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Robert Weibezahl

Recommended by Robert Weibezahl

  • GOING HOME, a 10-minute drama for two actors, any gender by Arianna Rose
    14 Jul. 2022
    “ GOING HOME is an at-once tender and fierce short two-hander. As a married couple faces a debilitating stroke and the life changes it promises to bring to their loving relationship, they bravely venture beyond sentimentality to a place of honesty about expectations, anger, and loss. Arianna Rose crafts a beautiful story that is both particular and universal, transcending clichés. Audiences will both laugh and choke up, and actors will love investing their souls into this nuanced, heartrending script. ”
  • Free! Powerful Muscles Fast! by Philip Middleton Williams
    12 Jul. 2022
    “ Ever a master at the uses of bull’s-eye nostalgia, Williams here paints an evocative memory monologue that will speak to many. While conjuring a very particular cultural time and place, Mike’s memory achieves wide resonance with its frank depiction of puberty and sexuality, and widens further still when he comes to realize the conflict between the ways society portrays heroes and the essential truth of what a hero really is. While Mike is designated as mid-thirties, actors in a range of ages could—and should—undertake this poignant and witty monologue. ”
  • 'Rain on Fire by Karen Saari
    3 May. 2022
    “ With raw honesty – and a bit of heartfelt music – Saari deftly explores the opioid crisis in rural America through the timely story of one extended family turned upside down. Secrets and lies, resentments, poor choices, self-deception – all plays out with a comfortable familiarity that makes the harsh reality all the more painful to acknowledge. The emotions are very real, as is the surprising amount of humor, which, as in life, becomes a mechanism for survival. ”
  • The Flemish Master (from the THE WRINKLE RANCH AND OTHER PLAYS ABOUT GROWING OLD collection) by Debra A. Cole
    3 May. 2022
    “ As a woman faces the end of life, she must learn to let go of her lifelong need for control. Cole has fashioned a beautiful short play about art and serenity -- a thought-provoking story driven by gentle metaphors, and imbued with grace. ”
  • Seventh Inning Stretch (Ten Minute) by Paul Donnelly
    1 May. 2022
    “ In our age of relentless self-exposure on social media, one wrong turn can make you a viral pariah overnight. Donnelly explores this idea with lighthearted cleverness in this funny short play, as an earnest young man seemingly blows his chances with the woman of his dreams. But can viral infamy ultimately work in his favor? SEVENTH INNING STRETCH could prove a favorite at 10-minute comedy festivals. ”
  • Touch Me in the Morning (Ten Minute) by Paul Donnelly
    1 May. 2022
    “ A witty ten-minute “sex farce” about wedding jitters that grapples with timeless questions of sexual identity, anxiety, and values. The dialogue is sharp and the set-up laden with energetic staging possibilities. ”
  • 500/501 by Taylor Sklenar
    28 Apr. 2022
    “ Pigs. Friendship. The Circle of Life. Epistemology. Ethical Treatment of Livestock. Color. Did I mention Pigs? Sklenar packs this simultaneously charming and thought-provoking play with so much to think about—both the weighty and the whimsical. You’ll never look at a plate of bacon in quite the same way. Brought to life in a reading at the 2022 Inge Festival, the play was a crowd favorite, and for good reason. Highly recommended. ”
  • TOUCH THE MOON One Act Play, 3 Characters by Arianna Rose
    28 Apr. 2022
    “ Arianna Rose is a playwright who routinely – and expertly – exploits the rhythms and music of language to explore the complications of the human heart. In TOUCH THE MOON, which I saw in a reading at the 2022 Inge Festival, Rose is inspired by a real-life mystery about the unsolved disappearance of a young woman and she finds poetry even in the darkest of human truths. This is a beautifully theatrical and haunting play. ”
  • Discharged by CHARLES RANUM
    27 Apr. 2022
    “ The methods of war change, but what soldiers experience on the ground, and carry with them for the rest of their lives, is timeless. Ranum delves deeply into those issues in this emotionally raw short play, especially in the brutally affecting monologues where Charlie and Mike open up about the horrors they witnessed and cannot leave behind. A valuable addition to the literature of war, and one that could be expanded to great effect. Powerful stuff. ”
  • Habitat by Diane Hightower
    27 Apr. 2022
    “ Issues of gender identification played out among hamsters in their habitat – what could be more fun? Hightower is a deft comic writer who understands that often the big, heavy issues are best served up with humor. She succeeds brilliantly in this short anthropomorphic play. A reading at the 2022 Inge Festival had the audience in stitches and then primed for a lively discussion about the issues it raises. Every 10-minute festival should include this charming, timely play. ”

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