The Stampistas

2 women, 1 man. Approximately 15 minutes. After working together for over a quarter of a century, one worker realizes that the relationship will never develop as fully as she'd like. Short play written for a challenge: to write a boring play in which the subtext is fraught with all sorts of repressed emotion. Inspired both by memories of Murray Schisgal's The Typists, on which the author worked as property master in its off Broadway production, and seeing bureaucrats doing their job as stampers in an Italian government office in Naples.

In the Mall

3 women, 1 man. Roughly five minutes. Shopping takes unexpected turns. Short play written for a challenge--there's only one complete sentence.

Downstairs at Elsinore

1 woman, 4 men. Roughly fifteen minutes. A prequel to Hamlet finds the guards at Elsinore in the armory, visited by Ethel, the Pirate King's Daughter; the pirates are part of the entertainment for the wedding of Claudius and Gertrude. Then there's this ghost on the battlements. . . To be premiered at the Fields of Honor Festival, Pointed Remarques Classical Theatre Company, Longmont, Colorado. See http://www.pointedremarques.org/

Twentieth Night

Adam Peal (Osric) greets Seb (Alex Coccia), Olivia (Linda Schuler), Viola (Karla Rothan) and Young Livvy (Rhea Kavari) in the reading at The Center on High, Columbus, May 19, 2007.

3 women, 2 men. Roughly twenty minutes. A sequel to Twelfth Night, eighteen years later. Viola and Olivia are now partners, as are Sebastian and Orsino, all having realized their true attractions. Their children, young Sebastian and young Olivia, are learning to fence. A message arrives for Prince Hamlet, who's just left Illyria to visit Sebastian and Orsino in Venice. Premiered at Stonewall Columbus, May, 2007.

Who's Herbert?

2 women, 1 man. All over 65. Runs approximately ten minutes or so. Residents of a retirement facility try to figure out who was married to Herbert, and if that's Herbert or not. Produced at the Senior Theatre League of America meeting, St. Louis, 2006, and at the Spokane Civic Theatre, Spokane, Washington, in May, 2008. Commissioned by Pat Barnett, Salt Lake City Senior Theatre, Utah, and Sarah Worthington, Footsteps of the Elders, Columbus, Ohio.

The Joys of Spam

Readers' Theatre, flexible casting Roughly ten minutes. Compilation of short verses celebrating the canned meat. Premiered by the Madison Children's Theatre, Madison, Alabama, October 2006.

Not the Delany Sisters

3 women. Approximately 15 minutes. Two sisters, over a century old, refuse to become objects of sentimental reportage. First produced at the Senior Theatre League of America conference in Columbus, Ohio, 2002.

Last Call

2 characters, gender flexible. Roughly five minutes. Friends have a last drink as the world comes to an end. Produced at the Asphalt Shorts Festival, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, 2006. The first version of the script was published in The Columbus Free Press online edition, June 2, 2006:
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/20/2006/1994