Michael R. McGuire

Michael R. McGuire

McGuire’s play "It Comes From Beyond!" was produced in NYC in 2012 by Horse Trade Theater. His play "Persephone Rules!" is published by Brooklyn Publishers. He was awarded a 2005 CT Artist Fellowship for his play "The New Girl." His plays have been workshopped and produced at The Lark, Theater for the New City, Slant of Light Theater, Hygienic Theaterwerks, Valley Rep, and...
McGuire’s play "It Comes From Beyond!" was produced in NYC in 2012 by Horse Trade Theater. His play "Persephone Rules!" is published by Brooklyn Publishers. He was awarded a 2005 CT Artist Fellowship for his play "The New Girl." His plays have been workshopped and produced at The Lark, Theater for the New City, Slant of Light Theater, Hygienic Theaterwerks, Valley Rep, and Heartland Theater as well as others.

Plays

  • True Space Romance
    During a war with aliens from the Altair system, a lonely librarian and a handsome stage actor are kidnapped by an Altarian spy and forced to live in an orbiting habitat as study subjects.
  • Boredom
    A pair of broke, older men sharing a rundown, one-room apartment endure crushing boredom until a mysterious stranger in a tuxedo arrives. They engage in a spirited guessing game to ascertain the stranger's identity, not allowing him to tell them who he is.
  • Murderers Get Love Letters
    Brenda Lynn is a lonely, middle-aged woman who exchanges love letters with a convicted murderer serving a life-sentence named Lloyd. They both dream of a fanciful place “at the crossroads of time and space” where they can somehow be together.
    Brenda hasn’t told Lloyd about her longtime, emotionally abusive husband Gregg who’s convinced her to have an open marriage so he can date a much younger woman...
    Brenda Lynn is a lonely, middle-aged woman who exchanges love letters with a convicted murderer serving a life-sentence named Lloyd. They both dream of a fanciful place “at the crossroads of time and space” where they can somehow be together.
    Brenda hasn’t told Lloyd about her longtime, emotionally abusive husband Gregg who’s convinced her to have an open marriage so he can date a much younger woman named Dominique and she hasn’t told Gregg about Lloyd, not even when she tricks him into taking erotic photos to send to the inmate.
    Lloyd, too, has secrets. He’s exchanging sexual favors with a corrections officer named Peterson in return for favorable treatment. What neither Brenda nor Peterson know is that Lloyd has been working with the Innocence Project and is about to be set free after twenty years.
    Lloyd finds Brenda and they form an intense bond without bothering to reveal their respective secrets. Peterson tracks down Lloyd and confesses his deep feelings for him. Meanwhile, Gregg’s romance with Dominique goes sour and he wants to close his previously open marriage. This leads Brenda to solicit Lloyd to murder Gregg so that they can be together.
    When Lloyd finally confesses that he is not actually a murderer, Brenda’s attraction for him fades. She develops an odd friendship with her husband’s ex-girlfriend Dominique who suggests that Brenda murder Gregg herself and pin the crime on Lloyd.
    Lloyd is arrested, but at his trial Peterson comes forward with information that exonerates Lloyd and ultimately convicts Brenda. In the end, Lloyd writes letters to Brenda in prison, but she isn’t interested. Dominique also writes letters to Brenda, confessing her love and admiration for the murder of Gregg. Brenda is imprisoned, but is finally happy and in love with the right person for her.
  • Weird Detective Tales
    Lou, an idealistic, young police detective, Cal, his older, cynical partner, and Audrey, a recently reassigned, disgraced homicide detective work in the Special Vice Unit where they investigate the weird stuff: Interdimensional spies, tentacle slayings, and the occasional vaporization. But by far their greatest challenge is all the paperwork.

    Lou struggles to write a report about a...
    Lou, an idealistic, young police detective, Cal, his older, cynical partner, and Audrey, a recently reassigned, disgraced homicide detective work in the Special Vice Unit where they investigate the weird stuff: Interdimensional spies, tentacle slayings, and the occasional vaporization. But by far their greatest challenge is all the paperwork.

    Lou struggles to write a report about a questionable incident and seeks the less than helpful guidance of his two competing mentors as paranoia reigns in their office.
  • The String
    Act I.
    A gang of criminals under the leadership of Polyxena have gathered at her bar in the lead up to an impending heist. A stranger named Mikey drinks at the bar and arouses the suspicions of the crooks. Brooklyn, the brash, foul-mouthed, and increasingly erratic technical expert attempts to seduce Mikey to determine if he’s an undercover cop, or simply some schmuck in the wrong place at the wrong...
    Act I.
    A gang of criminals under the leadership of Polyxena have gathered at her bar in the lead up to an impending heist. A stranger named Mikey drinks at the bar and arouses the suspicions of the crooks. Brooklyn, the brash, foul-mouthed, and increasingly erratic technical expert attempts to seduce Mikey to determine if he’s an undercover cop, or simply some schmuck in the wrong place at the wrong time.

    The third gang member, who goes by the moniker Soccer Mom, arrives with a very young new girlfriend in tow. When Brooklyn takes Mikey off to a hotel room, Soccer Mom convinces Polyxena to replace Brooklyn in the criminal string due to Brooklyn’s reckless behavior and substance abuse. Her new partner, Katie, it turns out, is a criminal, too, with the same skill set as Brooklyn.

    Act II.

    Brooklyn tricks a smitten Mikey into handcuffing himself to the bed of a hotel room while she determines that he is indeed simply a hapless schmuck. Polyxena and Soccer Mom arrive to inform Brooklyn she’s out of the gang. The situation escalates to the point that Soccer Mom has a gun pointed at Brooklyn. Desperate, Brooklyn then convinces Polyxena that there is indeed an undercover cop in their midst, but that person is Katie, not Mikey.

    Brooklyn and Soccer Mom fight over the gun and accidentally shoot Polyxena dead. Brooklyn comes away with the gun and Soccer Mom pleads, not for her own life, but for the life of her new lover Katie. Brooklyn decides to let her go, fully intending to pin Polyxena’s death on Soccer Mom. Brooklyn leaves Mikey handcuffed to the bed, instructs him what to say to the cops when he’s found, and leaves Mikey having had what he considers a life-changing adventure.

  • It Comes From Beyond!
    A beautiful Bombshell sets her sights on The Square when she spies him sitting alone in the park. Never mind that her fiery-tempered ex, The Hotshot, wants her back and that according to The Square's calculations, the world is about to end.
  • The Caretakers
    Isabel and Gary, a married couple with a troubled past that includes infidelity and the loss of a child, accept a position as caretakers for a remote lighthouse on a tiny island. When Isabel unearths an ancient artifact in her garden, she is soon visited by a mysterious emissary for a malevolent cosmic entity that dwells below the island. The past, the future, and reality itself begin to unravel as the...
    Isabel and Gary, a married couple with a troubled past that includes infidelity and the loss of a child, accept a position as caretakers for a remote lighthouse on a tiny island. When Isabel unearths an ancient artifact in her garden, she is soon visited by a mysterious emissary for a malevolent cosmic entity that dwells below the island. The past, the future, and reality itself begin to unravel as the problems she ran away from manifest themselves on the island and Isabel begins to lose her tenuous grip on her sanity. This play has been described as Albee meets Lovecraft.
  • Not Cool, Todd!
    Todd has everything a young man in the ‘80s could want: A cool apartment, a job in data entry, and some bitchin’ Pat Benatar tapes for his Walkman. But his perfect life is thrown into disarray when he gets a call from Grace, a girl he met at a party three weeks ago but doesn’t remember. Things are complicated by Todd’s scumbag friends, two other girls who may or may not be Grace’s friends, and Grace’s mom who...
    Todd has everything a young man in the ‘80s could want: A cool apartment, a job in data entry, and some bitchin’ Pat Benatar tapes for his Walkman. But his perfect life is thrown into disarray when he gets a call from Grace, a girl he met at a party three weeks ago but doesn’t remember. Things are complicated by Todd’s scumbag friends, two other girls who may or may not be Grace’s friends, and Grace’s mom who wants her daughter to not stay out all night and to dress appropriately for her grandfather’s funeral.

    What does Grace want from Todd? And whose accounts of the events at the booze-soaked party are true?