About the Play:

Career has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Male Monologues, Female/Male Scenes, and Male/Male Scenes.

Career is a full-length drama by James Lee. When an aspiring actor and his young bride arrive in New York, his tireless but ineffectual efforts to scrounge and schmooze for work, to plan for a future that might not start anytime soon, are painfully familiar. Career is the account of a New York actor's 25-year struggle to get ahead on the stage at any cost.

Career is the story of a stage-struck young man who comes to New York from a small town in the midst of the Depression with dreams of becoming an actor, and, in a way, of his childhood sweetheart who marries him and comes along to share his life. He becomes a good actor, but the breaks never happen. He loses his wife and scavenges for a living as a waiter while making his theatrical rounds. This is his unalterable destiny: either to achieve success in the theatre, or to spend the rest of his life in an unending pursuit. Drafted to the war on the eve of his big break, he does his service then returns to the daily grind of auditions and rejections. When he finally does make it, after may bitter years, he is dogged by the question: was it worth it? The tears, the treacheries, the heartbreaks? There is only one answer for an actor. Career is about the heartbreaking experiences of an actor striving for recognition in the theatre.

Career was first presented in 1956 at the Alley Theater in Houston, Texas and then it played the stock circuit, toured the West Coast. It opened unheralded in 1957 at the Actors Playhouse off-Broadway in Greenwich Village to instantaneous success. It was extended four times and ran for eight months. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has been performed in regional, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 4 female, 11 male

What people say:

"...fundamentally knowledgeable and discerning ... Obviously, Mr. Lee knows what he is writing about – the spurious enthusiasm for old friends, the cynicism and squalor, the ruthless competition, the corruption of personal character, the affront to personal dignity." — New York Times

"...an absorbing chronicle of a New York actor's lifelong struggle to make a living." — Los Angeles Times

"...after so many tawdry, shallow backstagers about the actor's life, it's heartening to find a production with such earnest respect for the lure of the greasepaint, and for the journeymen and women who sacrifice the comforts of stable middle-class life to pursue it." — Backstage

About the Playwright:

James Lee (1923-2002) was an American writer for the stage, screen and television. He graduated from Harvard and was a stage actor in New York City for a time before deciding to write plays to make roles for himself. Among his most acclaimed works was Career, the fifth play he wrote. He got the idea for it while walking home after acting in The Seven Year Itch. Moving into film and television, his greatest success came with the 1977 miniseries Roots, quickly became the most watched TV miniseries of all time. He wrote five episodes of the eight-part, 12-hour adaptation of Alex Haley's novel.