Drew Katzman

A female Muslim recovering corporate lawyer turned teacher, a male fundamentalist radio-minister, Henrik Ibsen, a loving mother, basketball, and romance all compete for the heart and mind of a fourteen-year-old boy at the Dwight David Eisenhower Regional Middle School, in Edenview, Kansas. Oh, yeah, and sexual awakening. And the nature of being saved. And ethics. And life. And a gun. And love. 109 pgs. Single set that encompasses several playing areas which are sometimes used simultaneously.

Do the same laws govern the life of a star, a family dinner and falling in love? Will the girl get to the pre-party? Will the boy get to college? Should dinner be held or served? Is David cheating on Millie? Is Kent from a different world? What does the baby make of it all? And where’s Andy? The answer to all of these questions and more -- questions you didn’t even know you wanted to ask - are held within the physics of a Fluxon and the heart of a Rainbow.
95 pgs, one set.

A generation gave us "make love, not war" and then the same generation gave us endless conflict, burgeoning economic inequality, and Trump. How did that happen? As that generation rounds the corner into the home stretch and gets ready to shuffle off the mortal coil, IN THE DREAM CASTLE explores this question by looking at the lives of two women and their lifelong friendship from early childhood through tomorrow. To challenge assumptions and help us see them – specifically and representationally – with fresh eyes, the play introduces us to the women late in their lives and then, scene by scene, peels away layers of their experience and psyches as the action moves backwards in time through major intersections of their relationship, and the culture that fashioned them.
We first meet Deirdre and Fergus in their early sixties in conflict over Deirdre’s decision to retreat into isolation for reasons she refuses to disclose. Each subsequent scene steps back in time to major events in their lives and friendship humorously revealing information about mates, children, careers, fears, hopes, American culture, and the mysterious glue that bonds people together. With each step backward, layers are peeled away until these two women are known so intimately that there is a deep resonance with our own histories and emotions.
The end of the play brings us back to the future as we realize that everything we’ve seen has been filtered through Deirdre’s dementia-riddled Dream Castle of a brain, as she stumbles unglamorously into the sunset of her years, leaving us with not only a deep sense of her imperfect but beautiful humanity, but also food for thought as we continue on our own paths.
91 pgs. Eight Scenes. Non-realistic set uses props and generic furnishings to imply different locations.

A father and son try to talk through walls that have taken their lifetimes to build. They have not seen each other in a long time and may not see each other again. Each yearns to make contact with the other, in fact has need of the other, and yet each wants to maintain the safety of the status quo. Their struggle to communicate takes place as they wander through Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills, looking for the grave marker of John Barrymore.
15 pgs. Open stage, a bench, perhaps an indication or two of a cemetery
REVIEW: “In minutes we get a relationship, a tension, a history, a well of emotion, a conflict of generations, a miniature canvas of spoiled lives and empty dreams. And it’s a comedy — or at least it’s very funny when it’s not breaking the heartstring that stretches between fathers and sons, parents and children. It’s an impressive piece of writing, everything a one-act should be…” - LA Herald Examiner

Two brothers meet weekly to catch up with each other. Something is different today. The normally more passive of the two keeps introducing new ideas, new thoughts, new questions. This far from welcome challenge to the mundanity of their relationship and intellectual pecking order, causes confusion and frustration on the part of the dominant brother. This is a comedy of serious intent.

About 30 minutes. Single setting - a bench in a park.

A loyal but drab and aging secretary confronts her younger boss, a corporate hotshot, after he has her terminate her own employment. This comedy with a serious purpose shows her pursuit of grace in the midst of despair as she ultimately forces her boss to walk a mile in her shoes.

35-40 minutes - Single setting, an executive office in an office tower.

An absurdist look at the increasing alienation of humanity from the rest of nature fostered by technology and marketing. A middle-aged couple lives dependent on television for all their information, intellectual guidance, and material needs. Their complacency becomes challenged when the wife, Lillian, becomes enchanted by a flower that appears in a commercial and eventually inspires her to want to create a garden. She and husband Roscoe soon learn that they have so surrendered to the world of TV, that there is no longer any outside world - they’d neglected to notice that their house no longer even has doors or windows. As Roscoe struggles to keep their existence and behavior within the rules required for them to achieve their ultimate goal - becoming sexy - Lillian, guided by her heart, is determined that she will somehow make the garden a reality - and is willing to part ways with Roscoe and the TV if necessary.
30-40 minutes - Single setting - a living room of a certain nature.