One-Act
Plays
Fax Trax.
Comedy in one act (1m, 2w,
1 offstage male voice, bare set). Mary tries to master the increasingly
complex dating scene, now conducted electronically and over the wires.
Things look promising when Guy answers her jazzy personal ad, but his wife
gets wind of the clandestine romance, and the affair breaks up before anyone
has actually met.
Mother and Child on
Board.
Comedy in one act (1m, 2w,
1 offstage male voice, 1 offstage female voice, simple set). This
heart-warming yet substantive Christmas play features a middle-aged couple
during a stormy commuter flight, who encounter a contemporary mother and
child on board.
Last Picnic.
Drama in one act (3m, 2w, bare
set). Sometime in the future, a young girl, her father, and the father's
male partner arrive to enjoy what may be the "last picnic" in a decaying
American landscape. When the ex-wife arives to contest the new family,
the characters try to deal with social and environmental change.
On Hallowed Ground.
Drama in one act (4m, 3w, bare
set). Three nuns, "the last religious of the earth," attempt to found
a church sometime in the future in the forebidding landscape of the American
Southwest. When soldiers arrive to challenge their right to save
lives and occupy government land, their seemingly ridiculous faith somehow
works wonders.
Passacaglia.
Drama in one act (5m, 3w, bare
set). Many decades from now, three soldiers wait for action with
an enemy nobody knows. The "Enemy" arrives, they fight for reasons
which no one understands, several are killed, and the cycle repeats itself
without purpose. An other-worldly couple arrives serenely, regarding
their petty war-mongering with contempt, followed by a soldier desperate
for a new and better world.
Sun City.
Drama in one act (2m, 3w, simple
set.) A glitzy new retirement complex offering "total living" has
just opened, funded largely through government-backed junk bonds.
A careerwoman tries to convince her reluctant mother, newly disabled in
a car wreck that killed her husband, to tour the facilities. When
the project collapses, all are left confused and frustrated about what
went wrong.
A Terrible Beauty.
Drama in one act (2w, simple
set). A young scholar attending a conference on violence in contemporary
literature, encounters an eccentric artist in the park, who wants her to
experience both art and violence as lived "on the street."
Time's Daughter.
Comedy in one act (3m, 2w, single
set). A budding young scientist has just moved to Idaho Falls, Idaho
to pursue his true love: nuclear research. Only he meets and falls
in love with Melissa, a glittering beauty whose father has brought her
up on minuscule doses of radioactive waste. How to love without harming
the environment?
Wake Me No Wake.
Tragicomedy in one act (1m,
2w, single set). In a fanciful encounter, a young careerwoman attempts
to come to terms with her grief following her boyfriend's senseless drunk-driving
death.
What Peace We Make.
Lyrical drama in one act (2m,
1w, single set). The Biblical character, Judith, confronts the Assyrian
general, Holofernes, in a battle of faith, gender, seduction, and war.
Ten-Minute
Plays and Scenes
At the Crossroads.
Lyric scene (1m, 1 w, bare set). A well-off, grief-stricken mother
leaving a church encounters a blind beggar who imagines he wants to trade
places with her.
Bishop of Babylon.
Ten-minute play (2m, simple set). An advertising writer confronts
his boss about serving a "high priest" on behalf of corporate greed and
political corruption.
Blowing Up Balloons.
Ten-minute play (2m, bare set). Some years later, a childhood friend
visits a man dying of AIDS. They reminisce in new, bittersweet honesty.
Inside Out.
Ten-minute play (2w, 1w, minimal set). A young sculptor convinces
an innocent young woman to pose for his new sculpture - only her body-building
boyfriend arrives to challenge the proceedings.
Night-Hawk.
Ten-minute play (1m, 2w, bare set). Beside a lake, three teenagers
plot a haunting kind of revenge on their restrictive mother.
Slouching Toward Bethlehem.
Ten-minute
farce (2m, 1w, simple set). A young scientist tries to "cure" the
seemingly toxic distrust of his girlfriend with a special potion he has
discovered.
Take Me Home.
Drama Scene (2w, bare set). An adult daughter tries to get her aging,
grieving mother, now in a wheelchair, to tour a "total living" retirement
complex in the American Southwest.
Take-Off.
Ten-minute play (1m, 1w). A young man tries to justify his dropping
out of high school and running away to his closest (female) friend.
This Animal Life.
Ten-minute play (2m, 1w, minimal set). A contemporary family seems
to be turning, literally, into animals. Can this be real?
Through a Glass Darkly.
Dramatic scene (2w, minimal set). A young careerwoman strolling through
an urban park encounters an older female artist, who draws to save herself
from the violence in her neighborhood.
Return to Table
of Contents