Albert Ramsdell Gurney

THE STORY: Comprised of a series of vignettes and interrelated scenes, presented with a minimum of props and scenery and flowing together with resourceful theatricality, the story of Richard Cory is that of a wellborn young man who seems to have ev

A Play

Richard Cory

THE STORY: Greg and Kate have moved to Manhattan after twenty-two years of child-raising in the suburbs. Greg's career as a financial trader is winding down, while Kate's career, as a public-school English teacher, is beginning to offer her more op

Sylvia

THE STORY: The scene is a motel outside of Boston: a depersonalized, antiseptic environment into which, one after the other, come five sets of travelers. There is a well-to-do couple on a visit to their married daughter; a lonely salesman looking f

A Play in Two Acts

The Wayside Motor Inn

THE STORY: After many years of teaching the classics at a New England university, Henry Harper is not surprised by much--and particularly not by precocious students who want to rewrite his beloved Greek masterpieces to reflect current sociopolitical

Another Antigone

THE STORY: The play is set in the dining room of a typical well-to-do household, the place where the family assembled daily for breakfast and dinner and for any and all special occasions. The action is comprised of a mosaic of interrelated scenes--s

The Dining Room

THE STORY: Cooper Jones is a middle-aged realtor whose failing marriage and uninspiring job have left him prey to feelings of nostalgia. Over the objections of his wife, Liz, a pragmatic, no-nonsense advocate for the homeless, he is persuaded by hi

The Snow Ball

A.R. Gurney Bio: Scenes From American Life, Children, The Dining Room, The Middle Ages, Richard Cory, The Golden Age, What I did Last Summer, The Wayside Motor Inn, Sweet Sue, The Perfect Party, Another Antigone, The Cocktail Hour, Love Letter, The Snow Ball (adapted from his novel), The Old Boy, The Fourth Wall, Later Life, A Cheever Evening, Sylvia, Overtime, Let's Do It (a Cole Porter musical), Labor Day, Far East, Darlene and The Guest Lecturer, Ancestral Voices. Opera: Wrote libretto for "Strawberry Fields" with music by Michael Torke, part of the Central Park Opera trilogy presented by the New York City Opera in the Fall of 1999. Novels: The Gospel According to Joe, Entertaining Strangers and The Snow Ball. Awards: Drama Desk, N.E.A., Rockefeller Foundation, New England Theatre Conference, Lucille Lortel, American Association of Community theatres, American Academy and Institute of arts and Letters. Honorary degrees: Williams College and Buffalo State University, Gurney was on the faculty of M.I.T. until 1996. He is the husband of one, father of four, and grandfather of six.

1984-1991. Volume III

Collected Plays

THE STORY: The time is the mid '70s, the place a city in upstate New York. John, a playwright, returns to his family's house, bringing with him a new play which he has written about them. His purpose is to obtain their permission to proceed with pr

A Comedy

The Cocktail Hour

Peter Gurney

Peter W. Gurney

This innovative, research-based book presents a positive critique of the co-operative alternative to emerging capitalist forms of mass consumption in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This alternative was embedded in the culture of the movement and Peter Gurney provides a full analysis of that culture - its strategy and ambition, social and educational forms, internationalism and historical consciousness.

Co-operative Culture and the Politics of Consumption in England, 1870-1930

Theatre Aquarius Archives (University of Guelph)

Max Reimer

A stray mutt named Sylvia has a strong impact on a young couple at a critical turning point in their lives.

A Romantic Comedy

ComedyCharacters: 1 male, 2 female Interior Set An efficient suburban matron, chairing an evening meeting, finds that she has to cope with a strange, offstage intruder who claims he knows her. The meeting degenerates step by step into a wild party, even as the intruder becomes increasingly insistent and insulting to the leader. Ultimately, the lady finds herself confessing to the lure of a liaison with this representative from the under side of society, and by going off with him, she manages to appease whatever it is that tears groups apart.

A Play in One Act

The Rape of Bunny Stuntz

THE STORY: Out with the old and in with the new. Across college campuses in the '70s, teachers and students engaged in a battle of their own--making education relevant. OFFICE HOURS tackles the Great Books curriculum and puts dead white men to the t

Office Hours

Three plays look at love and the times of our lives

The Golden Age and What I Did Last Summer

Love Letters, and Two Other Plays

...The comedy tells the story of Amanda, a successful television actress who, fallen on hard times, returns to the stage in her hometown of Buffalo, hoping to recharge her career and connect with her roots. Art imitates life as she prepares the role of Madame Ranyevskaia, a character from Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard who returns home after many years absence.

Buffalo Gal

THE STORY: John is an established older playwright recovering from a bout with cancer. His latest work, which he views as his best, if possibly his last, has gained the interest of a major regional theatre, the Shubert Organization, and a possible

Labor Day

THE STORY: Portia, a once-rich society girl, is about to celebrate her victory in the recent trial and her marriage to Bassanio. As the party is beginning, however, she is reminded of her own financial difficulties by her accountant, Salerio, who i

A Modern Sequel to The Merchant of Venice

Overtime

THE STORY: The setting is a well-to-do vacation colony on the shores of Lake Erie, the time 1945, during the final stages of World War II. Charlie, an incipiently rebellious fourteen-year-old, is summering with his mother and sister (his father is

Albert Ramsdell Gurney

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