Joshua H. Cohen

Two brothers' tense relationship comes apart when one of them is arrested for financial fraud and the other can't help, or won't. Set against the 2007-08 financial crisis, BURNED asks what we owe each other, and what we are owed. Book by James Armstrong, music & lyrics by Joshua H. Cohen

A corporate drone decides she is a pirate. It disturbs her coworkers when she shows up dressed to plunder a galleon, but gradually, the office is infected by Maggie's piracy. When Maggie is fired, she attacks her boss, and is confined to a mental institution. There, it is up to a well-meaning but unimaginative young psychiatrist to save Maggie from life in a medicated stupor... and perhaps she'll return the favor. Book by James Armstrong, Music & Lyrics by Joshua H. Cohen

What does it take to step into somebody else’s life? Sam Kenner, a young woman adrift, wins her dream job, taking over Sam Krantz’s electrical supply company. The catch is, she also has to take over his entire life – husband to his wife, father to his teenage kids – so he can run off on his new Harley. Just as Sam starts to think she’s making headway integrating into the family, she is foiled by a sequence of events involving a dead dog, a missing child, an electrical fire, and the Trojan Horse.

A popular teacher, to teach critical thinking and provoke debate, tells his eleventh-graders that the Holocaust didn’t happen. When the press gets word, sharp battle lines are drawn in his small ski-resort town.

Is free will just another delusion of grandeur? In Fun and Games, Amy and her brother Arthur are yanked from their quiet, overeducated dropout lives when Arthur's ex-girlfriend needs to be bailed out of jail. The cross-country journey challenges their stifling relationship and, as Melissa escapes with a bounty hunter on her trail, all four fight for control over their own lives. Guilt and innocence, freedom and responsibility, and reality itself are called into question. It's the sort of trip that makes you realize what life really is... until someone loses an eye.

Tamar of the River is a compelling and innovative music theater work inspired by the Biblical story of Tamar and Judah. In a war-torn world, where East and West are divided by a River red with blood, one young woman is called to raise her voice. As Tamar sets out single-mindedly in pursuit of peace, she journeys to a foreign land, finding a new family and unexpected love. Each decision that brings her closer to her goal also becomes a choice she struggles to accept. Music & Book by Marisa Michelson; Book & Lyrics by Joshua H. Cohen

When a painter visits a ballet class to paint the dancers, the young women start to see themselves through his eyes. Old alliances are broken, rivalries are upended, and one girl falls hard for the painter and must choose to stay in herself, in her own life, or else to fly off after him and become someone new. Still Life With Toe Shoes tells its story through an innovative blend of music, dance and dialogue, and has a cast of seven women and one man (silent role). Music & Book by Marisa Michelson; Book & Lyrics by Joshua H. Cohen

A teenage American girl vacationing in Sweden finds an ancient sword in a lake, awakening a warrior-goddess and her prophecy. Will it help her college application? The December play of the Findings Cycle.

A young woman is dead on her doorstep. Mal, a clever detective, suspects... the rosebush. The November play of the Findings Cycle.

Three governor's aides are assigned to recommend a replacement for a deceased senator. What does their choice say about them, their goals, and what they truly believe? The October play of the Findings cycle.

A not-failed-yet playwright reads a study suggesting that greater creative achievements are reported by people who kill in their dreams. Can he lucid-dream-murder his way into creative success, or will his own psyche get the better of him? The September play of the Findings Cycle.

Three siblings sort-of accidentally kind-of kidnapped the woman who got away with killing their youngest brother. Now what do they do with her? The August play of the Findings Cycle.

Four octopuses who believe they come from space plot their takeover of the bipeds who live on land. The only thing that can stop them is their own dogma. The July play of the Findings Cycle.

Colin and Jill meet cute at a networking event. But as time seems to speed up and the evening threatens to come to an end, can they overcome Colin’s fear that something better is happening somewhere else? The June play of the Findings Cycle.

Dr. Miranda Ritchie performs a radical experiment to simulate the effects of a theoretical kind of black hole – wiping out quantum memory, thus escaping determinism and opening up infinite possible futures – on the only possible subject: herself. Can her advisor understand what would lead a promising young scientist to take the risk – or else stop her? The May play of the Findings Cycle

In 1750, an explorer on Lake Superior seeks for a new-discovered island he can name for his patron; in the present day, his descendants try to retrace his course. What will they find - and what will they do if they can’t? The April play of the Findings Cycle.

A couple who once made a harrowing exit from their restrictive religious community now faces their college-age daughter contemplating her own escape from the life they’ve built for her. The March play of the Findings Cycle

A villainous Internet troll has met her match, in the hero our time deserves... DOXMAN! The February play of the Findings Cycle.

A foodie couple shops for the latest treat: placenta, fresh from the maternity ward. But some mothers are more interested in selling than others. The January play from the Findings Cycle.

The universe is expanding. The universe is contracting. The universe is a multibillion-year process of returning to room temperature. And here in our little corner of it, the tribulations of our daily lives are doing pretty much the same thing. Sixteen songs provide snapshots of relationships in various stages of decay, and the valiant (sometimes not-so-valiant) efforts of lovers (and not-quite-lovers) to start a fire up or keep one burning. See why love is against the laws of nature... and why most of us do it anyway.

Songs that are absolutely true. Almost.