PLAYS & EXCERPTS
Descriptions of plays below. Click on the title for an excerpt.
FULL LENGTH PLAYS
Free Space
Cast: 3 female, 1 male
Genre: Dark Comedy
Set: minimal, impressionistic
Amelia spends her days under the watchful eye of her mother, doing the same nothing she has done for years. Yet when Bingo arrives at her local community center, a talking Bingo chip convinces Amelia that forming her own game is the way out of this life and away from her controlling mother. However, as her mother begins acting like her newly arrived sister, and the chip becomes increasingly dominating, Amelia discovers her new life is nothing as she imagined.
Pinhole of Joy
Cast: 2 female, 2 male
Genre: Absurd Tragedy
Set: a living room/kitchen of an apartment
When David gives his ill wife, Leah, a wig for her bald scalp, he is thrilled to find this pleases her, so he complies with her request for more of them. However, as Leahs demands become increasingly troublesome, and loose human hair with mysterious red dots now engulfs their entire apartment, David must decide how far he is willing to go to satisfy his wife.
Brush Them Fleas
Cast: 5 female, 2 male
Genre: Absurd Comedy
Set: a dog grooming salon
As the owner of a high-end dog grooming salon, Tootsie takes great pride in presenting an upstanding establishment. Yet when Mr. Boland's dog is murdered on site, it stirs up ill feelings and suspicion amongst the staff and clients. Through the commotion, however, Mr. Boland discovers a rare connection with an awkward dog groomer, Stacy, who thinks he may give meaning to her past.
Black and White and Red All Over
Cast: 6 female, 6 male
Genre: Dark/absurd comedy
Set: a bathroom and living room
A frivolous couple passes the time by hiring and firing servants, and reading old newspapers they deem to be the current. But when the Wife wants more out of her life, she charges her Husband with a perilous task. Meanwhile, four eclectic strangers wind up secretly waiting together in this couple's bathroom. When they discover the reasons they have all been put together, the absurdities and danger of their situation become alarmingly clear.
ONE ACT PLAYS
The Movements of the Wind
Cast: 3 female, 2 male
Genre: dark comedy/drama/family
Set: minimalist, impressions of a garden, flower and greenhouse
As wind sweeps through a garden, its inhabitants must confront the volatile effects of Mother Nature, as well as their own changing nature. The story follows several short, intertwined pieces, as Carrot and Potato, taught to be enemies from birth, struggle to remain friends, Tulip wants more out of life than only her partner, and two pieces of pollen attempt to make a dangerous jump from a dying flower to a fresh one. Through sacrifice and friendship, they must not only survive their trials, but also come to populate another generation.
Seventeen Stitches
Cast: 1 male, 1 female
Genre: dark comedy/drama
Set: minimal, an open space
Two teenagers meet in vortex-like space between opposing lines of people. While Rachel is simply passing the time before she returns to her place in line, Peter has stepped out of his line in protest. As the lines begin to close in on them, he must make a life-altering decision by choosing to continue forging his path in his fathers line, or join the allure of Rachels line, the line of diamonds.
Poorly Wrapped
Cast: 1 male, 1 female
Genre: comedy
Set: a gift shop
A salesclerk becomes smitten with a beautiful woman who enters his gift shop. As Grace uses no restraint in the power she holds over him, Clark goes to great lengths in the hopes of starting a life with her.
The Other Three Sisters
Cast: 4 female, 1 male
Genre: 1800s/1900s comedy
Adaptation of Jane Austen's epistolary short story, The Three Sisters
Set: a living room
Intertwined scenes of a family are juxtaposed between the 1800s of Jane Austen's day, and the late 1900s in Queens, NY. The 1800s Mary must decide if she will wed on oaf she despises to make her neighbors jealous, as the 1900s Mary considers allowing back her missing husband who claims to have been sleeping for the years he was away. While the scenes span generations, the women encounter the same issues of marriage, money, and pride.
Under the Ashes
Cast: 1 male, 1 female
Genre: Absurd drama
Set: a living room
Emmett frantically searches for keys to his private office which he thinks his wife has hidden. But before Lorna will answer his questions about the keys, she insists on telling him about her day, including the mysterious trinket she says her lost son has sent her.
TEN MINUTE PLAYS
The Scent of Coconut Had Haunted Her for Days
Cast: 1 male, 1 female
Genre: Drama
Set: minimalist, impressions of rooms in a house
Told through narration and dialogue, a newlywed Woman chooses unusual methods to communicate to her husband that she is not happy she might be pregnant. Her husband, in turn, finds ways to ignore the situation he does not wish to address. As the Woman becomes increasingly obsessed with a backyard weed garden growing in her picnic table, the dissonance in their marriage escalates.
Knocking Louder
Cast: 3 female (all female cast)
Genre: Dark/absurd comedy
Set: a living room and doorway, minimalist
Carol adores, but neglects, the newborn baby placed in her custody. When her sister, Lilah, insists the baby be returned to his mother, Carol takes extreme measures to ensure she keep the infant.
Jumping the Wind
Cast: 1 male, 1 female (could be 2 females or 2 males, for an all-female cast or all-male cast)
Genre: Absurd, dark comedy, comedy
Set: A flower
Length: Ten minute play
Two pieces of pollen must make the daring jump from a dying flower to a fresh one.
Each monologue runs 2-4 minutes.
Disappointing Hell monologue
Purple Banana Nose monologue
Tinsel for Christmas monologue
SCREENPLAYS
Thy Young Blue Eyes
Feature-length screenplay
Genre: 1800s drama
Award winner of the Sloan Screenwriting Fellowship, 2004.
Ada, estranged daughter of the poet Lord Byron, is forbidden by her mother to engage in social activities, poetry and the corrupt world of the arts. When she meets an eccentric man with a controversial idea for an invention, she must choose between her hidden passions and her devotion to her overprotective mother.
Silver Roses
Feature-length screenplay
Genre: Drama
Finalist for the Sloan Screenwriting fellowship, 2003.
Marissa is a successful opera singer, adored by fans, but most of all, her overly involved husband, Liam. But when she is diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonisa, a rare vocal disorder that affects her speech, she must choose between her opera career and an opportunity to participate in a study for possible treatment.
If you are interested in reading full versions of any scripts, please contact tmeddaugh@gmail.com.