Bryan Colley

Meet the women who persisted for over seventy years to add four words to the Constitution: “On Account of Sex.” Seven leaders of the women’s suffrage movement relate their struggles, failures, and triumphs, beginning with the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention and ending with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, when women won the right to vote. This unconventional exploration of women’s history is filled with humor, inspiration, and songs of the 19th and early 20th century.

In 1941, German soldiers in occupied territories are contracting syphilis from prostitutes in astounding numbers. The disease threatens the stability of the Third Reich. To solve the problem, Adolf Hitler orders the creation of inflatable pleasure dolls that the soldiers can carry in their packs to satisfy their urges. Yes, this is a true story.

As detailed in the book "Mussolini's Barber" by Graeme Donald, The Borghild Project was overseen by Heinrich Himmler, head of the Gestapo and the elite S.S. army. He led a team of scientists in the development of plastic dolls called gynoids. This involved considerable research into suitable materials and construction, as well as much debate about the physical appearance of the doll. Prototypes were even tested with soldiers in the field on the Channel Islands. The details of this top secret project were only recently revealed by the last surviving member of the team, Arthur Rink.

Although the primary purpose of the doll was to prevent venereal disease, Himmler also saw it as a way to instill the Aryan dream in German soldiers. Utilizing music, dance, and poetry to tell story of the Borghild Project, "Sexing Hitler" examines the power of fantasies to liberate and enslave.

Co-written with Tara Varney.

In 1941, five people gathered in a remote Maryland cabin to put a curse on Adolf Hitler and end World War II using witchcraft. "Hexing Hitler" is the true story of what happened that night.

William Seabrook popularized the word "zombie" in 1927 when he published a book about his adventures in Haiti, "Magic Island", which served as the basis for the film "White Zombie" in 1932. That might be his biggest claim to fame today, but throughout the 1930s he was a best-selling author, world traveler, and journalist. He was also fascinated with witchcraft, black magic, and the occult. Along with writing about voodoo rituals on the island of Haiti, he wrote about eating human flesh in the jungles of Africa, battling alcoholism in an asylum, and joining a Bedouin tribe much like T.E. Lawrence in "Lawrence of Arabia." Not bad for a missionary's son who grew up in Kansas. The basis of this play was a photo essay about William Seabrook by Tom McAvoy published in Life Magazine in 1941 called "Putting a Hex on Hitler." In the next three years before his suicide in 1945, Seabrook would marry his sadistic third wife, have his first child, and publish his autobiography, "No Hiding Place."

Co-written with Tara Varney.

Will the space crew stop the wrathful Khan before he exacts his revenge? Of course they will... time is on their side. Go back to the future in this 1980s rock-and-roll Enterprise. Set phasers to "laughter" and be prepared for a time-warping sci-fi musical comedy.

Co-written with Tara Varney, with music by Tim Gillespie and Michelle Cotton.

In a plague-ravaged land, Prince Prospero and his friends lock themselves in his abbey in an attempt to avoid death. Prospero promises them pleasure and entertainment, but a servant woman who has lost her family to the plague brings sorrow to the abbey, and challenges Prospero's love of life.

"Red Death" is a chamber opera adapted by Bryan Colley from "The Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe, with additional selections from Lucretius, Ecclesiastes, and Montaigne. Music composed by Daniel Doss.

Using a team of local actors, astrophysicist Carl Sagan directs a play about creating the Golden Record that was on board the two Voyager spacecrafts when they launched in 1977. The Golden Record was a message from earth to whatever intelligent life in the universe that might happen find it drifting through space, and included music, images, and greetings from earth in multiple languages.

"Voyage to Voyager" is a multimedia show that parallels the creation of the record with the creation of the play, and the actors play themselves as well as the Voyager team. The humor of Sagan learning to direct a play along with the bureaucracy he faced creating the record is balanced with an awe for the universe and the quest to define what it means to be human.

Co-written with Tara Varney.

"Lingerie Shop" is a male fantasy about life in a sexy lingerie shop. Everything is hot and steamy until one of the actresses curses the playwright and quits the play in the middle of a scene. What follows is a Pirandello-styled farce that deconstructs theatre and feminism.

If you thought Mel Gibson's "Passion" was funny, wait until you see the one, the holy, "Jesus Christ, King of Comedy." It's the hilarious rise and fall and rise again of one of the greatest entertainers who ever walked on water. Learn the true story behind the myth: Was he a man, messiah or meshuguna?

Co-written with Tara Varney, Michelle Cotton, and Young Han C. Lester

When a book collector is murdered in a public library, private detective Sam Spade is hired to find the killer. He encounters a host of unsavory characters hunting for a valuable autographed edition of Dashiell Hammett’s masterpiece, "The Maltese Falcon," that was mistakenly donated to the Friends of the Library book sale.

Commissioned by the Johnson County Public Library for the 2008 National Endowment for the Arts' Big Read, "The Maltese Murder" is a humorous parody of Hammett’s classic detective novel. Using characters and a plot line eerily similar to the original story, "The Maltese Murder" embraces Hammett’s sharp dialog while at the same time spoofing the film noir genre.

Deep in the middle ages, two warring factions gather at a royal feast, but assassination plots and philandering unravel their plans for peace.

The running time is approximately 80 minutes with intermission. Suitable for all ages. This chamber epic is a large cast play that is ideal for community theatres, high schools and colleges needing several male roles.

An actor auditions for bit part in a big Hollywood film.