Shellen Lubin

Without a Title is a 3-ring circus. It is loosely based on Federico Garcia Lorca's unfinished Play Without a Title, adding in pieces of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is ostensibly being rehearsed behind a closed door in Lorca's play. In this 3-ring circus, there is one ring where the Director speaks directly to the Audience of art, philosophy, and politics; one where the actors are rehearsing the Shakespeare play without him; and one where a right wing host and even more right wing commentator are letting us know what's going on in the outside world, the first huge citizens’ protest after an Executive Order outlawing protesting has been enacted. Songs, fairies, murders (real and theatrical), fight choreography, and more converge by the end in utter chaos and destruction.

This two act play for two women and one man takes place in that moment of time in the 1970s when the second wave of feminism was about to hit a brick wall and gay rights were really coming out of the closet. An older brother and younger sister are forced to look at how they view womanhood and themselves with the dramatic, sassy input of an ever-changing Star, embodying some of the biggest female icons of movies of the 40s. Performed in workshop at SUNY Fredonia. In Act II, the emotional lid is blown off for them all.

This dark comedy is about a loving, intimate, non-sexual friendship between a young gay man and a young straight woman who are both struggling to find a place in a world that is changing too quickly in some ways and too slowly in others. The play takes place in 1983 with flashbacks from 1961 through 1982. Through the flashbacks, hopping back and forth over the years, Susan struggles to come to terms with Jeff’s death, with their relationship, and with the family that never really accepted him. The play is written in one act and runs about 75 minutes.

Loosely based on William Shakespeare's THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, the fables on which Merchant was based, and the history of the Ghetto Nuovo in Venice, this 3-act play for 11 characters (3 women, 8 men, can be multi-cast) explores some of the issues raised by Shakespeare's play over the centuries, including the systemic prejudice against people from other religions and races, the poor, and women. The play takes place in Venice in the late 1500s, both in and around Ghetto Nuovo, the first Jewish ghetto in the world, and the place from which the term "ghetto" derives. Primarily in iambic pentameter, the two plots of the casket test and the blood bond are woven together in a different way, leading to a different, yet equally unsettling, outcome.

A 44-year old “displaced homemaker” in the 1980s in her first job befriends the 24-year old man who is a custodian at the school where she is teaching. They inspire irrevocable changes in each other’s lives, but with each other they hit a wall beyond which they cannot go. In the second act, a chance meeting four years later allows them to resolve some of the unfinished business between them. This is a two-act play for two women and two men. Produced by the SNAP! Festival in Omaha, Nebraska to glowing reviews. Also had a workshop at Manhattan Class Company starring Gretchen Cryer and James (Jimmy) Wlcek (for whom the parts were originally written). Has also had a reading for Julia's Reading Room (League of Professional Theatre Women) with a half white half black cast.

This is an interpretation of the story from the bible of Jacob’s seven years of service to Laban for his beautiful daughter Rachel’s hand in marriage and the subsequent seven years of service after he is tricked into marrying her older sister, Leah, told from the perspective that Leah is the one with whom he shares a relationship of depth and understanding, although he is unable to recognize this as love.

A short one-act play for two women, running about 20 minutes. Arriving back in New York after her stint in Hollywood feeling defeated and depressed, Stella Adler, in conversation/confrontation with her dear friend and colleague, Sylvia Gassel, decides to make a huge change in her life. Sylvia stays on the path of being a "character actress" in a world in which there are none. This piece was written for 365 Women a Year: A Playwriting Project.

A one-hour play for one woman and one man taking place in the 1980s, exploring the relationship between a 44-year old “displaced homemaker” in her first job and the 24-year old man who is a custodian at the school where she is teaching. They inspire irrevocable changes in each other’s lives, but with each other they hit a wall beyond which they cannot go.This piece is also the first act of Lubin's two-act play, IMPERFECT FLOWERS.

This collection of two one-act plays and two monologues for one woman and four men is about a bright, dynamic, passionate 25-year old woman in 1974 going through some painful life lessons as she finishes up a one woman tour of elementary schools in the northeastern United States. Kayla begins on the road, talking to herself and the audience, in LOOKING FOR NEW HAVEN. In WRAPPING WIRES, we see her confrontation with two men who confound her: the boss of the company, who has to fire her, and the technical director of the company, who makes everything and everyone as comfortable and easy as she makes everything complex and difficult. In the second monologue piece, SEAFIRE, we see her on the phone with her boyfriend who is ending their relationship. In the last one-act, ORBITUNIA, stripped of everything, Kayla comes to terms with some of the things that have eluded her as she helps a high school boy make some serious life choices of his own. Written in residency at Cummington Community of the Arts.

A monologue for Lynne Fontanne at age 79. In this monologue just after Lunt's death, she recounts the famous story of Alfred's line asking for a cup of tea, and discovers through telling their story how important that cup of tea truly is.