About the Play:

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

Impassioned Embraces is a full-length revue of short comedy skits by John Pielmeier. A varied and uniquely imaginative program of fourteen short pieces, Impassioned Embraces is an episodic play on the creation of the theatre process itself. Interwoven with scenes on social issues, secrets and love are monologues about how to be an intelligent performer – and more importantly – how the ideals of great acting are connected to becoming a well-rounded human being. The component pieces may also be presented separately, or in varying combinations to fit specific production requirements.

Impassioned Embraces is a keen showcase full of the same knowing twists and absurdities that fuelled David Ives's All in the Timing. Designed to be presented by a company of six actors (three female, three male and without any formal setting, the fourteen short pieces that comprise Impassioned Embraces offer a wealth of intriguing possibilities for the performers. Dealing largely with the many aspects of love (from the sublime to the ridiculous) and with the trials and terrors that actors must face, the plays mingle hilarity and poignancy as they explore the problems that romance – and the need for self-expression – can engender. We encounter, for example, an actor struggling through a particularly devastating rehearsal; two teenagers gingerly dissecting a frog – and their sex lives; a bridegroom who finds that he really loves the bridesmaid rather than the bride; a woman (masquerading as a man) who tries to pick up a man (masquerading as a woman) in a bar; a couple chattering through a "splatter film" whose conversation is even wilder, and more intriguing, than the soundtrack of the movie; an assortment of sad/funny monologues about the various perils (and pleasures) of the acting profession; and a wildly funny farce involving a man about to undergo a vasectomy, a shockingly inept doctor, an irate (and pregnant) nurse, and the doctor's madly jealous wife. Fast-moving and highly inventive throughout, Impassioned Embraces maintains a mood of high spirits and offbeat humour that will infect those on both sides of the footlights, as the hilarity – and truth – of the various pieces find their mark.

A collection of very short plays, many of which received their premiere at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Impassioned Embraces was first presented in 1989 by the Lab Project at the Repertory Theatre of St Louis. They're confections, none to be taken too seriously except by the characters themselves, bon-bons for actors, perfect for scene study-work, in and out of class.

Cast: 3 female, 3 male

What people say:

"If the maim aim here is to showcase young artists, that's exactly what this surprisingly entertaining show does to great effect." — Chicago Tribune

"...these 14 sketches by John Pielmeier take us on a witty, oblique and, above all, energetic, tour of peculiar and perverted corners of American urban life." — The Independent (UK)

About the Playwright:

John Pielmeier is an American playwright, actor and screenwriter best known for his stage play Agnes of God. He began his career as an actor, working at Actors Theater of Louisville, The Guthrie Theater, Milwaukee Rep, Alaska Rep, Baltimore’s Center Stage, and the O'Neill National Playwrights' Conference. It was at the O'Neill that his play Agnes of God was first staged.