Synopses & Reviews
Its been fifteen years since Guantánamo, fifteen years since Bashir last saw his U.S. Army interrogator, Alice. Bashir is now dying of a disease of the liver, an organ that he believes is the home of the soul. He tracks down Alice in Texas and demands that she donate half her liver as restitution for the damage wrought during her interrogations.
But Alice doesnt remember Bashir; a PTSD pill trial she participated in while in the army has left her without any memory of her time there. It is only when her inquisitive fourteen-year-old daughter begins her own investigation that the fragile peace of mind that Alices drug-induced oblivion enabled begins to falter.
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhigs powerful drama asks important and difficult questions: Is guilt a necessary form of moral reckoning, or is it an obstacle to be overcome? Will the price of our national political amnesia be paid only by the next generationthe daughters and sons who were never there?
Upon awarding the prize, David Hare wrote, We admired the play becausealthough it was stylishly written, although the governing metaphor and basic realism were held in a fine balanceit also recalled the political urgency which had propelled a previous generation of writers into the theatre in the first place.”
Review
"Fascinating. . . . Like Beckett, Connolly uses literate wit and a gift for simple but evocative stage pictures to make his sometimes bleak vision palatable."Jack Helbig, Booklist -- Bill Marx - PRI's The World
Review
"The Boys from Siam" offers a dark meditation on attachment and independence. . . . Connolly has taken his imaginative freedom in a challenging direction."Bill Marx, PRIs The World -- Jack Helbig - Booklist
Review
"A timely and thought-provoking play, blu deserves the stage productions it will probably get. No one who comes to the show will have nothing to say about it."—Rigoberto Gonzalez, El Paso Times
Review
“A knowing, provocative, and lyrical work that is as gorgeous as it is powerful.”—Jennie Webb, Backstage
Review
“Absorbing . . . the play’s lean, poetically metered language and its ensemble-storytelling style [are] arresting.”—Irma Mayorga, Theatre Journal
Synopsis
Announcing the 2010 winner of the Yale Drama Prize
Memory, history, and culture collide with the starlit rooftop dreams of a myth-inspired character as Soledad and her partner, Hailstorm, redefine family on their own terms after the death of their eldest son in Iraq. blu, steeped in poetic realism and contemporary politics, challenges us to try to imagine a time before war.
Selected as the winner of the 2010 Yale Drama competition from more than 950 submissions, Virginia Grise's play blu takes place in the present but looks back on the not too distant past through a series of prayers, rituals, and dreams. Contest judge David Hare commented, "Virginia Grise is a blazingly talented writer, and her play blu stays with you a long time after you've read it." Noting that 2010 was a banner year for women playwrights, he added, "Women's writing for the theatre is stronger and more eloquent than it has ever been."
Synopsis
Announcing the 2007 winner of the Yale Drama Series
John Connollys The Boys from Siam has been chosen as the first winner of the Yale Drama Series. This play was selected by playwright and contest judge Edward Albee, winner of the Pulitzer prize. Based loosely on the lives of nineteenth-century brothers Chang and Eng Bunker (the source of the term Siamese twins”), The Boys from Siam is the haunting and lyrical story of conjoined twins Pigg and Pegg. In his foreword, Edward Albee writes that the work is a beautifully realized concentrated universe. It takes big chances along the way . . . and makes us carereally care.”
For more information and complete rules for the Yale Drama Series, visit yalebooks.com
Synopsis
Neil Wechslers Grenadine has been chosen as the second winner of the Yale Drama Series. The play was selected by Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright and contest judge Edward Albee. Grenadine is the fantastical story of a mans quest for love in the company of three devoted friends. Albee writes, I found it highly original. . . . The questions the play asks and the answers it proposes are provocative; the play stretched my mind.”
About the Yale Drama Series
Yale University Press, the Yale Repertory Theatre, and the David Charles Horn Foundation are proud co-sponsors of this major competition to support emerging playwrights. Each years winner receives the David C. Horn Prize of $10,000, publication of the manuscript by Yale University Press, and a staged reading at Yale Repertory Theatre. For more information and complete rules for the Yale Drama Series, visit yalebooks.com.
Synopsis
Announcing the 2010 winner of the Yale Drama Prize
Synopsis
Memory, history, and culture collide with the starlit rooftop dreams of a myth-inspired character as Soledad and her partner, Hailstorm, redefine family on their own terms after the death of their eldest son in Iraq.
blu, steeped in poetic realism and contemporary politics, challenges us to try to imagine a time before war.
Selected as the winner of the 2010 Yale Drama competition from more than 950 submissions, Virginia Grise's play blu takes place in the present but looks back on the not too distant past through a series of prayers, rituals, and dreams. Contest judge David Hare commented, "Virginia Grise is a blazingly talented writer, and her play blu stays with you a long time after you've read it." Noting that 2010 was a banner year for women playwrights, he added, "Women's writing for the theatre is stronger and more eloquent than it has ever been."
About the Author
Virginia Grise received her MFA degree from the California Institute of the Arts and is a recipient of the 2010 Princess Grace Award in Theater Directing. In addition to the Yale Drama Award, her play blu was a finalist for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Latino/a Playwriting Award and the Alliance Theatre's Kendeda Award.