The Viscount Villanelle, a renown literary critic, has been missing for weeks without a trace. Desperate to find him, his wife, Margaret, seeks the help of Roderick Rondel, a retired forensic artist known for his uncanny ability to summon the spirits of the deceased through the process of sketching, sculpting, or touching their skeletal remains. Margaret had been sent a tooth, and Roderick reluctantly summons the spirit of the Viscount who claims to have been murdered by a vengeful coterie of poets known as “The Mad Doggerel League.” All the Doggerels were abused by the Viscount’s vicious reviews, so they held a drawing, and a young poet named Amber, was chosen to confront, humiliate, and record the Viscount eating his own words: a printed page filled with his cruelest condemnations. Amber succeeds in her mission, but while swallowing the paper and his pride, the Viscount chokes, suffers a heart attack, and Amber flees. The deceased Viscount’s spirit instructs Roderick to find Amber who reveals his hideaway in Montreal; however, the police fail to find his corpse and when members of the Mad Doggerel League appear to be dying in mysterious ways, suspicion falls on the Viscount who may not be deceased after all. In the course of their investigation, Margaret and Roderick forge a romance while Amber behaves erratically and is suspected of being possessed by a revenant that can be traced to the Viscount and the wild wolves he hunted as a child. Eventually the Viscount’s corpse is found, but his revenant spirit proves elusive and more powerful than mere mortal poets. THEMES: The play explores the importance of poetry in the age of twitter as well as corrosive effects of harsh criticism, and the human capacity for vengeance, romance, and belief in the world beyond. Throughout the story, various Grimm fairy tales are referenced as the characters attempt to mythicize their misguided lives.

Little Phoebe Potts has a vivid imagination, which is why she spends her after school hours cowering in a closet. Then one day she follows a moth through a buttonhole and discovers an entire galaxy on the other side! With the help of an alien named Melf the Gelf, Phoebe embarks on a magical journey to save the Galaxy Clesto. There she encounters alien creatures who bestow wondrous gifts: gloves for seeing through densities of matter; anti-gravitational boots for leaping great distances; and beanies for breathing under water. Soon Phoebe discovers that by making friends and conquering her fears, an imagination can be a wonderful thing!

PLOT SYNOPSIS: Homeless and disreputable men are vanishing from the streets of London leaving only their buttons as evidence. The Metropolitan Police have exhausted all possible clues when Detective Chief Inspector Fossmire hears from a distraught anthropologist specializing in witchcraft who claims her twenty year old triplets are responsible. When the girls were toddlers, their father, a professor of Jacobean Drama, read plays to amuse them. They were so delighted by the arcane speech that they claimed it as their own and refused to learn modern English. Now the girls live in opulent seclusion, making their fortune in shrewd investments while worshiping pagan goddesses. Although Fossmire is skeptical, he visits the sisters and becomes convinced of their involvement when they demonstrate their powers, sending him reeling to his bed. His mother, Lady Augusta, an activist for the cause of global population control, is intrigued by the triplets since as a lonely child she conjured three imaginary sisters of her own, all bearing striking similarities to the suspected triplets. Meanwhile, a sympathetic psychiatrist, Doctor Flora Whetstone, is brought into the case, and Fossmire becomes smitten. Together they attempt to comprehend the girls menacing behavior, and to fathom how witchcraft is being employed to accomplish their sinister goals. The events enacted in Drink Me may be interpreted as literal, fantastical, or allegorical. The Rime Sisters may be neurotic manifestations of sexual anxiety or they may be flesh and blood women, or they may simply be reminders that the inexplicable exists. The play attempts to question Fossmire’s assumption that human experience can be quantified or known, and he is left with doubts about the underlying reality of his own fragile life.

SYNOPSIS: Devil Dog Six evokes the world of horse racing with its eclectic mix of ethnicities and eccentric personalities. The play begins in Bossier City Hospital where a young woman jockey named Devon Tramore is recovering from a traumatic fall that caused multiple fractures and painful cerebral swelling. Instructed to ease the swelling by reducing the flow of information, Devon sits in a darkened room in utter silence, attempting to think of nothing. Finding the task unbearable, Devon’s spirit spins out of her body to her mother’s farm where she befriends several thoroughbreds, including a colt named Devil Dog Six. Devon’s daily journeys give her unique insights into the world of horses as she absorbs their language, movements, and characteristics. She whinnies, gallops, and attracts flies which confounds Devon’s parents, her physician, and a nurse who believes in the healing powers of Voodoo. Meanwhile, an investigation into Devon’s accident uncovers a possible plot by resentful jockeys to harm her. The investigator also probes into Devon’s romance with an African-American groom who works on her mother’s farm. Despite a pessimistic prognosis, Devon’s ambition, newfound powers, and her dream of riding Devil Dog Six in The Dixie Derby help her heal and resume her career. Soon Devon becomes the sole rider of “The Devil” and wins every race; however, when the time comes to enter the high stakes Dixie Derby, the Saudi owner chooses a male jockey with a better ranking. Devon’s disappointment turns to fury, and she indulges in schemes that compromise her relationships and integrity. THEMES: Devil Dog Six deals with issues of gender equality in sports, racial and class discrimination, animal adoration, religion, and science. The play is also about raw, untamed ambition gone awry in a culture that encourages competition and fosters the mentality that winning justifies any means.

PLOT SYNOPSIS: Arturo Salvia, a traumatized detective who has been rendered mute,is witnessing the trial of his lover, Elena Fiero, a Chicana landlady. She has been accused of murdering her tenants and burying them in her garden as sacrificial tributes to the earth goddess, La Madreguera. As the prosecution presents its case, Arturo recalls how he was hired to investigate the disappearance of a colleague’s niece whose last address was Elena’s boarding house. Arturo soon finds himself smitten by Elena’s alluring beauty and enthusiasm for life. Their romance blossoms until Elena poisons a sickly tenant, then enacts an elaborate burial rite that is witnessed by another boarder who confides in Arturo. After he unearths the decaying corpse, Arturo confronts Elena who claims her actions were merciful since the tenant was soon fated to degenerate and die. Because Elena is deeply influenced by ancient Mayan rituals, she believes that even the basest life can be transformed by the redemption inherent in flowers and trees. Arturo agrees to keep the burial a secret, but feels compelled to dig elsewhere, and is horrified to discover more corpses. Elena is arrested and a lawyer hired to support an insanity defense. When Elena discovers that Arturo is responsible for her arrest, she curses him, condemning him to life as Judas tree. Devastated, his heart hardens and he abrogates humanity for the life of a sentient tree. While Arturo revels in a new appreciation of nature, he perceives Elena and the society that created her in a critical light, and dreams of spreading his seeds to reforest the Earth with majestic trees. The Judas Tree attempts to weave together romantic and ritual elements, while exploring the historical, political, and psychological forces that give rise to bizarre criminal behavior.

PLOT SYNOPSIS: The Spell Caster is a comic drama revolving around a group of ragtag carnies who earn a precarious living by picking pockets, rigging games, and shortchanging the marks. The story begins with the troupers taunting Louisa, the carnival’s eldest member, for being too feeble and foul smelling to attract customers. Knowing she is the target of their enmity and fearful for her life, Louisa employs her powers as a fortune teller and healer to conjure her salvation: her own youth. Louisa’s child-self emerges from another time, another plane, as Mayra Rios- Benitez, a gifted hypnotist with the power to tap into the unseen potential of the carnies, transforming them from con artists to genuine artists: the tattooist acquires the genius of Michelangelo; the lead barker acquires the voice of Caruso; the kootch dancer becomes a prima ballerina, and so on. For months they enjoy fame, fortune, and blissful harmony until it becomes apparent that Mayra is not the virtuous child that Louisa remembers. While Louisa had repressed her passions as a girl, Mayra is bold, restless, and seductive, wreaking havoc in the interrelationships of the carnival and threatening its survival. As Louisa attempts to control Mayra’s impulses, the play becomes a battle between old age and youth, culminating in Louisa reclaiming her youthful spirit, becoming the carnival’s featured attraction: the world’s oldest old lady, ministered to by the other carnies who are eager to keep her alive. THEMATIC SYNOPSIS: The play attempts to explore issues of ageism, racism, the transcendent power of imagination, and the instant gratification syndrome endemic in America. There is also a parallel between the Great Depression of the1930s and the current economy. While there were many homeless drifters in the 30s, there was a different spirit, a stronger desire for renewal. Today there appears to be a more cynical attitude, a lack of faith that society can ever bridge the ever widening gap between rich and poor. Louisa’s dream of youth is a call for the unity and preservation of life, and this is what transforms the carnival.

SYNOPSIS: The corpse of Reamus Skrolls, an esteemed elderly dramaturg, is found on the floor of his Manhattan brownstone where his spirit has returned to witness the consequences of his death. A reputable director, Griffon Wright, discovers the body, and assumes Reamus has committed suicide, but instead of a note, he has left a lengthy play entitled Beggar at the Feast. When detectives search the house, they discover that the rooms on the top floor are filled with thousands of scripts; while the cellar features a laboratory for the production of potent opiates. Soon the deceased dramaturg is declared a notorious felon, and theatres everywhere are clamoring to produce his play -- despite all the characters being vultures and the dialog entirely in verse. Because the fingerprints on a nearby syringe do not belong to Reamus, his suicide is deemed a possible homicide, and an investigation ensues, revealing that his name, ethnicity, and country of origin have all been a deception. The police locate Reamus’s granddaughter, Fontana, a musician and heir to his estate, who participates, along with Griffon, a detective, a playwright, and literary manager at the reading of Beggar at the Feast. A romance ensues between Fontana and Griffon amid subplots involving accusations of seduction, plagiarism, and musings on the never ending cycles of violence enacted by human beings as vultures devour their carrion spoils on the fields of battle. Since the play is told from Reamus’s point of view, he interjects his dramaturgical analysis while espousing his philosophy. He also engages in futile attempts to control the destinies of characters who resist his machinations. THEMES: Beggar at the Feast deals with the moral reckoning of a tormented soul, while exploring the value of familial and romantic love, the triumph of imagination, and the perpetual folly of resolving conflicts through violence.

PLOT SYNOPSIS: As Quince Dillingham attends his dying wife, Clovis, she speaks her last words: “Will you take my hands?” He clasps her hands in his own, and in that instant the gift of sculpting which once belonged to Clovis is bestowed upon Quince. Although he’s an esteemed art dealer, Quince failed to appraise his wife’s goddesses as worthy of an exhibition. Now that he’s endowed with her talent, Quince knows the statues are masterful and capable of garnering a fortune. In her will, Clovis bequeathed her entire collection to her barrister sister, Ginger, who vows to avenge Clovis by making her statuary known to the world. Months pass and Quince has become a prolific sculptor, exhibiting his own goddesses in his gallery under a false name. Ginger sees them, confronts Quince, and threatens to expose him as a thief. A quarrel ensues, and though Quince fails to persuade Ginger of his mystical gift, he demonstrates his artistic prowess, convincing her of a genuine newfound talent. Together they conspire to exhibit the statues, employing Ginger’s cousin, Rosemary, to attend gallery openings, posing as the sculptress. Quince soon finds that managing the gallery while being an artist is threatening his health, so he relinquishes the hands to Ginger who succumbs to their power. After an opening exhibition, the goddesses reign supreme in the art world, Rosemary is feted by the media, and takes up residence at Fennfield along with Ginger and Quince. As time passes, Rosemary longs to become a genuine artist, and after learning the the true legacy of the hands, grasps them for herself, triumphing as their final possessor. Touch of Rapture is an allegorical exploration of the relationship of art to character; the art of creation versus art as a commodity; and the importance of body image in contemporary society. There is a crimson cloth that moves from scene to scene serving as a deathbed shroud, a curtain, carpet, shawl, and so on. The cloth represents post-Newtonian physics in which the perception of an object actually alters its molecular substance, so our concept of an object’s purpose might also change its essence as we perceive it to possess beauty, functionality, and so forth. As the crimson cloth flows from scene to scene, it affects the audience through its color, shapes, and applications, and also through being touched by the hands of the characters in the play.

From his cell in New York City, a gallerist charged with vagrancy and assault claims his behavior was caused by a painting of a monkey whose sordid history was recorded nearly a century ago, after the first World War. The monkey was euthanized by a distinguished zoologist, but seeking revenge, its malicious spirit took possession of his daughter, Selena, who was driven to slaughter a pet shop filled with animals then consigned to an asylum. After her release, Selena was haunted by the souls of the slain creatures, and persuaded her cousin to paint her vivid descriptions. The paintings evolved into whimsical masterpieces, but possession was soon replaced by obsession as the monkey continued to wreak unholy havoc. The Gallerist explores the timeless power of art, the effects of repressed passion, and the connection between demonic possession and creativity while drawing inspiration from the likes of Othello, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Fernelle Millmore, a teenage linguist savant, is hired by a research geneticist to translate the arcane speech of two patients, a young man and woman under- going an evolutionary metamorphosis, the shocking result of an experiment gone awry. The play is told from the viewpoint of the linguist’s father, Felix, who believes the evolved patients (referred to as “mutagens”) hold the visionary key to the future of humankind. Felix encourages his daughter to befriend the mutagens in order to fathom their facility with languages and discover any life enhancing revelations they have to offer. Felix’s hope lies in the possibility that the mutagens will track endangered languages as well as create a universal one, but suddenly they dispense with language altogether, emitting strange musical sounds that cannot be deciphered. At first Fernelle resists the mutagens, finding them physically repulsive, but soon she becomes intrigued, and her subsequent attachment incites her father’s jealously and resentment, forcing him to confront his own inner turmoil. Eventually, the mutagens demand the isolation of an underground research station to continue their evolution. Fernelle agrees to accompany them, causing reactions in her father that jeopardize their relationship and his own humanity.

PLOT SYNOPSIS: On the fictitious island of Dolphina, Gwendolyn Welles, a marine biologist, awaits the birth of her genetically modified daughter. In the last months of the pregnancy, an ultrasound image reveals the fetus has regressed to an amphibious stage, with webbed hands, feet, and gills. Her husband and doctor recommend an immediate abortion, but since the oceans are rising from drastic climatic changes, Gwendolyn feels the world may benefit from a species that thrives on both land and sea. While nursing Gwendolyn through the pregnancy, a doula named Mirabelle bonds with her through daily swims in the sea. Months later, when the infant, Finoola, is born, she is a piscine mutation bearing no semblance to the daughter they’d imagined. Gwendolyn’s husband demands she be euthanized, while Mirabelle and a devoutly religious maid insist she be allowed to live. Gwendolyn and Marlin are unable to conquer their revulsion, and take an extended trip, leaving Finoola with Mirabelle who develops a genuine affection for her. When Gwendolyn returns, she decides to surgically alter Finoola to conform to acceptable images of human anatomy. Mirabelle feels this is unethical and a custody battle ensues, resulting in Finoola’s foray into the ocean where she vanishes during a storm. Twenty years later, evidence of her survival appears in amphibious infants born to mothers who swam in the region. THEMES: Sorrow of the Sea Maiden revolves around themes of love, loss, species extinction, and is an allegorical exploration of the catastrophic effects of climate change on our oceans and higher marine mammals. The play is also a futurist Frankenstein tale with women in the roles of the scientist, the assistant, and their customized creation. Instead of stitching cadavers, Doctor Welles employs her body to incubate an idealized being, a genetic experiment gone tragically awry.