ONE-MINUTE PLAYBUT GOD LIED
Beginning with the line "But God lied," this dialogue pursues irreverent consequences. 2 actors, m or f. 1 min. MONOLOGUESTOO TALL
A woman wonders if she's too tall, if the speed of light is changing, and if there's anything pure. Three versions: 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes. San Diego Actors Festival; Walking the Wire Festival, Riverside Theatre, Iowa City, IA. BAR TALK A bartender reflects on Camus and the current state of affairs. 1-5 min. DOLL HOUSE A woman architect remembers killing the little people in her doll house. 1-5 min. Lehman College, Bronx, NY; Deer Valley High School, Antioch, CA; Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC; Georgia Perimeter College, Atlanta, GA. I SAW A WOMAN MURDERED A man remembers a moment of cowardice. 1-5 min. Gertz Ressler High School, Los Angeles, CA. IN THE LAUNDROMAT A woman wearing only a raincoat might or might not be a hit woman. 1-5 min. Walking the Wire, Riverside Theatre, Iowa City, IA; Ronald Reagan High School, San Antonio, TX. THE ALIEN HYPOTHESIS Larry wonders if he's an alien. 1-5 min. Eight productions, including San Diego Actors Festival; Carnegie Mellon Theatre Program; and Cascadia Community College, Seattle, WA. CHILDREN'S PLAYUNICORN
A harlequin and a unicorn teach a bully about the power of imagination. Minimal set. 3 roles, any gender. Winner, Performing Arts Repertory Theatre Competition, New York, NY. Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH. RADIO PLAYSJUMPING KFAI, Minneapolis, MN. GARAGE SALE WCPN, Cleveland, OH; KANU-FM, Lawrence, KS; KOPN-FM, Columbia, MO. I WANT TO BE AN INDIAN Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA; American Radio Theatre, Los Angeles, CA; KOTO, Telluride, CO; Bates College, Lewiston, ME; TIC Radio Workshop, Boston, MA; KOPN-FM, Columbia, MO. |
My WorksFULL-LENGTH PLAYS Heller Theatre, Tulsa, OK Einstein and Kafka meet—well, they're not sure where. Maybe it's in an afterworld. Maybe it's in their imaginations. Einstein and Kafka met, briefly, uneventfully, in Prague, in 1912. Kafka fell asleep listening to Einstein explain relativity. Einstein could never read Kafka's books. Who better than Kafka to be a foil to Einstein as Einstein tries to explain the physical and mathematical universe? Who better than Kafka to debate Einstein about which explains the universe, and our place in it, better, science or literature? Or is there any difference between science and literature? Isn't relativity a story? The Castle a theory of the universe? Which can we depend on to answer our most fundamental questions? And, if these guys were such geniuses, why were their love lives so screwed up? And why does each think he was a failure? 3m, 1f. 2 hrs. Single set. Winner, Heller Theatre Competition, Heller Theatre, Tulsa, OK, Production January 31 – February 9, 2008. Magic Circle Theatre, Roseville, CA, July 10 - August 8, 2009. Finalist, Kitchen Dog Theater’s 2007 New Works Festival, Dallas, TX. "As entertaining as it is engrossing," Tulsa World. A thinking-person’s show...The show is full of wisdom, and offers much to ponder. And as Kafka said of authors and playwrights, “if the reader knows what to expect, you’re not doing your job.” Roseville Press Tribune EINSTEIN: Eventually we'll understand everything. KAFKA: We'll never understand a damn thing.  Sonia Braga in The Last Prostitute A famous call girl, retired and farming in the midwest, is visited by two teenage boys who want to be "initiated." Single set. 2m, 1f. 2 hrs. Film version, starring Sonia Braga, produced by Universal Studios and shown on Lifetime TV and in Europe; on video. Winner, Midwest Playwrights Program. Spirit of the Horse Theatre, St. Paul, MN; Pilot Theatre, Hollywood, CA, (featuring Mimi Rogers); Raft Theatre, New York, NY; The Changing Scene, Denver, CO. "A good movie for those winter long winter nights," Alar Kivi, Estonia. DON'T DANCE ME OUTSIDE
Butch, a novelist who reveals more about himself in his novels than he thinks, and Ardis, an architect who wants to design a humane mall, begin an affair. During an afternoon and an evening, in first one hotel room and then another, they reveal their pasts, fantasize their future, call their spouses, fight, risk, and love. 1m, 1f, 2 hrs. Playwrights Premier Theatre,Williamsburg, VA., K G Entertainment, Bemidji, MN. "A fascinating, refreshingly original, romantic comedy," WHRO radio. "His dialogue travels with the precision and bounce of a first-rate ping-pong match," Portfolio Weekly. MANY WORLDS
Axel and Maggie have been having an affair for so long it seems like a marriage. Today, however, Maggie has to decide whether to tell Axel that she has terminal cancer, as Axel tries to explain the "Many Worlds" theory of quantum physics, and from time to time several possible "other worlds" open up, some involving Maggie's husband, Skip, and we see that life has more possibilities than we imagined, even as we are reminded that every life, finally, has only one ending. 2m, 1f. 90 min. "The dialogue is highly charged ping-pong banter while at other times it's filled with deep and intriguing philosophy about the nature of relationships and reality." nytheatre.com. "A must-see show," A Current Affair.  "Turtle Island Blues" Talk-back 500 years of American (Turtle Island) history, featuring Sitting Bull, who travels through space and time. The story of Leonard Peltier's trial and incarceration alternates with Jefferson's writing the Declaration of Independence with the help of Sally Heming, the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, the murder of Sitting Bull, and other events, both in the ordinary world and in the spirit world. Minimal set, 7m (4 Native American, 3 Caucasian), 3f (1 Native American, 1 Caucasian, 1 African-American), doubling. 2 hrs. Turtle Island Blues won the Native Playreading Festival in Juneau, AK; the Deep South Playwriting Competition; and the Great Platte River Playwriting Competition. It has had over 30 productions, including the World Theatre in St. Paul, MN, Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, the Indigenous Games in Minneapolis, Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI, eight Indian reservations, and a tour of Minnesota and North Dakota. "If I were running the world everybody would have to see the play," Ada Deer, former Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. TURTLE ISLAND BLUES is the subject of graduate papers at Purdue University, University of Illinois at Urbana, and University of Minnesota, Morris. The play has been studied at Native American Educational Services College in Minneapolis, MN. TAP DANCING ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
A college professor who wants to run away from home gets his chance when he and his wife are visited by a would-be shaman, a runaway mother, and a hippy. Single set. 3m, 2f. 2 hrs. Winner, Unicorn Theatre and Towngate Theatre Playwriting Competitions. Towngate Theatre, Wheeling, WV; Unicorn Theatre, Kansas City, MO; Corcoran Park Players, Minneapolis, MN; Grand Forks Community Theatre, Grand Forks, ND. "A feisty and forthright comedy-drama that fizzes with the humor of true seriousness," Wheeling News-Register. MEET AGAIN
A romantic comedy that takes a playful, sexy look at reincarnation. Six characters fall in love with unexpected people in unexpected lives. Beneath the confusions, the play asks what are our boundaries, what are our identities, sexual and otherwise, and what are we here for, after all, whether we're here once or many times? 3m, 3f. Minimal set. 2 hrs. "Insightful and delightfully wacky," Jason Fogelson, New York Shakespeare Festival. GOURMET LOVE
Hungry for love? Or for food? How long can Sally and Arnie keep their affair from their spouses, who are having an affair of their own? And when everyone finds out about the affairs–-at supper-–what will they have for breakfast? Unit set. 2m, 2f. 95 min. Staged reading, The Asylum, Las Vegas, NV; Finalist, Sonoma County Repertory SCRipts Festival, Buntville Crew Competition, Midwest Theatre Network Original Play Competition.  "Clever, moving, riveting . . . Striking and brilliant" A Musical Drama A young reporter has heard that Sakakawea, the legendary guide to Lewis and Clark, thought dead for 60 years, is still alive. The reporter travels to the Wind River Reservation and encounters a mysterious old woman and her granddaughter. The old woman begins to tell her story...and through the magic of musical drama the granddaughter becomes young Sakakawea, and the reporter takes on the role of William Clark. 2f, 4m, chorus. 2 hrs. World Premier in 1989 as a North Dakota Centennial Event, Grand Forks, ND. Winner, Opera Now! Competition. "Sakakawea is striking and brilliant…a memorable evening," Grand Forks Herald. SAKAKAWEA is discussed at length in Cultural Images of Sacagawea by Donna J. Kessler, University of Alabama Press, 1996. BLUEST REASON
When the Lewis and Clark Expedition spend the winter of 1804-5 in what is now North Dakota, a soldier is court-martialed, Clark questions Lewis's sanity, the Mandans plan an attack, Charbonneau is hired, fired, and re-hired, Sakakawea has a baby, and York demands his freedom. 8m (5 white, 1 African American, 2 Native American), 2f (Native American). 2 hrs. TEN-MINUTE PLAYS Deborah Harry The "geek" and the "slut" meet at their high school reunion. Have they changed as much as they think they have? 1m, 1f. 10 min. A film version, retitled I Remember You Now and starring Deborah Harry, has been shown in New York, Paris, London, Croatia, Romania, and Wales. Emerging Artists Theatre, New York; Yankee Rep, New York; Vagabond Players, North Hollywood, CA; Coastal Carolina University, Myrtle Beach, SC; Boca Raton Theatre Guild, Boca Raton, FL; State University of New York, Brockport, NY; Theatre of the Invisible Guests, Fargo, ND. "I Remember You Now is a great little movie. Go See it!" GUNNING FOR LIFE
An old man's lust for life confronts his terminal cancer in an unusual comedy with a poignant ending. 1m, 1f, 10 min. Finalist (out of over 1200 submissions), Actors Theatre of Louisville 2008 Ten Minute Play Contest. ABBY: What are you looking for? ROSCOE: My gun. ABBY: You're going hunting in a wheelchair? ROSCOE: Don't be stupid. ABBY: You're going to shoot me? DUET FOR VIRTUAL PARTICLES
A man wonders if he's an alien. A tall woman wonders if she's too tall. The man wonders if he was abandoned by the other aliens. The tall woman wonders if the speed of light is changing. Like two instruments playing a duet, the two characters' concerns weave in and out, their relationship to each other intriguing and resonant. 1m, 1f. 10 min. Finalist, Actors Theatre of Louisville 2007 Ten Minute Play Contest. Theatre Unleashed, Los Angeles, CA; MadLab Theatre, Columbus OH. MAN: I think I'm an alien. TALL WOMAN: Am I too tall for you? Some people find that exciting. DIRTY LAUNDRY
Serena, wearing only a raincoat, has been around the block a few times but still turns heads. She teaches Bob, a frustrated writer who yearns for adventure but backs off when he finds it, about inspiration and perspiration as they wash clothes in a run-down laundromat in a two-bit one-horse town. 1m, 1f. 10 min. Finalist, Actors Theatre of Louisville 1999 Ten Minute Play Contest. City Theatre Company, Wilmington, DE; CollaborAction Theatre Company, Chicago, IL. QUARKS
A man and a woman meet at a singles bar. His "Take off your panties," gets unexpected results. 2m, 1f. 10 min. "Pops and crackles," Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Over 17 productions, including Barcelona, Spain; Kitchener, Ontario; Samuel French One-Act Play Festival, New York, NY; and Cleveland Public Theatre, Cleveland, OH. SOMETHING LIGHTER
A couple meet to finalize their divorce in the wife's refurnished house. They see each other with new eyes. 1m, 1f. 10 min. Finalist, 1995 Actors Theatre of Louisville Ten-Minute Play Contest. Attic Theatre, Los Angeles, CA; Boca Raton Theatre Guild Festival, Boca Raton, FL; Theatre of the Invisible Guests, Fargo, ND. THE BLUES STREET JAZZ CLUB REHEARSES
Five would-be musicians meet to "play" to recorded music. Their various loves intertwine like strands of music, improvised and unpredictable. 2m, 3f. 10 min. Winner, Maxim Mazumdar New Play Competition. Lincoln Square Theatre of Chicago; Alleyway Theatre, Buffalo, NY; Love Creek Productions, New York, NY. LUNCH
Bob and Bella have to decide what to do about the fact that their spouses are having an affair. And what wine should Bob serve at dinner tonight? 1m, 1f. 10 min. None of the Above Theatre Company, New York, NY; Yankee Rep, New York, NY; Drama West, Westwood, CA; Heartlande Theatre, Birmingham, MI; Boca Raton Theatre Guild, Boca Raton, FL. RECOGNITION
Two high school sweethearts, with their spouses, meet for lunch after 25 years. A long-hidden secret comes out that changes both marriages. 2m, 2f. 10 min. Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa; Playwrights' Circle Short Play Festival, Palm Springs, CA; Boca Raton Theatre Guild, Boca Raton, FL; Carrollwood Players One Act Festival, Tampa, FL. HANGMAN
A condemned man must build his own gallows. He helps his executioner write a poem. 2m. (There are 2 versions: one is 10 min., the other is 20 min.) "Hangman is a great example of the universal issue of freedom and justice." Splash Magazine. Robey Theatre Company, Los Angeles, CA (Danny Glover, producer); AHSDFA One Act Play Festival, High River, Alberta, Canada; Love Creek Productions One-Act Play Festival, New York, NY. ONE EVENING IN PRAGUE
It's 1912 in Prague. At Berta Fanta's weekly salon an up-and-coming physicist, Albert Einstein, meets a little-known author, Franz Kafka. 2m, 1f. 10 min. P.A.C.T., New York, NY; Boca Raton Theatre Guild, Boca Raton, FL; Love Creek Productions, New York, NY; Stadium High School, Tacoma, WA; Northfield Mount Hermon School, Gill, MA; Rose State College, Oklahoma City, OK. FALLING
The thoughts of a Jew and a Muslim falling from the World Trade Center the morning of September 11, 2001. 1m, 1f. Winner, Palm Springs, CA, National Short Play Festival. "Extracts meaning from 9/11 with humor and without mawkishness," San Francisco Bay Guardian. "Compelling in its implications," Santa Cruz Live. "Manages to convey the quiet terror felt by all that morning with dignity and grace," Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway. "Easily the most poetic of the showcase. Spare, clean, and evocative," Desert Post Weekly. MUSE
Cal, plagued by writer's block, calls for a muse. He gets Ron, who is not what he expected but who provides surprising inspiration anyway. 2m. 10 min. SlamBoston, Devanaughn Theatre, Boston, MA; American College Theatre Festival, Bloomington-Normal, IL; "Creating a Scene" Festival, The Playwrights' Center, Minneapolis, MN; State University of New York, Brockport, NY; Drama West, Los Angeles, CA; Heartlande Theatre, Birmingham, MI; Renaissance High School For The Arts, Long Beach, CA; Phillips Academy, Andover, MA. THAT GUY FROM THE BERGMAN FILM
It may be Cassy's last day, but she hasn't lost her sense of humor as her family gathers around. 1m, 1f, 10 min. Denver's Dangerous Theatre, Denver, CO. THE ALIEN HYPOTHESIS
Larry wonders why he feels as if he doesn't "belong." Could he be an alien? If he is an alien, why haven't the aliens told him? He gets a message–apparently–from his alien wife, who lives in other dimensions, and news of the kids. 1m, 1 f voice. 10 min. Carnegie Mellon Pre-College Musical Theatre Program; Cascadia Community College, Seattle, WA; Headwaters School of Music & the Arts, Bemidji, MN; Loftfest, Loft Productions, Tampa, FL. JUMPING
A man and a woman rejected by love fall in love before one jumps into the ice-covered Mississippi and the other jumps into the praxis of politics. 1m, 1f. 10 min. Sixty-three productions, including The Oslo Players, University of Oslo, Norway; Krefeld, Germany; Hollywood Actors Theatre, Hollywood, CA; Shell Lake Drama Club, Shell Lake, Saskatchewan; Vancouver Secondary Schools Theatre Festival, Vancouver, B.C.; American College Theatre Festival, Sioux Falls, SD; Hunter College New Play Festival, New York, NY. LEDGE
Mary could jump and end it all if Tom, who also wants to jump, would get out of her way. A romantic comedy on the edge. 1m, 1f. 10 min. Forty-one productions, including Kiwanis Music & Theatre Festival, Oshawa, Ontario; Vagabond Players, Hollywood, CA; Inner Space Theatre, New York, NY; Theatre East, Los Angeles, CA; Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA. ONE-ACT PLAYSGARAGE SALE
Warren's starting over. He's selling everything-–pajamas, wedding pictures, his past. Bargain-hunters, including his daughter and ex-wife, find more than they expected, while Garcia wins at Monopoly. 5m (1 Latino), 3f. 60 min. Winner, Grand View College Prairie Playwrights Festival, Des Moines, IA, and The Playwrights' Center of San Francisco Dramarama. Grand View College, Des Moines, IA; The Source Theatre, Washington, DC. PATRIOTS
In a neighborhood tavern two strangers talk. Terrorists, or undercover agents? Charley and Alice take matters into their own hands. What's a patriot to do? And what are those soldiers doing outside Charley's tavern? Single set. 3m, 1f, 30 minutes. I WANT TO BE AN INDIAN
A white liberal who wants to be an Indian gets his chance one night in a bar on a reservation. Single set. 3m (2 Native American). 30 min. Actors Theatre of Louisville; Turtle Mountain Community College, Belcourt, ND; Concerned Productions, Santa Fe, NM; Little Hoop Community College, Fort Totten, ND; Venice Playwrights Festival, Venice, CA; University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE; Standing Rock Community College, Standing Rock, SD; New One-Act Theatre Ensemble, Los Angeles, CA. APPLES
A deconstructed Garden of Eden where Adam finds Lilith, and Eve and Satan reach an understanding. 2m, 2f. 30 min. Performers at Work, New York, NY; Off-Hollywood Theatre Company, Los Angeles, CA; Theatre of the Invisible Guests, Fargo, ND. COCKTAILS, DINNER
Should Sally and Arnie tell their spouses about their affair? Or will it spoil dinner? Should Bob and Bella confess their affair? And what's for dessert? 2m, 2f. 25 min. IT'S SO WOWOO
Larry wonders if he's an alien. If he is an alien, why haven't the other aliens told him? When his alien wife—one of many, in many dimensions—appears, his earthly wife has to make adjustments. 1m, 2f. 25 min. Winner, Teco Theatre Festival, Dallas, TX. HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW
In this present-day humorous and provocative back-and-forth between a smart aleck teenager and a man who seems to be Jesus, an unexpected theology emerges. Stimulating and thought-provoking for the open-minded, no doubt offensive to the closed-minded. 1 teenager, m or f, 1 adult m. 30 min. AFFAIRS OF RECKLESS HONOR
In a contemporary restaurant designed as a 19th century castle six women throw off convention and restraint, as well as their blouses, to re-enact the historically accurate bare-bosomed duels of an earlier age. 6w. 30 min. Written for Chicago "Babes With Blades" contest. |
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