One man show
Encyclopedia
The term one-man show often referred to comedian, who would stand on stage and entertain an audience. With the advent of feminism
, words and phrases such as one-woman show and comedienne have entered the modern-day lexicon.
While a one-person show may be the musings of a comedian
on a theme, the form can accommodate a wider scope. In the preface of the book Extreme Exposure, editor Jo Bonney uses the term "solo performance" to encompass those performers who do not necessarily have a comedic history. She suggests that "at the most basic level, despite their limitless backgrounds and performance styles, all solo performers are storytellers
." This assumption is based on her assertion that a number of solo shows have a storyline or a plot.
Bonney also suggests that a distinctive trait of solo performance resides in its frequent lack of a fourth wall separating the performer from the audience, stating that a "solo show expects and demands the active involvement of the people in the audience". While this is often the case, as in the shows of performers coming directly from the stand-up comedy
tradition, it is not a requirement: some solo shows, such as Krapp's Last Tape
by Samuel Beckett
, are performed without the performer addressing the audience directly.
When creating a show, a solo performer is not limited to creating and performing the show themselves. They can use directors, writers, designers, and composers. An example of how Eric Bogosian builds a character can be found in the published version of his show Wake Up And Smell the Coffee, by Theatre Communications Group, New York
.
The backgrounds of solo performers over the decades range from vaudeville
, stand-up comedy
, poetry
, music
, the visual arts
, magic
, cabaret
, and dance
.
and legend
s in this manner. So it is a style of performance that has been with us for generations developing through theatrical people such as Greek Monologists, the strolling Minstrels of Medieval England and the French
Troubadors.
By the 1960s, the term performance art
became popular and involved any number of performance acts or happenings, as they were known. Many performers, like Laurie Anderson
, developed through these happenings and are still performing today.
comedy stars
, past and present, have come to prominence through this genre. Performers include Lily Tomlin
, Andy Kaufman
, Rod Maxwell, Lord Buckley
, Eric Bogosian
, Whoopi Goldberg
, Jade Esteban Estrada
, Eddie Izzard
, John Leguizamo
, Anna Deavere Smith
, Bill Hicks
, Hugh Morgan "Brother Blue" Hill and Lenny Bruce
.
Several performers have presented solo shows in tribute to famous personalities. The blueprint for this type of show may have been drafted by Hal Holbrook
, who has performed as Mark Twain
in his solo show, Mark Twain Tonight
, more than 2,000 times since 1954. Examples since that time include Julie Harris
in the Emily Dickinson
biography, The Belle of Amherst
; Tovah Feldshuh
as Golda Meir in Golda's Balcony
; Alan Safier
as George Burns
in Say Goodnight Gracie
by Rupert Holmes
; Ed Metzger
in his solo show, performing since 1978, Albert Einstein, The Practical Boheian; and Ed Metzger
in another one-person show Hemingway, On The Edge.
In what was possibly the only instance in which an actor adapted an entire novel for the stage, Patrick Stewart
played all 43 parts in his version of A Christmas Carol, which played three times on Broadway and at the Old Vic
in London, while the actor Gerald Charles Dickens
plays 26 characters in his performances from the same work. Jack Aranson
starred in a one man 13 character production of Moby Dick.
One-person shows may be personal, autobiographical creations. This ranges from the intensely confessional but comedic work of Spaulding Gray, the semi-autobiographical A Bronx Tale
by Chaz Palminteri, or Holly Hughes
' solo piece World without End, in which she attempts to make sense of her relationship with her mother who had died.
Still other shows may rally around a central theme, such as pop culture in Pat Hazel's The Wonderbread Years, relationships in Robert Dubac's The Male Intellect, the history of the New York City transit system in Mike Daisey
's Invincible Summer, or fighting the system in Patrick Combs' Man 1, Bank 0.
Sometimes, solo shows are simply traditional plays written by playwrights for a cast of one. Examples: Shirley Valentine
by Willy Russell, I Am My Own Wife
by Doug Wright
, The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead
by Robert Hewett and Topless
by Miles Tredinnick
. A recent prolific performer of shows of this type is Chris Harris
, whose performances in the genre include Kemp's Jig, That's The Way To Do It!, Ally Sloper's Half Holiday
, Beemaster, Arris Music 'All and A Night At The Pantomime.
There is also room in this genre for the inclusion of other art forms. Poetry pervades the work of Dael Orlandersmith
, sleight-of-hand mastery informs Ricky Jay
's self-titled Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants, magical and psychic performance skills are part of Neil Tobin
's Supernatural Chicago
.
North American Fringe festivals
have provided platforms for many solo artists, including T.J. Dawe, Charles Ross
, Amy Salloway and Susan Jeremy.
There have also been many British
comedians who have moved away from performing pure stand-up comedy in recent years. The shows that appear annually at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe can involve stories of pathos
and the use of technological equipment such as projectors. Examples include Howard Read
, who has performed with the animated character Little Howard which was projected with the aid of computers and Dave Gorman
, who has performed several shows described as "documentary comedy".
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, words and phrases such as one-woman show and comedienne have entered the modern-day lexicon.
While a one-person show may be the musings of a comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
on a theme, the form can accommodate a wider scope. In the preface of the book Extreme Exposure, editor Jo Bonney uses the term "solo performance" to encompass those performers who do not necessarily have a comedic history. She suggests that "at the most basic level, despite their limitless backgrounds and performance styles, all solo performers are storytellers
Storytelling
Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...
." This assumption is based on her assertion that a number of solo shows have a storyline or a plot.
Bonney also suggests that a distinctive trait of solo performance resides in its frequent lack of a fourth wall separating the performer from the audience, stating that a "solo show expects and demands the active involvement of the people in the audience". While this is often the case, as in the shows of performers coming directly from the stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
tradition, it is not a requirement: some solo shows, such as Krapp's Last Tape
Krapp's Last Tape
Krapp's Last Tape is a one-act play, written in English, by Samuel Beckett. Consisting of a cast of one man, it was originally written for Northern Irish actor Patrick Magee and first titled "Magee monologue"...
by Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
, are performed without the performer addressing the audience directly.
When creating a show, a solo performer is not limited to creating and performing the show themselves. They can use directors, writers, designers, and composers. An example of how Eric Bogosian builds a character can be found in the published version of his show Wake Up And Smell the Coffee, by Theatre Communications Group, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
The backgrounds of solo performers over the decades range from vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
, stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
, poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, the visual arts
Visual arts
The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...
, magic
Magic (illusion)
Magic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...
, cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
, and dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
.
History
We may assume that individuals have told stories in front of other members of their tribe or society for thousands of years. They would have orally passed down many of today's mythsMythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
and legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
s in this manner. So it is a style of performance that has been with us for generations developing through theatrical people such as Greek Monologists, the strolling Minstrels of Medieval England and the French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
Troubadors.
By the 1960s, the term performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
became popular and involved any number of performance acts or happenings, as they were known. Many performers, like Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson
Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson is an American experimental performance artist, composer and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s...
, developed through these happenings and are still performing today.
Categories and Performers
Since solo shows have long been the domain of comic performers, it should be no surprise that many AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comedy stars
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
, past and present, have come to prominence through this genre. Performers include Lily Tomlin
Lily Tomlin
Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and producer. Tomlin has been a major force in American comedy since the late 1960's when she began a career as a stand up comedian and became a featured performer on television's Laugh-in...
, Andy Kaufman
Andy Kaufman
Andrew Geoffrey "Andy" Kaufman was an American entertainer, actor and performance artist. While often referred to as a comedian, Kaufman did not consider himself one...
, Rod Maxwell, Lord Buckley
Lord Buckley
Lord Richard Buckley was an American stage performer, recording artist, monologist, and hip poet/comic...
, Eric Bogosian
Eric Bogosian
Eric Bogosian is an American actor, playwright, monologist, and novelist of Armenian descent.-Personal life:Bogosian, an Armenian-American, was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, the son of Edwina, a hairdresser and instructor, and Henry Bogosian, an accountant. After graduating from Oberlin College,...
, Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...
, Jade Esteban Estrada
Jade Esteban Estrada
Jade Esteban Estrada is a successful Latin pop singer, comedian, choreographer, actor, political commentator, and human rights activist...
, Eddie Izzard
Eddie Izzard
Edward John "Eddie" Izzard is a British stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy style takes the form of rambling, whimsical monologue and self-referential pantomime...
, John Leguizamo
John Leguizamo
Jonathan Alberto "John" Leguizamo is an Colombian-American actor, producer, voice artist, and comedian.-Early life:...
, Anna Deavere Smith
Anna Deavere Smith
Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and professor. She is currently the artist in residence at the Center for American Progress.-Early life:...
, Bill Hicks
Bill Hicks
William Melvin "Bill" Hicks was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and musician. His material largely consisted of general discussions about society, religion, politics, philosophy, and personal issues. Hicks' material was often controversial and steeped in dark comedy...
, Hugh Morgan "Brother Blue" Hill and Lenny Bruce
Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider , better known by the stage name Lenny Bruce, was a Jewish-American comedian, social critic and satirist...
.
Several performers have presented solo shows in tribute to famous personalities. The blueprint for this type of show may have been drafted by Hal Holbrook
Hal Holbrook
Harold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for...
, who has performed as Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
in his solo show, Mark Twain Tonight
Mark Twain Tonight
Mark Twain Tonight! Is a one-man play devised by Hal Holbrook, in which he depicts Mark Twain giving a dramatic recitation selected from several of his writings, with an emphasis on the comic ones...
, more than 2,000 times since 1954. Examples since that time include Julie Harris
Julie Harris
Julia Ann "Julie" Harris is an American stage, screen, and television actress. She has won five Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1994, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame...
in the Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
biography, The Belle of Amherst
The Belle of Amherst
The Belle of Amherst is a one-woman play by William Luce.Based on the life of poet Emily Dickinson from 1830-1886, and set in her Amherst, Massachusetts home, the play makes use of her work, diaries, and letters to recollect her encounters with the significant people in her life - family, close...
; Tovah Feldshuh
Tovah Feldshuh
Tovah Feldshuh is an American actress, singer and playwright.-Early life:Terri Sue Feldshuh was born to a Jewish family in New York City, the daughter of Lillian and Sidney Feldshuh, who was a lawyer. She was raised in Scarsdale, New York, an affluent community in Westchester County and graduated...
as Golda Meir in Golda's Balcony
Golda's Balcony
Golda's Balcony is a play by William Gibson.It follows the trajectory of the life of Golda Meir from Russian immigrant to American schoolteacher to a leader of international politics as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel. Much of its focus is on the period surrounding the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when...
; Alan Safier
Alan Safier
Alan Safier is an American stage, television, and voice-over actor, as well as a singer and recording artist, who is currently touring the United States as George Burns in the one-man show Say Goodnight Gracie by Rupert Holmes.-Early life:Alan Michael Safier was born in Cleveland to Martha , a...
as George Burns
George Burns
George Burns , born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, television and movies, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became...
in Say Goodnight Gracie
Say Goodnight, Gracie
Say Goodnight Gracie is a one-man play by Rupert Holmes.Adapted from the reminiscences of George Burns, the multimedia presentation traces the comedian-raconteur's life from his childhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan to his early career in vaudeville to his momentous meeting and subsequent...
by Rupert Holmes
Rupert Holmes
Rupert Holmes is an American-British composer, singer-songwriter, musician and author of plays, novels and stories. He is best known for his number one pop hit "Escape " and the song "Him", which reached the number 6 position on the Hot 100 U.S. pop chart in 1980...
; Ed Metzger
Ed Metzger
Ed Metzger is an American actor and writer.Metzger is known for portrayals of famous men in history. He has portrayed Albert Einstein live on stage for over 30 years in his one-man show, Albert Einstein: The Practical Bohemian. He also portrayed Ernest Hemingway in his live on stage...
in his solo show, performing since 1978, Albert Einstein, The Practical Boheian; and Ed Metzger
Ed Metzger
Ed Metzger is an American actor and writer.Metzger is known for portrayals of famous men in history. He has portrayed Albert Einstein live on stage for over 30 years in his one-man show, Albert Einstein: The Practical Bohemian. He also portrayed Ernest Hemingway in his live on stage...
in another one-person show Hemingway, On The Edge.
In what was possibly the only instance in which an actor adapted an entire novel for the stage, Patrick Stewart
Patrick Stewart
Sir Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE is an English film, television and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career in theatre and television for around half a century...
played all 43 parts in his version of A Christmas Carol, which played three times on Broadway and at the Old Vic
Old Vic
The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
in London, while the actor Gerald Charles Dickens
Gerald Charles Dickens (actor)
Gerald Rhoderick Charles Dickens is a British actor and performer known in the United Kingdom and the United States for his one man shows based on the novels of his great great grandfather, Charles Dickens...
plays 26 characters in his performances from the same work. Jack Aranson
Jack Aranson
Jack Aranson was an American actor, trained in Ireland and England, noted for acting in many Shakespeare plays and several one-man shows. He was one of the last actor/managers, creating and managing several small companies in California and New York.Jack played 13 characters in his one man...
starred in a one man 13 character production of Moby Dick.
One-person shows may be personal, autobiographical creations. This ranges from the intensely confessional but comedic work of Spaulding Gray, the semi-autobiographical A Bronx Tale
A Bronx Tale (play)
A Bronx Tale is an autobiographical one-man show written and performed by Chazz Palminteri. A Bronx Tale tells the story of Calogero Anello, a young boy from a working class family who gets involved in the world of organized crime. Calogero's father is a bus driver who tries to instill working...
by Chaz Palminteri, or Holly Hughes
Holly Hughes (performance artist)
Holly Hughes is an American lesbian performance artist. She began as a feminist painter in New York but is best known for her connection with the NEA Four, with whom she was denied funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, and for her work with the Women's One World Cafe. Her plays...
' solo piece World without End, in which she attempts to make sense of her relationship with her mother who had died.
Still other shows may rally around a central theme, such as pop culture in Pat Hazel's The Wonderbread Years, relationships in Robert Dubac's The Male Intellect, the history of the New York City transit system in Mike Daisey
Mike Daisey
Mike Daisey is an American monologist, author, and actor best known for his full-length extemporaneous monologues. His breakthrough work 21 Dog Years is an account of life as an Amazon.com employee during the dot-com boom. Since that time he has created monologues about Nikola Tesla, L...
's Invincible Summer, or fighting the system in Patrick Combs' Man 1, Bank 0.
Sometimes, solo shows are simply traditional plays written by playwrights for a cast of one. Examples: Shirley Valentine
Shirley Valentine
Shirley Valentine is a one-character play by Willy Russell. Taking the form of a monologue by a middle-aged, working class Liverpool housewife, it focuses on her life before and after a transforming holiday abroad.-Plot:...
by Willy Russell, I Am My Own Wife
I Am My Own Wife
I Am My Own Wife is a play by Doug Wright based on his conversations with German transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. The one-man play premiered Off-Broadway in 2003 at Playwrights Horizons. It opened on Broadway later that year. The play was developed with Moisés Kaufman and his Tectonic...
by Doug Wright
Doug Wright
Doug Wright is an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2004 for his play, I Am My Own Wife.-Early years:Wright was born in Dallas, Texas...
, The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead
The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead
The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead is a one-woman play by Australian playwright Robert Hewett. It is presented as a series of eight individual monologues by seven characters who were affected by the actions of Rhonda Russell, the first character in the play.The play was premiered at...
by Robert Hewett and Topless
Topless (stage play)
Topless is a one woman stage play by Miles Tredinnick. It is set on an open-top sightseeing bus and features tour guide Sandie revealing her personal life whilst pointing out the London sights. The play, produced by The Big Bus Company, ran for two seasons in London, firstly in 1999 and then in...
by Miles Tredinnick
Miles Tredinnick
Miles Tredinnick, also known as Riff Regan, is a rock musician, songwriter and a stage and screen writer. In the 1970s, he was the lead singer with the British rock band London. Afterwards he went on to write comedy plays for the stage...
. A recent prolific performer of shows of this type is Chris Harris
Chris Harris (actor, director and writer)
Chris Harris is an English actor, director and writer. He has appeared in several UK TV series including Into the Labyrinth and "Hey Look That's Me". More recently he has built a successful career in pantomime, acting as a pantomime dame, as well being a director and writer at the Bristol Old...
, whose performances in the genre include Kemp's Jig, That's The Way To Do It!, Ally Sloper's Half Holiday
Ally Sloper's Half Holiday
Ally Sloper's Half Holiday was a British comic, first published on 3 May 1884. It has a legitimate claim to being the first comic magazine named after and featuring a regular character...
, Beemaster, Arris Music 'All and A Night At The Pantomime.
There is also room in this genre for the inclusion of other art forms. Poetry pervades the work of Dael Orlandersmith
Dael Orlandersmith
Dael Orlandersmith is an actress, poet and playwright who is best known for her Obie Award winning Beauty's Daughter and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama, Yellowman....
, sleight-of-hand mastery informs Ricky Jay
Ricky Jay
Richard Jay Potash , better known by the stage name Ricky Jay, is an American stage magician, actor, and writer. He is a sleight-of-hand expert and is notable for his card tricks, card throwing, memory feats, and stage patter.-Life and career:...
's self-titled Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants, magical and psychic performance skills are part of Neil Tobin
Neil Tobin
Neil Tobin is a performer of magical and psychic entertainment.Since his performance material often involves themes of spirit contact—in addition to demonstrations of telepathy, precognition, magic, and even divination—he often performs as "Neil Tobin, Necromancer."-Live Performance:Since Friday...
's Supernatural Chicago
Supernatural Chicago
Supernatural Chicago, currently in its seventh year of performances, has become a mainstay of the Chicago theater scene. The show opened on the appropriately superstition-tinged date of Friday the 13th in February 2004, and continues in an open-ended run....
.
North American Fringe festivals
Fringe theatre
Fringe theatre is theatre that is not of the mainstream. The term comes from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which name comes from Robert Kemp, who described the unofficial companies performing at the same time as the second Edinburgh International Festival as a ‘fringe’, writing: ‘Round the fringe...
have provided platforms for many solo artists, including T.J. Dawe, Charles Ross
Charles Ross
Charles Ross may refer to:*Charles Ross , English historian, biographer of Edward IV and Richard III*Charley Ross , US missing person case in the 1870s...
, Amy Salloway and Susan Jeremy.
There have also been many British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
comedians who have moved away from performing pure stand-up comedy in recent years. The shows that appear annually at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe can involve stories of pathos
Pathos
Pathos represents an appeal to the audience's emotions. Pathos is a communication technique used most often in rhetoric , and in literature, film and other narrative art....
and the use of technological equipment such as projectors. Examples include Howard Read
Howard Read
Howard Oliver Drinkwater Read is a British comedian, animator and aspiring song writer best known for his work with his animated sidekick, Little Howard. His other creations include an angry manager with a conversational style and the worldview of Bernard Manning, Roger T Pigeon, and H:BOT 2000, a...
, who has performed with the animated character Little Howard which was projected with the aid of computers and Dave Gorman
Dave Gorman
David James Gorman is an English author, stand-up comedian and presenter. He has performed comedy shows on stage in which he tells stories of extreme adventures and presents the evidence to the audience in order to prove to them that they are true stories...
, who has performed several shows described as "documentary comedy".
One-man shows of the past centuries
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Pygmalion
- Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: Diary of a crazy man
- Anton Chekhov: On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco
- Arnold Schoenberg: Erwartung
See also
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person ShowDrama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person ShowThe Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show is presented by the Drama Desk, a committee of New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors...
- MonologueMonologueIn theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
- MonodramaMonodramaA monodrama is a theatrical or operatic piece played by a single actor or singer, usually portraying one character.- Monodrama in opera :...
- Spoken wordSpoken wordSpoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....
- Performance poetryPerformance poetryPerformance poetry is poetry that is specifically composed for or during a performance before an audience. During the 1980s, the term came into popular usage to describe poetry written or composed for performance rather than print distribution.-History:...
- Alex Ovechkin
- United Solo Theatre FestivalUnited Solo Theatre FestivalUnited Solo Theatre Festival is a theatre festival. It takes place at Theatre ROW on 42nd Street in New York City. Its Founder and Artistic Director is Omar Sangare...