A Naked Girl on the Appian Way
Cookbook author Bess Lapin and her retired husband Jeffrey gather with their three adopted children after two return from Europe and announce plans to marry; neighbors also intrude on the reunion.
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Cookbook author Bess Lapin and her retired husband Jeffrey gather with their three adopted children after two return from Europe and announce plans to marry; neighbors also intrude on the reunion.
In the first act, very successful but disenchanted architect Stephen Wheeler is lunching with his best friend from their days at Dartmouth College, rising avant-garde gay artist Drew Paley, in a trendy restaurant on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Seated at the adjoining table are Wall Street investment counselor Phoebe Kidde and her television producer brother Peter, who has just revealed he has AIDS to her. When boisterous homeless woman May Logan enters the restaurant and creates a scene, the four diners and their frazzled waitress Ellen find themselves thrown together, and they eventually strike up an unlikely alliance. In the second act, six months have elapsed, and the sextet are spending the weekend at Stephen's summer house in The Hamptons. Stephen and Phoebe find they share a mutual attraction, while Peter, unprepared to discuss his recent diagnosis, is trying to discourage Drew's amorous advances. Representing the lower class are Ellen and May, whose presence forces everyone to reexamine their lives and reevaluate their priorities.
In a suburb of Hartford, Connecticut in 1957, Cathy Whitaker is an upper-middle class wife, mother and homemaker. She finds out that her husband Frank has had secret homosexual desires, which he has fulfilled. Her world is shaken but she cannot confide in her friend Eleanor. The widowed black gardener Raymond Deagan attempts to comfort her, but she is put off by gossip about them. Frank and Cathy seek help from the psychiatrist Dr. Bowman, in an attempt to "cure" Frank of his homosexual desires.
Twenty-year-old Kip leaves his mother's home in the Hamptons. His divorced mother, Jinx, is involved with Hank, while Kip meets Amy-Beth, who has had a breakdown, and Amy-Joy, who believes in sea monsters.
Much of the play is set in the locker room of a professional baseball team, and as such has an all-male cast that explores themes of homophobia, racism, class, and masculinity in sports. Darren Lemming, a star mixed-race center fielder for the fictional Empires Major League Baseball team, comes out as gay. His friend and teammate Kippy Sunderstrom warns Darren that the team will feel uncomfortable about his sexual orientation, but is brushed off by Darren. As Kippy wonders why Darren chose that particular moment in time to come out, a flashback to a week earlier shows Darren having drinks with his best friend Davey Battle, a religious player on a rival team. Davey tells Darren that he should want his true nature known to the world. Later, Darren meets with his new accountant Mason Marzac, a gay man uninterested in baseball until Darren's coming out. The Empires fall into a slump, prompting relief pitcher Shane Mungitt to be brought up from the minor leagues. Shane tells the team that as a child, he was raised in orphanages after his father killed his mother and then himself in a murder-suicide. The team begins winning games again, but in a television interview, Mungitt expresses his discomfort with "colored people" on the team, and that he has to shower every night with a "faggot." Shane is suspended due to the interview, causing the team to fall back into its slump. He writes an apology letter that is leaked to the public, which combined with the details about his tragic childhood, causes public sympathy to shift in his favor. Shane returns to the team, despite Darren's threat to retire in protest. In the locker room showers, Darren derides Shane for his racism and homophobia, and mockingly kisses him. In the game, Shane is sent to pitch against Davey Battle; the ball hits Davey's head, killing him. In a flashback to Darren and Davey's final encounter, Davey angrily accuses Darren of using his straight-and-narrow public reputation to conceal his sexuality. Shane is permanently suspended from major league baseball, and arrested for questioning after players say they heard him muttering about wanting to "kill someone" before the game. He refuses to speak to the police, stating that he will only talk to Kippy. Kippy is joined by Darren, and as Kippy attempts to determine whether the pitch that killed Davey was intentional, Shane discloses that the apology letter was written by Kippy on Shane's behalf. In narration, Kippy states to the audience that the Empires went on to win the World Series, and no charges were ever filed against Shane. Kippy expresses to Darren his desire to again be friends, and Darren invites Mason to the end-of-season party.
In 1919, publisher John Seavering must choose between publishing a friend's enormous novel and the memoirs of his singer lover. A mysterious machine delivers books from the publishing house's future, revealing the consequences of his choices.
Cookbook author Bess Lapin and her retired husband Jeffrey gather with their three adopted children after two return from Europe and announce plans to marry; neighbors also intrude on the reunion.
In the first act, very successful but disenchanted architect Stephen Wheeler is lunching with his best friend from their days at Dartmouth College, rising avant-garde gay artist Drew Paley, in a trendy restaurant on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Seated at the adjoining table are Wall Street investment counselor Phoebe Kidde and her television producer brother Peter, who has just revealed he has AIDS to her. When boisterous homeless woman May Logan enters the restaurant and creates a scene, the four diners and their frazzled waitress Ellen find themselves thrown together, and they eventually strike up an unlikely alliance. In the second act, six months have elapsed, and the sextet are spending the weekend at Stephen's summer house in The Hamptons. Stephen and Phoebe find they share a mutual attraction, while Peter, unprepared to discuss his recent diagnosis, is trying to discourage Drew's amorous advances. Representing the lower class are Ellen and May, whose presence forces everyone to reexamine their lives and reevaluate their priorities.
In a suburb of Hartford, Connecticut in 1957, Cathy Whitaker is an upper-middle class wife, mother and homemaker. She finds out that her husband Frank has had secret homosexual desires, which he has fulfilled. Her world is shaken but she cannot confide in her friend Eleanor. The widowed black gardener Raymond Deagan attempts to comfort her, but she is put off by gossip about them. Frank and Cathy seek help from the psychiatrist Dr. Bowman, in an attempt to "cure" Frank of his homosexual desires.
Twenty-year-old Kip leaves his mother's home in the Hamptons. His divorced mother, Jinx, is involved with Hank, while Kip meets Amy-Beth, who has had a breakdown, and Amy-Joy, who believes in sea monsters.
Much of the play is set in the locker room of a professional baseball team, and as such has an all-male cast that explores themes of homophobia, racism, class, and masculinity in sports. Darren Lemming, a star mixed-race center fielder for the fictional Empires Major League Baseball team, comes out as gay. His friend and teammate Kippy Sunderstrom warns Darren that the team will feel uncomfortable about his sexual orientation, but is brushed off by Darren. As Kippy wonders why Darren chose that particular moment in time to come out, a flashback to a week earlier shows Darren having drinks with his best friend Davey Battle, a religious player on a rival team. Davey tells Darren that he should want his true nature known to the world. Later, Darren meets with his new accountant Mason Marzac, a gay man uninterested in baseball until Darren's coming out. The Empires fall into a slump, prompting relief pitcher Shane Mungitt to be brought up from the minor leagues. Shane tells the team that as a child, he was raised in orphanages after his father killed his mother and then himself in a murder-suicide. The team begins winning games again, but in a television interview, Mungitt expresses his discomfort with "colored people" on the team, and that he has to shower every night with a "faggot." Shane is suspended due to the interview, causing the team to fall back into its slump. He writes an apology letter that is leaked to the public, which combined with the details about his tragic childhood, causes public sympathy to shift in his favor. Shane returns to the team, despite Darren's threat to retire in protest. In the locker room showers, Darren derides Shane for his racism and homophobia, and mockingly kisses him. In the game, Shane is sent to pitch against Davey Battle; the ball hits Davey's head, killing him. In a flashback to Darren and Davey's final encounter, Davey angrily accuses Darren of using his straight-and-narrow public reputation to conceal his sexuality. Shane is permanently suspended from major league baseball, and arrested for questioning after players say they heard him muttering about wanting to "kill someone" before the game. He refuses to speak to the police, stating that he will only talk to Kippy. Kippy is joined by Darren, and as Kippy attempts to determine whether the pitch that killed Davey was intentional, Shane discloses that the apology letter was written by Kippy on Shane's behalf. In narration, Kippy states to the audience that the Empires went on to win the World Series, and no charges were ever filed against Shane. Kippy expresses to Darren his desire to again be friends, and Darren invites Mason to the end-of-season party.
In 1919, publisher John Seavering must choose between publishing a friend's enormous novel and the memoirs of his singer lover. A mysterious machine delivers books from the publishing house's future, revealing the consequences of his choices.
Walker and his sister Nan met in an unoccupied studio in lower Manhattan in 1995. Walker, who had disappeared the day after his father's funeral, now months later is living in this apartment where his father, Ned Janeway and business partner, Theo Wexler, once lived and worked designing the famous "Janeway House". Walker has found their father's journal and attempts to use it to understand the relationship between Ned and Theo. Nan and Walker's childhood friend Pip (Theo's son) meets with them after the reading of Ned's Will, where the three have learned that Janeway House was left to Pip rather than Ned's children. Walker is furious and accuses Pip of "working on" Ned to bequeath him the house. Pip denies this and protests that he does not understand why the house was not left to Nan and Walker as next of kin. Pip reveals that he doesn't even like the house, which prompts another tirade in Walker. Fed up with Walker's ranting, Pip fights back at Walker verbally. Pip accuses Walker of secretly being in love with him for 18 years and reveals that he (Pip) and Nan were secretly sleeping with one another (behind Walker's back) when they were young. Walker runs off into the night. Pip says he may have gone too far and agrees with Nan to sell Walker the house. Nan tries to find Walker to tell him. Distraught when unable to find him, Nan decides to stay at the studio until he returns. After Walker returns, Nan apologizes and the two of them continue to parse Ned's concise and mysterious journal which opens with the entry: "1960, April 3–5. Three days of rain". Walker believes he's found a confession from Ned, hidden within the pages of the book, to the effect that Ned took credit for Theo's work on the house after Theo's death in 1966. Nan does not accept this interpretation but acquiesces to calm her brother. She tells Walker that Pip would sell him the house, but Walker's new-found "revelation" changes his mind about wanting it. Walker burns the diary, much to Nan's chagrin. Act two is set in April 1960, when Janeway House was designed. The same three actors portray members of the previous generation in the same apartment: the actor portraying Walker plays Ned; the actor portraying Pip plays Theo; and the actor portraying Nan plays Lina, Nan and Walker's mother. The assumptions their children made in the first half are shown to be wildly inaccurate. Rather than a callous, silent patriarch, Ned is a shy stutterer, who, while an immensely talented architect, has trouble making eye contact or holding a conversation with anyone. Theo is revealed to be charismatic, more concerned with fame and the idea of art, than the creation of any original art itself. Lina, a bohemian southern belle, is dating Theo and their arguments are loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear. Theo and Ned attempt to design a house commissioned by Ned's parents, but Ned recognizes Theo's design as plagiarizing an existing house. Ned and Theo fight, and Theo leaves for a few days to try to work in solitude. A few days later, Ned runs into Lina during a rainstorm, and they return to the apartment to escape the downpour. Ned invites Lina to stay for dinner, which leads each to reveal issues plaguing them. Lina resolves to leave before succumbing to Ned's unintentional shy sweetness, only to overhear Ned practicing telling Lina that he secretly loves her. Lina confronts Ned, and they spend three days in bed. Theo returns earlier than expected from his work retreat, finding Ned and Lina together in the apartment. He is embarrassed and leaves, with Ned trailing him. Ned attempts to apologize, but learns Theo is upset not about Lina but about failing to return with an original design. Lina persuades Ned that Theo will be okay, and that Ned should apply his emotions to draw the house she knows he imagines. He sits down to draw, suggesting that it was he who designed Janeway House and not Theo, as Walker had concluded.