Play Suggestions: A new Cold War Era setting play

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A new Cold War Era setting play

Printed From: Community Theater Green Room
Category: Producing Theater
Forum Name: Play Suggestions
Forum Discription: Need help finding a show that's right for your theater? Ask here.
URL: http://www.communitytheater.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4634
Printed Date: 5/18/24 at 12:45pm
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Topic: A new Cold War Era setting play

Posted By: stockhamlj
Subject: A new Cold War Era setting play
Date Posted: 5/20/10 at 7:57am

TITLE: "The Great Algonquin."
GENRE: Satirical drama.
LOGLINE: A priggish resident of a boarding house grows irrationally suspicious of a new lodger.
PRÉCIS: The comedic subtlety and deliberate ambiguity in “The Great Algonquin” is intended to symbolically underscore the anxiety, skepticism, and outright dread of Communism injected into American life during the Cold War Era. The primary focus is on one idiosyncratic resident in a southeastern West Virginia town in the fall of 1951. An authority on local history, flora, and fauna, he is paranoiac about the troubled times of the world tension, the atomic bomb, and Communism. So much so, that when a young Korean War veteran takes up residence in the boarding home, he begins to suspect him of being a Communist and thus his mistrustful nature reaches outrageous proportions.
NOTE: Although “The Great Algonquin” is set against the Cold War Era, the theme is pertinent to the growing mistrust of 2010 as reflected in one of the play's characters.
CHARACTERS: 7 (4m, 3f) - all adult roles.
SCENIC REQUIREMENT: Combination living room/dining room
TIME: Fall, 1951
APPROXIMATE RUNNING TIME: 85-90 minutes.
COPYRIGHT: 2009.
ROYALTY FEES: No royalty fees for amateur theatre companies, staged-readings, and workshops.

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Linda Stockham