An American Parade

Description

About the play: The year is 1918 and the Great War in Europe is coming to an end; the Spanish flu is still ravishing the world and the Women’s Suffrage movement is in full stride. This social canvas provides a background for the story of an artist who returns to New York from the battlefields forever changed. His first painting since returning causes a furor that puts his reputation in jeopardy. Unexpectedly, these tragic circumstances spin into a hilarious, if unsettling, satire about American culture that still rings true today. Artist Allen Chester becomes entangled with a well-known Broadway actress who forces him to abandon his ethics to pursue her love. Such themes as the passage of time, the nature of love, the illusion of theatre and the games people play are hilariously brought to life in this fast-paced comic romp.

About the Playwright: Steve Cleberg is a retired theatre professor as well as a playwright/screenwriter. His plays, Radio Suspense Theatre: The First Episode and Radio Suspense Theatre: Fear Between Floors & Lost and Found, both published by Playscripts, Inc., utilize staging techniques of the Golden Age of Radio Drama in the retelling of a fictional radio drama company of the period. His play, The American Parade received its world premiere at the Flashback Theater in Somerset, Kentucky in 2021. Cleberg also wrote the book for three produced musicals, Tin Pan Alley Tavern (2016), All the Boys Love Mary (2023) and This Year’s Roaring Revue (2024). Cleberg has written and produced several screenplays including the award-winning films, A Simple Arrangement and Trade.

Other Books by this Author