John Patrick Shanley, Shanley, John Patrick

The Big Funk

Literature & Fiction

Shanley, John Patrick

John Patrick Shanley

Dramas & Plays

Dramatist's Play Service

A play for 2 men and 1 woman. The first scene of the play is a conversation between two lovers, Tommy and Donna, who broke up some time earlier but who are obviously still attracted to each other. Donna is enraged because Tommy, a would-be artist, is now having an affair with her younger sister, but Tommy, stretched out on his recliner (which, apart from a refrigerator full of beer, comprises the entire furnishings of his spartan apartment), is seemingly unmoved by her harangue. In the second scene Donna visits her father, a once successful artist who stopped painting at the death of his wife, whom he had bullied and betrayed despite his professed love for her. Combative and complex (but also very funny) the father sits and drinks and eventually gives in to his daughter's demand that he force Tommy to marry her or beat him up. Then, in the third and final scene, the father and Tommy confront each other, with results that are sometimes menacing, sometimes antic, with a lively discussion about art and women eventually leading to a sort of tenuous truce-and a grudging recognition of the responsibility that love, in its various guises, imposes.

The Dreamer Examines His Pillow

A comic folktale for 2 men and 3 women. Huey Maximilian Bonfigliano has a problem: While he is safely divorced from his shrewish first wife, Janice, who shot his dog and even took a bead on him, he feels he cannot regain his "manhood" until he woos and wins her one more time-if only to put his broken marriage behind him once and for all. He enlists the aid of his lifelong buddy, Aldo Scalicki, a confirmed bachelor who tries, without apparent success, to convince Huey that he would be better off sticking with his new lady friend, Teresa, a usually placid young waitress whose indignation flares when she learns what Huey is up to. In a moonlit balcony scene (hilariously reminiscent of Cyrano de Bergerac) Aldo pleads his lovesick friend's case and, to his astonishment, Janice capitulates-although not for long. However we do learn that her earlier abuse of Huey was intended to make him "act like a man" which, at last, he does. And, more than that, he (and the audience) become aware that, in the final essence, "the greatest-and only-success is to be able to love"-a truth which emerges delightfully from the heartwarming, wonderfully antic and always imaginatively conceived action of the play.

Italian American Reconciliation (Acting Edition for Theater Productions)

Book by John Patrick Shanley, Shanley, John Patrick

Savage in Limbo.

Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include companion materials, may have some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, may not include CDs or access codes. 100% money back guarantee.

Welcome to the Moon and Other Plays.

Women of Manhattan.

Beggars in the House of Plenty.

Dirty Story - Acting Edition

Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Defiance is a necessary step in the life of an individual and in the life of a nation.'' - John Patrick Shanley ''As thoughtful and probing as its predecessor, Defiance [is] filled with the provocative questions and bristling dialogue for which Mr. Shanley is known . . . as it wonders about its big, knotty subjects.'' - Ben Brantley, The New York Times Defiance is the ''very rich and satisfying'' (The Village Voice) second work in John Patrick Shanley's trilogy that began with Doubt. The play is set in 1971 at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where Lt. Col. Morgan Littlefield and his reluctant protg Capt. Lee King - a young African American officer - clash over issues of race and authority within the Marine Corps, even as the civil rights movement and Vietnam War divide the world outside. In this high-stakes struggle at the top of the ranks, witnessed by the base's inquisitive Chaplain White and Littlefield's irreproachable wife Margaret, Shanley has crafted another timely play eYesploring issues of power and morality within a hallowed institution.

Defiance - Acting Edition

Candlelight

Dramatists Play Service, Incorporated

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by John Patrick Shanley. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by John Patrick Shanley