We accept PayPal, Visa & Mastercard
through our secure checkout.
|
Getting Out
Getting Out
|
Biz Staff Pick!
Author: Marsha Norman Publisher: Dramatists Play Service (cover may change) Format: Softcover # of Pages: 73 Pub. Date: 1979 ISBN-10: 0822204398 ISBN-13: 9780822204398 Cast Size: 5 female, 7 male
|
About
the Play:
Getting Out has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues, Male Monologues, and Female/Female Scenes, and Female/Male Scenes.
Getting Out is a full-length drama by Marsha Norman.
A major off-Broadway success, Getting Out is an eloquent,
moving and exceptionally well-written first play that probes into the
past and present of a young woman attempting to find her way in life
after release from prison. But her efforts to maintain serenity and
build a new life are threatened by memories and characters who assume
she is who and what she used to be.
Getting Out tells the story of a young woman named "Arlene"
and her journey through horrific sexual abuse by her father and her
subsequent free fall through the prison system when she takes the
life of another. Just released from an 8 year prison term for
robbery, kidnapping, and murder she returns to a run-down apartment
in Louisville, intent on starting her life over. Rebellious and
disruptive as a young girl, she has found strength in religion and
wants to put her youth (as "Arlie") behind her. But her
struggle to find her way in the present (as "Arlene") is
counterpointed by flashbacks of her past (as "Arlie"), her
two personalities being represented by two performers, who sometimes
appear on stage simultaneously. We meet the guards and prison
officials with whom "Arlie" waged a running battle; and the
unfeeling, selfish mother, the lecherous former prison guard, the
pimp ex-boyfriend, and the touchingly friendly neighbour who has been
in prison herself with whom "Arlene" is confronted in the
present. Ultimately the play, like life, offers no simple answers –
but it conveys, with heartrending honesty and compassion, the
struggle of someone fighting for her life against incredible odds.
Getting Out premiered in 1977 at the famed Actors Theatre of Louisville as part of the annual Festival of New American Plays, an influential showplace for playwrights. It
opened off Broadway in 1979 at the Theatre de Lys, winning the Outer
Critics Circle John Gassner Medallion and the American Theater
Critics Association Citation. The
play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and
workshops and has been performed in regional and
college theatre productions.
Cast: 5 female, 7 male
What people say:
"Getting Out is
written with such a brisk, fresh, penetrating touch that sordid,
brooding things take on the glow of honesty, humanity, very nearly
poetry... It is such a good play that even I gave away every plot
twist and quoted large chunks of dialogue, you could still see it and
be amazed...I merely hope that you will take my word for its
remarkable insights, truthfulness and untearful compassion."
— New York Magazine
"…a blaze of theatrical
energy that lights up the Off-Broadway scene as nothing else has done
this season." — New York Times
"The writing is thrilling in
its unadorned honesty, and the characters seethe with genuine
life…one of the best plays of the year." — New
York Post
"This sensitive and
beautifully written play totally commands attention, giving us a
heroine we really care about…Getting Out speaks
to the hearts as well as the mind. It moved me to joyous tears."
— Show Business
About the Playwright:
Marsha Norman is an American playwright, screenwriter, and
novelist. She was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, Blackburn Prize,
Hull-Warriner, and Drama Desk Awards for her play 'night, Mother
and a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for her book for the Broadway
musical The Secret Garden. Other awards and accolades
throughout her career have been numerous and include, among many
others, a Grammy, a Peabody, and the William Inge Distinguished
Lifetime Achievement in Theatre Award. She has received 18 honorary
degrees from American Colleges and Universities, and is the Co-Chair
of the Playwriting Department of Juilliard.
|
|
|
|