John W Lowell

A modern queer take on Henry James's WASHINGTON SQUARE

Augie, an actor in late middle-age, understudying the role of KING LEAR, is at the theatre to rehearsing when he is joined by his wife Anna, also an actor. As they work, they learn Augie will be going on at the next performance. Suddenly fearful that the monumental role is no longer within his power, Augie faces a paralyzing crisis as Anna fights to stop her husband from committing career suicide, but together, husband and wife come to grips with what may be final chapter of their enduring, loving relationship.

The Letters is play about power and privacy, language and action, and the terror of truth, taking place against the backdrop of a totalitarian state, but one where the rules of conduct look suspiciously like any in the world today.

ANNA BORISOVNA is an editor who devotes all we working hours to the suppression, elimination, and perversion of words and ideas deemed inimical to the State’s interest. When she is brought before the Ministry’s director, she finds herself in a life-or-death struggle, unsure of what her interrogator knows or needs, uncertain of which of the two actually holds the power over the other.

An artist’s political cartoon ignites a firestorm that threatens to destroy his colleagues, his family, and himself.

A play about art and artists, Autumn Canticle is a story of love and courage played against the backdrop of the world of American Music during its extraordinary blossoming in the mid-twentieth century.

David Williams and Peter Billings seem to have achieved a perfect life together; a life of love, fame and success. David, an opera singer and recitalist, has enjoyed a remarkable thirty year collaboration, personal and professional, with Peter, an equally remarkable composer. All should be well for these talented, witty men as they enter their middle fifties, but after Peter is diagnosed with a life-threatening heart ailment, the strands of their perfect life begin to unravel. With the introduction of a young man, Walker, into their troubled lives, problems which have been ignored surface in devastating ways. Autumn Canticle documents the fragmentation and gradual spiritual renewal of the older men, both of whom face frightening, uncertain futures.

As Czarist Russia stumbles towards revolution the characters in Leo Tolstoy Is In The Next Room Dying confront injustice, loyalty, capitalism, socialism, illegitimacy, anarchy and lentil soup. It is a comedy of manners, a celebration of language, and a rumination on the unexpected in a world which could explode at any moment.

It is a cold day in October, 1910. At the quiet railway station run by Nicholai and Marfa Oblensky there is little to disturb the routine — except for the hacking cough and the destructive fumblings of their unwanted guest. Unwanted, that is, until they realize the old man is novelist and aristocrat Leo Tolstoy. Seeing the opportunity to turn this chance encounter into riches, the couple cordially invite the world to be with Tolstoy as he expires. The world accepts the invitation. A country doctor of dubious skill, a pack of story-hungry, world-weary journalists, a beautiful young girl, two silent and dangerous guards, and the occasional bizarre passer-by all contribute to the madness, comedy and unexpected drama of this two act play.

The play is a two-act, one-set (the waiting room/office of Astapovo Station), twelve character (three women, nine men) ensemble piece, with music and color. It evokes the world of Chekhov and Tolstoy (with more than a hint of the satire of Gogol).

To be “taken in” can mean many things. For Marc, a man in his 30s, who is taking in whom, and how, is the question he tries to resolve after he meets Danny, a young street-toughened hustler. Marc is a careful, even reticent man. Danny — funny, sharp, and very sexy — challenges Marc’s ordered existence and Marc is drawn to the sexual and spiritual power of this self-reliant young man. They flirt and spar, both vying for the attention and acceptance of the other. But even as they seem to reach a point of mutual trust, and as Marc offers Danny shelter in his apartment, their journey has only begun.

This two-act, two-character play is about two vulnerable people who learn the price of caring, of trusting, of needing, but also the price of being taken in.