Newman Plays

plays currently out of print

Two of John Dilworth Newman’s published plays are currently out of print.  DeGruchy’s Mantle was published by Encore Performance Press and was dropped after Encore was sold to Eldridge.  Liberation was published by Stage Door Press, which is now longer in business.  The rights to these two plays have reverted to the playwright and reading copies and performance rights can be obtained by contacting him.  Royalties are negotiable.

DeGRUCHY’S MANTLE

Newman’s first verse drama, DeGruchy’s Mantle tells the story of a widow who leaves her magic mantle to her five teenage daughters just before her death.  The daughters make a series of foolish wishes that cause a series of enchantments.  It is up to the youngest daughter, magically aged through the mantle’s power, who must restore her sisters and take charge of her mother’s gift.

The play calls for a cast of six young women, two young men, and one older woman.  It runs approximately 75 minutes without intermission.  The play requires a simple exterior setting that could be either realistic or suggestive.

DeGruchy’s Mantle received a Meritorious Achievement Award in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival’s Region VIII playwriting competition.  It subsequently premiered in the University of Utah’s Lab Theatre and became the first play that Newman directed at Highland High School.

LIBERATION

Four French maidens, hiding from the occupying German army and concealing their identities from each other, capture a soldier who discovers them.  One of the young women insists on showing the soldier the stories of misfortune that brought them to their current condition.  They enact their stories in metaphor, drawing on a Greek myth, a Biblical story, and the legend of a local saint.  When the German soldier reveals that the village has been liberated, he asks to be liberated by death rather than facing the shame of what his people have done to the French people.

The play runs about 40 minutes and can be performed by a cast of four young women and one young man.  The script received the Rocky Mountain Theatre Association’s Doug Christensen Playwriting Award and premiered at Highland High School.

For scripts and permission to produce these plays, please contact the playwright using the form below.