Bryan Halperin

September 1935. Lonely, imaginative 11 year old Johanna “Jojo” Benton is play acting a story one evening in her family’s Kentucky barn when her solitude is interrupted by a stranger. A destitute wanderer with a long beard and curly hair, Jojo suspects he is the “Hairy Man” - a sinister trickster from a southern American folk tale her late father used to tell her - whom she thinks has come to take her away. But the man is simply a poor Jewish immigrant, Abraham Goldstein, making his way to California to begin a new life. Jojo’s mother, Sarah, takes pity on the penniless, starving man and allows him to stay in the barn and work on the farm to earn money to continue his journey, despite the objections of her older son, Will, who is suspicious of this outsider, the first Jew they have ever met.

As weeks pass, Jojo and Abraham discover a shared love of storytelling and create a theatre in the barn, while Sarah and Abraham learn they have more in common than they could ever have imagined. As America’s economic woes continue, and new worries arise from the recently announced Nuremberg laws in Germany that signal trouble for Jews, can the blossoming relationship between Abraham and Sarah survive the ingrained cultural, ethnic and religious differences that pervade their society? Most importantly, as secrets are revealed, will their haunting pasts cause the Hairy Man to stay or go?

It is July, 2020 and the Weil family is quarantining in their Cape Cod vacation home on the beach. Lou and Ruth, retired, have been there since March, but grown daughter Liza has only recently arrived from New York after losing her job as an off off Broadway stage manager and being dumped by her longtime, live-in boyfriend. Can you believe that? Dumped during a pandemic! Having joined her parents’ bubble, Liza laments the state of the world, and doesn’t understand why her parents aren’t more upset about it. But the family’s privilege is turned upside down by a surprise visitor - well, two surprise visitors. Both are mammals.

Singer/Songwriter Cal is lost, professionally and personally. When she finds her way back home to her childhood backyard, her onetime sanctuary and source of inspiration, she grapples with the events and people of her past including her father, her childhood best friend, and the memory of her long deceased mother. As she struggles to make sense of her present, reminders of the past come to life and help her, and us, understand how young, free-spirited, and inspired Calliope becomes the lonely, angry and blocked Cal we meet today. Only by looking back and coming to terms with her role in her family’s disintegration is Cal able to begin to look forward and make music again and appreciate the people in her life who are still there and who will always be there to support her as she figures it out in the safety of her backyard.

Music and Lyrics by Krisanthi Pappas, Book by Bryan Halperin

6 interrelated short plays that take place after the last performance of the day of the Kelly Family Circus as it makes its way on its annual tour through the Northeast. Featuring clowns, trapeze artists, jugglers, animal trainers and, of course, a Ringmaster, The Unicycle of Life is a surprising look at the behind-the-scenes lives of the performers who are all at various stages of life and career. With dramatic and comedic elements, this play can be performed by as few as 6 and as many as 13.

The original global warming musical for kids. The North Pole is melting! Santa and his reindeer have noticed that something is not right. While the elves happily go about their business making toys, Hopey, a little elf girl is alone. She’s a bit of a klutz and not allowed to help in the workshop anymore. Luckily, Hopey is a whiz at science and knows how to surf the internet, and she realizes the problem is climate change and mobilizes the North Pole denizens to do their part to combat it. Unfortunately, while this gets Santa and his crew thinking green, the global problem seems to get worse. Hopey launches an internet campaign with her friends Rudolph and Frosty, to get the boys and girls of the world to help Santa for once for all the joy he has brought them over the years. Hopey has found her place in the North Pole and Christmas, for the time being, is saved!

Music and Lyrics by David Polansky, Book by Bryan Halperin
http://www.winnipesaukeeplayhouse.org/too-hot-for-santa1.html

A lowly presidential campaign volunteer is approached by the candidate's Communications Director. Apparently he has stumbled on some information in the database that he shouldn't have seen. But who is the cat and who is the mouse in this short political thriller?