- Coleman

- Coleman

Harboring no regret, as an adolescent, Coleman fled from Oklahoma. He hid out in New York’s Finger Lakes until his arrest. Upon his release, he pretended to study in Ann Arbor, then disguised himself as various professionals in the alleys, lofts and high-rises of Chicago. At the age of 50, he moved to a cabin in a Wisconsin woods, became a lumberjack, and that was okay. In 2023, he moved to Pennsylvania, where...
Harboring no regret, as an adolescent, Coleman fled from Oklahoma. He hid out in New York’s Finger Lakes until his arrest. Upon his release, he pretended to study in Ann Arbor, then disguised himself as various professionals in the alleys, lofts and high-rises of Chicago. At the age of 50, he moved to a cabin in a Wisconsin woods, became a lumberjack, and that was okay. In 2023, he moved to Pennsylvania, where he doesn't know anyone. He writes plays to amuse and frighten himself. He rides a bike.

Coleman is the author of an award-winning memoir (SPOKE), a novel (KIDNAPPING HENRY KISSINGER). He has written more than 40 plays, with productions in Wisconsin, Iowa, Chicago, New York, Seattle and London. His work has been featured in numerous journals, including the Vassar Review and the Midwest Review. He is currently studying for his MFA in playwriting from Point Park University.

Plays

  • DOED KOECKS
    Behaved badly and on your deathbed? No problem. Doed Koeck’s sin eaters have your back. ​The resurrection of a medieval rite turns worldwide religion upside down, in this unfortunately credible story of greed, ambition and hubris emanating from a small Wisconsin town.
  • Committed
    In a turbulent era of racial tension and anti-war protests, a young man’s hasty compliance in his mother commitment to a mental hospital to prevent the sale of their home to a black family compels him to take a stand against the Vietnam War, ultimately leading to her liberation and the young man’s redemption.
  • A Contest of Wills
    Three generations collide in this 21st century American saga of greed, lust and murder.

    Will Masters, Jr. suffers the theft of his inheritance, his home and his lover by his own father, a shell of a man corrupted by privilege and fortune.

    Struggling to build a life for himself in a “sharing economy” that provides scant opportunity, and in a family that offers betrayal, the son...
    Three generations collide in this 21st century American saga of greed, lust and murder.

    Will Masters, Jr. suffers the theft of his inheritance, his home and his lover by his own father, a shell of a man corrupted by privilege and fortune.

    Struggling to build a life for himself in a “sharing economy” that provides scant opportunity, and in a family that offers betrayal, the son attempts but fails to find redress.

    In a desperate hail-Mary, his mother contrives a most final resolution.

    In this post-Trump ruin of America, God is dead, and so is morality. Each character asks the same question: what’s in it for me?

    Premiered at Broom Street Theatre in Madison n 2018
  • Infamous Mothers
    Inspired by true stories of women who have gone through the belly of hell and brought something good back.
  • Cuban Poetry
    10 minute monologue - True story of author's arrest at the Canadian border for bringing poetry into the United States
  • Enough Trouble In the World
    A young woman confronts her supervisor the day after she is forced to implement a new Wisconsin law requiring food benefit recipients to pee in a cup.
  • Butterfly Wings
    Two men find each other in 1940s Wisconsin. Through a shared interest in historic preservation, they save a town and inspire a legacy of love. A true story.
  • Class Redux
    Inspired by a true story, Class is a disturbing and comic exploration of the dark side of being human. In 1968, Riceville, Iowa third-grade teacher, Jane Elliott, wanted to teach - really teach - her students a lesson about prejudice.It was the week after Martin Luther King's assassination.The lesson she taught worked so well it resulted in two documentaries (by Frontline and PBS) and forever changed the...
    Inspired by a true story, Class is a disturbing and comic exploration of the dark side of being human. In 1968, Riceville, Iowa third-grade teacher, Jane Elliott, wanted to teach - really teach - her students a lesson about prejudice.It was the week after Martin Luther King's assassination.The lesson she taught worked so well it resulted in two documentaries (by Frontline and PBS) and forever changed the lives of her students. In this fictional two-act modern re-telling, on the day after the introduction of his new lesson the teacher is confronted by an angry parent accompanied by the school principal.But the parent and the principal quickly become students themselves, and learn the lesson with hilarious and tragic consequences.

    CLASS was workshopped at Playwrights Ink in 2006 and premiered at Alley Stage in Mineral Point, WI in 2007. It was produced by Madison's Broom Street Theatre in 2009. It has now been re-imagined (2023) as CLASS REDUX in response to Florida's Stop Woke Act, and other legislative acts of violence against teachers and students.
  • Faux Poe
    14 short plays written in answer to the question, what would Edgar Allen Poe write if he were still alive today?
  • Palimpsest
    History has been scrubbed. A man faces a mid-life reckoning in his closet in the midst of a pandemic.
  • The Sun Goes Down
    A short apocalyptic monologue.

    A woman with a chicken reflects on flesh, breath, and people.
  • The Distinct Smells of Rain
    Government surveillance in the 1960s misfires, creating a lasting friendship.
  • Last Call - A Monologue
    True story of a gay bashing in Oklahoma City in 1968
  • The Kush Report
    A husband and wife broadcasting team review the new world of legalized marijuana, with the help of a local community theatre star.