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Jerome Bixby's The Man From Earth

After history professor John Oldman unexpectedly resigns from the University, his startled colleagues impulsively invite themselves to his home, pressing him for an explanation. But they're shocked to hear his reason for premature retirement...

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Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Drama, Fantasy
  • 90 minutes

  • Time Period: Present Day, Contemporary
  • Target Audience: Teen (Age 14 - 18), Adult, Appropriate for all audiences
  • Set Requirements: Bare Stage/Simple Set
  • Cautions: No Special Cautions

  • Performance Group:
  • Community Theatre, Professional Theatre, Shoestring Budget, Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, College Theatre / Student, Church / Religious Groups
After history professor John Oldman unexpectedly resigns from the University, his startled colleagues impulsively invite themselves to his home, pressing him for an explanation. But they're shocked to hear his reason for premature retirement: John claims he must move on because he is immortal, and cannot stay in one place for more than ten years without his secret being discovered. 

Tempers rise and emotions flow as John's fellow professors attempt to poke holes in his story, but it soon becomes clear that his tale is as impossible to disprove as it is to verify. What starts out as a friendly gathering soon builds to an unexpected and shattering climax.

Acclaimed science fiction writer Jerome Bixby, writer of the original Star Trek and The Twilight Zone, originally conceived this story back in the early 1960's. It would come to be his last great work.
REVIEWS:

"A considerable achievement... a picture which deserves wide exposure... The Man From Earth gradually and stimulatingly builds to a pitch of near hypnotic intensity."

Neil Young, The Hollywood Reporter

"The Man From Earth restores dignity to science fiction of the mind."

Michael Guillen, Twitch (www.twitch.com)

"A tall tale... that ends with a devastatingly clever twist."

Michael Janusonis, The Providence Journal

"An intelligent fantasy."

Ed Grant, Video Business

Premiere Production: Originally presented as a motion picture in 2007, Jerome Bixby's The Man From Earth has been produced on stages around the world since 2008.

Characters

  • Casting: 6M, 3F
  • Casting Attributes: Reduced casting (Doubling Possible), Ensemble cast, Non-Traditional casting, Parts for Senior Actors, Multicultural casting, Strong Role for Leading Man (Star Vehicle)

  • JOHN OLDMAN - About 35, good looking, competent, easygoing history professor
    DAN - 60-ish professor of anthropology; big, fit
    HARRY - 50's professor of biology; stocky, likable
    EDITH - 50's, art history professor, a hint of the spinster about her
    SANDY - Late 20's; fiercely intelligent, but reticent
    ART - 50's, but holding desperately onto youth; archaeology professor
    LINDA - Very pretty young student; wide-eyed, yet smart
    WILL GRUBER - 75, large, mustachioed, bluff
    MOVING MAN #1 - Burly, uniformed mover from "Charity Now"
    MOVING MAN #2 - Another uniformed mover from "Charity Now"
    PARAMEDIC - Uniformed EMS worker (can be played by a Moving Man)
    COP - Young uniformed officer (can be played by a Moving Man)

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Jerome Bixby's The Man From Earth Script Order Now

    After history professor John Oldman unexpectedly resigns from the University, his startled colleagues impulsively invite themselves to his home, pressing him for an explanation. But they're shocked to hear his reason for premature retirement: John claims he must move on because he is immortal, and cannot stay in one place for more than ten years without his secret being discovered. Tempers rise and emotions flow as John's fellow professors attempt to poke holes in his story, but it soon becomes clear that his tale is as impossible to disprove as it is to verify. What starts out as a friendly gathering soon builds to an unexpected and shattering climax.Acclaimed science fiction writer Jerome Bixby, writer of the original 'Star Trek' and 'The Twilight Zone', originally conceived this story back in the early 1960's. It would come to be his last great work.

    		$24.95

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