Full Length Plays
Tiny Empty Nest
1M, 2W, 110 minutes.
Read on New Play Exchange
Ben and Claire have been married for 27 years. Their only child, Phoebe, has just left for college and, without the daily distractions of parenting, it is becoming harder to ignore the empty spaces in their relationship. With their marriage in crisis, Ben makes a surprising proposal: He wants them to audition for Tiny Empty Nest, a reality television show that chronicles new empty-nesters living together in a community of tiny houses. Claire, who has cultivated skills, interests, and opportunities independent of Ben, is pretty sure Ben hasn’t found a solution. However, it’s been a while since he took the initiative, so she goes along. Audition day arrives and, with nowhere to hide and a tiny house to build, Ben and Claire search for the emotional stamina they’ll need to keep moving forward together.
Reading: tiny_Theatre, Fort Myers, FL (2021)
Holy and Unruly
4M, 3W, 1 Any, 90 minutes.
Read on New Play Exchange
June 1593. At the height of her powers as monarch, disturbing dreams, bewildering visions, and inexplicable moments of panic plague England’s Queen Elizabeth. A petition for justice from Grace O’Malley, an aristocratic Irish pirate feared from England to Africa, brings the Queen’s emotional crisis to a head, prompting her to revisit choices she made for power—choices no man is asked to make. When Grace and the Queen meet, two of Europe’s most charismatic women wrestle with questions still relevant today: What does it take to rule your world? What are the costs?
Finalist: Ashland New Plays Festival, Ashland, OR (2019).
Winner, Stage-Play Category: Moondance International Film Festival (2019).
Reading: The Depot for New Play Readings, Hampton, CT (2019).
Workshop Production: New World Theatre, Concord, NH (2019).
Staged Reading: NEWvember Festival, AboutFACE Ireland, Dublin, Ireland (2018).
Cursetown
5M, 1W, 100 minutes.
Cursetown explores Boston’s shameful history of racism by tracing the interactions and eventual friendship between two men, one black (William) and one white (Fitzy). Both men are Red Sox fans, and their shared love of baseball serves as the common ground upon they eventually come together. Their friendship develops, haltingly at first, across thirty years of triumphant and heartbreaking Red Sox moments from 1975 to 2004. However, that friendship stands in stark contrast to a city and society plagued by systemic racism, where racist policies and attitudes stack the deck against William, an upstanding, community-minded lawyer and mentor, while propping up Fitzy, who succeeds despite personal problems and failings.
Short Plays
Black Santa
2M, 2W, 10 mins.
Read on New Play Exchange.
A holiday-party request disrupts the practiced peace of a company’s Social Committee. Power positions shift rapidly as characters navigate a mine field of micro-aggressions and white privilege, revealing how unconscious bias reinforces and perpetuates racism and sexism.
Production: Playwrights’ Platform 44th Annual Festival of New Plays, Boston, MA (2019).
Reading: Fusion New Works Festival, Albuquerque, NM (2019).
Workshop: Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Orlando, FL (2019).
Production: Renegade NOW Theatre Festival, Lansing, MI (2019).
Christmas Crime Scene
1W, 2M, 10 mins.
Read on New Play Exchange.
It’s late on Christmas Eve, and Santa has just turned up dead outside Nick Snow’s living room window. Was it murder? Will Nick, his Lady Caller Mary Vergennes, and Rudy Redd, a hardboiled, North Pole lawyer, save Christmas? Or will the holidays be the undoing of yet another family?
Every Creeping Thing
2 dinosaurs, 1 cockroach, 5 mins.
Read on New Play Exchange.
Remember the good old days, when no one had to worry about climate change and the only existential threat was an occasional rogue asteroid? Alas, it turns out Cretaceous-era politicians were ineffective too.
Production: Playwrights Round Table & Valencia Community College Festival of Five Minute Plays, Orlando, FL (2019).
Production: Funny Shorts Live!, Arts Bonita, Bonita Springs, FL (2019).
Last Gasp
2 Any, 10 mins.
Read on New Play Exchange.
In the not too distant future–or maybe it’s the very distant future–two scientists prepare a final lifeline for humanity. They’re overseeing an important project, Project Eden, which they will activate if a risky, last-ditch effort fails to save our species from climate-change extinction. As the all-important moment approaches, jealousy intrudes with disastrous effect.
Reading (upcoming): Mid-America Theatre Conference, Chicago, IL (2020).
Lost Season
2W, 10 mins.
Read on New Play Exchange.
A grandmother and her granddaughter mourn a shared loss in their own ways and try, as best they can, to adjust to their new, disrupted lives. With a treasured tradition reminding them of their pain, they create a new tradition that honors their loss but also helps them see joy in the life they now have and share.
Pretending
1M, 2W, 10 mins.
Bob’s fear of failure has become artistically and emotionally paralyzing. With his marriage at a crisis point, will he rediscover his confidence or will he bend under the weight of self-doubt?
Production: New York Theatre Festival, Summerfest, New York, NY (2018).
Production: Summer Shorts Festival, Theatre Workshop of Owensboro, Owensboro, KY (2018).
Short List: Short & Sweet Festival, Sydney, Australia (2019).
Something True
2 Any, 10 mins.
Read on New Play Exchange.
Young lovers navigate the tricky waters of intimacy.
Production: Short & Sweet Festival, Sydney, Australia (2019).
Production: Downtown Urban Arts Festival, New York, NY (2019).
Shortlist: King’s Shorts Festival of Ten Minute Plays, Nova Scotia, Canada (2019).
Walled
4 Any, 1 min.
Read on New Play Exchange.
Behold! A wall, and the fear that built it.
Production: Boston One-Minute Play Festival, Boston, MA (2019).
