"Cry the Loon" is a domestic tragedy laid in the author's own hometown.

"The Avian Connection" is a comical fantasy dealing with an ornithologist's belief that man and bird evolved from the same source, the warm-bloodied archaeopteryx.

After the American Revolution, Scottish immigrant James Swan entered the businesses of real estate and shipping. Becoming friends with many of the luminaries of the times, his businesses expanded to France, where he was accused of a two million franc debt owed to the government of Napoleon, perhaps in taxes, which he refused. Swan, although he could easily afford the payment, refused to pay "on principle" and was committed to debtor prison. He spent the next twenty-two years of his life incarcerated, until released at age seventy-six.

Swan's imprisonment and its term is a matter of record,...

With the loosening of constraints on what may be discussed and portrayed in plays dealing with homosexuality, similar relaxation should be expected for heterosexual works. Within the bounds of good taste, of course. And taste, like time, alters. Hopefully, the time is now.

***

In an age of miniaturization, the one-act play should find itself at home.

People do attend concertized etudes, most often for the piano, and that is precisely what a one-act play is--an etude. Sometimes it's a character study, others a piece of action, still others a complete little story, and several strung...

"You found a trenchant, driving rhythm for the verse, something that is all your own. It wasn't imposed on the characters: it spoke for them."
-Christopher Fry

"I consider Robert Manns one of the most talented.playwrights in the generation not yet recognized by the commercial theater. His choice of style is unique; his imagination boundless; and his dedication intense. And I believe he has a real gift for the theater."
-Alan Schneider

"I have little doubt that Robert Manns is America's most accomplished living playwright." -J. Brian Smith