Abe Koogler Selected Plays

"The first play collection by American writer Abe Koogler, author of darkly comic plays grounded in realism and presented with heightened musical language"--

“Koogler's characters are earnest, idiosyncratic, and suspicious of hierarchy. Often bitingly funny, Koogler's plays...reveal larger truths about the economic and racial systems under which we all live.” (The Yale Review) Abe Koogler writes darkly comedic plays about ordinary Americans confronting larger political and economic forces, from small town residents grappling with environmental change to slaughterhouse workers trying to retain their humanity. Although grounded in realism, Koogler's plays often incorporate imaginary elements and heightened or musical language, creating moving and memorable works of art. In his first play collection, Koogler's work is brought together and introduced by the author, offering an overview of his range in style, from the naturalistic to the absurd. Deep Blue Sound: “If anything links all of these people, it is an aching loneliness. That they are trying to figure out what happened to orcas, which are remarkably social animals, is among the nice touches that Koogler has sneaked into his group portrait.” (New York Times) Fulfillment Center: “steeped in a luminous and illuminating empathy that feels both uncommon and essential right now.” (New York Times) Aspen Ideas: A fast-paced and darkly comedic thriller about an annual conference of the famous and well-connected, held high in the Colorado mountains. Kill Floor: “Melancholy and moving. A very closely, and often quite beautifully, observed character study.” (Chicago Tribune) Advance Man: Ripe with experimental language, movement and absurdism, a surprising comedy exploring what it means to be a politically engaged American.

In this powerful drama, Andy returns to her hometown after five years in prison and takes a job at the local slaughterhouse, determined to get her life on track. But when her estranged teenaged son objects to her working on the kill floor, their relationship slips even farther from her reach. With her boss demanding more than she can give and her son’s struggles mounting, Andy discovers how hard it can be to start over.

In the New Mexico desert, a down-on-her-luck folk singer takes a job at a giant online retailer’s shipping center. Her young manager struggles to connect with his girlfriend newly relocated from New York. And a drifter living at a local campground dangerously links them all. A raw, surprising, and funny play about four lonely lives coming together in the search for fulfillment.

A riotous new comedy from award-winning playwright Richard Bean, author of One Man, Two Guvnors. April 1642. Sir John Hotham, Governor of Hull, is charged by Parliament to secure the arsenal at Hull and deny entry to King Charles I. If only it were that simple. With a Royalist siege outside the city walls and the rebellion of the mob within, Civil War seems inevitable and losing his head more than probable.

WINNER - Best American Play, Obie Awards 2018 In 1920, the Russian writer Isaac Babel wanders the countryside with the Red Cavalry. In 1990, a mysterious KGB agent spies on a woman in Dresden and falls in love. In 2010, an aircraft carrying most of the Polish government crashes in the Russian city of Smolensk. Set in Russia over the course of ninety years, this thrilling and epic new play by Rajiv Joseph traces the stories of seven men and women connected by history, myth and conspiracy theories.

Finalist in the 2022 Lambda Literary Awards for the LGBTQ Anthology category The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays for the Stage is the first play anthology to offer eight new plays by trans playwrights featuring trans characters. This edited collection establishes a canon of contemporary American trans theatre which represents a variety of performance modes and genres. From groundbreaking new work from across America's stages to unpublished work by new voices, these plays address themes such as gender identity and expression to racial and religious attitudes toward love and sex. Edited by Lindsey Mantoan, Angela Farr Schiller and Leanna Keyes, the plays selected explicitly call for trans characters as central protagonists in order to promote opportunities for trans performers, making this an original and necessary publication for both practical use and academic study. Sagittarius Ponderosa by MJ Kaufman The Betterment Society by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen how to clean your room by j. chavez She He Me by Raphaël Amahl Khouri The Devils Between Us by Sharifa Yasmin Doctor Voynich and Her Children by Leanna Keyes Firebird Tattoo by Ty Defoe Crooked Parts by Azure Osborne-Lee

I want to find it all now know our names know the others in history so many women have been lost at sea so many stories have been swept away Chiaroscuro: (noun) the treatment of light and shade in drawing and painting. Aisha, Yomi, Beth and Opal couldn't be more different, but when Aisha hosts a dinner party, the friends soon discover that they're all looking for an answer to the same question. Does it lie in Aisha's childhood? Or in Beth and Opal's new romance? Who will tell them who they really are? What starts out as a friendly conversation between women, soon turns heated when Yomi reveals what she really thinks about Beth and Opal's relationship. A searing, tender look at queer Black womanhood by award-winning writer and Scots Makar Jackie Kay.