[title of show] Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 1

[title of show]
MUSICALS/PLAYS
The Dresser
The Dresser, by Ronald Harwood, is the story of the dresser to a fictitious Shakespearean
actor-manager who heads a company performing during the London Blitz of World War II.
The dresser, or theatrical assistant, attempts to keep the aging stage star going as his mind
and memory slip away.
The story is based on the experiences of Ronald Harwood when he was dresser to
distinguished English Shakespearean actor-manager Sir Donald Wolfit. The play was
nominated for Best Play at the 1980 Laurence Olivier Awards, and for Best Play and Best
Actor in a Play at the 1982 Tony Awards. It was subsequently made into a film starring Albert
Finney and Tom Courtenay.
A Life in the Theatre
This play by David Mamet is a somewhat dark two-person backstage story about a stage
veteran, Robert, and a young upstart, John. Told through a series of scenes – both backstage
and onstage – it follows the relationship of these two men at different points in their lives.
Though their association starts out as mentor and apprentice, it disintegrates and reverses on
itself as the younger actor gains self-knowledge and the older falters.
Noises Off!
Noises Off is a 1982 play by playwright Michael Frayn centered
on a British theatre troupe as they rehearse and perform a sex
farce titled Nothing On. The first act shows a disastrous final
dress rehearsal in which characters struggle to remember their
lines, miss entrances and cues and attempt to keep their props
in the proper place (most notably a plate of sardines). The
action of the first act takes place entirely on the set of the play
within the play. In the Second Act, the action is seen from the
backstage side of the set, one month later at a performance of
the farce in a provincial theatre. As the play within the play
takes place on the other side of the set, we see the relationships
between director, actors and crew disintegrate behind the
scenery. The Third Act of the play returns to the onstage side of
the set at the end of the run of the play. The actors are bored
and tired, their offstage lives have created enormous tension
onstage and a series of mishaps causes the play-within-theplay
to turn into a hilarious mess and theatrical disaster.
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 25