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The Nature and Purpose of the Universe is a play written by Christopher Durang, first produced in 1975. The work is an absurdist comedy concerning the irony of Catholic dogma, a theme visited in other Durang plays, including Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Laughing Wild, and The Marriage of Bette and Boo. Nature and Purpose deals primarily with an unhappy housewife's religious faith being tested by nightmarish circumstances which church dogma teaches she must willingly endure.
The Nature and Purpose of the Universe was produced by the Direct Theatre at the Wonder Horse Theatre, New York, on February 21, 1979. Directed by Allen B. Belknap, the cast featured Ellen Greene as Eleanor Mann, Tom Bade as Steve Mann, Ethan Phillips as Donald Mann, Chris Ceraso as Gary Mann, and Eric Weitz as Andy Mann. [1]
Two "agents of God" explain the nature and purpose of the universe to the audience, using the Mann family of suburban New Jersey for illustration. At the center of the story is Eleanor, a sweet, sad housewife horribly treated by her husband Steve and most every other character in the play, most of whom are actually the "agents of God" in disguise. Eleanor's oldest son Donald is a drug addict, a dealer, and a pimp, middle son Gary an angry homosexual, and youngest son Andy has lost his penis in a reaper accident.
When it seems to Eleanor that there isn't any hope for escape from her miserable existence, a door-to-door brush salesman professes his love for her and promises he'll return to carry her away forever; however, the salesman is actually one of the agents of God once again testing Eleanor's threshold for misery. After numerous trials and tribulations (including a sadistic rape) the revelation that the brush salesman was lying, and a Papal assassination, the family finds itself exiled in Iceland, where it appears Eleanor's nightmare will only continue.
You Can't Take It with You is a comedic play in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The original production of the play premiered at the Chestnut Street Opera House in Philadelphia, on November 30, 1936. The production then transferred to Broadway's Booth Theatre on December 14, 1936, where it played for 838 performances.
Dogma is a 1999 American fantasy comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith, who also stars with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, George Carlin, Linda Fiorentino, Janeane Garofalo, Chris Rock, Jason Lee, Salma Hayek, Bud Cort, Alan Rickman, Alanis Morissette in her feature film debut, and Jason Mewes. It is the fourth film in Smith's View Askewniverse series. Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson, stars of the first Askewniverse film Clerks, appear in the film, as do Smith regulars Scott Mosier, Dwight Ewell, Walt Flanagan, and Bryan Johnson.
Death of a Salesman is a 1949 stage play written by the American playwright Arthur Miller. The play premiered on Broadway in February 1949, running for 742 performances. It is a two-act tragedy set in late 1940s Brooklyn told through a montage of memories, dreams, and arguments of the protagonist Willy Loman, a travelling salesman who is despondent with his life and appears to be slipping into senility. The play addresses a variety of themes, such as the American Dream, the anatomy of truth, and infidelity. It won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. It is considered by some critics to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century. The play was selected as one of the best plays of 1948–1949, with an excerpted version published in The Burns Mantle Best Plays of 1948–1949.
Christopher Ferdinand Durang was an American playwright known for works of outrageous and often absurd comedy. His work was especially popular in the 1980s, though his career seemed to get a second wind in the late 1990s.
Dianne Evelyn Wiest is an American actress. She has won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for 1986's Hannah and Her Sisters and 1994's Bullets Over Broadway, one Golden Globe Award for Bullets Over Broadway, the 1997 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Road to Avonlea, and the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for In Treatment. In addition, she was nominated for an Academy Award for 1989's Parenthood.
Professor Bernice Surprise Summerfield, or simply Benny, is a fictional character created by author Paul Cornell as a new companion of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of original full-length Doctor Who novels, the New Adventures. The New Adventures were authorised novels carrying on from where the Doctor Who television series had left off, and Summerfield was introduced in Cornell's novel Love and War in 1992.
Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You is a play by Christopher Durang.
The Phoenix Theatre has presented productions since 1983. An Equity house, the Phoenix presents the Midwest and Indiana premieres of many Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, and has presented 94 World Premieres. In May 2018, the Phoenix moved to a newly constructed, 20,000 square foot building, the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre, at 705 N. Illinois St. in the heart of downtown Indianapolis with two stages: the 144 seat Steve and Livia Russell Theatre and a flexible blackbox space, the Frank and Katrina Basile Theatre. As of 2024, Phoenix has rebranded as Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre where it houses 7 resident theatre companies. They are Actors Ink Theatre Company, American Lives Theatre, Eclipse, Indianapolis Shakespeare Company, Naptown African American Theatre Collective, Phoenix Theatre, and Summit Performance Indianapolis. Its previous location was at 749 N. Park Ave. in downtown Indianapolis near Massachusetts Avenue, the Phoenix operated a 130-seat proscenium style Mainstage and 75-seat downstairs cabaret.
Emily Betsy Mann is an American director, playwright and screenwriter. She served as the artistic director and resident playwright of the McCarter Theatre Center from 1990 to 2020.
Artists Repertory Theatre is a professional non-profit theatre located in Portland, Oregon, United States. The longest-running professional theatre company in Portland, since 1982 the company has focused on presenting the works of contemporary playwrights, including world premieres.
The Actor's Nightmare is a short comic play by Christopher Durang. It involves an accountant named George Spelvin, who is mistaken for an actor's understudy and forced to perform in a play for which he does not know any of the lines.
The Fuller Brush Man is a 1948 American comedy film starring Red Skelton as a door-to-door salesman for the Fuller Brush Company who becomes a murder suspect.
Haunting Julia is a 1994 play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It is about Julia Lukin, a nineteen-year-old brilliant musician who committed suicide twelve years earlier, who haunts the three men closest to her, through both the supernatural and in their memories. In 2008, it was presented as the first play of Things That Go Bump.
Gary McDonald is an English actor of Jamaican descent. A student at Elliott school in Putney, McDonald played football for Wimbledon FC under Dario Gradi.
The Contemporary Theater Company (CTC) is a 501(c)3 non-profit theater company based in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. Founded by Artistic Director Christopher J. Simpson in 2005, the company presents a range of plays throughout South County with an emphasis on reaching first-time theatergoers. The company presents an annual holiday show at the historic waterfront Towers in Narragansett and produces an annual 24-Hour Play Festival at the South Kingstown High School. The company presents theater, classes and public events at a theater at 327 Main Street in historic downtown Wakefield that opened in July 2012.
The Vietnamization of New Jersey is a 1976 play written by American playwright Christopher Durang.
Miss Witherspoon is a play written by Christopher Durang. It was one of three finalists for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play, a black comedy, was named one of the Ten Best Plays of 2005 by Time Magazine and Newsday.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is a comedy play written by Christopher Durang. The story revolves around the relationships of three middle-aged single siblings, two of whom live together, and takes place during a visit by the third, Masha, who supports them. They discuss their lives and loves, argue, and Masha threatens to sell the house. Some of the show's elements were derived from works of Anton Chekhov, including several character names and sibling relationships, the play's setting in a country house with a vestigial cherry orchard, the performance of an "avant-garde" play by one of the main characters, and the themes of old vs. new generations, real vs. assumed identities, the challenges of a woman growing older after successes in a career that seems to be ending, the hope and carelessness of youth, intrafamilial rivalries, and the possible loss of an ancestral home.