University of Saskatchewan Drama Department

presents

Summer Stock

A Collection of Two One-Act Plays including:

Cut! , by Edmonton's Lyle Victor Albert, is a comedy set in an eternal hell to which characters cut from famous plays have been sentenced. Meet a cast of characters that include, among others, Clyde of Denmark, Hamlet's morose but less procrastinating brother, and Mrs. Kowalski, Stanley's reproachful mother from A Streetcar Named Desire. Into the mix of characters walks Joey, a shallow actor who cannot believe that he has been cut from the musical Hey Dud!!! When Joey is reinstated into the musical, Clyde lusting for time on the boards tries to outwit Joey and take his place in the musical. Will he succeed?

The Pushcart Peddlers, by Murray Schisgal, is a comic fable about learning to survive in a new land. Set in New York City in the early 1900's, the play centres on two recent immigrants from eastern Europe who barter and compete with each other as banana salesmen.

The Pushcart Peddlers, by Murray Schisgal

staged in Saskatchewan

Play reading

There was a play reading at the Sasha shop of 'Pushcart Peddlars' written by the famous playwright Murray Schisgal on the 9th of March 2002. The play was read by 'Spotlight' a well known and acclaimed theatre group from Kolkata. It was an extremely funny vignette based on the experiences of a newly arrived immigrant in America.

Juliet Landau- Ms. Landau's theater credits include leading roles in Uncommon Women and Others, The Pushcart Peddlers, Billy Irish, We're Talking Today Here, How to Steal an Election, the West Coast premiere of Irish Coffee, and the world premiere of Murray Schisgal's musical The Songs of War.

Murray Schisgal

Biography

This American playwright has made occasional forays into motion pictures and TV with generally successful results. Murray Schisgal's profile benefited from his association with actor-director Dustin Hoffman beginning in the late 1960s on stage and culminating in 1982's comedy classic "Tootsie". (He shared final writing credit--and a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination--with Larry Gelbart and Don McGuire although there remains controversy over the contributions of each writer.) 5A native of Brooklyn, Schisgal turned to writing plays after careers as a musician, attorney and teacher. His early work reached the stage in Britain before hitting New York, with "The Typist" premiering on the London stage in 1961, and not making it to the Orpheum Theatre in New York until 1963. His first Broadway success came with "Luv", a three-character play about pseudo-intellectuals, which premiered in 1964 and earned a Tony Award for director Mike Nichols. The play was the basis of a failed 1967 film adaptation scripted by Elliot Baker and starring Jack Lemmon, Elaine May and Peter Falk. Also in 1967, Schisgal penned "The Tiger Makes Out", the screen version of his first produced play which featured Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson and marked the screen debut of Dustin Hoffman. Although he had become an established film personality with 1967's "The Graduate", Hoffman chose to return to the theater as star and director of Schisgal's "Jimmy Shine" (1968) and later as director of "All Over Town" (1974). Most of the writer's other plays have been produced either at small theaters in NYC or at regional theaters.

Murray (Joseph) SCHISGAL

Born Brooklyn, New York November 25, 1926

PLAYS

The Typists, and The Tiger (as Schrecks: The Typists, The Postman, A Simple Kind o f Love, produced 1960; revised versions of The Typists and The Postman produced as The Typists, and The Tiger, 1963). 1963.

Ducks and Lovers (produced 1961). 1972.

Luv (produced 1963). 1965.

Knit One, Purl Two (produced 1963).

Windows (produced 1965).

Reverberations (produced 1965; as The Basement, produced 1967).

The Old Jew, Fragments, and Reverberations (produced 1966).

Fragments (produced 1967).

Memorial Day (produced 1968).

Jimmy Shine, music by John Sebastian (produced 1968; revised version, as An Original Jimmy Shine, produced 1981). 1969.

A Way of Life (produced 1969; as Roseland, produced 1975; as The Downstairs Boys, produced 1980).

The Chinese, and Dr. Fish (produced 1970). 1970.

An American Millionaire (produced 1974). 1974.

All Over Town (produced 1974). 1975.

Popkins (produced 1978). 1984.

The Pushcart Peddlers (produced 1979).

Walter, and The Flatulist (produced 1980).

Twice Around the Park (includes A Need for Brussels Sprouts and A Need for Less Expertise) (produced 1982).

The New Yorkers (produced 1984).

Jealousy (produced 1984).

The Rabbi and the Toyota Dealer (produced 1985).

Old Wine in a New Bottle (produced in Flemish, 1985). 1987.

Schneider (produced 1986).

Road Show (produced 1987). 1987.

Man Dangling. 1988.

Oatmeal and Kisses. 1990.

The Japanese Foreign Trade Minister (produced 1992).

SCREENPLAYS:

The Tiger Makes Out, 1967;

Tootsie, with others, 1983.

TELEVISION PLAYS:

The Love Song of Barney Kempinski, 1966;

Natasha Kovolina Pipishinsky, 1976.