The Guys - ISBNLookup.com

From Barnes & Noble

This powerful Broadway play was based on the tragedy of September 11th and the strength of human connections that it revealed. The story is simple: An editor offers to assist a fire chief who is frozen in his attempts to compose eulogies for eight fallen men. As the editor probes the memory of the firefighter, she evokes vivid images of the lost men, ordinary people thrust into an unimaginable fate. What had begun as a grim writing assignment becomes a portal into humanity.

Chicago Tribune

The kind of quiet hybrid that the situation and the times—an era of a million pithy sound bites, booming rhetoric, and the numbing repetition of the CNN loop that followed the attacks—seemed to demand...A small jewel of a play.

Christian Science Monitor

A courageous and riveting...play that tackles the horror of September 11th with an intimacy that's both unsettling and healing.

CurtainUp

[A] straight-from-the-gut beautifully written two-hander...laughter is heard as often as sobs.

NY Post

A generous, sad, touching play about the braveries of grief.

NY Times

Ms. Nelson's play...gives credible and powerful voice to a very specific kind of pain...perhaps the keenest message to emerge from THE GUYS is the assertion that writers—and actors—have a serious role to play in a grieving society.

Library Journal

Compelled by the tragic events of September 11, Columbia Journalism School professor Nelson volunteered to write eulogies for a fire captain who lost eight men. When director Jim Simpson of off-Broadway's Flea Theatre learned about her efforts, he recognized the potential for an original play. With his encouragement, first-time playwright Nelson feverishly wrote this two-character, one-act work, showing great sensibility and compassion. Premiered at the Flea Theatre on December 4, 2001, the play has been a running success. In these finished eulogies, the fire captain's sketchy recollections of four of his men at work and at play were transformed into full portraitures. Through skillful dialogs and monologs, minimal props and setting, Nelson transcended time and space to create a moving, cathartic work. The book includes three pictures from the Flea Theatre production, a lengthy preface and afterword by the author, and a list of suggested readings. This timely literary work is highly recommended for all academic and public libraries.-Ming-ming Shen Kuo, Ball State Univ. Lib., Muncie, IN Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.