David Ives
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David Ives
David Ives (born July 11, 1950) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He is perhaps best known for his comic one-act plays; ''The New York Times'' in 1997 referred to him as the "maestro of the short form". Ives has also written dramatic plays, narrative stories, and screenplays, has adapted French 17th and 18th-century classical comedies, and adapted 33 musicals for New York City's ''Encores!'' series. Early life and education Ives wrote his first play when he was nine. He attended a boys Catholic seminary. "We would-be priests were groomed for gravitas," he has said. At the end of the year the seniors could be a part of a school show called "The Senior Mock," in which the students satirized the teachers. Ives played the role of "the chain-smoking English teacher who coached the track team (while smoking)", and he wrote and performed a song. This school experience, along with seeing a production of Edward Albee’s '' A Delicate Balance'', starring Hume Cronyn ...
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Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_type2 = Counties , subdivision_name1 = Illinois , subdivision_name2 = Cook and DuPage , established_title = Settled , established_date = , established_title2 = Incorporated (city) , established_date2 = , founder = Jean Baptiste Point du Sable , government_type = Mayor–council , governing_body = Chicago City Council , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Lori Lightfoot ( D) , leader_title1 = City Clerk , leader_name1 = Anna Valencia ( D) , unit_pref = Imperial , area_footnotes = , area_tot ...
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Foreign Affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs. Founded on 15 September 1922, the print magazine is currently published every two months, while the website publishes articles daily and anthologies every other month. ''Foreign Affairs'' is considered one of the United States' most influential foreign policy magazines. Over its long history, the magazine has published a number of seminal articles including George Kennan's "X Article", published in 1947, and Samuel P. Huntington's " The Clash of Civilizations," published in 1993. Important academics, public officials, and policy leaders regularly appear in the magazine's pages. Recent ''Foreign Affairs'' authors include Robert O. Keohane, Hillary Clinton, Donald H. Rumsfeld, Ashton Carter, Colin L. Powell, Franci ...
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Walter Bobbie
Walter Bobbie (born November 18, 1945) is an American theatre director, choreographer, and occasional actor and dancer. Bobbie has directed both musicals and plays on Broadway and Off-Broadway, and was the Artistic Director of the New York City Center Encores! concert series. He directed the long-running revival of the musical ''Chicago''. Early life Bobbie was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and attended the University of Scranton and did graduate work at The Catholic University of America. His family was Polish Roman Catholic, and his father was a coal miner. Bobbie explains what inspired him to work in theater: "My first Broadway show was ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,'' maybe in 1964. I came in to New York from college in Pennsylvania for the World's Fair...I remember sitting there — I practically had to be held down in my seat — and I had never seen anything like it. That day it was clear to me that I wanted to come back to New York, and theater wa ...
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William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the " Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an ...
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Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. He reviewed more than one thousand films during his tenure there. Early life Canby was born in Chicago, the son of Katharine Anne (née Vincent) and Lloyd Canby. He attended boarding school in Christchurch, Virginia, with novelist William Styron, and the two became friends. He introduced Styron to the works of E.B. White and Ernest Hemingway; the pair hitchhiked to Richmond to buy ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''. He became an ensign in the United States Navy Reserve on October 13, 1942, and reported aboard the Landing Ship, Tank 679 on July 15, 1944. He was promoted to lieutenant (junior grade) on January 1, 1946, while on LST 679 sailing near Japan. After the war, he attended Dartmouth College, but did not graduate. Career He obtained ...
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All In The Timing
''All in the Timing'' is a collection of one-act plays by the American playwright David Ives, written between 1987 and 1993. It had its premiere Off-Broadway in 1993 at Primary Stages, and was revived at Primary Stages in 2013. It was first published by Dramatists Play Service in 1994, with a collection of six plays; however, the updated collection contains fourteen. The short plays are almost all comedies (or comedy dramas), focusing mainly on language and wordplay, existentialist perspectives on life and meaning, as well as the complications involved in romantic relationships. High-school and college students frequently perform the plays, often due to their brevity and undemanding staging requirements. The Original Six Plays *'' Sure Thing'': A man and a woman meet for the first time in a cafe, where they have an awkward meeting continually reset each time they say the wrong thing, until, finally, they romantically connect. *''Words, Words, Words'': Three chimpanzees, named afte ...
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Primary Stages
Primary Stages was founded in 1984 by Casey Childs as an Off-Broadway not-for-profit theater company. In 2004, Primary Stages moved from its 99-seat home of 17 years at 354 West 45th Street to the 199-seat theater at 59E59 Theaters. In 2014, the company moved to The Duke on 42nd Street until 2016, when the Cherry Lane Theatre became the home for all Primary Stages productions. History For over 30 years, Primary Stages has put on more than 130 new plays by writers such as Horton Foote, A.R. Gurney, Tanya Saracho, Romulus Linney, Dan O'Brien, Donald Margulies, Kate Hamill, Christopher Durang, Terrence McNally, Danai Gurira, Nikkole Salter, John Patrick Shanley, Mac Wellman, Sharon Washington, Lee Blessing, and David Ives. Primary Stages 9th season included the world premiere of ''All in the Timing'' by David Ives, the most produced play in the United States during the 1995/96 season. Primary Stages supports playwrights and develops new works through commissions, workshops, read ...
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Ancient History (play)
''Ancient History'' is a one-act play written by American playwright David Ives. Production ''Ancient History'' premiered Off-Broadway in May 1989 in a production by Primary Stages, with direction by Jason McConnell Buzas and the cast of Beth McDonald and Christopher Wells.Ives, DavidScript''Ancient History'', Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 1996, , pp2-3 A revised edition was presented Off-Broadway by Primary Stages in June 1996, with direction by John Rando and a cast of Vivienne Benesch and Michael Rupert.Brantley, Ben"THEATER REVIEW;A Simply Charming Couple Headed for a Dead End"''The New York Times'', May 22, 1996 ''New York Magazine'' describes ''Ancient History'' as “a genuine achievement sIves spins a dance that is Strindberg with yuks … the dialogue is crunchy and saucy sthese lovers are buffeted about circularly, hilariously, and scarily.”Ives, DavidScript''Ancient History'', Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 1996, , pp2-3 Plot The play opens with the ominous ringin ...
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The Universal Language
''The Universal Language'' is a short comedic play written by David Ives. The play is part of the collection of plays called ''All in the Timing.'' The show features two characters, Don and Dawn. Don is a con artist trying to swindle customers into learning a fraudulent language, Unamunda, and Dawn is a shy 28-year-old woman with a stutter. Through the course of the play, Don and Dawn learn about each other and themselves, and fall in love. Plot synopsis Dawn di Vito wanders into an office, hoping to learn Unamunda, an Esperanto-like language. Don Finninneganegan, the inventor of the language, appears suddenly, speaking rapidly in the made-up language. Dawn becomes confused, thinking she has the wrong address. Don manages to reassure her that she is in the right place, despite the language barrier. Dawn quickly becomes fascinated by Unamunda, and agrees to pay $500 to learn the language. Soon, Dawn is as fluent as Don, and she notices that the stutter she once had is gone. She vows ...
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Philip Glass Buys A Loaf Of Bread
''Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread'' is a one-act play by David Ives, published as part of his 1994 ''All In The Timing'' collection. Production history The play was first produced at the Manhattan Punch Line Theatre in New York City, January 1990. It was next performed as part of six short plays, collectively titled ''All in the Timing'' Off-Broadway at Primary Stages in 1993, and revived in 2013.Hetrick, Adam"Primary Stages Revival of David Ives' 'All in the Timing' Ends Off-Broadway Run April 28" playbill.com, 28 Apr 2013 Ives described the play: "Each one of these little plays were a little education in some particular aspect of theatre.... 'Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread' — how much of a musical you can write in six minutes without having an orchestra." The ''Time Out New York'' reviewer, in his review of the 2013 revival, wrote: "...the bravura piece of music-theater parody, ''Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread''. The latter lampoon, whose content is pretty much summed ...
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Variations On The Death Of Trotsky
''Variations on the Death of Trotsky'' is a short one-act comedy-drama written by David Ives for the series of one-act plays titled ''All in the Timing''. The play fictionalizes the death of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky through a number of distinct variations, though all from the same, historically accurate cause: a wound to the head by an ice axe—referred to in the play as a "mountain-climber's axe", for comic effect, to distinguish it from an icepick. Overview While keeping with the tradition and style of Ives's plays of taking an odd conceit and playing it for laughs as the audience finds its feet before giving the big payoff, ''Variations'' is distinguished, along with ''Words, Words, Words'' and ''Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread'' in that, while it begins comically, it may end either comically or dramatically, depending on the production. It is unique in that, of all of his works, it calls the most for an unexpectedly tragic, sentimental ending. Arguably, it is ...
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Sure Thing (play)
''Sure Thing'' is a short comic play by David Ives featuring a chance meeting of two characters, Betty and Bill, whose conversation is continually reset by the use of a ringing bell, starting over when one of them responds negatively to the other. The play was first produced in 1988, and was published in 1994. Synopsis The play begins with Bill approaching Betty in a café, asking "Is this chair taken?" To which she replies "Yes." The bell rings and Bill repeats his question to which Betty says, "No, but I'm expecting somebody in a minute." The bell rings again, and Bill poses his question again. This process continues until Bill is finally allowed to take a seat. The bell acts as a buffer against all topics of conversation that are potentially negative to building their relationship, allowing them to try another line. By the end of the play, their initial differences in opinion (i.e. literature, movie tastes, romance) have reversed to become perfect companions. Both of them ...
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