The Contest: A Play by Shirley Lauro (Applause Books)

Lauro, Shirley

Humor & Entertainment

Applause Theatre & Cinema Books

Drama / Characters: 5m, 3f Winner 2004 NEA "Access to Excellence Award," in collaboration with New Theatre, FL, Finalist 2001 New American History Play Prize The story takes place in 1932, the last time Clarence Darrow pleads in a criminal court of law. Set in various places in Chicago and Hawaii, Darrow with his wife, Ruby, travels to Honolulu to defend a Pearl Harbor Naval Lieutenant accused of shooting a Hawaiian who allegedly led a gang rape on the Lieutenant's wife.

Clarence Darrow's Last Trial

Literature & Fiction

Dramas & Plays

Concord Theatricals

Characters: 2m, 4f /Drama / A play about growing up in our "have and have-not" society, and discovering what "family" really is. Though Angie, an adolescent, lives in a wealthy town, she is poor. Deserted at birth by her mother, her father killed in War, she lives in a trailer with her ailing but loving Grandma. Though a gifted athlete, Angie's afraid to compete at her preppie school, feeling she's "Trailer Trash". While terrified a disliked aunt will soon take her away to live with her and put Grandma in a Facility, Angie meets a boy, Theo, at school. Brilliant, wealthy but an awkward loner, Theo's parents have no time for him and schoolmates taunt him, his only friends being his computer and his bird. Finally as Angie and Theo form a unique bond as soulmates, they gain the courage to begin their journeys toward adulthood...resolving family problems, and taking actions to utilize their talents at school.

Speckled Birds

Drama / Characters: 5f / Simple Set Nominee! 2006 Joseph Jefferson nomination as Best New Chicago Play of the Year All Through the Night speaks directly with a warning for today. Set during and after the Third Reich, a stylistic, surrealistic play inspired by interviews with German Gentile women. The play sweeps from their teen years through adulthood during the Holocaust and beyond. The Nazi Regime impacts the women's lives as they struggle over work, religion, marriage and motherhood. Making overwhelmingly hard choices, they survive or succumb to Hitler's Reign and are changed forever. A sylistic, surrealistic play. Minimal set and minimal props. An unconventional timeframe that jumps a chronological order "Events...elevated to artistic dramatization. Most interesting is character transformations as the stories unfold." - Backstage "We may know history but this play is electrifying!" - Chicago Free Press

All Through the Night

A naturalistic family comedy/drama centering on a shy young adolescent, Bevvie Sue, caught in the web of her hilarious but powerful mother's fantasies of gaining fame and fortune through complusive contest entries, her beloved immigrant father's broken dreams and ambitions, and her rich judgmental relatives. Set in a small midwestern city in the middle of World War II, the story sweeps through a year in this American Jewish family's life, as Bevvie Sue struggles to disentangle herself and emerge as her own person: a young woman, eager for life, on her way to finding her own place in the sun.

The Contest (Applause Books)

Applause