House, Divided
 La Tempestad
 The Ballad of John Wesley Reed
 Girl Science
 The Allure of Oriental Wisdom
 Memorial Day (formerly Varia)
 Pride of the Lion
 The Dostoyevsky Man


 Monica for Chanukah
 Angie and Arnie Sanguine
 Edward and Ellie Supine
 The Lion Eats His Lunch
 The Lion in His Lair
 The Lion Leaves His Mark
 Prayers


 But Who's Counting?
 Emma Goldman Imagines the Millenium


 Just Before the War Between the Plates
 I Can Handle That


 Talking  with Lee Blessing

...with Tom Coash
...with Mary Fengar Gail
...with Richard Kalinowsky
...with Jamie Pachino
...with David Rambo
...with Jason Sherman
...with Naomi Wallace
...with Tom Gibbons
...with Dick Goldberg

The Dostoyevsky Man is a two act, six character play.

Synopsis:

The Dostoyevsky Man is a full-length play which references but is not an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes From Underground. It tells the story of Dr. Gilbert Findlay, a college professor, who loses his job because his subject, 19th century Russian Literature, is out of fashion, and the members of his department think he is out of tune with the pedagogical times. To prove his value as a teacher and to reclaim his self- worth, Findlay returns clandestinely to the college to deliver what he calls his "valedictory lecture". He takes hostages to fill his classroom, including one of his former students, the chairman of the tenure committee who engineered his dismissal, and a night janitor who has audited his classes. He teaches Dostoyevsky's Notes From Underground to his unwilling class, as they try to and ultimately succeed in winning their freedom.

Characters:

PROFESSOR GILBERT FINDLAY - A college literature professor, around 40.
WENDY -- A college sophomore
JERRY -- A college sophomore or junior
PROFESSOR MITCH BARRONE -- A college professor, around 50
STUDENT ONE, FACULTY ONE, BAILIFF -- (same actor)
STUDENT TWO, FACULTY TWO, COURT CRIER -- (same actor)

Setting:

A courtroom, a college classroom, a fast food restaurant, and various locations around the college. These locations should not be hard sets, but rather should be indicated by mobile set pieces: student desks, jury box, fast food counter, etc., able to be wheeled to various locations on the stage as needed.

Time:

The time is the 90's.

Playing time:

Approximately 95 minutes

Writing, workshop, and development history:

The Dostoyevsky Man was written originally in 1985 as a script for a short video production, focusing on the classroom section of the action. It was written in response to a play by Mark Stein called The Groves of Academe, which depicted academia as a rosy place, unreasonably in my view.

In 1992, I began to work on converting that video script into a full length play.

The first draft was completed late in that year. It was read in manuscript form by the writers workshop to which I have belonged for many years, Working Writers Group. After revisions made as a result of suggestions made by group members, I began to submit the play.

In late 1992 and early 1993, The Dostoyevsky Man was a semi finalist in the Beverly Hills/Julie Harris New Play Competition, and a finalist in the Cleveland Playhouse New Play Competition. It was not produced as a result of either of these designations.

In 1994, Playworks in Philadelphia organized a fully cast, script-in-hand reading, preparatory to a series of staged readings of the play in local bookstores. As a result of that reading, I undertook extensive revisions, especially to the second act.

In late 1994 and early 1995 The Dostoyevsky Man was read by full casts in a series of public readings under the auspices of The Brick Playhouse (formerly Playworks).

In late 1995, The Dostoyevsky Man was accepted for production at the Changing Scene Theater in Denver, Colorado, but was subsequently withdrawn in favor of another play of mine called Views of the Lion which Changing Scene produced in 1996.

No full production of The Dostoyevsky Man has yet been mounted.

The Dostoyevsky Man is a clever intriguing script with a wonderful premise which is entertainingly worked out.

-- Linda Eisenstein, Festival Director, Cleveland Public Theater Eleventh Festival of New Plays.

SAMPLE SCENE:

ACT ONE, SCENE 1

At rise, GILBERT FINDLAY, dressed in the paper apron and paper hat of a fast food server is at a counter packing a bag with burger and fries for customers. There are two students standing in his line. He talks to the audience while he waits on them.

(To the audience:) There's a joke I used to overhear my students tell. It had two characters. One, the butt of the joke, was always the same. The first time I heard it, in college, it went, "What did the literature major ask the engineering major?"

Double barbecue cheeseburger, hold the onions, please.

FINDLAY serves, the students pay and leave, one after the other.

Double, double bacon burger and extra slaw, man.

By the time I had started teaching it was, "What did the lit major ask the business major?" And shortly after that it was, "What did the lit major ask the computer science major?"

Give me the bonus box of extra crispy chicken. And a super giant diet slush. I have a coupon.

Can I just get a plain burger, no pickles or anything?

(To us:) So what did the literature major ask the fill-in-the- blank major? (To the student who has just ordered, but with the full effect of a punch line:) You want fries with that?

The last student in line grabs his bag and exits.

ACT ONE, SCENE 2

FINDLAY pulls off his server apron and hat, lays them on the counter, and moves downstage, away from the food service counter, which is removed by the last customer. Court furniture, including a witness stand and evidence table, slides on brought by the COURT CRIER and a BAILIFF. FINDLAY watches. COURT CRIER is perfunctory, has done this hundreds of times. The BAILIFF is stiff, formal.

Oye, Oye. The court is now in session. All those having business before the court now rise and make themselves known. 

CRIER exits. FINDLAY addresses us, as if we were the jury.

You've heard the other witnesses say I am a sick man, an infected man, and that anger is my disease. Although I'm prepared to argue my case, I don't know if I can dispute that central point. The question, as I see it, is whether my anger is the symptom or the cause.

CRIER re-enters carrying a bible, followed by THE DOCTOR pushing an evidence easel on which is a flip chart filled with information relevant to FINDLAY'S state of mind and being: blood chemistry and sugar, personality indexes, etc. After the CRIER swears him in, THE DOCTOR sits in the witness stand and points from the witness stand to items on the pages of the flip chart, as the CRIER flips the pages along with the following testimony from FINDLAY.

Since my arrest, I've been examined repeatedly, and I've asked each doctor what could have made me like this? Though I don't believe it, I can imagine a crippling vitamin deficiency, or an undetected tumor, or a seemingly innocent vice like over-eating junk food, turning a mild man angry. There are news stories about that sort of thing. But the doctors say there's no evidence. Nor are the psychiatrists any more helpful. They've asked about my childhood, my sexual history, my dreams. They looked for abuse and parental malfeasance. Like all doctors, they want something they think they can cure. But they've haven't found it. According to the doctors, at the time of these events, I was fit, I knew right from wrong, I was healthy, and I was sane.

As FINDLAY finishes, the CRIER closes the flip chart, and wheels it off. THE DOCTOR leaves the witness stand and exits. FINDLAY goes to the evidence table and picks up his fast food server's hat and puts it on.

Truth is, since all this started, I haven't been feeling so great. I've had to give up my place and sell most of my things. I'm in the same building, but in a basement apartment, a real hole. Room and a bath. It's damp, and I keep the heat way down to save money. Also, I'm always hungry. I've got twenty hours a week at minimum wage flipping burgers, with a meal thrown in for every day I work four hours or more. After a few weeks, I stopped taking them. Even the salads tasted deep fried.

FINDLAY removes his hat again and steps away from the counter.

For more detailed information about my professional history, or for writing-related inquiries, please contact me directly at Larry@Loebell.com.