William R. Duell

William R. Duell

A taped reading of William R. Duell's full-length drama, honor, was streamed March 26-29, 2021, directed by Gerald vanHeerden and presented by vMHF Theatricals. Three stage readings of it will occur at MATCH in Houston in the fall of 2022. Other unproduced full-length plays include Bondage, first stage readings June 30 and July 1, 2019 at Stages Repertory in Houston, directed by Stages founder Ted...
A taped reading of William R. Duell's full-length drama, honor, was streamed March 26-29, 2021, directed by Gerald vanHeerden and presented by vMHF Theatricals. Three stage readings of it will occur at MATCH in Houston in the fall of 2022. Other unproduced full-length plays include Bondage, first stage readings June 30 and July 1, 2019 at Stages Repertory in Houston, directed by Stages founder Ted Swindley; Shadow Play, a finalist for the 2019 Garry Marshall New Works Festival and a finalist or semi-finalist in six other competitions, and Trees in the Woods, a finalist of the 2016 Warner International Playwrights Festival. Duell is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America and a board member of Houston-based WordsmythTheater Co., which promotes new works by playwrights from around the world.

Plays

  • honor by William R. Duell
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    5–6
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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
    Trotter, a gay man who tried to save children during a mass shooting, suffers from survivor’s guilt and cannot control his temper. A psychiatrist persuades her husband, Matt, a Marine sergeant who lost men in Afghanistan, to talk to him. Each man, damaged from being treated as a hero, relives the experience that scarred him. Matt reveals to Trotter that an American drone and not enemy fire killed his men, and...
    Trotter, a gay man who tried to save children during a mass shooting, suffers from survivor’s guilt and cannot control his temper. A psychiatrist persuades her husband, Matt, a Marine sergeant who lost men in Afghanistan, to talk to him. Each man, damaged from being treated as a hero, relives the experience that scarred him. Matt reveals to Trotter that an American drone and not enemy fire killed his men, and that he and Marine command have kept this a secret. Disaster results: Each man tries to goad the other to commit suicide. The people who love these men - one's husband and mother, the other's wife - desperately work to save them both. Trotter and Matt discover what it really means to be honorable, and the necessity of honoring others.
  • Shadow Play by William R. Duell
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    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
    Daisy, a reporter for her megachurch's magazine learns that a local woman, Lucinda Spring, has become the oldest living American. She interviews Lucinda, an atheist who insults Daisy, her religion and her assumptions about life. Daisy tries to determine if Lucinda has exaggerated her age in order to collect early Social Security benefits, but soon finds herself entangled in a more complex inquiry: to find...
    Daisy, a reporter for her megachurch's magazine learns that a local woman, Lucinda Spring, has become the oldest living American. She interviews Lucinda, an atheist who insults Daisy, her religion and her assumptions about life. Daisy tries to determine if Lucinda has exaggerated her age in order to collect early Social Security benefits, but soon finds herself entangled in a more complex inquiry: to find the existential comfort that might allow a free-thinking atheist to embrace her own mortality. Along the way, each woman comes to respect and even feel affection for a person who doesn't think the way she does or believe what she believes, without ever sacrificing her own integrity and beliefs.
  • 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
    ·
    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.