David Cregan Three Plays

Includes the plays Whispers Along the Patio, Nice Dorothy, The Last Thrash In Whispers Along the Patio retired Matthew is happy eating his breakfast on his patio in the morning sunlight. However, constant interruptions from his do-gooding niece, June, force him to seek sanctuary in Kew Gardens. There he meets young businessman Tony and Tania, a beautiful but bewildering visitor from south-east Europe.Two paintings and a bizarre set of events bring five very different and lonely people together to dine by candlelight. But will the pursuit of private passions cause chaos among this disparate company? In Nice Dorothy matters are complicated when a 40 year old spinster and a young man of 25 fall in love across a crowded room. The Last Thrash is set in a prep school upset by the discovery of a pupil smoking cannabis just as a minor royal is about to attend the school. It isa comic critique of the propagation of the class system within private education.

In this new comedy of sex and politics, an anxious group of relations and dependants struggle for supremacy in a garden in the north of England. Toby, a sprightly 91-year-old, wants to keep young by buying and tending a part of the big garden next door. Gerald is trying to bed as many attractive women as possible in between buying up small shops in South East Asia to turn into supermarkets. Daniel struggles to get past chapter two of the book he's writing, whilst Roderick watches helplessly as his wife sets her sights on lecherous Gerald. The whole mixed bag seem to seek reassurance that they mean something - if only they could think what it is... Summer Again opened at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond in October 2004.

In its first 40 years, from conception to maturity, through stages of growth both painful and pleasurable, Downstage - New Zealand's first and longest running regional professional theatre company - has lived an extraordinary life. This large and lavishly illustrated 'biography' is published to celebrate Downstage's birthday. It covers all the drama and larger-than-life personalities that have characterised Downstage's life, and the many great productions such as Colin McColl's internationally acclaimed relocation of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler to Karori. A major contribution to New Zealand's cultural history.

The English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre is the longest running specialist production organization in the history of British theatre. Philip Roberts’s account, which was first published in 1986, covers the period 1965-1972 in the Company’s life, beginning in 1965 with the appointment of William Gaskill as Artistic Director. It is not simply about the critical triumphs of these years of the Royal Court’s work, but also about the day-to-day workings of a busy and often turbulent organization. The result of the book is both scholarly and entertaining. This book will be of interest to students of the theatre and drama.

The year 1956 marked a point when British drama and theater fell into the hands of a group of young playwrights who revolutionized the stage. During that time, playwrights such as Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter made the British theater as rich, varied, and vital as any national theater in history. This reference chronicles the history of British theater from 1956 to 1995 by providing detailed information about the playwrights of that period. Included are entries for some three dozen British playwrights active between 1956 and 1995. Entries are arranged alphabetically to facilitate use. Each entry supplies biographical information, the production history for particular plays, a survey of the playwright's critical reception, an assessment of the dramatist's work, and primary and secondary bibliographies. A selected, general bibliography at the end of the volume directs the reader to important sources of additional information about this period in theater history.

In the 1970s the revolution that had swept the British theatre in the 1950s had already become accepted as the new establishment. Areas that had been previously regarded as remote ideals - including permanent repertory companies, a lively provincial theatre and an extensive spread of avant-garde and fringe theatrical activities - were now considered commonplace. In this title, first published in 1971, John Russell Taylor assesses the prospects of the British theatre at the start of the 1970s and indicates its points of weakness and its strengths. In this context are placed the key figures among the Second Wave of dramatists, and detailed critical commentaries on the work of writers such as David Mercer, Tom Stoppard and Peter Terson. This is an indispensable introduction for any student with an interest in the history and development of the British theatre and the people who have played instrumental roles in this.