Brookwrite
Playwright
Retrograde
Ten-Minute Play
- Premiere, January 8, 1999
Actors' Theatre (Santa Cruz) - Professional New York Premiere, Nov. 13, 2002
Theatre Row - Collegiate Premiere, December 2, 2003
Clemson University
Winner
Fourth Annual Ten-Minute Playwrighting Contest
Actors' Theatre (Santa Cruz, CA)
8 10s @ 8 Festival, January 8 - February 7, 1999
Filmed, repeatedly broadcast on local television (photos)
John and Lynn are coworkers who hate each other. Forced to work together, they find tolerance, then collaboration, friendship, and finally romance. A retrograde is a melody that goes from Point A to Point B, then returns exactly in reverse to Point A. So goes John and Lynn, step by step back to where they started, but changed by the journey.
Reviews: Santa Cruz Premiere Production
- "a trim, minimalist piece, examining the failed trajectory of an office romance. ...a clever piece, which makes a pithy comment on the power of entropy." - Monterey Herald
- "Magnificent works like those by... Doug Brook neatly encapsulate the elliptical, cyclical, and fickle nature of romance..." - Good Times
- "'an enigmatic non-linear bit of romantic comedy" -- The Register
New York Professional Premiere
Off-Off-Broadway
November 13, 2002
- Part of Yearning for the Fourth Grade
- Produced by Streetlight Players
- At Theatre Row, 42nd Street in Manhattan
- Limited showcase production - November 13-17
- Starred John-Paul Lavoisier (Rex on One Life to Live) and Kerri Tucker (Guiding Light)
Collegiate Productions
Retrograde is recurringly performed as part of the student-directed plays at various colleges, including:
- December 2, 2003, in the Bellamy Theatre at Clemson University
- March 25, 2004 (two performances) at Hartwick College, in Oneonta, New York
- Spring 2005, Flagler College (Florida)
- Spring 2005, Case Western Reserve University
Available for production (1m, 1f, one set). Contact the playwright.
Read the first three pages
Retrograde is in:
Published by Smith & Kraus (November 2001)
Available at Amazon.com
World Premiere (1999)
New York Premiere (2002)
Doug (middle) and the NY cast: John-Paul and Kerri
42nd Street Studios (Theatre Row)
