Brings together three ascerbic comedies by the prize-winning playwright--The House of Blue Leaves, Landscape of the Body, and Bosoms and Neglect--that view family relationships and crumbling American values

Three Exposures

Literature & Fiction

Guare, John

Dramas & Plays

Harcourt

John Guare is one of America's darkest post-war playwrights

Guare Plays: 1

Guare, J.

Methuen Publishing

The House of Blue Leaves

Plume

FarceCharacters: 4 male, 6 femaleInterior SetArtie Shaugnessy is a songwriter with visions of glory. Toiling by day as a zoo-keeper, he suffers in seedy lounges by night, plying his wares at piano bars in Queens, New York where he lives with his wife, Bananas. Who is. Much to the chagrin of Artie's downstairs mistress, Bunny Flingus who'll sleep with him anytime but refuses to cook until they are married. On the day the Pope is making his first visit to the city, Artie's son Ronny goes AWOL from Fort Dix stowing a home made-bomb intended to blow up the Pope in Yankee Stadium. Also arriving are Artie's old school chum, now a successful Hollywood producer, Billy Einhorn with starlet girlfriend in tow, who holds the key to Artie's dreams of getting out of Queens and away from the life he so despises. But like many dreams, this promise of glory evaporates amid the chaos of ordinary lives. Winner of the 1971 Critics Award and the Obie Award as Best American Play. "A brilliant play...beautifully fashioned...Wacky and sometimes sad [with]... combined hilarity, poignancy, outrageous stage aside and tragedy." -The New York Daily News "Enchantingly zany and original farce." -The New York Times

The House of Blue Leaves abd Two Other Plays: Landscape of the Body and Bosoms and Neglect

In December 1988, at a high point of his career, a collapsed spinal artery left the painter Chuck Close paralyzed from the shoulders down. He was famous by then for his monumental portraits that deconstructed the conventional notions of identity and personality. Now Close was forced to confront his own identity: could a paralyzed man make monumental art? Three years later, a show of new Close paintings appeared; to the astonishment of the art world, they were as large and powerful as ever. Not only had he found a way to paint his physically demanding portraits again; they had also been transformed. A more impressionistic and dynamic vision now throbbed from his canvases with new emotional intensity. In this book, Close has collaborated with his friend, playwright John Guare, to produce a narrative account that tells the story of what Close calls "the event": the day of the trauma itself, the months of slowly recovering the minimal movement that allows him to still paint, and the transformation of his art as a result. The book also brings together all of his new paintings from the last seven years, including images of Roy Lichtenstein, Eric Fischl, April Gornik, and other major contemporary artists. Taking the reader even further into his vision, Close brings Guare behind the canvas and into the Polaroid studio to photograph him as a potential subject for a new portrait. With a unique combination of documentary photographs and commentary, Close shows how he conceives and begins the process of making a portrait, and how the subject plays a role in shaping the final image.

Chuck Close: Life and Work 1988-1995

Arts & Photography

CLOSE, Chuck

History & Criticism

Thames&Hudson

Farce
Characters: 4 male, 6 female
Interior Set
Artie Shaugnessy is a songwriter with visions of glory. Toiling by day as a zoo-keeper, he suffers in seedy lounges by night, plying his wares at piano bars in Queens, New York where he lives with his wife, Bananas. Who is. Much to the chagrin of Artie's downstairs mistress, Bunny Flingus who'll sleep with him anytime but refuses to cook until they are married. On the day the Pope is making his first visit to the city, Artie's son Ronny goes AWOL from Fort Dix stowing a home made-bomb intended to blow up the Pope in Yankee Stadium. Also arriving are Artie's old school chum, now a successful Hollywood producer, Billy Einhorn with starlet girlfriend in tow, who holds the key to Artie's dreams of getting out of Queens and away from the life he so despises. But like many dreams, this promise of glory evaporates amid the chaos of ordinary lives.
 Winner of the 1971 Critics Award and the Obie Award as Best American Play. "A brilliant play...beautifully fashioned...Wacky and sometimes sad [with]... combined hilarity, poignancy, outrageous stage aside and tragedy." -The New York Daily News 
"Enchantingly zany and original farce." -The New York Times

Humor & Entertainment

Concord Theatricals

Sweet Smell of Successmusic by Marvin Hamlischlyrics by Craig CarneliaBook by John Guare

The Sweet Smell of Success

Hamlisch, Marvin

Carnelia, Craig

Penguin??Books

Poetry

VIKING

Six Degrees of Separation: A Play

The extraordinary tragicomedy of race, class and manners. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Random House]

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Books by Guare, John