Emma Goldman-Sherman

Emma Goldman-Sherman

Emma Goldman-Sherman (she/they) is an autistic, trans/enbee, queer, Jewish, antizionist, feminist playwright living in New York City. Their work has been finalisted at BAPF, Unicorn (x3), Risk is This at Cutting Ball (x3), Campfire, Bechdel, Waterworks and Henley Rose. Counting in Sha'ab is available as a podcast on PlayingonAir.org and Abraham's Daughters is available as a podcast at TheParsnipShip....
Emma Goldman-Sherman (she/they) is an autistic, trans/enbee, queer, Jewish, antizionist, feminist playwright living in New York City. Their work has been finalisted at BAPF, Unicorn (x3), Risk is This at Cutting Ball (x3), Campfire, Bechdel, Waterworks and Henley Rose. Counting in Sha'ab is available as a podcast on PlayingonAir.org and Abraham's Daughters is available as a podcast at TheParsnipShip.com. They are working on a collaboration with Experimental Bitch Presents called Tanya's Lit Clit among other projects.

Produced on 4 continents, their work has been seen at Golden Thread, WP Theatre, New Georges, UNESCO's City of Literature Festival in Dunedin (NZ), EST/LA, Dixon Place, The Philadelphia Women's Theatre Festival, The New Ohio, Manhattan Theatre Source, All Out Arts at CSV, Circle Rep Lab, Guild Hall, New Circle Theatre Co, The Bernie Wohl Center, The Chain, The Wild Project, Capital Fringe, Alumnae Theatre Toronto, Short + Sweet Gold Coast and Sydney (AU), Seoul, Sasebo, Renegade N.O.W. Festival, The Loft at Marble Collegiate Church, Astoria First Presbyterian's Brown Tree Theatre, Union Theological Seminary, The Museum of Jewish Heritage, Yiddishe Folksbiene Theatre, Greenbriar Valley Theatre, Canal Cafe Theatre (London), Camilla's, The Culture Project, and others.

Emma is published by Brooklyn Publishers, Next Stage Press, Smith & Kraus and Applause.

They earned an MFA from University of Iowa where they received the Norman Felton Fellowship and won the Richard Maibaum Award for plays addressing social justice for Antigone's Sister and received a Jane Chambers Award for Perfect Women. Residencies at Millay Colony for the Arts, Ragdale and twice at WordBridge where they returned a third year as a dramaturg. Emma has taught and been a dramaturg at the Great Plains Theatre Conference (2015, 2016). Emma was the Resident Dramaturg at 29th Street Playwrights Collective where they ran the Write Now Workshop from 2015 - 2021.

Emma teaches for the Dramatists Guild Institute and created and runs www.BraveSpace.online. Member: Honor Roll!, LPTW, LMDA and the Dramatists Guild.

Plays

  • ABRAHAM'S DAUGHTERS
    FULL LENGTH 2024 Waterworks Finalist, 2019 Henley Rose Finalist You can hear it here: https://www.theparsnipship.com/#listen-now Although Abraham is a Jew from Flushing, and he only has one daughter, Maxine, and her only daughter Racie is a lesbian, Abraham still believes he'll be the Father of Nations. He moves to Tel Aviv in search of his first love, Haajar. When he discovers Haajar's daughter has...
    FULL LENGTH 2024 Waterworks Finalist, 2019 Henley Rose Finalist You can hear it here: https://www.theparsnipship.com/#listen-now Although Abraham is a Jew from Flushing, and he only has one daughter, Maxine, and her only daughter Racie is a lesbian, Abraham still believes he'll be the Father of Nations. He moves to Tel Aviv in search of his first love, Haajar. When he discovers Haajar's daughter has five Palestinian Muslim sons, he goes to Nablus in the midst of the first Intifada to claim them as his own. Abraham's Daughters is a mythic play about colonialism and identity. 1 man, 4 women, 90 min, unit set
  • Antigone's Sister
    FULL LENGTH Winner of the Richard Maibaum Award for plays addressing social justice. Ismene, Antigone's sister, relives the events that led to Antigone's imprisonment/death, from her own imprisonment in the same cave where she now faces the same choices Antigone did at her end, and in looking back Ismene shows us the steps that led not only to Antigone's tragedy, but also to Antigone's...
    FULL LENGTH Winner of the Richard Maibaum Award for plays addressing social justice. Ismene, Antigone's sister, relives the events that led to Antigone's imprisonment/death, from her own imprisonment in the same cave where she now faces the same choices Antigone did at her end, and in looking back Ismene shows us the steps that led not only to Antigone's tragedy, but also to Antigone's greatness as she opens Ismene's eyes to the idea that women are also human.
  • FUKT
    FULL-LENGTH, BAPF Finalist, Unicorn Finalist, FUKT is an oddly uplifting personal tale of traumatic memory, murder & private parts! With zombies, a striptease and song, this immersive, fearless journey to bare all is a healing balm for anyone with a secret.

    Emma (played by an actor) tries to perform a one-woman show, only Barbara and Bobbie interrupt and demand to be included. Bobbie carries...
    FULL-LENGTH, BAPF Finalist, Unicorn Finalist, FUKT is an oddly uplifting personal tale of traumatic memory, murder & private parts! With zombies, a striptease and song, this immersive, fearless journey to bare all is a healing balm for anyone with a secret.

    Emma (played by an actor) tries to perform a one-woman show, only Barbara and Bobbie interrupt and demand to be included. Bobbie carries the memories of the traumas Emma survived. Barbara forgot and doesn't want to remember. FUKT is about how three fragmented aspects of a traumatized person come together to heal.


    Content Warning: this play deals with traumatic memory about childhood incest and sexual abuse. The play could trigger anyone who is already dealing with (or ignoring) these issues.
  • JUST IGNORE ME
    FULL-LENGTH (in development) JUST IGNORE ME is what happens when Lores's daughter grows up and gets ready to leave her while Lores still hasn't fully mourned her mother's death. Lores puts on a Show of Shows! Just Ignore Me is written for an ensemble of 6 actors with circus skills. As with anything stuffed with so much silliness, please expect an equal amount of sadness, grief and loss.
  • LESBIAN SOAP
    FULL LENGTH in Development: On a group tour to Palestine, 3 American women grapple with their differences as micro-aggressions meet intersectionality meet lesbian soap!

    Kirsten, a young white Catholic newlywed, tries to discover lesbian secrets. Jean, an older white Lutheran, tries to enjoy the miracles of the Holy Land. And Nuala, a Black (biracial) Jewish lesbian, tries to find a way to be her whole self.
  • Man & Wife
    FULL LENGTH In MAN & WIFE, Ron & Missy Merriweather start out as mannequins on their own wedding cake. They struggle through 25 years of BiPartisan Marriage navigating climate changes, health care crises including abortion, and especially their children's gender dysphoria while they constantly craft their images on social media. And yet they are desperately seeking their own authentic selves. MAN...
    FULL LENGTH In MAN & WIFE, Ron & Missy Merriweather start out as mannequins on their own wedding cake. They struggle through 25 years of BiPartisan Marriage navigating climate changes, health care crises including abortion, and especially their children's gender dysphoria while they constantly craft their images on social media. And yet they are desperately seeking their own authentic selves. MAN & WIFE is an Epic Comedy that tries to reunite the country and help us all feel much more human.

    Louise Stephens at The Royal Court wrote, "we very much enjoyed reading the play - the bang with which it arrives, its wit, its energy, are all exciting. We felt its power most in the unapologetically theatrical moments..."
  • Perfect Women
    FULL LENGTH Jane Chambers Award 1997 In Perfect Women, Rosie starts a youtube channel for her birthday to document the stuff that happens, and a lot happens! This is a romp through early adolescence with lesbian longings, Barbie comes to life and runs off with a stone butch biker chick who used to be Pygmalion's Galatea, you know, just like your own teen years... From body image issues to acceptance -- is it possible?
  • TAMAR, The Two-Gated City
    FULL LENGTH Young Tamar is about to be married, but first she needs to know what happened to her aunt. With a ghost seeking a witness, and a witness committed to silence, only Young Tamar can question how we can find agency and new ways of knowing in an unjust world.

    2 rapist culture stories from the Bible, adapted for 3 women. With 3 simple a capella songs, this highly theatrical (easily...
    FULL LENGTH Young Tamar is about to be married, but first she needs to know what happened to her aunt. With a ghost seeking a witness, and a witness committed to silence, only Young Tamar can question how we can find agency and new ways of knowing in an unjust world.

    2 rapist culture stories from the Bible, adapted for 3 women. With 3 simple a capella songs, this highly theatrical (easily producible) drama inspires us to see ourselves in a new light.
  • Tanya's LIT CLIT
    Tanya’s LIT CLIT (in development with Experimental Bitch, dram. Maya Carter) is an Epic Comedy, a modern mythic phantasmagory told through music, text and dance. A particular part of Tanya's anatomy is on fire, only she can't really say which part! After years of chronic pain without a diagnosis, prima ballerina Tanya finds Dr. Violet, a urogynecologist with problems of her own. In an epic musical...
    Tanya’s LIT CLIT (in development with Experimental Bitch, dram. Maya Carter) is an Epic Comedy, a modern mythic phantasmagory told through music, text and dance. A particular part of Tanya's anatomy is on fire, only she can't really say which part! After years of chronic pain without a diagnosis, prima ballerina Tanya finds Dr. Violet, a urogynecologist with problems of her own. In an epic musical journey led by a chorus of disabled womxn+, Dr. Violet and Tanya embark on a wild investigation of the AFAB body and the herstory of its treatment.
  • That Queer Cirqus Play (or what you will)
    FULL LENGTH As Sleeping Beauty's castle awakens, the Mayor of the town of Demensia makes plans to host a circus on the Village Green, but the Queen of the Castle wants her Beauty (who has run off) to be married same day, same place! War and farce ensues... Rapunzel goes rogue. Cinderella robs a department store. And the Prince teams up with Beauty's dog to search for true love. If the boot fits, if...
    FULL LENGTH As Sleeping Beauty's castle awakens, the Mayor of the town of Demensia makes plans to host a circus on the Village Green, but the Queen of the Castle wants her Beauty (who has run off) to be married same day, same place! War and farce ensues... Rapunzel goes rogue. Cinderella robs a department store. And the Prince teams up with Beauty's dog to search for true love. If the boot fits, if the foot lifts, it might be magic!
  • WHORTICULTURE
    FULL LENGTH Daryl Roth calls it, "a smart and searing look at gender in our culture." Cum and See - LIVE GIRLS in Pop-Soil! WHORTICULTURE is an unflinching look at 3 girls coming of age in a toxic culture. With narrative and spoken word, this all-female feminist play exposes and stands up against our racialized misogynist world.
  • Why Birds Fly
    FULL LENGTH 2020 Unicorn Finalist, 2-hander that could be produced outdoors - After a devastating storm, Grace tries to rebuild, but Mary is desperate to escape. This is my deconstruction of a kitchen sink play with the sink torn from its pipes. This highly physical piece runs in real time as a comic tragedy or a tragic comedy - audience gets to choose on this emotional ride. Why Birds Fly is a mythic play...
    FULL LENGTH 2020 Unicorn Finalist, 2-hander that could be produced outdoors - After a devastating storm, Grace tries to rebuild, but Mary is desperate to escape. This is my deconstruction of a kitchen sink play with the sink torn from its pipes. This highly physical piece runs in real time as a comic tragedy or a tragic comedy - audience gets to choose on this emotional ride. Why Birds Fly is a mythic play about the primal human instinct to survive.
  • ZEN & the Art of Mourning a Mother
    FULL LENGTH Bechdel Test Finalist with the Bridge Initiative In ZEN & the Art of Mourning a Mother, Sarah wants to be seen as a loving daughter to her impossible mother, Angie who wants to make a deal: Angie will tell Sarah the story of why she never loved her, if only Sarah will leave her alone to die in peace. But Sarah has a story of her own to tell, and maybe after all the stories are told, Sarah will...
    FULL LENGTH Bechdel Test Finalist with the Bridge Initiative In ZEN & the Art of Mourning a Mother, Sarah wants to be seen as a loving daughter to her impossible mother, Angie who wants to make a deal: Angie will tell Sarah the story of why she never loved her, if only Sarah will leave her alone to die in peace. But Sarah has a story of her own to tell, and maybe after all the stories are told, Sarah will be able to mourn. 


    3 generations of women, 3 different moments in time. . . 5 women try to come to terms with their losses while traveling to New York City on a train that breaks the time/space continuum, and this makes all the difference.
  • The Adventures of Chatty
    TYA FULL-LENGTH in development. CHATTY Red Squirrel lives in Green Forest with Lonnie Possum, Petra and Alice Rabbit, Mallet the Woodpecker and Toni the Blue Jay. Chatty loves excitement and adventure but when her life is threatened by Whoosh the Weasel, she has to find a new home. A loose adaptation from Thorton W Burges's children's book, The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel, takes on ideas...
    TYA FULL-LENGTH in development. CHATTY Red Squirrel lives in Green Forest with Lonnie Possum, Petra and Alice Rabbit, Mallet the Woodpecker and Toni the Blue Jay. Chatty loves excitement and adventure but when her life is threatened by Whoosh the Weasel, she has to find a new home. A loose adaptation from Thorton W Burges's children's book, The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel, takes on ideas of homelessness, privilege, theft, capitalism, sharing, kindness, screen use, the value of thinking, and how to manage anxiety and loss.
  • Abstract Parents
    ONE ACT - Once Emily and Jake finish the paperwork for their adoption, their anxiety starts to exceed their coping skills. Adoption is not a walk in the park.
  • The Boat Called 16
    ONE ACT A 2-hander version of my monologue called Someone only different. NO ONE does the dishes - lots and lots of dishes. And her daughter DOLL. Who does your dishes? Have you thanked her recently?
  • Counting in Sha'ab
    ONE-ACT Now available as a podcast! (see link) After a car bomb goes off in a market in Sha'ab (a community in the northern part of Baghdad), the people have to decide how to go on. Is this the new normal? Should they count the bodies? What counts when every day life is disrupted every day? How we respond to trauma when trauma is happening all the time is a question many of us must confront. This one-act...
    ONE-ACT Now available as a podcast! (see link) After a car bomb goes off in a market in Sha'ab (a community in the northern part of Baghdad), the people have to decide how to go on. Is this the new normal? Should they count the bodies? What counts when every day life is disrupted every day? How we respond to trauma when trauma is happening all the time is a question many of us must confront. This one-act play takes a look at some of those strategies. Counting in Sha'ab's cast of different Iraqis (Sunni, Shi'a, Kurd, male, female) highlights our shared humanity.
  • EUPHORIA
    ONE ACT When 15 year old Joe breaks his wrist snowboarding, the doctor prescribes Oxycodone for the pain. Joe's dad, George, didn't think anything of it. Joe's mom, Carol, took the pills away. Now Carol is caught in a constant battle to keep herself from going upstairs.

    As an alternative, the script can be done with 15 year old Jo cast as female or non-binary/gnc, and there is...
    ONE ACT When 15 year old Joe breaks his wrist snowboarding, the doctor prescribes Oxycodone for the pain. Joe's dad, George, didn't think anything of it. Joe's mom, Carol, took the pills away. Now Carol is caught in a constant battle to keep herself from going upstairs.

    As an alternative, the script can be done with 15 year old Jo cast as female or non-binary/gnc, and there is also a version where Jo is adopted.
  • Fairies
    Tilda meets Godfrey on the Staten Island Ferry where their lives are forever altered by Curl, the Cellphone Fairy.

    Fairies is a play about what we believe in and what we can be, providing a new beginning for both Godfrey and Tilda. Fairies shows us how beliefs can limit us, how science can be awesome, and how we can believe unscientific things and still believe in science! It's also about...
    Tilda meets Godfrey on the Staten Island Ferry where their lives are forever altered by Curl, the Cellphone Fairy.

    Fairies is a play about what we believe in and what we can be, providing a new beginning for both Godfrey and Tilda. Fairies shows us how beliefs can limit us, how science can be awesome, and how we can believe unscientific things and still believe in science! It's also about twins, bullies, truth, honesty, miracles, homophobia, climate change, the beauty of a brisk March day, and Ostara the neopagan Nordic fertility goddess.
  • Heaven's a Motel
    ONE ACT based on a quote from John Cage, this play imagines a kind of overwhelming loneliness and what it drives humans to do.
  • ?HUH?
    ONE ACT from the Mark Bly Kafka's Train exercise. WYNNE and COUGHLIN are on the train, asleep in each other's arms. Suddenly the train lurches to a halt, and they wake, but they cannot see each other. As they frantically try to find each other again and manage their anxieties in this strange and impossible circumstance, they meet three travelers who each have their own points of view.
  • Neighbors by the Sea
    ONE-ACT Neighbors by the Sea is about how we get along with each other.
    While Sai is swimming in the sea, Noa moves Sai's beach chair. When Sai comes back, they argue. They see each other in very narrow ways. The beauty of theatre is that the audience sees something else. People tell me they read a lot into the play, that it can be about many things. So let it be what you want it to be.
  • Not Even the Girlfriend
    ONE-ACT (6 pages) Not Even the Girlfriend is the story of a young woman who will not be manipulated into losing her power. It's also about the power of the written word.
  • PETRIFIED
    ONE ACT Etta is too afraid to confront her father, so she lets the truth she remembers in the forest do it for her which causes her father to make a choice of his own.
  • The Slap of 1973
    ONE ACT: A dark comedy based on a true story about the objectification of women set in 1973 when things weren't much different than they are today. An East Coast Jew, A Southern Belle and a California Gal are all married to Company men at a conference at a resort trying to figure out how to move forward and how to manage their lives after an event that upsets them all.
  • TIGHTROPE
    ONE ACT high up on the high wire, Claire propositions Martha while Claire's wife Wanda watches way down below. There are tricks and treats and twists galore in this dark comedy about a hostile work environment set in a queer circus.
  • TOILET PAPER
    ONE ACT: (Not Covid-Related) A mother attempts to educate her family, but they refuse to learn. Involves CIRCUS clowning and juggling as far as you want to take it! Breaks Fourth Wall. FUN FUN FUN!
  • wombshot
    ONE-ACT A young girl shoots herself in the womb to abort a fetus she could not afford to abort legally -- this strange, dark piece imagines what led up to this act, and some of the fall-out afterwards. I OFFER THIS PLAY FREE TO BE PRODUCED BY ANYONE ANYWHERE UNTIL WE SOLIDIFY OUR RIGHTS TO MAKE OUR OWN DECISIONS OVER OUR OWN BODIES IN THIS COUNT-RY WHERE WOMEN ARE STILL TREATED AS PROPERTY.
  • ZEN
    ONE-ACT - ZEN is the under-30 minute version of the full-length ZEN & the Art of Mourning a Mother. This version includes 2 of the 5 characters in the longer work. ZEN takes place in 1993 and involves Sarah and Denita, two acquaintances from high school who run into each other at Philadelphia's 30th Street train station on their way to New York City. One is leaving her mother's bedside and the...
    ONE-ACT - ZEN is the under-30 minute version of the full-length ZEN & the Art of Mourning a Mother. This version includes 2 of the 5 characters in the longer work. ZEN takes place in 1993 and involves Sarah and Denita, two acquaintances from high school who run into each other at Philadelphia's 30th Street train station on their way to New York City. One is leaving her mother's bedside and the other is on her way to her mother's bedside. It is a play about impending loss that also highlights micro-aggressions and the entitlements white people take from people of color while blinded by our privileges.
  • ALLIANCE
    SHORT PLAY - Cal tries to help Jane feel better after she is bullied, only Jane doesn't want any help.
  • BUG STUDY
    TEN MINUTE PLAY -- After ten years of research in the rain forest, Bob returns to teach, but his ex-wife and daughter show up to confront him in class. Bob uses them to teach entomology, and they teach him a lesson in parenting.
  • CHARMING YOGA
    10 MIN - Cinderella is a yoga enthusiast in this twisted fairy tale where the Prince, years of questing behind him, stumbles upon her and tries to win her love.
  • The Cliffs of Paris
    SHORT: Morty takes Joan to Paris, but he doesn't want to take her anywhere else. Joan confronts him about their sex life.

    You might remember Joan and Morty from a little play called Toilet Paper.
  • DATE NIGHT?
    SHORT - an immersive, confrontational, nasty start to any play festival that wants to highlight feminist issues. Before the curtain speech, while the house lights are still up, Jared and Lia look for seats. They are on a date. And stuff happens.
  • DAUGHTERS of ABRAHAM
    TEN MINUTE When Racie and Amel realize they have a portal into each other's lives, they trade places so an American Jewish Lesbian can see how a Palestinian Muslim Heterosexual lives and vice versa. Only Racie doesn't want to leave.
  • DEEP
    SHORT -- DEEP has been redacted for your safety. The content of this play must not be leaked. Classified for high clearance security levels only. Sometimes stories can't be told.
  • DREAM TALK
    (10 MINUTE) - This is the talk the playwright wishes she had received from her parents, and maybe you'd like it too. A very simple play to perform that was written because we all need to be loved and we all need to be seen. (A Zoom Version is also available)
  • DREAM TALK The Zoom Version
    (10 MIN) This is the talk the playwright wishes she had received from her parents, and maybe you'd like it too. A very simple play to perform that was written because we all need to be loved and we all need to be seen. (A Non-Zoom Version is also available)
  • 800 Miles
    TEN MINUTE PLAY After they drop off their son at college, a couple begin to bicker and end up reassessing their entire marriage now that their nest is empty.
  • EUPHORIA
    10 Minute Version - When 15 year old Joe breaks his wrist snowboarding, the doctor prescribes Oxycodone for the pain. Joe's dad, George, doesn't think anything of it. Joe's mom, Carol, takes the pills away. But Sackler is already advancing on Joe's soul. George blames himself, and Carol is caught in a constant battle to keep herself from going upstairs.
  • GM: ROB & SUE
    SHORT: Rob went out for milk and eggs while SUE prepared ROB's birthday dinner, but the weather and the bridge and the rain and now Rob's back but -- do you know what happened when Clinton signed NAFTA? Do you know why so many people voted for 45 after Bernie was removed from the race? Do you know what GM did before they moved to Mexico? 6 pages for the workers of America.
  • HIDE and SEEK
    TEN MINUTE - LG and Daisy play Hide and Seek in their mother's closet, but no one comes to find them, and they have to grow up. A play about time and space and art-making and losing what we hide and losing more than that.
  • THE HOLIDAY CROWD
    SHORT -- JANE and TOBY have accidentally gotten stuck between the card tables they set up for their holiday event and the holiday decor and the tree... and after 52 years of marriage, Jane is fed up with the holidays!
  • HUG for the HOLIDAYS
    TEN MINUTE-- Donna is trying to get her mother to understand her food issues, so she can come home for the holidays and not have to argue. Rhonda, Donna's mother, likes to argue.
  • JUDGEY
    TEN MINUTE - When Monica and Dina run into Dina's ex-best friend, Monica gets judgey. Dina calls her on it, and this leads to a mother-daughter moment about looks, judgements, and love.
  • KINDERGARDEN
    TEN-MINUTE PLAY Three five year old girls named for poisonous plants (played by grown-up actors) form a clique, but when a fourth girl tries to join them, they find a very dark reason to keep her out.
  • THE LAST DATE
    TEN MINUTE Jeff and Alyssa are out on a date or are they? Challenges our assumptions about how we see women and men. Breaks fourth wall.
  • LATE NIGHT SNACK
    10 MINUTE PLAY - Lee wakes Juli for a late night snack, and at first Juli isn't really interested, but eventually she sees the light.
  • LOVE SHOTS
    TEN MINUTES Ah, friendship! The greatest love of all! Dennis and Rhoda help Pru manage her heartache until she feels better, and then we find out how they really feel.

  • MISTY & SWILL
    10 MIN - Misty is a regular at Swill's bar in a town where nothing ever happens until one night Rapunzel shows up having escaped her tower. It's a twisted fairy tale, frog and all...
  • MORTALS
    SHORT PLAY - (1 page) 2 humans on a stage in front of an audience look out at the 4th wall. There are sounds and lights. Stuff happens in the audience. Stuff happens on stage. It's probably different every time for every person involved.
  • No Bikini
    TEN MINUTE - On Spring Break, when Jess insists on wearing a special bikini, Hanna, Griffin and Steve set out to change her mind.
  • NO LITTLE WOMEN
    TEN MINUTE PLAY - High School students try to convince their teacher that Little Women should not be required reading but their teacher argues for it with some of her last teacherly breaths.
  • No Such Thing As A False Alarm
    TEN MINUTE PLAY - One cold morning in February, Lily, a high school senior awaiting an ivy league acceptance, refuses to go to school. Her mother, June, tries to figure out why.
  • Not a Bat Mitzvah
    10 MIN PLAY Deb doesn't want to become a Bat Mitzvah, so they try to explain this to their mother.
  • POLYNEICES
    TEN MINUTE PLAY - Have you ever wondered how Polyneices was buried? Andros and Carnos are two guards sent to watch his body rot in the hot summer of 415 BCE, but between the heat and the rot and the stink and the drink, it's a glorious comeday for an epic fail!
  • A Square and a Circle
    TEN MINUTE - A Square and A Circle try to build a wall together. This is a play about getting along, a play about difference. Published by Brooklyn Publishers. Link to rights coming soon!
  • REQUIEM for GENOCIDE (short version)
    TEN-MINUTE PLAY The Armenian Genocide (1915), The Bosnian Muslim Genocide (1993) and The Palestinian Genocide (1947 on) all converge on one woman, Bushra, as she realizes she has lost her shoes. An American relief worker tries to help her find her shoes until they realize that Bushra has no feet. An absurd tale of American inability to see the problem or to fix it. With actual genocidal texts.
  • Sssedona
    10 MINUTE At a scenic overlook just outside Sedona, a magical place known for its vortexes, Joe has been tracking Debra. Sometimes when you're trying to leave someone, you really have to transform yourself.
    With thanks to Naomi Iizuka at Kirsten Greenidge's Open Write at Company One - Naomi gave a prompt that I used to write this play.
  • Step-Blisters
    TEN MINUTE PLAY - Cindy and Gladys are step-blisters in a new version of a very old story. You might not even recognize them. In this version, Cindy has OCD and Gladys is bulimic. This is the day they try to break each other of their mental health illnesses in true step-blisterly fashion.
  • SUPER-DEATH!
    TEN-MINUTE PLAY Luke and Edward are twin brothers struggling with Luke's impending death. Luke wants to give Edward a superpower to help him avoid the grieving process. Through the metaphor of what we see (Luke wears a Spiderman costume) and who we are (the audience) Edward is able to give Luke the best death possible.
  • TOOLS
    SHORT A fight and dance piece to protest Pussy-Grabbing. This super-short piece is a humorous physical take on how to fight back using self-defense physicality to take back our agency and show men that Pussy-Grabbing will not be permitted. Very physical -- needs a fight director and perhaps a choreographer. FOR PROTEST and CELEBRATIONS OF FEMALE STRENGTH!
  • VANITY
    TEN MINUTE - FRAN and CALI are sisters who might unite over their loss as they grieve, and yet their father, STU, makes sure that doesn't happen. A little family drama for Halloween.
  • WALLS LIKE CURTAINS
    TEN MINUTE Julie is always walking into walls. Now she's in love with Leah, hoping not to get hurt, hoping the walls she's always walking into might be soft this time, like curtains.
  • CREATURES OF THE MOON
    MONOLOGUE Nora stops by Dora's place to see if she'll go halfsies with her on Mom's Christmas gift this year.
  • Different, a monologue
    MONOLOGUE Dosia is a woman in a box. Sometimes by speaking we can change things. Maybe not ourselves or our own situation. Maybe we can change our audience. Maybe our audience changes us.
  • DREAM OF HOME
    MONOLOGUE Amel, a Palestinian Muslim who is an American citizen, is asked how she likes it here in America. Her experience recounted here is taken from documentation of human rights abuses that I made with/for the Palestine Aid Society and the Palestinian Solidarity Committee during the first Intifada.
  • EULOGY
    MONOLOGUE for a young man, 20s. A young man eulogizes his mother. You arrived late. And then it's over.
  • 5 Golden Rings
    MONOLOGUE - Marcia just met the one! And she should be able to share her thoughts even if it's early in the relationship. And it's the holiday season, and that just makes everything seem so possible! Hope springs eternal in this joyful wishful holiday monologue!
  • GOLDFISH MOBILITY
    MONOLOGUE - Gyda - a female-identified or gnc person of any age or race or ethnicity or ability - tells her partner that she spent the money they were saving for a trip on her new venture to make a youtube channel after being inspired by a goldfish.
  • THE GREAT MIGRATIONS
    MONOLOGUE A Brachiosaurus asks for help and tries to inspire us humans to act in the face of a large crisis.
  • MOUSE and FROG
    Monologue - Mouse can be played by anyone of any age. They are trying to figure out a better way to live with themselves in a world that is transactional and unforgiving.
  • My Body is a Sewer
    MONOLOGUE a woman struggles with ulcerative colitis
  • MY PRONOUNS
    MONOLOGUE in which a character tries to explain who they are, or why they are,
    or maybe even how they are who they are, and/or why.
  • PRETTY QUEER
    MONOLOGUE - Margaret zooms with her lover Carol during Covid while Margaret's husband is feeling kinda peckish. A play about queerness, assumptions and gaslighting.
  • The Slap
    Monologue - Debra tries to figure out how to talk menstruation with her daughter without her own traumas getting in the way.
  • A Small Attempt to be a Specific Woman, But Really Doesn't Mean Anything, Just Ignore Me
    MONOLOGUE A woman not trying to be seen as representative of anything tries to change her life and fix herself and stand up to the crushing hell of her existence while she folds her family's laundry.
  • SOMEONE
    Short. A monologue, SOMEONE has been doing the dishes for a very long time. Who does the dishes in your house? If your answer is NO ONE, then you might want to call her.
  • A TOUR of The Early 21st Century Reproductive System (The Way We Used to Have Babies) & Real Live Birth Experience!
    MONOLOGUE Docent Donna unfortunately loses it while giving a tour of our early reproductive system, one of our most popular exhibits! We are very happy to announce her final retirement for which she has opted after so many years of service with The Museum of Evolution.
  • BETWEEN TWO RIVERS
    SHORT PLAY -- An Iraqi man reconsiders his relationship with an American while, in Iraq, a young Iraqi male warns a married Iraqi woman that the local leader is upset with her. (A companion piece to another play I wrote about Iraq.)
  • BUG STUDY
    FULL LENGTH - Jane is anxious. As a super in a tenement on the Lower East Side, Jane has a hard time dealing with absence. Jane's tenants, Mrs. Manicotti and Mrs. Manishevitz, have a hard time dealing with Jane's agoraphobia. Her lover Wanda is a traveling salesperson, and their relationship is unraveling. But when Jane's father, Bob, returns from a decade of bug research in the rain forest, Jane...
    FULL LENGTH - Jane is anxious. As a super in a tenement on the Lower East Side, Jane has a hard time dealing with absence. Jane's tenants, Mrs. Manicotti and Mrs. Manishevitz, have a hard time dealing with Jane's agoraphobia. Her lover Wanda is a traveling salesperson, and their relationship is unraveling. But when Jane's father, Bob, returns from a decade of bug research in the rain forest, Jane decides to blow him up. Because why not? Jane tries to get her mother and her step-mother to help, but only her friend Patty, an ex-Marine and emcee of an open-mike series downtown, can help Jane build a big enough bomb.

    This is the play I wrote at the behest of Sherry Kramer when I told her that my father had returned after a 10 year absence, and she said I had to write it before we had our "reunion." So I did. It's full of stereotypes that were created on purpose because I still - at that point - couldn't figure out who I was or why, or how to be, or basically anything. The disability is covered by the anxiety. Jane is autistic and traumatized, but I didn't know this then. To me, this play is a relic, but Jane's monologue (starts p 12) is in an anthology, and people ask for it, so I thought I'd post the play here. Most students aren't allowed to perform the monologue without reading the full-length script, so here it is, flaws and all...