For 2 Men and 3 Women. It is the Catskills, in the summer of 1960. Lili Adler is the troubled twenty-year-old daughter of a wealthy German-Jewish refugee. By the shore of a lake, she meets Nick Lockridge, a golden young man who looks to her as if "nothing ever happened to him." Over the summer, Lili comes to view Nick as her savior, and Nick's fondness for Lili grows; but to Eva, Lili's autocratic mother, Nick is an object of suspicion, and the romance that blossoms between him and Lili is an unfortunate condition that must be indulged before it can be obliterated. Eva knows she will find out something about Nick which will unmask his unworthiness. To find it, she patiently manipulates Nick's revelations about his past to prove him unfit for Lili. By play's end, time, past injuries, and the imperatives of history will conspire to bear out Eva's dictum that happiness exists "but it's for other people."

The American Plan

Literature & Fiction

Richard Greenberg

Dramas & Plays

Dramatists Play Service

THE STORY: Smitten with her latest protege, a handsome young writer with a special voice, a pretty editor accompanies him back to his apartment-the better to see from whence his inspiration springs, and also to toast their new creative partnership. But while she is captivated by the writer's good looks and laid-back, low-key manner, she begins, increasingly, to wonder (to the audience) at the emptiness-even banality-of his conversation. In fact the only time he isn't boring is when he is quoting poetic passages from his novel in progress. The reason is soon apparent: the real author is a poor misshapen, Quasimodo-like creature whose physical ugliness has forced him to remain closeted, while his literary brilliance is credited to another (whose main contribution is, in fact, his striking jacket photograph). The revelation of this Beauty and the Beast phenomenon is, as might be expected in the cynical publishing business, received with more diffidence than dismay but, thanks to some clever and very funny twists and turns of plot, everyone does, in the end, get exactly what he or she deserves.

The Author's Voice.. (Acting Edition for Theater Productions)

Greenberg, Richard

Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Book by Richard Greenberg, Greenberg, Richard

Eastern Standard.

Arts & Photography

Performing Arts

Dramatist's Play Service

Dramatists Play Service 1985 softcover staple bound.

Life Under Water.

THE STORY: Focusing on the self-centered concerns of a rather inbred group of Manhattan yuppies, the action of the play deals with the ultimately hilarious misunderstandings which arise when one of their number, a frustrated, somewhat overweight

The Maderati.

THE STORY: Young Anya's hair must be brushed exactly one hundred times (if it's stroked even one hundred and one, she is convinced that she may die). The task falls to her older sister, Minna, who, as she brushes, tells a dark tale of a woman who murdered her neighbor. Meanwhile the other members of the family are engaged in their own pursuits: Their brother, Spence, contemplates suicide; their mother is occupied with various hobbies (including architecture); and their grandfather deliberately feigns decrepitude. When Minna's shiftless fiance, Sky, fails to help her escape the madness which she sees growing in her family, she apparently wills her own death-and is replaced onstage by Carla, the woman who figured in her macabre bedtime story. And Carla, in turn, brushes her own daughter's hair and spins her own tales of evil deeds and gnawing guilt. Moving from a starlit dock to a languid summerhouse, the play captures a sense of consuming ennui and futility; of people whose self-absorption robs their lives of purpose; and, in the end, conveys the simple truth that while individuals may be replaceable (and often slightly ridiculous) the family unit remains-and prevails-and embodies what meaning life can offer.

Vanishing Act.

Jenny Keeps Talking.

THE STORY: Herbert Stempel is the first winner of the big money quiz show 21 and the man who took a dive for the scandal's more famous victor, Charles Van Doren. Orchestrated by 21 's producer Dan Enright--a television incarnate, an abs

Night and Her Stars.

The "Dazzle" is a play by Richard Greensburg. This play is based on the lives of the Collyer brothers, Homer and Langley, who bodies were discovered in a decaying brownstone in Harlem in 1947.

The Dazzle - Acting Edition

In this new play by the Tony Award-winning playwright of Take Me Out, a fledgling (and upper-class) World War I-era publisher is trying to decide which work to choose as his imprint's first title. He has two manuscripts but lacks the funds to publish both. His difficult decision--whether to publish his lover's memoir or the novel written by his best friend--is further complicated by the arrival of a mysterious machine that produces pages predicting the future of the play's protagonists, affecting their lives and relationships in haunting and unexpected ways. The Violet Hour opened on Broadway on November 6, 2003, starring Robert Sean Leonard.

The Violet Hour - Acting Edition (Acting Edition for Theater Productions)

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Books by Richard Greenberg