What would have happened if Romeo and Juliet had lived? This parody of Shakespeare's classic tragedy tests the strength of the star-crossed lovers' relationship, many years after the tomb.

Romeo & Juliet: Part II has been produced at Spokane Civic Theatre, the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival and numerous schools. Excerpts appear in the Best Stage Scenes and Monologues 2000 by Smith & Kraus and Young Women's Monologues and Contemporary Plays.

A couple gets caught in a rainstorm.

Life is a highway. Jules Hamilton, a high-powered businesswoman, is at the top of her game when she loses the big account, gets canned, and gets stranded by the side of the road where she encounters a group of offbeat characters and highway robbery.

Fate—in the form of a masculine Glinda the Good Witch—lends a hand and puts up road blocks as Jules tries desperately to climb back up the ladder. Meanwhile, her job has been given to a blow up doll and she’s the only one who seems to notice. No one is who they seem—not the flagger thief, the clown businessman, or the alien clerk. After a series of confrontations on the road, detours, and UFO sightings, all the characters end up in Mexico where the livin’ is easy and Jules realizes what’s important.

Lizzie is worried about the future. She is nine months pregnant with her first child, and she can’t sleep. She feels disconnected from her husband, Michael. As she paces during the night, the moon stalks her and gives her unsolicited attention. Lizzie is also visited by a vampire, a fear from her childhood. Meanwhile, Michael finds comfort at the local bar, Some Other Place, and in talking with a pretty young bartender, Keisha. He also meets Ted, the vampire in human form. As natural and unnatural forces bear down on the young parents to be, Lizzie is forced to conjure the power within herself to banish her fears and protect her child.

The earliest jigsaw puzzles were maps mounted on wood and were used to teach children geography. Cecilia “Sissy” dissects the events and relationships of her life over a period of months via a series of monologues and short scenes—all the while completing puzzles on stage. The puzzle is the one thing in her life that Sissy can completely control. One missing piece sets her on a tirade. Sissy has cared for her younger sister Toni, who is in a wheelchair, since their mother left when they were school-age children. Their father died of cancer several years later. Now, Toni announces she plans to move out on her own and begins dating Mark, a pizza delivery driver. Mark is her first boyfriend, and Sissy questions his motives for wanting a relationship with a handicapped person. Sissy’s longtime boyfriend Alan wants to marry her, but she resists. He expresses his disapproval of her overprotectiveness of Toni. Rather than be caught in the middle of the two sisters, he decides he will go on an extended trip. Meanwhile, Sissy seeks solace from a patient named Mrs. Bitters who is undergoing treatment for cancer. Gail, the girls’ mother, returns after roughly 12 years. Toni wants to bond with her mother who supports her need for independence. Sissy wants her mother to leave because she feels Gail is taking her place as the female role model in her sister’s life. And, she is skeptical as to why her mother comes back after so many years. Violin music, which represents Toni’s unbound soul, sets the tone for the action inside and between certain moments. By the end of the play, the pieces of Sissy’s life fall into place, though the picture they create isn’t necessarily perfect. The question is: Can Sissy accept it?

Bob is sued for infringing on a corporate trademark by using his name.

Melissa is a new volunteer mentor who spends time with Journie, an incarcerated young woman, during visiting hours at her local juvenile detention center.

Connie deals with her aging mother at a department store during a power outage.