- New Play Exchange This link opens in a new windowSearch and discovery for plays using indexing terms for facets like playwright demographics, cast information, themes, etc. The database provides details about playwrights and creative works (generally unpublished), and also includes full text for some plays.
- Theatre in Context Collection This link opens in a new windowA reference source that covers multiple aspects of the international theater, including full text of major reference materials and records for individual plays, people, theaters, productions, and production companies. Also includes images, playbills, postcards, scrapbooks and other ephemera. Formerly titled North American Theatre Online.
- Asian American Drama This link opens in a new windowFull text plays by 42 playwrights, together with detailed information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more.
- Black Drama: Second Edition This link opens in a new windowContains approximately 1600 plays by 200 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays.
- Drama Online - Bloomsbury This link opens in a new windowIncludes full text of plays and reference works, as well as streaming audio and video of performances. UCLA subscribes to the modules: Core Collection, Asian Theatre Video, Aurora Metro Books, BBC Drama Films, British, American, and Australian Video Collection, Classic Spring Oscar Wilde Collection, Critical Studies and Performance Practice, Donmar Shakespeare Trilogy, L.A. Theatre Works, Maxine Peake as Hamlet, National Theatre Collections, Nick Hern Books Modern Plays, Oberon Books, Playwrights Canada Press, RSC Live Collections, Shakespeare in the Present, Shakespeare's Globe on Screen, Shakespeare's Globe to Globe Festival on Screen, Shakespeare's Heroes and Villains, Shakespeare in the Present, Stage on Screen, Stratford Festival Shakespeare Collection, TCG Plays, Theatre Performance and Practice Video Library.
- Latino Literature: Poetry, Drama, and Fiction This link opens in a new windowPlays, prose and poetry by Chicano, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican and other Latin writers working in the US. The vast majority of the materials are from the Chicano Renaissance to the present. About 30% of the database is previously unpublished or rare materials.
- North American Indian Drama This link opens in a new windowFull text of plays by American Indian and First Nation playwrights of the 20th century, information about the plays and their production, and biographical data. Represents tribes across the United States and Canada. Also includes issues of the Native playwrights' newsletter.
- North American Women's Drama This link opens in a new windowFull text plays, along with related biographical, production, and theatrical information. The collection begins with the works of Mercy Otis Warren and Susanna Haswell Rowson in colonial times and spans the 19th and 20th centuries to the present.
- Twentieth-Century Drama This link opens in a new windowPublished plays from throughout the English-speaking world, covering the history of modern drama from the 1890s to the present day.
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