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The Complete Plays, Vol. 2: 1999-2007
In The Butterfly Collection - indeed in all the plays in this anthology - Theresa Rebeck asks big questions: What does it mean to be human? How do we hold onto our humanity? What's it like on the dark side? What are the limits? What do we risk? What are the consequences? What endures? In marriage? Family? Art? The world? Her questions are epic in scope, but rooted in specific people, places, and events, all with the tang of lived history.
In Rebeck's 1998 drama Abstract Expression, a woman supports her aging father by toiling as a cater-waiter at wealthy people's dinner parties. Thoughtless remarks and unwanted scrutiny are the price Jenny pays to put food on the table (even if it is rich folks' leftovers), but her labor helps protect something precious. Her father, a once-famous Abstract Expressionist painter, hasn't shown his work in years but has steadfastly continued to pursue his vision, creating works that are seen by no one but Jenny. With biting humor and a deep undercurrent of love and sorrow, father and daughter are forced to face what happens when art and the marketplace collide. It's a classic Theresa Rebeck play: life as we know it, but heightened, deepened, and sharpened to a knife edge.
Her characters are human beings with all that makes them human. Whether it's a character whose wit and charm we'd all like to possess (like Haley in Bad Dates), someone who forces us to face our own dark potential (like Helen in The Water's Edge), or one who actively courts self-destruction (like Charlie in The Scene), Rebeck's characters get under the skin. Their passions, their tenderness, their rage, their weaknesses, their joys become our own.
In Rebeck's 1998 drama Abstract Expression, a woman supports her aging father by toiling as a cater-waiter at wealthy people's dinner parties. Thoughtless remarks and unwanted scrutiny are the price Jenny pays to put food on the table (even if it is rich folks' leftovers), but her labor helps protect something precious. Her father, a once-famous Abstract Expressionist painter, hasn't shown his work in years but has steadfastly continued to pursue his vision, creating works that are seen by no one but Jenny. With biting humor and a deep undercurrent of love and sorrow, father and daughter are forced to face what happens when art and the marketplace collide. It's a classic Theresa Rebeck play: life as we know it, but heightened, deepened, and sharpened to a knife edge.
Her characters are human beings with all that makes them human. Whether it's a character whose wit and charm we'd all like to possess (like Haley in Bad Dates), someone who forces us to face our own dark potential (like Helen in The Water's Edge), or one who actively courts self-destruction (like Charlie in The Scene), Rebeck's characters get under the skin. Their passions, their tenderness, their rage, their weaknesses, their joys become our own.
308 pages, Paperback
First published September 13, 2007
21 people want to read
About the author
Theresa Rebeck
67 books114 followersTheresa Rebeck is a playwright. She also works as a television writer. Her input went into popular shows such as Dream On, Brooklyn Bridge, L.A. Law, American Dreamer, Maximum Bob, First Wave, and Third Watch.
She also wrote and produced Canterbury’s Law, Smith, Law and Order: Criminal Intent and NYPD Blue.
Ms. Rebeck has an MFA in Playwrighting and a PhD. in Victorian Melodrama, from Brandeis University. She is a board member of the Dramatists Guild and has taught at Brandeis and Columbia Universities.
She currently resides in Brooklyn with her husband Jess Lynn and two children, Cooper and Cleo.
She also wrote and produced Canterbury’s Law, Smith, Law and Order: Criminal Intent and NYPD Blue.
Ms. Rebeck has an MFA in Playwrighting and a PhD. in Victorian Melodrama, from Brandeis University. She is a board member of the Dramatists Guild and has taught at Brandeis and Columbia Universities.
She currently resides in Brooklyn with her husband Jess Lynn and two children, Cooper and Cleo.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 10, 2023
I especially enjoyed Bad Dates and The Scene. Nice dialogues and hot stories.
July 19, 2013
I LOVED this collection of plays! Each was so different, and ended up going places that I did not expect it to go! I think my favorites were ABSTRACT EXPRESSION and THE SCENE, but really they were all great. THE WATER'S EDGE ended up being disturbing in a totally unexpected way. THE BUTTERFLY COLLECTION was really a really thought-provoking piece that made me think about my own writing life, and BAD DATES was just awesome... a role I would love to play some day!
I highly recommend this collection to all theatre lovers! I would love to see these plays... so sad I missed their initial productions.
I highly recommend this collection to all theatre lovers! I would love to see these plays... so sad I missed their initial productions.
July 22, 2014
Her plays The Bells and Abstract Expression were heartbreaking. The Water's Edge is a perfect tragedy.
January 9, 2013
What can I say, I'm a sucker for the family/class struggle.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews