Donald Loftus

Decades before Ru Paul or Dame Edna, there was Julian Eltinge. He was not a "drag queen." At the turn of the 20th century, he was a highly respected stage and screen actor specializing in female roles. Before moving on to Hollywood, he conquered vaudeville, burlesque, Broadway, and legitimate theatres worldwide. He became one of the highest-paid entertainers in the world, at the level of Charlie Chaplin, Mae West, and Fanny Brice. He even had a Broadway theatre named after him. Yet today, nobody knows his name.

"ILLUSION" explores the life of Julian Eltinge, beginning as a young gay boy in Boston in 1890. The son of a drunken, homophobic, Irish immigrant father and an abused mother, he worked hard and eventually achieved the fame and fortune described above. Then, it all came crashing down in the 1920s when numerous notorious scandals rocked Hollywood. These scandals brought widespread condemnation from religious, civic, and political organizations and resulted in new restrictions for the film industry. It became illegal for a man to dress as a woman, which Mr. Eltinge had built his entire career on. His life had touched and enriched the lives of many, although he never fully realized the impact he had made. In the end, he died nearly penniless after achieving so much. Through it all, he just wanted someone to notice him. Cast: 7 Men & 6 Women

KING VINNY, the alcoholic, good-for-nothing husband of QUEEN TRIXIE, has plotted with his mechanical personal servant, ABACUS THE ANDROID, to drive the Queen out of the castle and out of his life forever. Unfortunately for KING VINNY, he becomes the next victim of the conniving automaton. Cast of 3 (2M/1F)

CHARLIE, the cranky, old night watchman at The Broadway Theatre, has fallen asleep at his post near the stage door. Suddenly, there is a pounding on the exterior of the stage door, which startles CHARLIE. The unanticipated visitor is JIMMY, a chorus boy who recently lost his job. JIMMY was in the revival of “West Side Story,” which recently and abruptly closed at The Broadway Theatre due to "artistic differences" between the leading man and the director. JIMMY explains that he has now been evicted from his apartment and is desperate. HE turns to CHARLIE for help. We quickly learn that CHARLIE has his own problems, but in the end, we see cranky, old CHARLIE has a heart of gold and a magical friendship is formed as he comes to JIMMY’S rescue. (Cast: 2M)

“ILLUSION” explores the life of Julian Eltinge, beginning as a young boy in Boston in 1890. The son of a drunken, homophobic, Irish immigrant father and an abused mother, he worked hard and eventually became one of the greatest entertainers in the world attaining the same level of fame and fortune as Charlie Chaplin and Mae West. He even had a Broadway theatre named in his honor, but it all came crashing down in the 1920’s when Hollywood was rocked by numerous notorious scandals, such as the murder of William Desmond Taylor, and the alleged rape and murder of Virginia Rappe by movie star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. These shocking events brought widespread condemnation from religious, civic, and political organizations, and resulted in new restrictions for the film industry. For example, it became illegal for a man to dress as a woman...which is what Mr. Eltinge had built his entire career on. His life touched and enriched the lives of many, particularly women, although he never fully realized the impact he had made. He died nearly penniless after achieving so much. Through it all, he just wanted someone to notice him.

Jeffrey, a highly successful senior partner at a prominent Boston law firm, is very close to achieving a life-long dream; being elected the firm’s Chairman of the Board. This dream is suddenly threatened when in the middle of the night, Jeffrey’s long-lost derelict brother, Phillip, breaks into his Beacon Hill townhouse covered in blood. Phillip is in a total panic as he explains to his highly successful brother that he and his girlfriend have just murdered a man. Jeffrey’s first concern is that his the chances of his promotion may be compromised if anyone should find out about the crime. In fact, he needs to not only eliminate all traces of the murder...he must eliminate all traces of his brother and the girlfriend as well. He does what he has to do.

In a Cleveland jail, on an August afternoon in 1971, Officer Hill escorts Leonard’s son Frank to Leonard’s cell. Leonard is sound asleep under a blanket. Officer Hill explains that Frank’s dad, stark naked and screaming like a lunatic, walked into The Fidelity Inn bar claiming he was an alien from another planet. Officer Hill goes on to
tell Frank that Leonard then went to The Variety movie theatre and pulled the same stunt be fired being arrested. Frank apologizes and takes his dad off the officer’s hands. Once they are alone, Frank scolds Leonard for his appalling actions and reminds them they must get changed and return to their ship. There is a blackout and the sound of an alien spacecraft taking off.

Daniel Wood, a photographer living in New York City, is forced to face the painful memories of his broken childhood when he returns to his Midwest childhood home at the request of his dying father…whom he never loved. After decades of relentless and largely unexpressed anger, Daniel may finally find the courage to ask the questions that have plagued him since his boyhood. His father, Joesph Wood, may finally be able to ease the guilt he lives with each day after deserting his wife and son years before. They both may be able to mend some of the fences that were all but destroyed, but the clock is running out and this is clearly their last chance to heal the wounds that have gone unattended for far too many years.

Sweden 1889. A young man named Per Nilsson (pronounced PEAR) collaborated with his domineering mother in the gruesome murder of his young wife. Per was declared insane and institutionalized at The Konradsberg Lunatic Asylum in Stockholm, Sweden. His mother was found guilty of the murder and beheaded.

Now he must fight the ghosts who torment him each night in his asylum cell, as he attempts by day to convince his captors, the psychiatrist and his staff, that he is sane and should be released.

After months of therapy, the psychiatrist is convinced of Per’s sanity. The night before Per is to be released, the ghosts visit him one last time, and we learn that not everything he has revealed in his psychiatric sessions was true. The real villain is not whom we thought. With the final blackout, we are not certain whether or not Per will be released.

“The Springvale Armadillo”, is a new play by Donald Loftus, inspired by a true story. A woman locked in an institution for 70 years, suspected of having a disease that never materialized. In 1927, in a small town near New Orleans, a beautiful 17 year-old debutante is diagnosed with a disease that threatens her life and the reputation of her wealthy family name. She is sent away by the family she loves, her name is changed, and she is forced to spend the rest of her life at a hospital called Springvale. The disease never materializes. Now, 70 years later, Matthew, a troubled, young Boston Globe reporter, has arrived at Springvale to interview Ruby for a human interest story he is writing on the subject of survival. Even today, after 70 years, and hardships and heartbreak beyond imagination, Ruby still maintains the glow and charm of a young debutante; the beauty is still visible.
During the interviews, a young Ruby appears almost ghost-like and assists in relaying the stories of Ruby's life. As the questions get more and more painful and closer to the bone, Ruby is forced to remember the tragic details of her life..." The play is told in ninety-minutes over and has a cast of four (one man, three women).

FULL LENGTH - DAWN and ALYSSA are both Freshman college students who are in a long distance relationship with one another. DAWN is at the University of Washington in Seattle. ALYSSA is at NYU. They talk to each other via video chat. They talk about the things that a young couple a bit uncertain in their feelings might talk about long distance.

They don’t know that within a week the entire world will turn upside down.

Written collaboratively by Nate Beyer, Caitlin Cieri, Katie Doyle, Ken Green, Scott Kremer, Donald Loftus, Colleen Porter, and Irene L. Pynn via a 3 hour, 10 minute google doc session and performed via Zoom five hours after the beginning of writing. Proposed and overseen by Greg Lam

The play is actually comprised of three plays with a combined running time of 90 minutes without an intermission:

PART I: “DARK MATTER” is a short play that starts the trio. (10 MINUTES)
SYNOPSIS: MARION and PALMER have been married a long time... maybe too long. The couple has been uprooted and the marriage has gone sour. MARION is not happy. PALMER seems better adjusted, but he too wishes it all could be the way it once. Of course, it can’t. “THEY” would never allow it.

PART II: “MAID TO MEASURE” is the short play that comes next. (10 MINUTES)
SYNOPSIS: When successful scientist/businessman, DORIAN, agrees to meet with his long lost schoolmate, JAMISON, he has no idea what his old chum has on his mind. DORIAN is soon to learn that his former buddy, whose marriage has apparently soured, is looking for a new wife...but this time he wants her to be “made to
order”. He’s hoping his nerdy former science class buddy can help.

PART III: “AFTER ALL” is the third play in the series. (60 MINUTES)
SYNOPSIS: The lives of two simple-minded nobodies named BUDDY and CHUM get tangled up with a somewhat ditzy housewife named BUNNY and her disgruntled factory worker husband, HARV. In a series of bizarre scenes, they struggle to try to figure it out. , as they struggle to get to sleep. FINALLY...they are all in God’s Waiting Room...(and we are not talking about Florida)... the answers to all of their questions are finally received.

HENRIETTA HACKENBUSH, a small town waitress/would-be Broadway star, comes to New York City with her waitress/would-be chorus girl girlfriend, WANDA PICKLES and Wanda’s boyfriend, fry cook and would-be Broadway composer, RUBEN SCHNICKESTEIN to fulfill their dreams. It turns out to be harder than they thought it would be. They meet a number of unusual characters along the way.

“POLLYANNA” is a heart-warming musical, with a book and lyrics by Donald Loftus and music by Andrew Sussman. It is based on the Eleanor H. Porter classic novel, (now in Public Domain) which tells the story of a young orphan girl who is sent to live with her miserable aunt in a town filled with miserable people. Before long, the energetic and enthusiastic young girl has transformed the community with her indomitable will to see the good side of even the worst situations and bring it out for the betterment of all. In the end, when Pollyanna faces her own tragic crisis, the town she worked so hard to save comes to her rescue. This play is perfect for theatres looking for a musical suitable for children or young adults.

WILLIE, a British playwright quickly learns that everybody is a critic as he tries to convince his three female muses that his new play about “star-crossed” lovers is terrific! The muses remind him of past works where he ignored their advice, and of the unhappy outcomes each suffered as a result.

Marion and Palmer have been married a long time. Maybe too long. The marriage
has gone sour. Marion is not happy. Palmer is happier than he should be. Both wish their life together could return to the way it was, but of course, both know it cannot. “THEY” would never allow it.

THIS FROM THE DIRECTOR OF OXFORD THEATRE...
Dear Donald,
I want to thank you for writing such a great 10 min play and am so thankful to have been the one picked to direct it. It has been a wonderful experience to work with and I am truly grateful. I have to admit, I picked your play because of the title alone, and it wasn't until I got into it with the actors that did I see the many different nuances involved in such a short amount of time. It has everything that I look for in 10min play: comedy, intrigue, thrill, suspense, and wonderment of what happens later; throw that all together with such dark themes of a patriarchal society mixed with happy narcissism and drug addiction, not to mention of putting that in a comic bubble that allows those dark themes to appear so subtly. Then, in addition, you add this hauntingly beautiful Frank Sinatra piece, it just sent me and the cast into a whole new world and a completely different perspective. As a matter of fact, after rehearsing the play for the first, the first read-through, I played that song and we all were just moved. It's like it's a third member of the cast, and I can't get it out of my head. Nice pick, Donald."

-Davis Jones
Director
The Oxford Theatre
Oxford, MS

Late in the afternoon, on the last Friday of summer, Boston boutique owner, CHRISTOPHER, is trying to finish a sale to wealthy and difficult, MRS. SIMMONS. CHRISTOPHER is a bit anxious as he also needs to “closeup shop” so that he and his partner, NICHOLAS can be on their way to The Cape for the final summer weekend of the year.

MRS. SIMMONS is trying to decide if she should buy the ill-fitting Jean Paul Gaultier frock that she has squeezed herself into, even though she knows it is totally “inappropriate” for a woman her age… and shape.

NICHOLAS arrives and poses as a sale clerk so that CHRISTOPHER can get the closing paperwork done. Although NICHOLAS doesn’t have the salesman acumen of CHRISTOPHER, he soon learns that MRS SIMMONS only wears jaw-droppingly, inappropriate, too-tight garments in an attempt to save her marriage. She believes her husband is losing interest in her and she feels she is losing the battle.

NICHOLAS finally convinces her of the importance of remaining true to yourself, of being comfortable in your own skin and of owning who you are with pride. He explains that he learned these lessons while growing up in an environment where he was forced to be someone that he wasn’t. HE gave up who he was just to be accepted. But not anymore!

In the end MRS. SIMMONS gets more than she could have hoped for when she entered the shop.

A husband and wife in their late 70's struggle with issues of an aging mind. What is right and what is wrong...what is real and what is imagined...is entirely up to each member of the audience.

THE BROTHER’S GRIN: A two-character, play about two middle-aged brothers. One brother is in serious trouble and comes, as he always does, to his younger sibling for help in the middle of the night. Throughout the first nine minutes it appears to the audience that the troubled brother is an unscrupulous user, with the moral fiber of an alley rat. In the end, the audience discovers it is in fact the “good” brother who has the darker soul.

An aging, ailing British aging professor tells his caretaker that it will be her last day with him. It needs to be her last day because it is going to be his last day…on Earth. By the time he finishes the story of his sad and lonely life, she understands the decision he has made. She realizes, as he has, that he may only find happiness by taking this step. He will finally be with the woman he was separated from so many years before. It turns out his love story in fact is a ghost story.

It’s November 1943. In a small American town, a young girl named JENNY, the waitress at the Trolley Diner, is trying to remain strong as she discusses the future with her boyfriend, JOEY, who has recently joined the U.S. Army and is about to be shipped overseas to join the war effort. JOEY is proud to serve his country and is excited about his upcoming adventure, but he is also looking for some reassurances that JENNY is going to wait for him.

“JOEY” tells the story a young man who was separated from his mother at the U.S./Mexico border when he was just slightly more than an infant. Years have passed since the tragic events occurred, but the heartbreaking pain of losing his mother has not subsided. He wonders if it ever will.

When highly successful scientist/businessman, DORIAN, agrees to meet with his long-lost schoolmate, JAMISON, he has no idea what his old chum has on his mind. He is soon to learn that his former buddy, whose marriage has apparently soured, is looking for a new wife...but this time he wants her to be “made to order”. He’s hoping his nerdy former science class buddy can help.

ADAM, an uptight and troubled British businessman has his suicide thwarted when an irritating, homeless, Cockney beggar named RUBY interrupts his plan. She saves his life...just like she always has...just like she always will.

(Cast 1M/1W)

SYNOPSIS
She...who appears to be a discontented housewife from Queens, sits alone in a coffee shop...waiting. He...who appears to be a Long Island intimate apparel salesman, arrives with his salesman case and sits at a table near hers. He flirts. She flirts back. They discuss her boring husband, and he convinces her he could make it all better. They agree it may be more comfortable upstairs in his room at the hotel which houses this coffee shop. Suddenly his cell phone rings. It's his mom, the grandmother of their children. They need to come home because the kids are just too unruly for grandma to control. Disappointed, they decide they will try to do their “fantasy night” again on next year’s Valentine’s Day.

“THE SISTER’S GRIN” is a two-character, short play about two middle-aged sisters. ASH, the older, “loser” sister, is in serious trouble…again. Seeking help, she once again, arrives in the middle of the night on the suburban doorstep of her much more successful, younger sister, VAL.

Throughout most of the play the audience believes that the “loser” sister is an unscrupulous user, with the moral fiber of an alley rat. In the end, the audience discovers it is in fact the “good” sister who has the darker soul.

It’s very late on the opening night of a Broadway musical theatre bomb. The shows creators, Matt Coleman and Hank Henderson are drowning their sorrows in a Sardi’s-like restaurant in the theatre district as the negative reviews flow in. Hank is ready to throw in the towel, but suddenly they receive an invitation to a breakfast meeting the very next day with Albert King, The King of Broadway, who allegedly has a proposal for a new show. They must decide whether the show is to be or not to be.

Two childhood buddies who are now on opposite U.S. coasts and have not seen each other in years, wake up terrified. They have both had a horrific nightmare about an incident that happened decades ago in the small hometown that they both had left years ago. The nightmare was sparked by the memories of an incident from their childhood that they will never really be able to forget.

CHARLIE, the night watchman at the Broadway theatre known as The Broadway Theatre, has fallen asleep in his chair at his post near the stage door. Suddenly, there is a pounding on the exterior of the stage door which startles CHARLIE. The unanticipated visitor is JIMMY, a chorus boy who recently lost his job. JIMMY was in the revival of “West Side Story”, which recently and abruptly closed at The Broadway Theatre due to the coronavirus pandemic. JIMMY explains that he has now been evicted from his apartment as is in a desperate situation. HE turns to CHARLIE for help. We quickly learn that CHARLIE has his own problems.

Four grown men who once, as young boys, had played baseball together on a red brick street known as Wayland Avenue in a small town known as Johnston Hollow, now live in four different major cities across the United States. They never see or speak to each other and they rarely even think of those days back in Johnston Hollow. But suddenly and inexplicably, on this particular night, they are all awakened from a nightmare which recalls a memory from their childhood that had terrified them at the time. It still does.

Buddy and Elaine have been married a long time. Maybe too long. But even so...when she makes an effort to look nice...would it kill him to tell her that she looks nice. Geesh!

Four grown men who once, as young boys, had played baseball together on a red brick street called “Wayland” in a small town called Johnston Hollow, are now in four different major cities across the United States. They never see or speak to each other and they rarely even think of those days back in Johnston Hollow. But suddenly and inexplicably, on this particular night, they are all hit with a horrifying nightmare which reignites a memory from their childhood that had terrified them at the time. It still does.

Cast of 4 in their 20’s.