ONE-ACT PLAYS.
One-Act and Ten-Minute Plays are like short stories. Unlike a full length, these little gems are microcosms of a bigger world seen under a microscope. They provide a close look at the building blocks of human strength and frailty which helps us understand our challenges and greatness.
THE 5564 TO TORONTO
Genre:Dark Comedy
Characters: 1m, 1w
Time: 10 -15 minutes
BURNING LOVE
Genre:Dark Comedy
Characters: 1m, 1w
Time: 10 -15 minutes
PERFECT MAID
Genre: Un-romantic Comedy
Characters: 2w
Time: 10 -15 minutes
FRONT FROM JUNEAU
Genre:Dark Comedy
Characters: 1m, 1w
Time: 10 -15 minutes
A LOST ART
Genre:Melancholy Comedy
Characters: 2w
Time: 10 minutes
WAR SHARKS
Genre: Absurd Naturalism
Characters: 2w, 1m, 1 child
Time: 20 minutes
THE EFFECTS OF DROUGHT . . .
Genre: Comedy
Characters: 2w, 2m
Time: 10 minutes
UNFAIR CHRISTMAS
Genre: Comedy
Characters: 2w
Time: 10 minutes
THE MOCK TURTLE AND ME or I WISH I WERE A WATER BEAR
Genre: Abusrdist in Verse
Characters: 3w
Time: 15-20 minutes
THE TURKEY PLAY
Genre: Holiday Comedy
Characters: 2m, 1w, 1 radio DJ
Time: 15 minutes
SQUATTER'S RIGHTS
Genre: Drama
Characters: 2m, 1 young teen,
Time: 10 minutes
LOVE POTION TANGO
Genre: Film-noir satire
Characters: 2m, 2-3w
Time: 10-15 minutes
A WALK DOWN THE AISLE
Genre: Tragi-comedy
Characters: 2m, 1w
Time: 15-20 minutes
SMALL TOWN NEWS
Genre: Dark comedy
Characters: 1m, 2w
Time: 10 minutes
A GENTLEMEN'S PACT
Genre: comedy
Characters: 2m, 1w
Time: 20-30 minutes
CROSSWINDS OVER THE SAANICH INLET
Genre: comedy/farce
Characters: 3m, 2w
Time: 25 minutes
THE 5564 TO TORONTO is a ten-minute play in which a young woman’s future is changed for the better when a strange note in the hands of a self-proclaimed superhero warns her to stay clear of the 5564 bus from Buffalo to Toronto.
Multi-award winning
Produced across the country
Published in Smith and Kraus Best Ten Minute Plays, 2018
BURNING LOVE is a one-act modern-day Romeo and Juliet in which the arbitrary rules of society attempt to keep two people from being together. When a passionate kiss isn't enough to mend their conflict perhaps setting fire to a Dodge pick-up truck will do the trick.
Multi-award winning and produced in several theaters
​
PERFECT MAID is a 10 minute play. When a young woman decides to get back together with the schmuck of a boyfriend who cheated on her, the maid, who cleaned-up the woman’s apartment and set her wounded life back on course, returns to keep the breakup in tact.
Multi-award winning and produced in several theaters
​
FRONT FROM JUNEAU is a ten-minute play. A woman learns something of herself and the kind of love she thought she would never have while searching for parts of a seaplane in the cold waters of the Saanich Inlet. (Published in Smith and Kraus Best Ten Minute Plays, 2018)
Multi-award winning and produced in several theaters
Published in Smith and Kraus Best Ten Minute Plays, 2017
​
​
A LOST ART is a ten-minute play about a new friendship between two women. One has lost something very important but doesn't know what it is. The other has a knack for finding anything that's lost, even when what's missing is a mystery.
Ensemble Theatre
WAR SHARKS is not a conventional play, though it may seem to read like one. It's about a women who comes to an obscure island in the Caribbean to rescue her sister from a strange world where the incidental actions of the everyday ring more true than dramatic events
THE EFFECTS OF DROUGHT is a ten-minute play about a community theater production of Mary Zimmerman's "Metamorphosis" which runs into production challenges. Not only has the town decided to levy fines for plays dealing with water shortage, but the director won't cast his own wife in the ingenue role claiming she's aged out.
Playground LA
UNFAIR CHRISTMAS is a ten-minute play prompted by the Christmas carol "We Three Kings." In this holiday short, two sisters compete over which of their kids will get the most presents from UPS, the Post Office and Federal Express
Produced in several theaters
THE MOCK TURTLE AND ME or I WISH I WERE A WATER BEAR is a an absurdist one-act play in verse that tells the odd story of a young girl who believes water should be conserved so that the human race and herself might continue to survive, not realizing that the extinction of the human race might be the point.
Playground LA Reading
THE TURKEY PLAY is a 10 minute play in which Merne and Mary discover it's not so easy to stuff a turkey when he's standing in your kitchen talking about his life's goals.
SkyLight Theater and Alimento
SQUATTER'S RIGHTS is a ten-minute drama about how three siblings, desperate to stay alive in the slums of a broken city, kill for love.
This play has been in theater readings but not yet produced - perhaps it's too tragic.
LOVE POTION TANGO is a 10 minute play that is a film noir re-enactment of the song Love Potion Number Nine, covered by the Searchers in 1963.
Village Playwrights
LGBTQ productions
A WALK DOWN THE AISLE is a one- act play about a southern-belle who is pregnant with a candidate's baby and coerced into marrying a public relations man whom she's never met.
SMALL TOWN NEWS is a ten-minute play where a small town journalist with big plans settles for a human interest piece on Salsa dancing in the heartland. Resolved with the notion that nothing ever happens in small towns, the journalist is oblivious to a political scandal that turns into a murder just 50 yards away.
A GENTLEMEN'S PACT is a one-act play that takes a modern look at marriage, family, gender and friendship when two university professors, Bill (a young English professor) and Arthur (an older professor in the Political Science department) wrestle with how to resolve the upheaval caused by Bill's startling announcement that he wants to marry Arthur's wife, Evelyn. The two men battle wits, barter property, and eventually engage in fist-a-cuff combat until the object of their competition enters the scene and turns the tables.
Multi-award winning and produced in several theaters including
William Inge Playwright Lab
GLO Productions
Chatham Players
Ivoryton Playhouse
​
​
CROSSWINDS OVER THE SAANICH INLET is a one-act farcical play that takes place at a bed and breakfast overlooking the Saanich Inlet. It all starts when a strange man hanging onto the cliff over the sea is mistaken for the groom who didn't show for the rehearsal dinner. But when it's discovered that the man is a pilot whose plane crashed into the stormy waters beneath, the question arises as to whether or not the groom was on his plane. Did the bride's soulmate stand her up, or is the pilot responsible for the man's death? There’s a lot at stake.
Multi-award winning and produced in several theaters
​