Four Queens - No Trump
By Ted Lange
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About this ebook
Ted Lange
Ted Lange personifies the Renaissance Man Theatre Award he received from the NAACP. A graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Lange’s career has gained global recognition as a gifted actor of stage and screen, revered director, and prolific writer. Lange has penned twenty-four plays, including his historical trilogy George Washington’s Boy, The Journals of Osborne P. Anderson, and Lady Patriot. Other plays include Four Queens—No Trump, a comedy that played to rave reviews and won NAACP Best Play; Lemon Meringue Façade, produced off Broadway in New York; and Behind the Mask, Lange’s one-man show on the life of Paul Laurence Dunbar, which toured nationwide. Additional plays are Evil Legacy—the Story of Lucretia Borgia and Born a Unicorn, a musical about Ira Aldridge. Lange garnered worldwide fame for his portrayal of Isaac from The Love Boat.
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Four Queens - No Trump - Ted Lange
TED LANGE
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© Copyright 2014 TED LANGE.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.
ISBN: 978-1-4907-2309-9 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4907-2311-2 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4907-2310-5 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014900522
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Contents
Author’s Notes
Pre-Show Music Notes
History of Bid Whist
How to Play Tonk
Four Queens – No Trump
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
ACT III
Bid Whist Card Sequence
Dedicated to
My Grandmother, Deola
And Her Sisters
Edna, Jocenia, and Maude
Thanks to
All the women I’ve observed in my life
including
My Aunt, Phyllis Anderson
My Mother, Geraldine B. Lange
My Mother-in-law, Katherine Ley
and
My Wife, Mary
Four Queens – No Trump opened May 3, 1997 at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks, California with the following cast:
Author’s Notes
I love watching women! Years ago I was in Hollywood at a theatre for a play reading of characters that were played by all young women. During intermission two older actresses came up to me and asked how I liked the play and we chatted about the dearth of roles for women over forty. As we strolled back to our seats one of the actresses said, You write plays, Ted, write a play for two black actresses over forty.
Hmmmm!
As I sat watching the second act of the play my mind wandered and I started hearing the voices of women in my life speak . . . ethnically centered, bodacious, brazen, and bawdy conversations. As I drove home from the theatre I thought of the things that are culturally peculiar to the African American community. What would bring these women together . . . hair salons, cooking, dominoes . . . bid whist! Gotcha! Four Queens No Trump was born!
Bid whist was a hugely popular game when I was in college. On any given day you could stroll through the cafeteria and see students playing bid whist and eating lunch and finishing lunch and continuing the game. Bid whist requires four players not two, so my idea crystallized into four black women playing a weekly game of bid whist. Each woman would be represented by a suit of cards; each would be a Queen in her own right. Edna, the Queen of Hearts recently divorced, just wants to find a man with whom she can dance. Jocenia, the Queen of Diamonds, is married, rich, and spoiled. Deola, the Queen of Clubs is a dog groomer who doubles as a psychic and hosts the party at her home in South Central. Maude, the Queen of Spades, is a true girl friend
, loves her man, and is the quintessential black
woman.
I called my actress friends and told them that I have an idea for a play, but it calls for four black women . . . not two. They asked, Are there two good roles for us in it?
I assured them that there would be. They said, Write it!
How does a man write a well-drawn female character? My background as an actor taught me to tap into the qualities that best reflect characterization. Each of us is a combination of Yin and Yang, and for these female characters I explored the Yin side of my psyche, used my observational skills . . . did I mention I love watching women, and used my personal experiences with the women in my life. Women please note . . . if you see yourself in these characters . . . any similarity to persons living or dead is purely coincidental . . . the stories and characters in this play are fictional and are not, I repeat are not based on you!
Four Queens – No Trump has played to rave reviews around the country. As it has evolved, I have found that certain elements lend to its success. Deola, the Queen of Clubs, should be a zaftig, sensual woman. It is easy to give this part to a woman with a great figure, but the point of this character is that even as a woman ages and her body changes her sexuality remains. In Act I, Deola’s first dance with the table and chairs is free-spirited while in Act II, her second dance is a sexual expression of her inner self.
Edna, the Queen of Hearts, is really a card shark, but should play innocent as she sets up the other ladies. As her relationship and controversy with Jefferson unfolds, she should play the scenes without malice. She is simply trying to explore the layers of their histories and how these will affect their future.
Maude, the Queen of Spades, is a classy woman with the grittiest language. This polarity enables her to say the things she says with humor and wisdom.
After all this talk of writing a play for women over forty I have found that the one