Andrew Black

On April 27, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an Executive Order authorizing the federal government to investigate its employees for evidence of homosexuality. If evidence were found, the employee was to be terminated immediately.

On June 15, 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that such an order (if it still existed) would be unconstitutional.

A whole lot of stuff happened in between.

In this one-person show, the storyteller (the playwright, a performer and a man who loves other men) describes how it all went down. He should know; he lived through most of it.

Two female college students and lifelong friends, Jessica and Miki, are active in their campus’ Christian faith ministry (College Ministry). However, Jessica has begun to wonder if there is really a place for women in the fellowship, or if it is just another old boys’ club. More troubling for Jessica are the doubts she is having about the Christian faith overall.

After a particularly unsettling conversation with Reverend Brannigan during a Bible Study, Jessica tells Miki she may be ready to drop out of the fellowship; she may even need to step back from her faith if the situation doesn’t improve. Alarmed by what her lifelong friend is going through, Miki wonders if there isn’t another way to handle this situation. Miki hits on the idea of reviewing stories of the women from the Bible, some of which Jessica is not familiar with, to see if there is any wisdom for them from this source. Miki and Jessica turn this quest into a kind of game, acting out the stories with relish. The tales seem to come to life before their very eyes, often revealing unexpected truths.

The story of Queen Esther tells of a woman who spoke the truth to power, even at great personal risk. The story of the woman taken in adultery (Simone) reveals Jesus’ concern for all his followers, not just the men. The story also shows that when there appear to be only two ways to handle a situation, a third option may unexpectedly materialize. The story of Rahab causes Jessica to realize the importance of enrolling allies and gives her the idea to start a Bible study at College Ministry which would be for women and focus on the stories of women from the Bible.

She and Miki turn to Pastor Bailey, College Ministry’s seminary intern, for coaching about their situation. When the three discuss the story of Mary and Martha, Pastor Bailey is moved to describe a period where he had doubts about his own faith. Pastor Bailey shares the story of the Bleeding Woman (Veronica). and Jessica realizes she just needs faith the size of a grain of the mustard seed to make a miracle to happen. Almost ready to confront Reverend Brannigan about their concerns, Jessica and Miki, must first work through their own issues about Jessica’s choices. The women share the story of Noah’s Wife with Reverend Brannigan, and when they do, they discover there may be more than one way to build an ark.

Joe, a solider on maneuvers, appears at the Malibu Barbie Beach House while Ken is lounging around the kitchen. Joe reveals that he has been sent to a rendezvous with Ken on orders from his C.O. It turns out that Joe and Ken have both been spying on each other from their respective homes and that a romantic interest has been piqued. As they begin to explore this attraction, Barbie arrives. Used to being the center of attention, she takes over. Ultimately, Joe must make a difficult decision about the future of his relationship with the handsome beach boy.

Lowell Carpenter, a successful Staten Island prosthetist, is embarking on a project to expand his thriving clinic. His domestic partner, Alejandro, encourages him to take on a charity project. Though initially resistant to the idea, Lowell reads an article about the ritual dismemberment of children from the African country of Sierra Leone as part of a bloody civil war. The boy in the article is a drummer named Brima. Lowell experiences an almost mystical compulsion to assist this teenager. His plan is to bring Brima and a young refugee girl to the United States, outfit them with state-of-the-art technology and return them to Sierra Leone. He plans to use their story to start a prosthetics clinic there. Alejandro, a Mexican immigrant, becomes skeptical of these plans and with reason. It turns out that Brima has his own ideas about how the project should proceed. Like the African boomslang, Brima moves quietly and quickly. Brima is determined to stay in the United Sates, and will do whatever is necessary to make that happen. Lowell must now confront the fact that doing a simple good deed can be much more difficult than he ever imagined. Inspired by real life events.

Puppet Man, Synopsis
Inmate #6627405, Luther “Pretty Boy” DuPree has begun a 28-year sentence at the North Central Correctional Institute (NCCI) for losing control of his gun during a fight. 22 years old, the refuge he finds from the voices which torment him is in the drugs he gets from DuVall Word, the fellow convict who has his finger in most of the dirty deals that go on at NCCCI. Pretty Boy steals fruit juice from the kitchen, Word takes it, ferments it and sells it as jail yard hooch. Word gets Pretty Boy his “medicine”.
Now, however, Word is upping the ante. He wants Pretty Boy to “turn” a C.O. (Corrections Officer) to continue to receive the “medicine”. C.O. Cunningham has the hots for Pretty Boy; Word correctly assumes that if Pretty Boy puts out, Cunningham will return the favor. Pretty Boy recoils from this suggestion, but proposes another. A social services program at the prison produces puppets shows once a month for children visiting their fathers at the facility. Pretty Boy proposes to join the program, and get the woman who runs it (Dr. Markos) to bring in contraband as directed by Word. Word agrees, saying that at the end of three months, Pretty Boy must convince Dr. Markos to bring in a ham radio on a gate pass. The radio will be loaded with contraband, and the gate pass will allow it to bypass normal inspection protocols. If Pretty Boy can do this, Word will continue to give him his medicine.
Pretty Boy endures a nerve wracking “audition”, but becomes part of the puppet group. Not completely satisfied, Word continues to push Pretty Boy toward C.O. Cunningham, further destabilizing Pretty Boy. Taking increasing amounts of drugs to quiet the voices, Pretty Boy suffers a psychotic break during a puppet training exercise and ends up in solitary.
Having lost a month of the three-month trial, Pretty Boy redoubles his efforts to get the radio. He builds a puppet for an upcoming show, Little Red Riding Hood. His creation (“Pretty Girl”) seems to take on a life of her own. The puppeteers begin to trust Pretty Boy, and are convinced he can come to terms even with his 28-year sentence. “Everything in life does not lend itself to simple understanding,” one of the puppeteers (“Dayton”) tells Pretty Boy. Markos casts “Pretty Girl” as the star of an upcoming production, and tells Pretty Boy she will bring the radio if he does well. “Pretty Girl” continues to develop her own personality, commanding C.O. Cunningham to back off when he becomes too familiar with Pretty Boy.
After one of Word’s other accomplices is busted for smuggling, Pretty Boy sees that his actions are putting Dr. Markos and the puppet program in jeopardy. With Pretty Girl’s help, he tells Word that he is out….no ham radio, no more fruit juice, nothing. Unwilling to accept this betrayal, Word shanks Pretty Boy. In his haze, Pretty Boy realizes that the Hunter from the Red Riding Hood story has appeared in the dorm. “I have come to save Red Riding Hood” the hunter says, as Pretty Boy blacks out.
In the final moments of the play, it is revealed that Dayton, a convicted murderer, overheard Pretty Boy’s distress, has stepped in and dispatched Duvall Word. A simple choice made by Pretty Boy led to an outcome he could never have expected, as Little Red Riding Hood never expected to be saved by the Hunter in her story. As Pretty Boy sees, “Everything in life does not lend itself to simple understanding.”
This play is inspired by true events which took place at the North Central Correctional Institute in Marion, Ohio, from 2000-2007.