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Rose Colored Glass

Tragic and humorous...touching...resonates with challenges we face in the world in which we live today.

The Time Standard

More information

Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Drama
  • 105 minutes

  • Time Period: 1930s
  • Target Audience: Pre-Teen (Age 11 - 13), Teen (Age 14 - 18), Adult, Senior
  • Set Requirements: Interior Set, Unit Set/Multiple Settings, Bare Stage/Simple Set
  • Cautions: No Special Cautions

  • Performance Group:
  • Dinner Theatre, Community Theatre, High School/Secondary, Professional Theatre, Shoestring Budget, Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, College Theatre / Student, Church / Religious Groups, Senior Theatre
Set in 1938 Chicago, Rose Colored Glass, takes place in the back rooms of Lady O'Riley's and Rose Fleishman's delicatessen. Their disparate worlds, separated by much more than the alley between their kitchens, are about to collide. 

Peg O'Riley,the 13-year-old granddaughter of Lady, has grown determined that these two mistrustful widows will become friends, but it is not until they become involved in the same cause that their friendship has a chance to bloom. In a series of stunning flashbacks, Peg now older, remembers the moving story of how lady and Rose formed a united front to fight American apathy in an attempt to bring Rose's nephew out of Europe before the war. 

Rose Colored Glass is a unique work - it shows the beginning of the holocaust from our side of the ocean and how two remarkable women struggle not only with American apathy, but also with immigration laws and bureaucracy, in addition to their own prejudices...all in the name of one boy's safe passage from Europe to America.
REVIEWS:

“…highly dramatic tale of friendship and salvation.Rose Colored Glass operates on a high level of dramatic tension throughout.”

Backstage New York

The play becomes a joyful demonstration of the timeless ability of women to set all else aside when a child is at stake. Nothing else much matters once you simply ask yourself, 'What if it were you?' And while you might think the outcome is telegraphed from the start, it's not...the play builds to a surprisingly complex emotional end.

Denver Post
Premiere Production: Rose Colored Glass premiered in Eureka, CA at Plays-in-Progress. It was followed by its Off-Broadway Premiere in New York City in 2006 at Theatre 54 in Times Square and was produced by GalCo Productions in conjunction with Shelter Studios. It received its European premiere in Prague, Czech Republic in 2013 where it is sill running.

Characters

  • Casting: 3F
  • Casting Attributes: Ensemble cast, Features Teens, Strong Role for Leading Woman (Star Vehicle), All Female
  • Casting Notes: PEG'S monologues should be spoken from the viewpoint of the somewhat older narrator PEG. The role is to be played by one actress.

    There is humor in this play that should not be shied away from.

  • LADY O'RILEY - 60's; Irish Catholic immigrant; owner of Lady O'Riley's; church going; God fearing; has a natural warmth to her although she is often irritable; feisty; raising her granddaughter; has spent her life working hard; stubborn; set in her ways; has a sense of humor. She is an idealist, believing that things will happen if you just have enough faith.

  • ROSE FLEISHMAN - late 40's; Austrian Jewish immigrant; widow; no children, owner of Fleishman's Delicatessen across the alley from the Pub; stoic; reserved; proud; doesn't let her guard down until the end; stubborn; set in her ways; has a sense of humor. She is more of a realist than Lady; believes everything is a result of hard work -- and even that sometimes is not enough.

  • PEG O'RILEY - 13 at the start of the play; Lady's granddaughter; intrigued by Rose; can be a little conniver and a bit of a smart aleck but there is a sweetness there; is moving from childhood to awakening adolescence; attracted by things and people who are different; stubborn; has a mission to get these women to become friends. She is fresh faced with an all-American look circa 1938. As the narrator, she is a bit older, and a bit wiser.

    • Available Material

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    Rose Colored Glass Script Order Now

    Set in 1938 Chicago, Rose Colored Glass, takes place in the back rooms of Lady O'Riley's and Rose Fleishman's delicatessen. Their disparate worlds, separated by much more than the alley between their kitchens, are about to collide. Peg O'Riley,the 13-year-old granddaughter of Lady, has grown determined that these two mistrustful widows will become friends, but it is not until they become involved in the same cause that their friendship has a chance to bloom. In a series of stunning flashbacks, Peg now older, remembers the moving story of how lady and Rose formed a united front to fight American apathy in an attempt to bring Rose's nephew out of Europe before the war. Rose Colored Glassis a unique work - it shows the beginning of the holocaust from our side of the ocean and how two remarkable women struggle not only with American apathy, but also with immigration laws and bureaucracy, in addition to their own prejudices...all in the name of one boy's safe passage from Europe to America.

    		$24.95

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