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The Beautiful People
The Beautiful People
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Author: William Saroyan Publisher: Samuel French (cover may change) Format: Softcover # of Pages: 121 Pub. Date: 1971 Edition: Acting ISBN-10: 0573605904 ISBN-13: 9780573605901 Cast Size: 2 female, 7 male
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About the Play:
The Beautiful People has long
been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues and
Female/Male Scenes.
The Beautiful People is a full-length comedy by William
Saroyan. The 'Beautiful People' refuse to play by the rules of a
wicked world, steadfastly preserving their enchanted and – at times
illegal – innocence, by any means necessary. The Beautiful
People is concerned with a deliciously loony family who exist on
the pension check of the long since deceased former occupant of their
house.
The Beautiful People concerns the humble and happy Webster
family, consisting of a father, two sons and a daughter. They live in
an old house that they manage to hang onto by forging the deceased
owner's name on pension checks. A philosophical father, a one-word
boy novelist, and blessed Saint Agnes of the Mice battle the breaking
of dreams, accompanied by a ghostly cornet player, a nostalgic clerk,
an octogenarian drunk, a drunken priest, an almost-mother, and
several literate vermin. The only money they have is a monthly cheque
which is actually meant for a complete stranger, dead for seven
years. Mice are daringly rescued by a poet. Strangers become family.
The prodigal son returns. And lost loves are finally and forever
found. These charming, interesting characters represent William
Saroyan's belief that love is the only thing which matters in the
world.
The Beautiful People opened in 1941 at the Lyceum Theatre
on Broadway in New York City, and was a runner-up for the New York
Drama Awards. The
play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and
workshops and has been mounted in regional, college, and
community theatre productions.
Cast: 2 female, 7 male
What people say:
"It possesses a beguiling
quality of sustained innocence and blessed derangement." —
New York Post
About the Playwright:
William Saroyan (1908-1981) was an internationally renowned
American writer, playwright, and humanitarian. Hailed as one of
America's Greatest Playwrights, in 1939, he was the first American
writer to win both the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and the
Pulitzer Prize for his play The Time of Your Life. He famously
refused to accept the Pulitzer Prize on the grounds that "Commerce
should not patronize art." He achieved great popularity in the
thirties, forties, and fifties through his hundreds of short stories,
plays, novels, memoirs, and essays. He has been described as "one
of the most prominent literary figures of the mid-20th century."
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Stella Adler, edited by Barry Paris
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