FULL LENGTH. Twelve-year-old energetic, high-spirited Young Teri learns that she is adopted, and the revelation unlocks a universe of possibilities. No longer restricted by the limitations of the family she knows, she begins to imagine her “other” mother, certain that she will find a place to belong within the family of her invention. Five decades later, and older Teri reaches out to her sisters Sherry (the Tea Party sister) and Sheila (the Disney sister) only to discover that Mom was not so wonderful and that her sisters are estranged, the result of a long-kept secret neither one can face.

Finding herself in the middle of their struggle, Teri is convinced that it is her destiny to restore their relationship. An ill-conceived plan, inspired by her younger persona (Young Teri), jeopardizes the fragile connection between Teri and her newly discovered sisters, forcing her to examine the childhood she had, the childhood she imagined, and the one that she might have endured. In despair of never truly belonging, Teri must finally forfeit her fantasy and confront the facts about her mysterious other mother, and about herself.

Molly is desperate to have a baby.
Nick is trying to plow through a PhD in Ethics.
And Cam? She’s looking for a place to belong.

Molly and Nick have much to grieve following several tragic tries at having a child. Lost in his graduate studies, Nick has moved on. But Molly is stuck. Enter Cam, a young journalist with an intoxicating research assignment: Throuples. Stirred and shaken, it’s a cocktail that leaves all three a little dazed and more than a little hung over.

The Molly-Nick-Cam experiment in how to measure human value sits in a space between radical honesty and the agendas we rarely admit. When alliances are tested and scores settle, will their desires overlap sufficiently to create a win-win-win?

Claudia was adopted as an infant. Five years later, her mother became pregnant with Brad, leaving Claudia with the disquieting sense that there was a difference between the children in the eyes of her mom. Now an adult, marital problems land Claudia back at home of her parents Jean and Martin, only to discover that Brad has also returned——first. But now Claudia holds the P-card: she shares that she is pregnant, hoping the news will elevate her to the status of adored favorite.

Claudia’s childhood bestie (and Brad’s ex-girlfriend), haiku-writer/barista Enid shows up at Jean and Martin’s, followed by Claudia’s OCD husband Michael, and untold family secrets bubble up through the weight of the lies that have suppressed them for years. Do her folks know about Claudia’s alcoholism, DUI, and suspended license? Why hasn’t Michael been told about his wife’s pregnancy? What did Jean and Martin know about Claudia’s birth mother?

And is Claudia even pregnant?


FINAL THOUGHT:
Adoption is a process that grants wishes to hopeful couples, offers an escape for mothers who cannot care for their babies and raises questions for children who must navigate being wanted and unwanted at the same time. A valiant, though imperfect solution, adoption carries the scent of both loss and salvation, and the tendency to reduce adoption to a simple, unalloyed blessing is to overlook human complexity that should not be ignored.

5 MINUTE + 10 MINUTE VERSIONS. Wanting to be certain that her yet-to-be-born son understands from whence he came, Ashley asks her great-grandfather to record his earliest childhood memories. But the more he explains, the less certain she is that she wants her child to hear the unvarnished truth about what it means to be a Jew.

10 MINUTES. Dana and her husband Marc ask Dana’s sister Tracy over to dinner. They also invite oncologist Craig to be Tracy’s blind date. When Craig calls to say he might not make it, Dana uses the opportunity to tell Marc and Tracy that she learned earlier that day that her breast cancer had returned and that the prognosis was not good. Dana wants Marc and Tracy to agree to marry one another after she is gone, but when Craig arrives with a rant about honesty in dealing with terminal patients, everyone has to struggle with just how truthful they can afford to be.

10 MINUTES. Thirty years after being adopted as an infant, a WOMAN arranges to meet her birth mother at a small diner. Keyed up and nervous, the woman shares her dreams, anxieties and assumptions with the SERVER as they await the entrance of the MOTHER.

10 MINUTES. Blindfolded, comedy writer Artie is brought to a mystery location to celebrate his birthday by Jack, his old college friend. Artie, the smartest guy in the room (just ask him!) identifies the place immediately: Ernie’s Bar. As the first round of drinks kick in, they are joined by Artie’s old college girlfriend Ellen and it looks like the two might pick up where they left off, fifteen years before. What begins with a joke, followed by a game of blindfold-regret, leads to the discovery of how different things might have turned out...if only.

10 MINUTES. As a straight, white male, a successful Job has enjoyed playing the cards he’s been dealt. But when Satan challenges God to strip Job’s privilege away, our hero finds that being upright and blameless is more of a struggle than he imagined and navigating life without advantage is a whole new ball game. His wife wants him to curse God and die. His friends are no help at all. Can Job deal with this new hand he has been dealt? And does Satan have a point?

10 MINUTES. A fifteen year old girl on her way out of town meets an older woman at a bus stop but each of them reconsiders the ride they are awaiting as they learn about each other's lives.

10 MINUTES. Husband and wife reminisce about buying a home outside of Washington, DC in preparation for the catastrophe that was supposed to be Y2K.

In the course of singing “Dayenu,” the traditional Passover song that celebrates God’s love for the Jewish people as evidenced by His intervention on their behalf, the question arises: what do we make of the moments when it feels like God is MIA?

note: available as 4 characters/10 minutes or 3 characters/five minute

A woman approaches the front door of the home of her birth father, whom she has recently found and who has not responded to her attempts to connect. (based on true events)

OPENING LINE:
I’m here for my story. Not the one I was told. Or the one I borrowed. Not the one I made up as I drifted off to sleep. I’ve come for the secrets, stored up in grey buildings and sealed away in locked files. The story you can tell me. If you open the door.