Ian Thal

Venice, 1601: Twelve years after the forced conversion portrayed in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice", an elderly Shylock lives as a strange prisoner: free to conduct his business throughout the city, but ever in fear of torture or death should authorities suspect that he has reverted to Judaism. Meanwhile, his estranged daughter, Gessica, now a mother, is slowly realizing that even a willing convert to Catholicism is not free from suspicion -- suspicions that may affect even her daughter's prospects. The merchant prince, Antonio, over-extended with his Christian creditors and unable to borrow from Jewish lenders, hatches a plan with his legal advisor, Portia, and Gessica's husband, Lorenzo, to seize the remains of Shylock's fortune in order to finance a new trade venture.

Having learned long ago that Antonio is not a man to be trusted and that Venice is not a city predisposed to give him justice, Shylock has been planning to escape so that he might live his last years in peace. Meanwhile, Gessica is drawn into the commercial conflict between her husband's friends and her father, and a bombastic Spanish ship captain in Antonio's employ seems willing to cut a deal with both sides.

The Tenth Voyage of Capitano Giangurgolo Coccodrillo Fanfarone Matamoros Spavento features the commedia dell'arte's notoriously handsome adventurer, Capitano Spavento, as he exposes a villainous cabal of plagiarists and liars, including Homer, Shahrazad, Sindbad the Sailor, Ajib bin Khazib the One-Eyed Qalandar and the Venetian, Marco Polo – all of whom have either claimed his adventures for themselves or attributed them to others far less courageous! Tonight, the Capitano will tell the true story of his love and heroism to a blood-thirsty cyclops!

With her daughter now attending her alma mater, Meegz is struck with nostalgia and reconnects with old friends as she assembles an oral history of the times they seized control of the campus administration building to protest proposed budget cuts and tuition hikes. The story is told in achronological order, alternating between episodes from the occupation and conversations held decades later.

Adapted from the pages of The Pentamerone of Giambattista Basile (1566-1632) for an ensemble of puppets and masked and unmasked actors, "The Sun, The Moon, and Talia" is one of the earliest known variants of the story best known in the English-speaking world as "Sleeping Beauty."  This version is imagined as a medieval crime story that is interrupted with some commedia dell'arte.

As with many early fairytales, twenty-first century parents will likely not consider "Talia" to be appropriate for younger audiences.

In this tale of slapstick blasphemy and auto-cannibalism, Arlecchino, late of Bergamo, is so driven mad by hunger that he storms both Heaven and Hell in search of a meal. In his journeys Arlecchino gains no spiritual enlightenment.

Originally performed by the author, it has since been presented and performed by others.

It has since appeared in STEEL TOE REVIEW #20.

December 2003, Cambridge, Massachusetts: A discussion between two performance poets about a possible upcoming gig turns adversarial as the subject turns to terrorist networks, conspiracy theories, political appointments, and artistic gatekeeping.

Two artists go home together after a poetry reading. Things get weird, then they get weirder.

Mister Kultura is filling in for the regular social studies teacher. The students refuse to provide their real names, identifying themselves only by such monikers as "King of My Pants" and "Unique Superstar" while a previously scheduled guest speaker named Jackie gives a presentation on the awesomeness of the crowdsourced economy.

[This version, uploaded December 4, 2018, was revised for sake of greater continuity with its sequel, "Jan Kultura, Substitute Teacher, and the Matriarchy of the Ants.]

"[...]two plays that specifically spoke to economic theory, in the same way that Copenhagen speaks to physics or The Hard Problem speaks to brain science. [...]Clearing Bombs by Eric Samuelson imagines a conversation between two major 20th century economists stuck on a rooftop during WWII and passing the time with a deep but lively economic debate. Jan Kultura, Substitute Teacher, Meets the Crowd by Ian Thal is a short play that essentially presents a case study of crowd sourced creativity as a vehicle to steal ideas from people without having to pay them – well larded with good economic thinking. These stood out to me as good examples of scripts we could stand to have more of."

Pete Miller, "Why We Need Plays About Capitalism" in 2am Theatre
http://www.2amtheatre.com/2017/02/03/why-we-need-plays-about-capitalism/

Inspired by a television commercial, two cats attempt to explain the monster group and supersymmetry to their incredulous human. The human, however, may be more attuned to the finer points of psychology than the cats suspect. When a wayward bat flies through the window, scampering and compulsive grooming ensue.

Jan Kultura, Substitute Teacher, and the Matriarchy of the Ants:

With the assistance a Newspeak interpreter named Dix, Mister Kultura finds himself in a biology class presenting “The Matriarchy of the Ants,” a nature documentary. What follows is a lesson in evolutionary arms races, selfish genes, xenophobia, the threat that repressive regimes pose to scientific inquiry, a brief history of constructed languages, and puppet hijinks.

Comrade Guest Eder Kultura and MotherGov of Antland

Comrade Guest Eder Kultura from Ungoodland come to lifesci class and show Oldspeak TrueDocFilm. Newspeak Comrade TrueSpeaker Dix speak goodthinks. TrueDocFilm ref MotherGov of Antland and is ungoodthink. TrueDocFilm is untrue, maked by crimethinkers. Uncomrade Kultura is unperson. You unhear him. You unsee him. This warn you.You unread this. Download is infocrime. Stageact this is artcrime. This warn you.