The Apocalypse Cometh
Note
This bundle consisting of five books is sold at 20% off the regular price for its individual titles.$61.50
Original price was: $76.75.$61.50Current price is: $61.50.
Description
A collection of five apocalyptic and dystopian plays portending calamitous events, some of which treat the future with discomfiting seriousness, some of which tickle the funny bone, all of which provoke rich contemplation of both our present and what lies ahead.
Press Quotes
AREA OF RESCUE
“Set in a dystopic future … a family struggles with the death of a young mother, drowned under mysterious circumstances … This is a future where, the audience gleans, laws are based on moral absolutes, and religion delineates one’s place in society.” —culturebot.org
BARBECUE APOCALYPSE
“The vast reservoir of pop culture Lyle mines to create dialogue that is both realistic and stylized reveals a kind of Aspergery love of language that’s hard to overpraise. The play isn’t laden with jokes so much as a way of saying things with hilarious understatement. You may want to see it twice just to hear all the lines you missed the first time.” —Arnold Wayne Jones, Dallas Voice
“It could have been enough for Lyle to set the entire play at this awkward, weird, and painfully honest barbecue; he still would have ended up with an engaging lark that’s sitcom-funny. But then he decides to end the world.” —Lyndsey Wilson, D Magazine
“BARBECUE APOCALYPSE is a tasty nine-layer dip of comedy commentary about the slippery matters of marriage, adult friendships and career failure (real or perceived).” —Elaine Liner, Dallas Observer
“A good comedy makes you laugh. A really good one makes you think. BARBECUE APOCALYPSE is a really good comedy.” —Nancy Churnin, Dallas Morning News
“A hilarious frenzy of existential angst.” —Martha Heimberg, TheaterJones.com
“BARBECUE APOCALYPSE suggests, in no uncertain terms, that these thoroughly average Americans were far more savage when they were sipping mango margaritas and failing to make small talk as compared to a year later when their new hobbies include devouring raccoons and threatening to stab electronic devices, among other acts defined as depraved by current standards of decorum.” —Kevin Greene, Chicago Stage Standard
BEIRUT
“… Alan Bowne’s stunner about love in the plague years. It’s ‘the near future’: we’re in a dump of a room on the Lower East Side, where a young man named Torch has been quarantined after testing positive for a nameless disease that sounds a lot like AIDS. His girlfriend, Blue, who has not been infected, makes the dangerous journey across the quarantine line to be with him … The marvel of Mr Bowne’s work is the richly raunchy language, tuned to the gritty rhythms of the street. It’s crude yet lyrical; even at its most scatological, the dialog sings … They (Torch and Blue) are a Romeo and Juliet of the boroughs, an East Side story … the poetry and power of BEIRUT …” —Walter Goodman, The New York Times
“… Alan Bowne makes a statement about sexually transmitted disease that is more powerful than all the soapbox orations which have been attempted theatrically to explore the subject. He deals with the human spirit as it faces the inevitable, and it is a spirit of hope and love, of logic and of empathy …” —T H McCulloh, Drama-Logue
NUEVO CALIFORNIA
“The year is 2028. A massive earthquake has reconfigured Southern California, wiping out Los Angeles and Orange County. The whole region has to be reconceived. In a controversial move, a new city-state has been proposed, combining San Diego and Tijuana into one cross-cultural community known as Nuevo California. This imaginary world is at the center of a new play premiering at the San Diego Repertory Theater. So the wall is coming down and there’s a Mexican-American pope who comes to the region to bless its demolition. What follows is a wild mix of fantasy and reality — chaos and crisis, murder, mystery and a budding bicultural romance — all played out by Mexicans, Anglos, Asians, blacks, Jews, Muslims and Kumi Indians.” —Robert Siegel, All Things Considered, N P R News
RAIN. SOME FISH. NO ELEPHANTS.
“In Y York’s futuristic comedy RAIN. SOME FISH. NO ELEPHANTS., genetic engineering has produced a submissive nation of clones and drones. Everything is gene coded so all individuality can be obliterated, except for one stubbornly old-fashioned family trying to thaw the perpetual nuclear winter. That winter is actually an endless floodlike rainy season. The play … begins as a kind of science-fiction variation on YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU with a wildly eccentric family resolutely staying out of the mainstream. In this case, the father is a crank who has quit his scientific post in a dehumanizing laboratory to go fishing. He neglects his suicidal wife and their two very odd daughters. The catalyst for renewal is a black man, cloned to be a member of a faceless servant class. Removed from his diet of ‘stoppers,’ pills that deny incentive, he becomes a rebel. As conceived by York … he is an engaging figure, awakening to his personality as well as to his racial identity … [Y York] has created a thought provoking comic parable about mankind’s indomitability. As much as anything, the play is concerned with the survival of history itself …” —Mel Gussow, The New York Times
Author
Alan BowneAlan Bowne was an American playwright and author. His plays include BEIRUT, FORTY-DEUCE, SHARON AND BILLY, and THE BEANY AND CECIL SHOW, many of which are available from Broadway Play Publishing Inc. He was a member of New Dramatists. He also wrote one novel, Wally Wonderstruck. He died of complications related to AIDS at the age of forty-four.
Laura EasonLaura Eason is the author of twenty plays, original work and adaptation, a musical book writer, and screenwriter. Selected productions of full-length plays include SEX WITH STRANGERS (Second Stage Theatre, NYC; Signature Theatre, DC; Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago; Sydney Theatre Company, AU; published by Overlook Press); THE UNDENIABLE SOUND OF RIGHT NOW (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre and Women's Project Theater, NYC; Rising Phoenix Rep, NYC); THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (Hartford Stage, CT; New Victory Theater, NYC; People's Light & Theatre Company, PA; Actors Theatre of Louisville, KY; The Kansas City Repertory Theatre; The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis; Denver Center; published by DPS), and AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (New Vic and Royal Exchange, UK; Lookingglass Theatre Company; Baltimore Center Stage; published by Broadway Play Publishing). Produced short plays include: MR. SMITTEN (Humana Festival), CITI MOMS (Women's Project Theater, NYC), USA-001A (American Theater Company, Chicago), JACK AND THE COLLECTION (WET, NYC), LOST BOY IN THE RUINED CITY (Theatre Seven, Chicago), IT WAS FUN WHILE IT LASTED (City Theatre, Miami), and LOST IN THE SUPERMARKET (Vital Theatre Company, NYC), among others. She wrote the book for the musicals DAYS LIKE TODAY, music and lyrics by Alan Schmuckler (Writers Theatre, Chicago) and SUMMERLAND, music by Jenny Giering, lyrics by Sean Barry (Chicago Shakespeare Theater commission). Additional plays include: THE VAST IN-BETWEEN (Denver Center commission, also developed by Vineyard Theatre, NYC), REMARKABLE INVISIBLE (Ambassador Theatre Group commission), EVERY REASON TO HOPE AND BELIEVE (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis commission), 40 DAYS (NEA grant, developed by New York Theatre Workshop), PLAINFIELD ACE (developed by Two River Theater, NJ and Atlantic Theater Company, NYC) and an adaptation of HANS BRINKER AND THE SILVER SKATES (Arden Theatre Company commission), among others. As a screenwriter, Laura wrote on season two and three of the Emmy-winning Netflix show House of Cards. She is an Ensemble Member and former Artistic Director of Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre (2011 Regional Tony Award). In New York, she is a member of Rising Phoenix Rep, New Georges, and a Women's Project Playwright's Lab alumna.
Allan HavisOver three decades, Allan Havis has had his plays produced at theatres across the country and in Europe, including San Diego Rep, Old Globe, Seattle's ACT, Odyssey, Long Wharf, South Coast Rep, American Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, Virginia Stage, WPA, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Trapdoor Theatre, Coral Gable's New Theatre, Interact Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Co. and Rowholt Theater-Verlag (National German Radio). Works commissioned by England's Chichester Festival, Sundance, San Diego Rep, Ted Danson's Anasazi Productions, South Coast Rep, Mixed Blood, CSC Rep, Malashock Dance, Carolina Chamber Chorale, National Foundation for Jewish Culture, San Diego City Opera and University of California, San Diego. Nineteen published full-length plays including his signature drama MOROCCO: Penguin/Mentor, Theatre Communications Group, Smith & Kraus, Applause Books, and Broadway Play Publishing. In the last three years he published the novels, Clear Blue Silence (Ktav Publishing 2022), Maddie Q (Willow River Press 2023), and Architects of the Taj Mahal (Willow Press 2024). He also published two young adult novels, Albert the Astronomer (Harper/Collins 1978) and its sequel, Albert Down a Wormhole (Goodreads Press 2019). His book on ninety years of cinema, Cult Films: Taboo & Transgression, was published by University Press of America. In collaboration with composer Anthony Davis, his play LILITH was re-imagined as a chamber opera, premiering at UC San Diego's Conrad Prebys Music Center December 2009. His next collaboration with Mr. Davis was Lear on the 2nd Floor, which premiered as a work-in-process in March 2012 at Princeton University, and a full-length piece at UC San Diego's Conrad Prebys Music Center in March 2013. Both operas can be viewed online at UCSD TV. His third opera, St. Francis de Los Barrios, was presented in showcase at the Qualcomm Institute at UC San Diego in 2015. His opera The Golem of La Jolla, in collaboration with composer Michael Roth, had a concert presentation in October 2019 in La Jolla Playhouse's WoW Festival. His latest opera commission, Pancho Rabbit and Coyote, from Bodhi Tree Concerts will be his third opera with composer Anthony Davis. Recipient of Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Kennedy Center/American Express, CBS, HBO, National Endowment for the Arts Awards, San Diego Theatre Critics Circle 2003 Outstanding New Play for NUEVO CALIFORNIA (co-author Bernardo Solano) and San Diego's 2008 Patté Best Play award for THE TUTOR. University of Illinois Press published in 2001 his edited volume: American Political Plays. Southern Illinois University Press published in 2010 his second edited volume American Political Plays Post 9/11. In 2019 London's Bloomsbury/Methuen published his third volume American Political Plays in the Age of Terrorism. He was Provost of Thurgood Marshall College/UC San Diego for ten years, has headed the MFA playwriting program at University of California, San Diego and continues to teach in their graduate writing program over thirty years where he serves as Chair of Theatre and Dance. He holds an MFA from Yale Drama School.
Matt LyleOriginally from East Texas, Matt Lyle is a writer, actor, and director living in Dallas, Texas. Matt's plays have been produced across the U.S. His plays THE BOXER, HELLO HUMAN FEMALE, BARBECUE APOCALYPSE and BIG SCARY ANIMALS all garnered DFW Theater Critics Forum Awards for "Outstanding New Play" and BARBECUE APOCALYPSE was nominated for an American Theatre Critics Association Steinberg New Play Award. Matt has been commissioned by Theatre Three, Dallas Theater Center and Audacity Theatre Lab. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and the Playwrights' Center and was honored as the 2018 Distinguished Alum of the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre.
Bernardo SolanoA graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Bernardo Solano is a recipient of the Fulbright and McKnight Fellowships as well as an AT&T OnStage and two Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest grants. Productions include LOS FAUSTINOS at the Cornerstone Theater; SCIENCE AND THE PRIMITIVES at Towne Street Theatre; EL GRECO, an opera (librettist), at Intar Theatre in NYC and broadcast by the National Public Radio; BUENAVISTA at Mixed Blood Theatre; FRONTERAS at Los Angeles Theatre Center; JUNGLE TOONS at Cucaracha Theatre (NYC); and SPEAK SPANISH FOR ME at the Yale Cabaret, Macalester College, and Buckness University. THE DEATH AND LIFE OF LUIS RODRIGUEZ, BUENAVISTA, and SCARLET MACAW have been presented at South Coast Repertory's Hispanic Playwrights' Project. ENTRIES premiered at the George Street Playhouse in New Jersey.
Y YorkY York's works include: LATE IN THE GAME, …AND LA IS BURNING (recipient of the 2008 Smith Prize from the National New Play Network), BLEACHERS IN THE SUN, FRAMED, THE GAME OF LIGHT, WOOF (Houston's Buzzy for best new play), IT COMES AROUND, KRISIT, THE NEW DARK CLARITY, THE SNOWFLAKE AVALANCHE, THE SECRET WIFE, GERALD'S GOOD IDEA, RAIN. SOME FISH. NO ELEPHANTS., THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF NOW, and numerous works for families. Y York's plays has been recognized with 2004 Hawai'i Award for Literature, the 1997 Berilla Kerr Award, and the New Dramatists' 1992 Joe Calloway Award. She has been supported by grants from TCG/Pew Charitable Trust, AT&T Onstage, King County Arts Commission (Washington), Seattle Arts Commission, and Artists Trust (Washington). Y York is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and an alumna member of New Dramatists.