MEDICINE SHOW
Repertory 1970-2004
1970-71 EDWARD
II Bertold Brecht Music by Brad Burg
1971-72 MEDICINE
SHOW: AN AMERICAN ENTERTAINMENT
CC World Premiere Writer, Richard Schotter; Music, Robert
Dennis; Toured throughout Europe; Awarded the Popular Prize at the BITEF
Festival (Belgrade); A trip through the American mythic consciousness; Chosen
to open the Bicentennial Celebrations in Philadelphia in 1976
1973-74 FROGS CC World Premiere Writer,
Carl Morse; Music, Yenoin Guibbory; Toured through Europe
1975-76 GLOWWORM CC A synthesis of
LORENZACCIO
by Alfred du Musset and
SUZANNE
ET LA PACIFIQUE by Jean Giraudoux translated by Artistic Director Barbara Vann;
Also taped for RAI
1977-78 DON
JUAN IN HELL Bernard Shaw Complete Staging
1978-79 THE
MUMMERS PLAY CC Text by Stephen P. Policoff; Music by
Carol Henry Comissioned by and
performed for Winter Solstice festival in Nancy, France
SHIPPING
OUT CC World Premiere Text
by Stephen P. Policoff; Music by Carol Henry
1979-80 THE
TRAGEDY OF TRAGEDIES; OR, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF TOM THUMB THE GREAT Henry Fielding
CLASSY
COMICS CC Text by George S. Kaufman, Ring Lardner
and Gertrude Stein; Music by Michael Rice
DEATH
AND SINGING A retrospective of
Medicine Show
1981-82 EXTRAORDINARY
HISTORIES (The Poe Project)
CC World Premiere Text by Edgar Allen Poe with Harry
Lewis; Music by William Hellerman; Grand Prize, Festival International de Teatre,
Sitges (Barcelona); Also Oslo and Montpellier
RED,
HOT & BLUE MT Cole Porter
CITY
GAMES PA William Hellerman
THE
DOMESTIC BAEDEKER OF GERTRUDE & ALICE
PA Elanor Hakim
1982-83 AS
YOU LIKE IT William Shakespeare
THE
UBU REVIEW PA Jeff Way
FIFTY
MILLION FRENCHMEN MT Cole Porter
THE
AGE OF INTENTION PA William Hellerman
FAÇADE PA/MT Text by Edith Sitwell; Music by William Walton
AMERICANISMS PA/MT Michael Rice
1983-84 PANAMA
HATTIE MT Cole Porter
IN
SAVOY: YES IS FOR A VERY YOUNG MAN
A play of the Resistance in France by Gertrude Stein
THE
NEW YORKERS MT Cole Porter
NIGHT
SCENE: THE GARDEN: Meena Alexander
Also, taped for broadcast on Voice of America
1985-86 PLUTUS CC World Premiere Based
on the Aristophanes
MEASURE
FOR MEASURE Adapted from William
Shakespeare; Music by David Hollister
POPEYE
AMONG THE POLAR BEARS Text by
Kenneth Koch; Music by Lawrence Butch Morris
BLACK
MAX Text by Arnold Weinstein;
Music by William Bolcom
A
CHANGE OF HEARTS O World premiere Libretto by Kenneth Koch; Music by
David Hollister
1986-87 1000
AVANT GARDE PLAYS World
Premiere Written for Medicine Show
by Kenneth Koch
HELEN
OF TROY, N.Y.- MT Book by George
S. Kaufman, Marc Connelly; Music by Burt Kalmar, Harry Ruby
LEAVE
IT TO ME MT Cole Porter
IN
A GLASS BOX PA Rosemary Cove
1987-88 TOO
TRUE TO BE GOOD Bernard Shaw
DYNAMITE
TONIGHT An opera for actors Libretto by Arnold Weinstein; Music by
William Bolcom
THREE
SISTERS WHO ARE NOT SISTERS
PA Gertrude Stein; Music by
William Hellerman
1988-89 ANDROCLES
AND THE LION Bernard Shaw
WARD
6 World Premiere An adaptation of a story by Anton
Chekov by Arnold Weinstein; Music by Lukas Foss
BUOYANT
BILLIONS Bernard Shaw
DUBARRY
WAS A LADY MT Cole Porter
SINCERELY,
L. COHEN MT Staged songs and writings of Leonard
Cohen
HOLD
ON TO YOUR HATS MT Burton Lane
1989-90 AN
INVITATION TO THE CHATEAU Jean
Anouilh World Premiere A new, complete translation by Barbara
Vann, Artistic Director
DREAM
GIRL Elmer Rice
A
MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM William
Shakespeare
THE
HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD MT Book and Lyrics by E.Y. Harburg; Music by
Jacques Offenbach; based on LYSISTRATA by Aristophanes
1990-91 HIM e.e. cummings Music by Denman Maroney
BLOOD
ON THE DINING-ROOM FLOOR Gertrude
Stein World Premiere; Music by
William Hellermann; adapted from Steins novella by Barbara Vann
THE
ART OF WAR MT Text by Sun Tzu; music by Patricia
Burgess
1991-92 THE
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR William
Shakespeare
MR.
SHAKESPEARE AND MR. PORTER Five
mini-musicals of abridged plays by Shakespeare and songs of Cole Porter
FRUCTIFERA
SOLO: THE NUN & THE CLOWN Ed
Vega World Premiere
1992-93 AINT
WE GOT FUN- CC World Premiere an epic work based on the history of
the Federal Theatre Project, a federally funded program during the Depression;
texts by T.S. Eliot, Bernard Shaw, Christopher Marlowe, W.H. Auden,
Shakespeare, Denis Johnston, Marc Blitzstein, etc. New Material by Stephen P.
Policoff; music by Carol Henry, David Hollister
THE
GREAT CATHERINE Bernard Shaw
THE
MUSIC CURE Bernard Shaw
PASSION,
POISON, AND PETRIFACTION Bernard
Shaw
PRESS
CUTTINGS Bernard Shaw
1993-94: MANY
LOVES William Carlos Williams
JUBILEE MT Cole Porter
SLUM
CLEARANCE Vaclav Havel New York Premiere; new translation by
Marie Winn
1994-95 SLUM
CLEARANCE Vaclav Havel Return
HIM e.e. cummings Return
MR.
SHAKESPEARE AND MR. PORTER New
Edition
A
BLITZSTEIN CABARET Scenes and
songs of Marc Blitzstein
THE
DOG BENEATH THE SKIN W.H. Auden
and Christopher Isherwood
EAST
OF THE SUN, WEST OF THE MOON
O Libretto by Stephen
Policoff, Libretto by Kenneth Koch; Music by David Hollister
1995-96 MEDICINE
SHOW: AN AMERICAN ENTERTAINMENT
CC Twenty-Fifth Anniversary
Revival
THE
POPE AND THE WITCH Dario Fo New York Premiere
Readings:
THE FALL OF THE AMAZONS (Eric Bentley), LOVES COMEDY (a new, award-winning
translation of the Ibsen play), FUN AND GAMES (Oscar Brand), BAUDELAIRE (Lella
Heins)
1996-97 FUN
AND GAMES an election-year musical
by award-winning journalist and musicologist Oscar Brand
BOUND
TO RISE CC revival of our OBIE- award winning work
2
x 2: THE HEROES by John Ashberry and TRY! TRY! - John OHara
Readings:
Lucy Parsons- by Howard Pflanzer; documentation of the African-American widow
of one of the people unjustly hanged for the Haymarket affair, who lived on to
become a Civil Rights activist; Audio Radio Plays (Richard Kostalanetz) Relics
of the Cold War (Arthur Masterson); Polly Wants a Pirate (Banks)
1997-98 FRANK
N STEIN I: THREE SISTERS WHO ARE NOT SISTERS Gertrude Stein TRY! TRY! - John OHara
THE
MAIDS Jean Genet
NEKRASSOV Jean-Paul Sartre a new translation by Barbara Vann
PASSING
FOR NORMAL CC collage of works and documentation from
the 50s including mental health Blondie cartoons, dramatization of a short
story by Langston Hughes, and other material by Allen Ginsberg, John Ashberry,
and material from the McCarthy hearings, and songs.
TITUBAS
CHILDREN reading William Carlos Williams play on Salem
witchcraft trials and the McCarthy hearings, written before The Crucible
1998-99 IN
THE BEGINNING Bernard Shaw Adam and Eve
THE
CAT & THE MOON W.B. Yeats
DON
JUAN IN HELL Bernard Shaw
THE
MUMMERS PLAY CC - return
Readings:
DARKER FACE OF THE EARTH Rita Dove;
MANHATTAN TRANSITS Spector;
SIGISMUND F. Lewis; Directed by
Sebastian Trainor
1999-00 Poetry
in performance: S. Strickland, Red Virgin; Miller, Tiny Tales of Mayhem and
Murder
Last
Lousy Moments of Love Songs by Arnold Weinsteien, music by William Bolcom
Readings:
Howard Pflanzer, Cocaine Dreams; Rebecca Wolff, URBANA; I-Jong Lin, The God of
Tobacco; T. Tara Turk, Grim Forters Love Song.
UBU
TAKES MANHATTAN Dericed from the
Ubu plays by Alfred Jarry, with other material by Howard Pflanzer, Ben Miller,
Harry Mathews, and archival material.
AN
ORDINARY MIRACLE Evgeny
Svartz English-langauge premiere;
translated from Russian by Arnold Bratov
THE
LYNCHING OF LEO FRANK by Robert
Myers New York premiere
THE
NEW YORKERS MT Cole Porter
2000-01 LINE
OF LEAST EXISTENCE Rosyln Drexler
MR.
SHAKESPEARE AND MR. PORTER - returns
WHY
SHE WOULD NOT Shaws final and
unfinished plays with new endings by 10 contemporary American playwrights.
JERSEY
NIGHTS Howard Pflanzer Jump-Start new play series
GRAND
UNIFICATION THEORY I-Jong Lin
Jump-Start new play series
2001-02 MIXED
BILLS post-9/11 vaudevilles
DICK
PISTON, HOTEL DETECTIVE IN PRAGUE-GNOSIS
Jeff Goode World Premiere
FRANK
N STEIN II An evening of works by
Frank OHara and Gertrude Stein
including Patrick Mullowney and Barbara Vanns scripting of Steins The
Geographical History of America and the Ecologues of Frank OHara
SHAKES
VS. SHAV THE ADMIRABLE
BASHVILLE both by Bernard Shaw.
SINCERELY,
L. COHEN Return
2002-03 SEA
ISLAND NIGHTMARE, OR, THAT MISERABLE MATTER OF SLAVERY CC - written by Cori Thomas, Filip
Marinovic, Lisa McCree, Patric Mullowney; extrapolated from Fanny Kembles
Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation and other sources.
THE
DEVIL WITH BOOBS Dario Fo A new translation by John Laskin.
English Language Premiere
Jump
Start New Play Series:
KARMA
BOOKSHOP Filip Marinovich
LION
TAMING IN MIAMI Lella Heins
MARTYRS,
VICTIMS, FIGHTERS AND THEIVES: THE MYTH OF THE MODEL MINORITY I-Jong Lin
2003-2004 THE
BEE OPERA O Music by Sorrel Hays, lyrics by Sorrel
Hays and Denise Duhamel
NYMPH
ERRANT MT Cole Porter
FINNEGANS
WAKE an adaptation of James Joyces
novel, scripted by Barbara Vann; Music by Chris McGlumphy
SINCERELY,
L. COHEN Return
Readings:
THE BLESSINGS OF CHAIRMAN MOO
Kitty Chen; YOUR TOWN
Walter Corwin; FACES IN MY FIST
Lisa McCree
Jump-Start
New Play Series: KLARAS BOY Elinor
Amlen
CODES: CC =
Collaborative Creation
MT = Musical Theater
PA = Performance Art
O = Opera
Works not coded are
scripted plays.