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Carson Kreitzer's THE LOVE SONG OF J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER won the Rosenthal New Play Prize, the American Theatre Criticsí Steinberg Citation, the Stavis Award, and is published in Smith and Krausí ìNew Playwrights: Best Plays of 2004î. SELF DEFENSE OR DEATH OF SOME SALESMEN has been produced in Providence, Minneapolis, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and is published by Playscripts and in Smith and Krausí ìWomen Playwrights: Best Plays of 2002.î. Her play THE SLOW DRAG, a jazz cabaret about a woman who passed as a man to play the music she loved, enjoyed a three-month run at the Whitehall Theater in London's West End in 1997/98, following a run in Londonís Fringe and an original Off-Broadway production at The American Place Theatre in 1996. Other work includes VALERIE SHOOTS ANDY, HEROIN/E(KEEP US QUIET), FREAKSHOW, DEAD WAIT, and TAKE MY BREATH AWAY, featured in BAM's 1997 Next Wave Festival. Ms. Kreitzer holds a degree in Theater and Literature from Yale University, an M.F.A. in Writing from the Michener Center, U.T. Austin, and has received grants from NYFA, NYSCA, the NEA, TCG, and the Jerome and McKnight foundations. She is an associated artist with Clubbed Thumb, and a member of the Workhaus Collective, The Playwrightsí Center and the Dramatists Guild.
THE LOVE SONG OF J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER
Two-act Drama, 110 Minutes
4M, 3W, with doubling
Flexible Set
³Do I dare disturb the Universe?² Jews, Commies, Spies, and the
soft-spoken man who became the destroyer of worlds, then had his
security clearance revoked.
Winner: Rosenthal New Play Prize; Stavis Award; American Theater Critics¹ Steinberg New Play Citation. Produced: Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park (2003); Frank Theatre, Minneapolis (2003); Next Theatre, Chicago (2005); Actors Express, Atlanta (2005). Developed in a residency at The Playwrights¹ Center; originally commissioned by the New York State Council on the Arts. Published in Smith and Kraus¹ New Playwrights: Best Plays 2004, and by Dramatic Publishing.
³Kreitzer has a huge visionŠOppenheimer is superb theater.²‹Cincinnati Enquirer
³So much brilliance, ambivalence, ego, history, myth, science, moral argument, emotional heat, poetry and sheer dazzling theatricality are compressed into the mere two hours it takes for Carson Kreitzer¹s The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer to detonate on the stageŠthat by the time it is all over, you might easily feel you¹ve been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation.²‹Chicago Sun-Times
FLESH AND THE DESERT
Full Length, 90 Minutes
4M, 4W, with extensive doubling
Flexible Set
Flesh and the Desert is a kaleidoscopic portrait of Las Vegas. We follow
the intertwined stories of three couples: one ghostly, one long-lasting,
and one just starting tonight. Along the way we meet Elvis and Liberace,
slot machines and Siberian white tigers, and of course, those glittering
creatures, the Showgirls. The Eye in the Sky watches, the mirrorball
spins. As long as you¹re gambling, the drinks are free. Welcome,
Conventioneers.
Available for world premiere. Festival Production: SPF (2007). University production: UT Austin (2005). Originally commissioned by Clubbed Thumb.
I:23
Full Length
3M (1 African-American), 3W (1 Spanish-speaking)
Flexible Set; A Video Component
An investigation of women who kill their children: Susan Smith, Andrea Yates, and Juana Leija.
Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park (2007). Workshopped with Labyrinth Theater Company; read at the Public Theatre in LAByrinth¹s Barn Series.
³Kreitzer¹s play transcends the sensational and instead sheds light on the psyches and circumstances that have made inconceivable acts a reality.²‹Rick Pender, Citybeat
³1:23 is not for the faint-hearted. But it also is likely to leave the brave with tremors, followed by tears.²‹Jerry Stein, Cincinnati Post.
SELF DEFENSE, or the death of some salesmen
Full Length, 95 Minutes
3M, 5W with doubling
Flexible Set
Seven white men have been found dead along I-95 in Florida. A prostitute is arrested and charged with their murders. The police say she¹s a serial killer. She claims seven separate acts of self-defense.
Perishable Theater (2001); Frank Theatre at The Playwrights Center (2002); New Georges and Reverie Productions at HERE Arts Center, NYC (2002); The Actors Gang, LA (2004); Steppenwolf Garage, Chicago (2004). Developed in residencies with Mabou Mines, The Playwrights¹ Center, and A.S.K. Theatre Projects; originally commissioned by the New York State Council on the Arts. Published in Smith and Kraus¹ Women Playwrights: Best Plays of 2002 and by Playscripts.
³The play moves like lightning, cutting through a series of brief scenes that illuminate the story in puzzle-piece fashion...smart and surprisingly funny... Insightful, engaging, witty, earnest...Self Defense is socially-conscious drama at its best.²‹Brooke Pierce, TheaterMania
³Stunning and compelling...raw and bold, brutal and ironic, and full of nagging questions. Whereas the film Monster dealt with the more sensational aspects of Wuornos¹ Florida killing spree, Self Defense...lashes out at the twisted society that turned her trial into simply another media-driven circus.²‹Ed Kaufman, Hollywood Reporter
³Like a playful documentary filmmaker, Kreitzer treads along various genres: police story, courtroom drama, confessional monologue, and feminist tract... Kreitzer¹s smart, gritty script whips between locations, interlacing scenes and providing multiple perspectives.²‹David Cale, Time Out New York
³The West Coast premiere of Carson Kreitzer¹s 2001 fantasia about executed murderer Aileen Wuornos is stunning, true political theater with a visceral punch.²‹David C. Nichols, Los Angeles Times
THE SLOW DRAG
Two-Act Jazz Cabaret Play
1M, 2W (One woman who can pass as a man, one woman who can bring down the house singing ³Blues in the Night,² one light-skinned black man.)
Small stage, jazz-cabaret style, with audience at small tables and chairs, and drinks available if possible.
Flexible Set
A jazz cabaret about a woman who passed as a man to play the music she loved. Live jazz band onstage.
New York: The American Place Theatre (1996). London: The Freedom Theater, Soho (1997), and The Whitehall Theatre, West End (1997 & 1998).
³M. Butterfly with a cool beat.²‹Greg Evans, Variety
³Kreitzer has crafted a haunting and mesmeric epitaph for Tipton and the whole world of postwar jazz on the road.²‹Sheridan Morley, International Herald Tribune
³Theatreland is currently obsessed with necrophilia, disinterring the remains of the famous. Kreitzer, however, bucks the graverobbing trend by eschewing the dull chronological trawl and opting for fiction. Nor is she content merely to discover how such an explosive secret could be kept. Instead, she takes the conundrum and treats it like a diamond, constantly cutting it to show different facets of this fascinating tale.²‹David Benedict, The Independent
³Like the music at its heart, The Slow Drag is nimble, soulful and full of life.²‹Sara Abdulla, Time Out London
SLITHER
Full Length, 80 Minutes
2M, 3W, with doubling
Flexible Set
A history of women and snakes, from Eve to a present-day Holiness Church snake handler.
Eye of the Storm Theatre, Minneapolis (2003), Williams College (2005). Commissioned by Eye of the Storm Theatre, through the NEA/TCG residency program for playwrights.
³Kreitzer has crafted a haunting and mesmeric epitaph for Tipton and the whole world of postwar jazz on the road.²‹Sheridan Morley, International Herald Tribune
³Theatreland is currently obsessed with necrophilia, disinterring the remains of the famous. Kreitzer, however, bucks the graverobbing trend by eschewing the dull chronological trawl and opting for fiction. Nor is she content merely to discover how such an explosive secret could be kept. Instead, she takes the conundrum and treats it like a diamond, constantly cutting it to show different facets of this fascinating tale.²‹David Benedict, The Independent
³Like the music at its heart, The Slow Drag is nimble, soulful and full of life.²‹Sara Abdulla, Time Out London
VALERIE SHOOTS ANDY
Full Length, 90 Minutes
7M, 6W, with doubling
Flexible Set; mostly Warhol¹s Factory
An assassination fantasia.
Reverie Productions at The Present Company Theatorium (2001), 40 Feet Under at The American Place Theatre (1993).
³A good ol¹ fashioned pop art happening‹as invigorating, infuriating, prophetic, and numbing as those damned soup cans.²‹Citysearch
³A unique and unforgettable show.²‹Backstage
³Coolly witty.²‹New York Post
³Bleak but fascinating.²‹New York Times
FREAKSHOW
Full Length, 80 Minutes
4M, 3W
Set: Freak show. Requirements: tank for the Human Salamander, concealing pedestal for the Woman With No Arms and No Legs.
A traveling sideshow grinds to a halt at the turn of the previous century.
Clubbed Thumb at HERE (1999). Published in Playscripts¹ Funny, Strange, Provocative: Seven Plays from Clubbed Thumb.
CARAVAGGISTA
Two-Act Drama; Two Hours
6M, 3W
Flexible Set, evoking the baroque
Caravaggista traces the early life of the baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi, focusing on the events surrounding the scandalous rape trial brought by her father, Orazio Gentileschi, against Agostino Tassi, another artist he had hired to teach his daughter Perspective. Caravaggio, Artemisia¹s spiritual mentor, spars with her in her studio, toughening up his young charge, watching with pride the creation of her wonderfully bloody Judith Slaying Holofernes, a work that still shocks today with its violence and anger.
Available for world premiere. Workshopped at the Public Theater; semi-finalist for the Julie Harris Playwright Award.
DEAD WAIT
Short Play, Dark Comedy, 35 Minutes
2M, 1W
Set: An antechamber of limbo; two waiter stations and a raised chaise, suspended from the ceiling if possible.
Two dead waiters and Jayne Mansfield in Limbo. A mediation on being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Winner of Perishable Theater¹s Women¹s Playwriting Festival (1999). Clubbed Thumb at HERE (1997); The Actors Gang, LA (2004); Emigrant Theater, Minneapolis (2005). Published by Playscripts.
³Diverting and much funnier than its ghoulish outlines might suggest.²‹Quinton Skinner, City Pages
³Take two murdered waiters and one langorous dead movie sexpot and put them in a heavenly antechamberŠ add lines like ŒYou know what being dead is like if you¹ve ever waited tables,¹ and you¹ve got one of the must-see productions of this year¹s Fringe Festival.²‹Deborah Caulfield Ryback, Star Tribune
HEROIN/E (KEEP US QUIET)
Short Play; Dual Monologue
2W
Simple Set
Intertwining monologues from two women at either side of this century: one commits suicide, the other homicide.
Winner of Perishable Theater¹s Women¹s Playwriting Festival (1999). Clubbed Thumb at HERE (1997); The Actors Gang, LA (2004); Emigrant Theater, Minneapolis (2005). Published by Playscripts.
Tiny Mythic Theatre at HERE (1995); Clubbed Thumb at the House of Candles (1996); Screaming Venus at the Camera Obscura (2000).
THE GLORY OF GOD
Comedy, 10 Minutes
2M, 3W
Flexible Set
In the present: The Scholar has lost her data. She¹s writing about the Monk. She flirts with the Techie to get it back; her girlfriend calls her on it. In the past: The Monk copies down the story of Daphne and Apollo. A girl sneaks in the window to steal him away. In the distant past, and now: Daphne lives inside her tree, breathing eternal in the writing of her. The Glory of God is sought. Love is found.
Commissioned by The Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project and the Guthrie Theater. Performed at the Guthrie Lab, Minneapolis (2003); Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York (2004). Published in Playscripts¹ Ten Minute Plays from the Guthrie Theater, Vol. 3, and Smith and Kraus¹ The Best Ten-Minute Plays for Three or More Actors, 2004.
VELMA, DEAR
Short Play, Comedy
3W
Simple Set
A dutiful daughter finally snaps.
New Georges commission, for Permanent Visitor, a Dawn Powell festival. Sightlines Theatre (2002).