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Holiday

Play · 1928

The story follows Johnny Case, a corporate lawyer on Wall Street. He has abundant financial prospects but little social background. Before the start of the play, Julia, the eldest daughter of the Seton family, has met Johnny at Lake Placid. During the ten-day trip, they have fallen in love and are to be married. But there is one person who does not want the marriage this quickly: Julia's father, Edward, who questions Johnny's life's goal "to retire early and work late." After Johnny makes $25,000, he plans to go away and enjoy life while he is still physically capable. The stock market being what it is in 1928, stocks keep climbing and climbing. Johnny achieves his goal and announces his plans even as Julia's father is announcing the engagement. Julia is upset at his decision; she wants a proper house in town and a place in the country. Now the woman Johnny met and fell in love with at Lake Placid is gone; she is just as materialistic as her father.

Home Is Tomorrow

Play · 1948

Home Is Tomorrow is a 1948 play by the British author J.B. Priestley. It was inspired by Priestley's experience of attending a postwar UNESCO conference. It premiered at the Princes Theatre, Bradford before transferring to the Cambridge Theatre in London's West End running for 37 performances between 4 November and 4 December 1948. The cast included Leslie Banks, Gordon Tanner, Douglas Jefferies, Alan Wheatley, Cecil Trouncer, John Ruddock and Irene Worth.

Home, I'm Darling

Play · 2018

Judy and Johnny lead a 50s lifestyle, clothes, décor, appliances. She stays at home while Johnny works as an estate agent. He hopes for a promotion. He realises they have financial problems; the house might be repossessed. Three years earlier Judy had taken voluntary redundancy, but the money has run out. He is underperforming at work and doesn’t earn as much commission. He says he isn’t happy. They need to change. He gets a promotion, but it will involve a long commute. They agree to compromise.

Housemaster

Play · 1936

Charles Donkin is a long-established housemaster at Marbledown, an English public school. His closest confidant is Frank Hastings, the sceptical and sarcastic maths master. Hastings and the rest of the teaching staff, and their pupils, are discontented at the puritanical innovations imposed by Ovington, the recently appointed headmaster. Donkin, though privately sharing the discontent, strives loyally to keep the peace. Into this all-male establishment comes Barbara Fane, with her three nieces, the daughters of the late Angela Faringdon. Donkin was, it is implied, in love with Angela in his younger days, but she married Aubrey Faringdon, who has brought up his and Angela's three daughters with the aid of their aunt. With the girls now aged 20, 18 and 14, Barbara has decided they need a more stable home than Aubrey can provide, and with his agreement she has come to ask Donkin to fulfil his promise to the dying Angela to look after her daughters if needed. Room is found for them in Donkin's house on the strict understanding that the girls are not to mingle with and distract the 55 boys who board there. This condition is doomed from the outset. The glamorous elder girls cannot help distracting Donkin's older boys and his younger staff; the tomboy Button encourages the younger boys to defy Ovington's petty restrictions. Rosemary, the eldest daughter, has two of Donkin's junior staff falling for her. She spurns the sporty "Beef" Beamish in favour of the gentle, artistic Philip de Pourville. The younger daughters, Chris and Button, encourage the boys of Donkin's house to defy the headmaster's latest and furiously-resented diktat: heedless of Marbledown's long tradition of rowing, Ovington has cancelled the school's participation in the local regatta, and placed the town and the river out of bounds for the duration of the regatta. The boys of Donkin's house openly defy Ovington and go into town en masse. Faced with this comprehensive defiance of the headmaster, Donkin feels obliged to offer his resignation, which Ovington instantly accepts. Sir Berkeley Nightingale, uncle of one of Donkin's senior boys, uses his influence to have Ovington offered a suffragan bishopric. Ovington accepts, and Donkin is appointed headmaster in his place. News comes that Aubrey Faringdon is about to remarry; his fiancée is a sensible widow, whom Barbara considers a suitable stepmother for the girls. Rosemary will stay in England, and Chris and Button will live in Paris with their father and stepmother. Barbara is now free of her responsibilities; the younger girls convince Donkin that she will need looking after, and that it is his duty to marry her. Donkin, with many misgivings, steels himself to propose, but his colleague Frank Hastings anticipates him: Barbara and Hastings have had a private understanding for many years, and now that she is a free agent they are to be married. Rosemary and de Pourville also become engaged; Chris and Nightingale's 18-year-old nephew seem headed in the same direction. Donkin is happier than he has ever been – about to take over as headmaster of the school he loves, and left in peace as a contented old bachelor.

Houseparty

Play · 1929

This synopsis is compiled from contemporaneous newspaper reviews. Act I (Library of a Fraternity House at Williams College. Late afternoon.) Alan Bradford is hoping to be selected as manager for a college athletic team. His best friend Ronald Evans and Sally Andrews encourage him. Edward Canby is teased and ordered about by various upperclassmen. Alan learns he has not been chosen for the manager's spot. Discouraged, he remains behind in the library when the others go out to a dinner dance. He is alone when Florence crashes the house party. Although she is well-known to many of the young men at Williams, she has chosen Alan as her victim. He has only been with her once, but his naivete, lack of confidence, and wealthy background make him ideal for her purposes. She wants $10,000, or she'll announce her pregnancy by him. He protests that he was only one of many, which she acknowledges, but will not back down. Alan is appalled to think of begging his father for the money, but is alarmed at Florence's threat to scream right there at the house party. As she badgers him, he steps towards her and accidentally knocks her down by the fireplace. Her head strikes a brass andiron, and she dies. Consumed by fear and guilt, Alan stuffs her body into a book cupboard. (Curtain) Act II (Same as Act I. That evening.) The other fraternity brothers and their guests enter the library. They spend a while in general conversation, with the brothers objecting to their guests' use of the term "frat". Alan's friends notice his tense state and peculiar remarks. Mrs. Milligan is brought in by James; she is looking for her daughter Florence, whose own state of mind has been unsettled of late. Not having seen her, the others cannot offer any information, while Alan frets in silence. Someone suggests a party game, and during the course of this a dictionary is sought to resolve a point. As the only dictionary is in the book cupboard, it is about to be opened when Alan breaks down and confesses being responsible for her death. (Curtain) Act III (Same as Act I. Six months later.) Alan returns to the fraternity house for the first time in six months, having been acquitted in an off-stage trial. Ostensibly there to collect his personal items before leaving with his family for a European holiday, he has actually come to brood at the site of the death. Secretly, he has made up his mind to commit suicide. But Ronald has sensed his torment, and with careful sympathy leads from black thoughts and instills hope for his recovery. (Curtain)

How Are They at Home?

Play · 1944

How Are They at Home? is a 1944 comedy play by the British writer J.B. Priestley. It features a series of comical episodes revolving around life in wartime Britain. It premiered at the New Theatre in Oxford before transferring to Apollo Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 164 performances from 4 May to 14 October 1944. The London cast included George Carney, Henry Charles Hewitt, Ralph Truman, John Slater, Peter Jones, John Salew, Patricia Laffan, Hella Kürty, Jennifer Gray, Mignon O'Doherty, Jane Carr and Betty Stockfield. It was produced by Basil Dean.

How to Defend Yourself

Play · 2018

A self-defense workshop is organized by Brandi, the VP of the Zeta Chi sorority, and Kara, the sisterhood chair, in response to the violent sexual assault of sorority member Susannah at an Alpha Epsilon fraternity party. In attendance are Diana, an outgoing first-year who wishes to channel her fighting spirit, Mojdeh, Diana's childhood best friend who is hoping to eventually join Zeta Chi, and Nikki, a shy wallflower who wishes to build her inner strength. Also joining are two members of Alpha Epsilon: Andy, who can be somewhat insensitive but is overall well-meaning in his fight against rape culture, and Eggo, who is confused by consent culture after a complicated breakup. Brandi leads the class in exercises and various fighting techniques, but struggles to control the more discussion-based aspects of the workshop due to her own mixed feelings on sex. Mojdeh, who is jealous of Diana's perceived sexual promiscuity, tries to come into her own at college by joining dating apps and hoping to improve her social standing through the class. Before one class, she tells an elaborate story of her date with another student, involving them showering together and him treating her well, only to find that “it didn’t fit” when they tried to have sex. Privately, however, Mojdeh admits to Diana that she lied about most of the details, and that it was actually humiliating. As she goes on about how no one will desire her in college, Diana kisses her in an attempt to make her feel desired. Mojdeh rejects Diana, claiming she is not attracted to her, and later blows her off after class to go home with Andy. Kara and Brandi come into conflict over Kara's behavior in class, from derailing a discussion on consent by describing a desire to be "used" during sex, to showing up hungover and refusing to participate. After being forced to stay behind when Brandi goes to visit Susannah at the hospital, Kara goads Diana into hitting her before breaking down and revealing she encouraged Susannah to sleep with one of her eventual rapists after she herself had rough sex with him, questioning if she gave him a pass to rape Susannah. Diana tries to comfort her, telling her it is "not that hard to[...] not rape someone." Nikki seems to grow the most from the class, using Brandi's techniques to try to unlock her inner strength. However, her progress comes to a halt when she is stalked and physically assaulted on the way to workshop, and none of the methods worked as her attacker was still much larger and stronger than her. She storms out of the gym after telling the group this, claiming the class is futile in preventing assault. As the other students leave to check on her, Brandi tries to defend the effectiveness of the techniques, but struggles to find the words to justify her reasoning as she breaks down over her own repressed sexual trauma. In a final, surreal sequence, flashbacks of the cast attending parties in college, high school, and middle school are shown, before a final flashback of an elementary school birthday party where a six-year-old Susannah, played by a young child, makes a wish.

How to Get Tough About It

Play · 1938

The author described the play as "A proletarian love story of pleasant dimensions." It tells the story of Kitty, an independent-minded waitress in a cheap cafe in a Midwestern industrial district, and Dan Grimshaw, "a boat-builder with more pride in craft than business sense." Atkinson gives the following summary: She has been in love with an amiable thug who promotes himself to labor union racketeering, and has coldly deserted her. By force of circumstances the waitress and the boat-builder are thrown together on the houseboat, where he lives on the mudflats, and they find that their notions of life are congenial. During a bogus strike the racketeer comes back, claims his old girl and takes her. The rest of the play is the story of how the uncontaminated pair learn how to get tough about it and save the decencies of their private principles in a world that is seething with violent corruption.

How to Grow Rich

Play · 1793

How to Grow Rich is a 1793 comedy play by the British writer Frederic Reynolds. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 18 April 1793. The original London cast included William Thomas Lewis as Pave, John Quick as Smalltrade, Joseph Shepherd Munden as Sir Thomas Roundhead, John Fawcett as Latitat, William Blanchard as Hippy, Alexander Pope as Warford, William Farren as Sir Charles Dazzle, William Cubitt as Plainly, James Thompson as Formal, Samuel Simmons as Sir Thomas' servant, Jane Pope as Lady Henrietta, Harriet Pye Esten as Rosa and Charlotte Chapman as Miss Dazzle. The Irish premiere took place at the Crow Street Theatre in Dublin on 1 July 1793.

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester

Play · 1723

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester is a 1723 tragedy by the British writer Ambrose Philips. It is based on the life of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, youngest brother of Henry V. The original Drury Lane cast included Barton Booth as Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, John Mills as Richard, Duke of York, John Thurmond as the Earl of Salisbury, Colley Cibber as Cardinal Henry Beaufort, Charles Williams as the Earl of Warwick, William Mills as the Duke of Buckingham, Anne Oldfield as Margaret and Mary Porter as Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester.

Hyde Park Corner

Play · 1934

Hyde Park Corner is a play by Walter Hackett. It premiered at the Apollo Theatre in London's West End on October 5, 1934, where it ran until April 11, 1935. The play starred Hackett's wife, the actress Marion Lorne, as The Hon. Mrs. Sophia Wittering; an 18th-century society lady with a proclivity for cheating while gambling. Others in the cast included Godfrey Tearle as both Captain Richard Concannon and Sir Richard Carstairs, K.C.; J. H. Roberts as Benson; and Gordon Harker as Police Constable Samuel Cheatle. The play featured a time jump, with part of the play taking place in the 1780s and part of the play taking place the year the 1934. Harker reprised his role from the stage play in the 1935 film adaption of the work which was directed by Sinclair Hill.

Hysteria: Or Fragments of an Analysis of an Obsessional Neurosis

Play · 1993

Freud and Dali meet for tea at Freud's house in Hampstead one summer's afternoon in 1938. The play combines that meeting with the arrival of the mysterious Jessica, who brings serious charges against Freud relating to his treatment of her mother and his theory of presexual shock. In the last months of his illness, the exhausted Freud, trying to put his affairs in order, soon finds himself up to his neck explaining both his life's work and the female undergarments in his garden.

I Am a Camera

Play · 1951

I Am a Camera is a 1951 Broadway play by John Van Druten adapted from Christopher Isherwood's 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin, which is part of The Berlin Stories. The title is a quotation taken from the novel's first page: "I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking." The original production was staged by John Van Druten, with scenic and lighting design by Boris Aronson and costumes by Ellen Goldsborough. The production was a critically acclaimed success for both Julie Harris as the insouciant Sally Bowles, winning her the first of five Tony Awards of her career for Best Leading Actress in a play, and for Marian Winters, who won both the Theatre World Award and Tony Award for Featured Actress in a Play. The play also won for John Van Druten the New York Drama Critics' Circle for Best American Play (1952).

I Hate Hamlet

Play · 1991

Set in John Barrymore's old apartment in New York City – at the time, the author's real-life home – the play follows successful television actor Andrew Rally as he struggles with taking on the dream role of Hamlet, dealing with a girlfriend who is keeping a firm grip on her chastity, and playing host to the ghost of John Barrymore, who, clothed as Hamlet, has come back to earth for the sole purpose of convincing Rally to play the part. Real estate agent Felicia Dantine convinces Rally to stay in the apartment and hold a seance. Barrymore proves to be very convincing (challenging Andrew to a sword fight in the middle of the New York loft), and Andrew decides to play Hamlet. But when a Hollywood friend shows up offering Andrew a new role in a television pilot, with a potentially large salary and fame, Andrew is forced to choose between Shakespeare, whom his girlfriend loves, or television, where he is loved by millions.

I Remember Mama

Play · 1944

The play revolves around the life of the Hansons, a loving Norwegian immigrant family, living on Steiner Street in San Francisco at the turn of the 20th century. Told through the nostalgic eye of Katrin, one of three daughters, it is the story of a working-class family trying to live the American dream. Papa Hanson is a blue-collar worker; he and Mama attempt to raise their four children so that they understand the difference between right and wrong, between selfishness and selflessness. They are assisted by Mama's uncle, Uncle Chris, whose gruff exterior hides his inner charm and generosity. Mama and Papa (Marta and Lars) believe in hard work and a good education. They struggle to put their son Nels through high school as each member of the family makes sacrifices in order to accomplish this goal. They are warm and affectionate to each other, but very frugal in their use of funds. The three aunts, Jenny, Sigrid and Trina, offer a counterpoint as the first two are usually selfish and petty, and Aunt Trina is mostly kind. Through their hard work, wise financial decisions, and creative common sense, Mama and Papa manage to raise and educate their children.

I Won't Dance

Play · 1981

I Won't Dance is a 1981 comedic play written by Oliver Hailey. The play follows a paraplegic man named Dom in the aftermath of the murders of his brother and sister-in-law. It was first produced on Broadway and opened at the Helen Hayes Theatre on May 10, 1981. The Broadway production was directed by Tom O'Horgan, and starred David Selby as Dom, Gail Strickland as Lil, and Arlene Golonka as Kay. The production closed on the same day it opened, playing a total of 12 previews and one regular performance. A revival of the play was directed by Jean Hauser for the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre in San Diego in 1987. Theatre and disability has grown as a movement and portrayal of characters like these characters is subject to greater scrutiny, as disabled actors are more commonly authentically cast, reclaiming disabled stories, bringing authenticity, subtext and postmodern perspective of disability in performance.

I mafiusi di la Vicarìa

Play · 1863

In Palermo’s Vicaria prison, Iachinu Funciazza leads a hierarchical criminal group whose practices include initiation, knife-fighting, and protection payments. A police informer stirs conflict and is killed. In the later act, Iachinu leaves prison and tries to live honestly as a cobbler; when former associates attack him for rejecting crime, a political prisoner intervenes, and Iachinu asks forgiveness for the group as they seek to become upright citizens.

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