Mark Stein

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Mark Stein's books include How the States Got Their Shapes, American Panic: A History of Who Scares Us and Why, and Vice Capades: Sex, Drugs & Bowling from the Pilgrims to the Present. He wrote the screenplay for the Steve Martin/Goldie Hawn film, Housesitter, and plays that have been produced at Manhattan Theatre Club, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theater of Louisville and elsewhere.

The Presidential Fringe places the story of our republic beneath an unexpected lens: that of fringe candidates for president of the United States. It explores how their quest for our nation's highest office helped to amplify voices otherwise quashed during their day.

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"[A]musing and strangely inspiring chronicle of little-known candidates in American history...[that] values the spirit, eccentricity and ability of these candidates to dramatically illuminate the "fissures deep within the nation's political landscape." Plus, they're good for a few laughs." — Dave Shiflett, Wall Street Journal

"Informative and entertaining, forcing American readers to take some glances into what at times is an unflattering mirror."—Kirkus Reviews

"With a clear and discerning eye, Stein writes of all these questers as he invites readers to take underlying concerns for a free and democratic society seriously." —starred review, Booklist

"Isn't a bad book." -- Terri Schlichenmeyer, Philadelphia Tribune
(I love this quote. Which, hopefully, says more about me than the quote does about the book.)

Got bored kids at home??
**Check out Brian Unger (host of How the States Got Their Shapes) doing 5-minute bits of pandemic-pertinent history that's embedded in state lines!**

How Social Distancing Shaped Our States

How Transportation Innovations Shaped Our States

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Selected Works

Nonfiction

How the States Got Their Shapes

State-by-state guide to why the lines on our map are where they are.

How the States Got Their Shapes Too: The People Behind the Borderlines

No kid has ever been known to say, "When I grow up, I want to establish a state line!" But many did -- some famous; most not -- but in each case part of a personal quest that intersected with history in a way that ended up as lines on the American map.

American Panic: A History of Who Scares Us and Why

Why some people panic when others don't is revealed via the language of alarmists.

Vice Capades: Sex, Drugs and Bowling from the Pilgrims to the Present

While laws against nude dancing have become less restrictive, laws restricting sexual harassment have been enacted. While marijuana is no longer illegal everywhere, restrictive laws have been enacted against cigarettes. Vice Capades examines how the (not necessarily nefarious) powers-that-be in each era determine what is or is not deemed a vice.

"Stein formulates an astute, fascinating...treatise on why vices became such hot-button issues in past eras yet tend to normalize and often empower." -- Kirkus Reviews

Films

Housesitter

"Mark Stein's nicely-tuned screenplay…is skillfully delivered by Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn…performing Martin's middle class lonely guy and Hawn's daffy-but-smart blonde." – Cinephilia

"'Housesitter' (1992) wins the cigar as the decade's most imaginative screwball comedy."– USA Today

Plays

Direct from Death Row the Scottsboro Boys

The Scottsboro Boys have come from eternity to the theater we are in to reenact as "vaudeville" scenes the story of their convictions for gang rape, despite prima facie evidence of their innocence. The historical event was, in many ways, something of a vaudeville. But also, as revealed early on, the first four of the nine to get released (after seven years), appeared within a matter of weeks in a New York vaudeville show.

At Long Last Leo

Leo has recently completed a 638-page manifesto on interconnectedness and harmony which he hopes will be the impetus for the next major social movement in the world. Arriving home to his family – his depressed mother, inept father, confused sister, introverted nephew and a neighbor who has (secretly) always been in love with him – Leo tries to test his principles on this group. The only problem is he can't get them to read the manifesto. Leo's visit does, however, bring change to the family.

OTHER PLAYS

GROVES OF ACADEME

Set in the cramped office of an assistant professor of English at a prestigious university, a quirky undergraduate who asks to be admitted to an honors seminar on comedy spins humor into serious business regarding relationships and life.

"Two beautifully observed characters who reach across a generation gap with altogether intriguing results. Its theme is the nature of success in a materialistic world. By his [one-act] play's end, Stein has provided a definition through dramatic events that are not only spiritually satisfying, but emotionally moving." – Louisville Courier-Journal

"Stein's writing is so truthful that, when the two part at the semester's end…they give you more enjoyment in 30 minutes than some plays do in two hours."

– Washington Post

GHOST DANCE

Loosely based on actual events from 1891, a young woman arrives in South Dakota amidst the sensational trial of a Sioux Indian for the murder of a U.S. Army officer. In the course of her increasing involvement in the defense of the Indian, the young woman finds herself falling in love with her personal evocation of the man he murdered.

"This ambitious new play ... touches upon issues of race, gender and the quicksilver nature of identity in an epic treatment of turn-of-the-century American history... The sweep of the play ... has the reach of greatness in it. A vast tapestry of romance, politics and personal sorrow, Ghost Dance will not soon be forgotten." -- Sacramento Bee

"Ghost Dance, the new show at River Stage is one of the best evenings of drama I've encountered all year in the Sacramento region. Possibly even THE best."

-- Jeff Hudson, Capital Public Radio, Sacremento

Lyrical Works

Mark Stein's lyrical works have appeared in Nimrod, Michigan Quarterly, Confrontation, Madison Review, Moment magazine, Exposition Review, Eclectica, Burningword Journal, and elsewhere.