Trudy Blue

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'Night Mother, this engaging play stars a popular author who has grown disillusioned with her family life. She has retreated into conversations with her alter ego, Trudy Blue, who is the heroine of her novels. When a medical scare leads to a terminal diagnosis, her imaginary companion and her fear threaten her grip on reality. Originally produced at Actor's Theatre of Louisville, Trudy Blue played in New York at the MCC Theatre.

First Published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Both humorous and heartbreaking, Blue Plate Special serves up an uplifting exploration of the courage it takes to embrace life after loss. Thirty-three-year-old Julia Daniel doesn't really feel at home anywhere. Her life in L.A. is lonely, and her career as a food stylist for a struggling gourmet magazine falls well short of her desire to be a photographer. Although she liked growing up in Kentucky, ever since her mother's death and her father's remarriage, her birthplace hasn't felt like the right fit either. After the tragic deaths of her father and stepmother in a plane crash, Julia's true odyssey begins. Orphaned and adrift, she tries to find her way in the world while fending off a crazy boss, a pilfering stepsister, and a looming depression. Though shored up by two good friends and an excellent psychologist who helps her work through her grief, it is an unexpected-and comically disastrous-trip to Sedona for the magazine that finally enables Julia to move forward. Returning to L.A., she searches for the strength to strike out on her own, take a chance on love, and seek a tentative peace with her wayward stepsister. "A thoughtful look at making one's way in a world that's uncertain." - Publishers Weekly

A leading writer on American theatre explores the works and influences of ten contemporary American playwrights.

Biographic Memoirs: Volume 78 contains the biographies of deceased members of the National Academy of Sciences and bibliographies of their published works. Each biographical essay was written by a member of the Academy familiar with the professional career of the deceased. For historical and bibliographical purposes, these volumes are worth returning to time and again.

Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers at night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms, and the autumn moon is bright . And indeed, this tale began in the fall, when the autumn moon was bright. Michelle Baker comes to the border town of Brownsville, Texas with her family. Left alone to watch the house while her parents are in Mexico, she begins to feel a great sense of isolation in a place where she has no friends or relatives, no one to call on, and more importantly, no one to notice if she should be missing . In September, she begins the fall at college. Being new to the area and alien to the culture which is 90% Hispanic, she's reluctant to make friends until she meets Raul. His crisp, unaccented English and cool manner attract her at first, quickly developing into kindred feelings as Raul shares many secrets. Michelle has a natural gift for being able to communicate with the spirit world, and reveals this to Raul in their initial conversation. In return Raul unveils to Michelle that he believes himself to be a werewolf. Michelle passes off his werewolf' story as eccentricity, as well as some sort of morbidity having to do with the death of his father, in which he recites his grief about continuously throughout his phrases. Later that evening, Raul invites her to The Blue House, the place where his father died. Carelessly leaving with him that night, Michelle finds herself in a fearful situation: Raul drives her to the country side of Brownsville, to the small community of San Pedro where the run down farm house stands in the darkness, illuminated only by the dim security lamp off to the side of the yard, otherwise, swallowed in a most eerie manner by the shadows of mesquite trees. Once inside the house, Michelle finds herself amidst unworldly memories of living there. She feels an instant connection to the house as one would feel to someone they'd once known, even though she'd just arrived. Raul drugs and seduces her, delivering a painful bite. She begins to fear him and really feel that he is a werewolf. He fills her head with his lycanthropic desires and ideas, intensifying her fears. It isn't long before Michelle begins to have nightmares that she, too, is a werewolf. The feelings of familiarity with the blue house become more intense, and when Michelle goes uninvited to the house, Raul becomes furious, feeling she had uncovered many secrets about him and his family. He had already been badly scorned by a previous lover who was then engaged to his best friend he was not about to be burned once again. He begins dark rituals of magic to try and end Michelle's life, and when black magic fails, he literally tries to kill her on several foiled attempts. To Raul's dismay, Michelle has an eye for his friend who'd broken up his former relationship, and soon after she turns away from him, Michelle begins seeing Cecilio, further fueling an already raging fire of hate. The memories keep coming to Michelle, and she begins to see a stranger in her dreams associated with these recollections the stranger is Raul's father, who is accompanied in the spirit world by his father, Pancho, and an Indian shaman, Don Chonito. She learns that the later two where always at his side in life, as well. Michelle wants to tell Raul about the dreams of his father, and the memories in spite of the fact that he is attempting to murder her. But the spirit of Raul's father, who calls himself Melo, warns her not to. Michelle discusses her problems with Raul with a classmate, Patrick a far out, Wicca, gothic, vampire fellow. He understands and introduces her to a woman he is acquainted with who helps people with spiritual problems...a curandera named Trudy Van Frank. Michelle is seeks refuge in the woman's house both from her alonness, as well as safety from Raul, who becomes above and beyond reproach. But to Michelle's misfortune, Trudy was once Raul's father's girlfriend. Naturally, she sides with Raul behind Michelle's back. Melo wa

Best known for her Pulitzer Prize–winning play 'night, Mother and her acclaimed adaptations of The Secret Garden and The Color Purple for musical theater, Marsha Norman has produced an impressive oeuvre that includes not only works for the stage but also a novel and several television screenplays. The first book on the Louisville-born writer in twenty years, Understanding Marsha Norman introduces readers to her life and work while making a persuasive case for her preeminence among America's leading dramatic artists. Following a biographical introduction, the book examines such early plays as Getting Out, Third and Oak, and Circus Valentine, which, according to the playwright herself, taught her the skills she needed to write her more successful works—most notably the much-lauded two-character drama 'night, Mother, which centers around an apparently rational young woman's choice to commit suicide. Subsequent chapters examine Norman's underrated novel The Fortune Teller and three mid-career plays that rewrite the traditions of the Western, the biblical story of Sarah and Abraham, and the legend of Daniel Boone. Her more recent plays, including Trudy Blue, 140, and Last Dance, acknowledge the limitations of romantic relationships, while her forays into musical theater and television, including scripts for such programs as Law and Order: Criminal Intent and the Peabody-winning HBO series In Treatment, signal a dramatist who is ever willing to take risks and venture into new genres. At her best when writing about interesting and troubled women and their relationships with each other, Norman has received much less critical attention than male contemporaries such as Sam Shepard and David Mamet. This engaging and edifying book helps rectify that disparity.