American Devotion, Written by Franca Miraglia, Produced by By the Word (BTW) Productions

American Devotion takes audiences back to 1957 to the Connecticut farmhouse shared by Marilyn Monroe and her celebrated playwright husband, Arthur Miller. In this fictional version of events, Norman Mailer has successfully wangled a coveted invitation for cocktails with the reclusive couple shortly after Miller has been called to testify before the House of Un-American Activities Committee. Adding further strain to an already besieged marriage, Mailer storms into this delicate situation ready to do battle and claim his prize at any cost…but Monroe, who is both stronger and more fragile than imaginable, has plans of her own for the evening’s festivities.

American Devotion was inspired by a passage from Arthur Miller’s 1987 autobiography Timebends: A Life, which referred to Norman Mailer’s 1973 book Marilyn: A Biography:

“Years later, [Marilyn’s] life would be taken up by a writer […] avowedly desperate for money to pay his several alimonies. I had to wonder if her fate at the great author’s hands would have been better had she agreed back in the fifties to my suggestion that we invite him for dinner some evening. I had heard that Norman Mailer had bought a house [near our home] and from what everyone knew of him, he would have rushed to meet her. Reading [Mailer’s] volume, with its grinning vengefulness toward both of us, […] I wondered if it would have existed at all had we fed him one evening and allowed him time to confront her humanity, not merely her publicity.” [See Playwright’s Notes for list of real-life events referenced in American Devotion]

Beyond McCarthyism, American Devotion delves into the ravages of celebrity culture and the existential clash between brains and brawns. The evening’s debate turns to a battle that pits Miller’s brains against Mailer’s brawn ending in an epic, “take no prisoners” fight with Monroe as the ultimate prize.

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