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Nighthawks is a full-length multiple award-winning play in two parts suggested by the well-known Edward Hopper painting of the same title. Each part is in a single scene and occurs in real time. The locale is an unnamed major city, and the suggested set consists of the diner as painted by Hopper. The first act, entitled Nighthawks, is set in 1943, and is a cinematic mood piece deliberately stylized in the film noir sensibilities of the period. The play begins as GIL bitterly unhappy over his disastrous marriage, and DONNA sit in the diner over coffee at 1:00 on a Saturday morning. They have been dancing and Gil is trying to convince Donna, whom he has been dating for over a year, to go home with him -- his wife is out of town for the weekend. Donna resists; she was once married but was caught with Gil by her husband, the day he returned wounded from the War. WRAY enters warily; he has a bad limp, the result of a war incident, which, he ultimately and reluctantly admits, was racially motivated. The injury destroyed his career in the Negro Leagues, and he is bitter and resentful about it. The counterman, JIMMY, a dreamer whose dreams have never quite seemed to pan out, greets him cordially and talks with him of their respective lost dreams. When Wray mentions his wartime friendship with a woman who resembled Donna and Donna responds with interest, Gil perceives it as a mutual flirtation and conflict ensues. The play is an ensemble work, and explores the different lonelinesses of wartime America in the '40s, how the war built some hopes and destroyed others; and the conflicts that grew out of the racial divisiveness rampant both in the Army and across the nation during the time.see less

Nighthawks is a full-length multiple award-winning play in two parts suggested by the well-known Edward Hopper painting of the same title. Each part is in a single scene and occurs in real time. The locale is an unnamed major city, and the suggested set consists of the diner as painted by Hopper. The first act, entitled Nighthawks, is set in 1943, and is a...see more