 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(July 2011) |
| Streamers | |
|---|---|
 Broadway poster by Paul Davis | |
| Written by | David Rabe |
| Characters |
|
| Date premiered | April 21, 1976 |
| Place premiered | Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater Off-Broadway |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | a Virginia army base |
Streamers is a play by David Rabe.
The last in his Vietnam War trilogy that began with The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel and Sticks and Bones , [1] it focuses on the interactions and personal conflicts of a group of soldiers preparing to ship out to fight in the Vietnam War in 1965. Among them are middle class African American Roger, upper class Manhattanite Richie, who is struggling with his sexual orientation, conservative Wisconsin country boy Billy, and fearful loose cannon Carlyle, a streetwise Black man. In charge of their barracks are abrasive alcoholic Sgt. Cokes, who already has served overseas, and aggressive Sgt. Rooney, who is anxious to get into combat.
The title is a reference to parachutes that fail to open. [1] Streamers originally was a one-act play entitled Knives Rabe completed in the late 1960s prior to writing the first two-thirds of his trilogy. While working as a journalist in New Haven, Connecticut, he expanded it into a full-length play. Under the direction of Mike Nichols, it premiered at the Long Wharf Theatre on January 30, 1976. [2] The cast included Herbert Jefferson, Jr. as Roger, Peter Evans as Richie, John Heard as Billy, Joe Fields as Carlyle, Dolph Sweet as Cokes, and Kenneth McMillan as Rooney. [3]
Streamers premiered at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut in 1976. The play transferred to the Off-Broadway Lincoln Center Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater opening on April 21, 1976, and closing on June 5, 1977 after 478 performances. The cast included Terry Alexander as Roger, Paul Rudd as Billy and Dorian Harewood as Carlyle, with Evans, Sweet, and McMillian reprising their Long Wharf roles. [4] Later in the run Mark Metcalf replaced Rudd as Billy.
Streamers was revived by the Roundabout Theatre Company. The play opened at the Off-Broadway Laura Pels Theatre on October 17, 2008 in previews, officially on November 11, in a limited engagement to January 11, 2009. [5] This production was based on the one presented by the Huntington Theatre in 2007. [1] [6] [7]
It was directed by Scott Ellis. The cast included J.D. Williams as Roger, Hale Appleman as Richie, Brad Fleischer as Billy, Atoh Essandoh as Carlyle, Larry Clarke as Sgt. Cokes, and John Sharian as Sgt. Rooney. [5]
Source: Playbill Vault [8]
In 1983, Rabe adapted his play for a feature film directed by Robert Altman and produced by Robert Michael Geisler and John Roberdeau ( The Thin Red Line ). The cast included David Alan Grier as Roger, Mitchell Lichtenstein as Richie, Matthew Modine as Billy, Michael Wright as Carlyle, George Dzundza as Cokes, and Guy Boyd as Rooney. The movie was awarded a Golden Lion for its entire ensemble cast at the Venice Film Festival. The film was released on DVD via Shout! Factory in January, 2010.
Crimes of the Heart is a play by American playwright Beth Henley. It is set in Hazlehurst, Mississippi in the mid-20th century. The play won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. In 1986, the play was novelized and released as a book, written by Claudia Reilly.
The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. Following the 1964 renaming as the Drama Desk Awards, Broadway productions were included beginning with the 1968–69 award season. The awards are considered a significant American theater distinction.
Hurlyburly is a dark comedy play by David Rabe, first staged in 1984. The title refers to dialogue from Shakespeare's Macbeth.
John Cullum is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in many stage musicals and dramas, including Shenandoah (1975) and On the Twentieth Century (1978), winning the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for each. In 1966 he gained his first Tony nomination as the lead in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, in which he introduced the title song, and more recently received Tony nominations for Urinetown The Musical (2002) and as Best Featured Actor in the revival of 110 in the Shade (2007).
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Biloxi Blues is a semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon. It portrays the conflict of Sergeant Merwin J. Toomey and Arnold Epstein, one of many privates enlisted in the military stationed in Biloxi, Mississippi, seen through the eyes of Eugene Jerome, one of the other soldiers. This play is the second chapter in what is known as his Eugene trilogy, following Brighton Beach Memoirs and preceding Broadway Bound. The play won the Tony Award for Best Play, and Barry Miller won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as Arnold Epstein.
David William Rabe is an American playwright and screenwriter. He won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1972 and also received Tony Award nominations for Best Play in 1974, 1977 (Streamers) and 1985 (Hurlyburly).
The Norman Conquests is a trilogy of plays written in 1973 by Alan Ayckbourn. Each of the plays depicts the same six characters over the same weekend in a different part of a house. Table Manners is set in the dining room, Living Together in the living room, and Round and Round the Garden in the garden.
Michael Wilson is an American stage and screen director working extensively on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and at the nation's leading resident theaters.
Guy Boyd is an American actor, who has appeared in over 150 stage and screen productions since the late 1970's. He is best known to film audiences for his character roles. He won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for his performance in Robert Altman's adaptation of David Rabe's play Streamers (1983), and was nominated for the Genie Award for Best Performance by a Foreign Actor for Ticket to Heaven (1981).
Sticks and Bones is a 1971 play by David Rabe. The black comedy focuses on David, a blind Vietnam War veteran who finds himself unable to come to terms with his actions on the battlefield and alienated from his family because they neither can accept his disability nor understand his wartime experience. Rabe explores the conflicted feelings of many civilians during the era by parodying the ideal American family as it was portrayed on the television sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Beneath the perfect facade of the playwright's fictional Nelson family are layers of prejudice, bigotry, and self-hatred that are peeled away slowly as they interact with their physically and emotionally damaged son and brother.
The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel is a play by David Rabe.
Warren Carlyle is a British director and choreographer who was born in Norwich, Norfolk, England. He received Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Choreography and Outstanding Director of a Musical for the 2009 revival of Finian's Rainbow.
Streamers is a 1983 American war drama film directed and produced by Robert Altman, adapted by David Rabe from his play of the same name. It stars an ensemble cast, featuring David Alan Grier, Mitchell Lichtenstein, Matthew Modine, Michael Wright, George Dzundza, and Guy Boyd.
Privates on Parade: A Play with Songs in Two Acts is a 1977 farce by English playwright Peter Nichols, with music by Denis King. The drama draws upon Nichols' own experiences in the real-life Combined Services Entertainment, the postwar successor to ENSA, Entertainments National Service Association. The play is noteworthy for, inter alia, a series of musical numbers, performed by the male lead, parodying the style of such performers as Noël Coward, Marlene Dietrich and Carmen Miranda.
Maureen Anderman is a retired American actress best known for her work on the stage. She has appeared in eighteen Broadway shows over the last four decades earning several Drama Desk Award and Tony Award nominations.
Terry Alexander is an American actor. He is best known for playing the role of John in George A. Romero's film Day of the Dead (1985). He also played police commissioner Troy Nichols on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live.
Shalita Grant is an American actress best known for portraying NCIS Special Agent Sonja Percy on NCIS: New Orleans. She is also known from her roles on Mercy Street, You, Santa Clarita Diet, and Search Party.
Peter Evans was an American actor. He won the 1976 Clarence Derwent Award and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for his portrayal of Richie in David Rabe's Streamers. However, he was best known for his role as Russ Merman in the 1980s sitcom 9 to 5.
