About the Play:

Am I Blue has long been a favourite of acting teachers for female/male scenes.

Am I Blue is a one-act comedy by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Beth Henley. Sometimes wildly funny, sometimes gently affecting, Am I Blue tells the story of the chance encounter between John Polk Richards, a shy frat boy, and Ashbe Williams, who lives with her absent father. It follows the lessons they learn through each other, through what starts off as a random meeting and develops into a meaningful friendship.

Am I Blue begins in a seedy New Orleans bar where John Polk Richards, a naive college boy, is bolstering his courage with liquor. It's his birthday. Yet, despite the fact that his college fraternity brothers have given him a very special gift (a night with a French Quarter prostitute) he's lonely and dissatisfied with his life. He is approached by Ashbe Williams, a mischievous young girl, who invites him to the littered apartment which she shares with her absent father. As high strung and flaky as John Polk is nervous and tentative, Ashbe initiates him into her secret fantasy life as she tries to bridge the loneliness which infuses them both. She strings Cheerios to make a necklace and then nibbles at them; puts blue food colouring in John Polk's rum and Coke; lets him hear the sea in her favourite conch shell; and finally, invites him to make love to her – an offer which he politely declines. By the end of the night, they are dancing to Billie Holiday's ''Am I Blue'', very pleased in their shared oddness. Am I Blue provides juicy dramatic roles for a young actor and actress. A highly original, offbeat comedy, the play is a wonderfully resourceful study of two young people, both unsure and apprehensive, whose unexpected encounter becomes, for both of them, a valuable lesson in coping with life – now and in the future.

Am I Blue was written in 1972 while the author was attending college and first performed in 1974 at Southern Methodist University. It premiered Off-Broadway in 1982 at the Circle Repertory Company, as part of a triple bill of one-acts entitled Confluence. It was the debut of Beth Henley's playwriting career. Seven years later she won the Pulitzer Prize for her full-length play, Crimes of the Heart. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in high school and college theatre productions as a showcase of student talent.

Cast: 4 female, 3 male (most female are non-speaking roles).

What people say:

"…joyously proves that her great Broadway hit Crimes of the Heart was no happy flash in the pan. There is real gold in that there typewriter." — New York Post

"Along the way we sample Beth Henley's wondrous gift for creating sweet comedy out of Southern eccentricities as well as her ability to reveal the sad loneliness beneath the spunk." — New York Times

"…stamped with the trademark of this fine and vital writer." — New York Magazine

About the Playwright:

Beth Henley is an award-winning American playwright, screenwriter, and professor best known for her play Crimes of the Heart (Pulitzer Prize in Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play). Her plays have been produced on Broadway and continue to be well-received and widely popular, both in professional and regional theatres throughout the United States as well as internationally and translated into twelve languages.