O RUMBLES OF JOY! (40 min.) 5-7 roles depending on doubling (2M; 3-5M/F). Also opt. percussionist. Drama with comedy. Middle-aged sculptor discovers his creativity within a block of Tennessee marble. Historical fact/fantasy. One character is the Spirit in the stone. Others (incl. Public Opinion and Washington) are thoughts that intrude on Mr. Potter's attempt to focus on the work he wants to design. Order from JAC Publishing www.jacneed.com or jacneed@aol.com.
SITTING DUCK SEASON. (~40 min.) Drama. 1 M; 1 F. A compulsively precise, successful business-woman is an inside trader hiding from the law in an isolated cabin in Vermont. Her conscience in the form of an unpleasant young man shows up. Who's the sitting duck? Very current. Heavy-hitting. Order from JAC Publishing & Promotions www.jacneed.com (jacneed@aol.com)
EMBRACING THE UNDERTOAD. (115 min.) 3F. Drama. A waitress, her lesbian lover, and her tuned-into-the-aura-of-the-universe sister who is not quite of this world struggle for love, life after death and sanity one stormy evening in North Carolina. Secrets are revealed. Humor, anger, beauty, hope. One-act version premiered at Bailiwick Rep. (Chicago) as winner of Lesbian Theatre Initiative. Finalist for the Jane Chambers Award. Workshop productions: NYC, Seattle.
HUMANS REMAIN. 5F, 2M (plus 1F dancer). Full-length drama. Mostly African-American cast. A well- meaning "foreigner" attempts to rescue the White Cliff Kinfolk - a mixed-race family isolated from civilization in the hills of New Jersey for over 200 years. Love. Death. History. Magic. Nature. Belief. The Spirit of Africa. Winner: New Millenium Competition. Chosen for Lark residency (NYC), Karamu House (Cleveland) Reverie and Moondance International Film Festival finalist; Reva Shiner semi-finalist. "A big play with a big heart" - Steven McKinley Henderson.
TUGBOAT LOVE . (15-20 min.) Comedy. 1F; 2M. No depth of plot or subtle subtext in this one. Written to be performed in a swimming pool (works on dry land too). Li'l Toot, is in love with the Statue of Liberty, but is so tongue-tied he can barely "toot." His lady love - fed up with immigration quotas , wants to return to France. Gull wants to go too to experience French cuisine. Will Toot get up his nerve to speak? Will he tow the Lady to France? Will Gull ever get a healthy meal? Will the Lady and Toot find true love? Order from Brooklyn Publishers: www.brookpub.com ("A scream!" - audience member, Texas.)
SEDUCING RAMONA. (10-15 min.) Comedy. 1M; 1F. Prehistoric married couple brought to the brink of divorce when a request for the playscript the wife has scratched on the wall of their cave arrives. Couple may be any age from teens on up. "Moving and very, very funny." - audience member - Paw Paw, MI. production.)
EVENING PRIMROSE IN OHIO. (30 min.) Comedy/drama. 1M; 1F. Two very-different college-age people come together in a laundromat. Every-thing doesn't come out clean. Multiple award-winning. Quirky comedy. Order from Bakers Plays www.bakersplays.com .
LOLA AND THE PLANET OF GLORIOUS DIVERSITY. Comedy/drama. 5F; 4M. Music, movement and imagination-infused allegory. What if the world was devastated by war and only six young people survived? What would each contribute to rebuilding? They succeed only after splitting into separate planets. Lola, three-personed God, and a baby are instrumental in creating a new world. Opportunity for a creative director with musical sensibility. Viewpoints method would be perfect! Premiere available.
THE FORTIFICATION OF MISS GRACE WREN. (30 min.) 1M; 1F. Drama with laughs and a lot of heart. NYC elementary teacher is traumatized by 9/11. She wants to retreat into the past. A statue of Peter Stuyvesant offers love, helps her find strength. Humor. Magic. Sweetness. Love. Multiple award-winner. Samuel French finalist. Order from: www.jacneed.com (JAC Publishing + Promotions) or jacneed@aol.com.
BRONCO BUSTER. (10-12 min.) 2M; 1F. Comedy. 1885 - The Arizona Territory. Sculptor Frederic Remington sends hung-over cowboy Gabby to find a horse for a model. Gabby offers his own old horse, Betty. Remington is aghast. Gabby doesn't live up to his prettified vision of the Old West and neither does Betty. ("I fell out of my chair laughing." "Smart, funny, fantastic language, distinct characters - all with dramatic arcs, historic and yet contemporary - not to mention I learned a bit of art history." - audience members at NJ Rep. )
QUICK-LIST OF ALL AVAILABLE PLAYS
FULL-LENGTH PLAYS:
Embracing the Undertoad.....................................3F
Harmony................................................................4F; 4M
Humans Remain....................................................5F; 2M + F African dancer
Lola and the Planet of Glorious Diversity.............5F; 4M
Necessary Geography...........................................4F; 2M
Play Nice!..............................................................3F; 1M
Women w/o Walls..................................................4F
Frontier..................................................................2M; 1F; 1M/F
The Power of Birds................................................3F; 2M
Suki Livingston Opens Like a Parachute.............3F; 2M
ONE-ACT PLAYS (15 minutes to one hour long):
Allie's Appendix.....................................................4F; 1M
Blood Sisters.........................................................3F
Escape in a White Toyota.......................................2F; 1M
Evening Primrose in Ohio.....................................1F; 1M
Feathers Fly...........................................................7F; 4M
The Fortification of Miss Grace Wren....................1F; 1M
The Great All-Dominican Championship Playoff Game...3M
The Length of a Dream...........................................3F; 2M + 1M non-speaking
Listen! The River....................................................1F/M
O Rumbles of Joy!..................................................2M; 3-5 M/F
Queen for a Day .....................................................1F; 2M
Roses to Plan ........................................................1F; 1M
Saint Anthony and the Appendix......................... ..2F; 3M
Sitting Duck Season...............................................1F; 1M
Stand Strong, Miss Wren........................................1F
Snug Harbor............................................................2F
Tugboat Love..........................................................1F; 2M
SHORT PLAYS (less than 15 minutes long):
Bronco Buster...........................................................1F; 2M
B-U-D-F-U-D-1-2-9-Z-K.................................................2F; 2M
Communicating with Rocks......................................2F
Cutie Pie and the Queen............................................2M
Deja Vu All Over Again.............................................1F; 1M
David's Disappearance.............................................2M
Gloom, Doom and Soul-Crushing Misery..................1F; 1M; 1F/M
Lakeesha Crosses the Border...................................2F
Life 101......................................................................1F; 1M
Mirror Mirror...............................................................2F
Poetic License...........................................................3M
Purity and the Prince.................................................1F; 1M
Save the Turkey!........................................................2F; 2M
Seducing Ramona.....................................................1F; 1M
Squeezing Papayas...................................................1F; 1M
Take a Bite Out of Life................................................3F
The Straight and Narrow............................................2F; 1M/F
Sylvia and Jackie......................................................3F; 1M
Take a Load Off..........................................................2F; 1M
MONOLOGUES (collection):
Marching on High - Audition and Performance Monologue Collection
NECESSARY GEOGRAPHY -- The Early Years of Marjory Stoneman Douglas. (approx. 2 hours) 4F; 2M (w/o doublecasting, roles for many more). Drama. Based on the first 24 years in the life of Marjory Stoneman Douglas who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993 for saving the Florida Everglades from extinction. World premiere available.
SAVE THE TURKEY! (10 min.) 2F; 2M. Comedy with not-so-subtle anti-war subtext. The day before Thanksgiving, Tom Turkey wants to let Mr. Farmer "draft" him into service. Tom's mother tries to dissuade him. Martha Stewart shows up to cook the Farmer's holiday feast. Tom realizes it's Farmer wants to serve him. A hit at NJ Rep's Theatre Brut.
SCRIPTS and MONOLOGUES
Short Synopses
PLAY NICE! Comedy-drama. 3 F, 1 M (teens to early 20s, though may be cast older). A look at the power of imagination as used by the Diamond siblings to cope with the Dragon Queen - their mother. Chosen for workshop at Cleveland Public Theatre. "Challenging and rewarding theater" - Michele Travis, NYC director. World premiere available.
FULL-LENGTH PLAYS
PAGE LAST UPDATED 7/09
HARMONY. Comedy-drama. 4F, 4M. Motherhood vs music. A violinist struggles to put aside her career to raise her son with the odds stacked against her, realistically (community) and surrealistically. Infused with music and imagination. Sections of dialogue may be sung if desired. Winner Maxim Mazumdar International Competition. Equity premiere available.
LIFE 101. (10 min.) 1F; 1M. Comedy. Finally, the answer to who created the world. A showdown between an artist who creates and a research scientist who observes. Creationism vs evolution. A whirlwind trip that takes Earth from a dry, dead place to Adam and Eve.
WOMEN w/o WALLS. (80-90 min.) 4F. Drama with laughs and a fierce underbelly. Absur-dist plot weaves around death, love and a breakthrough. A ride on an express sub way turns out to be a frightening and eye-opening trip for a tightly-laced music student, a music-obsessed punk, and a one-legged lesbian beggar. Metaphorical boatman for the journey is a nurse who is older than time. Lots of room for directorial/production input. Surreal, elemental set. World premiere available.
ONE-ACT PLAYS
The comedies all have an underlying drama. The dramas all contain laughs.
ST. ANTHONY AND THE APPENDIX (~45 min.) 3M; 2F Surreal comedy with heart. Wally goes to St. Anthony"s hospital to get his appendix removed and finds that the Powers That Be have more in mind. What's a good Presbyterian boy to do when his alter-ego is a statue of a Catholic saint? (multiple award-winning/much produced). Published in an anthology: "8 Plays from the Mae West Fest 8: New Theatre by Women" (available from www.MaeWestFest.org) or the playwright.
FRONTIER. (~ 90 min.) 2M; 1F; 1 M/F What if Mother Nature is finally fed up with the way humans are treating the planet? What if an environmental activist gives up and refocuses her energy into building a marriage? What if a messianic wolf is out to save the human race by stealing their babies and starting a new family of man that
will respect the earth? Highly theatrical. World premiere available.
SQUEEZING PAPAYAS. (10-15 min.) Comedy. 1M; 1F. Based on real people and events. Ex-President of Mexico, Jose Lopez Portillo, and his wife, Sasha Montenegro, former porn star, struggle over possession of his mansion and discover the love which has been buried beneath french fries, sex, and greed. Excellent for senior theatre. At Senior Theatre Conference in Columbus, OH, noted for best use of a metaphorical fake breast. Don't ask.
FEATHERS FLY. (~60 min.) Comedy. 4M; 7F. So what's the true story behind the headline-making uproar about Lola and Pale Male, the two redtail-hawks who were dispossessed from the swanky Fifth Avenue apartment building in New York City last year? This play answers all questions, pitting Mary Tyler Moore against Paula Zahn in a knock-down, drag-out battle for the rights of the common man and birds. The main characters are Hispanic. The play is a parallel look at haves and have nots in today's America. Premiere available.
NOTE: Published plays should be obtained through publishers, even perusal copies. See Prices and Ordering.
"Robin has a habit of building suspense within the plot, allowing the characters to just be themselves. She creates the exact kind of work that I look for both as an artist and as an audience member." -- Bryan Kenneth (producer/director, NYC) ***
MONOLOGUES
There are two long monologues, LISTEN! THE RIVER and STAND STRONG, MISS WREN. See above under one-act plays.
Both short and long monologues are available in a collection; MARCHING ON HIGH -- AUDITION AND PERFORMANCE MONOLOGUE COLLECTION. This collection contains 50 monologues, ranging from short audition pieces to performance pieces that run over two pages long. There are monologues for men and women, girls and boys. Many may be used by either sex and a range of ages.
"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."
- Maya Angelou
(1.) PURITY AND THE PRINCE. (10-15 min.) 1F; 2M. Comedy/fable. Purity, who bears a strong resemblance to Snow White, is a virgin (maybe) who has been saving herself for a tall, handsome prince. When he finally arrives, not all that handsome, she is has doubts. After that first kiss, there will be no turning back. He isn't big on commitment. If this isn't really true love, they could be stuck with each other. ("The play sparkles!" - Jewel Seehaus-Fisher, Artistic Director, Teachers Theatre of NJ.)
ROSES TO PLAN. (20 min.) Realistic comedy/drama. 1 M; 1 F. She's a kleptomaniac but he has to leave her alone. Love brings strength to an elderly Jewish couple. No where near as grim as it sounds! Multiple award winner. Order from ArtAge Publications at www.seniortheatre.com.
DAVID'S DISAPPEARANCE. (15 min.) 2M. Drama. Old-timer mailman rescues a young man bent on a bizarre means of self-destruction. Funny, sad, strange and hopeful. Multiple award-winner.
SUKI LIVINGSTON OPENS LIKE A PARACHUTE. (~90 min.) 3F; 2M (1F and 1M cover many doubled characters). A 50-year-old woman artist is going blind. She travels with her youngerself through memories from the repressed '50s and activist '60s (including awakening sexuality, the Civil Rights movement, the Peace Corps, and a first marriage ruptured by mental illness) in order to recapture visual landscapes and her diminishing self-confidence. A journey full of tears and laughter. World premiere available.
THE POWER OF BIRDS. (~90 min.) 3F; 2M. A nature-loving Dad leaves his family for parts unknown and Mom moves the 12-year-old twins and Grannie to another state. Young Zoe feels her heart will stop beating if she can't bring Dad home. How she tries to accomplish this involves kidnapping Grannie and hiding her in a tree house. Grannie changes alarmingly; Mom changes for the better; Zoe and her twin Charlie grow into adulthood. (The twins may be played by actors in their teens or early 20s. As a one-act, a winner in the 2005 Kernodle International Competition. As a full-length, residencies at Will Geer Topanicum Botanicum (Topanga Canyon, CA) and Phoenix Theatre (Arizona). World premiere available.
ALLIE'S APPENDIX (~45 min.) 4F; 1M. Lesbian version of ST. ANTHONY AND THE APPENDIX.
QUEEN FOR A DAY. (45 min.) 2M; 1F. Drama. Twelve-year-old boys deal with a mother who is more childish than either of them and find an unlikely friendship in the bargain. Multiple award-winner. Young women play the roles of the boys well. Order from Bakers Plays www.bakersplays.com .
(2.) CUTIE PIE AND THE QUEEN. (10-15 min.) 3M. Gay version of PURITY AND THE PRINCE.
(3.) MIRROR MIRROR. (10 min.) 2F. Lesbian version of PURITY AND THE PRINCE.
THIS PLAY HAS BEEN SO POPULAR THERE'S THREE VERSIONS:
BLOOD SISTERS. (15 min.) 3F. Dramatic. Based on headlines. Three Dominican nuns are convicted of vandalizing a nuclear missile silo in Colorado. They beg for a merciful sentence. A winner of the 2008 Goshen Peace Play Prize. "A beautiful play. I truly appreci-ate the detail in all three women." - Angelique M. Bouffiou, actor.
THREE DUDES WITH A PLAN. (10 min.) 3M. Comedy. In a seedy bar, a man with a yen for co-eds, Osama bin Laden, and the pyroman-iac bartender agree that women are ruining their lives. They hatch a plan to show women who is boss! Guaranteed to offend just about everyone.
THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW. (10 min.) 2F; 1M/F. Absurdist. Lots of laughs but philosophical subtext. Two nuns are banished to an icy nowhere place, travelling on a single ski (with a personality of its own). They want to be redeemed, but a suspicious penguin appears and all hell breaks loose.
LISTEN! THE RIVER. (35 min.) 1M/F - any age. Deals with death in a unique and sensitive way. A sick woman gives her cat to her sister for safe-keeping. The country cat must adjust to living in a NYC apartment with a person who "has a priority list and I'm nowhere near the top." As his faraway mistress' health fades, the cat must deal with frightening situations in NY. Not at all cutsey or sentimental. Alternately funny and heartwrenching.
TAKE A LOAD OFF. (10 min.) 1M; 2F. Off-beat comedy. Strange goings on in a southern laundromat on Christmas Even. Writen by The Lark Underground Writers.
THE GREAT ALL-DOMINICAN CHAMPIONSHIP PLAYOFF GAME. (20+ min.) 3M. Based on true events. In 1937, Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo pays Negro League pitcher Satchel Paige to play for him. The stakes are literally life and death.
DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN. (10 MIN.) 1F; 1M. The Oracle of the Yankees tries to find the answer to Yogi Berra's slump. Lots of fun.
STAND STRONG, MISS WREN. (~10 min.) 1F. Compiled from THE FORTIFICATION OF MISS GRACE WREN (see that script). "It is one of the most touching pieces relating to 9/11 that I have ever seen, told with the simplicity and earnestness of a grade school history lesson." - Julie
Sharbutt for Off Off Broadway Online.)
ESCAPE IN A WHITE TOYOTA. (~10 min.) 2F; 1M. Essentially a one-woman monologue (the other woman has only one line). As an elderly woman painstakingly makes her way across a parking lot, escaping from a hospital, her thoughts are voiced by a younger version of herself. Visions of her husband increasingly young block her progress. She is increasingly angry, finally realizing she'll never escape unless she deals with him. Absurdist but frighteningly real.
GLOOM, DOOM, AND SOUL-CRUSHING MISERY. (8-10 min.) 1M; 1F; 1M/F. A depressed Russian couple yearns to be even more depressed, but a cheery travel agent offers to make their dreams come true.
SNUG HARBOR. (10 min.) 2F. A teenager, newly jobless, is at risk of homelessness. A young girl from an earlier time meets her on the Staten Island ferry. Past and present collide.
SYLVIA AND JACKIE. (10 min.) 3F; 1M. Two sisters deal with life, death and priorities. "First" can mean many things.
THE LENGTH OF A DREAM. (~30 min.) 3F; 2M (plus one non-speaking male; room for additional non-speaking females if desired). In ancient Greece, women are fed up with getting no credit for their contributions to society. An unnamed woman steps forward to reveal that she created famous sculptures, but an Olympian god, messing around on earth in typical Olympian god fashion, puts an end to her plans.
B-U-D-F-U-D-1-2-9-Z-K. (10 min.) 2F; 2M. A scientist must assure that a female panda is impregnated. An old boy friend tries to stop her, but she must choose between love of country and love of him.
LAKEESHA CROSSES THE BORDER. (~10 min.) 2F. An elephant is stolen from her native Africa and finds herself in Mongolia. A camel is extremely unhappy about the illegal immigrant and refuses to give her water even as death faces the elephant.
TAKE A BITE OUT OF LIFE! (~7 min.) 3F. In 1912, sisters on a famous cruise ship and a young Scottish crew member. One sister enjoys every moment of life, the other deprives herself -- unaware that "tomorrow" isn't going to come.
