Carter W. Lewis

Naturalist/Author Henry David Thoreau of the 19th century, and domestic terrorist (Unabomber) Ted Kaczynski of the 20th century live side-by-side as neighbors in their individually notorious cabins in the woods. The historical and ideological similarities between these two men are hysterical and perplexing, proffering the question: What if Ted lived then, and Henry lived now, and ultimately, what responsibility does our country bear in the creation of our own domestic terrorists.

Lit is the story of a grandmother, Celladora, and granddaughter, Maisie, who have refused to come down from their rooftop apartment long after the pandemic has ended. After more than a year has passed, a young man named Down, climbs up a the seven-story fire escape ladder to find out why. After several visits, Down and Maisie fall in love. Down feels he needs to rescue her and bring her back into the world. Maisie loves her grandmother and understands her reasons for not wanting return to the world. Into the evening come several characters from their pasts who have died during the pandemic. Together they create a different perspective for Celladora, and a compromise is reached, that brings great joy and sadness to all. Although the play is not a musical, there are two dances, and it ends with a song (a song that is in public domain).

The Science of Leaving Omaha by Carter W. Lewis
After dropping out of school and surviving a rough turn as a Save Mart clerk, Iris was given a job at the Belladonna Funeral Home’s basement crematory. Three years later she is trying to find her way out of the job - and out of Omaha. One winter evening a young man named Baker breaks into the funeral home. He has come to say goodbye to his recently deceased wife, Ruth-Ellen, who was killed in a bungled burglary and lies within a body bag awaiting cremation. Now Iris and Baker will spend a very humorous, clumsy and erratic evening together trying to understand the dismantling of their working-class lives, before the police arrive and they are held accountable for present or past transgressions.

Clifford and Minnie devolve into a world of humorous, but ultimately heartbreaking minutiae as they navigate a blizzard, a dead son, a rat in the kitchen and worse; in order to hold on to a bit of control over their personal end of life decisions. The couple enlist their derelict son to obtain Death With Dignity drugs from the state of Oregon, but due to an accident on the highway, the plan goes hysterically and tragically array. As a result, Minnie and Clifford cling to daily tasks as they slowly get cut off from the world by a blizzard and disconnected utilities. Their enduring love fuels them through an obstacle course of of each days events.

Duck/Rabbit is a reflection of our current divisive political times. Most of the play takes place in the beloved kitchen of Shirley and Hickey - Shirley loves her kitchen and feels safe there. Hickey is a retired high school history teacher, who is now, for some reason, getting glimpses of the future – but his glimpses are in cartoon form. As the friends and family’s concern for Hickey escalate, suddenly they discover that the world is actually turning into a cartoon, and their daughter is morphing in that direction. In the second act, Hickey and Shirley’s two newly-in-love neighbors, Jerry & Angela have moved into their kitchen with them, and they have formed an encampment/retreat in which they plan to wait till the world comes to its senses. There are beds in the kitchen and the rest of the house is being used to grow crops (and Vietnam War Vet, Jerry’s, marijuana). Also in the house is the daughter of Hickey and Shirley, Georgina – who has already halfway morphed into a cartoon. Eventually Georgeena leaves the kitchen to lead the cartoons as their newly appointed Mayor. Soon after she leaves, Angela and Jerry leave. Jerry, because he is ultimately patriotic and this is his country, and regardless of the cartoon-rule, well... “love it or leave it.” Angela goes with him because she loves him, and she is sick of eating vegetables. Hickey and Shirley are left with a decision of whether to “hole up” and wait out the current political cartoon regime, or to fight. In a final statement, Shirley, dons a duck costume and leaves her beloved kitchen to take on the world.

Warren is Iraq war hero who doesn't leave the house. His wife Mel picks up causes like a dog picks up fleas. Their son Pete is too smart for school and too smart to have so many guns. Their daughter Kate is a poet who intends to build a franchise to of cable boxes in the kitchen and live within it - but without her girlfriend Tracey, who can't feel their love thru the medications. This midwest family struggles against the minutiae of their daily lives as guns magically appear throughout the house, the leaking water from the basement begin to rise and the walls of their once cosy kitchen begin to crumble.

Percentage America is about false information, and our outrage over the media creating a disease that begins to appear in the lives of Americans - i.e. they have an involuntary need to bang their heads against hard surfaces. This disease leads to a search for truth, and a surprising outcome as truth becomes a bit of an aphrodisiac to those who long for it.

Once the cat got flung into the ceiling fan, the backyard wedding of Benjamin Rindle appeared to be in jeopardy. As waves crash against the nearby Massachusetts shores, Benjamin desperately attempts to keep his nuptials on schedule with the moon and the tides. But first he must navigate a heart-broken bookie named Bluetooth, the police car in front of his house, the arrival of a young girl claiming to be his daughter, and the unspeakable retribution for the ill-fated cat – before he can finally marry Emmy…the woman who buried his sister.

Unlucky Nick has been in a coma for three days. Connie has been in a coma for nine years. They meet. They fall in love. Their love awakens them, but they are now in adjacent hospital rooms with no recollection of each other. They are both left with a burning feeling that something wonderful happened. They search for this wonderful thing. Thru circumstances they go back into a coma, and rediscover each other. But when they awaken, they still have no recollections of each other, so they select something else that they think might have caused the wonderful feeling. Connie falls in love with her nurse. Nick falls in love with Jesus. But they continue to search.