Natalie Symons

Set in a hoarder’s nest in the Black Rock neighborhood of Buffalo NY, Miles, an aging funeral home custodian with a taste for whiskey and a taste for laughter, lives with his daughter Mabel, a middle-aged agoraphobic who spends her days writing letters to prison inmates. When a court-appointed guardian threatens to take away their home, their rights, and their stolen poodle, Miles takes action and sets out to find a ‘good guy’ for Mabel. Enter Todd, a somewhat inept mortician who lives with his mother and pet hamster Stanley Kowalski. It is a father’s iron will to not accept his daughter’s fate that ignites an endearing human comedy about love, loss, loneliness, and the healing power of laughter.

Two lives unexpectedly collide when Amy, a transgender teenage girl shows up unannounced in a Florida motel room to visit Nell, a dying woman who’s lived much of her life on the streets of Detroit and wishes to self-publish her childhood memoir. Over the next 24 hours Amy and Nell are forced to confront the difficult truths that have brought them together while Amy races to upload Nell’s manuscript before time runs out. Naming True explores questions of faith, identity, and how we attempt to reconcile guilt and loss. This tragicomedy, involving a stolen laptop, an old manuscript and a peculiar cat, asks what significance hope plays in our spiritual lives. Inspired by T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, Naming True is a stirring, often heartbreaking tale of survival, redemption, and the deep human desire to share our stories.

The King family has gathered together for Christmas in the wake of a hate crime committed against fifteen-year-old Nick. When, on Christmas Eve, Nick’s senile grandfather disappears toting a gun, the holiday reunion is thrown into turmoil. Natalie Symons’ new comedy THE BUFFALO KINGS examines unsettling truths and the emotional damage inflicted on one another in the name of love. For anyone who has ever loved a child or cared for a parent, THE BUFFALO KINGS is a touching tribute to the ties that bind.

* During the COVID-19 crisis, many theatres are looking for a small-cast piece that can be performed remotely and yet will enable their community to connect and to laugh. Lark Eden is a reminder of the power of friendship when you can't be together. Please contact the author for information on royalty-free producing.

Lark Eden is an epistolary play which traces the lives and life-long friendships of three southern women beginning in the Depression era and continuing through the early years of the new century, offering a lyrical exploration of the ties that bind us together as tightly as family, and as surely as love. From frog catching girls with skinned knees to world wizened grandmothers, Lark Eden follows these three women through personal trials and victories no less daunting than the historical tribulations which provide the backdrop to these everyday American lives.