Real Pleasures to Perform: Plays Inspired by True Events

From inspiring tales of courage and morality, to somber investigations of the depths to which humanity can sink, reality has often formed the basis of some of Broadway’s greatest theatrical works. True stories become larger-than-life spectacles on stage, and the results are magnificent!

26 Pebbles by Eric Ulloa (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 2m)
Similar in style to The Laramie Project, 26 Pebbles is a heartbreaking and riveting docudrama. Playwright Eric Ulloa conducted interviews with members of the community in Newtown and crafted them into an exploration of gun violence and a small town shaken by a horrific event.

Alabama Story by Kenneth Jones (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 4m)
As the Civil Rights movement is brewing, a controversial children’s book about a black rabbit marrying a white rabbit stirs the passions of a segregationist state senator and a no-nonsense state librarian in 1959 Montgomery, Alabama. Political foes, star-crossed lovers and one feisty children’s author inhabit the same page in a play that brims with humor, heartbreak and hope.

All The Way/The Great Society by Robert Schenkkan (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 17m)
November, 1963. An assassin’s bullet catapults Lyndon Baines Johnson into the presidency. A figure of towering ambition and appetite, this charismatic, conflicted Texan hurls himself into the passage of the Civil Rights Act – a tinderbox issue emblematic of a divided America – even as he campaigns for re-election. This modern classic, which won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Play, can be performed alongside its sister play The Great Society, where Johnson’s accomplishments – the passage of hundreds of bills to enact reform across civil rights, poverty, and education – are overshadowed by the bitter failure of the Vietnam War.

Black Angel by Michael Cristofer (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1w, 10m)
Martin Engel, a former SS officer accused of committing horrific war crimes in a small French village, attempts to retire to that very town to live out his days in peace and quiet. As the townspeople grow increasingly hungry for revenge, questions of guilt and duty are raised as Engel’s proposed execution grows ever nearer. What does it mean to take the pound of flesh that you believe is owed to you?

Blood at the Root by Dominique Morisseau (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 3m)
A striking new ensemble drama based on the Jena Six, six Black students who were initially charged with attempted murder for a school fight after being provoked with nooses hanging from a tree on campus. This bold new play by Dominique Morisseau (Sunset Baby, Detroit ’67, Skeleton Crew) examines the miscarriage of justice, racial double standards, the crises in relations between men and women of all classes and, as a result, the shattering state of Black family life.

Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 7m)
Based on the life of Alan Turing, the eccentric genius who played a major role in winning World War II, this poignant drama focuses on his later conviction for the then-illegal crime of homosexuality. The result – where a man who should have been showered with praise was instead subjected to hormone treatments that debilitated him – resulted in the tragic end of one of England’s great heroes.

Calendar Girls by Tim Firth (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 9w, 4m)
This hit comedy, the fastest-selling play in British theatre history, is based on the true story of eleven elder women who posed nude for a calendar to raise money for the Leukaemia Research Fund. When Annie’s husband John dies of leukaemia, she and best friend Chris resolve to raise money by posing naked for an “alternative” calendar. The news of the charitable venture spreads like wildfire, and Chris and Annie’s friendship is put to the test under the strain of their newfound fame.

Celebrated Virgins by Katie Elin-Salt and Eleri B. Jones (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 1m)
This powerful and touching play is based on the true story of Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Sarah Ponsonby, who were cast out by society and forced to leave their homes in Ireland. They took up residence in Llangollen, Wales and found solace in each other.

Copenhagen by Michael Frayn (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1w, 2m)
In 1941, German physicist Werner Heisenberg goes to Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart, Niels Bohr. Together they revolutionized atomic science in the 1920s, but now they are on opposite sides of a world war. In this incisive drama by the prominent British playwright, which premiered at the Royal National Theatre in London and opened to rave reviews on Broadway (ultimately winning the 2000 Tony Award for Best Play), the two men meet in a situation fraught with danger in hopes of discovering why we do what we do.

cullud wattah by Erika Dickerson-Despenza (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w)
Part meditation/call to action, part domestic drama, cullud wattah explores the effects of the Flint water crisis on a multigenerational family of Black women. Blending form and bending time, cullud wattah dives deep into the poisonous choices of the outside world, the contamination within and how we make the best choices for our families’ future when there are no real, present options.

Detroit ’67 by Dominique Morisseau (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 2m)
Morisseau’s powerful play unfolds an explosive moment in our history – the race riots that ravaged the city of Detroit in 1967 – set to a vibrant soundtrack of the day’s music. In 1967 Detroit, Motown music is getting the party started, and Chelle and her brother Lank are making ends meet by turning their basement into an after-hours joint. But when a mysterious woman finds her way into their lives, the siblings clash over much more than the family business. As their pent-up feelings erupt, so does their city, and they find themselves caught in the middle of the ’67 riots.

Dream of a Common Language by Heather Ruth Mcdonald (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 2m, 1 boy)
In 1874 Paris, women were banned from the artists’ dinner to plan the first Impressionist painting exhibit, even though works by those women were to be shown. Mcdonald’s lyrical work centers on a dinner at the home of Victor, a successful artist, and his wife Clovis, an artist who no longer paints. After helping with the preparations and being excluded from the dining room, Clovis devises a “women-only” dinner to be held outdoors.

Enough: Plays to End Gun Violence by Elizabeth Shannon, Debkanya Mitra, Adelaide Fisher, Azya Lyons, Sarah Schecter, Olivia Ridley and Eislinn Gracen (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 9w, 7m, 6 any)
Designed to inspire teens to confront gun violence by creating new works of theatre sparking critical conversations, #ENOUGH has incited meaningful action in communities across the country. Moving and indelibly tied to the present crisis in America, the collection speaks directly to the traumatic effects of gun violence.

2009 Chichester Festival Theatre production of Enron (Tristram Kenton)

Enron by Lucy Prebble (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 11m)
Enron is the theatrical and explosive tale of the collapse of a company. Based off the new millennium’s biggest scandal, but told as a sprawling, dynamic tragedy, the play follows CEO and anti-hero Jeffrey Skilling through Enron’s rise and fall. A savage satire of late capitalism and a deft weaving of real history with sharp theatrical structure, Prebble’s work speaks to anyone who has wondered, even for a second, where all their money goes.

Escape to Freedom by Ossie Davis (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 5m)
Ossie Davis’ enlightening and entertaining play focuses on the boyhood of Frederick Douglass, who – despite being born into enslavement – grew up to become an abolitionist, orator and the first African American man to hold a diplomatic office. Much of the plot centers on Fred’s struggle to learn to read, the surest way to freedom. Designed specifically for young audiences, the play frequently employs direct address and features several songs of the period, to be sung a cappella.

Frost/Nixon by Peter Morgan (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 8m)
British talk-show host David Frost has become a lowbrow laughingstock. Richard M. Nixon has just resigned the United States presidency in total disgrace over Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. Determined to resurrect his career, Frost risks everything on a series of in-depth interviews designed to extract an apology from Nixon. In this tense, taut work, Morgan places the audience at the center of a verbal battle conducted by two gigantic personalities each determined to out-talk the other and secure their respective legacies.

Glory by Tracey Power (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 4w, 1m)
Inspired by the true story of Canada’s own Preston Rivulettes, Glory is a hockey play that swings! In 1933, four friends set out to prove to Canada that hockey isn’t just a sport for men. But with the Great Depression weighing heavily on the nation and political tensions rising in Europe, can they overcome the odds, and people’s expectations, to forge their own path to glory? Told through music and dance inspired by the jazz age, Glory is a thrilling hockey story that proves a woman’s place is on home ice.

Good Night, and Good Luck by George Clooney and Grant Heslov (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 12m)
Tune in to the golden age of broadcast journalism and Edward R. Murrow’s legendary, history-altering, on-air showdown with Senator Joseph McCarthy. As McCarthyism casts a shadow over America, Murrow and his team at CBS choose to confront the growing tide of paranoia and propaganda, even if it means turning the federal government and a worried nation against them. An electrifying stage adaptation of the critically acclaimed film by original screenwriters George Clooney and Grant Heslov, Good Night, and Good Luck chronicles a time in American history when truth and journalistic integrity stood up to fearmongering and disinformation – and won.

Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde by Moisés Kaufman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 9m)
In early 1895, the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of Wilde’s young lover Lord Alfred Douglas, left a card at Wilde’s social club bearing the phrase “posing sodomite.” Wilde sued the Marquess for criminal libel. After a series of highly public trials, Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment and hard labor. Gross Indecency uses trial transcripts, personal correspondence, interviews and other source materials to tell the story of the downfall of a great man of letters whose artistic genius has long been overshadowed by the scandal surrounding his imprisonment.

Here There Are Blueberries by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 5m)
An album of never-before-seen World War II-era photographs arrives at the desk of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum archivist Rebecca Erbelding. As Rebecca and her team of historians begin to unravel the shocking story behind the images, the album soon makes headlines around the world. In Germany, a businessman sees the album online and recognizes his own grandfather in the photos. He begins a journey of discovery that will take him into the lives of other Nazi descendants – in a reckoning with his family’s past and his country’s history. Through compelling docudrama, Here There Are Blueberries tells the story of these photographs and what they reveal about the Holocaust and our own humanity.

In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Heinar Kipphardt and Ruth Speirs (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 14m)
A docudrama derived from the actual transcripts of the trial of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the prime force behind the U.S. acquisition of the Atomic bomb. As his own second thoughts surface as to its ultimate use, Oppenheimer publicly expresses doubts and his professional and personal life are exposed and scrutinized on the world stage. Engrossing and intellectually interesting, the play delves into questions of absolute power and absolute responsibility in gripping fashion.

Indecent by Paula Vogel (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 4m)
Taking the reader back into the distant past, Vogel’s deeply moving play is inspired by the true events surrounding the controversial 1923 Broadway debut of Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance. Indecent showcases the intersection between history, Jewish culture and lesbian love, and the show’s 2017 run at the Cort Theatre was the first time a Vogel play had appeared on Broadway. Touching on themes ranging from censorship to homophobia, Indecent presents issues that have affected the LGBTQ+ community for more than a century, giving them life with both bravery and poise. The show also features original music from Lisa Gutkin and Aaron Halva, helping to creative an immersive sensory experience that transports the audience to an important event in queer history.

Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 6w, 21m, 2 boys, 1 girl)
This lively courtroom drama dives into the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, where a Tennessee teacher was tried for teaching the theory of evolution. Two persuasive attorneys argue the case in an effort to determine the balance of church and state. Considered one of the great American dramas of the century, Inherit the Wind’s timeless examination of where societal boundaries should be drawn was later adapted into an equally-beloved 1960 film starring Spencer Tracy and Gene Kelly.

2019 Manhattan Theatre Club production of Ink (Joan Marcus)

Ink by James Graham (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 14m)
James Graham’s ruthless play leads with the birth of England’s most influential newspaper, when a young and rebellious Rupert Murdoch asked the impossible and launched his first editor’s quest, against all odds, to give the people what they want. He purchases a struggling paper, The Sun, and sets out to make it a must-read smash which will destroy – and ultimately horrify – the competition. While the consequences of Murdoch’s expansion have left a long trail in their wake, Graham uses the beginnings of tabloid journalism to create a gripping piece of theatre that exposes the machinations needed to create news at any cost.

Inspired by True Events by Ryan Spahn (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 2w, 2m)
The clue is in the title! In this hilarious yet horrifying play, Ryan Spahn invites the audience backstage, where a tenacious group of show people determine at what cost the show must go on. Backstage in their community theatre’s green room in Rochester, New York, the Uptown Theatre Performers are getting ready to play to a full house after opening to rave reviews the previous night. When their star actor arrives in a dangerously unhinged state, they must improvise on and off stage in ways they could not have imagined. Based off a single true crime headline that Spahn had read, the play imagines what might possess people to keep going, even in the face of unfortunate events.

Irena’s Vow by Dan Gordon (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 6m)
Set a time of worldwide horror, Irena’s Vow follows the 19-year-old Irena Gut Opdyke as she tries to shelter 12 Jewish workers in the basement of the house of her employer, a Nazi commandant. A touching portrayal of a young woman with immense bravery, Gordon’s play has inspired countless audiences and brings to the fore the great courage we need to survive in tumultuous times.

Just For Us by Alex Edelman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 1 any)
After following an anti-Semitic tweet aimed in his direction down an online rabbit hole, comedian Alex Edelman found himself in an unexpected place: at a meeting of White Nationalists in Queens, face-to-face with the people behind the keyboards. What follows makes up the backbone of this show, equal parts hilarious and gripping, that made its way from small London theatres to a unanimously well-received hit run on Broadway. Within Just For Us, Edelman, who was awarded a Special Tony Award for the show, explores religion, cultural identity, assimilation, empathy and gorillas that speak sign language. Most importantly of all, he explores what it means to be confronted with hatred.

Just Like Us by Karen Zacarías (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 7w, 2m)
Based on Helen Thorpe’s bestselling book, this documentary-style play follows four Latina teenage girls in Denver – two of whom are documented and two who are not – through young adulthood. Their close-knit friendships begin to unravel when immigration status dictates the girls’ opportunities, or lack thereof. When a political firestorm arises, each girl’s future becomes increasingly complicated. Just Like Us poses difficult yet essential questions about what makes us American.

Letters to Sala by Arlene Hutton (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 12w, 4m)
Adapted from the book Sala’s Gift by Ann Kirschner based on a true account, Letters to Sala is a remarkable story of a young girl’s survival during wartime Germany. Sala Garncarz Kirschner kept her secret for over fifty years, concealing her incredibly painful history in a Spill and Spell box. Everything changes when Sala reveals the cache to her grown daughter, Ann. Through scholarly research, Ann discovers that her mother has made a historically significant impact on Holocaust documentation. As Ann processes her own reaction to her mother’s story, her daughters, Caroline and Elisabeth, realize for the first time the weight of their Jewish heritage. In this stirring family portrait, three generations of Kirschner women must work together to sift through the past and come to terms with the true gravity of Sala’s letters.

2017 Broadway production of M. Butterfly (Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade)

M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 7m)
Bored with his routine posting in Beijing, and awkward with women, Rene Gallimard, a French diplomat, is easy prey for the subtle, delicate charms of Song Liling, a Chinese opera star who personifies Gallimard’s fantasy vision of submissive, exotic sexuality. He begins an affair that lasts for twenty years, during which time he passes along diplomatic secrets, an act that eventually brings about his downfall and imprisonment. Combining realism and ritual with vivid theatricality, the play reaches its astonishing climax when Song Liling, before our very eyes, strips off his female attire and assumes his true masculinity – a revelation that the deluded Gallimard cannot accept. Exploring the Western perception of the East, and the ways in which romanticism can overlap with orientalism, Hwang’s masterpiece is imaginative and audacious.

Men on Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Comedy / 10w)
Men on Boats is the true(ish) history of an 1869 expedition, when a one-armed captain and a crew of insane yet loyal volunteers set out to chart the course of the Colorado River. Raucous and hilarious without ever descending into farce, Backhaus explores the masculine desire to plant one’s flag on new terrain by subverting it with a cast of all women.

Notes from the Field by Anna Deavere Smith (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1w)
Based on real accounts from students, parents and faculty, this one-woman show spotlights the stories of those caught in America’s school-to-prison pipeline. Notes from the Field investigates a justice system that funnels young people from poor communities into the ubiquitous prison-industrial complex. Inspired by over two hundred and fifty interviews with people living within the system, Smith’s documentary piece both fosters awareness and galvanizes audiences to seek tangible change.

Oslo by J.T. Rogers (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 11m)
A sweeping historical tale with moments of dark humor, Rogers’ 2017 work won the Tony Award for Best Play for its thrilling portrayal of the 1993 negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. How did such high-profile negotiations come to be held secretly in a castle in the middle of a forest outside Oslo? Through back-channel talks, unlikely friendships and quiet heroics, Rogers presents a deeply personal story set against a complex historical canvas. With a quick pace and lively scenic confrontations, Oslo is a story about the individuals behind world history and their all too human ambitions.

Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 1m)
When Henrietta Leavitt begins work at the Harvard Observatory in the early 1900s, she isn’t allowed to touch a telescope or express an original idea. Instead, she joins a group of women “computers,” charting the stars for a renowned astronomer who calculates projects in “girl hours” and has no time for the women’s probing theories. In her free time, as Henrietta attempts to measure the light and distance of stars, she must also take measure of her life on Earth, trying to balance her dedication to science with family obligations and the possibility of love. The true story of the 19th-century astronomer explores a woman’s place in society during a time of immense scientific discoveries, when women’s ideas were dismissed until men claimed credit for them.

Spitfire Girls by Katherine Senior (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 2m + ensemble)
New Year’s Eve, 1959. Decades after answering the call, two women separated by the war meet again as the rain hammers down on the windows of The Spitfire Pub. As they share their story, the setting shifts back to a time when female pioneers defied expectations and soared through the skies. Funny and heartwarming, this untold story of strength, courage and loss is inspired by the extraordinary true stories of the women who dared to fly during World War II and the incredible bond that tied them together.

The Amish Project by Jessica Dickey (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1w)
This fictional exploration of the real Nickel Mines schoolhouse shooting in an Amish community tells the story of violence’s impact on a community, the path of forgiveness and compassion forged in its wake. Also available for an ensemble cast (US/UK).

The Audience by Peter Morgan (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 9m)
For sixty years, Queen Elizabeth II met with each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a private weekly audience. The discussions were utterly secret, even to the royal and ministerial spouses. Peter Morgan imagines these meetings over the decades of the Queen’s remarkable reign, through Prime Ministers from Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher to the 2015 incumbent David Cameron. The Audience is a glimpse into the woman behind the crown, and the moments that have shaped the modern monarchy.

The Courtroom: A Reenactment of One Woman’s Deportation Proceedings by Arian Moayed (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 4m)
Elizabeth Keathley, a Filipina immigrant, entered the United States on a K-3 visa to live with her husband, a U.S. citizen. When applying for her driver’s license at an Illinois DMV, Keathley inadvertently said “yes” to the form question of registering to vote and subsequently received a voter registration card in the mail. With this voter card, Keathley then voted in a midterm congressional election, violating U.S. election law. When the mistake was discovered at her citizenship hearings, the Department of Homeland Security ordered her deportation. Keathley’s case went from Chicago Immigration Court all the way to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Created from verbatim transcripts, The Courtroom is an uncanny examination of the U.S. immigration system and one woman at its mercy.

The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, adapted by Wendy Kesselman (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 5m)
In Wendy Kesselman’s gripping new adaptation of the original stage play by Goodrich and Hackett, survivor accounts and newly discovered writings from the diary of Anne Frank are interwoven to create a contemporary, impassioned story of those persecuted under Nazi rule. This is an adaptation for a new generation able to confront the true horrors of the Holocaust.

The Exonerated by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 7m)
Culled from interviews, letters, transcripts, case files and the public record, The Exonerated tells the true stories of six wrongfully convicted survivors of death row in their own words. From Robert, an African-American horse groomer, to Sunny, a bright-spirited hippie, this heartrending show takes us through a spectrum of first-person monologues and scenes set in courtrooms and prisons, whose six interwoven stories paint a picture of an American criminal justice system gone horribly wrong – and six brave souls who persevered to survive it.

The Guys by Anne Nelson (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1w, 1m)
Less than two weeks after the September 11th attacks, New Yorkers are still in shock. One of them, an editor named Joan, receives an unexpected phone call from Nick, a fire captain who lost most of his men in the attack. He’s looking for a writer to help him with the eulogies he must present at their memorial services. Nick and Joan spend a long afternoon together, recalling the fallen men and fashioning their stories into memorials. In the process, Nick and Joan discover the possibilities of friendship in each other and their shared love for the unconquerable spirit of the city. As they make their way through the emotional landscape of grief, they draw on humor, tango, the appreciation of craft in all its forms – and the enduring bonds of common humanity.

The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman, The Tectonic Theater Project (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 4m)
Based on the tragic story of Matthew Shepard, The Laramie Project is a docudrama created by Moisés Kaufman and his fellow members of the Tectonic Theater Project. Conducting six trips to Laramie over the course of a year and a half, where Shepard had been brutally killed in an anti-gay hate crime, the writer/performers conducted more than 200 interviews with the people of the town. The result was a deeply moving theatrical experience constructed from these interviews and their own experiences in Laramie. Highlighting both the horrors inflicted by humanity and the compassion of which it is capable, The Laramie Project remains a moving and genre-bending classic of American theatre.

The Lehman Trilogy by Stefano Massini and Ben Power (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3m)
On a cold September morning in 1844, a young man from Bavaria stands on a New York dockside dreaming of a new life in the new world. He is joined by his two brothers, and an American epic begins. 163 years later, the firm they establish – Lehman Brothers – spectacularly collapses into bankruptcy, triggering the largest financial crisis in history. Weaving together nearly two centuries of family history, this epic theatrical event charts the humble beginnings, outrageous successes and devastating failure of the financial institution that would ultimately bring the global economy to its knees. The Lehman Trilogy is the quintessential story of western capitalism, rendered through the lens of a single immigrant family.

The Line by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 5m)
Crafted from firsthand interviews with New York City’s frontline medical workers, The Line exposes the cracks in the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Paramedics, doctors, nurses and EMTs put their own health at risk as they worked to save every patient, redefining what it means to protect and serve. Provocative, honest and gut-wrenching, the show documents the authentic experiences of medical first responders as they battle to save lives in a system built to serve the bottom line.

The Miracle Worker by William Gibson (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 7w, 7m)
Immortalized on screen by Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke, this Tony Award-winning play is the story of Annie Sullivan and her student Helen Keller, who lost her sight and hearing at the age of 19 months. Through compassion, humor and dramatic tension, The Miracle Worker explores the volatile relationship between a lonely teacher and her headstrong charge.

The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer (US)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 1w, 8m)
A searing drama about public and private indifference to the AIDS plague and one man’s lonely fight to awaken the world to the crisis, The Normal Heart is based on author Larry Kramer’s real-life experiences. Produced to great acclaim in New York, London and Los Angeles, the play centers on Ned Weeks, a gay activist enraged at the indifference of public officials and the gay community. While trying to save the world from itself, Ned confronts the personal toll of AIDS when his lover dies of the disease. Fierce and moving, Kramer’s work resounds with bravery and emotional intelligence.

The People Before the Park by Keith Josef Adkins (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 4m)
1856. New York City. The people of Seneca Village, composed of African-Americans and Irish immigrants, have lived peacefully far away from the corruption of downtown New York City. However, when the city decides to build Central Park, their quiet hamlet becomes the target of demolition. One man decides he will not be moved. Sincere and steadfast, the play presents the power of individual action in the face of capital interests.

The Pitmen Painters by Lee Hall (UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 6m)
In 1934, a group of Ashington miners and a dental mechanic hired a professor from Newcastle University to teach an Art Appreciation evening class. Unable to understand each other, they embarked on one of the most unusual experiments in British art as the pitmen learned to become painters. Within a few years avant-garde artists had become their friends, their work was taken for prestigious collections, and they were celebrated throughout the British art world… but every day they worked, as before, down the mine.

The Revlon Girl by Neil Anthony Docking (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w)
Eight months after the Aberfan Disaster of 1966, in which 144 people were killed (116 of them children), a group of bereaved mothers met weekly above a local hotel to talk, cry and even laugh without feeling guilty. At one of their previous meetings, the women looked at each other and admitted how much they felt they’d let themselves go. Although afraid that people will think them frivolous, they’ve secretly arranged for a representative from Revlon to come and give them a talk on beauty tips.

The Triangle Factory Fire Project by Christopher Piehler and Scott Alan Evans (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 4w, 5m)
In the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory off downtown Manhattan’s Washington Square – where 500 immigrant workers from Poland, Russia and Italy toil 14-hour days making lady’s dresses – a cigarette is tossed into a bin of fabric scraps. Despite desperate efforts, flames sweep through the eighth, ninth and tenth floors. Panic-stricken workers run in all directions. Piehler and Evans’ gripping drama uses eyewitness accounts, court transcripts and other archival material to create a dramatic moment-by-moment account of this historic fire and the social upheaval that followed. By using real words spoken by real people, from Ukrainian seamstresses to millionaire Fifth Avenue socialites, this play paints a heartbreakingly clear picture of a disastrous day in American history and explores the human toll such a tragedy takes on us all.

This House by James Graham (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 16m)
The year is 1974. A hung parliament in the UK faces economic crisis and an uncertain future. Set in the engine rooms of Westminster, James Graham’s play strips politics down to the practical, behind-the-scenes realities of the whips who roll up their sleeves – and occasionally bend the rules – to pass legislation. In a time when an unusual number of politicians died, margins were so slim that even sick and frail MPs had to be carried through the lobby to register their vote. With crackling tension and sharp dialogue, whips on both sides use every trick in the book to win votes. From the author of Ink (US/UK) comes another bold take on a historical flashpoint, as the Mother of all Parliaments creaks under its own idiosyncrasies and arcane traditions.

Tiny Beautiful Things by Nia Vardalos and Cheryl Strayed (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Dramatic Comedy / 1w, 3 any gender)
Based on the bestselling book by Cheryl Strayed and adapted for the stage by Nia Vardalos, Tiny Beautiful Things personifies the questions and answers that “Sugar” was publishing online from 2010-2012. When the struggling writer was asked to take over the unpaid, anonymous position of advice columnist, Strayed used empathy and her personal experiences to help those seeking guidance for obstacles both large and small. Tiny Beautiful Things is a play about reaching when you’re stuck, healing when you’re broken, and finding the courage to take on the questions that have no answers.

Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 2m, 1 any gender)
In a stunning work of “documentary theatre,” Anna Deavere Smith uses the verbatim words of people who experienced the Los Angeles riots to explore the devastating human impact of that event. From nine months of interviews with more than two hundred people, Smith has chosen the voices that best reflect the diversity and tension of a city in turmoil: a disabled Korean man, a white male Hollywood talent agent, a Panamanian immigrant mother, a teenage Black gang member, a macho Mexican-American artist, Rodney King’s aunt, beaten truck driver Reginald Denny, former Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates, along with other witnesses, participants and victims. Going directly to the heart of the issues of race and class, Twilight ruthlessly probes the language and the lives of its subjects.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and Mike Poulton (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 5w, 16m)
Mike Poulton’s two-part adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize-winning novels is a thrilling portrait of a brilliant manipulator navigating a high-stakes political landscape. Beginning in England in 1527, where King Henry VIII is determined to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, the play crackles with anger as the months pass without the divorce Henry craves. Into this volatile court enters the commoner Thomas Cromwell. Once a soldier of fortune and now a master politician, he sets out to grant King Henry’s desires while methodically and ruthlessly pursuing his own Reformist agenda. Fusing meticulous historical research with exciting theatrical action, Poulton expands on Mantel’s already-stunning canvas and delivers a work full of intrigue and power.

Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang (US/UK)
(Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 5m)
The lines between truth and fiction blur with hilarious and moving results in David Henry Hwang’s unreliable memoir. Asian American playwright David Henry Hwang (DHH), fresh off his Tony Award win for M. Butterfly, leads a protest against the casting of Jonathan Pryce as the Eurasian pimp in the original Broadway production of Miss Saigon, condemning the practice as “yellow face.” His position soon comes back to haunt him when he mistakes a Caucasian actor, Marcus G. Dahlman, for mixed-race and casts him in the lead Asian role of his own Broadway-bound comedy, Face Value. When DHH discovers the truth of Marcus’ ethnicity, he tries to conceal his blunder to protect his reputation as an Asian-American role model. Confronting the shifting boundaries of race, and the ways in which we interpret ourselves, David Henry Hwang (and DHH) reveal that our faces are always more complex than they appear.

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