Comedy/ 4 characters, 2 Men, 2 Women/ Full Length, Two Acts

Synopsis (from Cincinnati City Beat): “At a very superficial level Track & Field is about a middle-aged college theater professor who is enamored of a female student athlete. He’s trying to write a play, but his sarcastic wife questions his literary and and personal judgement, while the athlete’s equally athletic — and abusive — boyfriend, also an aspiring actor, is the object of his scorn.

“But that’s not what Track & Field is really ‘about.’ Barry has created a witty piece that also hold theatrical conventions up to scrutiny, pushes them to extremes and turns them inside out. To get our attention, at one point, the playwright says he might take the beginning, middle, and end and rearrange them: The play’s conclusion does just that. There’s a ring-bindered script that gets carried around and read from — and occasionally disputed, disregarded, and disdained . . . .

“Barry’s play also draws some clever analogies between writing a play and running a marathon, from the warm up to the event’s climax to the cooling down. The professor tells the young athlete: ‘Surprise your mind. Come see a play with me.’ That’s clearly what Barry’s desire is, and that’s what he accomplishes with this script.”

“This show is a lot of fun to watch, if your idea of fun is to have your thoughts provoked and your preconceptions disrupted . . . . one hell of an interesting evening that will make anyone who loves theater think carefully about what it means to ‘sit in the dark and watch people pretending to be other people.'”
– Cincinnati City Beat

Nominated for the American Theatre Critics Association’s New Play Award, and its M. Elizabeth Osborn Award for up-and-coming playwright.

Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
Kevin Barry
Ph.: 513-831-4421
E-mail: barrywerks@cinci.rr.com

About the Playwright: Kevin Barry is a native New Yorker and a member of the Dramatists Guild, as well as a founding member of Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative. His plays include: I Will Love You at 8PM Next Wednesday (Los Angeles, Cincinnati), Remember I’ll Always Be True (Los Angeles, Cincinnati), The Secret of Durable Pigments (Denver), American Standard (Chicago, Denver, Cincinnati), Remembering Juliet (Cincinnati), Him (New York, Cincinnati), The Portable Max(Cincinnati), Distracted by the Landscape (Los Angeles), In Rebel Country (Cincinnati), and Track and Field (Cincinnati), which was also nominated for the American Theatre Critics Association Award.

Track & Field was first produced by the Know Theatre Tribe, Cincinnati, Ohio in June, 2001.