"The past is what you remember, imagine you remember, convince yourself you remember, or pretend you remember." –Pinter
DARK MATTER tackles what Pinter stated in this quote. It's about the idea of things: your memory, people, relationships, emotions, your vision of certain items just leaving suddenly-maybe forever, is scary and sinister. "A" is in a strange country and doesn't trust his guides.
It can be cast using actors with any combination of gender, age, and race.
I hope you find it as sinister as I hope it is funny…

What if the brain receives consciousness, like your computer downloads a program from the Internet instead of generating consciousness? Does that mean your consciousness does not end when your body dies? The Quickening, a ghost story for the stage, tells the tale of Matt and Beth Wells, a young couple expecting their first child, as they move into their new home on the outskirts of Richmond, Virginia; a house, it turns out, built where a skirmish occurred during the Civil War. At first happy, but overwhelmed, Beth is soon puzzled and frightened by unexplained events that at first, only she experiences – events that propel her to discover the story behind the supernatural activity in her new home and finally, to take action to save her baby from being taken over by the spirit of a young boy killed during the Civil War. To succeed she must not only discover the truth, but overcome her own fears and the hostile skepticism of her husband. With the help of her mathematician neighbor and her earthy mother from Baltimore she finds the courage to learn the truth and face the unknown to try to save her unborn child. But does she succeed?

This play explores a mother-daughter relationship thrown into painful conflict with the presence of the mother’s much younger lover.

Catherine is a psychiatrist who has lost her license because of her affair with David, a patient one-third her age. The lovers have retreated to Catherine’s beach house. Laura, Catherine’s freshly divorced daughter, arrives seeking answers and revenge for the way her life has turned out.

The play examines the destructiveness of intolerance, its beginning in the family, and that sometimes the “younger generation” is inflexible and judgmental.

"Falling Grace" is a small-town family drama with strong mystical elements. Grace goes sky diving with her fiancé and inexplicably survives a fall after her chutes fail to open. The parish priest comes calling, talking of miracles. A neighbor asks Grace to lay hands on her and cure her cancer. Spooked, and with her emotions are in turmoil, Grace refuses to see the hand of God in any of it. Each character brings different points of view to the question of her survival; from faith to rationalism via pragmatism and skepticism. This play treats religion not in a sectarian way or as fundamentalism, but as simply the effect an extraordinary occurrence can have on ordinary people

Ed and Jane are not about to let their 18 year old daughter Faith marry 45 year old Hartsell (Hart) Edward Thomas Williams IV – even if he does own “Hartsell’s Patio Furniture.” So, on the day before the wedding, they do what any parents would do: they kidnap Faith and drive into the wilds of Arkansas to hide out until things cool down or Faith changes her mind. With Hart and the police in pursuit and Faith refusing to play victim, Ed and Jane have their hands full in this dark comedy which is part extremely-dysfunctional-family-fun and part political commentary

Do you ever wonder about the story behind the roadside crosses and memorials you pass by while driving? Who the person was and how they lost their life? And what happens to those that remain behind? In MEMORY GARDEN, Angie is a young widow with two small daughters who devotes herself to maintaining a roadside memorial where her husband lost his life. She has become such a familiar sight that neighbors beep their horns to say hello as they pass. When a man claiming to be a reporter stops to get her story, Angie unexpectedly finds the answers to her unanswered questions about what happened on that terrible day. MEMORY GARDEN examines how we deal with the anger, longing and confusion brought about by loss -- and the ways in which we try to hang on to and let go of the past in order to keep living.

Every night, at 4:30 a.m., Josh awakens to find Leann silently watching and waiting for another chance to replay how a promising relationship ended stillborn in pride, misunderstanding and miscommunication. As the play unfolds, we come to question if Leann’s visits are real or if they are only replaying in Josh’s head. REPLAY is about the journey from regret and remorse to redemption in our shared struggle to connect to another human being before it’s too late.

Killer rabbits in the suburbs must be stopped! In this bittersweet and poignant comedy, recently widowed Spencer faces the lawnmower police and wrath of his neighbors when he decides to let nature take its course with his yard. Just where does the reach of your arm end and the beginning of your neighbor’s nose begin

What do you do when you’ve finally had enough? What do you say to someone who not only won’t play by the rules but refuses to even play the game?

One day, a white-collar worker named Joe got a migraine headache and called in sick to work. He never returned – nor did he call, write, fax, send e-mail a telegram or send up a flare. Finally, to see what has happened, Joe’s office mate and friend Dennis arrives at Joe’s apartment. Dennis discovers Joe in bathrobe and flip flops luxuriating in a sea of empty bottles and pizza boxes. Joe has happily decided to quit everything and enjoy “quality time all the time.”

FREE FALL is a twisted little comedy that tracks what happens when a man who has decided not to care must deal with one who still does – a battle between common sense and a deeper human need for something more.

Celeste is the bored wife of a foreign service officer who stays behind in Washington, DC because he never gets assigned anywhere she wants to go, She entertains herself by playing a game of her own device called "Beltway Roulette" during which she picks up a companion for the night and they drive around the DC beltway, pick an exit at random, and spend the night in the first motel/hotel they see. An encounter that doesn't go as planned drives Celeste to finally play the game with her husband; who wins and who loses?

SLOWER DELAWRE is a character study of two brothers who appear as different as apples and oranges. The older one, Dean is settled and responsible -- married with a child on the way and running the farm he inherited from his father. In contrast, Matt is a drifter who feels "disconnected" -- when he's able to feel anything at all. Recently fired from his lumberyard job, Matt has also been kicked out by his wife and is freeloading at the farm. The events of the play, which include the bank's calling in several loans on the farm, are ultimately of less consequence than the brothers' eventual role reversal. In this sense, the plot also seems connected to the title, which Matt explains by saying, "Not much ever happens down in lower Delaware, so we just call it 'slower.' "

When Marty Evans was a seven year old boy, he and his oversized stuffed bear Furball were inseparable – they talked about everything. But when Marty got older, he became embarrassed by his attachment to the bear and Furball was exiled to the attic. It wasn't until after college, while searching the attic for things for his new apartment that Marty rediscovered and rescued his old friend. Soon, it's just like old times with Marty talking to Furball – and the bear talking back. Of course, Marty is the only one who can hear Furball talk.

In the one-act comedy GET STUFFED, Marty tries to live his life while contending with a foul-mouthed teddy bear who says all the things Marty can't or won't. It isn't easy for a grown man to live with an oversized talking stuffed bear and Furball fears being sent into exile again. But who needs who more? During a visit by a woman Marty is interested in, Furball’s antics cause Marty to imprison the bear in a closet – painfully reminding the bear of his years of attic exile. In response, Furball stops talking and Marty must decide if life is better with or without the voice of his friend.

GET STUFFED mixes fantasy and realism to examine our need to communicate -- including the things we shouldn't say and the ways we shouldn't say them – as well as our need for acceptance, love and a place to belong we call home regardless of what others think.

H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau is classic tale of what it means to be human and the dangers of science used to play God. Edward Prendick, a lone shipwreck survivor, finds himself saved and cared for on a passing ship by Montgomery, a failed medical student, and his strange, bestial servant, M’Ling. Montgomery is keeper of a cargo of savage animals bound for an uncharted island. But Edward isn’t safe for long — when they arrive at the island, both the captain of the ship and Montgomery refuse to take Edward and he is pushed back into the lifeboat. Montgomery finally takes pity and brings him to the island where he introduces him to Doctor Moreau who tells him the island is a biological station where he conducts research. Moreau and Montgomery decide to house Edward in an outer room of the enclosure in which they live. Edward remembers that he has heard of Moreau, and that he had been an eminent physiologist in London before a journalist exposed his gruesome experiments in vivisection.
The next day, Moreau begins working on a female puma, and its anguished cries drive Edward out into the jungle. He encounters a group of people who have an unmistakable resemblance to animals. He then encounters a hybrid of leopard and man who has killed a rabbit. Edward returns to the enclosure and questions Montgomery. After failing to get an explanation, Edward takes sleeping pills to rest. He then suffers a terrible nightmare reliving all he had been through.
The next morning, Edward awakes to the screams of what he believes to be a woman. He confronts Montgomery with his belief that Moreau has been vivisecting humans and that he is the next test subject. He flees into the jungle, where he meets an Ape Creature who takes him to a colony of Beast Creatures. The leader, named the Sayer of the Law, has him recite a litany called the Law proclaiming prohibitions against bestial behavior and praise for Moreau. Suddenly, Moreau bursts into the colony. Moreau explains that the Beast Creatures are animals he has vivisected to resemble humans.
Moreau tells Edward he can return or remain with the creatures. Edward returns to the enclosure, where Moreau shows him the Puma woman and Edward sees the terrifying results of Dr. Moreau’s experiments designed to “humanize” animals into human form.
Montgomery and M’Ling enter with the carcass of a dead rabbit. Eating flesh and tasting blood is one of the strongest prohibitions in the Law. Edward tells them he’d seen Leopard Man with a dead rabbit before. The men arm themselves and go to the huts where Moreau calls an assembly of the Beast Creatures. Moreau accuses the Leopard Man of killing the rabbit. When the Leopard Man moves to attack Moreau Edward shoots him, sparing him a return to Moreau's operating table. Edward claims he had no choice but to shoot. Moreau is furious and everyone leaves Edward alone for killing the Leopard Man.