Tom Cavanaugh

What Semicolon means to some of us... some of us.

It's been 11 years since they were married and a couple goes to the beach to find the bench with commemorative plaque to celebrate the event when secrets and truths are told on their anniversary.

A couple sits in a theater watching a staged reading when the characters on stage start to speak exact dialogue from the life of the watching couple. Life imitates art or has the playwright stolen the couples words?

A mother and daughter accidentally exchange their cell phones. They realize what they have done after mom starts to receive text messages at three A.M. that are attached to pictures of naked men.

A human trafficking operations goes wrong and two men deal with their criminal actions. Inspired by a true story.

Two school kids meet on a bench and discuss a natural phenomenon as they are smack in the middle of the Monarch Butterflies migration flight path.

I’M FAT deals with the body shaming issue! A big beautiful woman is working out when she’s approached by a slender, attractive, seemingly “Fitness Guru”! We find out that our big, beautiful woman Our big beautiful woman is NOT putting up with it this time. She’s been through it all! Our lady has been approached by people selling diets, people selling coaching, people selling gym memberships and not once have they gotten to know her, but they all just assume our lady is a miserable, over eater with no self control and despite their fees for services and products… these healthy salespeople were all going to solve her FAT problem for her, as if they knew her enough to come up with a solution… a HIGH priced solution.

So our beautiful plus sized lady isn’t having it anymore! She’s not gonna hear another sales pitch or put up with another “fitness” hawker making her feel bad about her size and eating habits! Our larger than usual heroine isn’t having it when the skinny, fitness guru lady hands her a before and after set of pictures and explains… “ I know what you are feeling”… “That used to be me.” The beautiful, in shape lady used to a be a big beautiful woman and she wants to help our heroine… she wants our hero to join her “program”, her “fitness plan”… our small sized, work-out guru explains, “I do have a plan… it’s called FRIENDSHIP!” and our hero smiles as the two women shake hands and become friends. I’M FAT is a short that deals with a matter that is right out of the headlines and the story puts it all in perspective, so that by the end of the piece not only has the audience been educated, but they will feel hopeful and with promise!

Someone is stealing the bread and baked goods deliveries from the Garden State Breakfast Shop before it opens up. and that is only the beginning of the Tomaso Families new problems. Jimmy Tomaso and his three daughters run a sandwich shop on the Jersey Shore. Jimmy is a "dinosaur" now in this #Me-too world and is constantly being corrected by his 3 daughters on how to talk correctly "in mixed company" as his livelihood is threatened when and Indian woman and her son open a breakfast shop across the street from the family business. The three daughters have their issues too! One, is trying to catch their Bakery Bandit, the other has a new boyfriend, who happens to be the Indian son of the new competitor across the street and the oldest is in love and having an affair with Jimmy's best, black friend Eddie. Jimmy cannot handle the fact that after thirty years of serving breakfast to the community that another business will open that also sells breakfast to the beach going crowd. The girls have to deal with their father while trying to grow and fulfill their dreams, but dad is having a hard time with the new relationships and the new competition. Jimmy constantly refers to the new Indian family across the street as "DOTS" and makes several unacceptable comments that are cut off by his daughters, but it isn't until his best friend, Eddie, a black man, explains, "No, you really are a racist, you just don't realize what you are saying!" Eddie then educates Jimmy on being a better man in the Twenty-First Century. In the end, Jimmy makes the changes and accepts his daughters new romances with men of color, deals with the homeless woman former teacher who has been stealing the baked goods to survive and Jimmy ends up schooling the Indian Woman/Chef from across the street what Pork Roll, Egg & Cheese is all about! Jimmy becomes a 21st Century Man with a new outlook on the world and an elevated consciousness in diversity and fairness.

INLAND EMPRESS is a full-length play set in California’s High Desert or Inland Empire that deals with many contemporary themes and issues. Louise is a career criminal who finishes her seven year stretch in Chowchilla Women’s Prison and comes home to find that her position as head of the family and the family business has been filled by her niece. The family believes that Louise has come back to take her place, but Louise reveals to them that in prison she had a spiritual enlightenment and her life has changed. Louise explains that she has converted to the Muslim religion and at the same time reveals the answers to many, deep, family secrets. Louise tries to make amends and help the girls through their personal problems, but must confront the eldest girl, Sierra, who believes that Louise is trying to dethrone Sierra and take away the power that she has held over the last seven years.

ADAM & YOSHI is a full-length drama. It features a young successful comic book writer who is getting over a divorce and falling deeper in love with Yoshi, a woman who dresses as a superhero and claims to be from another planet. Adam bears with his unhappy home and career, but he learns from Yoshi how to envision a different reality for himself until she reveals her real intention at the end of the play. Themes of masking, unmasking, complacency and bravery are interwoven as Adam’s alpha-male persona morphs before our eyes to into the role of a victim in a “catfish” like scam.

Act Act One, Scene One - It is a Friday in a suburban household, the night before a big football game. GINNY is making a birthday cake for her football star son, JUSTIN,
the golden boy of the family. JOHN returns home from work and steams open a letter
from Notre Dame, inviting JUSTIN to interview the next weekend. He and RACHEL,
a teen, go out to get blue and gold birthday party decorations for JUSTIN’s birthday
party that night. BOBBY, the elder son comes to the house drunk. We find that JOHN
had been an alcoholic but is now sober, and BOBBY’S life is going on a downward
path. GINNY helps BOBBY sober up with coffee before the others get home. The
scene ends with the family shouting, “Surprise” as JUSTIN approaches from offstage.

Act One, Scene Two – The family arrives home from JUSTIN’s funeral. He has been
the victim of a high school shooting. At JOHN’s insistence, RAY, the police chief and a
family friend, tells them the specifics of the shooting. It appears JUSTIN’s body was
found hunched over a female victim’s, apparently trying to protect her. They deem him
a hero. JOHN begins drinking again, but BOBBY stops. RACHEL breaks down with
guilt because she ran away from the gunshots instead of going to find her brother. They
see a memorial of seven crosses on the hill just above the school, which means that
someone has planted a cross for the shooter as well. JOHN is furious. The family
debates whether the shooter was a victim, and where God is in this whole picture.
JOHN calls RAY back and protests. RAY returns the contents of JUSTIN’s locker.
The family examines the clothing, GINNY puts on his jacket, and they view the photos
of the birthday party. BOBBY and GINNY discuss memories of the long nights when
JOHN was still drinking. RACHEL sets up a shrine to JUSTIN.

Act Two, Scene One – Each family takes part in a dramatic fugue wherein they
reveal how they spent the first sleepless night after the funeral. JOHN runs up the hill
and destroys all seven crosses; BOBBY has a revelation when he opens the Bible for
guidance (Song of Solomon, Ch. 2, v. 28); GINNY describes symptoms of phantom pain
and depression; and RACHEL mourns her loss of JUSTIN’s teasing and big brother
behavior. The fugue ends with the whole family watching JOHN destroying the memorial. RACHEL and BOBBY debate whether the shooter was a victim. RAY comes to arrest JOHN and takes him prison.

Act Two, Scene Two - RACHEL gives a monologue about reporters taking over the
streets of the town, shoving their cameras in the faces of the victims, yet focusing only
on the shock of the killings. She relates how her father came shackled through the courtroom and was released, and how each day is becoming worse. GINNY is depressed. JOHN wants to move and GINNY refuses. BOBBY goes to visit his estranged little daughter, then returns and says he would like to go back to school and become a minister. BOBBY says that rumors are circulating that JUSTIN had been a bully and caused the shooter’s rampage. RACHEL goes to a friend’s house, and then violently beats a girl at the mall because she heard her voice the rumors. JOHN insists of getting RACHEL out of town, but GINNY won’t leave. RACHEL says there is no God. JOHN takes RACHEL and leaves. GINNY is completely incapacitated by depression, and sinking into the delusion that JUSTIN is still alive. BOBBY remains in the family house to take care of his mother and moves into the position of the “good son”.

A wealthy man's son comes home from exploring the world and finds he has been recruited into the family business. The son will manage a warehouse and work with two young men that will teach him about the world that he thought he knew... oh yeah... the two twenty-somethings have done time for murder and are working off their "debt to society".