Scott Sickles

[SIX-TO-TEN-MINUTE MONOLOGUE]

A sculpture garden, foreign travel, and yet even more unrequited love.

[FULL-LENGTH DRAMA/THRILLER (Intermissionless)]
[6 or more female-identifying actors; 2 trans male actors.
Plenty of room for NB casting as well.]

2024 RELENTLESS AWARD, HONORABLE MENTION

A 9-year-old trans boy goes missing during an airlift trying to escape a far right coup. His mothers launch a global search, but their son could be anywhere on the planet and has left no trace.

TESSERACT asks "What if the Taliban takeover in Kabul happened here? Or anywhere else?"

[FULL LENGTH • SCIENCE FICTION]
2019 O'NEILL FINALIST

2F/6M (3M roles are East Asian/Korean)
The first piece in a science fiction trilogy that follows a love story between two men from when they're 11-year-old pen pals until the end of the world nearly 50 years later.

Teddy Passanante and Anzor Khasanov are eleven-year-old pen pals. Teddy is a half-Korean nerd enduring constant prejudice despite living in a liberal U.S. made up of what used to be Blue States. Anzor is the child of Muslim refugees trapped in a militant right-wing Christian theocracy that used to be the Red States. The boys know their correspondence is being monitored by Anzor’s government. This is a love story.

Developmental readings at Portland Stage's Little Festival of the Unexpected and the Road Theatre Company's Summer Playwrights Festival.
Workshop production in 2024 by Leviathan Lab in New York City. (Not an official world premiere.)

[FULL LENGTH SCIENCE FICTION DRAMA]
2020 O'NEILL SEMIFINALIST

4M/2F – 2 Males are East Asian

The second piece in a science fiction trilogy that follows a love story between two men from when they're 11-year-old pen pals until the end of the world nearly 50 years later. In Pangea, they meet for the first time as 38-year-old adults.

Palmer Station, Antarctica: New Year’s Day, 2046. Astronaut Andy Manners and marine biologist Lincoln Passanante wake up in each other’s arms for the first time – twenty-six years after Andy vanished from Lincoln’s life. When they were children, the Red States became the New Confederate States of America from which Andy escaped a genocide. Now, the New Confederacy is collapsing, the climate is reaching another catastrophic tipping point, and two men who have loved each other all their lives must confront an intimately and globally uncertain future.

FINALIST: Garry Marshall Theater 2021 New Works Festival

[FULL LENGTH SCIENCE FICTION DRAMA]
The third piece in a science fiction trilogy that follows a love story between two guys from when they're 11-year-old pen pals until the end of the world nearly 50 years later. This is the final installment, so...

2067. The Earth is entering a new ice age and nothing on the surface will survive. Astronaut Anzor "Andy" Khasanov-Manners is in a space station, in orbit, assisting with evacuation efforts... which have just been abandoned. His husband, Teddy; their boys, Mason and Julius; the boys' mother, Drisana, and stepmother, Sophie, were supposed to be on the next flight up. As the temperature plummets and the planet becomes uninhabitable, Anzor and his family bid each other a long farewell. Told in real time and flashbacks, THE KNOWN UNIVERSE is a story of family and everything they and we have to lose.

[FULL-LENGTH DRAMA. WORK-IN-PROGRESS]

In Suwon, South Korea, Bianca, a cellist escaping her past, crosses paths with Martin, a Mixed Korean-American office manager seeking to connect with his roots. When unsettling events draw Bianca closer to Martin, an unlikely friendship forms. But as Martin grows more settled in Suwon, Bianca feels the pull to leave.

[FULL LENGTH DRAMA]
When Fletcher Driscoll returned to his hometown to direct Romeo and Juliet, he never expected to end up in his own star-crossed romance with Jeff, a recently out divorcé with a complicated past. Nor was he prepared to confront Tommy, his high school best friend who broke his heart... repeatedly and on purpose.

A powerful drama about the resonance of loss, Composure is for everyone who has ever loved the wrong person and worries that it's too late to find the right one.

two acts; 1 hour, 45 minutes (+ intermission)

[EVENING OF ONE-ACT PLAYS]
Life’s major milestones happen unexpectedly out of order in these three tales of love, lust and loss.

Demon: Medusa
Mavis and Thor are two senior citizens out on a first date. Thor is a perfect gentlemen, but that may not be what Mavis wants...

Bitch: Cassiopeia
Developmentally challenged Angela prepares for her wedding. Her two sisters want what’s best for her. Unfortunately, they have very different opinions on what that might be.

Goddess: Thalassa
On the shore of the Mediterranean, a young woman spots a man about to take a one-way walk into the deep blue sea. Can she save him? Can they save each other?

3 one-act plays; 90-100 minutes; no intermission

[FULL LENGTH DRAMA – adaptation/retelling of HAMLET]

You know the story, right?
After the sudden death of her king, the grieving Queen Gertrude tries to save her country from the brink of war by helping her brother-in-law, the wise and good statesman Claudius, ascend to the throne instead of her temperamental son, Prince Hamlet. When Hamlet becomes unhinged, Gertrude enlists his love Ophelia to help save his sanity. But soon, Ophelia inherits Hamlet's suspicions about his father's death and must determine if the queen can be trusted or is an accomplice to murder.
This is a story about women.

FRAILTY, THY NAME examines the Hamlet mythos exclusively from the perspectives of its women, Queen Gertrude and Ophelia. Gertrude is a noble, savvy and honorable queen who, in a moment of deep grief, puts country before family. She and Ophelia — clever, perceptive, and steadfast — unite over their love of Hamlet, until his suspicions of treachery force them to confront the patriarchy that has trapped and perhaps even doomed them.

[FULL LENGTH COMEDY OF MANNERS]
A contemporary comedy of manners about the things we keep from the people we love.
Two couples and their elusive best pal prepare for a major event while harboring secrets until they find the right moments to reveal them...moments which may or may not come.

SUMMARY:
FROM THE TOP examines (roughly) the same half-hour from three different characters’ perspectives as they prepare to leave for a special event.
In Act One, young actor Edmund arrives with his new boyfriend Paddy. He’s seeking an audience with his mentor and dear friend Brandon, a highly regarded theater director. His attempts to have a private moment with his friend are blocked by Irene and Calvin, an actress/playwright couple who appear to be running interference. Edmund eventually has the heart-to-heart he’s been longing for, but what’s wrong with Brandon?
In Act Two, moments before Edmund and Paddy’s arrival, Irene tries to break up with bewildered Calvin. They discreetly negotiate the chaos going on around and in between them, ultimately confronting the fate of their relationship.
In Act Three, Brandon lets Irene and Calvin in and informs them that he’s invited Edmund to join them. He dismisses their concerns at first, but after Edmund’s arrival, Brandon must navigate his own mounting heartbreak.

90 minutes, 3 short acts, no intermission.

" From the Top deserves a long life, though hopefully it will be ensconced on the New York stages for a long time to come, an ideal destination for audiences seeking a witty and intelligent modern comedy of manners."
~ Matthew Murray, Talking' Broadway

[FULL LENGTH DRAMA]
Lawrence is on the rebound. His best pals -- ex-lover Niles and devout virgin Briony -- can only provide so much comfort. Then in walks Allan, a handsome attorney who whisks him away from his problems... and soon begins to separate Lawrence little by little from the people and things he cares about. Allan's plan to control Lawrence starts to backfire when Lawrence reveals himself to be a stronger person than the heartbroken sad sack he was the night they met. But is Lawrence strong enough?

90 minutes, no intermission

"Hairdresser on Fire ... unfolds with the ease of an episode of "Seinfeld" but ends 90 minutes later the way "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" would if written by Larry Gelbart instead of Edward Albee. ... a lively engaging piece about the downward spiral of relationships that begin with a power imbalance. It's also about the particular courage it takes to assert one's self in the face of the possible loss of love."
~ Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[EVENING OF ONE-ACT PLAYS]

(2F/1M)
A bride visits her groom in prison... still in her wedding dress! Two women bury the body of their blackmailer. A composer returns home after an accident has taken away their talent and passion. Lucrezia Borgia, Aimee Semple McPherson, and the Devil rehearse a Nativity play in Purgatory.

Four visions of Hell: romantic, gothic, artistic, and theatrical.

In four short plays that can be performed as an evening or individually:
BULLETPROOF LOVE (1F/1M)
THE FALLOW GARDEN (2F)
O, FOR A MUSE OF FIRE (2A)
SOMEWHERE SOUTH OF BETHLEHEM (2F/1M(or A))

[PRODUCTION CLOSED EARLY DUE TO COVID-19]

[FULL LENGTH COMEDY]
Psychologist Margot leaves her philosophy professor husband Philip to "explore untapped feminie potential" by giving lesbianism a whirl. The separation leaves them and their gay best friend Brighton to thier own devices, schemes, and unexpected romances. Mayhem ensues.

2 acts; 120-130 minutes

"...you know the playwright has potential. ... Mr. Sickles’s zingy dialogue sparkled..."
~Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times

"Romantic screwball comedy is alive and well... Intellectuals is a refreshing reminder of how fun good theatre can be... several surprising twists and turns...
~ Michael Criscuolo, nytheatre.com

"Some people are just too smart for their own good. That’s bad for them, but it’s great for the audience of Intellectuals. ... Sickles’s dialog is witty and crisp, and the jokes zipped by, one on top of the next. ... a lot of fun indeed."
~ Byrne Harrison, oobr.com

Available in Smith & Kraus's NEW PLAYWRIGHTS: BEST PLAYS OF 2007, edited by Lawrence Harbison.

[FULL-LENGTH DOCUPAGEANT]

In 1866, Elmire Jolicoeur, a French-Canadian immigrant, invented the precursor of the modern casserole in Berlin, New Hampshire. OR DID SHE? A present day journalist's curiosity leads her to discover the truth between Jolicoeur's legend and her life. This docupageant dramatizes that life, that search, and that legend with high theatricality, examining how women are portrayed by history and the media, and how in a "post-fact" society, the truth still matters even if that truth seems trivial.

[Multiple roles meant to be played by 3 actors.]

[FULL LENGTH DRAMA]
Before the classic film and the celebrated novel Doctor Zhivago, there were poet Boris Pasternak, his muse Olga Ivinskaya, and the Soviet government’s attempt to silence their story. After Pasternak’s death in 1960 Olga, his lover of fourteen years, was arrested by the KGB. LIGHTNING FROM HEAVEN chronicles Olga's subsequent interrogation and trial, while depicting her and Pasternak's struggle to complete and publish Doctor Zhivago despite determined Soviet efforts to stop them.

2 acts; 2h15m

"torrid... as sizzling as the love affair between Zhivago and Lara. ... The play is full of high drama, deep characterization, and constant tension. It is a scathing look inside the nightmarish world of Soviet oppression. ~Bruce Chadwick, History News Network

"It is a smart, deeply literate play, driven by the conflict between individual artistic integrity and the collectivist state. Perhaps most touching are the scenes deliberately echoing Zhivago in which Pasternak and Ivinskaya find beauty in the increasingly drab, dehumanized Soviet world about them. ... Highly recommended for fans of historical drama or Zhivago in any of its incarnations."
~ Joe Bendel. J.B. Spins blog

[FULL LENGTH DRAMA]
When lonely 45-year-old architect Harry Wallace meets sexy film student Jim Bennett, it’s a motion picture perfect romance. After a shocking revelation shatters their relationship, Harry and Jim must pick up the shambles of their suddenly very separate lives.

90 minutes, no intermission

“Sickles nails the complexities in this relationship in such a powerful way... There is something for everyone in the audience to draw from; whether you are gay or straight, it
is very relatable.”
~ Gregory G. Allen, Huffington Post

“Playwright Scott C. Sickles creates an intriguing, surprisingly believable study of human behavior...just about any audience member will find something with which to
connect.”
~ Ronni Reich, Back Stage

“Sickles takes a potentially controversial topic and crafts a beautiful story of a doomed romance. Like the old movies it references, Casablanca chief among them, Moonlight & Love Songs shows that love often demands sacrifice to become
transcendent.”
~ Byrne Harrison, Stagebuzz.com

As the proprietress of a haunted tattoo parlor attempts to connect with her father on the anniversary of his passing, the artists who work for her each struggle with the line between the living and the dead.

SCRIPT COMING IN MAY 2026

[FULL LENGTH DRAMA]
2016 DAYTON PLAYHOUSE FUTUREFEST WINNER
2018 EDGERTON FOUNDATION NEW PLAY AWARD WINNER
2020 AMERICAN THEATER CRITICS ASSOCIATION STEINBERG AWARD FINALIST
2020 ST LOUIS THEATER CIRCLE AWARD FOR BEST NEW PLAY

In 1930, E.M. Forster met and fell in love with Bob Buckingham, a policeman 23 years his junior. Before long, fear of discovery forced Bob to court and marry May, a young nurse. The ensuring love triangle, turbulent and unique, evolved until Forster’s death nearly forty years later.

2 acts; 120 minutes

(formerly titled "Shepherd's Bush")

[FULL LENGTH COMEDY]
In this "Noises Off for Off-Off," a stage manager presents a dramatic recreation of her traumatizing previous production during which she was secretly attracted to playwright Harvest Carruthers who in turn became attracted to the sweet, sexy, and tremendously untalented Jonah "Buck" Jackson who himself developed a crush on director Edwina O'Halloran who is only doing this very bad gay play to prove that the actor who rejected her romantic overtures, Mike Porter, did so because he's gay thereby enabling her to cope with his rejection. The result is a hilariously catastrophic series of clashing egos and romantic misalliances.

75 minutes, no intermission

[FULL LENGTH DRAMA/FANTASY]
[NOTE: I’m looking to rewrite the ending]
Based on the short story by Jerome K. Jerome. A young man about to propose marriage to his girlfriend seeks the advice of three older couples, all of whom have been acquainted with one another for over twenty years. There's the sedate Reverend Nathaniel Armitage and his flirtatious wife Alice; brusque entrepreneur Dick Everett who married his wife Nellie for her beauty, which has faded completely; and passionate writer Horatio Camelford, who stopped believing in marriage right around the time his wife Jessica finally realized she loved him. The three couples regale the young man with a story about how one night in Germany they were magically transported back to their youths... and given knowledge of their futures. What did they learn from the decisions they made?

70 minutes (45 pages, plus movement) no intermission

[FULL-LENGTH QUEER ASIAN NEURODIVERGENT EXPERIMENTAL BREAKUP DRAMA]

Tishk, an Indian/Pakistani American, is figuring out his life after long Covid cranked his ADHD ending his journalism career, so he and his husband Brady, a Korean American photographer, have rented a cottage by the shore. Tishk spends his afternoons at the local diner, where he's befriended by a Filipina American waitress. Meanwhile, Brady appears to be living a double life, a strange man shows up everywhere either of them go, and Tishk’s reality and perceptions separate and blur.

Seaside Tragedies examines multicultural marriage, intimacy, identity, prejudice, and intersectionality through a subjective neurodivergent lens in the lingering aftermath of the pandemic.

CW: Implied sexual content; homophobia; one fully-clothed sexual assault

[HORROR; FULL-LENGTH SHORT PLAY CYCLE]
TARTARUS follows the trail of a serial murderer who lures young boys he believes to be gay to their deaths, and the one victim who got away. Through the intimate perspectives of the victims, the killer, and their families, the piece is as much a horror story as a political indictment of what happens when homophobia, zealotry, and sociopathy merge.

1: ACHERON - Luke, a handsome, athletic older boy, befriends a younger boy he sees admiring him
2: ASPHODEL MEADOWS - The mother of a missing boy becomes overwhelmed by her fears
3: COCYTUS - Two people trying to have an intimate encounter make a horrifying discovery
4: RHADAMANTHUS - Luke, the killer, confronted by his parents, explains what drives him
5: EURYNOMOS - One of Luke's victims has survived and, decades later, tries to confront him
6: THE MOURNING FIELDS - Another child goes missing with an unexpected outcome
7: THE STYGIAN MARSH - Luke's father attempt to expose Luke's crimes

The plays are meant to be performed either as stand-alone pieces, in combinations, or together.

CW: child murder, kidnapping, one graphic description of violence against children, rats

A legacy media journalist and her protege help a whistleblower expose a philanthropist’s secret cult.​​

SCRIPT COMING IN MAY 2026

[ROMCOM MICROPLAY SAGA] [WORK-IN-PROGRESS]

Fourteen 1-to-3-minute plays chronicling a destination wedding in Glacier Lagoon, Iceland.
[More plays to come!] The plays are stand-alone pieces that together tell a cohesive story.

Featuring the plays:
1. DOWN IN THE DEPTHS
2. THE EYES, THE NOSE, THE SOUTH OF YOU
3. THE EAST, WEST, NORTH AND THE MOUTH OF YOU
4. A TRIP TO THE MOON ON GOSSAMER WINGS
5. ON HIGH WITH NOTHING TO DO
6. THOUGH YOUR LIPS ARE TEMPTING
7. THE NIGHT IS YOUNG, THE SKY IS CLEAR
8. WHAT A SWELL PARTY THIS IS
9. THEY SAY THAT BEARS HAVE LOVE AFFAIRS
10. IN THE CHILL, STILL OF THE NIGHT
11. I CAN HEAR A LARK SOMEWHERE
12. I’M SURE YOU’LL HATE TO HEAR THAT I ADORE YOU DEAR 45

13. STARRY EYED AND VAGUELY DISCONTENTED 50

14. FLYING TOO HIGH WITH SOME GUY IN THE SKY

[ANTHOLOGY OF SHORT WORK FOR LGBTQ YOUTH]

Daphne, Bertram, Zoe and Robert are gay kids. They may not know it quite yet, but the feelings are there. Before, during and after their third grade year, they navigate social and family pressures just to stay in each other's orbits.

An anthology of four monologues and three short plays including:

1. ALL OF THE NAPKINS ARE WET a monologue in which Daphne takes a break from an exhausting tea party with exhausting people

2. HOW TO TIE A CRAVAT a monologue in which Bertram responds to being bullied by his very best friend Robert

3. THE CAPTURE, NATURE, AND PURPOSE OF THE (UNFORTUNATELY NON-TERRESTRIAL) POLLYWOG, a monologue in which Zoey tries to make sense of Daphne's choice of friends while she's left alone to hunt for tadpoles

4. NOT EXACTLY A LULLABY a monologue in which Robert confesses to his sleeping mother about his turmoil over what he's done to Bertram

5, THE BENEFITS OF FRINGE POPULARITY AND SOCIAL INVISIBILITY, a ten-minute play in which Daphne attempts to clear Zoey after Zoey's been accused of a prank

6. THE OBJECT IS TO PREVENT MOISTURE a short play in which Robert tries to get Bertram to forgive him

7. WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS... a one-act play in which Daphne, Bertram, Zoey and Robert take turns choosing what games to play as their summer vacation reaches its peak

[COMIC MONLOGUE FOR A CHILD]
Part 1 of PLAYING ON THE PERIPHERY: Monologues and Scenes For and About Queer Kids

Daphne is not enjoying her tea party.

[MONOLOGUE FOR A BOY]
Part 2 of PLAYING ON THE PERIPHERY: Monologues and Scenes For and About Queer Kids

Bertram is an unusually well dressed and well groomed eight-year-old boy. At least he usually is. Today, he's been knocked to the ground by another boy. He's about to get up.

[MONOLOGUE FOR A GENDER-NON-CONFORMING GIRL]
Part 3 of PLAYING ON THE PERIPHERY: Monologues and Scenes For and About Queer Kids

Zoey is catching tadpoles. There are other things she also wants.

[MONOLOGUE FOR A BOY]
Part 4 of PLAYING ON THE PERIPHERY: Monologues and Scenes For and About Queer Kids

8-year-old Robert has done a bad thing; he's hurt his best friend. And his only confessor is his sleeping mother.

[SHORT PLAY FOR LGBTQ KIDS]
Part 6 of PLAYING ON THE PERIPHERY: Monologues and Scenes For and About Queer Kids

Bertram just wants to have high tea by himself in the school cafeteria. His ex-best friend Robert has decided to join him. Uninvited.

This is a sequel to the monologue HOW TO TIE A CRAVAT.

[TEN-MINUTE PLAY FOR LGBTQ KIDS]
Part 5 of PLAYING ON THE PERIPHERY: Monologues and Scenes For and About Queer Kids

Someone has put frogs in everyone's backpacks and Zoey is about to take the heat! That is, unless Daphne has something to say about it!

[ONE-ACT PLAY FOR LGBTQ CHILDREN]
The 7th and Final Play in PLAYING ON THE PERIPHERY: Monologues and Scenes For and About Queer Kids

Third grade is over! Fourth grade looms large! But today is the Fourth of July! Daphne, Bertram, Zoey and Robert take turns choosing a new game every five minutes. It's a special summer day after an especially difficult year.

[FIVE-MINUTE COMEDY]
Beauregard and Zeke are 16-year-old high school juniors.
Beauregard wears a windbreaker. Zeke wears a denim jacket.

Zeke is curious. He has a question for Beauregard.

CONTENT WARNING: Hate speech.

"Beauregard and Zeke" is a series of plays about sexual curiosity between gay teenage boys.
The first four are written and available on the NPX.
Others will be added as they are completed.

[ONE-ACT DRAMA]
Beauregard and Zeke are 16-year-old high school juniors.
Beauregard wears a windbreaker. Zeke wears a denim jacket.

Zeke takes Beauregard to the McDonald's Drive-Thru. They share stuff.

CONTENT WARNING: Sexual content.

"Beauregard and Zeke" is a series of plays about sexual curiosity between gay teenage boys.
The first four are written and available on the NPX.
Others will be added as they are completed.

[TEN-MINUTE DRAMA -- NOT ABOUT MUPPETS]

Beauregard and Zeke are 16-year-old high school juniors.
Beauregard wears a windbreaker. Zeke wears a denim jacket.

Zeke discovers a new skill. Beauregard appreciates this but has concerns.

CONTENT WARNING: Simulated sexual act.

"Beauregard and Zeke" is a series of plays about sexual curiosity between gay teenage boys.
The first four are written and available on the NPX.
Others will be added as they are completed.

Written for the Playwrights Thriving February 2021 Food Play Bakeoff

[FIVE-MINUTE COMEDY -- NOT ABOUT MISS COCO PERU]
Beauregard and Zeke are 16-year-old high school juniors.
Beauregard wears a windbreaker. Zeke wears a denim jacket.

Beauregard and Zeke have a mishap in the back seat of a car.

CONTENT WARNING: Language.

"Beauregard and Zeke" is a series of plays about sexual curiosity between gay teenage boys.
The first four are written and available on the NPX.
Others will be added as they are completed.

[TEN-MINUTE DRAMA]

Beauregard and Zeke are 16-year-old high school juniors.
Beauregard wears a windbreaker. Zeke wears a denim jacket.

Beauregard and Zeke fell asleep in Zeke's bed... and woke up to discover that someone turned off the TV, put a blanket on top of them, and shut off the lights. So much for their relationship being a secret.

"Beauregard and Zeke" is a series of plays about sexual curiosity between gay teenage boys.
The first five are written and available on the NPX.
Others will be added as they are completed.

A MULTI-ETHNIC NEURODIVERGENT GAY BEARISH ROMANTIC PLAY CYLE

Five short plays and one bonus monologue chronicling the gentle romance between two gay bears with ADHD.

Bascom is a scruffy little gay dude, sporting a beard and a (slight) belly. In gay parlance, a small bear or elder cub.
Isaac is what in gay parlance is known as a panda: a bear of East Asian descent – taller, heavyset. and bearded.
They both have ADHD.

This play cycle includes the short pieces:
PUNCH BOWL
ROOTS DEED, TRUNK WIDE
POMPADOUR
IMAGINARY YOU
and BEHOLDER
Plus the bonus holiday monologue: THE CREATURE FROM UNDER THE TREE
(New monologue ERSTWHILE to be added soon!)

Each piece is a stand-alone but together they tell a cohesive story.
(Though I would recommend putting the monologue after POMPADOUR or IMAGINARY YOU)

The plays can be read individually here on the NPX or in this one volume.

[TEN-MINUTE GAY BEARISH NEURODIVERGENT ROMANTIC COMEDY]
It's a BYO wedding reception and love is in the air. Somewhere.
Little bear Bascom wants to leave with big panda Isaac who does't want to be there in the first place. So this should work out... right?

[TEN-MINUTE NEURODIVERGENT GAY BEARISH COMIC ROMANCE]
Sussing before sex. The fooling around is about to get serious, but before it does Isaac tries to manage Bascom's expectations. A comic romance about sex, Asian Americanness, and ADHD.

**Written for Playwrights Thriving's 2025 Secret Santa Title Exchange**

[UNDER-FIVE-MINUTE NEURODIVERGENT GAY BEARISH COMIC ROMANCE]
Bascom has a proposition for boyfriend Isaac but a distraction gets in the way.

[TEN-MINUTE NEURODIVERGENT GAY BEARISH ROMANTIC DRAMA]

Bascom and Isaac just had Bascom's straight bestie Fred over and Isaac's feeling a little jealous. Then a lot jealous. They know these feelings are just his ADHD amping things up, but there's nothing do to except ride it out.

[TEN-MINUTE GAY BEARISH NEURODIVERGENT COMIC ROMANCE]
Bascom is coming home after a bad day. Isaac is waiting for him. Are things about to get worse?

[ONE-MINUTE HOLIDAY COMIC MONOLOGUE]

Bascom has been waiting under the tree to give Isaac a sexy Christmas surprise.
He's been under there a while.

[FIVE-ISH-MINUTE ADHD RANT]
Isaac is late to meet Bascom after running into someone from his past.

2026 Playwright's Thriving Playwright's Delight! Title: ERSTWHILE

[ONE ACT DEEPY SILLY HORROR DEMONOLOGY HELLSCAPE COMEDY-ISH]

Iggy is lost in a hellscape. They were dimension-hopping with friend who is nowhere to be found. Their tormentor has split into two personae – one unrepentantly evil and the other relentlessly cheerful. Also, they're all being pursued by an unstoppable all-consuming demon.

That old chestnut.

[ONE-ACT ROMANTIC COMEDY]
It's the Spring Fling Dance at St. Joseph's retirement community! Jack has got his eye on Hilary who would rather he look elsewhere. Staff member Gladys tries to encourage them but Hilary's son Emmett has other ideas!

[ONE-ACT SPECULATIVE HORROR]
Alice and her husband host a farewell party of wine and hors d'oeuvres celebrating Tamara and her husband moving back to the Mainland after years on the Island. But why are they all there in the first place? When will they all be allowed to leave?
----
An evening of wine hors d'oeuvres celebrating Tamara and her husband finally moving off the Island back to the Mainland. She wants one last girl talk session with her BFF/hostess Alice, so she sends their hubbies – Calvin and Oliver – off to the man cave for a male bonding session of their own. Soon, they each begin to recall their experiences at Camp, a program where they learned to eradicate their desires for members of the same sex, embrace Christ, and come out with a brand new outlook and an assigned spouse. But will the emotional bonding lead to something beyond friendship. If so, what?

Approximate Running Time: 15-20 minutes

[ONE-ACT PLAY; 25 minutes]
During the summer of 1978, Bobby "Badger" McCandless and Ephraim "Frame" Siebert were best friends. Today, after Bobby's funeral, Ephraim meets his childhood bestie's widow Mary Kate. As she reminisces over her life with Bobby, Ephraim relives his friendship with "Badger": their summer of exploration and adventure from its humble beginnings to its abrupt end.

[ONE-ACT DRAMA]
On August 18, 1976, on the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom within the Korean DMZ, North Koreans murdered two American soldiers... with axes. A UN officer helps a diplomat determine what went down, so they can recommend what to do next.

[ONE-ACT DRAMA]
Ambrose and Ramona were supposed to be married. Instead, she's visiting him in prison with bulletproof glass between them. He is the strong, silent type — very strong, very silent. She has a mouth for rage. Neither can express their love to each other... Lucky you, you get to hear what's in their hearts. And it is boundless.

BULLETPROOF LOVE is published in the collection HELLISH DELIGHTS, published by Next Stage Press, available for purchase here: https://www.nextstagepress.com/hellish-delights/

[ONE-ACT WEDDING COMEDY-DRAMA]
Angela, a 70-year-old developmentally challenged woman, is marrying Roy today!Everything is going great until younger sister Beatrice arrives... and she is not happy!
This play is the "bitch" play in the one-act evening DEMON BITCH GODDESS.

Note: The play was written in 2005 when the term "mentally retarded" was considered standard medical terminology. It is used as such in the play.

[ONE-ACT HORROR COMEDY]
A mother seems unconcerned about her baby's demonic possession.

[SHORT ONE-ACT HORROR]

Harvey shows up at an old, dark house to find Stefan in a panic next to a decapitated body holding its head in its lap. The body isn't the most unsettling thing in the room.

CW: implied violence and discussion of suicide

[ONE-ACT DRAMA]
Seventy-year-old documentary filmmaker Istvan is about to interview his next subject — his school-hood girlfriend Magda, now a retired teacher — about the day one of their classmates vanished in a freak snowstorm. Reflecting on this long-ago tragedy forces Magda to confront who she's become and why.

[ONE-ACT AMERICAN GOTHIC]
Glynnis and Marie France are digging a hole in Lavinia Fowler's garden.
They are not planting vegetables.

In this American Gothic tale of small-town extortion and revenge, these two women discover they are being leveraged by a common enemy. They conspire to turn the tables on their blackmailer, but is silencing her enough to secure their secrets?

THE FALLOW GARDEN is published in the collection HELLISH DELIGHTS, published by Next Stage Press, available for purchase here: https://www.nextstagepress.com/hellish-delights/

[LIGHT DRAMA]
In the wee hours at an NYC diner Bradley and Janessa postgame their evening out with her college friends. But Bradley can't keep his eyes off a young man sleeping in a nearby booth. Janessa has noticed. Questions ensue.

[ONE-ACT SHAKESPEARE INSPIRED COMEDY]
Gideon is meeting his half-brother Augie. They've met only once before, at their father's funeral... a father who kept two families at the same time. Gideon thinks he knows what Augie wants. Gideon is wrong.

[ONE-ACT DRAMA]
On a road trip to an historic motel and diner on Route 66, Vivienne hopes to help her mother, Eleanor, hold onto her memories. Turns out Eleanor remembers a few things she never mentioned before.

[ONE-ACT DRAMA]
An aging German immigrant's request to finally learn to read and write in English is met with unexpected resistance from his schoolteacher son.
*Winner, Outstanding Play, 1996 Pittsburgh New Works Festival*

[ONE-ACT HOLIDAY COMEDY/SATIRE]
Joshua, a gay Jewish man from NYC, and his Irish lover Philip are having guests over for Christmas: Joshua's southern belle ex-wife Charlotte, their activist son David, and David's new significant other who... well... they're expecting a boy, but...

NOTE: This play was written in the 1990s. It is also a broad satire of homophobia and prejudice, so one of the characters in particular says things that are bigoted. They're supposed to be offensive; that's the point.

[ONE-ACT, SCIENCE FICTION]
Above the planet Solaris, Emery has just spent the best night ever with River who is quite literally the Person of Their Dreams.

Inspired by the sci-fi classic.

[ONE-ACT COMEDY]

The Queen is dead! Long live the King!
Whoever that might be...

[ONE-ACT ROMANTIC COMEDY]
A headstrong mother, a quiet daughter, and a gentleman caller. Sort of.
A romcom salute to The Glass Menagerie.

[ONE-ACT SOLO PLAY/HORROR]
Skylar Chapin does not do well outside of big cities. Stranded in the wilds of the Pacific Northwest after a plane crash and possessing next to no survival skills, Skylar tries to make it back to civilization... only to discover an even greater danger.

This is a solo play that can be performed by an actor of any gender or race within a wide range of ages.

[ONE-ACT COMEDY MOCKUMENTARY]
In this mockumentary sendup of TCM documentaries, the one-way rivalry between cinema icon Genevieve O'Neal and single-movie sensation Desiree Dovell celebrates American film from the golden age on.

[ONE-ACT DRAMA WITHOUT WORDS]
A man returns to the seaside hotel where his parents first met to scatter their ashes into the sea. The woman in the next room sees his pain and reaches out. A play about grieving, healing, love... and opera.

Inspired by "Verdi Cries" by 10,000 Maniacs

[ONE-ACT DRAMA]
A year after their breakup, a closeted Formula One race car driver tracks down his ex who is immersed in his own family crisis.

[ONE-ACT COMEDY]
Mavis and Thor are two senior citizens out on a first date.Thor is a perfect gentleman, but that might not be what Mavis wants.

This play is the "demon" play in the one-act evening DEMON BITCH GODDESS.

[ONE-ACT DRAMA]
Rupert is a wildly successful corporate sell-out. Linus is a washed-up journalist who has never recovered from his fall from grace. They're having one last breakfast together before parting ways... maybe forever?

[ONE-ACT GAY COMING OF AGE DRAMA]
Ex-jock Jason has invited his physics lab partner Les over to watch the 1977 Pittsburgh Pirates home opening on TV. Unbeknownst to Les, Jason hopes they have more in common than baseball...
Published and licensed by Samuel French

[ONE-ACT DRAMA]
Lane, an award-winning film composer, returns home from the hospital for the first time after a car accident: memory intact but no longer able to compose. Lane's former love and dear friend Vaughn does everything possible to inspire Lane to reconnect with music and their past.

Note: Casting is gender neutral, adjust pronouns as needed.

Note: For the song Vaughn sings on pages 6 and 7, you are encouraged to compose your own music to go with the lyrics in ALL CAPS or use sheet music or the sound cue composed for the song by Christopher Chappell, by separate arrangement.

O, FOR A MUSE OF FIRE is published in the collection HELLISH DELIGHTS, published by Next Stage Press, available for purchase here: https://www.nextstagepress.com/hellish-delights/

[ONE-ACT COMIC FANTASY]
Chantelle had one last chance to save her beloved Felix from the wicked Diabolallura's spell but it has not gone well at all. Now, they face the aftermath...

[ONE-ACT HORROR; 20 Minutes]

Young Jessa wants revenge. She's summoned Quinton to get it.

CW: discussion of suicide and emotional abuse

[ONE-ACT HALLOWEEN/PANDEMIC/HORROR PLAY]
Halloween night, 2020. A woman visits a boutique perfumery in an otherwise closed boardwalk hotel. The perfumer creates a scent that "is" her.

Written for Playwrights Thriving's Halloween Bake-Off. The ingredients were: a perfumery/part of a hotel that is not a room; a relentless optimist; and "The Orb."

[ONE-ACT NEURODIVERGENCE EXPERIMENTAL PLAY]

Dal is not okay. After reconciling as friends with a former romantic partner, Dal is now targeted by demons amplifying their feelings of rejection and heartbreak. Why? Because they can.

The demons (openly) represent Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria and Emotional Dysregulation, two common conditions associated with ADHD, which DAL has.

While Dal and Nicky are imagined as gay men, any of all of the characters in OUBLIETTE can be played by adults of any race or gender.

Approx Run Time: 25 minutes

[ONE-ACT HORROR]

In the ruins of the walled city of Rhodes, Greece, Bethune seeks relief from the sun in the ruins. A charming Greek stranger happens upon her. Does he have an agenda? Does she?

Originally developed for Pulp Factor at The Pulp Stage.
Audio/Zoom version will also be available.

[ONE-ACT COMEDY]
Helena gave up her daughter Persephone at birth. Today, they meet for the first time. It's going really well. Or at least it was...

[ONE-ACT, GAY "COMING OF AGE" COMEDY]
Straight-laced Kip just wants to watch Nigella's cooking show, but scruffy Stan won't stop ribbing him about it. Things turns physical... really, really physical.

[ONE-ACT DRAMA]

Lydia has woken up on Abel's boat. She doesn't remember how she got there or who he is. All she knows is that she's a very small woman far from shore, alone with a very big and potentially dangerous man.

CW: discussion of sexual assault

[ONE-ACT SATIRICAL COMEDY]

There has been a break-in at the studio of Millicent Grosvenor, the third place ribbon winner of last year's Klonopinto County Annual Chili Cook Off. Before that, the second place winner, Elvira-Lamb Winnipeg, suddenly left town. Now, the long-running champion, Nicola Sleight-Richards, appears to be behind it all! But can intrepid Klonopinto County Picayune reporter Cedar Emberhorn prove it by press time, even though the paper is weekly?!? There's a lot more at stake than a hill of beans.

[ONE-ACT POLITICAL DRAMA]
A woman who recently lost her trans daughter to suicide finds herself being questioned by authorities about her father's role in a bombing.

CW: Discussion and depictions of suicides. Mass killing. Hate speech and anti-trans rhetoric.

[ONE-ACT COMEDY-DRAMA; *NOT* HORROR]
Cleopatra and Robin Hood meet in the anteroom of a Hollywood Halloween party. But who are they really? And who do they wish they were?

[ONE-ACT; SCIENCE FICTION]
Somewhere out in deep space, Menzies has awoken after surviving a horrific attack. But how did Menzies survive at all? How did anyone?

[ONE-ACT DRAMA; 2M*]
A long time ago, Kenneth thought he killed a demon in this room. Then he found out it was a hallucination. Today, he's back in the room for the first time since he lost his mind. Once again, he's not alone.

[ONE-ACT COMEDY]
1M/2F; 25 minutes
Disgraced Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson is in hell... literally and figuratively. Her current torment is being forced to rehearse a Nativity play (with loads of puppets!) with Lucrezia Borgia and the Devil. Revelations and confessions ensue.

SOMEWHERE SOUTH OF BETHLEHEM is published in the collection HELLISH DELIGHTS, published by Next Stage Press, available for purchase here: https://www.nextstagepress.com/hellish-delights/

[ONE-ACT MONOLOGUE PLAY FOR THREE CHILDREN]
15-20 minutes

Inspired by Helen Levitt’s 1939 photo "Halloween," three children with masks stand on large concrete steps. In the play, they are a brother and sister waiting outside a courthouse with their new stepbrother.

They do not speak to each other. Nevertheless, they have opinions...

[ONE-ACT GHOST STORY]

An annual otherworldly confrontation finally takes a turn towards truth, as long-dead ghosts discover the truth about their demises.

[ONE-ACT HORROR]
3M/3F; 20-25 minutes
Rayanne wakes up in a hospital where she's told the apocalyptic nightmare she's been living was actually a hallucination. Soon, the line between her realities begins to blur.

[ONE-ACT GHOST STORY/ROMANCE]
Recovering from a breakup, Aubrey moves into a studio apartment only to discover that the residence is occupied... by a ghost. A romance about loneliness in the aftermath of love, both requited and not, and the importance of contact.

NOTE: the characters have not been assigned any age, race or gender; those decisions entirely up to the production!

[ONE-ACT "SCAT NOIR"]

This play is disgusting.

Hopefully, it's funny.

It was inspired by a fake news story from the Jackson Telegraph in August 2017. The story previously appeared nearly word-for-word in the Border Herald in May 2017. The only difference in the story is the alleged location: the more recent article being in Jackson, Mississippi, and the earlier being set in Jacksonville, Florida.

It was about how digestive pandemonium broke out in a strip club after the pole dancers and patrons tossed back some tainted shrimp and ended up with explosive diarrhea. It makes the incident in BRIDESMAIDS look elegant by comparison.

Naturally, the only way to tell a story this depraved and revolting was by using film noir tropes and I needed to write something for #30Playsin30Days so...

Without further ado, I give you my "scat noir"... TAINT!

[ONE-ACT DRAMA]
On the shore of the Mediterranean, a young woman spots a man about to take a one-way walk into the deep blue sea. Can she save him? Can they save each other?

This play is the "goddess" play in the one-act evening DEMON BITCH GODDESS.

ONE-ACT COMEDY
[3F/3M] Spinster Mamie has finally find the man of her dreams in sweet Grover. But when Mamie announces their engagement to her family, no one takes it seriously. Once they realize that Mamie is indeed serious, fretful Mama lays down the law: Mamie can't marry Grover... for a very good and unique reason...

[ONE-ACT COMEDY]
Sarah – approaching 50, alone and lonely – has just lost the father she'a been taking care of for years. As the funeral procession waits for her outside the church, she meets a handsome stranger dealing with loss of his own. And yet... could there be a spark?

[ONE-ACT FANTASY]

The Minotaur receives his first visitor in a long, long... long time. This visitor has a purpose but neither of them knows what it is. Yet.

[ONE-ACT DRAMA]
A flood has forced Carol and Graham to seek refuge at a motel. Their marriage already strained, Carol also blames Graham for a tragic act of negligence. When she's away from him, Graham is befriended by another guest who makes an unsettling yet alluring claim.

[ONE-ACT, DRAMA]
Central Park, New Year's Eve. A carriage driver bearing the weight of a great tragedy tries to reach out to his passengers, but connection only comes from an unlikely place.
Adapted from the short story "Misery" by Anton Chekhov

[ONE-ACT PERIOD DRAMA]
One February day in 1935, Clinton "Buster" Dalzell – assistant lighthouse keeper at Egg Rock Light – kissed his pregnant wife Elizabeth goodbye, left to run an errand... and disappeared. Unable to join in the search, Elizabeth must stay strong for her young sons as she hopes for her husband’s safe return.

[ONE-ACT DRAMA]
Cady is having her baby, outside on her family's balcony, right now, before the meteor shower happens. She has her reasons.
Wolfgang is helping. He has reasons of his own.

This play was written for Quarantine Bakeoff #3. The prompts were a goodbye, peach, a silence, a misconception, and a tree growing; bonus prompt: a meteor shower.

Content Warning: This play deals with the consequences of an acquaintance rape.

[TEN-MINUTE; COMEDY-DRAMA]
Doug is spending Christmas by himself, at least until his BFF Garrett shows up to check on him. A friendly visit conjures feelings that might actually not be better left unsaid.

[TEN-MINUTE DRAMA]
A recently deceased gay man encounters his long-lost sister in the afterlife. But instead of offering guidance, she needs his help reaching out to the mother she left behind. However, the animosity between their mother and the man's lover may prevent any communication between the living and the dead.

This play in included in the anthology Demon Bitch Goddess.

[TEN-MINUTE DRAMA]
Boyd has been on the run from bully Justin all day, so when he finds Justin waiting for him in his bedroom... But Justin's not there to hurt Boyd. He has something quite different in mind.

The Bedroom Summit tackles internal and societal homophobia as the nature of the boys’ violent relationship stems from an attraction that one wishes to consummate and the other is desperate to escape.

Note: This play is thematically about anti-gay bullying and internalized homophobia among teenage boys. Only the boys appear on stage. There is an off-stage female voice with only two lines that can be delivered by someone backstage or as a sound effect. This play also features strong sexual content. NO nudity.

[TEN-MINUTE COMEDY]

When someone is pouring their heart out to you, how long is it polite to wait before you can bite into your corn dog?

[TEN-MINUTE COMEDY]
A Chef and a Waiter, parters in business and life, have just taken cover when the wedding they're working is set upon by gunfire.

Written for Cold Readings of Hastily Written Plays, the prompt was:
Two characters leave a social function together.
They each get one subject to talk about (from a specific list).
One of them returns to the function at the end.
AND... the playwright had to listen to an assigned sound file on loop while writing.
My sound file was a very fast rap song.

[TEN-MINUTE COMEDY]

***WINNER • 2025 FRESH FRUIT TEN-MINUTE PLAY FESTIVAL***

The night before the final day of shooting, two male actors of a certain age rehearse their impending love scene, which has been choreographed within an inch of its life. Can they make it work?

[TEN-MINUTE DRAMA]
Josh was the one that got away and now he's finally waking up in Archie's arms in a hotel room in Vegas. The night before was great but the morning after is a little more complicated.

[TEN-MINUTE DRAMA]
Mike runs into his estranged friend Bertz in a hospital in New York City, a few years after Bertz up and left without a word. A tenuous reunion reveals the unfortunate circumstances of Bertz’s sudden departure and the tragic reason behind his return.

[TEN-MINUTE POLITICAL SPECULATE SCIENCE FICTION]
Mark Schlesinger is an Asian American detained by ICE finding out exactly how many rights he has in 45's second term.

This was written on the day but before I found out that the Republican Party, instead of adopting a platform, resolved to pledge undying loyalty to their incumbent candidate.

This is admittedly an extreme worst case scenario. Highly improbable. Not impossible.

[TEN-MINUTE DRAMA]
At an ice cream social, Ken approaches the mother of his child, both of whom he abandoned years ago, hoping for another chance. This is a play about Korean Americans.

[TEN-MINUTE COMEDY]
I needed to write something abjectly silly.

Arthur has let his BFF (with benefits) Hudson take him gay glamping (that's "glamour camping"). When Hudson goes forth to try and find someone-or-two to bring back for a make-out party in their tent, Evinrude shows up ready with a crazy backstory and an amorous disposition.

[TEN MINUTE PLAY ABOUT DEMONIC POSSESSION AND CONSENT]

A guy and a demon and a gal and a kiss.

Written for the Kennedy Center Playwrights Intensive and for #31PlaysIn31Days

[TEN-MINUTE COMIC DRAMA]
In the aftermath of a failed suicide bombing, exhausted ER worker Marcella tries to save the unconscious bomber while her friend Davey keeps her calm. In these extraordinary circumstances, the two friends discover things about one another they would have never otherwise supposed. 8-10 minutes. Comedy/Light Drama

[TEN-MINUTE POLITICAL SATIRE]
Flynn has been fighting the power with words, words, words, while Rory has decided to take action! However, it turns out there's a right way and a wrong way to use social media in the name of revolution.

[TEN-MINUTE SENDUP OF REALLY BAD THEATRE]

That actually is the title.

Sherize just wants to be loved. Or does she? What is her Mama mixing in that bowl? Is Jade her brother or her sister? And who is that naked Man? Anything goes (or does it?) in the send up of really terrible avant-garde theater.

Note: as the stage directions are part of the comedy, a narrator to read the stage directions is essential (especially as many of them can't be physicalized).

[TEN-MINUTE LIGHT DRAMA]
Small town minister Max has just heard from his estranged wife for the first time since she left him a year ago. His best friend Gunnar, the local baker, and schoolteacher Ingrid try to buck him up, but in very different ways...

Inspired by Ingmar Bergman's 1963 film WINTER LIGHT, but funnier.

[10-MINUTE COMEDY]
Playwright/performer/affable ginger Daniel Prillaman has met his match! Literally. It's his doppelgänger. OR IS IT???

[TEN-MINUTE COMEDY]
Francesca, wife of a music superstar, discovers a fellow rock-and-roll wife sneaking out of her husband's bedroom. She thinks she knows what's going on. She doesn't.

[TEN-MINUTE COMEDY-DRAMA]
A young man confesses his love to his minister... again.

[TEN-MINUTE MAGICAL REALISM]

Belgium, July 2021, during the historic floods.
Kelian has just saved Louis from drowning.
Before that, it was already a pretty bad day.

[TEN-MINUTE SCIENCE FICTION]
Another Scott Sickles play about love and the apocalypse.
A meteor has ignited the atmosphere. As the fire gets closer to annihilating them and all life on earth, Lars wants to have end-of-the-world sex with Benno... who for various reasons isn't in the mood right now.

[TEN-MINUTE DRAMA ABOUT GUN VIOLENCE, BULLYING, AND CHILDREN]

A Latina girl makes an anti-bullying TikTok on what will be the morning of her death in a school shooting.

Part of the #CodeRed Plays collection, a collective of playwrights creating short works of theater inspired by real-life school shootings.

LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS is inspired by the life of Jackie Cazarez who lost her life in the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. The character in this play is not Jackie, but rather an amalgam of traits attributed to her. She made TikTok videos, loved animals, and had no patience for bullies.

This play is dedicated to Jackie and all who loved and continue to love her.

[TEN-MINUTE HORROR]
Billionaire Mercina Jorvick's daughter Rini was kidnapped at the start of winter. It's minutes from spring. There will be consequences.

A contemporary take on the Persephone myth. (again)

[TEN-MINUTE DRAMA]
Happy New Y2K!!!
Remember the moment when the ball dropped on January 1, 2000, and... nothing happened? The world was expecting a disaster but instead of a global catastrophe, Kingsley and Hollis have another more intimate crisis to contend with.

[TEN-MINUTE COMEDY]
Fourteen-year-old self-taught witch Miracle is preparing to cast a love spell. Her classmate and minion, Bud, is helping but harboring his own agenda. Will he foil Miracle's plan to capture the heart of the boy she loves?

[TEN-MINUTE HORROR]

Charlie has invited ex-lover Quinn to their hotel room. Charlie has apologized for the past... and has big plans for their future.

CW: emotional abuse, physical abuse, surviving narcissism

[SHORT NEURODIVERGENT DEMONOLOGY COMEDY FANTASY]

Last night, Sir Miguel and Sir Cristobal - two differently neurodivergent knights - finally defeated the despair dragon Astaroth! It didn't quite take. MORNING AFTER THE MELEE is a comedy about friendship, forgiveness, and uniting to overcome mental and emotional challenges associated with autism and ADHD.

NOTE: While not explicitly stated, these are neurodivergent characters. Sir Cristobal suffers from Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD), a condition highly common in people with ADHD. Astaroth is the manifestation of that condition. Meantime, Sir Miguel demonstrates a staunch analytical nature and modest social hyposensitivity associated with high-functioning autism, that, in these circumstances, is an asset.

RSD manifests as sudden and extreme emotional pain in response to rejection, real or perceived. It pervades individuals and relationships with irrationality, agony, and despair. It is indeed a monster.

[TEN-MINUTE COMEDY]
At Marcie and Patty's wedding reception, best person Schroeder and officiant Linus finally find time to catch up: about the brides, about their bestie Chuck, and about each other.

Playwrights Note: Music and God was written, with permission, as a companion/sequel to Hillary Bluestein-Lyons’s Marcie and Patty Are Getting Married. This version of Schroeder is supposed to be the same Schroeder with the same personality. Linus and Charlie Brown do not appear in that play.

Disclaimer: Music and God has not been authorized or approved in any manner by the Charles M. Schulz Estate or United Features Syndicate, which have no responsibility for its content.

[TEN-MINUTE SUPERNATURAL HORROR ABOUT CHILDREN]
Two children have dispatched their bully... permanently. One of them really feels bad about it. The other really does not.

CW: discussions of suicide; onstage psychological and emotional manipulation and abuse.

[TEN-MINUTE HORROR COMEDY]
A highly strung man has been sent to a countryside estate to calm his nerves. He is not prepared for the history of the house... or for the young girl who tells it!
Based on the short story by Saki (H.H. Munroe), in the public domain.

[FIFTEEN-MINUTE EXPERIMENTAL]
A surgeon must separate twin girls conjoined at the chest, sharing one heart. As the surgeon decides which girl will live and which will die, s/he imagines the impact this decision will have on the family and the surviving twin in a flash-forward memory play.

[TEN-MINUTE SCIENCE FICTION]
At the edge of the Milky Way, Dale has just been brought out of statis to discover the outpost is abandoned and a mysterious organism has consumed the rest of the galaxy. Things are not looking up.

[TEN-MINUTE DRAMA]

A Korean American woman waits for a call from the police. Her Helmeoni (grandmother) was killed in a shooting in Atlanta. She would very much like to cry.

Part of the #CodeRed Plays collection.

Note: Last year, I was asked by Rachael Carnes to write a play for Code Red Playwrights, which creates plays and monologues in response to gun violence. I was given the honor of writing a piece in memory of Suncha Kim who was murdered in Atlanta on August 16, 2021.

The play is not literally about Ms Kim and her family. I do know know them. This is not a dramatization. Instead, it is an imagining. Of what it’s like to wait to hear from police… and wait… and wait. Of the expectations placed on American raised Asian children, even grown ones, by their immigrant elders who worked harder than we ever will. It’s an imagining of love and anger… of silence and the need to scream.

I hope it moves you.

[ONE-ACT/TEN-MINUTE HORROR/THRILLER]
Melinda has come home hoping to enjoy a quiet evening by herself in front of the TV. Unfortunately, she can't find her remote. Even more unfortunately, she's not alone.

[SEVENISH-MINUTE PERIOD COMEDY]
Chicago, circa 1886. Wealthy businessman Potter Palmer and his wife Bertha have surprise guests for dinner, the sculptor Auguste Rodin and his life partner Rose Beuret. Dinner is late, they are famished, but when Rodin is inspired to create art, everything else must wait!

[TEN-MINUTE COMEDY]
A woman on a train has trouble controlling her unruly nieces and nephew until the man in the compartment offers to regale them with a story... that may not be entirely appropriate for children.
Based on the short story by Sake (H.H. Munroe), in the public domain.

[TEN-MINUTE HOLIDAY MURDER COMEDY... OR IS IT?]

Local cop Bill and county CSI Pats are stuck at a crime scene on Christmas Eve Day. The body is in bad shape and the holiday's not looking much better.

Written for the 2024 Playwrights Thriving Secret Santa Title Exchange.
Title gifted by Emily McClain (again!).

[TEN-MINUTE PERIOD DRAMA]
August 16, 1945. One day after the Japanese surrender. Former soldier brings his friend Mitsuko, a trans comfort woman, to his colleague Hyun-ae to arrange passage out of Japanese occupied northeastern Korea before the Soviets invasion reaches their city. But Hyun-ae doesn't want to risk her life for someone like Mitsuko.

[TEN-MINUTE COMEDY-DRAMA]
Collin just ran into the guy he had a crush on in high school...
thirty-five years later... at the cemetery. They have some catching up to do.

[TEN-MINUTE COMEDY]
It's sweet Bonnie's wedding day and she's got last minute cold feet, so her sexy sister Savannah has been called in to find out why. Bonnie and Savannah reveal their secret anxieties about love, men, and the nature of experience.

[TEN-MINUTE FUN MEDITATION ON DEATH]
Death has come for Michael. Which is not necessarily a bad thing because Michael has a bucket list only the Grim Reaper can fulfill.

[FIVE-MINUTE; COMEDY-DRAMA]
England, 1998. Nigel is on his deathbed in London. His friend, Gregory, is at his side. Nigel's wife Julia is on her way. This is the last five minutes of a thirty-year love triangle.

[UNDER 5-MINUTE SUSPENSE DRAMA]
Candace just wanted a drink before she boards her flight. She didn't expect to see Dieter, especially because she has a restraining order against him which he doesn't seem to care about.

[TWO-MINUTE DRAMA]
A man witnesses a fiery plane crash in the Gulf of Mexico, not sure if it was his daughter's flight.

[THREE-TO-FIVE MINUTE HOLIDAY HORROR COMEDY]
While Davy and his mom get Christmas dinner ready, an unexpected visitor arrives!

[ONE-MINUTE* COMEDY]

A couple. A map. A quarter. And chance!

*Trimmed down from a longer version

[TWO MINUTE DRAMA]

Elementary school classmates reunite after 40 years. It was going so well...

[FIVE-MINUTE DRAMA]
Lysanne has become obsessed by a large piece of lace she found embedded in the mud on the path by her vacation rental in Russia. Magdalena, whose family used to rent the place themselves, is there to help solve the mystery.

[TWO-MINUTE DRAMA]

I was very angry when I wrote this.
Inspired after reading Greg Burdick's beautiful ONE IN THE CHAMBER, I needed to write my own take on gun legislation and school shootings.

Here it is.

[FIVE-MINUTE DRAMA]
When Francis came out to his friend Gemma, he did not anticipate how she would try to help.

This was inspired by a sign. When the #MeToo movement broke,
men also came forward with stories of sexual assault, harassment, and rape. One young
man’s sign concisely described events that are dramatized in this play.

TRIGGER WARNING: sexual assault.

[FIVE-MINUTE BIT OF META-THEATRICAL NONSENSE]

A mini-play I wrote with my thumb on my phone in Word during the 2017 31 Plays in 31 Days after watching The Naked Jungle with Eleanor Parker and Charlton Heston, in which his South American cocoa plantation is threatened by and encroaching army of ants.

[FIVE-MINUTE LIGHT HORROR]

Sometimes you just want to sit and enjoy your midnight cocoa all by itself. Sometimes you want a snack. Sometimes, someone wants to join you. What can you do?

[UNDER 5-MINUTE COMEDY]
Barbie is trying to convince Annabel that her (Annabel's) boyfriend Vlad is a vampire. Annabel thinks Barbie is jealous because she (Barbie) is still woefully single. Clearly, Annabel doesn't see what's going on behind her. It's awful.

[FIVE-MINUTE SCIENCE FICTION]
At a precipice at the edge of the universe, a Scholar is about throw their life's work over the edge and a Soldier is there to make sure it happens. But what a life's work! And is throwing these notes into the ether necessarily a bad thing?

Somewhere in Scandinavia, a Viking themed wedding competes with the wind.

[FIVE-MINUTE PERIOD DRAMA]
1930s. A train is stopped in the desert. The engineer stands in front of the train holding a top hat. It belongs to a man who was murdered, thrown off the train in a brutal fight. The dead man's wife finds him, carrying orchids to lay down for her husband and a revelation about the murder.

[FIVE-MINUTE COMEDY]
Jordan has some advice!
You've had this conversation! Just probably not about this.

Two-hander for adults of any race and gender.

[FIVE-TO-TEN MINUTE COMEDY-DRAMA]
A prisoner gets a surprise visit from a former hostage.

[FIVE-ISH MINUTE DRAMA]

March 6, 2020. The day the first case of COVID-19 was discovered in Peru.
At a disco, two people on opposite sides of an environmental conflict share a moment of peace.

Written for #31Playsin31Days 2000.

[TWO-MINUTE DRAMA]
Miss Mason is teaching her students about a difficult chapter in history. Principal Warner has some good news for her.

[FIVE-MINUTE COMEDY-DRAMA]
The groom's best friend has hijacked the wedding limo and won't get out. A complex negotiation beings between the edudite Gabriel and the semi-articulate Angus, revealing the readings for his tantrum run deep.

[SIX-MINUTE SEND-UP OF THEATRICAL TROPE]

A man and a woman find their spouses in bed together. But who are they to each other??? The answer will be obvious because you've seen it billions of times before.

Written for the 2020 #31PlaysIn31Days

[TWO-PAGE SEND UP OF TROPES]
The Noble One threatens to expose The Villain!

Written for the 2020 #31PlaysIn31Days

[SIX-MINUTE SENDUP OF THEATER TROPE]
A writer has written a novel about their friendship with their friend. GUESS WHAT THEY'RE GONNA CALL IT!!!

Another trope I wish we'd just do away with..

Written for the 2020 #31PlaysIn31Days

[TEN-MINUTE MUSICAL PANTOMIME]
An encounter in the woods brings crime, ritual, and legend together for a very long, awkward moment.

[FIVE-MINUTE DRAMA]
Hal has stepped away from the party. His best pal Robbie's girlfriend, Gemma, has found him. Gemma questions whether she's made the right choice between the two.
Available in 5-Minute Plays from Applause Theatre & Cinema Books.

[FIVE-MINUTE COMEDY]
Brett and Lee have been together nearly 35 years. Today, looking out over the sunset, they consider their final resting places.

[SHORT EXPERIMENTAL OUTCRY]
I have dared to imagine the unimaginable! The untenable!
A world where playwright Matthew Weaver's characters exist without Matthew Weaver! (Fellow NPX playwrights, look him up so you can read his beautiful plays... and so you can get the jokes in this one!)

[ONE-MINUTE COMEDY/DRAMA]
At a destination wedding in Glacier Lagoon, Iceland, the best man has accidentally dropped the rings in the frigid waters while making out with a bridesmaid. What will he do? What will it cost him?

[TWO ONE-MINUTE-ISH COMEDIES]
At a destination wedding in Glacier Lagoon, Iceland, it's time for the Groom's vows.

In THE EYES, THE NOSE, THE SOUTH OF YOU, we hear Reese the groom's vows to his beloved bride Jenny.

In THE EAST, WEST, NORTH AND THE MOUTH OF YOU, we hear what Jenny hears when Reese recites his wows.

They are very different things.

[ONE-MINUTE COMEDY-DRAMA]
Dora and Bascom are the only two gay people at a destination wedding reception in Iceland. They're joined in their ennui by Fred, the best man who's licking minor wounds of his own.

At Steven G. Martin's suggestion, I'm writing a series of one-minute plays that take place at this wedding. The first was Down in the Depths.

[ONE-MINUTE COMEDY]
Grandma and Grandpa are wheelchair-bound, quite elderly, and have traveled to Iceland for a destination weeding. Grandma is not happy about it. Then again. she might not be happy about anything.

[ONE-MINUTE COMEDY-DRAMA]
After some rigorous dancing, Bascom steps out to get some air and encounters Ólafur, one of the catering staff at this Icelandic destination wedding, who also may be the only other gay man there. Suave and sexy, Ólafur takes an interest in Bascom, but are his motives what they seem? [The play may be shorter than this description.]

Part of a series of one-minute plays set at a destination wedding in Glacier Lagoon, Iceland.

[ONE-MINUTE COMEDY-DRAMA]
After the wedding and the reception are over, the mother of the bride and the maid of honor make a surprising connection.

[ONE-MINUTE COMEDY]
Newlyweds Reese and Jenny finally make it back to their hotel room for wedding night bliss.
They've been drinking.

[ONE-MINUTE COMEDY]
Little gay groomsman Bascom helps big straight drunk best man Fred back to Fred's hotel room. It gets awkward.

[ONE-MINUTE COMEDY-DRAMA]
In her hotel room, bridesmaid Julie processes her guilt while welcoming a one-night stand with a cater-waiter from the wedding reception.

[ONE-MINUTE COMEDY-DRAMA]
The mother of the bride and the maid of honor, the morning after the night before.
Oh, yeah...

[ONE-MINUTE COMEDY/DRAMA]
At a destination wedding in Glacier Lagoon, Iceland, Grandpa makes the best of the hotel breakfast buffet, but he can please grumpy, cantankerous Grandma? Can anything?

[ONE-MINUTE COMEDY DRAMA]
At a destination wedding in Glacier Lagoon, Iceland... Before the ceremony, bridesmaid Julie was really into best man Fred, until she suddenly wasn't.
Now, it's the morning after the wedding. Julie and Fred are speaking for the first time since her abrupt rejection.

[ONE-MINUTE COMEDY]
Straight best man Fred planted a drunken kiss on gay groomsman Bascom last night.
Today, they discover they're seatmates on the plane back to the States.
It's still awkward.

[ONE MINUTE HORROR PLAY FOR CHILDREN]

A curious child and a creepy old tree.

[ONE-MINUTE BLACK COMEDY/HORROR]
A woman on the run hides out in a farmhouse only to be confronted by a ghost.

[ONE-MINUTE COMEDY]
A shot is fired. Casualties are distorted. Conflict escalates across genres! Also, pizza.

[ONE-MINUTE BLACK COMEDY]

It's the day of Friedrich's funeral.
Mimsy is in mourning. Devorah is already over it.
And she's going to see that Mimsy gets over it too!

[ONE-MINUTE]
Acts of violence, real and imagined.

[ONE-MINUTE DRAMA]
A released child sex offender is confronted by someone from his past, now an adult, who demands an answer.

[ONE MINUTE PRAYING MANTIS FOOD SEX COMEDY]

Madge's mate is losing his flavor but Franz is ready and willing to take his place in her life and on her plate! But is Madge really THAT hungry...?

[ONE-MINUTE PLAY]
Estranged friends forge a truce during a difficult time

[ONE-MINUTE COMEDY]
Today is Freesia and Cadwallader's wedding day.
Plans change.

[ONE-MINUTE HOLIDAY MAYHEM]

A mishap at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade sparks a series of events both tragic and glorious!

[ONE-MINUTE PHILOSOPHICAL BOMBSHELL!]

The Nihilists! They have won!

[ONE-MINUTE POST-PANDEMIC PLAY]

The Pandemic is over! Hudson and Dexter are seeing each other for the first time in ages. Who missed who more?

[ONE-MINUTE HOLIDAY NOSTALGIA PIECE]

Timothy and Tuck wake up in each other's arms the day after Christmas.

[ONE-MINUTE DRAMA]

Two friends enjoy a respite with coffee, pie, and ice cream.

[ONE-MINUTE PLAY]
A sex worker, a john, and a pandemic.

[TWO-MINUTE MONOLOGUE]

A novelist explains their take on a controversial character and their attitude towards changing it.

[TWO-MINUTE MONOLOGUE]
A heavyset airline passenger contends with entitlement and fat phobia from the person they gave their extra seat to.

[MONOLOGUE; 6-8 minutes]
Benton stands on the beach by a fire gazing up at the stars. There's more to it than that.

[FIVE T0 TEN MINUTE MONOLOGUE]
This is a brief memoir about attending the 1985 American Legion Keystone Boys State.
It involves Stephen King, social anxiety, and boys. (Not like that.)

[ONE-MINUTE COMIC MONOLOGUE - revised 12/10/23]
Carol confronts an unwanted guest on Christmas morning.

[TWO-MINUTE MONOLOGUE]
Not about aliens.
A gay parent informs their co-parent about their child's first kiss.

A two-minute monologue in which Melanie, who has just been rescued from a suicide attempt, declares that today "was, like, the second worst Valentine's Day ever." A darkly comic lament about romantic inequality. (Can actually be performed by actor of any gender.)

[ONE-MINUTE BLACK COMEDY MONOLOGUE]

Taste this.

[FIVE-MINUTE MONOLOGUE]
A runner. An open field. A tin watering can.

A monologue for performers of any race or gender.

[ONE-MINUTE BLACK COMEDY MONOLOGUE]

Gerta gave Doolittle one job!

[FIVE-MINUTE MONOLOGUE]
My eulogy for Rick Unterberg who died of COVID in April 2020.
He will be missed.

[MONOLOGUE; approx 15 minutes]
A major discovery in a marriage reveals an emotional disconnect that can no longer be ignored.

A MONOLOGUE. The stylish and beautiful FEDORA has come home to find her bookish boyfriend, ERLAND, ready to hang himself. What choice does she have at that moment BUT to break up with him? And it wouldn't be fair NOT to give him a long, detailed explanation as to why, now would it? [This monologue requires two actors but only FEDORA speaks.] Roughly 2 minutes.

Rami, bound and blindfolded on a tiny island, confronts a captor

[EIGHT-TO-TEN MINUTE REMINISCENCE]
When Chris brings someone to their favorite East Village fried chicken joint, it brings up memories of a lost friend who would go there with them.

You found a picture you forgot you had taken.

[TWO-MINUTE MONOLOGUE]

Gris is seeing their lifelong crush in a new way. The circumstances are not ideal.

[TWO-PAGE DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE FOR EAST-ASIAN MALE]

Christopher observes the earth from space, sending a heartfelt message to the man he loves who is not there.

NOTE: While characters in this piece bear similar backgrounds and occupations to those in The Second World Trilogy, these are not those characters; this is not the same universe.

[6-MINUTE NOSTALGIC MONOLOGUE]

An older Bear gives a young Cub some unsolicited advice about sex, love, and expectation.

[This is about furry gay men not talking furry woodland creatures.]

Written for Writers Block Radio Hour podcast
Episode theme: "Machismo"

[FOUR-MINUTE COMIC MONOLOGUE]
A life story about Big Macs, weight loss, and temptation during the 2020 pandemic.

[MONOLOGUE; COMEDY; 3-5 minutes]
Karen reacts to Chad's marriage proposal. There's good news and bad news.

[MONOLOGUE FOR A NON-BINARY PERFORMER]
Chris needs to say goodbye to a dying loved one. They also need to say a few other things. If only said loved one were still conscious...

This monologue will be published by Smith & Kraus in the "WE/US: Monologues for Gender Minority Characters Anthology."

[TWO-MINUTE MONOLOGUE]
At the intermission of CATS: THE JELLICLE BALL, a revolutionary musical revival, a patron discusses the show's revitalized relevance.

Formalwear and outrage.
Heinous things have been said.
They must be addressed.

Written for Theatre Unmasked’s Renaissance evening.

[TWO-MINUTE MONOLOGUE]

Someone is tired of anti-vaxxer bullshit.

[TWO-MINUTE OR ONE-MINUTE HOLIDAY MONOLOGUE]

Lou has just tried to give their niece some gag Christmas gifts. It did not go as hoped.

[ONE MINUTE MONOLOGUE]

Taron just wants to make out. That's all.

[ONE MINUTE DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE]

Bailey is being questioned. They have no answers.

[MONOLOGUE]
Grant is a heavy guy who appeals to a doctor to get smaller.

[FOUR-TO-FIVE DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE FOR ANY ADULT ACTOR]

Caspar was on vacation at a gay-friendly resort in Tunisia when a new far-right American government revokes the citizenship of its LGBTQ+ population. Suddenly stateless in a country where homosexual acts are subject to imprisonment, Caspar and their partner need to find a way to safety.

[A SHORT COVID MONOLOGUE]

Dunne is done! They've had to listen to one too many people explain how it's their right not to wear a mask during the COVID pandemic. Dunne calmly explains the logic and provides helpful options. This is a speech about containing rage.

[TWO-MINUTE MONOLOGUE]
An uninvited guest arrives at a gay wedding.

[MONOLOGUE FOR A DANCER]
Suzanna was walking home alone at night. Until she wasn't alone.

[ONE-MINUTE WEDDING MONOLOGUE]

The wedding is off in more ways than one.

[ONE MINUTE COMIC MONOLOGUE]

Art versus commerce.

[ONE-MINUTE DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE]

Lou just wants a romantic night...

[SHORT COMIC MONOLOGUE]
Diarmid is having Sharon over to his new place. Unfortunately, it's under siege by wild turkeys.

Originally written for Quarantine Bakeoff Week 2, but I missed the deadline!

[COMIC HOLIDAY MONOLOGUE.
ONE- AND TWO-MINUTE VERSIONS]
[For adult actors of any gender, race, or ability]

Lindsay is hiding from the family Christmas party… in the kitchen… crying. Desserts are off limits. And while efforts have been made to accommodate, well it’s just not the same.

Written for The Playground Experiment’s 2022 Holiday Monologue Swap. Two-minute version was trimmed down to one minute for the occasion.