Everything You Need
When Jeremy finds himself standing the a shop called “Everything You Need,” he has no idea how he got there. The owner, Ronny, doesn’t seem to be able to help him out with that question, but he can offer him a quick job for cash.
Jeremy is happy to take it because the job he’d come to this town to get turned out to be a scam. He’s nearly broke and just wants to catch a bus and get to somewhere else.
Turns out, though, that he can’t get out of town. No matter how many times he leaves, he keeps ending up back in that same shop. And Ronny doesn’t really have a good answer as to why that is happening.
Cast: 2 men, 1 woman
One set
Marlan In The Park
10 minute play
Eddie sent Marlan to buy the drugs. Now he’s found Marlan sitting on a bench unresponsive. He can’t get Marlan to answer him, so he tells Marlan to stay where he is and he goes to get the car.
When two women, Ariana and Kisha, come into the park to have a conversation, Marlan seems to be responding to the questions they ask.
But really, who is Marlan talking to?
Cast: 2 men, 2 women
One set
Pete And Max
10 minute play
Pete is a paraplegic in a wheelchair.
Max is blind.
They’ve been sent into the park together to do an exercise in “symbiotic relationships” to teach them both to work together using the abilities they have to find their way out of the park and back to the rehabilitation center.
At the rate they’re going, they’re likely to die in the park.
Cast: 2
No set
The Vacuum
Monica Cameron’s mother is to be buried tomorrow. But right now she’s far more involved in trying to fix the vacuum cleaner than she is in getting ready for the funeral.
As her husband Ray tries to find the right dress for the corpse and get everything prepared for the following day, he deals patiently with his wife’s distance.
Then Danny, Monica’s brother, shows up.
Once their mother is buried and the will is read, the strained relationships in Monica’s family bloom into full conflict. It turns out that their mother has left everything to Danny – only if Monica agrees to divorce Ray Cameron and make a new life for herself. If Monica doesn’t agree to the terms, then the money goes to a bogus charity.
It seems that the woman never forgave Monica for marrying beneath her, and she is determined to guilt her daughter into finally bending to her wishes.
Danny just wants the money. After all, he’s broke, as he always is.
Cast: 2 men, 1 woman
One set
Shooting Doves
One Act
Thomas Osteen comes home to find his elderly father sitting in the driveway of his suburban home shooting the doves that gather on the lawn and the power lines overhead.
Phineas is shooting the doves simply because he can. He is a widower, living with his married son, and he simply feels he has no purpose anymore.
They talk, for the first time since Phineas’ wife (Thomas’ mother) died, and they realize that despite loving each other, they simply don’t fit one another’s needs.
Cast: 2 men
One set
To All Those Both With Us And Gone On Before
Angela and Monique are life-long friends. On a sunny morning in Los Angeles, they sit on Monique’s patio in the hills and watch a handsome man in his forties come out of his house, swim naked, and then fall asleep in a lounge chair.
They are surprised when a young man comes out of the house, sees them and challenges them on their “peeping” at his dad.
As it turns out, they have something in common. Just that morning, Angela has found out that she is dying. Monique has invited her over to “ogle and leer” to cheer her up. The young man, Nathan, has just lost his mother to a long-term illness.
In the short time they spend together, they all begin to piece a way to survive both the losses that have happened, and those yet to come.
Cast: 2 women, 1 man
One set
Power In The Blood
POWER IN THE BLOOD is the story of Ezekiel, a Pentecostal Baptist, who spontaneously begins to bleed from wounds that mirror those of Christ on the cross. Ranger Hardgrove, a revival manager, finds the boy and buys him from his sister. His plan is to introduce the bleeding boy into the revival circuit and then reap the financial benefits from the “miracle”. Ranger encourages both Ezekiel and his public to believe that he may be capable of healing. Ezekiel’s ministry is successful, bringing financial reward to Ranger. Eventually Ranger begins to realize that his control is not complete. Ezekiel is hearing voices, and the healings may be real. In the end Ezekiel dies, and leaves behind many people whose lives will never be the same again. Ranger Hardgrove closes the play revealing that even he is beginning to believe in things he cannot see.
Cast: 1 man, 1 teenage boy, 3 women
Single set
The Secret Of The Universe
Constance is in the waiting room of a county hospital in Oregon waiting to see if her sister will survive her third suicide attempt. A Deputy Sheriff brings in a man named Jack to be evaluated by the doctor. It seems Jack wrecked his car, and although he is physically fine, his mental state is questionable as far as the Sheriff is concerned. It seems that Jack claims he must get to Gonzaga University in Washington state as soon as possible because he has the secret of the universe written on a MacDonalds’ Quarter pounder wrapper. Jack believes the Jesuit priests at Gonzaga will be able to interpret the mathematical formula that he has been miraculously given. Over a period of a few hours, Constance learns a great
deal about faith and trust. She gives Jack the keys to her car, and with some help from two night custodians at the hospital, he escapes. No one knows if Jack is crazy or not, but Constance does know that he has given her a sense of what it is like to believe that anything is possible.
Cast: 3 men, 3 women
Single set
Heaving Bosoms, Hairy Chests
Diane is a the author of a series of romance novels, written under four different names. There used to be a fifth “name” but it became too much work and so Diane, along with her agent Morgan, killed her off. One morning a man, who says he is a private detective, shows up at Morgan’s house looking for the “name” that died. The detective says he’s been hired by the woman’s ex husband to prove she’s dead so he can collect on an insurance policy. Diane and Morgan know there can’t be any ex husband because the woman never really existed. However no one knows she never existed except them and they’re afraid to tell the detective that! So Diane and Morgan concoct a plan to prove the woman who never existed is dead. What they don’t know is that Diane’s husband, Ed, and her mother have also come up with a plan. Unfortunately the plans meet head on and disaster looms. Ultimately they convince the man (who it turns out is not a detective but a travel agent from Nebraska) that the woman who never existed must remain hidden. In the process a bittersweet love story takes place.
Cast: 3 men, 2 women
Single set
The Night Is So Long
Parker Anderson is suffering with depression. Self-medicating with alcohol, even though he is in therapy, has caused him to lose his job and his house. At the opening of the play Parker and his wife, Julia, are moving into a small apartment. Parker is going to try to freelance as a graphic artist. Julia’s family and friends are all questioning her willingness to stay with Parker, who is incapable of holding a job or functioning well on a day to day basis. Julia loves Parker and remembers how he was before the depression. Her memories of him make her determined to stick with him until he is better. Parker loses his best friend, Michael, in an automobile accident and the event triggers suicidal thoughts. During the play the audience sees not only what is happening in Parker’s life, but the very battle going on in his head is seen. His father who abused him, his psychiatrist, and his dead friend, Michael, all appear and influence how Parker copes. Parker buys a gun to kill himself, but is found out by Julia and stopped. At the end of the play it is unknown if Parker is better or planning to try again.
Cast: 3 men, 3 women
Single set
A Short Time Of Near Perfection
Lazarus is a black veteran who is dying with a mysterious illness that the VA cannot seem to diagnosis. Teddy is a beautiful young man who has spent his life being called retarded because he never learned to read. Laura is newly widowed, in her early fifties and lost without her husband.
These three people meet on a beach in Southern California. Their coming together is coincidental, and yet it seems somehow fated. Laura and Lazarus are both in love with the beautiful Teddy, but know that they cannot act on it. He is more child than man. So they turn to each other for the love that they seek. Teddy drowns in the rough waters off the coast one day while out with Lazarus and Laura. The family that the three had developed together falls apart. Lazarus leaves.
Cast: 2 men, 1 woman
Single set
Accident Of Birth
Joey was an accident. His mother got pregnant with him when she was fifteen. She tried several home-style self-abortions, but they all failed and Joey was born. Joey was sexually abused when he was five by one of his mother’s boyfriends, a man named Buddy. Buddy died in an automobile accident that he swears Joey caused. Joey has spent his life in and out of the County jail on a variety of small-time burglary charges. He drinks too much, trying to ease the pain of a life without redemption. But everywhere he turns there seems to be more abuse waiting for him. He has been victimized while in jail. His mother generally does not acknowledge his existence and when she does it is only to humiliate him. But Rita, a bartender, likes Joey. She is nice to him. Joey asks Rita to go out with him, and fully intends to try to be nice to her. However, a lifetime of abuse and deprivation, coupled with too much alcohol, prove too potent a mixture. Joey accidently kills Rita trying to silence her after they’ve fought. Now he faces the death sentence, and his only companions are the ghosts of Buddy and Rita as he tries to make sense of everything that has happened to him.
Cast: 3 men, 2 women
No set
Dancing With The Bad Man
Erik James is running away. A hot, young Hollywood actor, he comes to a small beach on an island off the coast of Georgia after his sister’s death from cancer. During his sister’s long battle with cancer, Erik spent as much time with her as possible. At the time of her death, he was reading to her from a novel called SAND DANCER which is placed on this island, this beach. Erik promised his sister that when she got well he would bring her there, but now he never can. Lost and alone he comes to the island, to that particular beach, to mourn her. But fate has something else in store for Erik. His car won’t start when he gets ready to leave, and the ferry breaks down. Stranded on the island he finds help from a woman, a stranger he meets on the beach. Later he finds out this woman is the novelist, M. Rachel Davis (Maggie) who wrote SAND DANCER. Maggie is grieving, too. One year before her husband of fifteen years committed suicide on the beach. Maggie invites Erik to participate in her ritual of grieving. He does, and although the ritual works, it has unforeseen side affects on Erik.
Maggie and Erik becomes friends and eventually lovers. He finds the kindness he is desperate for after the loss of his sister, and she finds the both physical pleasure and an emotional rebirth in being with a man who desires her.
Cast: 1 man 1 woman
Single set
Go Home, Dave!
Matt Wilson is having a very bad Monday morning. His neighbor and questionable friend, Dave, shows up to complain about the coffee he is mooching. The night before Matt had taken his new girlfriend, Carol, to his mother’s for dinner. The meeting did not go well. And he has a huge project for a good client due at two o’clock that afternoon. In the midst of all of this, Matt’s former girlfriend, Debra, knocks on his front door. Debra is nine months pregnant. She broke up with Matt eight months before, leaving him for a rock and roll musician that she had met. Now Debra has discovered that the baby she is carrying is not the new boyfriend’s. Apparently Matt is the father. Suddenly Matt is faced with more problems than any one man should have. If he is indeed the father of Debra’s baby, does he want to take the child into his home to raise? Carol, his new girlfriend, is in her forties and may not want children. What will this mean to their relationship? His mother thinks Carol is too old for him, and she never liked Debra, so how will she take the news? Then Bob shows up at Matt’s apartment. He wants Debra back, even if the baby isn’t his. Is this the solution to Matt’s problem, or another kink in the road to happiness?
By the end of the play, Debra has had the baby and Matt has learned that being a biological parent does not make anyone a father.
Cast: 3 men, 3 women
Single set
Hungry To Be Touched
Lilla can see the dead. She always has been able to, but this time is very different. The ghost wants her to leave her home, her job, her life behind and go to where he leads her. He tells her she will find her heart’s desire if she does as he says. Where he leads her is to the home of Adam, a successful poet. Adam is financially comfortable because he wrote a book of poetry that was accessible to the masses. It became a best seller. Based on that fact and a story he’d told his agent in one of his letters, his agent has gotten him a contract to write a novel. What Adam doesn’t know is that all of this is a plan, an engineering of fate and lives. The ghost when he was alive was Adam’s best friend, Mike, an artist (painter) who was in love with him. Adam couldn’t return his love, only his friendship, but Mike cannot forget the man who gave him a home and a place to work. So he is bringing to Adam the things that will give him his heart’s desire. There are two problems: Lilla won’t lie and Adam’s agent, Margaret, is trying trying to erase Mike out of Adam’s life once and for all. All Mike’s plans look as though they will self-destruct, but fate and love do eventually win out.
Single set
2 men, 2 women
Midwestern Chum
Superintendent of Schools Jefferson Smith is a good man trying to do a very difficult job. The teachers union is about to call a strike, students are filing lawsuits over every kind of issue imaginable, and a few that are really creative, and the School Board’s three members seem determined to make his life as difficult as possible. When it becomes clear that not only are the odds against him, but that a political conspiracy exists to force him to resign, there is only one person who can save him. Eliana Garcia has served as the secretary to the Superintendent and the School Board for many years. She knows where the real power lies in a bureaucratic system. An army may move on its stomach, but a bureaucracy moves on its support staff. Eliana calls on the network of support personnel from office staff to building services, and succeeds in turning the tables in Jefferson Smith’s favor. At least until the next lawsuit or potential strike.
Single set
3 men, 3 women
Lead Me To Heartbreak
One Act
All Dave did was go home with the woman who invited him. Now he finds himself being held at gun point, dressed only in his boxers, by the woman’s ex-boyfriend.
It seems that Ed wants Maggie to take him back.
Dave just wants to retrieve his pants and go home.
But nothing is ever simple, is it?
Single set
2 men, 1 woman