David K. Farkas
he, him, his
Lake Forest Park, WA
Biography

David K. Farkas is the co-organizer of an informal theater group that stages 10-minute plays. We are based in the Lake Forest Park suburb of Seattle. Dave has written many plays for the group. He has Kindle-published Fourteen Jewish-Flavored 10-Minute Plays and Academic Life in Sixteen 10-Minute Plays. He has also written a full-length play based on the life of Stephen Crane and a child-friendly version (no bed trick) of All's Well That Ends Well.

Plays

by David K. Farkas

I've placed these ten 10-minute plays in the public domain for anyone to read, perform, or modify. They are also included in my book PERFORMING 10-MINUTE PLAYS WITH FRIENDS. 2nd ed. Amazon Kindle 2023.

Cast:
These plays are diverse and (except for "Goodbye from SILVE") easy to stage. The cast size (with doubling) ranges from 2 to 5.
by David K. Farkas

A 10-minute play (never performed): A mentally unstable Horizon Airlines ground-crew worker steals an airliner, threatens to topple the Seattle Space Needle, and has two F-15s preparing to shoot him down.

Cast:
Three who identify as male, one who identifies as female, and one child (either gender).
by David K. Farkas

A 10 minute play (never performed): Sam Dowling’s final moments there is respect and disdain, love and resentment, kindness and cruelty, and an extraordinary final act of forgiveness.

Cast:
Two who identify as male, one older, one young. Two who identify as female, one older, one younger.
by David K. Farkas

A never-performed 10-minute play (erotic and perhaps transgressive): When a psychology professor has a nervous breakdown, a trio of young women develop a plan to get him back on track.

Cast:
Three who identify as female, young women; one who identifies male, an early middle-aged man.
by David K. Farkas

A 10-minute play (never performed): In the year 1040, Greg’s long-time girl friend is falling in love with a new face in this New England fishing village. Then a vessel wrecks in a storm, and Greg’s rescue squad ventures out into the perilous surf.

Cast:
Two actors who identify as male, young; one actor who identifies as female, young; two actors who identifies as male, middle-aged.
by David K. Farkas

A ten-minute play (never performed): Al, a salesman and the playwright’s father, watches with cheerful bemusement as prosperity forces itself upon a clueless store owner. Al’s life is also changing, in this gentle story of male friendship in the years after World War II.

Cast:
Two who identify as male and who are older. One who identifies as male, young.
by David K. Farkas

This (never performed) 10 minute play is highly unusual in its subject matter and the kind of theatrical experience it generates. The play incorporates the story of Baucis and Philemon in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The elderly couple are rewarded for graciously hosting the Zeus and Hermes, who are disguised as hungry travelers. In my expansion of Ovid's story, the fate of Humankind hangs on whether the couple will show kindness to strangers. I also extend Ovid's story far into the future to give the play more spiritual resonance than Ovid intended in his story. The play has ritualistic elements and considerable mythic power.

Cast:
Requires a cast of 5, 3 who identify as male, 2 who identify as female. The actors double up into a total of 11 roles.
by David K. Farkas

A 10-minute play (never performed): Terry claims that the Cosmos has assigned her a special life-mission: preventing suicide. She succeeded with Greg, and they have begun a relationship. But who exactly is Terrie?

Cast:
The 5 major roles (and 3 minor roles) can be performed by 4 actors, 2 who present themselves as male and 2 as female. One must be able to sing (a capella).
by David K. Farkas

A ten-minute play (never performed): Ben is a self-acknowledged screw-up and loser. Sandra suspended his driver’s license for monumental stupidity. But a moment of crystalline honestly changes their lives.

Cast:
Sandra Williams: In her early 40’s, a city magistrate. Ben Stepnik: In his early 40’s, a former rock guitarist, a sometime handyman, and a general screw-up. He is wearing an eye-patch.
by David K. Farkas

A 10-minute play (never performed): One impulsiveness act of kindness sets Professor Thomas Lockwood’s life on a long downhill slide. But, despite the booze and sexual indiscretions, he holds a few pieces of his life together.

Cast:
Two who present as male; Two who present as female
by David K. Farkas

A 10-minute play (never performed): What could be worse than the death of your husband and children at the hands of a brutal regime’s security police? Elena is about to find out in this drama of terrible tragedy, savage humor, and faint redemption.

Cast:
A Security Police Officer, either who presents as either male or female; Anton, a member of the Resistance; Elena, also an insurgent and Anton’s wife; Stefan, another insurgent—a wild and crazy fellow in the manner of Shakespeare’s Mercutio. There is some doubling up of minor characters.
by David K. Farkas

A 10-minute play (never performed): In the midst of the Great Depression, Joe, an ambitious young Jew right out of accounting school, agrees to work for the “family” of his baseball buddy Dominic. But Dominic violates the Mafia code.

Cast:
Three who present as male. Two are young, one is older.
by David Farkas

10-minute play (never performed): In 1911, Frederick Taylor, the guru of Scientific Management, is one of the most celebrated men in America. But a crusading Congressman from the Pennsylvania coalfields and a woman whom Taylor fired from her much-needed factory job will change all that.

 

Cast:
Three who present male; one who presents female
by David K. Farkas

A ten-minute play (never performed): In the violent world of espionage, love takes strange forms, as two lovers and two theater-goers discover.

Cast:
A young actor who identifies as female and a young actor who identifies as male.
by David K. Farkas

A professor instructs his students on how to conduct research and succeed in the modern research university. A horse, a lion, a zebra, and an aggressive fly are active participants in the research.

Cast:
Professor Student 1/Student 2/Graduate Student Zebra/Horse/Research Participant 1/Research Participant 2 Lion/Fly
by David K. Farkas

Barry Bright, bullied by his greedy daughter and son-in-law, reluctantly turns out tired imitations of the paintings that made him a celebrity 50 years ago. Now he draws the line at signing forged “Barry Brights.” He doesn’t know that Lucy, his new studio assistant, has been hired to make him “more manageable.” But sweet freedom is about to whisper in his ear.

Cast:
Suggested minimal casting: Auctioneer Barry Bright Deborah/Lucy Carl/Rafael NOTE: If Barry Bright is off-stage during the Auctioneer’s monologue, one actor can play both parts.