Plays by Jeremy Dobrish
Description
This collection includes three full-length plays: BLINK OF AN EYE, THE HANDLESS MAIDEN, and NOTIONS IN MOTION. BLINK OF AN EYE: A private eye searches for an eccentric billionaire’s missing brother and along the way meets a host of characters. THE HANDLESS MAIDEN: Based on the Grimm fairy tale, THE HANDLESS MAIDEN follows a miller and his wife who have fallen on hard times and includes devils, wizards, and cross-country treks. NOTIONS IN MOTION: Inspired by Luigi Pirandello’s EACH IN HIS OWN WAY, Jeremey Dobrish’s NOTIONS IN MOTION sets the action in Manhattan and sparkles with witty and engaging philosophical repartee on the nature of identity and reality.
Plays in This Collection
Press Quotes
BLINK OF AN EYE
“Time is in splinters, identity is bafflingly relative and death is a fatuous, late-night infomercial host who pops up on television with apologetic yuks, ‘a lifetime warranty’ for his singular product. Yes, life, familiarly enough, is a running metaphysical joke in BLINK OF AN EYE, Jeremy Dobrish’s giddy detective story of a play … but more an occasion for giggles than despairing laughter. This goofy, ingeniously structured tale of a gumshoe’s Chandleresque hunt for a billionaire’s missing brother suggests Pirandello on Prozac, recasting his usual mind games in the cheery terms of a Mad magazine parody … while BLINK traffics in illusions that are purely theatrical, it does so in a brisk, fragmented style that approximates the flashy editing techniques of film and television … Refreshingly, in spite of its borrowings from different media, the play’s particular charm has everything to do with the theater.” —Ben Brantley, The New York Times
“The Knicks, guardian angels, fallen angels, Shakespeare, billionaires, private eyes, french fries, manic cabbies, psychos, prison wardens and pop culture. But wait, there’s more … this satirical thriller is ethereal comic perfection. Written … with sly wit by Jeremy Dobrish.” —Time Out
THE HANDLESS MAIDEN
“Jeremy Dobrish’s delightful new comedy combines a Grimm’s fairy tale with two contemporary stories, which being with a man planning his own wedding and a woman who is made a partner in her law firm before her husband is. Eight actors in dual roles segue easily from comedy to seriousness, from farce to realism and the piece brims with goofy charm. Three cheers for all involved …” —The New Yorker
“… crafty intermingling of folklore, musical comedy and soap opera … another lighter-than-air vehicle on which to float an evening of stylish daffiness. Adobe productions resist categorization; THE HANDLESS MAIDEN can count among its inspirations the work of Stephen Sondheim, Rod Serling, Sid Caesar, Walt Disney and even Agnes Nixon.” —Peter Marks, The New York Times
NOTIONS IN MOTION
“Technology, hemlines and what people eat for breakfast may all change over the years, but paralyzing self-consciousness, at least in this century, has never gone out of style. Pirandello … is drama’s chief proponent of the sensibility, having written a long series of plays that doggedly ask questions about the nature of identity, reality and the very theatrical form in which these quandaries are examined. Mr Dobrish … has now adapted Pirandello’s EACH IN HIS OWN WAY (1924) as a gleeful romp of an exercise in relativity, existential doubt and artistic illusions … Mr Dobrish, in resetting this self-imploding story of love and revenge Italian-style in the world of small-time New York mobsters locates an appealingly adolescent energy in Pirandello’s reality-bending, perspective-warping drama games.” —Ben Brantley, The New York Times
“… Dobrish’s play is a lightweight, divinely madcap comedy that never takes itself too seriously, yet always seems to be striking at something a little deeper.” —Sam Whitehead, Time Out
Author
Jeremy DobrishJeremy Dobrish is a stage director, playwright, artistic leader, and teacher whose main focus has been developing and directing new plays and musicals. As a New York City based director, Jeremy has directed at Second Stage, MCC, Amas, WPA, Joe's Pub, The Westside Arts, The Promenade, The Variety Arts, The Century, Actor's Playhouse, Soho Playhouse, Zipper, etc. His productions have received several Lortel and Drama Desk nominations, and the New York Times has described his directing as "Adroit, Canny, Comic, Funny, Gleeful, Ingenious, and at Double Espresso Speed." Jeremy has directed at all of the major New York festivals, including NYMF, SPF and the Fringe, where his productions have received multiple festival awards including, most recently, the NYMF award for exceptional direction. Regionally, Jeremy has directed at The Old Globe, Barrington Stage, North Shore, The O'Neill, New York Stage and Film, Goodspeed, and The Village Theatre. His adaptation of CURIOUS GEORGE and his productions of THE TEACHER FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, VIRTUALLY ME, and PAUL REVERE tour the country with Theatreworks USA. Jeremy is a seven-time published playwright whose plays have been described by the New York Times as "Delightfully Theatrical, A Gleeful Romp, and Stylishly Daffy." His plays have been produced across the country, and in New York most notably at the Atlantic and Vineyard theatres. Jeremy began his career as the founder and Artistic Director of the aesthetically innovative adobe theatre company which he ran for thirteen years, and where he directed and/or produced over twenty productions. Adobe moved several shows Off-Broadway and was called "One of the canniest theatre companies anywhere in town" by the New York Times who went on to conclude that adobe's work "often seems as crisp as a freshly ironed shirt" due to "acting based on a mathematical precision of detail and a restrained stagecraft." Since adobe, Jeremy has served as an Artistic Associate at Second Stage, and recently he co-founded Midtown Direct Rep, a theatre company in Maplewood, NJ, where he lives, dedicated to bringing the Broadway talents of his community to his community. As a teacher, Jeremy currently serves on the faculty of NYU. He has taught playwriting, directing and acting at Juilliard, The National Theatre Institute, the New York Film Academy, Fordham, Washington Irving High School, and in Prague through Western Michigan University. Jeremy is a member of the Dramatists Guild and SDC. He is represented by Paradigm.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 6/1/1999 |
| Pages | 148 |
| ISBN | 9780881451573 |