John David Westby

Full Length. In Random Theft & Other Acts, three college-educated, under-employed, and unlikely bank robbers find themselves where no suburbanites should - a seedy run down motel in the middle of nowhere - when their plans spin widely out of control and they must grapple with suspicion, kidnapping, and the universal laws of cause and effect. Cast of seven (2W, 5M). 1 unit set.

Full Length. In #Christmas Makeover, the Dickens classic gets turned on its head as old Ebenezer becomes Ms CC Scrooge, an ambitious woman with a popular QVC Heart of Stone jewelry line and an online payday loan business that's just as heartless. Bobbi Cratchit is her beleaguered assistant while her ex-partner Marlene, chooses this year to pay a long-delayed visit to her old friend to give her the Christmas makeover she deserves. A female-focused ensemble with doubling and tripling will round out this holiday world.

Full length, one act. In Dear Abigail/Dear John: An Incandescent Match, John and Abigail Adams were the original power couple of the American Revolution. They spent many years apart and that distance produced a voluminous correspondence that shines a bright light on their incandescent relationship. This play covers the years 1774 - 1776 up to July 4th and the Declaration John has worked so hard to pass. The play was developed using the letters of John and Abigail Adams as a base and then adapted for stage and zoom screen . The play was streamed during the pandemic in 2021.

Full Length. The Ultimate Christmas Carol by E Scrooge Esq is a modern adaptation of the classic Christmas Carol which puts Charles Dickens on stage with an ensemble cast of mismatched locals to enact a Christmas story written by his friend, Ebenezer Scrooge, Esq. Mayhem and misanthropy ensue as Dickens takes the role of Bob Cratchit, the Ghosts play hooky, and Tiny Tim won't stop rapping in church. The ensemble cast doubles and triples and even quadruples characters.

Suggested cast size can be anywhere from 8 or more depending on production resources and how many characters can be played by each actor. There are options to include 2 – 4 children or young adults who act as apart of the ENSEMBLE to sing original songs and perform sound effects and other business the producer would like to create. The production uses the comic effect of puppetry to fill out additional extraneous characters as well.

Full Length. In Directly Into the Sun, a mother and daughter learn to deal with loss, love, and the new discoveries brought to light by a not-so-brilliant private investigator as a diligent insurance adjuster methodically pays the claims on past disasters. They embark on a wacky road trip to the past and a future they'll have to create on the go.

Full Length. In 1962 Chicago, gallery owner and art restorer Lila Wald has built a life of elegance atop carefully buried secrets. When a former accomplice resurfaces with a looted painting and a threat, the fragile walls of her past begin to crack. As her young assistant Claire digs deeper, ghostly memories of Lila’s lost lover and a trail of wartime betrayal rise to the surface. With pressure mounting from a relentless journalist and the weight of truth closing in, both women must choose between protecting the façade—or exposing the cost of beauty built on stolen lives.

10min. In Exit Interview, Hooper, a longtime employee, must resign but his manager launches an off boarding process from hell, revealing a chilling truth: leaving is impossible. A darkly comic two-hander about loyalty, control, and the fine print that turns “career growth” into a life sentence. Part of the Corporate Dystopia Series: Working Hard, Hardly Working.

10min. When a bored teenager shatters the window of a small struggling nail salon with a slingshot, the furious owner makes him clean up every shard, turning an act of vandalism into a reckoning neither expected—or can escape.

10min. Sky Full explores a future where natural beauty is suddenly vanishing, a precocious poet and an off-the-grid park ranger fall in love while protecting the last remaining sunset until unexpected forces cause a glitch in the fabric of the sky. This 10-minute play has laughs and meaning.

10min. A stack of books. A loaded choice. In a near-future where reading is a crime, a traveler on a quest to find a lost daughter gets caught reading, defying a young Administrator who must report the crime. A quiet battle over memory, meaning, and the power of stories becomes a matter of life or death.

10min. Totally Straight, Incredibly Masculine, is a savage, laugh-out-loud takedown of men’s podcasts, alpha culture, and performative masculinity. Two best buds, Brad and Kevin, turn their microphones, stress balls, and bro-logic into weapons of emotional destruction by asking "Who's the alpha?" and what ensues turns “being a man” into the only thing holding a friendship together.

10min. Leopard eats face in Made You Laugh. A regime supporter and bro-ligarch Randall finds himself detained by FACE, a sinister compliance agency which enforces morale through joviality and laughter. When Randall must perform as a clown to prove his loyalty, he grapples between humiliation and self-preservation, and confronts a nightmarish test where laughter is no longer a choice but a mandate for survival.

One act. Two anxious office drones discover yet another coworker has “resigned” during the company’s chaotic return-to-office
mandate. Desperate to protect themselves from their mercurial boss and complete their mandatory employee "census," they invent elaborate cover stories and draft fake paper trails to justify termination only to learn the missing employee is more than just a missing worker. A dark comedy about corporate jargon, fake productivity, and the absurd rituals of workplace survival. Part of the Corporate Dystopia Series: Working Hard, Hardly Working.

Full length. In Person or Persons Unknown, a horrendous multiple murder draws a bereaved daughter home to search for answers. She teams up with an ambitious reporter, who takes every opportunity to create a media firestorm, to solve her father's murder and face her own demons. Past and present collide as media coverage and a sensational investigation distort truth and justice to become the story. Eight actors (4 women, 4 men). Multiple locations in continuous action.