c/o New Dramatists
424 West 44th Street
New York, NY 10036
(212) 757-6960
(212) 265-4738 fax
Email:
newdramatists@newdramatists.org
Ellen Maddow is a founding member of The Talking Band, and has composed for and performed in most of its works. Works that she has written include, DELICIOUS RIVERS, Painted Snake In A Painted Chair (2003 Obie Award; Translated into Czech for INTERPLAY-New Dramatists Eastern Europe exchange 2004), Tilt, Brown Dog is Dead, and Fern and Rose. Ellen has also written the text and music for five pieces about the avant-garde housewife, Betty Suffer, including Betty Suffer’s Theory of Relativity. She wrote the scores for BELIZE, The Parrot, Star Messengers, Black Milk, The Plumber's Helper, New Cities (all produced by The Talking Band), and 1969 Terminal 1996 (directed by Joseph Chaikin). She wrote the play Persephone for the Mettawee Theater Company and text and music for Home/Wire Walking for Risa Jaraslow and Dancers. Ellen was a member of the Open Theater. She received the 1999 Frederick Loewe Award in Musical Theater a 1996 McKnight National Playwriting Fellowship, and a 2006 NYFA fellowship in playwriting/screenwriting. She is a recipient of the 2007 NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights.
PAINTED SNAKE IN A PAINTED
CHAIR
One-act Comedy with Music, 80 Minutes
3M, 3W
Single Set
PAINTED SNAKE IN A PAINTED CHAIR is the story of a diverse group of people
who have met by coincidence, but whose friendship is as solid and intense
as a family. The house in which they meet is also a character in the play.
When they gather there, they feel hyper-real and larger than life. The
character's stories unfold in a manner that induces the sensation of
reading a novel: one savors the discovery of seemingly disparate events
until they are ultimately linked together. On the evening in which the
play takes place, they have gathered to expel a swarm of bees that has
moved into the attic. As a result, the house reveals some of its
mysterious secrets.
"Ellen Maddow’s beautifully constructed script mixes song, wordplay,
and dance (of a sort) with dramatic exposition in the group’s signature
style, deftly interweaving inner and outer reality."--The New Yorker
"The characters are some of the funniest people you are likely to meet
this year."--The New York Times
Premiere La MaMa ETC. NYC (2003). Winner of 13 OBIE Awards.
TILT
One-act Comedy with Music, 90 Minutes
2M, 2W, 2 children (1 boy, 1
girl)
Single Set
TILT follows the lives of longtime business partners, Ziggy and Flo, as
they struggle with the forces of entropy in their daily lives. Flo is
aided in her struggles by Mop and Glo, two household gods; these gods are
played by children who carry on with their own activities when Flo doesn’t
need them. Ziggy relies on science and poetry to define his world, and is
constantly disappointed. Two musicians, in a nightmare of their own, give
form to the lives of Ziggy and Flo by using their conversations as lyrics
for songs. The play spans three days. The form is circular: it explores
repetition and the creation of patterns as a defining force in a
relationship that circles endlessly.
“...One would have thought Ellen Maddow had reached the pinnacle of
cleverness with her series of rhythmic plays about the housewife Betty
Suffer. But in Tilt she outdoes herself; her imagination has been
consorting with Mozart and Hayden.” - The New York Times
Premiere, La MaMa, ETC. NYC (1999).
BETTY SUFFER’S THEORY OF
RELATIVITY
One-act Comedy with Music, 80 Minutes
1M, 3W
Single Set
BETTY SUFFER’S THEORY OF RELATIVITY is the fifth in a series about
avant-garde housewife Betty Suffer. In this play, Betty is suffering from
a sort of time-motion sickness--time is going too fast. While trying to
deal with this situation, she is descended upon by three relatives who are
stuck in time. Betty’s relatives share her innate preoccupation with
music. Everything they touch turns into a musical instrument. Their
dialogue unconsciously contains musical elements. They sing in harmony
with a teaming teakettle, and punctuate their conversation with sips from
whistling teacups.
Premiere, La MaMa ETC. NYC (1995).
BROWN DOG IS DEAD
One-act Comedy, 40 Minutes
1M, 1W, plus 1M, 1W who move, but do not
speak.
Single Set
Pearl and Nino Malini are an elderly couple beset by small domestic
disturbances: mysterious neighbors steal from their garden, make
unsettling psychic predictions, and leave gifts of sticky sweet desserts.
Pearls’ Social Security checks have stopped arriving, the walls of their
home are filled with dripping water, and an overhead lamp is suddenly
filled with tropical fish. To top it off there are race riots in their
city and Nino keeps falling asleep -- entering a world of vivid, watery
dreams -- and leaving Pearl alone to cope with their problems.
Premiere, Theatre for the New City, NYC (1993).
FERN AND ROSE
One-act Comedy with Music,
40 Minutes 2W
Bare Stage with One Wooden Chaise Lounge
Fern and Rose have been friends since they were children, their mothers
were friends, and their immigrant grandparents owned stores on the same
street. The play follows their friendship over many years. They raise
children and take care of aging parents. They themselves grow old. Despite
the interruption of domestic events and the changes in their lives, they
take special pleasure in meeting and comparing their experiences. As Fern
says to Rose, “Sometimes I’m not sure anything is happening until I start
to tell you about it.”
Premiere, La MaMa ETC, New York City (1992), Performances at Pontine
Mime Theater (Portsmouth, New Hampshire), Bennington College (VT), Old
Pioneer Church (Fishs Eddy, NY)—all in 1992. Published in THE NEW RADICAL
THEATRE NOTEBOOK by Arthur Sainer, Applause Books (1997).