Plays by Matthew Spangler
THE BEEKEEPER OF ALEPPO
OPERATION AJAX
THE STORY OF ZAHRA
STRIKING BACK
THE KITE RUNNER
PARADISE HILLS
TORTILLA CURTAIN
ALBATROSS
OPERATION AJAX
THE FORGOTTEN EMPRESS
Synopses:
The Beekeeper of Aleppo (co-written with Nesrin Alrefaai) — (5M, 2W) based on the novel by Christy Lefteri. The powerful story of two refugees who flee Syria’s civil war and travel to the United Kingdom in search of asylum. Click here to learn more.
Operation Ajax (co-written with Farshad Farahat) — (3M, 2W) dives deep into 1950s global politics to dramatize the CIA / MI6 led coup against Mohammad Mossadegh, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran.
The Story of Zahra — (2M, 2W) based on the novel Hanan al-Shaykh. During the civil war in Beirut, Lebanon, a young woman has an affair with a sniper operating on her street. One of Al-Shaykh’s most famous and controversial novels.
Striking Back — (10W, 2M) based on the book by Mary Manning and Sinead O’Brien. The true story of the Dunnes Stores anti-apartheid strike in Ireland (1984-87), led by Mary Manning.
The Kite Runner – (10M 2W, or 9M 2W) based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini. Amir and Hassan are best friends growing up in Afghanistan in the 1970s until the Soviet invasion pulls them apart. Amir and his father immigrate to the United States, while Hassan stays behind. Twenty years later, Amir is called back to Afghanistan to rescue Hassan’s son from the now war-torn country, but first, he must face demons from his past. The Kite Runner is a heartbreaking story of loyalty, betrayal, and redemption set against the backdrop of global politics.
Click here for information on the Broadway production.
Paradise Hills – (3M 3W) based on short stories by John Cheever. This comedy, set in the picture perfect American suburbs of the 1960s, includes Cheever’s best-known story, “The Swimmer.”
Tortilla Curtain – (5M 2W) based on the novel by T.C. Boyle. Cándido and América, two undocumented immigrants from Mexico, are camping along a streambed in Topanga Canyon, California. In this epic tale about the price of the American dream, their lives intersect in comic and increasingly tragic ways with those of the settled community around them.
Operation Ajax – (5M or W) based on the non-fiction work All the Shah’s Men by Stephen Kinzer. The play looks at the 1953 CIA-led coup that overthrew the democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, and consolidated power in Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, The Shah of Iran.
Albatross (co-written with Benjamin Evett) – (1M), based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
The Forgotten Empress (co-written with Farah Yasmeen Shaikh) – (1F, 1 dancer, 4 musicians), Kathak dance and music performance about the life of the Mughal Empress Noor Jahan.
Bio:
Matthew Spangler’s plays have been produced on Broadway, London’s West End at Wyndham’s Theatre and the London Playhouse, off-Broadway at 59E59, the Dubai Opera House, the Cleveland Play House, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arizona Theatre Company, San Diego Repertory Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse (staged reading), Theatre Calgary, Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, Poets’ Theatre and New Repertory Theatre in Boston, the National Steinbeck Center, Nottingham Playhouse, Liverpool Playhouse, Oxford Playhouse, Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, Belfast Opera House, the Gesher Theatre in Tel Aviv, the Avignon Theatre Festival in France, Brighton Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Carthage Theatre Festival in Tunisia, and at theatres in Pakistan, Palestine, Germany, and Russia. His play “The Kite Runner,” based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini, received five San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics’ Circle Awards, including Best Script and Best Production, as well as the Mary MacMurtrie Award for Best Drama from the Arizona Daily Star. His adaptation of T. C. Boyle’s “The Tortilla Curtain” received an Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award. “Albatross,” his adaptation of “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” received two Elliot Norton Awards from Boston’s theatre critics. Some of his other plays include: “Operation Ajax” about the CIA coup in Iran in 1953; “The Forgotten Empress,” a Kathak dance and music production about the Mughal empress Noor Jahan; “Together Tea,” adapted from the novel by Marjan Kamali about a mother and daughter who immigrate to the United States from Iran; P”aradise Hills,” based on John Cheever’s short stories; “Mozart!” a musical adaptation of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s letters to his father; as well as adaptations of Ernest Hemingway’s, James Joyce’s, and John Steinbeck’s fiction. Matthew is a professor of performance studies and theatre at San José State University. He holds degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Ph.D.), Trinity College Dublin (M.Phil.), and Northwestern University (B.A.).
Website: www.matthewspangler.org
* Please note that some titles are handled by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, Dramatic Publishing, Broadway Play Publishing, and Playscripts.com. Please ask if you don’t see a particular play.