About the Play:

This volume contains the one-act plays Stuffings and An American Sunset by James Prideaux. Called imaginative in concept and style, An American Sunset is a perceptive, bizarre comedy that deflates the silly pretensions and snobbery of the "country club set" with devastating and delightful accuracy. Stuffings is a delightful and warmly humorous short play which pokes gentle fun at the plight of a dowdy lady taxidermist forced to choose between romance and her "career."

An American Sunset is especially recommended for school and contest use. In her many years as membership secretary at Grassy Acres Country Club, Miss Potter has worked with dedication to limit applications to the "right people" only. So she and Mrs. Stonewell (head of the admissions committee) have no qualms about interviewing young Mr. Upton, who has impeccable family and social credentials to recommend him. But while he passes muster easily, Mr. Upton then flabbergasts them by announcing that his mission is not to get into the club but to stay out! In fact he is opposed to all that the club stands for. The penalty for this breach is, of course, death, which the well-bred Upton accepts with obedient calm. But here too a surprise is in store, as he shortly rises from the "dead," leaving Mrs. Stonewell in shock and the chastened Miss Potter to long thoughts as to who the right people, and what the best values, really are. (Cast: 2 female, 1 male)

Stuffings: After seven years of working in Edgar's taxidermy shop, Gladys has become his full-fledged assistant and shares his excitement at the good fortune that has befallen them – the arrival of a moosehead for stuffing. But their elation is marred by the appearance of Gladys' betrothed, George, who makes it clear that he finds taxidermy a repulsive occupation and delivers an ultimatum demanding that Gladys abandon the shop for a job in a nice clean, spacious office. Forced to choose between George and her career, the resolute Gladys finds that she cannot give up her work, even for love. As the defeated George leaves, Gladys and Edgar turn back to their moosehead – and to the growing promise of still other joys to be shared in the future. (Cast: 1 female, 2 male)

Stuffings and An American Sunset have become popular choices for high school and community theatre productions.

James Prideaux (1927-2015) was a prolific American playwright and television writer. A frequent collaborator and friend of Katharine Hepburn, he wrote and produced three films with the iconic actress including his Emmy-nominated work on the telefilm Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry. Early in his career, he became a member of off-off Broadway’s Playwrights Unit, created by Edward Albee, Richard Barr and Clinton Wilder. His plays have been produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally. Among his awards, he has a New York Drama Desk Award and a Los Angeles Film Board Award.