Origin
Sign In My Cart
Search
alphabetical author index
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Night Sky

  • Susan Yankowitz
  • Full Length Play, Drama, Present Day
  • 3M, 3F
  • ISBN: 9780573693205

A moving and poetic experience. Like the sky, it is a play of seemingly infinite depth.

Los Angeles Times

More information

Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Drama
  • 90 minutes

  • Time Period: Present Day
  • Target Audience: Teen (Age 14 - 18), Senior, Appropriate for all audiences
  • Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings
  • Cautions: No Special Cautions

  • Performance Group:
  • Large Stage, Community Theatre, High School/Secondary, Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, College Theatre / Student, Senior Theatre
This extraordinary drama premiered to acclaim in a New York production directed by Joseph Chaikin. Night Sky theatrically explores what Steven Hawking has called the two mysteries remaining to us: the brain and the cosmos.

When she is hit by a car, the brilliant and articulate astronomer Anna loses her ability to speak, a condition known as aphasia. What emerges from her mouth is a hodge-podge of unconnected words alternately confusing, funny, original and wise - and sometimes all four. In a series of brief, often comic episodes, the play follows Anna through her illness and ultimate acceptance of herself – a personal triumph, despite a continuing infirmity – and dramatizes the impact of her changed circumstances on her lover, her teen-aged daughter, and her professional life.

Everyone will be touched by the themes this play considers - language, inner and outer space, the challenges of a devastating affliction, the consolations and ordeals of family life and, most of all, the universal hunger and need for communication.The play has been extremely popular with audiences and has been translated into Spanish, Catalan, French, Hebrew and German.
REVIEWS:

Susan Yankowitz's Night Sky is a rare thing: a play with a mind. It is also about the mind as universe, where language is internal astronomy. It shows us that more than hearts can be broken.

Variety

A moving and poetic experience. Like the sky, it is a play of seemingly infinite depth.

Los Angeles Times
Premiere Production: Originally produced in New York City by the Women’s Project And Productions, Inc. Julia Miles, Artistic Director

Characters

  • Casting: 3M, 3F
  • Casting Attributes: Ensemble cast, Flexible casting, Room for Extras, Features Teens, Expandable casting, Strong Role for Leading Woman (Star Vehicle)

  • ANNA - 40s; an astronomer; intelligent and intense; moves from extreme self-confidence to extreme vulnerability in course of play. The role requires vocal and physical stylization plus the ability to convey a wide range of emotions.

  • DANIEL - 30s; Anna's live-in lover, younger than she by 5 years; opera singers, baritone (*see note below); warm, outgoing, playful, loving, and sensual.

  • JENNIFER - 16; Anna's daughter; bright, sarcastic, self-dramatizing and tender-hearted -- a very contemporary teenager.

  • BILL - 45-60; Anna's astronomer colleague; socially clumsy but imaginative and charismatic in the classroom.

  • SPEECH THERAPIST (and other Female Roles) - 30's-50's; Articulate; patient; empathic; skilled in active listening. Versatility and a flair for creating a variety of convincing characters are essential to the role.

  • APHASIC PATIENT (and other Male Roles, including Young Man at Dance) - 25-35; the role requires improvisation skills, vocal calisthenics and ease with on-naturalistic performance styles.

  • * Because DANIEL is an opera singer, it is ideal to cast an actor with a fine voice so that his career seems credible. However, it is even more important to have an excellent actor in the role so if a choice is necessary, please consider the acting requirements over the vocal ones: tapes can, if necessary, be used as support, enhancement or substitutes. And except for the "Papageno" aria in Scene 9, all other music sung by DANIEL can be selected by the actor and director.

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Night Sky Script Order Now

    This extraordinary drama premiered to acclaim in a New York production directed by Joseph Chaikin. Night Sky theatrically explores what Steven Hawking has called the two mysteries remaining to us: the brain and the cosmos. When she is hit by a car, the brilliant and articulate astronomer Anna loses her ability to speak, a condition known as aphasia. What emerges from her mouth is a hodge-podge of unconnected words alternately confusing, funny, original and wise - and sometimes all four. In a series of brief, often comic episodes, the play follows Anna through her illness and ultimate acceptance of herself – a personal triumph, despite a continuing infirmity – and dramatizes the impact of her changed circumstances on her lover, her teen-aged daughter, and her professional life.Everyone will be touched by the themes this play considers - language, inner and outer space, the challenges of a devastating affliction, the consolations and ordeals of family life and, most of all, the universal hunger and need for communication.The play has been extremely popular with audiences and has been translated into Spanish, Catalan, French, Hebrew and German.

    		$24.95

    Related Works