David MacGregor

David MacGregor

David’s plays have been performed from California to New York to London and Hobart, Tasmania. He is a resident artist at The Purple Rose Theatre (Chelsea, MI), which was founded in 1991 by actor and playwright Jeff Daniels. He has had nine plays produced there, and a revival of his 2008 dark comedy, "Vino Veritas," appeared in 2017 as The Purple Rose Theatre's 100th production. His trilogy...
David’s plays have been performed from California to New York to London and Hobart, Tasmania. He is a resident artist at The Purple Rose Theatre (Chelsea, MI), which was founded in 1991 by actor and playwright Jeff Daniels. He has had nine plays produced there, and a revival of his 2008 dark comedy, "Vino Veritas," appeared in 2017 as The Purple Rose Theatre's 100th production. His trilogy of Sherlock Holmes plays, "Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Elusive Ear" (2018), "Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Fallen Soufflé" (2019), and "Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Ghost Machine" (2022) all premiered at the Purple Rose, and are available for licensing through Theatrical Works Worldwide (TRW). His work has been published by Dramatic Publishing, Playscripts, Smith & Kraus, Applause, Heuer Publishing, and TRW.
The film based on "Vino Veritas," which stars Carrie Preston (of "True Blood" and Emmy-winner for "The Good Wife"), won numerous festival accolades and is now available on various on-line platforms, as well as DVD and Blu-ray. His Icelandic romance "In the Land of Fire and Ice" was a 2016 Athena List winner, and is now in pre-production, with Emmy-winner and Oscar-nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo attached. He teaches writing at Wayne State University in Detroit and is inordinately fond of cheese and terriers.
His newest full-length play, the dark comedy "The Antichrist Cometh," will premiere at The Purple Rose Theatre in March 2024.

Plays

  • Vino Veritas
    Full-length. "Vino Veritas" is a dark comedy about the truth--how some people need it to survive, while others need to avoid it at all costs. On Halloween night, lives and familiar traditions unravel when two couples share a Peruvian wine made from the skins of blue dart tree frogs, and more than one mask is dropped on this eventful evening.
  • Scrooge Macbeth
    Full-length. “Scrooge Macbeth” takes the meaning of “the show must go on” to a whole new level. Bob, Sylvia, Victor, and Renee are the last four actors standing when a food poisoning outbreak sidelines most of the cast on the opening night of the Hartland Community Theatre’s holiday production, Shakespeare’s classic, "The Winter’s Tale."
    But that’s not the only setback: Sylvia...
    Full-length. “Scrooge Macbeth” takes the meaning of “the show must go on” to a whole new level. Bob, Sylvia, Victor, and Renee are the last four actors standing when a food poisoning outbreak sidelines most of the cast on the opening night of the Hartland Community Theatre’s holiday production, Shakespeare’s classic, "The Winter’s Tale."
    But that’s not the only setback: Sylvia has just discovered a boatload of red ink in the theatre group’s ledger. With impending financial ruin, a shortage of cast members, and an expectant audience just outside the doors, can these four amateur thespians concoct some kind of holiday entertainment in time to save their theatre?
    Thanks to the ensuing violent collision between everything Christmas and everything Shakespeare, you will never think of Shakespeare or Christmas in quite the same way again.
  • Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Elusive Ear
    Full-length. London. December 1888. 221B Baker Street. The notorious and as-yet undiscovered genius Vincent van Gogh presents the master-sleuth Sherlock Holmes with a most unusual case. Aided by his partner Dr. Watson and his paramour Irene Adler, the trio embark on a rousing adventure. Join the world's greatest detective as he dashes forth to solve one of the most audacious crimes of the Victorian era.
  • Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Fallen Soufflé
    Full-length. London. June, 1897. It's the day before Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and her son, the playboy Prince of Wales, arrives at 221B Baker Street pursued by anarchist assassins. Coincidentally, the greatest chef in the world, Auguste Escoffier, also arrives at 221B, his career about to be shattered by blackmail and scandal. Can Holmes, Watson, and Irene Adler save the life of the heir to...
    Full-length. London. June, 1897. It's the day before Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and her son, the playboy Prince of Wales, arrives at 221B Baker Street pursued by anarchist assassins. Coincidentally, the greatest chef in the world, Auguste Escoffier, also arrives at 221B, his career about to be shattered by blackmail and scandal. Can Holmes, Watson, and Irene Adler save the life of the heir to the British crown and the reputation of the master chef? And can they unmask the criminal genius behind both of these sinister conspiracies? This action-filled tale of royal debauchery, priceless gems, and gourmet food will provide Dr. Watson with the material for Sherlock Holmes's most bizarre and tastiest case.
  • Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Ghost Machine
    England and the world are changing. Into the rooms of Sherlock Holmes come Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison--with new inventions that will alter the course of history--only both inventions have gone missing. Can Holmes, Watson, and Irene Adler somehow unravel the latest diabolical scheme of Marie Chartier--evil daughter of the late Professor Moriarty? Can world peace be achieved by the most powerful weapon ever...
    England and the world are changing. Into the rooms of Sherlock Holmes come Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison--with new inventions that will alter the course of history--only both inventions have gone missing. Can Holmes, Watson, and Irene Adler somehow unravel the latest diabolical scheme of Marie Chartier--evil daughter of the late Professor Moriarty? Can world peace be achieved by the most powerful weapon ever created? And can Sherlock Holmes survive the greatest personal loss of his career?
  • The Antichrist Cometh
    Full-length. This is a dark comedy about a happily married man who discovers one day that might be the Antichrist. Should he try to enjoy a small dinner party with his wife, former college roommate, and his roommate’s devoutly religious fiancée? Or will their home-cooked meal usher in the Apocalypse?

    NOTE: This play will premiere at The Purple Rose Theatre (Chelsea, MI) in March 2024.
  • The Late Great Henry Boyle
    Full-length. Henry Boyle is a shy, reclusive Professor of Medieval Studies whose life falls apart when his wife divorces him. At the urging of a colleague who encourages him to “try something different,” Henry begins drinking absinthe and writes a best-selling book which transforms him into a pop-culture celebrity. As he visibly disintegrates in the public eye, his popularity soars as people anticipate a Van...
    Full-length. Henry Boyle is a shy, reclusive Professor of Medieval Studies whose life falls apart when his wife divorces him. At the urging of a colleague who encourages him to “try something different,” Henry begins drinking absinthe and writes a best-selling book which transforms him into a pop-culture celebrity. As he visibly disintegrates in the public eye, his popularity soars as people anticipate a Van Gogh/Hemingway/Cobain explosion. He finds an ally in a castle-hunting waitress who helps him realize that his only chance at salvation is to become a nonentity again, but how is that possible in a celebrity-crazed culture?
  • Consider the Oyster
    Full-length. "Consider the Oyster" is a comedy based on the facts that doctors are now using oyster shells to repair human bone and all oysters are born male and turn female. After shattering his femur during a Super Bowl celebration, our newly engaged protagonist undergoes such a procedure and then gradually realizes that he is turning into a woman. Can true love withstand a little thing like...
    Full-length. "Consider the Oyster" is a comedy based on the facts that doctors are now using oyster shells to repair human bone and all oysters are born male and turn female. After shattering his femur during a Super Bowl celebration, our newly engaged protagonist undergoes such a procedure and then gradually realizes that he is turning into a woman. Can true love withstand a little thing like gender change, and what does it really mean to love someone?
  • Gravity
    Full-length. "Gravity" takes place in the rooms of Isaac Newton at Cambridge University in September, 1693, when Newton went through what subsequent biographers would call a “discomfiture of the mind.” Newton’s tragic past, conflicted sexuality, heretical religious beliefs, and alchemical experimentation had led him to lock himself away in his rooms and to do nothing less than attempt to touch...
    Full-length. "Gravity" takes place in the rooms of Isaac Newton at Cambridge University in September, 1693, when Newton went through what subsequent biographers would call a “discomfiture of the mind.” Newton’s tragic past, conflicted sexuality, heretical religious beliefs, and alchemical experimentation had led him to lock himself away in his rooms and to do nothing less than attempt to touch the face of God.
    Arrogant, paranoid, and absolutely certain that he had been chosen by God to reveal the eternal unity of all things in the universe, the play takes place in a crucible-like atmosphere where Newton’s most ambitious work would finally come to fruition. Or failure. It features Newton’s friend, the philosopher John Locke, and Newton’s nemesis, Dr. Robert Hooke, a brilliant polymath and devoted ladies’ man, whose jealousy of Newton unhinged him from time to time.
    Finally, the play features the mysterious woman with whom Newton became “embroiled.” Based on Newton’s letters and journals, the play reveals a man riding the delicate line between divinity and madness, grappling with the choice between immortality and love, and lays bare the fact that while many people regard Newton as humanity’s first scientist, he was actually our last sorcerer.

  • Conversion
    Full-length. Sitting by herself in a coffee shop on a cold night, a lonely librarian waits for a blind date who isn't coming. She is spotted by the pastor of the church she used to attend, who soon discovers that Mary, for the first time in her life, had a date with another woman, and that Mary no longer comes to church because she is no longer religious. For a number of reasons, Pastor Tom...
    Full-length. Sitting by herself in a coffee shop on a cold night, a lonely librarian waits for a blind date who isn't coming. She is spotted by the pastor of the church she used to attend, who soon discovers that Mary, for the first time in her life, had a date with another woman, and that Mary no longer comes to church because she is no longer religious. For a number of reasons, Pastor Tom feels he is at least partially responsible for these huge changes in Mary's life, and he wants to stop her from going down the path she is on. Already upset over being stood up, Mary agrees to talk to Tom for one hour. In that hour, he will try to convince her that pursuing a homosexual lifestyle will not make her happy and that she needs to find a new path. In return, Mary insists that during that same hour, Pastor Tom has to consider the possibility that God does not exist. They go to her house, a bottle of bourbon is opened, the debate begins, and it soon becomes clear that neither of them is exactly who they seem to be.
  • Just Desserts
    Ten-minute play. Three co-workers unmask and deal with a fellow employee
    who has been stealing other people's food from the company lunchroom.
  • New Year's Eve
    Ten-minute play. It's New Year's Eve at the Parkview Retirement Home, where the New Year
    is celebrated...at noon.
  • Epiphany
    Ten-minute play. A man comes to the realization that there isn't a single thing in the world that he really cares about, and his wife is able to explain this phenomenon to him as they enjoy delicious cups of coffee.
  • Immersion Therapy
    Ten-minute play. The best husband in the world gives his wife the ultimate birthday
    present.
  • Small Talk
    Ten-minute play. A recently engaged couple visit a counsellor in hopes of resolving
    the one problem in their relationship.
  • Trivial
    Ten-minute play. An epic battle for the future of humanity takes place in a
    brewpub between a woman who values knowing things and man who
    does not.
  • The Roquefort Revelation
    Five-minute play. A chance encounter with a plate of blue cheese changes Aaron's life forever.
  • Judas Iscariot's Day Off
    Ten-minute play. Thanks to a kind deed that he once performed, Judas Iscariot is
    allowed out of hell for one day every thousand years...and today
    is that day.
  • The Trouble With Cashews
    Ten-minute play. At a Fourth of July family gathering, brother and sister
    Paul and Tara stumble upon the truth regarding the
    internecine warfare between human beings thanks to the way
    their Aunt Dorothy eats from a bowl of assorted nuts.
  • Requiem for a Donut Lover
    Ten-minute play. Three friends gather to memorialize a recently deceased
    friend, who died in somewhat peculiar circumstances.
  • Incident on the Golden Gate Bridge
    Ten-minute play. On a precarious ledge high above San Francisco Bay, a befuddled young man tries to understand what has happened to his life, then is joined by two passersby similarly confused about their lives.
  • For Old Time's Sake
    Ten-minute play. A woman finishes packing up her belongings as she prepares to move
    out of the home she has shared with her husband for twelve years
    and to move into an apartment with her younger boyfriend.
  • We Could Be Heroes
    Ten-minute play. A plumber making an emergency call at three in the morning
    gets into a dispute with his client over the true nature of heroism.
  • The Paris of the West
    Ten-minute play. A lifelong factory rat decides to spend his last hour not
    on the line, but in the bar across the street.
  • Pop Star
    Ten-minute play. An agent and manager scheme to keep their pop star client at
    the top of the entertainment food chain, but will need his
    full cooperation.
  • Black Friday
    Ten-minute play. A mother and daughter plan their annual Black Friday shopping
    excursion in a diner at four in the morning while being served by
    a waitress who is beyond tired.
  • 18 Holes
    Ten-minute play. Two friends have eighteen separate conversations in ten-minutes, discussing a variety of unusual topics.
  • Fixing Bob
    Ten-minute play. The best wife in the world prepares to give her husband the
    greatest birthday present ever.
  • Waiting for Roger
    Two women at a bus stop discuss the fate of a fiance arriving on the next bus.
  • Price Check
    Ten-minute play. On his first day of work, a new cashier in a dollar store discovers the dark side of his job.
  • Towards the Perpetuation of the Human Species
    Ten-minute play. A man and a woman meet in a bar and get to know one another extremely well, extremely quickly.
  • Paternity Ward
    Ten-minute play. A gay woman and a working-class man
    find themselves in the same hospital waiting room while
    their respective partners give birth elsewhere in the
    hospital.
  • The Credit Card Application
    One-minute play. To the consternation of his father, a young man receives a credit card application in the mail.
  • A Book By Any Other Cover
    Ten-minute play. Two lonely co-workers are perfect for one another...if they can only change one thing about themselves.
  • Leashed
    Two dogs meet at a park and exchange views on freedom and personal responsibility.
  • Joined at the Hip
    Two people who have been corresponding on an on-line dating website meet in person for the first time.
  • Waiting for Roger - Reading Version
    A woman waits at a bus stop for her unfaithful partner and chats with a stranger about her plans...
  • Just Desserts - Reading Version
    Three co-workers conspire to a stop a thief who has been stealing food from the company lunchroom.
  • The Antichrist Cometh - Reading Version
    A perfectly average man begins to suspect that he might be the Antichrist and he prepares to go out with his wife.