On the Verge:
A Cycle of Plays for Our Time
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This cycle of plays investigates
the violence and chaos of our time.
The Life and Times of
Jumpin' Joe Skinner focuses on the individual quest; Fragments of
the Third Planet on our natural environment;
Alchemies on the
imagination;
Blood Tree Sun on politics and justice; Angel Hair
on crime;
A Terrible Beauty on artistic creation; and Human
Rock on healing and renewal.
The Life and Times Of Jumpin'
Joe Skinner.
Drama in two acts (6m, 4w, bare
set). Local baseball star Joe Skinner struggles to escape his broken
family and small-town background, only to find himself confronting war,
unemployment, crime, AIDS, and other issues lurking on the underside of
the American dream.
Fragments of the Third Planet.
Dramatic quartet (5m, 3w, bare
set). Four interlocking scenes explore the progressive disintegration
of contemporary life and the struggle to survive against a futuristic backdrop
of economic collapse, environmental degradation, absence of belief, and
meaningless war. The possibilities for escape and renewal tantalize
just out of reach.
Alchemies.
Drama in two acts (4m, 3w, chorus
of 4 [may be doubled], bare set). Gil Martin has disturbing visions
about the future of his family and the entire society. Are the premonitions
real, or merely personal delusions? Can powers of imagination transform
the spiraling violence and chaos?
Blood Tree Sun.
Drama in two acts (4m, 3w, 2
soldiers [may be doubled], simple set). During a time of revolution,
three prisoners from different cultures are thrown together in a cell.
When the turmoil finally subsides, can anything democratic and humane be
constructed out of the ruins?
Angel Hair.
Drama in two acts (4m, 4w, bare
set). Two teenage girls and a boyfriend chafe at the restrictions
their social worker mother imposes on their behavior. After a late
night spins out of control and leads to a brutal murder, they must come
to terms with a reality they scarcely imagined.
A Terrible Beauty.
Drama in one act (2, simplet
set). A young scholar attending a conference on violence in contemporary
literature, encounters an eccentric artist in the park, who wants her to
experience both art and violence as lived "on the street."
Human Rock.
Lyric drama in five scenes
(2m, 2w, 2 police officers, and a chorus of 3 spirits (may be doubled);
single set). Sometime in the not-too-distant future, along the edge
of an unnamed sea, refugees from contemporary life gather and try to make
a new life together in the most primitive conditions. How can they
heal from their myriad wounds and find peace?
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