Jane Martin Collected Works Volume 2: Collected Plays 1996-2001

by Jane Martin

This new collection of plays brings us up-to-date with the preoccupations of Jane Martin--social satirist and purveyor of comedies and dramas that delight in popular culture, scrutinize American politics, and limn the infinite variety in human relationships. Jane Martin's plays mix the virtues of show business--meaty roles for actors, colorful dilemmas, and impassioned confrontations--with the rewards of a formidable intellect. Make no mistake about it, Jane Martin is a lively entertainer with serious intentions. Her plays, be they comic or serious or seriocomic, express a worldview that is at once empathetic and critical, familiar and surprising, endearing and savage. They teeter on a tightrope between outrageous humor and shocking violence, plummeting into both with unexpected results. - from the Foreword by Michael Bigelow Dixon, Literary Manager of the Guthrie Theater

Genres: Plays, Drama

274 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Jane Martin is the pen-name of a playwright speculated to be former Actors Theatre of Louisville artistic director Jon Jory. Jon Jory, Martin's spokesperson, denies being Jane Martin but has directed the premieres of Martin's shows.

Martin has traditionally been billed as a Kentucky playwright. While speculation about her identity centers around Jory, other theories have cited former Actors Theatre of Louisville Executive Director Alexander Speer, former Actors Theatre Literary Manager Michael Bigelow Dixon, and former intern Kyle John Schmidt.

Jane Martin's key credits include Anton in Show Business, Back Story, Coup, Cementville, Criminal Hearts, Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage, Vital Signs, and Talking With... Martin's Keely and Du won the 1994 American Theater Critics Association New Play Award and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Reviews

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can read each play by the pseudonymous Jane Martin as if it were a mystery. Did Beth Henley really write "Anton in Show Business"? Did Sam Shepard pen "Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage"? Who came up with the clever staging gimmick for two-hander "Jack and Jill"? To be honest, I don't care. I was just happy to enjoy five fine full-length scripts, free of all the biographical dreck that burdens so much art today. As for the shorter pieces at the end of this anthology... Meh.