Bob: A Life in Five Acts is a play written by actor and playwright [1] Peter Sinn Nachtrieb. [2] The play was the winner of the 2010 Barrie and Bernice Stavis Award from the National Theatre Conference. [3] It follows the life and adventures of Bob, a man certain of his destiny for greatness, as he struggles to find his purpose. [4] Divided into five acts, each section of the play corresponds with a period in Bob's life. In 2012, it was published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc. [1]
“How Bob is born, abandoned, discovers his dream, and almost dies.” [4] Bob's birth mother, Helen, unaware that she is pregnant, goes into labor at a White Castle, leaving Bob on the bathroom floor. Bob is subsequently discovered by Jeanine, an infertile waitress who received fortune cookie that she would be the mother to “a great man,” decides to raise the child as her own. Determined to fulfill the prophecy, Jeanine educates Bob by raising him in her Chevy Malibu as she drives around the country, stopping at notable points where American legends achieved their greatness. Just as Bob decides that his dream is to be immortalized on a plaque, Jeanine dies on the steps of the Art Institute of Chicago and begs Bob to burn her body. Bob does so, only to be questioned by a policeman named Connor, Jeanine's ex-boyfriend. Upon realizing the body is Jeanine's, Connor gives Bob a wedding ring intended for Jeanine and leaves. Then, a manic Helen appears and steals all of Bob's belongings, including his pants – unaware that he is her son. Bob then falls into the back of a truck and travels across the country, unconscious. [1]
“How Bob does not die, comes of age at a rest stop, pursues his dream, falls in love and has his heart broken.” [4] Bob awakes on the ground of the William Borroughs Memorial Rest Stop in Mound City, Missouri. His many encounters with passersby inspire him to find his purpose, hoping to be immortalized on a plaque for his dedication to taking care of the rest stop. He enters puberty and falls in love with a socialite named Amelia. Amelia, who is also trying to find her sense of purpose by accomplishing a list of wild tasks prior to her arranged wedding, decides to stay with Bob for a couple weeks. However, she ultimately decides to leave him in order to accomplish her dream - most especially filling a jar with water from the Pacific Ocean - on her own. Unbeknownst to Bob, she does so at the cost of her life, and dies on a raft in the Pacific Ocean. Bob is heartbroken at his breakup, but determined to find his own call to greatness as well. [1]
“How Bob journeys across America, tries to do everything on his list, fails, meets an important man, and turns his back on everything he believes.” [4] Act three begins as four waitresses use Bob for sex, revolting him. He fails to accomplish any of the ideas on his list, leading him to homelessness and to seek shelter on a box car. There, he encounters a washed-up circus animal trainer named Gunther Roy. After a series of flashbacks, Gunther relates how he ended up in the box car. He tricked an aspiring animal trainer into sleeping with him, abandoned her, and caused her to be blacklisted for every respectable animal training job. The woman later calls Gunther to tell him that his act resulted in a baby boy which she left in a White Castle restaurant, and casts a curse on him, causing Gunther Roy to be unable to train ever again. Back on the boxcar, the two men realize that the woman was Bob's mother, Helen, and that they are father and son. Immediately after realizing this, an angry pack of wolves approaches the boxcar, and Gunther jumps into the pack so that he can save his son. Bob, broken after so many losses, curses America and decides to live a selfish life. [1]
“How Bob has a turn of luck, becomes a new man, achieves a false dream, meets an important woman, and is redeemed.” [4] As revealed through his interaction with a girl scout named Vera, Bob wandered through the desert until he found “The Martin Luther Casino.” He then bet the only item he had - Connor's ring - on a game of roulette. After an uncanny streak of luck, he made a fortune and became the owner of the casino, investing in stocks and living lavishly, though unhappily. However, Bob's interaction with Vera unsettles him and he decides to try to find his purpose once again. After 5 years of work, Bob carves his face into a block of granite in order to place it on Mount Rushmore, along with a plaque. After those who witness the monument are thoroughly underwhelmed, Bob sulks by his plaque when Helen appears with her trained wolf Sven, and reveals herself to be his mother at the same time that Bob realizes that she stole his pants outside of Chicago. Helen tells the story of her grievous life and how she married Connor, and then asks Bob if he is, in fact, a great man. Unimpressed with his whiny answer, Helen inspires Bob to live his life valiantly just before dying in his arms. [1]
“The rest.” [4] Chorus members reveal that Bob achieved legendary status, after his former butler Tony wrote a book about Bob that Oprah Winfrey loved. Many characters reappear to speak about how Bob changed their lives. However, Bob seemed to have disappeared. Only one person - a tourist named Leo - is known to have seen Bob again. At a terrible rest top in Mexico, Bob reveals to Leo that he found Amelia's jar of water floating by the shore. Then, Bob convinces Leo to pay to see Bob's great act: a flea circus that tells his life story, concluding with the sentiment “I am not alone.” [1]
Bob is notable for several stylistic decisions. First, the role of the chorus is vital. The cast is suggested to be 3 men and 2 women, but there are dozens of characters. [2] Therefore, every actor, except for Bob, assumes many narrative and character roles. Furthermore, between every act is either a song or a dance. Peter Sinn Nachtrieb did not specify what these songs or dances should be, instead leaving them open to interpretation. [1] Productions of Bob employ this freedom through everything from singing popular music or turning the production into a musical. [4] Finally, the script is unique in how it uses comedy, referentiality, and Americana camp in order to address darker themes of death and obsession with legacy. [5]
Website about Bob [ permanent dead link ]
Peter Nachtrieb regarding Bob.
American Repertory Theater Presentation about Bob.
Actors Theater of Louisville about Bob.
Dramatists Play Service regarding Bob.
Edward Franklin Albee III was an American playwright known for works such as The Zoo Story (1958), The Sandbox (1959), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), A Delicate Balance (1966), and Three Tall Women (1994). Some critics have argued that some of his work constitutes an American variant of what Martin Esslin identified and named the Theater of the Absurd. Three of his plays won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and two of his other works won the Tony Award for Best Play.
Moss Hart was an American playwright, librettist, and theater director.
The American Dream is an early, one-act play by American playwright Edward Albee. It premiered in 1961.
Humana Festival of New American Plays is an internationally renowned festival that celebrates the contemporary American playwright. Produced annually in Louisville, Kentucky by Actors Theatre of Louisville, this festival showcases new theatrical works and draws producers, critics, playwrights, and theatre lovers from around the world. The festival was founded in 1976 by Jon Jory, who was Producing Director of Actors Theatre of Louisville from 1969 to 2000. Since 1979 The Humana Festival has been sponsored by the Humana Foundation which is the philanthropic arm of Humana.
Margo Jones, nicknamed the "Texas Tornado", was an American stage director and producer, best known for launching the American regional theater movement and for introducing the theater-in-the-round concept in Dallas, Texas. In 1947, she established the first regional professional company when she opened Theatre '47 in Dallas. Of the 85 plays Jones staged during her Dallas career, 57 were new, and one-third of those new plays had a continued life on stage, television, and radio. Jones played an important role in the early careers of a range of playwrights, such as Tennessee Williams, William Inge, Joseph Hayes, Jerome Lawrence, and Robert E. Lee.
Baby with the Bathwater is a play by Christopher Durang about a boy named Daisy, his influences, and his eventual outcome.
María Irene Fornés was a Cuban-American playwright, theater director, and teacher who worked in off-Broadway and experimental theater venues in the last four decades of the twentieth century. Her plays range widely in subject matter, but often depict characters with aspirations that belie their disadvantages. Fornés, who went by the name "Irene", received nine Obie Theatre Awards in various categories and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for 1990.
Yellow Face is a semi-autobiographical play by David Henry Hwang, featuring the author himself as the protagonist, DHH, mounting his 1993 play Face Value. The play's themes include questions of race and of the interaction between media and politics.
Tanya Barfield is an American playwright whose works have been presented both nationally and internationally.
Mary Gallagher is an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, actress, director and teacher. For six years, she was artistic director of Gypsy, a theatre company in the Hudson Valley, New York, which collaborated with many artists to create site-specific mask-and-puppet music-theatre with texts and lyrics by Gallagher. These pieces included Premanjali and the 7 Geese Brothers, Ama and The Scottish Play. In 1996-97, she directed the Playwrights Workshop at the University of Iowa, and she taught playwriting and screenwriting at New York University/Tisch School of the Arts from 2001 to 2010. She is a member of Actors & Writers, a theater company in the Hudson Valley, and the Ensemble Studio Theater in New York City. She is an alumna of New Dramatists, where she developed many of her plays and created and moderated the series, "You Can Make a Life: Conversations with Playwrights" from 1994 to 2001.
Tracey Scott Wilson is an American playwright, television writer, television producer, and screenwriter. She graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in English and from Temple University with an MA in English Literature.
Fun Home is a musical theatre adaptation of Alison Bechdel's 2006 graphic memoir of the same name, with music by Jeanine Tesori, and book and lyrics by Lisa Kron. The story concerns Bechdel's discovery of her own sexuality, her relationship with her closeted gay father, and her attempts to unlock the mysteries surrounding his life. It is the first Broadway musical with a lesbian protagonist. It is told in a series of non-linear vignettes connected by narration provided by the adult Alison character.
Marcus Gardley is an American poet, playwright and screenwriter from West Oakland, California. He is an ensemble member playwright at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago and an assistant professor of Theater and Performance Studies at Brown University.
Sheri Wilner is an American playwright.
Christopher Oscar Peña is a playwright, screenwriter, actor and educator who resides in New York City. He teaches theater at NYU's Tisch School of Arts and is a member of the Playwrights Unit at Goodman Theatre in Chicago. He also has had work commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre. Peña is the co-writer of the Golden Globe nominated TV series, Jane the Virgin and was on the "Future Broadway Power List," by Backstage (magazine) in 2014.
References to Salvador Dalí Make Me Hot is a play by Puerto Rican playwright and screenwriter José Rivera. It won an Obie Award for writing in 2000.
Orange Flower Water is a dramatic play written by Craig Wright published in August 2004. The Chicago Tribune describes the play as "Uncommonly intense and intimate ninety-minute drama." "A brutally honest drama about marriage and infidelity" by Chicago Sun-Times, and "Simultaneously visceral, with crackling humor, and intellectual." by Star Tribune.
Chiori Miyagawa is a Japanese- born American playwright, poet, dramaturg, and fiction writer based in New York City. She was born in Nagano, Japan before moving to the United States at an age of 16. She has received many fellowships including the New York Foundation for the Arts Playwriting Fellowship, the Rockefeller Bellagio Residency Fellowship, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship at Harvard University. Her plays have been published by Seagull Books and NoPassport Press in two collections: Thousand Years Waiting and Other Plays and America Dreaming and Other Plays. She was a resident playwright at the New Dramatists and is a playwright-in-residence at Bard College.
Karen Malpede is an American playwright and director whose work reflects an ongoing interest in social justice issues. She is a co-founder of the Theater Three Collaborative in New York City, and teaches theater and environmental justice at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She is also the editor of the notable anthology, Women in Theater: Compassion and Hope (1984).
Martyna Majok is a Polish-born American playwright who received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Cost of Living. She emigrated to the United States as a child and grew up in New Jersey. Majok studied playwriting at the Yale School of Drama and Juilliard School. Her plays are often politically engaged, feature dark humor, and experiment with structure and time.
