The Library for the Performing Arts Play Club [IN PERSON]

Details

Play Club is like a book club, but for plays! Whether you are familiar with the art of reading plays, or looking to expand your appreciation for dramatic literature, this book club is an opportunity to read plays you have been meaning to explore or have never considered reading before. Learn about new works, discover new playwrights, and make friends!

This group will read one playscript from the Library for the Performing Arts circulating collection every month, and then come together to discuss the work. We will read one scene from the play together and discuss the text in a book club discussion format.

This program will take place in person at the Library for the Performing Arts Harvey Fierstein Theatre Lab. If you would like to participate in an on Zoom.

This program is intended for adult patrons.

Thursday, June 25 at 6:30pm -

A gay community on Fire Island provides an unlikely setting for two straight couples who are discovered lounging poolside, staring out to sea. Sally, married to Sam, a New Jersey contractor, has inherited the house from her brother who died of AIDS. Sam’s hyperkinetic sister, Chloe, and her smug, aristocratic husband, John, have come out for the Fourth of July weekend. Through monologues unheard by the others, the characters reveal a desperate sense of individual isolation. The only people these four characters find more alien are the gay men partying in the houses on either side of them. As they divert themselves from their own mortality with food, cocktails, The New York Times crossword puzzle, fireworks, charades and biting jabs at each other and the boys next door, Sally and Sam and John and Chloe find little to celebrate about themselves or their country on its birthday.

Terrence McNally (1938-2020) was the recipient of the 2019 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement, the 2019 Dramatist Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2019 Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He won four Tony Awards for his plays Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class, and his musical books for Kiss of the Spider Woman(music and lyrics by Kander & Ebb) and Ragtime (music and lyrics by Ahrens & Flaherty). Broadway credits include the book for The Visit (with Kander & Ebb); Mothers & Sons starring Tyne Daly; Deuce starring Angela Lansbury; The Full Monty (music and lyrics by David Yazbek); The Ritz and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. His other plays include Corpus Christi; A Perfect Ganesh; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; Golden Age; The Lisbon Traviata and It’s Only a Play, all of which began at the Manhattan Theatre Club. From 1970 to 2020, McNally was a member of the Dramatists Guild; he served as the Vice President of its council for 17 years.

We have a few copies of the play available at the Library for the Performing Arts, but if you are looking for additional copies, the Drama Book Shop has graciously set aside copies of the play at a discounted price of 10% off for Play Club attendees. (While supplies last.) Please visit the Drama Book Shop to purchase your copy.

Photo Credit: From left, Anthony Heald, Roxanne Hart, Nathan Lane and Deborah Rush in Lips Together, Teeth Apart by Terrence McNally. Photograph by Martha Swope, 1991. Billy Rose Theatre Division.

ASSISTIVE LISTENING AND ASL | ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing [email protected].

Event Host

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts