Luke Herzog

FULL LENGTH, ONE-ACT - In the year 2037, on the eve of an historic landing, NASA secretly hires six Hollywood writers to brainstorm the first words on Mars.

FULL-LENGTH - A stage play composed of six vignettes, each featuring two characters, all peripheral figures in the Lincoln assassination, all with their own riveting perspectives, each revealing another golden nugget of forgotten history.

To glue these vignettes together, my play features one recurring scene: An officer from the War Department forces the shaken cast to re-stage their play, Our American Cousin, in order to work out a timeline of who was where when during the shooting. This bizarre event actually took place mere days after the assassination. An encore under duress.

FULL LENGTH, TWO-ACT - A superhero courtroom drama. This play is based on a real court case from the early 2000s called “Toy Biz, Inc. v. United States.” Because of a quirk of trade law, Marvel Comics realized they could potentially save hundreds of thousands of dollars in action figure tariffs if they argued that the X-Men were not human beings. This enraged fans, and rightfully so: The X-Men were created as an allegory for the Civil Rights Movement. We follow cynical U.S. Customs attorney Paige Palmer as she champions superheroes’ humanity with the help of Marvin Rooney, an idealistic comic book nerd.

MUSICAL, FULL LENGTH - Six flawed strangers find themselves trapped in an elevator and evaluating their existence. When a cord snaps and the elevator plummets several stories, they are forced to come to terms with the fact that they are the recently deceased. Facing the prospect of death, they wonder: Are we going up... or down?

A musical tragicomedy with 10 original songs. Composition by Max Afifi.

ONE ACT PLAY - Paul Burton Judd is sentenced to die via electric chair. Two prison cooks (inmates themselves) are tasked with prepping his requested last meal: a simple peanut butter & jelly sandwich. When the cooks discover that Judd has a severe peanut allergy and is attempting to take his own life hours before his execution, they are forced into a high-stakes debate about whether or not to proceed. As the prisoners wrestle with the question of forgiveness, it soon becomes clear that one of the men is still struggling to forgive himself.

ONE ACT PLAY - Backstage at the Starburst Chuckle Hut, rising comedian Ankor Popov quarrels with Will Fallow, his under-appreciated opening act. Then come reports of an incoming disaster that might be described as a cosmic joke. It's not funny... Then again, maybe a punchline is the best way to close out the act.

ONE ACT PLAY - In an unnamed suburb in the 1980s, a group of students of various ages are recruited by a scheming boy named Niles to get revenge on the despicable school bully, Gus. Each of the five teens are missing one of the five senses -- sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. The play, which begins and ends in an isolated treehouse, consists of a series of vignettes as each character's story is illuminated. What eventually becomes clear is that Niles's plan does not involve a simple prank... He needs each of his companions in order to recreate an Ancient Egyptian ritual to steal each of the bully's five senses.

10 MINUTE - Based on real events, incompetent bodyguard John Frederick Parker wanders into a tavern during intermission at Ford’s Theater and unknowingly converses with would-be assassin John Wilkes Booth.

10 MINUTE - Heather and Brian sit next to each other as passengers on a legendary new rollercoaster, Masochist Mountain. As their car slowly ascends the slope, Heather begins to realize that the man beside her is not who he seems. For that matter, neither is the ride.

10 MINUTE - A dark comedy about how Yorick, the court jester of “Alas, poor Yorick” fame, met his untimely end.

10 MINUTE - Maverick, an action movie star-in-the-making, returns to a tattoo parlor in order to get a signature on a release form. He needs permission from the tattoo artist, Imogen, to allow his new ink to be featured on the silver screen... But Imogen refuses to capitulate. What starts as a debate about artistic ownership slowly becomes a hostage situation.

10 MINUTE - ​In 2020, working from home was hard enough. It's even harder when your job involves exorcising demons. A Zoom-impaired priest attempts to guide Alan, a terrified husband, through the process of ridding his wife of Beelzebub.

10 MINUTE - Childhood™ depicts a conversation between two people who approach the concept of, yes, childhood from two divergent points of view. Cynthia, a kindergarten teacher, considers youth to be a time of limitless wonder, a sacred collection of sights, sounds, and smells that spark imagination without bounds. Manny is a patent lawyer. It is his role, whether he likes it or not, to admit that many of the corporate entities that contribute those sights and sounds and smells can claim them as intellectual property. He has trademarked, for instance, the scent of Play-Doh. Cynthia finds that unconscionable. Their repartee in his patent office results in a detente of sorts as they come to an understanding that may satisfy both perspectives.

MONOLOGUE - Oliver Crook Haugh was a real man, a heinous killer with an unusual and profound impact on the history of humanity. This story is absolutely true, though some details were added for the sake of narrative. In this monologue, he tells of a hockey game from his childhood that changed the course of two lives.