About
the Play:
Nine has become a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues.
KickAss Plays For Women contains four one-act plays by Jane
Shepard. This gritty, hard-edged drama is a compilation of four
powerful short plays, featuring strong, contemporary female roles
that give new muscle to actresses of exceptional range. All
successfully produced on the New York stage, each play examines in
very different ways the tender, funny, often tortuous quest for
meaning. Jane Shepard writes powerful and explicit dialog for
female actors with both intense drama and modern humour in all four
of these works: Nine; Commencing; Friends of the
Deceased; and The Last Nickel.
Nine is a fascinating play about the power of language. Two
women held against their will, locked in a room and chained apart,
use their words to motivate and push one another in order to survive
their situation. A complicated relationship is revealed as the two
women use not only kind words to lift one another up but also cruel
and even obscene words to stir one another up in an attempt to find
the humour and strength they need to fight against their captors. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops. (Premiered in 1995 at the Circle Rep Lab
in New York City; Cast: 2 female)
Commencing: Kelli can't wait for the blind date her friends
have set her up on. Until it turns out the person who shows up not
only isn't her type, but is very disappointed lesbian named Arlin.
Mutually appalled, yet appallingly intrigued, they spend the night in
a cycle of bickering and flirting but ultimately find they have a lot
in common after all. (Premiered in 1996 at the HERE space in New York
City; Cast: 2 female)
What people say:
"I've
seen two great one-acts in my life, [Edward Albee's] Zoo Story and
this play." — NYTheatre.com
Friends of the Deceased finds a wealthy and embittered
widow lingering long after her husband's grave site service only to
confront a mysterious and unsuspecting young woman upon her late
arrival to the funeral. Convinced that the young woman is her
husband's mistress, the widow attempts to buy a confession but learns
an even deeper, unforeseen truth. (Premiered in 2002 at McGinn/Cazale
Theatre in New York City; Cast: 2 female)
The Last Nickel centers on sisters dealing with the
aftermath of a tragic death in the family. Through the use of
children's hand puppets giving real-time commentary on the action, we
are transported to a happier time of childhood memories but can never
fully escape the unnerving truth that something horrible has
happened. Equal parts theatrical, funny, and touching. (Premiered in
1996 at One Dream Theatre in New York City; Cast: 2 female, 2 male
puppeteers)
Three selections from KickAss Plays for Women
(Nine,
Commencing, and Friends of The Deceased)
debuted off-Broadway
in 2016 at Gene Frankel Theatre under the collective title
Commencing: A Night Of Jane Shepard Shorts. Each play
features two female roles, and most roles are age-flexible. There is
almost always a play from the KickAss collection being
produced somewhere in the world.
What people say:
"Wild and true. Like all the
best writing." — Marsha
Norman,
playwright: 'night,
Mother,
Getting
Out
"Exploring a primal human need
for communication, these Kick Ass Plays ignite
that so much needed inner-dialogue; and even more important, the need
to feel. Life needs space and time for silence or reflection. Without
that, life dies. The Kick Ass Plays inspire us
to keep communicating and feeling." — TheatreReview
(New
Zealand)
About the Playwright:
Jane Shepard is an award-winning American playwright,
screenwriter, actor and film director who grew up in Boulder,
Colorado, and trained as an actor, graduating from the American
Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1978 before turning to writing. She spent
25 years working in New York City before moving her base of
operations back to her hometown in 2008. She is the recipient of
multiple accolades for her playwrighting, with over 35 productions in
New York City, around the U.S. and internationally.