Library

When Greg makes a seemingly harmless comment about his girlfriend Steph's regular looking face, the information gets back to Steph and sends their relationship over the deep end. Greg's life spirals out of control when Steph leaves him, and he has to come to terms with what he has said. Greg's best friend Kent is married to Steph's best friend Carly, and when things start collapsing in Steph and Greg's life, Carly and Kent are pulled in for the ride. We see Greg, Steph, Carly and Kent deal with the pressures of what it means to be pretty, and observe how the four friends manage the infidelity, betrayal and deceit that creeps into their lives.

AFTER ASHLEY is a blisteringly funny and deeply affecting story about a teenage boy navigating the joys and terrors of life, all through the distorting prism of a media firestorm. When a family tragedy deals the Hammond family a dose of dubious celebrity, Justin finds himself paralyzed, unable to fully grieve or grow up. The only bright spot is a girl, only Justin can't decide if she's a saving angel or a self-interested groupie. In a world as weird as this one, she might just be both.

In Skin Deep, a large, lovable, lonely-heart, named Maureen Mulligan, gives romance one last shot on a blind-date with sweet awkward Joseph Spinelli; she's learned to pepper her speech with jokes to hide insecurities about her weight and appearance, while he's almost dangerously forthright, saying everything that comes to his mind. They both know they're perfect for each other, and in time they come to admit it. They were set up on the date by Maureen's sister Sheila and her husband Squire, who are having problems of their own: Sheila undergoes a non-stop series of cosmetic surgeries to hang onto the attractive and much-desired Squire, who may or may not have long ago held designs on Maureen, who introduced him to Sheila. With Maureen particularly vulnerable to both hurting and being hurt, the time is ripe for all these unspoken issues to bubble to the surface.

The Boys Next Door is a play by Tom Griffin, first produced in the 1988/89 season. Set in the Boston area, it deals with four men with various mental disabilities who live in a group home. It takes place over roughly a two-month period and consists of brief vignettes about the men's lives. The play provides a humorous commentary on the men's lives, taking a surprising turn as Barry's father comes to visit and as Jack (their caretaker) accepts a new job.

Set in 1953 and traveling to 1985, this lovely and poignant memory play unfolds through the eyes of Clifford, the only son of Gene, a jazz trumpet player, and Terry, an alcoholic mother. Alternating between their New York City apartment and a smoke-filled music club, Clifford narrates the story of his broken family and the decline of jazz as popular entertainment. Clifford recalls the key moments in his life, such as the day when he, fresh out of college, picked up his first unemployment check and was congratulated by Gene and his band mates. Gene's music career on the big band circuit ultimately crumbles with the advent of Elvis and rock-n-roll. Terry begs him to get a nine-to-five job to support the family, but Gene refuses to enter the "straight world" of regular paychecks, mortgages and security. For Gene, who knows jazz better than his own son, music is not just a job; it's his life. Their marriage slowly dissolves and young Clifford is witness to it all. As things worsen, Clifford assumes the role of parent and throws the hopeless Gene out of his mother's apartment. When an adult Clifford visits Gene in a rundown jazz club after years of separation, he requests that the old man play his mother's favorite song, the old standard "Why was I Born?" Clifford then asks, "Dad, why was I born?" It becomes Clifford's last, heart-breaking plea for his father's love.

This wild bedroom farce involves infidelity, double standards, midnight rendezvous and a hungry bear. Danny and Kathy halt their night of sultry passion when Kathy reveals she is dating another man. Paul and Jennifer play a mad slapstick scene of frustration because she is reluctant to cheat on her husband. Bill and Mary, a couple about to celebrate their twenty ninth wedding anniversary are at odds: Mary yearns for a night of passion while Bill yearns to be left alone. To make matters more interesting, Paul's best friend is Danny who is married to Jennifer who is having an affair with Paul who is dating Kathy who is Danny's mistress and Jennifer's sister.

Rock 'n' Roll is one of Stoppard's most ambitious works. The play is set in the politically charged years between the demise of Czeckoslovakia's Prague Spring in the late 1960s and the Velvet Revolution, which two decades later signaled the end of Communist reign. Rock 'n' Roll uses the philosophical conflicts between Marxism and democracy to explore larger, more personal topics. The relationships between generations and the changing value systems which inform them plays into the mother-daughter dynamics between Eleanor and Esme and later between Esme and Alice. Jan's record collection serves as a reminder of the power of art to challenge oppression and champion freedom of expression. And Max must face the ongoing tension between his intellectual investigation of political thought and the realities which that investigation sometimes ignores realities embodied in the people he loves. Stoppard accomplishes all of this with his signature wit, erudition and theatricality, informed by a wellspring of character emotions that are nearly overwhelming in their immediacy and depth. As the characters face life, love and loss the audience is transported across continents and years, but Rock 'n' Roll is bound by the reverberating chords of electric guitars. A play that begins in 1968 as a stranger serenades a young girl from atop a garden wall ends in 1990 at the Rolling Stones' first concert in Prague.

Set in the Red Hills coal mining section of Alabama and dealing with both the attempts of the miners to unionize and the bleak lives of their families, the play, according to St Louis Star-Times critic Reed Hynds, is "an earnest and searching examination of a particular social reality set out in human and dramatic terms." This was the first full-length play by novice playwright Thomas Lanier Williams to be produced, and subsequently opened to rave reviews in St. Louis.

Valentine "Snakeskin" Xavier, a guitar-playing drifter, flees New Orleans in order to avoid arrest. He finds work in a small-town five-and-dime owned by an embittered older woman known as Lady Torrance, whose vicious husband Jabe lies on his deathbed in their apartment above the store. Both alcoholic nymphomaniac Carol Cutrere and simple housewife Vee Talbott set their sights on the newcomer, but Val succumbs to the charms of Lady, who plans to set him up with a refreshment bar. Sheriff Talbott, a friend of Jabe, threatens to kill Val if he remains in town, but he chooses to stay when he discovers Lady is pregnant. His decision sparks Jabe's jealousy and leads to tragic consequences.

Unit set It's 1965 and two comedians, "Steady Eddie" & "Doug the Mug," knock 'em dead every night in the Catskills. Punchlines and cheap shots fly -- on stage and off -- as Doug and Ed battle for the spotlight over a decade, pushing each other to the cusp of a new direction of stand up comedy. With their personal and professional lives uncovered at center stage, Eddie and Doug must find a way to laugh it off while staying at the top of their game. Sam Marks' The Joke takes a look at the friendship and the rivalry between two comic partners during the golden years of the Borscht Belt. "A tasty two-hander by Sam Marks...A comedy team working the Catskills in the 1960s and '70s, getting few laughs while undergoing all the stresses of a doomed marriage...And just as in a marriage in which one half of the couple changes while the other stays the same, the relationship deteriorates. Allusions to a woman and to the historical context as the '60s give way to the '70s are tantalizing but not overdone; the focus stays on the two men.

Martin, a world-famous architect, leads an ostensibly ideal life. But a conversation with an old friend on his fiftieth birthday sets in motions events that will destroy his family and leave his life in tatters. The Goat is a hugely enjoyable parable that plumbs the deepest questions of social constraints on the individual expression of love.

Through interlacing monologues, we examine the lives of three people facing the problems life creates...parenting, death and self-revelation.