Doug Brook

In a merging of classic tales with a contemporary sensibility, Robin Hood is an unintended outlaw who turns to helping others in trying times. Robin meets his best-known and some lesser-known merry men (and women), some in early stories seldom told. Together they face the Sheriff of Nottingham who uses Guy of Gisbourne to try to end Robin and his band while also plotting a revolution that only these noble outlaws can prevent. It's a new take on a timeless story where nobility comes not from noble service, but title, consequences loom large over everyone, and who's right or wrong is less clear than it seems.

In the beginning, God created... a committee. This corporate and biblical satire chronicles the actual events behind Creation, as abridged in Genesis. The Big G assembles a committee of his Ego, Super Ego, Id, Left Brain, Right Brain, and – once woman is created – Feminine Side. The result shows how the world was created by committee, which explains a lot.

It was a Monday like any other Monday, except that it wasn't. Mason makes a bowl of cereal and steps out for the newspaper. When he returns, the cereal is gone. In his trenchcoat, fedora, and pajamas, Mason goes through each member of his family to find the culprit, but what he finds is... The Case of the Cereal Killer.

A retrograde is a musical construct, wherein a melody goes in a certain direction, then concludes by repeating itself exactly in reverse. Lynn and John are co-workers who hate each other and are forced to work together. Through short segments that span many weeks, their relationship goes through a retrograde: from hate to love and in exact reverse to hate again.
Published in "Eight Tens @ 8 Festival – Thirty Ten-Minute Plays from the Santa Cruz Festivals I-VI" by Smith & Kraus.

Molly returns home early from Europe. Her parents, happy for her return, are even more delighted to hear that Molly found God while away... Until God walks into the living room, changing their lives forever. Or is he really God after all?

NASA official Kinsey interviews an astronaut couple, Jones and Conley, for the first manned Mars mission, so NASA can study long-term effects on a marriage during a three-year trip. The interview becomes less routine as it broaches more into certain marital relations in space. Ambitions for space wrestle with desire for privacy. Will they put aside their inhibitions in the name of science, or give up outer space for personal space?

As a rabbi begins a talk about the biblical story of Lot, Lot's Wife steps out of the story to retell it from her own salty perspective. She meets Lot in the desert at the local watering hole, marry, and deal with "crazy Uncle Abraham's" new religion that has the neighbors talking. Famine and captivity ensue, and urged by mysterious visitors, the family flees Sodom in the nick of time only to see Lot's Wife meet her infamous end, and she watches powerless as her family meets theirs.

The play is best performed with minimal sets, as the characters move without transition from one setting to the next.

After the events of Shakespeare's "Richard III," Richard encounters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Aren't they dead? Does that mean he is, too? How did he get to be here? Where is here?

Somewhere between II:ix and III:ii of "The Merchant of Venice," Portia and Nerissa are surprised by another gentleman caller to try his hand at the riddle of the caskets. However, Tim takes a different approach which could bring new meaning to everything that transpires later.

Santa Claus and his blue-suited counterpart HanuClaus are finding liquid courage as they muster up for the holiday season. The new barmaid, Ginny, does not recognize HanuClaus, setting him off about how both he and the purpose of his holiday are forgotten. HanuClaus and Santa wind up pulling no punches in the unholiest bar fight in the history of religion.

Sally and Bill are finally sorting through her parents' things, years after the night both separately died. When they plug in her mother's antique phone from that night... it rings. The call and caller will change their lives forever.

"Original Synergy" has been adapted to online performance!

In the beginning, God created... a committee. This corporate and biblical satire chronicles the actual events behind Creation, as abridged in Genesis. The Big G assembles a committee of his Ego, Super Ego, Id, Left Brain, Right Brain, and – once woman is created – Feminine Side. The result shows how the world was created by committee, which explains a lot.

Cain is being interrogated by a G-Man about the disappearance of his brother Abel. The Bible meets murder mystery as facts are uncovered, covers unravel, and the inevitable end arrives.

Mitchell visits a therapist's office struggling to get help for a rare disorder that he's afraid he has, which enables him to do increasingly unusual feats such as reading an entire book or sitting through an entire film or conversation.

Two Jews walk into a bar. It's a quiet bar, until they silently sit and mayhem breaks out around them. Couples fight, coworkers argue, flirtations are flung... All while the two men silently share one round of drinks, after which the inevitable conclusion arrives.

Celia wears a look like she's just been proposed to by Tom, because she has. She answers with questions of her own, and a mutual critique of the proposal unfolds across the restaurant table, taking these two lifelong soulmates far beyond a simple yes or no.

Jonah and a friend sit outside his tent watching the big game, when Jonah hears God's voice ordering him to warn the city of Ninevah about their imminent destruction. Pious as Jonah isn't, he instead flees on a ship which is soon beset by stormy seas. Realizing Jonah is the cause, he goes overboard and ends up in the belly of a big fish or three days. After the solitude and smell change his ways, he warns Ninevah who immediately repent and are spared. Jonah hates that Ninevah was spared, so God teaches him an object lesson at the expense of a lovely shade tree.

In an entertainment industry office, L.P. and Cass lament the trials of the ever-changing world around them. They're joined by the rustic 8-Track, and things boil over between them all, until a youngster, C.D., arrives and supplants them all.