About the Play:

The Shadow Box has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues, Male Monologues, and Female/Male Scenes.

The Shadow Box is a full-length drama by Michael Cristofer. Follows the lives of three terminally ill patients in a hospice, as their loved ones grapple with the inescapable future of a life without them. Patients Joe, Brian, and Felicity are left to reminisce on the lives they led as they each prepare themselves for their departure from loved ones. Especially recommended for school and contest use.

The Shadow Box follows the lives of three families as they make their separate but interwoven journeys along the road of love. life, and the mystery of existence. The play takes place in three cottages on the grounds of a large hospital. In this compelling dramatic triptych, three terminal cancer patients dwell in separate cottages on a hospital's grounds. The three are attended and visited by family and close friends: Agnes and her mother Felicity, estranged further by the latter's dementia; Brian and Beverly, whose martial complications are exacerbated by Brian's new lover, Mark; and Joe and Maggie, unready for the strain of Joe's impending death and its effect on their teenage son. The Shadow Box won the Pulitzer Prize for its beautiful, heart-wrenching story encompassing both the hardships of dealing with loss and suffering along with the celebration of life.

The Shadow Box had a pre-Broadway engagement in 1975 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. It premiered in 1977 at the Morosco Theatre and ran for over 300 performances on Broadway, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play. It opened in 1978 at the Arts Club Theatre's Granville Island Stage, highlighted by a pre-"Alex P. Keaton" Michael J. Fox. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and remains a popular choice for regional repertory, college, and community theatre productions and is an ideal choice for middle and high school drama contests and festivals.

Cast: 4 female, 5 male

What people say:

"An important, touching and courageous play...Triumphantly turns up...Cristofer writes with the compassion of the undamned. An extraordinarily good Broadway play with meaty roles for actors." — The New York Times

"Thunders with life." — ABC TV

"By far the finest play of the New York season, beautifully realized drama of sensitive perceptions often as funny as it is moving." — Washington Post

"Extraordinary. An overwhelming emotional experience. Truly startling and in its uncompromising way, very funny." — Boston Globe

About the Playwright:

Michael Cristofer is an American actor, director and writer well known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Shadow Box. He attended Catholic University in Washington, DC and American University in Lebanon. He has written screenplays for Witches of Eastwick and Bonfire of the Vanities.