TCG Releases Athol Fugard Collection: THE TRAIN DRIVER AND OTHER PLAYS

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) has announced the publication of The Train Driver and Other Plays, a new collection by Athol Fugard. The Train Driver is currently receiving its U.S. premiere at Signature Theatre Company is New York City under the direction of the playwright.

The Train Driver is classic Fugard, and one of his most important plays. The playwright, known throughout the world as a chronicler of his native South Africa’s apartheid past, has stated, “For me, The Train Driver is the biggest of them all. Everything I have written before has been a journey to this.” This seminal work, which received its world premiere directed by the playwright at the newly opened Fugard Theatre in one of Cape Town’s most politically contentious areas, was inspired by the true story of a mother who with her three children committed suicide on the train tracks in Cape Town. The two-person drama unfolds between the train’s engineer and the grave digger who buries “the ones without names.”

Also included in this collection: Coming Home, Fugard’s first work addressing AIDS in South Africa; Have You Seen Us?, his first play set in America, about a South African transplanted to San Diego, where the playwright currently resides; a selection from his Notebooks on his artistic process and an Afterword by MariAnne McDonald.

Athol Fugard has been working in the theatre as a playwright, director and actor for more than 50 years. His plays include Blood Knot, Boesman and Lena, Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act, Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, ‘Master Harold’…and the Boys, The Road to Mecca, My Children! My Africa!, and, most recently, The Blue Iris.

For over 50 years, Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, has existed to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. TCG’s constituency has grown from a handful of groundbreaking theatres to nearly 700 member theatres and affiliate organizations and more than 12,000 individuals nationwide. TCG offers its members networking and knowledge-building opportunities through conferences, events, research and communications; awards grants, approximately $2 million per year, to theatre companies and individual artists; advocates on the federal level; and serves as the U.S. Center of the InterNational Theatre Institute, connecting its constituents to the global theatre community. TCG is North America’s largest independent publisher of dramatic literature, with 11 Pulitzer Prizes for Best Play on the TCG booklist. It also publishes the award-winning AMERICAN THEATRE magazine and ARTSEARCH®, the essential source for a career in the arts. In all of its endeavors, TCG seeks to increase the organizational efficiency of its member theatres, cultivate and celebrate the artistic talent and achievements of the field and promote a larger public understanding of, and appreciation for, the theatre. For more information visit www.tcg.org.