this collection contains three full-length plays:
AVEN'U BOYS,
�HOPE� IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS
THE SUMMER WINDS
AVEN'U BOYS:
�AVEN'U BOYS is not for those with a low
tolerance for verbal and visual violence, but it can be enthusiastically
recommended to anyone who wants to step into a fever dream of urban America
1993, as searingly realized by a new and gifted 29-year-old playwright named
Frank Pugliese.... his gripping style, in which fragmented dialogue and
incidents seem to slice through the night like switch blades, casts its own
disturbing spell.
The playwright is less interested in drawing pat
conclusions than in jolting the audience into a world it might ordinarily
ignore....
Such is the tragic context of AVEN'U BOYS that these battered women
seem the last, best hope for salvation in a city poised for civil war.�
Frank Rich, The New York Times
originally produced at the John Houseman Theater
3 M, 3 F
�HOPE� IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS:
�The title of Frank Pugliese's difficult
but rewarding new play, �HOPE" IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS, is taken
from an Emily Dickinson poem. The play, too, by the time it is through, is an
ode to hope. It is also very much a poem in dramatic form, a poem that baffles
at first, and strains the mind. Perhaps, for some, the theater is never supposed
to be difficult, but for those whose attention can hold under such challenging
conditions, the reward is considerable. For this play is a ninety-minute jigsaw
puzzle whose pieces, seemingly unrelated, gradually come together and by the
end, the picture is in focus and complete.
...All these people, then, are in midst of making decisions about their lives,
present and future. In one way or another, each is in despair. At play's end,
they make their decisions, perhaps on the basis that `love is not the
opposite of hate�hope is.' By that time, having been honored with patience
and attention, Mr Pugliese's play becomes most rewarding...�
Martin Gottfried, New York Law journal
originally produced by The Drama Department, New York
3 M, 3 F
THE SUMMER WINDS:
originally produced by Naked Angels, New York
2 actors, or as many as 8
PLAYS BY FRANK PUGLIESE
I S B N: 0-88145-193-2, $16.95
