Rob Cardazone

Rob Cardazone

Rob Cardazone has been acting, directing and writing plays in NYC, and regionally for over twenty-five years. He has a BFA in acting from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and has an MFA in playwriting with Tina Howe and Mark Bly at CUNY Hunter, where he presented his thesis production, Ren Rats. With his focus originally on acting, his life took a turn when his play The Birth And Death Of Stars was...
Rob Cardazone has been acting, directing and writing plays in NYC, and regionally for over twenty-five years. He has a BFA in acting from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and has an MFA in playwriting with Tina Howe and Mark Bly at CUNY Hunter, where he presented his thesis production, Ren Rats. With his focus originally on acting, his life took a turn when his play The Birth And Death Of Stars was awarded 1st prize in The George R. Kernolde New Play Competition, 2002. The Birth And Death Of Stars and Henry Descending were both New Century Writers’ Award semi-finalists, 2002. A Dark Wood was a finalist in the Nantucket Short Play Festival, 2007, and was accepted into the Samuel French Short Play Festival, 2008. With Two Cups and a String Theatre he wrote and produced The Shrew Sketch, FringeNYC, 2001, which received a grant sized donation from the Charles O’Neil estate; he wrote, directed and produced What Sprang Off A Gypsy Rooster, Access Theater, 2004, which was awarded future co-productions at Access; and The Present’s Tiny Point of which Joe Franklin said, “Great writing. Great cast. You kids are gonna go far!” In the summer of 2008 he was awarded the Tennessee Williams Scholarship to attend the Sewanee Writers’ Conference led by Romulus Linney and Arlene Hutton, where he work-shopped Go Gently Forward. Since grad school he has been developing five plays: Go Gently Forward (Mark Bly), Dreamers Often Lie (Tina Howe), How to Cure Tarantula Mouth, Gone Before Leaving (Francine Volpe) and Eyes on Me (A. Rey Pamatmat). How to Cure Tarantula Mouth was a finalist in the Trustus Theatre Competition, a finalist for Abingdon Theatre’s Developmental program, and a semi-finalist for the Stanley Drama Award. Gone Before Leaving was a semi-finalist for the O’Neill Playwrights' Conference.

Plays

  • How to Cure Tarantula Mouth by Rob Cardazone
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
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    Keyword: Post Gay, Realism + 7 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: Post Gay, Realism, gay, queer, LGBTQ, drug addiction, love triangle, woods, New York State
    Frankie goes for a weekend retreat to his friend Clay’s house in Hudson, NY. Clay is a heroin addict in recovery, and his partner Matt consequently has anger issues. How does Frankie deal with the subtle symptoms of such an insidious disease, and how does he come to terms with how little he can actually help his friend?
  • Jamie 'Round the Corner (formerly Winter's End) by Rob Cardazone
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: gay, queer + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, tragedy
    Keyword: gay, queer, LGBTQ, aging, NYC, magical realism
    Donald, an aging gay man, meets Jamie, an attractive young man, in an infamous dive bar in the West Village of NYC. Jamie shows up at Donald’s, late at night and the head-games begin. Trish, his neighbor, doesn’t think she can deal with Donald’s latest troublesome dalliance. She’s concerned for Donald, but also for once, she's trying to take care of herself. Jamie shows up again and things start to get...
    Donald, an aging gay man, meets Jamie, an attractive young man, in an infamous dive bar in the West Village of NYC. Jamie shows up at Donald’s, late at night and the head-games begin. Trish, his neighbor, doesn’t think she can deal with Donald’s latest troublesome dalliance. She’s concerned for Donald, but also for once, she's trying to take care of herself. Jamie shows up again and things start to get weird. We learn to protect ourselves from temptations, but sometimes that leads to over-protection, pushing people away and isolation. How do we find balance before it’s too late?
  • Erasure, the Erased Queer History of 1930s NYC by Rob Cardazone
    Cast: 
    11–33
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    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: LGBTQ, gay + 4 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, drama, period
    Keyword: LGBTQ, gay, queer, 1930s New York, interracial relationships, drag
    Karel, an infamous downtown NYC poet and personality, is reunited with his acquaintance and pen pal, Julian. They are both effeminate homosexual men, cut from the same mold, and seemingly ahead of their time. Erasure, the erased queer history of 1930s NYC, posits that they were of the time, but time has merely erased them from the record. Based on banned texts, pop-modernist poetry and other sources, Karel and...
    Karel, an infamous downtown NYC poet and personality, is reunited with his acquaintance and pen pal, Julian. They are both effeminate homosexual men, cut from the same mold, and seemingly ahead of their time. Erasure, the erased queer history of 1930s NYC, posits that they were of the time, but time has merely erased them from the record. Based on banned texts, pop-modernist poetry and other sources, Karel and Julian and their collection of friends: artists, cross-dressers and other bohemians, all search for sex, love, warmth, glamour, and meaning in prohibition, depression era NYC.
  • The Mosquito Prince by Rob Cardazone
    Cast: 
    9–12
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 5 more
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    Keyword: court, London + 6 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, dark comedy, drama, period, political, tragedy
    Keyword: court, London, 19th century, English, Scottish, socio-political commentary, Shakespeare, based on a true story
    In The Mosquito Prince, set in 1823, attorney John Fairweather, after a death in his family, is finally returning to the Old Bailey, court house, London. For his first case back, he is prosecuting “Prince” Gregor MacGregor, for selling land grants and sending settlers to Poyais, a nation in Central America, which he completely made up! As we today have well learned: People lie and people die.
  • The Platform by Rob Cardazone
    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: attempted suicide, drug abuse + 5 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental
    Keyword: attempted suicide, drug abuse, psychotic break, Frida Kahlo, art, despair and hope, psychology
    In The Platform Sebastian tries to speak to his nurse where he’s laid up in the hospital. He is convinced that he knows her and needs to speak only to her about everything on his mind – everything except for the reason he’s there. Sebastian is coming down from a ton of drugs and a mysterious traumatic event. His recovery is slow and desperate; surreal and dream-like. The story twists and turns like a mystery....
    In The Platform Sebastian tries to speak to his nurse where he’s laid up in the hospital. He is convinced that he knows her and needs to speak only to her about everything on his mind – everything except for the reason he’s there. Sebastian is coming down from a ton of drugs and a mysterious traumatic event. His recovery is slow and desperate; surreal and dream-like. The story twists and turns like a mystery. What happened to Sebastian? Who does he think this nurse in the hospital is? And finally, is there hope for him?
  • The Loft by Rob Cardazone
    Cast: 
    4–12
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama
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    Keyword: dysfunction, neglect + 7 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: dysfunction, neglect, sexual abuse, alcoholism, drug addiction, prostitution, siblings, goth, NYC
    Jake, is a writer with a troubling childhood. Doing what he can to manage, he has however, developed an addiction to drugs and prostitutes. He has a preoccupation with his sister, Jessa, often replaying fantasy conversations, which even in his fantasies, don’t go well. He wants to spend Christmas with her but she makes excuses. He invites her and her goth boyfriend to come to his book reading, but she doesn’t...
    Jake, is a writer with a troubling childhood. Doing what he can to manage, he has however, developed an addiction to drugs and prostitutes. He has a preoccupation with his sister, Jessa, often replaying fantasy conversations, which even in his fantasies, don’t go well. He wants to spend Christmas with her but she makes excuses. He invites her and her goth boyfriend to come to his book reading, but she doesn’t show. The book Jake is writing and presents in the end, is his therapy. He and Jessa never talk about the horrible things that happened in their childhood, but Jake is finally able to move on.
  • Collision Theory by Rob Cardazone
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: immigration, drunk driving + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: immigration, drunk driving, gay, science, racism, NJ, Italian, Mexican American, Mexican immigrants
    In Collision Theory, a New Jersey, Italian-American family grapples with race issues when their mother has a head on collision with a Mexican family.
  • Terribly and in Private by Rob Cardazone
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: gay, queer + 7 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: gay, queer, feminist, funeral, religious hypocrisy, New Jersey, identical twins, hoarding, Catholic priest
    In, Terribly and in Private, Gaby's brother Gordon was killed by a speeding taxi. She sets a manipulative plan into action that will get Gordon's boyfriend Jimmy and her eccentric brother, Brandon, to the funeral. Their mother worries that the Catholic Church will discover that Gordon was gay and turn the family away- casket and all.
  • Dreamers Often Lie by Rob Cardazone
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: gay, queer + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, period
    Keyword: gay, queer, LGBTQ, World War II, Boys' School, based on Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
    What if Tybalt was in love with Mercutio? Dreamers Often Lie—using Romeo and Juliet as a jumping off point—is set in an all boys’ school in New England in 1944. Tommy and Marcus bottle up their feelings for each other, due to their age, the time period, the pending war and their need to prove their masculinity. The results are emotional, explosive and life changing for the two boys and their group of friends....
    What if Tybalt was in love with Mercutio? Dreamers Often Lie—using Romeo and Juliet as a jumping off point—is set in an all boys’ school in New England in 1944. Tommy and Marcus bottle up their feelings for each other, due to their age, the time period, the pending war and their need to prove their masculinity. The results are emotional, explosive and life changing for the two boys and their group of friends.

    Number of pages: 101 (90 minutes)
    Number of actors required: Seven male characters. Six of them are 17 years old (to be played by early 20s); one is 12 years old.
    Multiple locations created minimally.

  • Eyes on Me by Rob Cardazone
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: gay, queer + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: gay, queer, LGBTQ, attempted suicide, cancer, Expressionism, siblings, HIV stigma, New Jersey, 1990s
    In, Eyes on Me, set in a hospital in the mid 90s, Freddie had planned to tell his sister and eventually his mother about his HIV status, but now has an excuse not to. His mother has tried to commit suicide. Things quickly get tense in this forced family reunion. The siblings try to navigate old wounds, while their father bullies them into making their mom promise to “never to do it again”. Seeing his mother...
    In, Eyes on Me, set in a hospital in the mid 90s, Freddie had planned to tell his sister and eventually his mother about his HIV status, but now has an excuse not to. His mother has tried to commit suicide. Things quickly get tense in this forced family reunion. The siblings try to navigate old wounds, while their father bullies them into making their mom promise to “never to do it again”. Seeing his mother this way, Freddie fears his own death. He and his mother share drug induced hallucinations. Hot Nurse Donny, the perfect escape, is a beacon of light helping Freddie see that with new breakthrough medication, he may not die, so he better figure out how to live.
  • Go Gently Forward by Rob Cardazone
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: fabulism, domestic violence + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, fable/folktale, romantic comedy
    Keyword: fabulism, domestic violence, alcoholism, understated, melancholy
    Gus drives a bus. All day long he rides around with a sign over his head that says, “Limited”. Rain falls; his loneliness deepens. A beautiful woman named Veronica comes on board, covering her bruised eye with makeup. Gus gets it in his head that he can save her from her abusive husband. Gus’ forcefully trying to save her doesn’t bode well for Veronica. Gus confides in Pop, a bartender, who turns out is...
    Gus drives a bus. All day long he rides around with a sign over his head that says, “Limited”. Rain falls; his loneliness deepens. A beautiful woman named Veronica comes on board, covering her bruised eye with makeup. Gus gets it in his head that he can save her from her abusive husband. Gus’ forcefully trying to save her doesn’t bode well for Veronica. Gus confides in Pop, a bartender, who turns out is Veronica’s father. Gus learns that running off with Veronica may not be what he truly wants. Veronica learns that she needs to save herself and not run into the arms of another man; one she met on a bus. Sonny, Veronica’s husband, a handsome successful man, suspects that Gus is after his wife. He finds Gus’ Achilles’ heal, and teases him with a dream job at the zoo. Although Sonny intends to merely taunt Gus with this opportunity, Gus begins to understand what it is he really wants from life. Veronica is inevitably the one to save Gus, proving that she can take care of herself after all. In the end Gus is a new man, who knows where he’s going and confident enough to get there.