The Library for the Performing Arts Play Club [IN PERSON]

Play Club is like a book club, but for plays! Whether you are familiar with the art of reading plays, or looking to expand your appreciation for dramatic literature, this book club is an opportunity to read plays you have been meaning to explore or have never considered reading before. Learn about new works, discover new playwrights, and make friends! This month, we read and discuss Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw.

This group will read one playscript from the Library for the Performing Arts circulating collection every month, and then come together to discuss the work. We will read one scene from the play together and discuss the text in a book club discussion format.

This program will take place in person at the Library for the Performing Arts Harvey Fierstein Theatre Lab. If you would like to participate in

This program is intended for adult patrons.

Thursday, November 20 at 6:30pm - by George Bernard Shaw

Andrew Undershaft, a millionaire armaments manufacturer, loves money and despises poverty. His estranged daughter Barbara, on the other hand, shows her love for the poor by throwing her energies into her work as a Major in the Salvation Army, and sees her father as another soul to be saved. But when the Army needs funds to keep going, it is Undershaft who saves the day with a large check forcing Barbara to examine her moral assumptions. Are they right to accept money that has been obtained by ‘Death and Destruction'? Full of lively comedy and sparkling debate, Major Barbara is one of Shaw's most forward-looking plays, brilliantly testing the tensions between religion, wealth and power, benevolence and equality, and metaphors and realities of war.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was born in Dublin, Ireland. He had minimal formal education, but when he moved to London he educated himself at the British Museum. Shaw started his writing career as a novelist, publishing in political magazines. He then became a drama critic and began to produce plays. Shaw went on to write some of the most important plays in theatrical history, including Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Man and Superman, Major Barbara, Pygmalion, Saint Joan, among many others. Shaw won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925.

We have a few copies of the play available at the Library for the Performing Arts, but if you are looking for additional copies, the Drama Book Shop has graciously set aside copies of the play at a discounted price of 10% off for Play Club attendees. (While supplies last.) Please visit the Drama Book Shop to purchase your copy.

Photo Credit: From left, Laurie Kennedy, Rachel Gurney, and Nicolas Surovy in Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw. Photograph by Martha Swope. Billy Rose Theatre Division.

ASSISTIVE LISTENING AND ASL | ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing [email protected].

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Harvey Fierstein Theatre Lab, 111 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, United States

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