William R. Duell

William R. Duell

William R. Duell’s first produced play, The Journey was produced March 2009 at American Theatre of Actors in NYC by James Jennings, President and Artistic Director of ATA, and was a finalist for the Arts and Letters Prize in Drama. Duell's plays have been produced and workshopped across the U.S. Full-length unproduced plays include Trees in the Woods, a finalist of the 2016 Warner International Playwrights...
William R. Duell’s first produced play, The Journey was produced March 2009 at American Theatre of Actors in NYC by James Jennings, President and Artistic Director of ATA, and was a finalist for the Arts and Letters Prize in Drama. Duell's plays have been produced and workshopped across the U.S. Full-length unproduced plays include Trees in the Woods, a finalist of the 2016 Warner International Playwrights Festival; Bondage, first stage readings June 30 and July 1, 2019 at Stages Repertory in Houston, directed by Stages founder Ted Swindley; and Shadow Play, a finalist or semi-finalist in seven competitions. Coastals was one of three short competition-winning plays performed on May 16, 2020 as a recorded reading posted online by the Emerson Players and presented by Citizen’s Climate Lobby’s Houston Chapter. The monologue Half Lives appeared October 2020 as part of Cone Man Running Productions’ Cauldron: 31 Days of Audioplays.

Duell’s full-length drama honor had its first stage readings December 16 and 18, 2019, directed by Gerald vanHeerden and presented by vMHF Theatricals and A.R.T./NY at the Bruce Mitchell Room in NYC. honor was workshopped October 25-26, 2022 at MATCH in Houston, directed by Ted Swindley. It premieres September 30 - October 29, 2023 at A.R.T./NY’s Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre in NYC, directed by vanHeerden. Duell is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America and its former Houston Regional Representative, a professional member of PEN America, and a board member of Wordsmyth Theater Co., which promotes new works by playwrights from around the world. He is an advisory board member of Fade to Black, Houston's first and only national play festival to showcase new works by Black playwrights.

Plays

  • honor by William R. Duell
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    5–7
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama
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    Keyword: survivor's guilt, racism + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: survivor's guilt, racism, marines, massacre
    A gay man and a straight former Marine — each suffering from survivor’s guilt, each out of control — forge an unlikely bond.
  • Shadow Play by William R. Duell
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: ageism, existentialism + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: ageism, existentialism, spiritualism, atheism
    A reporter for her mega-church's magazine interviews her next assignment, allegedly the oldest living American, and an unequivocal atheist.
  • Bondage by William R. Duell
    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama
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    Keyword: white privilege, gay white privilege + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: white privilege, gay white privilege, systemic racism
    A privileged white urbanite replaces his politically aware black lover with a mixed-race thief who better appreciates his urge to dominate.
  • Abena - a monologue by William R. Duell
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    1
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: blind date
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: blind date
    Abena is a young Nigerian woman who immigrated to the U.S. with her parents at the age of five. She is in a bar on the most recent of one too many blind dates, this one with a romantic young American man. Abena is well educated, very smart, a fast talker who does not trust or believe in romance and who secretly believes most men are cowards. In this monologue, she explains to her date the six things he needs to...
    Abena is a young Nigerian woman who immigrated to the U.S. with her parents at the age of five. She is in a bar on the most recent of one too many blind dates, this one with a romantic young American man. Abena is well educated, very smart, a fast talker who does not trust or believe in romance and who secretly believes most men are cowards. In this monologue, she explains to her date the six things he needs to know about her "before this so called date goes any further."
  • God's New Plan by William R. Duell
    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy
    Genre: comedy
    A stranger to a small store in the middle of nowhere is grilled on his condom purchase, leading him to suspect that the clerk and manager intend to shame anyone who purchases such things into abstaining from sex until they marry. What he discovers, or thinks he does, is a different matter.