Christopher Durang

Actor's nightmare: An accountant named George Spelvin is mistaken for an actor's understudy and is forced to perform in a play for which he doesn't know any of the lines --From publisher's description. Sister Mary Ignatius explains it all for you: This play evolves around a nun, Sister Mary Ignatius, explaining to the audience the basic tenets of Catholicism. She is assisted by her favorite student, seven-year-old Thomas. From time to time, she asks him catechism questions and gives him a cookie for every right answer. Half-way into her speech, some of her former students, now grown up, enter to perform a mock Christmas pageant from their childhood days and reveal to Sister Mary the deep psychological trauma her teachings left on them. Sister Mary's unwavering dogma combined with the absurdist nature of the play add elements of biting comedy. --From publisher's description.

Contains seven full-length plays written by Christopher Durang in the years between 1975 and 1995, each including an introduction by the award-winning playwright.

"Vanya and his adopted sister Sonia live a quiet life in the Pennsylvania farmhouse where they grew up, but their peace is disturbed when their movie star sister Masha returns unannounced with her twentysomething boy toy, Spike. A weekend of rivalry, regret, and raucousness begins!"--Page of cover.

The title play tells the story of a young woman who wakes up to find herself in bed with a man she does not know, and to whom she has apparently got married while drunk the previous night. And to make matters worse, it seems like he might be a terrorist.

"In the first section of the play, a Woman enters and embarks on an increasingly frenetic (and funny) recital of the perils and frustrations of daily life in urban America--waiting in line, rude taxi drivers, inane talk shows and the selfish people who block the aisles in supermarkets. In particular she is incensed by a man who prevented her from buying a can of tuna fish by standing in her way--and whom she attacked in a fit of pique. In the second monologue ('Seeking Wild') the Man appears, and while the subjects on which he expounds (nuclear waste, the rigidity of the Catholic Church, particularly in sexual matters, the threat of AIDS) may be broader in context, he also dwells on an incident in a supermarket, when a strange woman hit him over the head in the tuna fish aisle. In the final portion of the play ('Dreaming Wild') the two protagonists meet at last and reenact the supermarket incident via six varying interpretations; tell us more fully of their overlapping dreams; and then launch into an explosively funny parody of a talk show. In the end the two find an accommodation of sorts as they come together at the Harmonic Convergence in Central Park--both still hoping to instill a sense of optimism and purpose in their lives, but both still skeptical that they will succeed in doing so."--

"Looking for a little rest and time by herself, Betty rents a summer share at the beach. But Betty's luck turns to delicious lunacy when this sensible Everywoman gets drawn into the chaotic world of some very unsavory housemates - her friend Trudy who talks too much; the lewd, seminaked Buck, who tries to have sex with everyone; and Keith, a possible serial killer who hides in his room with a mysterious hat box. With sand between her toes, walking a thin line between sanity and survival, poor Betty will leave her summer vacation more terrorized than tan."--BOOK JACKET.

"MRS. SORKEN, a middle-aged suburban matron is scheduled to give a lecture on the meaning of theatre, but has lost her notes. Relying on memory, her comments are dotty, but definitely endearing. (1 woman.) FOR WHOM THE SOUTHERN BELLE TOLLS. In this parody of The Glass Menagerie, the fading Southern belle, Amanda, tries to prepare her hypersensitive, hypochondriacal son, Lawrence, for 'the feminine caller.' Terrified of people, Lawrence plays with his collection of glass cocktail stirrers. Ginny, the feminine caller, is hard of hearing and overbearingly friendly. Brother Tom wants to go the movies, where he keeps meeting sailors who need to be put up in his room. Amanda tries to face everything with 'charm and vivacity,' but sometimes she just wants to hit somebody. (2 men, 2 women.) A STYE OF THE EYE. In this parody of Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind, cowboy Jake is a rage-oholic who has probably killed his wife, Beth (played by a male).^ Ma, his feisty, no-nonsense mother with a bad memory, thinks Beth 'deserved' it and wishes her own husband were dead (he already is). Jake, also schizoid, becomes his own "good brother Frankie" and goes to find Beth's family. Beth shows up, not dead, but damaged, and talking gibberish. Jake's sister, Mae, also shows up, in love with her brother. No problems are solved, but a great deal of 'meaning' is in the air. (3 men, 4 women.) NINA IN THE MORNING is a style piece à la Edward Gorey. A tuxedoed narrator presents Nina, a preposterously narcissistic wealthy woman, attended by her butler, a silent maid, and her three children. The interwoven time-frame juxtaposes scenes from Nina's past misbehaviors with the present morning when she can't seem to get the butler to bring her a cruller. (3 men, 1-2 women, flexible casting). WANDA'S VISIT. Jim and Marsha have been married for thirteen years and are feeling a little bored and unhappy.^ Wanda, Jim's old girlfriend, shows up for a visit and becomes the guest from hell. Out one night for dinner, all hell breaks loose in the restaurant as a waiter tries to cope on his first day with the confused threesome. (2-3 men, 2-3 women, flexible casting). BUSINESS LUNCH AT THE RUSSIAN TEA ROOM. Chris, a writer, has a business meeting at the Russian Tea Room with a new Hollywood hotshot, Melissa. At the Tea Room, Melissa pitches insane ideas to Chris who can't wait to just leave this meeting. Once home, he tries so hard to write up the idea of a priest and a rabbi who fall in love (and other complications) that they appear to him to help him through. (3 men, 3 women.)"--

273 p. ; 20 cm

Veronica, already scarred by too many failed relationships, finds the world a frightening place. Skylab, an American space station that came crashing down to earth, in particular, haunts and enrages her. So she has committed suicide, and is now in what she expected to be heaven but is instead something called the Bardo (the netherworld in Tibetan Buddhism), and the forces there keep trying to make her reincarnate. So far she's thwarted these return visits to earth with a sort of "spiritual otherworldly emergency brake system" she seems to have. She doesn't like being alive, and post-9/11 finds the world even scarier than when she was there. A lovely if strong-willed Indian spirit guide named Maryamma, however, is intent on getting Veronica back to earth so she can learn the lessons her soul is supposed to learn. Veronica--nicknamed "Miss Witherspoon" by Maryamma--didn't expect there to be any afterlife, but if there has to be one, she demands St. Peter and the pearly gates.

"The scene is a middle-class home in Piscataway, New Jersey, where Ozzie Ann (the mother) and Harry (the father) await the return of their Vietnam veteran son, David, and his native bride, Liat. Also on hand are younger brother Et, a sex-obsessed high school junior who eats cornflakes from his unzipped pants; and Hazel, the irrepressible black maid (portrayed by a male performer) who is the real power in the household. When David and Liat arrive they are both blind (which he demonstrates by walking into the refrigerator) and she is an ex-hooker (who later turns out to be a displaced orphan named Maureen O'Hara). Thereafter come suicide, adultery, the feeble intervention of a homosexual priest and the arrival of a super-patriotic, war-mongering uncle--plus a staccato of outrageous comments by the cynical Hazel. The final result is a scathing, irreverent indictment of the worst aspects of the American character, made real by the incisiveness of the author's writing, yet hilarious by the wild originality of his vision."--