Mike Byham

SHORT: A man is appearing before the judge to answer for a batch of unpaid parking tickets. An enlightening and touching reveal follows.

Written for the 2025 Playwrights Thriving Playwright's Delight

ONE ACT: It’s thirty years in the future. Jeff Nichols brings an artificial intelligence robotic companion (aka an Arti Doll) home a few days prior to a visit by his brother, Ben. Ben happens to be the chief scientist for the SETI Institute and is announcing the incredible news that first contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence has been made. Arti Doll and Alexa (yes – that Alexa) appear to be conspiring to terrorize Jeff and Pam. But why? It’s a comedic mash-up of horror and science fiction.

ONE ACT: A political satire designed to make us think about the process of electing a "popular" candidate. John is an aspiring politician running for office for the first time. "The Party" has hired an overbearing campaign manager, C.J., to help him win office. C.J. creates a corporate-friendly (and campaign fund winning) image for John, much to the dislike of John's idealist assistant, Maggie. When John wishes he was "ahead" in the polls so he'd have latitude to follow his heart instead of C.J.'s advice, he becomes a "head." This accepted fact of John's being creates complications for C.J., Maggie, and of course, John himself. In the end, John finds himself, both figuratively and literally.

SHORT: A little bit of Star Trek humor as we peek in on meetings of a Children Of Captain Kirk therapy support group.

SHORT: Ever wonder what happened to Wendy and Danny from Stephen King’s The Shining? Ever think a visit to the big company tech bar is akin to a visit to hell? Is it possible to find a place for these two disparate thoughts to intersect? Is Bob just a lonely dude or a total douche? These questions are answered as Bob visits the tech bar.

Written for the 2025 Playwrights Thriving Frightfully Inspired Writing Challenge with the prompt "Stephen King's The Shining"

ONE ACT: Three actors play multiple roles in telling the tale of a life destined to destruction. We peek in on the major dramatic events that help define the destiny of a killer. The play starts with the subject's conception and ends with his sentencing.

SHORT: It’s hours before the party and an overhead light keeps flickering. Joe wants to hang the mistletoe. Mary does not. Jesus delivers a package. Gabe fixes the light. It was not a silent night.

Written for 2025 Playwrights Thriving Secret Santa Exchange

SHORT: JAMIE believes he has found his dream role as captain of the United Galactic Federation Y-class ship Erstwhile. This audition is his moment to shine creating opportunity to thrive as an artist. His audition does not go as expected. A sinister reason is revealed.

Written for the 2026 Playwrights Thriving Playwright's Delight

SHORT: The play takes place in 2099 where dating has become regimented through contractually regulated meetings and interactions. We get a peek at how this works as a first date between a man and a woman goes “very well.”

SHORT: This 10-minute play creates an allegory relating a "goon" in ice hockey to an organized crime hit man.

ONE ACT: Dr. John Scott is a brilliant physicist searching for possible sources of new energy through a DARPA-sponsored project. He also dreams of a woman he is destined to love. John discovers a way to travel through space and time in an effort to find this woman. A group consisting of two of his colleagues, a general and his therapist follow John with surprising results.

SHORT: Jim meets a mysterious acquaintance at an airport gate. This is the latest of several seemingly coincidental meetings. Their conversation reveals many things including a path for Jim to bring emotional and spiritual balance to his existence.

FULL LENGTH: The year is 1987, ten years to the day Elvis died. It was a time before the internet, before cell phones and social media. George is a hard-working, easy-going, devoted husband who has his first day off in 475 consecutive days, including Sundays and holidays. He just wants to relax, read a book, maybe even mow the lawn. Instead, George must deal with an apparent bank embezzlement scheme, a list of chores from his overbearing wife, a leather-clad temptress, a blind Avon lady, a vacuum cleaner salesman, a doting mother, an I.R.S. investigator, and a gun-toting Elvis impersonator. It’s a farce with bite – poking fun at the misogynist, homophobic, uniquely-American 1980's.

ONE ACT: Iggy has a problem most 18 year old boys don't have to deal with. He believes he can kill people simply by telling them to go to hell. After all, it happened three times - to a passing motorist, to Iggy's best friend, and most tragically of all, to Iggy's own father. It's a funny, yet horrific look at the pressures of growing up and what happens to a fragile psyche when expectations aren't met.

ONE ACT: On a stormy night, Jenny's car breaks down, prompting her to duck into the bar where Lenny has just shot and killed the bartender. Lenny must decide what to do with the only witness able to identify him as the killer. Jenny prods Lenny hoping to talk her way out of her tough situation. In the course of their conversations, both Lenny and Jenny discover things aren't always as they seem.

ONE ACT: Mick and Ernie are thieves who have just completed a job in North London. They duck into a psychological therapist’s office to hide from the police – who are hot on their heels. The therapist mistakes them for her next client and conducts a “couples counseling” session, revealing secrets and ultimately ending with a surprise.

ONE ACT: We witness the aftermath of a night of passion between a seemingly naïve young woman and a man who she believes to be Ed Sheeran.

ONE ACT: Moe is a photographer hired by Professor Fenton Brabble to document the Professor's search for the Mouse-faced Lantern, a rare African butterfly. Trapped in a huge pot after being captured by the cannibalistic Boinga-Boinga tribe, Moe, the Professor, and the Professor's intellectually challenged daughter Phyllis must endure the constant threat of being served as lunch while devising an escape. Moe shows no mercy when it comes to letting his fellow captives know what he thinks of them. However, the Professor and his daughter have the last laugh as they turn the dinner table on Moe in this rib-tickling one-act.

ONE ACT: In the near future, four warriors gather around a campfire during a training exercise. All may not be as it seems.

ONE ACT: This is the story of a life-long loving relationship between a woman and her best friend who happens to experience time in a unique manner. Davey/Dave/David is aware of his past, present and future all at once. Lizzie/Beth/Elizabeth is his anchor to a sane existence.

ONE ACT: The Hart family lives in a farmhouse located in the middle of Indiana. Danny suffers from hallucinations where he sees people who don't exist. His latest is a girl named Lucy who visits to tell Danny that his family must prepare for a pending tragedy. Her visit leads to the unveiling of shocking family secrets.

FULL LENGTH: Inspired by the feeling engendered by the classic Rolling Stone's hit where someone significant passes through your life leaving the bittersweet mixture of grief and gratitude. Ruby is a young lady in therapy after being found on a window ledge at work. She visits with a doctor dealing with his own issues relating to his inability to feel. We eventually discover Ruby’s secret through the therapy sessions. We also see Doctor Jamie find in Ruby a cure for his ailments – a key to unlocking his emotional potential. It's a blend of romance and comic-book whimsy resulting in a modern fable.

FULL LENGTH IN DEVELOPMENT - SEARCHING FOR WORKSHOP OPPORTUNITIES

Dan awakens to a new reality where he has been chosen to restart the human race - by an entity named Dax wishing to learn how to love. He is tasked with leading a new colony of awakened humans accompanied by his wife, a new friend and the corporeal form of the god-like Dax.

ONE ACT: Dan awakens to a new reality where he has been chosen to restart the human race - by an entity wishing to learn how to love.

FULL LENGTH: It's The Golden Girls meet Abbott and Costello. Lucy, Dolly and Marge are widowed friends living in Bakersfield, CA who get together to play cards. A new neighbor Linda, also a widow, is introduced to the group. Unbeknownst to Lucy, Linda is seeing Lucy’s son, Randy. Dolly decides to try a new seniors’ dating app and convinces Lucy to join her. Through the app they meet a pair of likable ne’er-do-wells that are in trouble. The ladies agree to help them and hilarity ensues as the group travels to Las Vegas resulting in scenes of intense gambling, surprising nightclub strippers, Elvis-themed weddings and courtroom appearances.

SHORT: Each Samhain, Brian visits his killer Enid in a dream to remember the fateful night of his murder. The juxtaposition of Samhain and a new moon brings new opportunity for the haunting and horrors for the haunted.

FULL LENGTH: Randall Scott – a grandfather in his seventies – lives alone in his old farmhouse in the quiet, wealthy suburb of Southlake, Texas. The same Randall Scott – a 20-something year old serviceman returns from Vietnam to his inherited farmhouse with his new wife, Rose. Young Randy struggles to adapt to his new life. Meanwhile, Randy the elder is confronted with the illness of his beloved granddaughter. As he navigates a path to deal with this heart-wrenching news, the story of his past and his missing wife is slowly unveiled. Randy’s past is haunted – literally – by the specter of his service in Vietnam and the influence it had on his present circumstance. A visit from an old Army buddy left for dead shakes young Randy to his core and leads to tragic consequence. Told through scenes that alternate between the early 70’s and 2022, it’s a story of love, regret, change and redemption.

FULL LENGTH: Three thematically-connected one-acts explore the concept of love as a universal element connecting us through space and time.

Act One Space: A Safe Place - Dan awakens to a new reality where he has been chosen to restart the human race - by an entity wishing to learn how to love.

Act Two Time: Relic - The story of a life-long loving relationship between a woman and her best friend who happens to experience time in a unique manner.

Act Three: Space + Time: The Flat Earth - Dr. John Scott travels through space and time to find his destined love.

SHORT: On 28 June 2009, British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking hosted a party for time travelers in the University of Cambridge. Professor Hawking did not send out the invitations until the following day, after the party was over. In preparing for the event, Hawking said he hoped that copies of the invite might survive for thousands of years, and that "one day someone living in the future will find the information and use a wormhole time machine to come back to my party, proving that time travel will one day be possible." Hawking reportedly waited in the room for a few hours before leaving, and no visitors arrived. He stated that the event was "experimental evidence that time travel is not possible". But was he truthful?

ONE ACT: The play takes place in a YMCA in a suburb just outside Knoxville, Tennessee. The Table of Knowledge is where the men meet to discuss the important issues of the day before, during and in between their exercises. Lenny is the table’s patriarch and picks a topic for each day’s discussion. Today’s topic is “the price of freedom.” The discussion finds unexpected relevance given the pending proposal by one of the newer members of the discussion group and the marital troubles of one of the more established couples.

SHORT: A friar is held in a pit prison as punishment for not being able to pay the toll. He is visited by an apparition during his isolation – to whom he confesses the real reasons behind his quest.

ONE ACT: Tony and Joey are thieves who have just completed a job in Brooklyn. They duck into a psychological therapist’s office to hide from the police – who are hot on their heels. The therapist mistakes them for her next client and conducts a “couples counseling” session, revealing secrets and ultimately ending with a surprising reveal. The New York version of the MICK AND ERNIE GO TO THERAPY.

ONE ACT: In his first day as a detective, Donnie is assigned to assist in interviewing persons of interest in a new murder case. The crime took place at the Steel City Con and the persons of interest are cosplayers dressed as characters from a popular video game. Are Ser Aledaar and Princess Eowyn murderers? Will Donnie crack this case? What is really going on at this Pittsburgh Police station?

FULL LENGTH: Neil Down is a detective in the bustling metropolis of Los Angeles in 1938. A beautiful dame with a missing sister shows up one day and hires Neil and his partner to find her. Along the way, Neil's former partner with the FBI and the local police accuse Neil of murder, and the missing person's case turns into a search for stolen diamonds as well. It's a groan a minute tour de force homage to the detective movies of the thirties and forties.

ONE ACT: A young man returns to his grandfather's gravesite two years after his death to face the cross he's given to bear. As a stipulation in his grandfather's will, Judd and his best friend, Ronnie, drink a bottle of old wine celebrating the memory of "Grandpap's" life. This excursion turns out to be more than just a trip down memory lane, however, as Judd finds the cure for what ails him in his grandfather's teachings and the company of his friend.

SHORT: We peek in on meetings of a death survivors’ support group to learn why they meet and how it meets the needs of one special participant.

ONE ACT: Gary invites his life-long friend Sam to witness the end of the world with him. They await their doom on the top of a large hill while crafting an alternate reality – one where their feelings for one another are acknowledged and fulfilled.