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A Free Man of Color
A Free Man of Color
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Author: John Guare Publisher: Dramatists Play Service Format: Softcover # of Pages: 72 Pub. Date: 2014 ISBN-10: 0822227606 ISBN-13: 9780822227601 Cast Size: 6 women, 6 men (doubling)
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About the Play:
Finalist for
the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in
Drama
A Free Man of Color is a full-length comedy by John
Guare. Set in New Orleans in 1802, the play concerns Jacques
Cornet, a new-world Don Juan and the wealthiest inhabitant of this
sexually charged and racially progressive city. All is well in his
paradise until history intervenes, setting off a chain of events that
no one realizes is about to splinter the world.
A Free Man of Color is set in the boisterous 19th-Century
New Orleans culture that existed following the Haitian slave revolts,
when the city was more European than American. Before law and order
took hold. Before class, racial and political lines were drawn. When
New Orleans was still a carnival of beautiful women and good-looking
men, flowing wine, and pleasure for the taking. At the center of this
Dionysian world is the wealthy freed slave Jacques Cornet, who
commands the men, seduces the women, preens like a peacock, and cuts
a wide swath through the city and the province. But, it is 1801 and
the map of New Orleans is about to be redrawn. The Louisiana Purchase
will bring American rule and racial segregation to New Orleans,
turning the tables on freedom and liberty, and challenging the
chaotic, colourful world of Jacques Cornet and all that he
represents. This satirical drama by the award-winning playwright John
Guare is a mix of history lesson, Restoration comedy and sex
farce.
A Free Man of Color premiered in 2010 on Broadway at the
Vivian Beaumont Theater. It was a
2011 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. While
the play is rarely performed professionally, it remains a
popular choice for college
theatre productions.
Cast: 6 women, 6 men (doubling)
What people say:
"A 10-door farce salted with
so many laughs that you won't have time to catch your breath…[until]
a terrible denouement described by Mr. Guare in language that
approaches the condition of poetry… [A Free Man of Color]
just might be a masterpiece." — Wall Street Journal
"Wildly ambitious…like all
great, mad manifestos, there are sweet rewards for those willing to
take the plunge." — New York Magazine
"A Free Man of Color
evolves from a bustling farce into something deeper and darker but
similarly exhilarating." — USA Today
"An audacious play spread
across a large historical canvas, dealing with serious subjects while
retaining a playful intellectual buoyancy." — Pulitzer
Prize jury
About the Playwright:
John Guare is an American playwright. He received the Obie,
the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and Tony nominations for
House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation, which also won
the Olivier Award for Best Play. He won a Tony for his libretto to
Two Gentlemen of Verona, which also won the Tony as Best Musical of
1972. His screenplay for Louis Malle's Atlantic City earned him an
Oscar nomination.
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