Plays
This is a full-length one act play encompassing 6 scenes depicting different points in the criminal justice process in response to a crime that occurred. It examines how an individual is arrested and tried for a crime he did not commit.
Run time 1 hour - 1 hr 15 mins.
The play focuses on a young married couple and begins one morning with the wife viewing a cardinal outside her kitchen window. She believes the cardinal is a sign of her recently deceased aunt returning to pay her a visit. This begins a verbal tug-of-war between the wife and her husband centering on faith versus reason.The dialogue between the two seems to place the husband, a trial attorney, at an unfair advantage over his wife. However, the wife, not to be underestimated, quickly turns the match into her own cross-examination of the husband regarding their relationship and how he would define their love for each other. At the end of the play it is the wife who, in her own playful way, has placed her husband's structured, rational views into question.
Run time 10-12 minutes
It is the 1990s and a non-descript city neighborhood is slowly regentrifying. Two police officers -- one a hardened and racist veteran, the other young, college educated and at the early phase of his career -- are on foot patrol during the early part of a June evening. While the older officer tries to acclimate his younger colleague to what he views as their role in the neighborhood, the younger officer has a different view of his chosen profession. Their night will eventually take a fatal turn when the older officer shoots and kills an unarmed mentally disabled teenager. What ensues is an evening wherein the investigation into the shooting and the separate de-briefings of the involved officers devolves into a battle between truth and narrative. This leaves the younger officer at a cross-roads where he has to choose between the two.
Run time 1 hour 30-45 minutes
After years of bouncing between therapists, Eddie begins a session with a new therapist and is gradually prompted to confront the impact past events have had on his life. Despite his hardened veneer, Eddie returns to moments when he was a boy that have followed him in adulthood. Through the subtle inquiries of his therapist, Arlene, Eddie is brought to a moment of recognition wherein the memories he has held onto are revealed to be more damaging than he realized.
Run time 40 minutes
A man is brought before a judge in a judicial system with serious flaws wherein there is more concern for the machinations of the process than there is for innocence.
This short play became part of the longer A Scale of Justce in Aeolian Mode.
Run time 10-12 minutes
Two individuals are forced to quarantine in place during a pandemic, except one of them is not up to the task. Life as it is has been thrown into uncertainty. Through the recollection of happy moments from the past and idealized plans for the future, the other individual is able to reassure their partner that life will resume. All that matters for the moment though is each other.
Run time 10 minutes
A young man, Alston, is attending a wedding solo and sitting out the cocktail hour at his assigned reception table when he meets fellow wedding attendees Pam and Dean Kendall. The normal social awkwardness one may experience when meeting strangers is exacerbated by the Kendall’s garrulous nature, especially that of the wife Pam. What ensues is a frustrating encounter wherein Alston is verbally restrained among the barrage of words emanating from Pam. It is not until Alston eventually seizes control of the conversation and attempts to provide the Kendalls with an object lesson on boorish behavior that they recognize where the problem lies in their encounter with him. The result is a confirmation of what the Kendalls have always known about each other.
Run time 15-20 minutes
Two parents are called to school to discuss the impact of their 8 year old son’s drawing and engage in a vigorous debate over the school principal’s reaction.
Run time: 30 minutes
Four female family members gather in the kitchen of a shared multi-family home in the Bronx on a hot August Sunday evening in 1980. Banal discussions about the weather and earlier dinner preparations soon turn into an examination of the lifestyle and marriage prospects of a fifth female family member who is no longer present and has returned to her Manhattan apartment. There is disagreement among the women as to what is best for her as she approaches her 30s. What ensues is an examination of faith, morality, women’s roles in the family, the decisions they make, and a nagging secret one of them holds.
Run time: 75 minutes
Successes
What's in a Name Anyway? performed by the New Deal Creative Arts Center, Lane Auditorium, Poughkeepsie, NY as part of the 10x10 Fest on March 26 and 27, 2022.
Apophenia and Breughel's Flowers performed September 24, 25 and 26, 2021 at the Brewster Theater Playwright's Festival, Carmel, NY.
Apophenia was a semi-finalist in the Lake Shore Players 18th Annual 10-minute play festival, 2021.
If Crayons Were Bullets selected for production as a finalist on August 28, 2021 at the Hopkinton Center for the Arts, as part of the Enter Stage Left One-Act Play Festival, Hopkinton, MA.
Dragonfly produced live at the Whiting Theatre at Center for the Arts, April 22, 23 & 24, 2021, Homer, NY
Dragonfly reading presentation by Glimmer Globe Theater, April 11, 2021, Cooperstown, NY