Dog Act

by Liz Duffy Adams

Zetta Stone, a traveling performer, and her companion, Dog (a young man undergoing a voluntary species demotion), meet another couple of lost vaudevillians and join forces in their quest for an audience, stalked all the while through the post-apocalyptic wilderness by a pair of ferocious and hungry Lost Boys. A future-mythic comedy with music. For acting editions or production rights, contact Playscripts.com.

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Dog Act

Recommended by

Cheryl Bear: Dog Act by Liz Duffy Adams

“

A fantastic adventure, imaginative with much to reveal! Excellent!

A fantastic adventure, imaginative with much to reveal! Excellent!

”
Christine Evans: Dog Act by Liz Duffy Adams

“

Exuberant, apocalyptic, heart-tugging, funny, tragic and wildly imaginative. A Liz Duffy Adams play is always a complete, compelling world unto itself, but one in which human folly and brilliance are always recognizable.

Exuberant, apocalyptic, heart-tugging, funny, tragic and wildly imaginative. A Liz Duffy Adams play is always a complete, compelling world unto itself, but one in which human folly and brilliance are always recognizable.

”
Emma Goldman-Sherman: Dog Act by Liz Duffy Adams

“

One of the most fun, theatrical plays ever! A feast of language and physical ferocity! I adored this play when I first heard it years back, and I enjoy it today reading it after a long time. It is just as fresh and poignant as ever!

One of the most fun, theatrical plays ever! A feast of language and physical ferocity! I adored this play when I first heard it years back, and I enjoy it today reading it after a long time. It is just as fresh and poignant as ever!

”

View all 6 recommendations

Character Information

ROZETTA STONE (ZETTA)

Performer and entrepreneur, from a long lineage of show-folk; inheritor of the Cart.

Character Gender Identity

Female identified
Can be played by:
- Actor Age
  
  20s,
  
  30s,
  
  40s
- Actor Gender Identity
  
  Female
DOG

A young man. Human by birth, dog by choice. His dog behavior is minimal. When he barks, as indicated, he does not make barking sounds; he shouts the word “bark.”
Can be played by:
- Actor Age
  
  Teens,
  
  20s,
  
  30s
- Actor Gender Identity
  
  Male
VERA SIMILITUDE

Indomitable older woman, a canny survivor
Can be played by:
- Actor Age
  
  40s,
  
  50s,
  
  60s
- Actor Gender Identity
  
  Female
JO-JO THE BALD-FACED LIAR

A semi-feral teenaged girl. May wear a battered old etcha-sketch on a bit of rope for self-medication.
Can be played by:
- Actor Age
  
  Teens,
  
  20s
- Actor Gender Identity
  
  Female
COKE

COKE AND BUD are scavengers: savage underfed grown-up Lost Boys. They’re dressed in odds and ends of found clothes and objects, including some bits of light armor hand-made from salvaged junk; incorporated into one of these is an ancient flattened-out Coke can; into the other, a Bud can. Coke is dominant, Bud aspirational.
Can be played by:
- Actor Age
  
  Teens,
  
  20s,
  
  30s
- Actor Gender Identity
  
  Male
BUD

Scavengers: savage underfed grown-up Lost Boys. They’re dressed in odds and ends of found clothes and objects, including some bits of light armor hand-made from salvaged junk; incorporated into one of these is an ancient flattened-out Coke can; into the other, a Bud can. Coke is dominant, Bud aspirational.
Can be played by:
- Actor Age
  
  Teens,
  
  20s,
  
  30s
- Actor Gender Identity
  
  Male

Development History

Type Workshop, Organization Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Year 2002
Type Workshop, Organization Portland Stage Company’s Little Festival of the Unexpected, Year 2000

Production History

Type Professional, Organization Flying Anvil Theatre, Year 2019
Type Professional, Organization Fortune's Fool Theatre, Year 2019
Type University, Organization Scottsdale Community College, Year 2019
Type University, Organization Columbia College Chicago, Year 2018
Type University, Organization Lehigh University, Year 2018
Type University, Organization Michigan State University, Year 2018
Type University, Organization Ohio State University , Year 2018
Type University, Organization University of San Diego, Year 2018
Type Professional, Organization Theater on Fire, Year 2016
Type University, Organization U of Denver, Year 2014
Type Professional, Organization Winnipeg Fringe Festival, Year 2013
Type University, Organization Arizona State, Year 2013
Type University, Organization SUNY Orange, Year 2013
Type Professional, Organization Main Street Theater, Year 2012
Type University, Organization Mississippi State, Year 2012
Type Professional, Organization Flux Theatre Ensemble, Year 2011
Type Professional, Organization MOXIE Theater, Year 2009
Type University, Organization Fordham, NYC, Year 2009
Type Professional, Organization MOXIE Theatre, Year 2005
Type Professional, Organization Shotgun Players/Playwrights Foundation co-production, Year 2004

Awards

Will Glickman Award for Best New Play

Theatre Bay Area

Winner

2004

Genre

adventure,

comedy,

experimental,

science fiction

Subject Matter Keywords

post-apocalyptic,

vaudeville,

climate change

Length

90 minutes to two hours

Cast Size

Age of Intended Audience

ages 18 and up

Supporting Materials

Published Script

https://www.playscripts.com/play/1389

Reviews

Show Showdown

“
It can seem as though... all that's left for theatre is different combinations of tired tropes and creaky cliches. But then I see something like Dog Act (although there really isn’t anything like Dog Act) and I am reminded of theatre’s power and beauty.
”
The San Francisco Chronicle

“
Culture is a mutable, imperiled and hilariously vigorous thing in the post-apocalyptic world of Liz Duffy Adams’ Dog Act... It’s a bright dystopian blend of pop and high culture… peppered with astonishing and exhilarating eruptions of storytelling and wondrous plays within the play.
”