PLAYWRITING
SHORT PLAYS
ASSEMBLING THE MASSES: A young man stands on a street corner with a sign: BRING OUR SOLDIERS HOME. He has brief conversations with a business man, a young mother, an elderly person, a student, etc. They all have various reasons they can’t join his effort, but he perseveres and gains one key supporter. (written re: IRAQ 2005; could be tailored to another war or occupation)
COQ AU VIN: A couple celebrate their engagement at an intimate French restaurant. When the female alludes to “after we marry, I’ll help you shop”, the guy responds “is something wrong with my shirt?” and ends up yanking it off. Eventually, he is naked (except for a tablecloth wrapped around his waist) and he has challenged her to loosen up.
LOTUS ENVY: A young woman meets with a therapist and describes the envy she feels towards her cousin “Lotus” who is a movie star. In time, the therapist is able to lead her to developing her own interests and talents. However, a year later, when the cousin gets an Oscar, and the patient “can’t deal”, it’s the therapist who goes over the edge.
JOAN of ARC: Present Day. A young woman has a disastrous audition trying out for the lead in George Bernard Shaw’s St. Joan. She heads to a coffee shop, and encounters a present-day Joan of Arc whose visions direct them both.
THE GIRLS WHO CRIED DANISH (co-writer: Colin Callahan):
Life goes haywire one evening in a boarding school dormitory. The characters are seen through an absurdist lens; including Gina, heir to Domino Pizza fortune, Fern, a vigilant vegan and Dan, the faculty spouse determined to move out, pronto.
THOMAS HANGING: In a dark room, a young man hangs from a trapeze bar and “Mother” sits in a straight back wooden chair. There is a contraption on her head and her arms are raised with palms open. As they discuss the upbringing of Thomas, it is clear that the situation is absurd: Is she his mother? Why is there no door?
SHORT PLAYS Theme: “Impact of Strangers”
(Strangers influence our lives, our viewpoints and our future and may become friends or remain unknown.)
CALZONE WITH LEMON: A lawyer enters a pizzeria and butt heads with the owner until they discover they have more in common than they assumed.
MUSICAL PRELUDE: A woman planning to just buy her first guitar, enters into her first same-sex relationship with the owner of the music store.
NEW VET IN TOWN: A young veterinarian struggles to adapt to some challenging pet owners.
SISTERS INTERRUPTED: Two middle-aged sisters argue, as usual, in a junk/antique store, until a stranger mysteriously intervenes.
PISTACHIO: An uncle and his young niece learn a lesson from a teenage customer at the uncle’s ice cream shop.
FORECAST, HAIL: A non-binary nurse and a cisgender businessman clash and then get to know each other at a small city’s Sleep Out (to raise awareness and funds for the homeless).
FULL-LENGTH PLAYS
IT'S A HURRICANE, CHARLIE: full-length, original comedy
After surviving a hurricane, Charlie is distracted, trying to get the boat of his dreams at the island's fire sale, while Linda moves in an elderly couple whose home was destroyed. The couple seem harmless, even entertaining, until they almost sell Charlie and Linda’s condo out from under them.