About the Play:

HARD TO FIND BOOK, only a very limited number of copies are still available.

Zara Spook and Other Lures has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues.

Zara Spook and Other Lures is a comedy by Joan Ackermann. Three women are competing in national women's bass fishing tournament. Before they even cast a line, two men get hopelessly hooked, and the women soon discover that a hooked man is a trickier catch than a bass on a lure. With the World Championship and two marriages at stake, the anglers pull out their trickiest lures to match wits with lovers and fish.

Zara Spook and Other Lures is about three women competing in a women's fishing derby whose lives are more tangled than fishing line caught in a tree. But don't let the title fool you. It's not just a show about fishing. It's about relationships, gender roles and the quest to find love without sacrificing identity. The show centers around Evelyn, a little woman with a big dream – to win the national women's bass fishing tournament sponsored by Bass'n Gal magazine. Joining Evelyn is her buddy Teale, who has suffered from asthma ever since her husband ran off with a waitress. But Evelyn may have to settle for "Rookie of the Year" as she's got stiff competition from legendary champion Ramona, who uses the "Zara Spook" lure of the title to catch fish effortlessly. Meanwhile, the vulnerable Evelyn must also contend with the constant marriage proposals of her boyfriend Talmadge, who desperately wants to marry her and won't take "get lost" for an answer. The seductive Ramona is facing a relationship battle of her own from an intensely jealous estranged husband in hot pursuit. Having been dumped for being insensitive, he's determined to prove Ramona wrong! The women all discover hidden strengths and vulnerabilities in themselves by the time the prize fish is finally landed.

Zara Spook and Other Lures premiered in 1988 at Mixed Company Theatre in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The author's first full-length play, it was a sensation when it first achieved prominence in 1990 at the famed Actors Theatre of Louisville as part of the annual Festival of New American Plays, an influential showplace for playwrights. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has been mounted by regional, college, and community theatres.

Cast: 4 female, 2 male

What people say:

"Zara Spook and Other Lures, by Joan Ackermann, is a deftly observed lark about a women's fishing expedition into the New Mexico wilderness. The sexual parallel is obvious, but the characters, both male and female, are sufficiently diverting to take our minds off the hook. Ackermann has a fine hard edge to her comedy." — The Globe and Mail

"A two act story about three women stepping out into a fisherman's world brought a laugh-a-minute as they untangled their personal relationships along with the fishing lines." — The Times (Clearwater, B.C.)

"Joyously entertaining." — Louisville Courier Journal

"...superior sitcom – fresh and funny, with a raft of vivid characters, crackling one-liners...." — Los Angeles Times

"Wonderfully goofy." — The New York Daily News

"[A] sunny, screwball lark." — The Chicago Tribune

"Very funny." — The Wall Street Journal

"Joan Ackermann's Zara Spook and Other Lures ... is an alluring fish tale with a point, a kind of folksy, country-and-western sitcom cut with a sophisticated feminist flair. It's a surprisingly potent stylistic mishmash, ripe with comic improbabilities and pointed observations." — Asbury Park Press

About the Playwright:

Joan Ackermann is an American playwright, journalist, and screenwriter. Over a dozen of her plays have been published and produced around the United States, and her adaptation of her play Off the Map was released as a feature film directed by Campbell Scott. She is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Mixed Company, the 55-seat theatre established over 30 years ago in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. A Special Contributor to Sports Illustrated for seven years, she has freelanced for many magazines, including Time, The Atlantic Monthly, and Esquire.