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Finks
Finks
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Author: Joe Gilford Publisher: Dramatists Play Service (cover may change) Format: Softcover # of Pages: 63 Pub. Date: 2014 Edition: Acting ISBN-10: 0822229722 ISBN-13: 9780822229728 Cast Size: 1 female, 7 male
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About
the Play:
Finks is a full-length drama by Joe Gilford. The
struggles of two New York actors who fall in love and are blacklisted
during the McCarthy Red Scare of the 1950s. The background is New
York TV, radio, nightclubs and the theatre. Would you fink on your
friends to save your career? ...Are you sure?
Finks is a tale of a time of paranoia, loyalty and
betrayal, show business and show trials, told from the life of two
young entertainers. On the verge of TV stardom, comic Mickey Dobbs
meets Natalie Meltzer, a working actor who is also an impassioned
political activist, and their romance blossoms – as does the risk
that they'll be blacklisted for their political activities. In the
face of the House Un-American Activities Committee, tasked with
exposing communist subversion in New York's entertainment world,
Mickey and Natalie endure the absurd and tragic process that
enveloped progressives in the arts, some Communists, some not, and
turned friends and colleagues against each other. For some, the
blacklist will mean a decade without work. For others, it will spell
the end of their careers. And those who willingly testify – naming
others to the committee – will be branded as "finks". In
Finks, Joe Gilford documents the struggle his parents,
blacklisted actors Jack Gilford and Madeline Lee Gilford, endured
when they were called to testify. This play is about names, the
naming of names, career-determining choices and finks.
Finks premiere in 2008 at New York Stage & Film's
Powerhouse Theater at Vassar College. The New York premiere was in
2013 at The Ensemble Studio Theatre where it was a New York Times
Critics Pick and was nominated for New York's Drama Desk Outstanding
Play and the Off-Broadway Alliance's Best New Play. It has been
produced regionally as well as critically acclaimed productions in
the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
Cast: 1 female, 7 male
What people say:
"Joe Gilford's
impassioned, autobiographical Finks…is a
testament to the parents who managed to maintain their indomitable
spirit throughout the ordeal." — Huffington Post
"…a bracing play about
McCarthyism." — New York Times
"Forget blue jokes; the humor
in Finks, Joe Gilford's
farsighted yet tender tribute to his blacklisted parents, is
distinctly red. But it's part of what makes this play…as Gilford
tries to understand why some of the accused betrayed friends to keep
their livelihoods, he demonstrates a pluck similar to that of his
parents." — Time Out NY
"...well-crafted play, it
remains a heartfelt and timely reminder of the fundamental importance
of resisting the forces of despotism, whatever the cost." —
Los Angeles Times
About the Playwright:
Joe Gilford is an author, playwright and screenwriter. He
has worked in film, TV and theatre, as a producer, writer and
director for over 30 years. He has also served as story consultant
and script doctor on numerous independent feature films. He is a
nationally known lecturer on screenwriting and since 1999 he has
taught screenwriting at NYU's Undergraduate Film & TV Dept.,
Tisch School of the Arts.
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