About the Play:

Twice Around the Park has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues and Female/Male Scenes.

Twice Around the Park contains two thematically related one-act comedies by Murray Schisgal. A pair of one-acts about couples waging the battle of the sexes in very different, funny ways. The sparring partners in the first act are a policewoman who berates her downstairs actor neighbour for disturbing the peace with his rehearsing, only to find herself caught in his charms. In the second half, a long-married couple hopes a self-help tape will instill a little more intimacy in their marriage. These two-character plays may be performed together as an evening of entertainment.

A Need for Brussel Sprouts finds an unemployed actor Leon Rose hoping to land a TV commercial for pizza by lip-synching to a loud opera recording in his apartment while pretending to be the tenor. Enter the irate female police officer who lives upstairs, Margaret Heinz, and intends to give him a summons for disturbing the peace. They are both lonely and an unexpected relationship begins.

In A Need for Less Expertise, a mature couple, Gus and Edie Frazier whose marriage is on the rocks after 26 years have procured a self help audio tape made by Dr. Oliovsky, a psychiatrist whose work promises to improve their spiritual awareness, their health and their sex life as a last ditch effort to save their marriage. But will it bring back love?

Twice Around the Park opened in 1982 at the Cort Theatre on Broadway. These hysterically funny one-acts have become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and been performed in regional, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 1 female, 1 male

What people say:

"Each encounter contains its quota of Schisgal wackiness and broad satire." — Christian Science Monitor

"These two lusty one act plays – A Need for More Brussells Sprouts and A Need For Less Expertise – provide a wry and humorous look at loving relationships; why some work and why some don't. The wit of Murray Schisgal in Twice Around the Park is both bitingly funny and often poignantly close to real life." — Lindsay Daily Post

About the Playwright:

Murray Schisgal (1926-2020) was a Tony and Academy Award nominated American playwright and screenwriter best known for co-writing the screenplay for Tootsie. He attended Brooklyn Law School from which he graduated in 1953. He practised law until 1956 and then taught English for three years. He had an extensive career spanning writing plays, novels, anthologies, science fiction, and play producing. He has a star on the Playwrights Sidewalk for Off-Broadway Achievement in New York. He has also produced several films and television programs.