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PLAYS
Marriages of Inconvenience
A Play In Two Acts by William Fowkes.
Available for performance or publication
For an excerpt, click here
Some feedback on Marriages of Inconvenience:
“Weird and wonderful. One hand, light and frothy, the other, almost epic. I’m sure there’s a production looming.”
- New Phoenix Theatre, Buffalo (Eric Bentley New Play Competition)
DESCRIPTION: Three married men pay the price for leading double lives in a time of social change.
SYNOPSIS:
Best friends and lovers since college, Graham Walker and Dan Carlsen set off to get married and start families, embarking on a double life that ends abruptly when Dan dies prematurely. After Graham’s protracted mourning leads to the collapse of his marriage, he falls in love with a promiscuous closeted man whose marriage has also just ended. Set in New York City and Bronxville, one of its affluent suburbs, and spanning 30 years of changing attitudes about homosexuality, this play addresses themes of fidelity, social convention, and, ultimately, self-acceptance and authenticity.
CHARACTERS: The play requires a cast of 9 playing a total of 20 roles.
Major Roles:
Graham P. Walker: Articulate and intense. Attractive, with dark hair. An investment banker originally from Westport, CT. Dan Carlsen's roommate in college, as well as lifelong best friend and lover. Married to Kitty. (Age during play: 19-48) Appears in 17 scenes.
Dan Carlsen: Blond, athletic and boyish. A lawyer originally from Fargo, North Dakota. Same age as Graham. Graham's roommate in college, as well as lifelong best friend and lover. Married to Debbie. (Age during play: 19-44) Appears in 8 scenes.
Kitty Flemington Walker: Shy and bookish, but attractive. A book editor, then a stay-at-home mom. Married to
Graham. Debbie's best friend since college. (Age during
play: 28-41) Appears in 9 scenes.
Chip Miller: Tall, blond and unusually handsome. An all-American ideal and Troy Donahue look-alike. A senior executive at a major packaged goods company. Married to Sally. A tormented, closeted gay man. (Age during play: 33-41) Appears in 6 scenes.
Debbie Hess Carlsen: Blond, preppy and Jewish. Funny
and chatty. An account executive at an advertising agency, then a stay-at-home mom. Dan's wife. Kitty's best friend since college. (Age during play: 28-44) Appears in 6 scenes.
Secondary Roles:
Richard Hamlin: A professor of any age. Flamboyant. 2 scenes.
Sally Miller: Chip Miller's wife. Mid-30s. 3 scenes.
James: Flirtatious young man in gay bar. 3 scenes.
+ 12 minor or walk-on parts.
SETTING: The play begins in the Walker kitchen in Bronxville, NY, and then moves back to Yale and on through various settings in New York City and Bronxville, ending in Provincetown, MA.
THE TIME: The play begins in the fall of 1991 and then jumps back 20 years, progressing forward from fall 1971 to summer 2000.
For an excerpt, click here
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