Having travelled from Latvia to North America, Edward Leedskalnin has left his former life far behind him, except for his dream to marry Agnes, the girl who jilted him the day before their wedding. Finally, he settles in the tip of Florida, but the longer he lives isolated in this farm community, safe from embarrassing questions about his past, the more he longs for Agnes. His only companion is the moon, to whom he empties his brokenhearted shame. When a damning letter arrives from Agnes’ husband, Edward loses himself in the moon’s sweet embrace.
One of four plays in the full-length "Awesome America." Licensed through nextstagepress.net

From the time you are born 'til the time you die there is someone ready to put you under his thumb. Bending, fighting, standing tall, accommodating, running, second-guessing are all ways we learn to cope with these top dogs. The progress of civilization may depend on our sympathetic humanity and our desire to help one another improve, but individual survival still calls for doggie skills. To be the best, we must prepare for the worst.

Even in the field of education, the hallways are full of power plays. In our story, we follow the newborn Michael Harrison through a childhood of being bullied and learning to bully, to the point where he chooses the field of education so he can "have a life without having to compete every minute of the day.” Sorry to say, he finds himself tangling with one-upmanship every step of the way. There is the Principal who is more interested in his good image rather than his students' achievements; the Assistant Superintendent who demands meaningless work from his smarter subordinates just to remind them who's on top; and, the Superintendent who purposefully makes his subordinates look bad so he will smell like a rose.

Finally despite his proven success at turning children into learners, Michael stands at the pinnacle of his career as Superintendent of Schools, up against a Mayor who thinks nothing of ruining everyone in town to achieve his own desires. Taking refuge across state lines, he is encouraged to take another chance as a high school principal in a small town. But the first day of school, yet another kind of top dog demands Michael's submission. Michael finds himself laughing uncontrollably as the Dean of Boys holds a gun on him. This time he had anticipated the top dog maneuver, and was prepared.

Reader comment: “Although we are unable to include this worthwhile project at the Conference, I write to express my personal admiration of your talents, and the combination of craftsmanship and soul at the heart of this particular work.” (Lloyd Richards for the O’Neill Theater Center).

When Mark Peters graduated high school, his parents gave him one last tank of gas and told him to "get a job." When they proudly arrive to see his first workplace, a sandwich shop, Mark lunges at his dad. Luckily a customer, Joe Winston, is able to restrain the boy, and encourages the parents to leave. Joe stays for coffee at the shop, but is thrown out when the boss discovers Joe bathing in the restroom. In the next days, Joe makes a nuisance of himself, yet Mark finds it hard to ignore this exasperating and desperately needy man.

Reader comment: "Neatly written & engaging." (Jack Bradley, Literary Manager, Royal National Theatre)

Eight-year-old Mark is already bored to death on this Saturday morning in his suburban neighborhood. In anger, he pulls down the sign at the corner of Beckner Street and Beckner Place, and it comes apart into two nineteenth-century German-Americans, Gustav and Clara Beckner. They are the original owners of the farm that is now this subdivision, and they are as startled to see Mark as he is to see them. The Beckners forcibly commander Mark to help them find their home, taking the boy on a time-travel adventure into the history of his neighborhood.

Reader comment: "A fresh original story with lessons of history and urbanization of farms that children would learn while seeing this play." (Indiana Repertory Theatre)

Susan, the new reference librarian at Ridgeview Library, adores helping people find answers to questions, but she hates to confront the discipline problems inherent in a public space. As the library fills up, the users become raucous. Her supervisor Bill gets an emergency call, and tells Susan her top priority is to restore the quiet. When Bill returns, he finds a scene of total uproar, and he fires Susan on the spot. As she is packing her things, a surprise attack threatens the library and everyone in it, and Susan is finally provoked to confrontation.

Audience comments: "I can't believe all that goes on in a public library! I am going there tomorrow just to watch." "Delightful and funny - the play just keeps bubbling along."

Burette Furder at 81 has never lost his zest for life, a fact dramatically pointed out by the slew of women with whom he carries on regularly in the town of Goshen, Texas. Now Burette is about to take Lois as his fifth wife. As a wedding present, Lois demands that she be "his only one." The play's action is the persistence, the waning and the renewal of Burette Furder's ever-present sex drive.

Reader Comment: "The amusement of this insatiable octogenarian never seems to fade.
Everyone in town knows what the old man is up to, and, even as his wife catches him
repeatedly in the act, Burette goes back for more." (The Script Review)

On a freezing day in February 1837, the Allen Brothers advertisement for the new City of Houston doesn't match the mud-hole reality, and even the “good” settlers want to leave. Fearful that he will lose not only his investment but his freedom (having fled the U.S. after being sentenced to debtors’ prison), spec house builder CK Huntington seizes on the very next person who arrives, determined to make this unlikely newcomer see Houston as The Promised Land.

After “stealing” the engaged Almeron Dickinson from her friend, fifteen-year old Susanna is willing to follow her husband’s dream and leave Tennessee for Texas. All she wants is to be with Almer, but the life of a Texas settler is not a life of “togetherness,” and Susanna is alone in Gonzales for many frightening new experiences. The fight for independence takes Almer away to San Antonio for two months as the Texans try to push the soldiers back to Mexico. Insisting on going back to San Antonio with him as more soldiers are on the march in, Susanna survives the horror of the Alamo massacre in March 1836. Then she is called to meet with Santa Anna.