Nina Mansfield

Hamlet, explained, and or mansplained, as if Horatio has recently given his statement to the police.

It's the year 3021 and Thebes has just been through a bloody civil war. Chancellor Creah has decreed that anyone who buries the body of the traitor Polyneices will face the death, but Antigone is determined to bury her brother, no matter the penalty. She brazenly break’s Creah’s law and broadcasts her crime on the public cloud. Now Creah must decide if she will bend to the will of the people or punish Antigone for her crime. Antigone: 3021 is a virtual-friendly, futuristic retelling of Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone where the Greek chorus has been transformed into a talk show/news program and the characters communicate via virtual projection.

Full-length and one-act versions. Virtual or Live Production.

Sam, a poet/college professor, and Lydia, his stay-at-home-mom wife, used to argue about normal couple things, like how to best care for their 2 1/2 year old daughter, and whether or not their 1900 farmhouse needs new windows. When they take in a homeless woman one cold night their relationship is altered.
On a night close to Christmas, after Lydia has finally managed to get her young daughter to sleep, she is eager to settle in for an evening of Netflix—perhaps something serious, like a documentary about the Syrian refugee crisis. Then Sam receives a strange text message. A woman he has only met twice seems to be homeless and in need of shelter. As Sam and Lydia debate how best to respond, Hannah shows up at their home.
The appearance of this eccentric stranger makes Sam and Lydia question what kind of people they are. Sam believes it is their duty to shelter Hannah from the cold. Lydia thinks Hannah is not their problem. Sam makes Hannah feel welcome. Lydia does everything short of kicking her out onto the street. When Hannah leaves of her own accord, and is later found dead, Sam blames Lydia.
The Woman in the Teal Scarf is a 90-minute, three character drama that examines human kind’s responsibility is to one other.

Losing Our Heads: The Guillotine Play is a full-length comedy that juxtaposes absurdist vignettes about the bizarre history of the guillotine with the post-beheading loves, lives and struggles of historical figures who now exist in a very contemporary version of the afterlife. In the first historical vignette, Guillotine—an actual Guillotine—arrives for a job interview. Sanson, the head executioner during the French Revolution, is dismissive at first, but Guillotine wins him over. Meanwhile, in the land of the beheaded, Nick, the first person to be guillotined in French history, attends Beheaded Anonymous meetings. Nick is in a relationship with Marie (Antoinette), who is concerned about her friend Charlotte (Corday), because Charlotte refuses to admit that she’s been beheaded. Anne (Boleyn), who also attends B.A. meetings although her head was severed by a sword, is secretly in love with Nick. Other characters include the “numbing neck foam” peddling Henri, and the tortured Guy. The struggles of the beheaded are intertwined with warped versions of their back stories.
As the play progresses, each character’s backstory is revealed in absurdist fashion. Anne Boleyn, for example, is forced to choose her execution device at a 70s style game show. Henri finds himself in the home of girl who has fallen in love with his severed head. Meanwhile, in the land of the beheaded, Marie and Nick help Charlotte confront her addiction. By the end of the play, she has, but not without consequences. She has destroyed Marie and Nick’s relationship, and Nick has relapsed, eventually becoming a dreaded “vegetable head.”
The play culminates in a scene where Sanson is forced to relieve Guillotine of his duties, but not until he is able to perform his final execution, in 1977.
The play runs 90-minutes with no intermission, and could be played with eight or more actors.

Harvey and Donna, two recovering alcoholics, surprise each other in a church basement late one night. Harvey is there to do his dishes- seriously. Donna has been kicked out by her husband. A bottle of bourbon appears. An alcoholic pastor soon follows. Three humans struggle with addiction and the unbearable cleaning power of an industrial strength dishwasher are revealed.

Frank, a clown, and his wife Maggie seek marriage counseling after Maggie discovers that Frank is not really a clown.

Ellen has a surprise for her husband Mark, and no, it isn’t a new puppy dog. She’s brought home a vampire. After all, he did say that he wanted to spend all eternity with her, and wouldn’t it be nice if they didn’t have to age in the process.

The Tea Exercise is a short drama, which deals with the trials and tribulations of two aspiring actresses. It is an attempt to illustrate everything there is to love, and everything there is to hate about life in the theatre.
In the first scene, we are introduced to A & B arguing in an off-off-Broadway dressing room over B’s decision to quit acting. A has just gotten her first big break, and B has been struggling for too many years. In the following scenes we go back in time a number of years, to a time when B was determined to make it as an actress, and A had no intentions of pursing acting. The play continues to follow A & B’s small successes and failures, until we reach the end again. The last scene of the play returns to the beginning, where B shows A just what she loves about acting.

This collection of short plays, all comedies about relationships, forms a 90 minute evening of theatre, and can be performed with seven actors (4 women, 3 men), or more.

Sculpting Perfection
It’s the morning of the annual Bear Lodge Park Snow Sculpture Contest, and Clara and her daughter Allison had planned to sculpt Michelangelo’s David. But first, Clara must sculpt Allison into perfection. When the door bell rings, Allison learns that Clara had a hidden agenda.

Bona Fide
In this satire, Anna has married Samir so that he can stay in the country. As they celebrate their new marriage with champagne, Anna discovers a letter from the state. At first it seems like a routine immigration letter, but as they read on, they realize that the state is asking for proof that their marriage has been consummated.

The Ping and the Pong of It
As Tina and Gavin measure a small room in their new apartment for a ping pong table, it becomes apparent that Tina no longer wants a ping pong table. In fact she never wanted a ping pong table. Gavin is crushed. Can their marriage survive?

Missed Exit
A family of five is trapped in a compact car on their way to a wedding. After one too many wrong turns, the GPS comes to life.

Bite Me
Ellen has a surprise for her husband Mark, and no, it isn’t a new puppy dog. She’s brought home a vampire. After all, he did say that he wanted to spend all eternity with her, and wouldn’t it be nice if they didn’t have to age in the process.

Text Misdirected
Jane plans to divorce her husband. Lucky for her, she has just boarded a train and sat down next to Barry, an attorney, who is more than happy to provide his services. Unlucky for Barry, Jane has a severe distrust of all technology, and Barry is plugged-in in more ways than one.

The Unbearable Lightness of Greening
After Bob leaves Jane for a potted plant, he tries to convince Jane to start internet dating.

Clown Therapy
Frank, a clown, and his wife Maggie seek marriage counseling after Maggie discovers that Frank is not really a clown.

When Ellen discovers that her younger brother Mattie has read her diary, she resorts to drastic measures: she takes his video game controller hostage. Mattie tries to convince Ellen that he can erase his brain, including all memories of the boy that she has been writing about. After all, Mattie argues, wasn’t Mom able to erase her brain? Has their mom really forgotten all about their dad, and is Mattie destined to as well?

Love, math and paranoia collide at 30,000 feet. An actress and a statistician find themselves on Flight 214 to Los Angeles via Detroit. According to the statistician’s calculations, today is the day that he was meant to find true love. The actress, however, is positive that Flight 214 will crash, as she was never meant to reach “the metaphorical Moscow.” Their personalities collide as the pilot quotes Chekhov and the flight attendant insists that she is a seagull.

Mike, a struggling poet and cab driver, and Steph, the girl who loves him,debate the causes of a mysterious suicide early one morning on the Brooklyn Bridge. We soon learn that Mike hasn't written anything in months, but this suicide seems to inspire him. Was Mike somehow at fault for the stranger's fate? And how far will Steph go to inspire him again?

A man finds himself tangled in the web of his own dream…or perhaps he has entered another dimension.

After an encounter with some rabid polar bears, Candy and Carl are stranded in an Arctic Tundra, and are about to resort to cannibalism. As they contemplate chowing down on poor Hank’s foot, Carl’s fifteen-year affair with his best friend comes to light. And there’s one more thing…Hank isn’t dead! Frostbite is a comedy about marriage, infidelity and eating human flesh.

In Pedestrian Casualty: Bronx, USA, the events surrounding a tragic accident, in which a teacher accidentally kills a student, are juxtaposed with radio reports of local and global events. Ms. K., a school teacher crashes her car, killing DeShawn. The two officers who arrive at the scene discover that the young man who was killed was one of her students. The cluttered thoughts of the teacher are interwoven with the events of that day. We discover that DeShawn left school early, storming out of Ms. K’s class during a quiz. One officer believes that the crash was not accidental. The other can’t imagine that it was anything but an accident. The play brings to light some of the issues that are prevalent in urban education.

Bob left his wife Jane for a houseplant, and now he wants her to open an online dating account like him.

As Tina and Gavin measure a small room in their new apartment for a ping pong table, it becomes apparent that Tina no longer wants a ping pong table. In fact she never wanted a ping pong table. Gavin is crushed. Can their marriage survive?

In this satire, Anna has married Samir so that he can stay in the country, and he is eternally grateful. As they celebrate their new marriage with champagne, Anna discovers a letter from the state. At first it seems like a routine immigration letter, but as they read on, they realize that the state is asking for proof that their marriage has been consummated.

A text— misdirected, exposes one woman’s fear and loathing of technology.

A family of five is trapped in a compact car on their way to a wedding. After one too many wrong turns, the GPS comes to life.

A 10-minute modern take on the Scottish play.

Liz had come to Karen to report that a mother had been breastfeeding her child on the playground. After Karen gives Liz a stern lecture, she learns that the circumstances aren’t quite what she thought.

A guillotine goes for a job interview.

Collete has fallen in love with a severed head, and brings him home to meet her mother.​ A dark comedy, very loosely based on the 1905 beheading of Henri Languille.

Slicing the Cherry is a ten-minute comedy in which Charlotte Corday, the historical killer of Marat, resists the advances of her oh-so-sexy executioner. SPOILER ALERT: Her head gets chopped off at the end.

Tania has a confession…after experimenting with foraged herbs, she has accidentally cheated on her boyfriend. Or, maybe someone drugged her… Inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, What the Pucks? reimagines the King and Queen of Fairyland as employees of the the Athenian, the Catskill’s premiere family resort.