Gary Sunshine

GARY SUNSHINE is a recipient of a Helen Merrill Award and a NYFA Artist Fellowship in Playwriting, and alumnus of New Dramatists. His play Sweetness was produced at the Clurman Theater/Theater Row and was a finalist for the O’Neill; Mercury was produced at HERE in association with Eve Ensler; The Names of Foods was produced by the eXchange; Best Sex Ever was the first play produced in Rising Phoenix Cino Nights series; other works include Kahn & Kant (Drama League Directors Project), and Al Takes a Bride (Actors Studio; Sydney Mardi Gras Festival; King’s Theatre, and over 15 others throughout the US and internationally). His work has been seen/developed at the Royal National Theatre Studio, New York Stage & Film, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Echo Theater, Page 73...

GARY SUNSHINE is a recipient of a Helen Merrill Award and a NYFA Artist Fellowship in Playwriting, and alumnus of New Dramatists. His play Sweetness was produced at the Clurman Theater/Theater Row and was a finalist for the O’Neill; Mercury was produced at HERE in association with Eve Ensler; The Names of Foods was produced by the eXchange; Best Sex Ever was the first play produced in Rising Phoenix Cino Nights series; other works include Kahn & Kant (Drama League Directors Project), and Al Takes a Bride (Actors Studio; Sydney Mardi Gras Festival; King’s Theatre, and over 15 others throughout the US and internationally). His work has been seen/developed at the Royal National Theatre Studio, New York Stage & Film, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Echo Theater, Page 73, Rattlestick, the New Group, the New Company (London), and MCC Theater. Gary co-created the documentary What I Want My Words to Do to You (Freedom of Expression Award, Sundance Film Festival) which premiered nationwide on PBS’s P.O.V. He has been a staff writer for HBO’s Hung and CBS’s As the World Turns, (WGA Award nomination). He received an AB from Princeton and an MFA from NYU’s Dramatic Writing Program.

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Scripts

Alliance Rupture (a 15-minute solo play)

by Gary Sunshine

Cast Size
1
Genre
comedy,
drama

Lyla, a mental health professional and Covid-era transplant to a hip Hudson River exurb, fills in for a friend who teaches in a social work grad school program down in the city. A fine clinician but inexperienced in the classroom, she soon finds her recent past threatens to devour her lecture on the fragility of the clinician-client bond, in this solo piece about how we recalibrate our connections in the face of...

Lyla, a mental health professional and Covid-era transplant to a hip Hudson River exurb, fills in for a friend who teaches in a social work grad school program down in the city. A fine clinician but inexperienced in the classroom, she soon finds her recent past threatens to devour her lecture on the fragility of the clinician-client bond, in this solo piece about how we recalibrate our connections in the face of loss.

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Al Takes a Bride

by Gary Sunshine

Cast Size
3
Genre
docudrama/historic,
drama,
period,
tragedy

On a moonlit riverbank, over a hundred years before Obergefell v. Hodges made same-sex marriage the law of the land, two young southern women imagine their wedding to each other. Full of lyrical suspense and based loosely on a high-profile, turn of the century murder case, Al Takes a Bride hinges on impossible choices, where decisions rest somewhere between dreaming and dying.

On a moonlit riverbank, over a hundred years before Obergefell v. Hodges made same-sex marriage the law of the land, two young southern women imagine their wedding to each other. Full of lyrical suspense and based loosely on a high-profile, turn of the century murder case, Al Takes a Bride hinges on impossible choices, where decisions rest somewhere between dreaming and dying.

Sweetness

by Gary Sunshine

2
Cast Size
5
Genre
dark comedy,
drama

It’s Darius “DD” Delgado’s sixteenth birthday. His best friend, Corey Ranson, pulls him out of the bottom of a dumpster, where DD’s tormentor and his buddies threw DD after a routine beatdown. In SWEETNESS, the intertwining of four people--Demetrius; his queer best friend, Corey; his eternally cheerful respiratory therapist Heidi; and her boyfriend, a brooding janitor named Lamb--determines whether an explosive...

It’s Darius “DD” Delgado’s sixteenth birthday. His best friend, Corey Ranson, pulls him out of the bottom of a dumpster, where DD’s tormentor and his buddies threw DD after a routine beatdown. In SWEETNESS, the intertwining of four people--Demetrius; his queer best friend, Corey; his eternally cheerful respiratory therapist Heidi; and her boyfriend, a brooding janitor named Lamb--determines whether an explosive tragedy will visit a small town.

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Mercury

by Gary Sunshine

Cast Size
5—7
Genre
dark comedy,
fantasy

The child of a Holocaust survivor, Oscar Marcus lives in a quiet, growing terror, taunted by a legacy of Jewish victimhood. As he begins to strip away everything that grounds him-—his job, his father, and his TV weatherman boyfriend-—he finds himself utterly disconnected and terrified of disappearing, until he establishes an online connection with an ominous Cyberchorus and mysterious older man who calls himself...

The child of a Holocaust survivor, Oscar Marcus lives in a quiet, growing terror, taunted by a legacy of Jewish victimhood. As he begins to strip away everything that grounds him-—his job, his father, and his TV weatherman boyfriend-—he finds himself utterly disconnected and terrified of disappearing, until he establishes an online connection with an ominous Cyberchorus and mysterious older man who calls himself the GipperKing.

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Best Sex Ever

by Gary Sunshine

Cast Size
5—8
Genre
comedy,
farce,
romantic comedy,
satire

Unfashionable Jeremy takes his vaguely foreign boyfriend Kraatz on his kindergarten teacher's wedding cruise, hoping to settle a score with the groom. Secret desires mount on the high seas, while the wedding videographer tries to shoot his dream project on the side. A comedy about trying to top life's hottest moments.

Unfashionable Jeremy takes his vaguely foreign boyfriend Kraatz on his kindergarten teacher's wedding cruise, hoping to settle a score with the groom. Secret desires mount on the high seas, while the wedding videographer tries to shoot his dream project on the side. A comedy about trying to top life's hottest moments.

The New Comet

by Gary Sunshine

3
Cast Size
3
Genre
comedy,
holiday

Christmas is approaching, and the annual pageant has a brand-new director. Will this mean the end to Mr. Allen's reign as the town's favorite reindeer?

Christmas is approaching, and the annual pageant has a brand-new director. Will this mean the end to Mr. Allen's reign as the town's favorite reindeer?