Jack Gilhooley, Playwright
Theatre at its best
From off-broadway and international stages to regional and university theaters, Jack Gilhooley’s plays are timeless stories of relationships, emotional discoveries, of memorable characters facing unexpected turmoil. Stories that show us how fragile are our connections, and characters that will continue to live in memory long after the curtain closes. Four of Jack’s plays are available here for the first time — with free production licensing making it easier to mount future productions. Additional works will be published soon.
Now Available for license-free production
Boom!
Full-length play — 6w, 1m
Paperback – $10
The Machine
Full-length play — 4-6w, 5-6m
Paperback – $10
Boom!
Full-length play — 6w, 1m
Paperback — $10
Ex-Isles
Full-length play — 2w, 2m, 1 adaptable
Paperback — $10
The Warrior
One-act play — 2w
Paperback — $10
Red Bessie
Full-length play — 1w, 1m
Paperback — $10
The Derry Slope Off
Full-length play — 5w, 1m
Paperback — $10
The Machine
Full-length play — 4-6w, 5-6m
Paperback — $10
Previously published work
PRODUCTION LICENSE ACCORDING TO PUBLSHER
The Time Trial
Full-length play — 3w, 4m
Rewritten and updated in 2014, THE TIME TRIAL was first published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc in the collection Plays From The New York Shakespeare Festival. This is what Joseph Papp said about the play: "In THE TIME TRIAL, Jack Gilhooley, another exceptional talent, presented us with a cultural experience quite different from that of the average civilized theatergoer. Yet the predicament of a gang of small town outcasts struck me as profoundly human. Speaking in a language as brutal and quick-witted as any New York street person's, they spend the day drinking and watching cars circle a race track. In many ways the play became a powerful account of lives going in circle; of drugs, sex, and 'speech' going nowhere. For these people, small town America has become a raw, bloody place with no way of fitting in or getting out; a kind of destructive maze containing nothing of lasting value. It's a mordant and unsparing work written without apology and, in an odd way, aimed directly at us."
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The Brixton Recovery
Full-length play — 1w, 1m
The prizefighter hero in this play by one of America's most widely produced and prolific playwrights is an indestructible loser. After still another defeat, this time in London, he finds himself in the black section, Brixton, being cared for by a barmaid from Jamaica who goes to night school and dreams about a career in politics. This meeting of apparent opposites turns out to be a union of kinsmen as, over the course of several weeks, each learns to respect and love the other.
Paperback – $10.95
Plays By Jack Gilhooley
This collection includes three full-length plays: MUMMERS, DANCIN' TO CALLIOPE, and SHOOTERS.
Mummers
A dark comedy— 4f, 4m
From her successful-career vantage point in the 21st century, Denise Walker, an African-American media executive looks back on an early reporting assignment with conflicted nostalgia. On the cusp of the bi-centennial, the Catania-O'Rourke family—led by patriarch, Shooter O'Rourke-had been the subject of a newsclip on the week leading up to the Mummer's Day parade in Philadelphia. New to the city and only vaguely aware of this all-white, all-male delirium, Denise had proposed the innocuous assignment with all the good intentions of a new kid at the station.
Since she was in a womens' group with young Angela "Trixie" Catania-great-grand-daughter of Shooter-Denise saw a solid entrée to the semi-secret rituals and lore of the Broad St. marchers. Aside from her naivete, she was unaware of the blood feud between the family's Brotherly Love Mummer's Club and their hated rivals, The New Quakers.
She now assigns her own apprentices to cover the parade but she still carries the experience of a generation ago with a certain begrudging admiration for people who could feel obsession for a tradition.
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Dancin' to Calliope
A dark comedy— 2w, 3m
Winner, Festival of Southern Theatre Playwriting Award, Oxford, MS
Shaunelle is the mermaid in America's last carnival. But it's time to quit and reign in her teenage step-daughter, LuRae, who is the devil-may-care kootchie dancer. Easier said than done since the girl is totally enamored of the profession that magnetizes some bad dudes. Shaunelle is hardly aided by her ex-con life partner, Ricky Ruane, the carnival's disgruntled "Half 'n' Half". So Shaunelle must resort to an extreme degree in her quest to release LuRae — and herself — from carny life.
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Shooters
A dark comedy in two parts
The Sopranos are toast. Goombahs are passé. The Russian mob has created the "new hitman/woman". Inconspicuousness is the standard. The new crime bosses recruit and train unlikely teams of non-threatening Americans who nonetheless have shown an inclination towards brutal efficiency. Lou for example, had been a corporate executive on Wall St. Arlene is a NYC cop. The Boss and his son Vladimer insist only on their employees' anonymity — their unobtrusiveness (for Brooklyn). Of course, it's a given that their teams never blow an assignment — ever.
Play One: Bad Boys
2 men
Play One: Bad Girls
2 women
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