Painting Churches
by Tina Howe

Painting Churches Book Cover
Painting Churches Cover

Awards & Recognition

Pulitzer Prize

Finalist: 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Synopsis

Comic drama Characters: 1 male, 2 female Interior Set Gardner and Fanny Church are preparing to move out of their Beacon Hill house to their summer cottage on Cape Cod.

Gardner, once a famous poet, now is retired.

He slips in and out of senility as his wife Fanny valiantly tries to keep them both afloat.

They have asked their daughter, Mags, to come home and help them move.

Mags agrees, for she hopes as well to finally paint their portrait.

She is now on the verge of

Press Reviews

"Beautifully written. . . . A theatrical family portrait that has the shimmer and depth of Renoir portraits."

— The New York Times

"A radiant, loving and zestfully humorous play . . . distinctly Chekhovian. Howe captures the same edgy surface of false hilarity, the same unutterable sadness beneath it, and the indomitable valor beneath both."

— Time

Characters

Character
Gardner Church

her husband, an eminent New England poet from a finer family, in his 70s

Margaret Church (Mags)

their daughter, a painter, in her early 30s

Fanny Church

a Bostonian from a fine old family, in her 60s

Publication

Publisher Samuel French
Year 1984
Binding Paperback
Edition Edition Unstated
Pages 94
Place London
Language English
ISBN-13 9780573619397
ISBN-10 0573619395
LCCN 84224929
LCC PS3558.O894 P3 1984
DCC 812/.54

Painting Churches is a American comedy play written by Tina Howe and published by Samuel French in London (1984).

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Rating

3.6

164 ratings · 347 reviews

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Performance Rights

Available for Licensing
Amateur & Professional
Fee: Minimum Fee: $110 per performance

Restrictions: Major Markets Only (US) / Standard Restriction (UK)

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