Paul Stroili

Paul Stroili’s autobiographical solo show Straight Up with a Twist toured the U.S. for nearly ten years, culminating in a twice-extended Off-Broadway run. Stroili’s playwriting credits include A Jukebox for the Algonquin, Last Call at The Aardvark, Cheese Louise (with Maureen Morley), Plane Crazy (with Cissy Conner), and My Dinner with Arlecchino. His screenplay for the film The Beating was utilized by Columbia College in their course of study on short filmmaking. Stroili’s writing has also appeared in Los Angeles Magazine and the Chicago Tribune. Recently, he served as Executive Producer for the feature film, Wake., currently in distribution through Gravitas Ventures. While residing in Los Angeles, he was a faculty member in the UCLA Entertainment Studies program. He currently lives in...

Paul Stroili’s autobiographical solo show Straight Up with a Twist toured the U.S. for nearly ten years, culminating in a twice-extended Off-Broadway run. Stroili’s playwriting credits include A Jukebox for the Algonquin, Last Call at The Aardvark, Cheese Louise (with Maureen Morley), Plane Crazy (with Cissy Conner), and My Dinner with Arlecchino. His screenplay for the film The Beating was utilized by Columbia College in their course of study on short filmmaking. Stroili’s writing has also appeared in Los Angeles Magazine and the Chicago Tribune. Recently, he served as Executive Producer for the feature film, Wake., currently in distribution through Gravitas Ventures. While residing in Los Angeles, he was a faculty member in the UCLA Entertainment Studies program. He currently lives in his adopted hometown of Chicago. He is a proud member of Actors’ Equity, the Screen Actors Guild and The Dramatists Guild, as well as being a resident artist at The Purple Rose Theatre, founded by Jeff Daniels. www.PaulStroili.com

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Scripts

Last Call at the Aardvark

by Paul Stroili

2
Cast Size
3—5
Genre
dark comedy,
drama,
period

The Bronx, 1935. The end of prohibition turned all the speakeasies into legitimate nightclubs, if you want to call The Aardvark Club legitimate. Honey has worn nearly every hat you can wear; slinging drinks, cooking the books, but at the end of the day, she’s a stripper.

Most people come and go like ghosts, but it’s hard to miss Zack, an aspiring comic who performs at the club. Zack’s got some talent. He...

The Bronx, 1935. The end of prohibition turned all the speakeasies into legitimate nightclubs, if you want to call The Aardvark Club legitimate. Honey has worn nearly every hat you can wear; slinging drinks, cooking the books, but at the end of the day, she’s a stripper.

Most people come and go like ghosts, but it’s hard to miss Zack, an aspiring comic who performs at the club. Zack’s got some talent. He might even amount to something. So why did he have to tell that joke? One bad joke, about Frankie’s girl, no less – and club owner Frankie is not known for his sense of humor.

Now Frankie has given Honey one more job to juggle. She’s got to help Zack build a whole new act for an audience of one. And as they say in comedy; “You either kill, or you just die up there.”

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A Jukebox for the Algonquin

by Paul Stroili

1
Cast Size
7
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
drama

At a senior living community in the Adirondacks, a small group of residents decide they’re not quite ready to “go gentle into that good night.” This band of displaced former city dwellers from Brooklyn and The Bronx hatch a plot to prove that aging is not a New York state of mind. A Jukebox for the Algonquin is a tale about those who will not be forgotten - a serious comedy about sex, drugs, and rocking chairs.

At a senior living community in the Adirondacks, a small group of residents decide they’re not quite ready to “go gentle into that good night.” This band of displaced former city dwellers from Brooklyn and The Bronx hatch a plot to prove that aging is not a New York state of mind. A Jukebox for the Algonquin is a tale about those who will not be forgotten - a serious comedy about sex, drugs, and rocking chairs.