Eric Mansfield

This play is in development, set to open in Cleveland, Ohio in February, 2025. Early draft of first 25 pages has been uploaded here to provide context to those with an interest in reviewing. Specific questions should be directed to the playwright, eric@ericmansfieldwrites.com.

Logline: Eve faces a midnight hanging after being convicted of murder in 2034 Ohio, but as crowds gather to debate what some call the state’s barbaric new speedy-and-public execution policy, Eve uses her final hours to set the record straight on why she feels America failed her and millions of other women across the country.

Synopsis: It’s 2034 and Ohio has returned to town square hangings as part of its new speedy-and-public execution policy for convicted killers given death sentences. That means a midnight death in the town square is just hours away for Eve, who was found guilty of poisoning the judge she believes is responsible for her sister’s death after he enforced the law denying doctors a chance to intervene during a high-risk pregnancy. With crowds gathering outside the jail and little hope of an 11th hour reprieve, Eve uses the final hours in her cell to face the choices that have made her the face of futuristic American justice.

Update: TRIAL BY FIRE opens Feb. 7, 2025, for three performances at Kent State University.

This play premiered in January 2024, with six consecutive sell-outs with Akron School of the Arts at Firestone High School. Multiple media outlets covered the play's development (see attached links.). This play is now available for other schools, specifically strong high school and college programs.

LOGLINE: When word leaks that new Women’s Studies teacher Georgia Grimm has been allowing her high school students access to books on the state’s new “banned” list, five teen girls rise up with a plan to save her job and reputation. As the pressure mounts for Georgia to resign or be fired, her students try to stop town leaders from burning books leading to one student being injured in the flames. With a 5 p.m. deadline looming before Ohio’s conservative governor looks to make a national example out of this young woman of color, Dan Shaw, an 11th-hour mediator, is called in to end the growing PR nightmare but only if he can unravel what's really at stake.

SYNOPSIS: Young teacher Georgia Grimm must fight for her job after news and social media reports indicate she's been using banned books to teach Women's Studies at Knights Academy. This prestigious all-boys academy only recently allowed girls to attend.

With protestors outside the school and the fall election only days away, Ohio's Governor plans to make an example out of Georgia as to what's wrong with the American education system.

Facing a 5 p.m. deadline to resign or be fired and with the governor in route to make a speech at the school, Georgia and her students face an interrogation from Dan Shaw, a career detective brought in as an 11th-hour mediator who specializes in persuading others to give up and admit they were wrong.

Can Georgia withstand the pressure to resign to save her career? Or will Dan learn what's really behind her fight for her students to have access to the classics?

Note: FIrst 25 pages of this full-length play are available for download. Those interested in reviewing the entire play should contact the playwright. eric@ericmansfieldwrites.com.

Logline: A homeless man living under an Akron, Ohio bridge struggles with tough life choices as a parade of strangers invade his simple life following a news story of how he forgave the street punks who set him on fire and laughed while he burned. (inspired by true events)

LATEST NEWS: BARON OF BROWN STREET is now available for pre-order from Ghost Light Publications via: https://ghostlightpubs.com/products/baron-of-brown-street-by-eric-mansf…

The play enjoyed a strong 6-night world premiere run at Rubber City Theatre in Akron in September 2023 followed by performances in early 2024 with Lakeland Community College.

The Kennedy Center awarded Eric Mansfield with the 2023 Jean Kennedy Smith National Playwriting Award - second place - for this dramatic play inspired by true events.

MORE NEWS: This play won FIRST PLACE at the annual new play competition with Market House Theatre in Paducah, KY. A summer-fall production announcement is forthcoming.

Also, this play's development includes a March reading and feedback session with the talented artists of Elephant Room Productions in Philadelphia.

Synopsis: Lenny King, a homeless man living alone in a tent under Akron’s Brown Street bridge, becomes an overnight celebrity after a newspaper story details Lenny’s kind heart in forgiving three teens who set him on fire and laughed at his pain. Enduring the physical and emotional scars of a man abused by life and his own bad decisions, Lenny must now fend off strangers looking to exploit him for their own publicity, including a quick-buck attorney, nosy photographer, judgemental local church members, pushy developers and others. Still, the news article also brings others from Lenny's past looking to help him and to reconnect.

With each new visitor to what had been his quiet oasis, Lenny fights to retain what’s left of his privacy and dignity while providing life lessons to those who make ignorant assumptions about the homeless.

Light-hearted, gritty, and yet dramatically poignant, The Baron of Brown Street turns the tables on those quick to pass judgment based on where someone chooses to lay their head while providing deep insight into the heart of a man torn between continuing his simple life of homeless depression or choosing one last chance at redemption.

As a mixed-race police family, the Claytons thought they were the model of acceptance, tolerance and love. But when George Floyd dies under the knee of a white cop, the Claytons find themselves at odds with one another both in the riots in the streets of Winesville – or “Whitesville” as it’s known in rural Indiana – and in the family living room. Can white parents and their adopted black children own up to their personal prejudice and reach a deeper level of honesty and support? Or will the nation’s unrest prove too much for this blended family to endure as a cop father in a gas mask faces off with his teen children with a mother/wife caught in the middle?

Visit Next Stage Press to read a sample, order scripts, or apply for performance rights. https://www.nextstagepress.com/whitesville/

NOTE: This play is the product of an ongoing collaboration between the playwright and multiple community members, including many men and women of color, who offered their insights and experiences in helping to craft a story with authentic characters and language. Thanks to those who have been part of this journey, especially director Francine Parr, who gave of their time and talents to examine real issues about race in America with the hope of inspiring difficult conversations long after the final curtain

Army wife Kate Strong is counting down the final days for her husband Ray's return home from the Iraq War when she views a news report of a deadly attack at Ray's base camp, Camp Freedom. Unable to get information of whether Ray is dead or alive, Kate cries herself to sleep fearing the worst. Over the course of the night, Kate is visited three times by visions of Ray - a past, present, and (possible) future version of the man she fell in love with in high school and married the day he deployed. Through these interactions, the audience learns how they fell in love, the unique challenges of being a military couple and how overwhelming it is to be separated during war.

This love story crescendos with sharp feelings, dramatic moments, and even some comedic levity all while draped in the constant uncertainty of whether Ray is already dead. Clues to Ray's fate will keep the audience guessing until the play's emotional climax, which delivers a new appreciation and admiration for military couples.

Love in Reserve had its word premiere as an equity production on Nov. 5, 2021, at Rubber City Theatre in Akron, Ohio and was named "Best New Play by a Local Playwright" for 2021 by the Cleveland Critics Circle.

Original Cast:
Kate - Paige Felger
Ray - Christian Achkar
Officer - Lysander Mills
Directed by Dane C.T. Leasure

To read a sample, order scripts, or apply for production rights, visit Next Stage Press at https://www.nextstagepress.com/love-in-reserve/

Script also available at Drama Book Shop, NYC.

A busy midwest high school is thrown into chaos when a shot rings out in the hallway. Ducking for cover, a guidance counselor, history teacher, PTA president, senior class officer and football coach hide together in the counselor's office.

While trying to stay quiet, most of the group believes they know which student must be on a killing spree. But when that student enters the office to hide with them, the group is forced to back up their suspicions about the teen they think they know.

Under the constant fear of a gunman in their school, maybe even hiding among them, the group must own not only own their prejudices but also the deep secrets each has connected to guns. Do their personal histories with violence justify school leaders prejudging students they think might be dangerous?

When a gun is found hidden in the office, the group must confront their own fears in a moment that will change each of them forever.

Script sample below. For full scripts and licensing information, contact Next Stage Press. https://www.nextstagepress.com/lockdown/

Seasoned detective Joan Banks enters the interrogation room seeking the truth of why a young man decided to come forward on his 18th birthday and confess to a string of unsolved crimes.

Faith assumes her late, estranged father's role of caring for a section of the town's oldest cemetery, where the dead from one of the country's most infamous tragedies help her learn about the dad she never knew and how to cope with still being angry with someone who has passed on.

First 20 pages available for download.

Note: While the story takes place in modern times, this play is set against the backdrop of the real-life school fire that claimed 172 students and 2 teachers in 1908.

Hope Sampson keeps her little black dress -- an outfit she has worn just once -- in the front of her closet as it brings her deep joy every time she sees it, but it's what happened in the years immediately after that night that provides greater meaning to what "the black dress" symbolizes for Hope's life.

Selected by Playground Experience for inclusion in the 2023 Faces of America monologue festival in NYC.

LOGLINE: Four adult children laugh hysterically when they find an old home movie with their parents' names on it, but what they first thought would be an embarrassing bedroom moment captured between their younger parents is instead a shocking revelation leaving each of them with a choice that could destroy their family forever.

OVERVIEW: The four adult children of the Porter family children are saying goodbye to their family home when they stumble onto an old family movie marked "private" with their parents' names on it. After embarrassing laughter and banter, the siblings opt to view the VHS expecting to see glimpses of their younger parents in the bedroom, but instead, they are left speechless as their father has filmed himself admitting to a serious crime committed to supporting the family during tough financial times.

With their father due to arrive in less than an hour, the four face an impossible decision - confront their dad and maybe even turn him in to the police, leaving them to care for their mother, or make a pact on the spot to keep the family secret knowing that other lives were destroyed by what their parents had done to pay the bills.

**A sample of the first 20 pages, which takes the audience up through the inciting incident, is available here for review. Please contact the playwright if interested in reviewing the entire play.

Three couples are excited to see one another for a New Year's Eve dinner party, but they’ll struggle to reconnect when a secret that one couple has been keeping threatens to destroy all of their relationships.

On the last rotation of a speed dating event, a man and a woman are paired up in a conversation both needed to have, if only they had recognized who was seated across the table.

Genre: Modern Romantic Comedy

LOGLINE: Struggling to succeed as a stage actress because of her youthful looks and size, Cindy keeps her acting dreams alive by using her baby face for a different acting role -- helping police, including the cop who might be the man of her dreams, to catch predators via an undercover sting operation.

SYNOPSIS: Cindy Goodweather, 26, won every acting honor while earning her theatre degree at Juilliard, but professional stage opportunities have proven elusive as she simply looks too young to be taken seriously.
Frustrated by a problem others only wish they had and running out of money to continue living in NYC, Cindy accepts an offer from Eddie, a handsome young detective, to use her acting chops in an undercover sting operation. When her success at helping police to catch predators leads to widespread publicity, Cindy must choose between a life on the artificial stage saving teen girls and the bright lights of the theater stage where she longs to follow her dreams and showcase her talents to applauding crowds.

Note: First 20 pages available for download

Logline: Having served hard time for a teen mistake, Melanie seeks a “Second Chance” to restart her life that hinges on overcoming those who want her punishment to continue and family secrets that will challenge her faith in people and herself.

Synopsis: Melanie Meek has waited 10 years for the day she could apply for a “Second Chance” program that would expunge the criminal conviction that sent her to prison at 17, just a few months shy of when she would have graduated from high school with honors.

Steadfast that she was “just in the car” and didn’t know that her boyfriend was about to kill a teen clerk in a holdup, Melanie must face off with the victim’s twin sister, who doesn’t believe Melanie has really learned her lesson.

With the court hearing just hours away, Melanie sees her foundation rocked with the truth about the father she never knew and a secret her sister has kept since that fateful day that sent Melanie to prison.

CHAPTER AND VERSE examines the harsh reality that families endure when a teenager is in the wrong place at the wrong time and the generational impact a single bad decision can make on all of those involved.

Note: This play was written as part of my MFA workshop and was inspired by real circumstances from families I met during my 20-year career as a journalist.

A high school senior's stress gets the better of him as he tries to choose a monologue for his audition to Juilliard. Switching quickly and creatively from one famous monologue to the next, Micki must come to grips that the biggest audition in his life will not define his life.

This play will give a single young actor a chance to live 15 classic characters in rapid fashion all while moving around his bedroom in a battle of man vs. self.

On the day he was fired from his job, Jonah becomes consumed with knowing who called his assistant, Simon, leading both characters into a life-changing standoff in the office.

When a new West Point graduate visiting NYC wanders into a conversation between two veterans playing chess in the park, he gets a life lesson he wasn't expecting and that might just keep him -- and his fellow soldiers -- alive.

The play recently premiered as a radio drama on Gather By The Ghost Light Podcast, which invited the playwright for an interview as well. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gather-by-the-ghost-light/id15045…

This play originally debuted as part of the 2021 Veterans Play Festival at Salem State University in November. More at: https://www.essexcountycreates.org/event/veterans-10-minute-play-festiv…

This play was also chosen for a reading at the Fringe Festival of the 2022 Mid American Theatre Conference (MATC) in February in Cleveland.

Three journalists meet to decompress at an overnight diner after filing their early-morning stories as witnesses to the state of Ohio’s most recent midnight execution -- the lethal injection of a man who raped and murdered two teen girls 20 years ago.

Still processing what they had just witnessed as part of their jobs, each must weigh the value of being a paid observer to a legal act of violence that the public never witnesses. Is there really value in journalists being seated with family members when someone is put to death? How will the experience of being in the death chamber change them?

Can they ever really move on from something they can never unsee?

A heated debate over pancakes and coffee forces each reporter to reconsider not only the merit’s of society’s decision to use the death penalty but what they themselves are enduring as willing members of the fourth estate.

A college student's rush to change clothes for class becomes an emotional roller coaster of frustration, pain and reflection.

A middle-aged couple going through letters from their dating years re-live tender moments only to discover a connection both had missed along the way.

Six people arrive to a timeshare pitch only to learn they have a hidden secret in common that could destroy all of their lives and possibly cost the lives of their loved ones. That is, unless they can successfully play the Waiting Game.

10-minute comedy. Two couples meet at an NYC Airport baggage carousel only to realize they are on their way to the same location since -- surprise -- one couple's daughter and the other couple's son are dating. But the joy of their unexpected connection takes a quick and hilarious turn when they realize what their children have actually been saying about them.

Floyd has always seen the world clearly through his white, middle-class, heterosexual, suburban eyes until he pauses to consider the day-to-day lives of the women in his life and the misogyny they endure in part because he hasn't done anything to help.

As Floyd speaks to the audience, silenced women appear one by one screaming helplessly hoping to wake him to see the real world around him.

On his wedding day, a groom and his father have a heart-to-heart discussion about successes, failures, and what’s really important in life, yet as the conversation unfolds, it’s clear their chat isn’t what it appears to be.

David’s obsession with his ex-girlfriend leads to an emotional showdown at their favorite diner that redefines the idea of ‘dinner theater.’

UPDATE: This script was recently optioned as a short film under the name of RACTORS. It will be shot in Cleveland in April, 2023.

This 10-minute "odd couple" dramedy finds Grace and Kendra seeking common ground on the day they become roommates in their freshman college dorm. (Written in collaboration with Joe Soriano for the 2021 Avenue Arts 24-hour Theatre Festival in Canton, OH).