John W Lowell

John W Lowell

DRAWING FIRE, THE STANDBY LEAR, THE LETTERS, SHERIDAN SQUARE, AUTUMN CANTICLE, LEO TOLSTOY IS IN THE NEXT ROOM DYING, TWO WOMEN IN A GARDEN, THE GENIUS OF THE SYSTEM, TAKEN IN and RENSSELAER. Following its triumphant premiere in Los Angeles, THE LETTERS has been produced in Chicago, Berkeley, Alexandria, Austin, Santa Cruz, Orlando, etc., and his other work has been featured in theatre festivals around the...
DRAWING FIRE, THE STANDBY LEAR, THE LETTERS, SHERIDAN SQUARE, AUTUMN CANTICLE, LEO TOLSTOY IS IN THE NEXT ROOM DYING, TWO WOMEN IN A GARDEN, THE GENIUS OF THE SYSTEM, TAKEN IN and RENSSELAER. Following its triumphant premiere in Los Angeles, THE LETTERS has been produced in Chicago, Berkeley, Alexandria, Austin, Santa Cruz, Orlando, etc., and his other work has been featured in theatre festivals around the country, including The Denver Center Festival of New Plays, which did the premiere professional reading of THE GENIUS OF THE SYSTEM. AUTUMN CANTICLE has received productions at the Walnut Street Theatre and the Celebration Theatre (2003 LA GLAAD award nominee), following a workshop production with the Eureka Theatre Company. LEO TOLSTOY… premiered at the San José Stages, and readings by The Acting Company Circle Repertory Company, etc. Mr. Lowell’s TAKEN IN premiered at the Richmond Triangle Players Theatre, and has since been produced in London, Lima, and Santa Cruz.

Plays

  • THE STANDBY LEAR by John W Lowell
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Genre: comedy, drama
    AUGIE (late 60s), an actor understudying the role of KING LEAR, rehearses on the stage where the production is playing. While running its first scene, AUGIE is joined by ANNA (early 60s), his wife, also an actor, though now retired. As husband and wife go over lines and sections that are troubling AUGIE, they learn that the star is indisposed, and AUGIE will have to go on that evening. Confronted with this...
    AUGIE (late 60s), an actor understudying the role of KING LEAR, rehearses on the stage where the production is playing. While running its first scene, AUGIE is joined by ANNA (early 60s), his wife, also an actor, though now retired. As husband and wife go over lines and sections that are troubling AUGIE, they learn that the star is indisposed, and AUGIE will have to go on that evening. Confronted with this monumental challenge, AUGIE realizes that he may no longer have the emotional and physical resources to assume the role, and becomes paralyzed with fear. AUGIE announces his intention to quit, and ANNA tries desperately to prevent her husband from committing what is tantamount to career suicide. Together, they must come to grips with what may be the beginning of the end of their lives in the theatre, and perhaps the end of even more than that, though in their uncertainty and confusion, they affirm that whatever they face, they will face together.

  • THE LETTERS by John W Lowell
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: Politics
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller, period, political
    Keyword: Politics
    The Letters is play about power and privacy, language and action, and the terror of truth, taking place against the backdrop of a totalitarian state, but one where the rules of conduct look suspiciously like any in the world today.

    ANNA BORISOVNA is an editor who devotes all we working hours to the suppression, elimination, and perversion of words and ideas deemed inimical to the State’s interest...
    The Letters is play about power and privacy, language and action, and the terror of truth, taking place against the backdrop of a totalitarian state, but one where the rules of conduct look suspiciously like any in the world today.

    ANNA BORISOVNA is an editor who devotes all we working hours to the suppression, elimination, and perversion of words and ideas deemed inimical to the State’s interest. When she is brought before the Ministry’s director, she finds herself in a life-or-death struggle, unsure of what her interrogator knows or needs, uncertain of which of the two actually holds the power over the other.
  • DRAWING FIRE by John W Lowell
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama, political
    ·
    Keyword: Politics
    Genre: drama, political
    Keyword: Politics
    An artist’s political cartoon ignites a firestorm that threatens to destroy his colleagues, his family, and himself.
  • AUTUMN CANTICLE by John W Lowell
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: drama
    Genre: drama
    A play about art and artists, Autumn Canticle is a story of love and courage played against the backdrop of the world of American Music during its extraordinary blossoming in the mid-twentieth century.

    David Williams and Peter Billings seem to have achieved a perfect life together; a life of love, fame and success. David, an opera singer and recitalist, has enjoyed a remarkable thirty year...
    A play about art and artists, Autumn Canticle is a story of love and courage played against the backdrop of the world of American Music during its extraordinary blossoming in the mid-twentieth century.

    David Williams and Peter Billings seem to have achieved a perfect life together; a life of love, fame and success. David, an opera singer and recitalist, has enjoyed a remarkable thirty year collaboration, personal and professional, with Peter, an equally remarkable composer. All should be well for these talented, witty men as they enter their middle fifties, but after Peter is diagnosed with a life-threatening heart ailment, the strands of their perfect life begin to unravel. With the introduction of a young man, Walker, into their troubled lives, problems which have been ignored surface in devastating ways. Autumn Canticle documents the fragmentation and gradual spiritual renewal of the older men, both of whom face frightening, uncertain futures.
  • LEO TOLSTOY IS IN THE NEXT ROOM DYING by John W Lowell
    Cast: 
    12
    ·
    Genre: comedy, period
    Genre: comedy, period
    As Czarist Russia stumbles towards revolution the characters in Leo Tolstoy Is In The Next Room Dying confront injustice, loyalty, capitalism, socialism, illegitimacy, anarchy and lentil soup. It is a comedy of manners, a celebration of language, and a rumination on the unexpected in a world which could explode at any moment.

    It is a cold day in October, 1910. At the quiet railway station run by...
    As Czarist Russia stumbles towards revolution the characters in Leo Tolstoy Is In The Next Room Dying confront injustice, loyalty, capitalism, socialism, illegitimacy, anarchy and lentil soup. It is a comedy of manners, a celebration of language, and a rumination on the unexpected in a world which could explode at any moment.

    It is a cold day in October, 1910. At the quiet railway station run by Nicholai and Marfa Oblensky there is little to disturb the routine — except for the hacking cough and the destructive fumblings of their unwanted guest. Unwanted, that is, until they realize the old man is novelist and aristocrat Leo Tolstoy. Seeing the opportunity to turn this chance encounter into riches, the couple cordially invite the world to be with Tolstoy as he expires. The world accepts the invitation. A country doctor of dubious skill, a pack of story-hungry, world-weary journalists, a beautiful young girl, two silent and dangerous guards, and the occasional bizarre passer-by all contribute to the madness, comedy and unexpected drama of this two act play.

    The play is a two-act, one-set (the waiting room/office of Astapovo Station), twelve character (three women, nine men) ensemble piece, with music and color. It evokes the world of Chekhov and Tolstoy (with more than a hint of the satire of Gogol).
  • TAKEN IN by John W Lowell
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama
    Genre: drama
    To be “taken in” can mean many things. For Marc, a man in his 30s, who is taking in whom, and how, is the question he tries to resolve after he meets Danny, a young street-toughened hustler. Marc is a careful, even reticent man. Danny — funny, sharp, and very sexy — challenges Marc’s ordered existence and Marc is drawn to the sexual and spiritual power of this self-reliant young man. They flirt and spar, both...
    To be “taken in” can mean many things. For Marc, a man in his 30s, who is taking in whom, and how, is the question he tries to resolve after he meets Danny, a young street-toughened hustler. Marc is a careful, even reticent man. Danny — funny, sharp, and very sexy — challenges Marc’s ordered existence and Marc is drawn to the sexual and spiritual power of this self-reliant young man. They flirt and spar, both vying for the attention and acceptance of the other. But even as they seem to reach a point of mutual trust, and as Marc offers Danny shelter in his apartment, their journey has only begun.

    This two-act, two-character play is about two vulnerable people who learn the price of caring, of trusting, of needing, but also the price of being taken in.
  • SHERIDAN SQUARE by John W Lowell
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: drama
    Genre: drama
    A modern queer take on Henry James's WASHINGTON SQUARE