John Monteleone

John Monteleone

John Monteleone

PLAYWRIGHT

10 of John Monteleone’s 15 plays have had Professional and student productions. He has written 6 Full-Length Plays, 9 One-Act Plays, 2 Solo Texts, and 7 Screenplays. A few others have had professional readings in New York City with seasoned professional actors.

All of his plays are detailed on his website where they can be downloaded...
John Monteleone

PLAYWRIGHT

10 of John Monteleone’s 15 plays have had Professional and student productions. He has written 6 Full-Length Plays, 9 One-Act Plays, 2 Solo Texts, and 7 Screenplays. A few others have had professional readings in New York City with seasoned professional actors.

All of his plays are detailed on his website where they can be downloaded free as PDF’s. Additionally, there are numerous Reviews and Letters of Rec from famous writers, production photos and lyrics.

PLAYS PRODUCED:

DROWNING STALLION
Rooftop Theater at Sunway University, Malaysia, in 2014

HOMESICK
William Redfield, New York 1992.
Staged reading, Total Theater Lab, New York, 1991.

THE BOX
William Redfield, New York 1992.
Staged reading, Total Theater Lab, New York, 1991.

HE AND SHE
Special performance, Hudson Guild, New York, 1988.

DIARY OF A MADMAN (solo)
1992 Theater Row Theater, New York.
Professional, Performing Arts Center, Dowling College 1992.

PERFECTLY NORM-I-LL PEOPLE (solo)
Professional, Performing Arts Center, Dowling College 1993.

FARMLAND
Professional, Performing Arts Center, Dowling College 1993.

SNAPSHOT
Professional, Performing Arts Center, Dowling College 1989

CHARADE
Student, Performing Arts Center, Dowling College 1990.

PRISONERS IN PARADISE, and a separate play, THE LAMP
Professional readings in New York City on Theater Row. Both were paid performances 1994-1996.
Professional reading, Performing Arts Center, Dowling College with NYC Actors, 1993.

SCREENWRITER

John has completed 6 full-length feature films and one short film: THE GARDEN, about a paralyzed one-time Wall Street Wiz, and an Upcoming Journalist both hiding from a past of immense abuse and suffering that surfaces as they embrace one another’s lives, in his garden. TOP STORY, about corrupt media mogul's who create and escalate Tragic News Stories for profit, spinning the truth upside down, making the innocent appear guilty and the guilty, innocent. TIMEKEEPER, about John Harrison and Nevil Maskelyne's forty year war over the prize for Longitude in the seventeen hundreds. HOME, a coming-of-age story about a boy growing up during the Depression in Vermont. MEN AND THE SEA about the East End Baymen of LI's fight against huge business and political corruption. WE THE PEOPLE, a high-concept comedy about the Presidency, politics and its dirty laundry, and a Short Film EYES IN THE DARK, about John Hamlet, an actor seeking art for art sake confronted by the harsh realities of the acting business, type-casting him as an Italian thug.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

EDUCATION
John received his B.F.A. via the M.F.A. 3-year Graduate training program in acting and Theater from N.Y.U. Tisch School of the Arts in 1979, and his M.A. in Educational Theater from Adelphi University graduating Summa Cum Laude in 1989. At NYU Tisch School of the Arts he studied with many luminaries of the American Theater: Peter Kass, Olympia Dukakis, Omar Shapli, Paul Sills, Joseph Chaiken, Tony Barsha to name a few. Prior to NYU, he attended Dowling College for 2 years winning a Theater Arts Scholarship for his performance of Lenny in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. At Dowling, age 19, he won the Eastern Division Semi-Finals in the American College Theater Festival for his portrayal of Yank Smith in Eugene O'Neil's The Hairy Ape. He founded, and was Artistic Director of his Repertory Theater Company at Dowling College, NY, as well as a Professor there from 1985-2000, and has extensive writing, directing, producing and performing experience.

ACTING
As an actor and writer John received critical acclaim for his two solos - PERFECTLY NORM-iLL PEOPLE which he wrote, and DIARY OF A MADMAN which he adapted from the Gogol Classic and also performed in New York City on Theater Row. He also received critical praise in The New York Times, Newsday and other major papers as an actor for his performances in such leading roles as Jerry in THE ZOO STORY, Johnny in FRANKIE AND JOHNNY IN THE CLAIR DE LUNE, and many others. John had the privilege of working with Gary Kott (Producer and Writer of The Cosby Show and other major TV productions) in a staged reading of Gary's HIM AND HIS LAST NIGHT OF SANITY at the Grove Street Playhouse in New York City; he also produced the reading. He has acted Off-Off Broadway in the 1970’s and 80’s in numerous productions at small art houses like Club 57, the Player’s Theater and others as well as small regional theaters, and toured the USA playing several different characters with Chamber Theater Productions from Boston. John co-produced and also performed a leading role in an Indy full-length feature film, OF LIES IN LOVE.

ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE, TEACHING, ARTISTIC DIRECTION
From 1985-2000, John was an Artist-in-Residence and an Adjunct Professor of Drama at Dowling College in Oakdale, LI, NY. There, he founded and developed his Professional Repertory Theater and moved his Acting School in residence. He produced 2-4 professional theater productions yearly, as well as working in NYC honing his plays with professional actors often bringing them to the College for readings and discussions with students and the community. He also performed leading roles in his and other plays during this period. He founded a New Play Reading Festival featuring distinguished and up-coming playwrights such as Murray Schisgal, Gary Kott, Joe Pintauro, Keith T. Fadelici and numerous others, and offered a diverse offering to the community: A Children's Theater Touring Company, an Improvisation Company, and numerous Symposiums interviewing legendary figures such as: Budd Schulberg, Cliff Robertson, David Newman, and Murray Schisgal. He also taught a full semester of various theater classes. His work was met with praise by both the academic, surrounding community, and the media for over 15 years, until Dowling fell into financial difficulties and he had to leave.

Plays

  • PRISONERS IN PARADISE by John Monteleone
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: crime, kitchen sink drama + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: crime, kitchen sink drama, kidnapping family, Unity, abandonment, abuse, justice, American Dream, contemporary social issues
    4 Characters
    3 Men. 1 Woman
    Simple Set
    116 pages

    Florida Studio Theatre said:
    “PRISONERS IN PARADISE has rich character dynamics and great use of humor and subtext. The tension is never derailed, and the character arcs are interesting and profound, especially for a piece with such great comedic balance.”
    Catherine Randazzo
    Associate Artist/Literary...
    4 Characters
    3 Men. 1 Woman
    Simple Set
    116 pages

    Florida Studio Theatre said:
    “PRISONERS IN PARADISE has rich character dynamics and great use of humor and subtext. The tension is never derailed, and the character arcs are interesting and profound, especially for a piece with such great comedic balance.”
    Catherine Randazzo
    Associate Artist/Literary Manager
    NOV. 7, 2023
    ____________________________________

    Professional reading in NYC at The Currican Theater.
    Professional reading in NYC on Theater Row.
    Professional reading in NYC at Theater 22.
    Professional reading at Dowling College Performing Arts Center with professional Actors.
    ____________________________________

    Abandoned by those they entrusted to raise and guide them, abused by those they loved, ignored by their leaders, and living in a fragmented, disparate culture run by madmen, this tormented family seeks justice, truth and unity.

    4 Characters
    3 Men. 1 Woman
    Simple Set
    Length: 116 pages

    Punk, a burnt out, intelligent, one-time family man, now divorced, and Johnny, his brother via adoption, have had a very hard life. Johnny’s parents adopted Punk as a baby. The two kidnap a Billionaire Governor’s son, Chris, who is a Harvard Graduate and a Priest, in an attempt to start a new life with the ransom money they think they will obtain. The only problem with Punk and Johnny’s kidnapping scheme is that the Governor won’t answer his phone!

    Eve, Punks one-time lover and Johnny’s cousin, is a porn actress and drug addict who is now pregnant, and is seeking the American Dream. She returns home from a porn shoot and into this world of a kidnapping, to find her drugs for her daily fix, and to cope with her existence. She dreams of a home with Punk, who she loves, for her and her new baby, and Johnny living with them as part of her extended family.

    What Johnny and Eve don’t know in Act One, is that Punk’s hidden motives for the kidnapping have nothing to do with money or escaping poverty, helping Eve off drugs, getting clean, and setting them up in a new life.

    Punk needs to confront the Governor, who is his real father, who had his mother killed when Punk was an infant, leaving him to die in his own defecation. His mother wanted the Governor to help them survive financially, and instead, he had her killed to cover up his affair with her, protect his career, insure re-election, and maintain his marriage.

    Punk wants to reveal to Chris that he knows what happened, who he is, and pursue justice. He also wants Chris to own up to the fact that he did not turn his father in when he knew of the murder, and benefited from his father’s wealth while being a priest.

    The play becomes not about kidnapping as a crime, but a kidnapping necessary to right a crime committed. But the real crime is how all of these characters have been abandoned, abused and ruined by those they depended on for guidance, love and support.

    Prisoners in Paradise offers a comic motif in a dire and existential situation, with four interesting and dimensional characters, where each must deal with their existential reality, and their abusive pasts while trying to find balance and unity for their future together. The play examines social and personal responsibility to self and others, exposing the result of neglect and abandonment, as well as the struggles to overcome them in the search for unity.

    10 Page Writing Sample offered below.
    You can download the full script off my site easily. Or email me and I'll send the PDF.
    Also have many other plays on my new website, with reviews, short and longer synopsis, photos etc.

    https://johnmonteleone.com/product/prisoners-in-paradise/
  • GAME by John Monteleone
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 6 more
    ·
    Keyword: greed, corporations + 4 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, dark comedy, drama, fantasy, political, science fiction, tragedy
    Keyword: greed, corporations, political, sci-fi, Extraterrestrials, business
    6 Characters
    4 Men. 2 Women
    Simple or Complex Set
    Projection Screen Required
    157 Pages

    Two business men, Headhunter and Skinner, have a grip on acquiring ownership of earth stock, use it as a down payment on the galaxy, to win a deal with a visiting reptilian extraterrestrial, to pursue ownership of the universe, for the ultimate payoff of owning Godszillion and the...
    6 Characters
    4 Men. 2 Women
    Simple or Complex Set
    Projection Screen Required
    157 Pages

    Two business men, Headhunter and Skinner, have a grip on acquiring ownership of earth stock, use it as a down payment on the galaxy, to win a deal with a visiting reptilian extraterrestrial, to pursue ownership of the universe, for the ultimate payoff of owning Godszillion and the Void.

    Once those victimized are pushed too hard against the wall of indifference, taking too much from them, and resistance towards change grows, something breaks.

    In Game, it all breaks.

    It breaks beneath the feet of malignant greed, leaving them in the belly of the beast; a past of primordial slime, reptilian consciousness, brutality to survive, indifference, heartlessness, and horrific destruction.

    Game, is a hard-hitting and funny sci-fi tragic-comedy adventure with lacerating, violent, rhythmic dialogue of winning, owning, killing and survival, juxtaposed against the poetry of wisdom, gentleness, and the inherent beauty of compassion and love. The play explores relentless, insatiable greed in the Contemporary Corporatocracy by two demented human Oligarchs, who are willing to do anything for power and wealth and its ultimate results on the world they control, and ultimately their own fates.

    Until it all turns on them.
  • THE DEBATE (completed in 2021) by John Monteleone
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: political, American history + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, experimental, political, satire
    Keyword: political, American history, slavery, immigration, Indian Genocide, corruption, power, fascism, story theater, Multiple Characters
    3 Characters
    2 White Older Men
    1 Woman (African American)
    All 3 play multiple roles
    Simple Set
    101 pages

    Two Characters, fighting for the Presidency, square off in a nerve-wracking, ear-splitting, mind-bending comic-tragic motif of American Politics. In this Story Theater format all 3 characters break out playing other characters throughout history relating to...
    3 Characters
    2 White Older Men
    1 Woman (African American)
    All 3 play multiple roles
    Simple Set
    101 pages

    Two Characters, fighting for the Presidency, square off in a nerve-wracking, ear-splitting, mind-bending comic-tragic motif of American Politics. In this Story Theater format all 3 characters break out playing other characters throughout history relating to the general theme (a Brutal Slave Owner, a Teen Slave Girl, an American Indian Killer, American Indians from different centuries doing ritual dances and being murdered, a Football Team, Sumi Wrestlers, Street Fighters, Lynching Victims, Immigrants in the Industrial Revolution, and serve as a mirror to the chaos, underlying threat, and lack of center still present in our modern culture. Important historical figures of American History come to full life, and speak to us, revealing the true struggles they suffered, and the indecencies our leaders put into law that still define our cultural identity today.

    Through the Debate Platform, we are taken on an imaginative exploration of the American Class Struggle, and its brutal historical roots clashing against modern ideologies that stem directly from them – has the quest for power changed? Have we become a more sophisticated culture, a kinder nation – or are we just the result of a heinous foundation still staining the social, psychological and political landscapes, maintaining division while we call ourselves United?

    The Debate is not only about obvious political platform differences, but the great debate between truth and propaganda, false history and the weakening American Dream, and the myriad of issues that reveal a culture in a war with itself, as words dive head-first into one another seeking Presidential Power and a new American Identity for our future.

    But most of all, the play exposes how a Democracy can slowly leak into Autocracy and Fascism.

    The end of the play exposes the psychological and emotional dystopia of the autocratic mind, nihilistic and sociopathic, exposing the desperate, lost child hiding under a veil of strength and leadership; a statement about America where Fascism was starting to take root.

    We The People came too close – “The Debate” serves as warning for the future.
  • THE LAMP by John Monteleone
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy
    ·
    Keyword: family, corruption + 6 more
    Genre: dark comedy
    Keyword: family, corruption, banking, confiscation, civilized vs primitive, Cultural rituals, evolution, cultural displacement
    4 Characters
    2 Men. 2 Women
    Simple Set
    Length: 92 pages

    “THE LAMP” had professional staged readings at the 42nd Street Workshop and The Harold Clurman Theater on Theater Row in New York City.

    A couple, Dudley and Fiona, were once hippies, seeking peace, love and freedom. But over 20 years, they slowly gave that up for material wealth. Now living in The Hamptons...
    4 Characters
    2 Men. 2 Women
    Simple Set
    Length: 92 pages

    “THE LAMP” had professional staged readings at the 42nd Street Workshop and The Harold Clurman Theater on Theater Row in New York City.

    A couple, Dudley and Fiona, were once hippies, seeking peace, love and freedom. But over 20 years, they slowly gave that up for material wealth. Now living in The Hamptons, they are trapped in the throes of that materialism and facing foreclosure. As their lives and possessions are confiscated, material item by material item, the primality of the outside world moves in, and the primitive influences beneath the surface of our civilization surfaces.

    Today, Mr. Carnaro, the banker is coming to confiscate all of their belongings and evict them from their opulent home in the Hamptons, NY.

    Bonnie-Boo, their daughter, returns home from college, a drug addict, confused and in chaos, wearing a ton of body piercings and tattoos, and is anything but the innocent child they seem to think she is. She’s lost and has no direction.

    Mr. Carnaro was a once Idealistic Archaeological PhD student, who wears a little nose ring he bought from an primitive tribe on a Archaeological dig a long time ago, and gave up on knowledge for money. Carnaro is now a clean-cut, smooth-talking, hawkish banker who has come to confiscate all of their “things”, including their child, attempting to enlist her into his world of money to carry on the slaughter.

    One item that Carnaro finds is a small old lamp. It has a shade on it with a texture unlike anything Mr. Carnaro has ever felt before – “soft as a baby’s skin”. Dudley tells him it’s an antique he picked up in a little German shop from World War II when his company hit the big time in the Fortune Five Hundred. Carnaro leaves the lamp for last to take home with him, glowing softly and sitting on a table up stage center throughout the remainder of the play.

    Their social protections are confiscated. Fiona leaves for a walk while Dudley fears for her life as they no longer have gardeners to control the wilderness outside. Fiona is thrust in through a window badly beaten – something attacked her. Bonnie Boo is influenced by Carnaro’s education, and slowly transforms herself by using mud, tree leaves and branches, turning into primitive and bestial human. She is thrust into an uncontrolled ritual dance, stripped of her identity, trying to fight it but cannot. Dudley has become a threat to Carnaro’s future for Bonnie Boo, so Carnaro forces her to beat her Father unconscious with a large tree branch as she evolves into Carnaro’s partner, hungry for money and disconnected from her actions.

    THE LAMP, is a comic and surreal examination of de-evolution from the mask of wealth and civility we like to believe we exist within, and delves into the primitive influences that permeates and fuels our mask of civilization – as well as the choices we must make to survive within it. Instead of cherishing and evolving human depth and intelligence, we participate in destruction of self, culture, nature and world, destroying priceless human life while worshiping the soft beauty of a material item and profit – even if a baby was murdered, and skinned alive, to obtain it.
  • FARMLAND by John Monteleone
    Cast: 
    9
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, political
    ·
    Keyword: farm, banking + 5 more
    Genre: dark comedy, political
    Keyword: farm, banking, conspiracy, purity, environment, Heritage, History
    9 Characters
    6 Men. 3 Woman
    Simple or Complex Set

    Full Production by The Actors Workshop of LI, at Dowling College Performing Arts Center.

    Farmland, is a surreal journey of a farm family dating back to the beginning, who have lost their farm to unpaid loans for equipment they bought to attempt to survive, and are now being evicted. The bankers and developers are in...
    9 Characters
    6 Men. 3 Woman
    Simple or Complex Set

    Full Production by The Actors Workshop of LI, at Dowling College Performing Arts Center.

    Farmland, is a surreal journey of a farm family dating back to the beginning, who have lost their farm to unpaid loans for equipment they bought to attempt to survive, and are now being evicted. The bankers and developers are in cahoots to force them off their land, unbeknownst to the family – who believed they wanted to help them prosper.

    Freddy was going to be a Fighter and win the match of his life, so Sueanne (his new actress wife) and he could have a life of luxury and save the family from the sharks. But he lost the fight, as the odds were too high against him – it was him, against America and it knocked him out cold. His monologue about this is in the Excerpts below.

    The play opens on the day the Banker, the IRS (a robot) and the Sheriff are coming to evict them. The clash of two worlds, takes us on a journey through the familial and cultural psyche as it loses a connection to its roots, each other, themselves and their identity, emerging with a new identity that fits into a disparate, fragmented, shattered culture.
  • THE LOONY BIN by John Monteleone
    Cast: 
    20
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 6 more
    ·
    Keyword: History, American Indian Genocide + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, experimental, fantasy, farce, movement/physical, satire, verse
    Keyword: History, American Indian Genocide, slavery, prostitution, suburbia, American Family, Christopher Columbus
    20+ Characters – some actors can play multiples.
    106 pages .
    Foley sound effects (mic on the side of the stage, instruments, sound devices, etc.)
    A few groupies and dancers.
    Simple or complex set depending on budget – simple or complex platforms
    Colorful Lighting is needed for color projections.
    Large wall for projections of film clips, art, etc.

    MOMMY,...
    20+ Characters – some actors can play multiples.
    106 pages .
    Foley sound effects (mic on the side of the stage, instruments, sound devices, etc.)
    A few groupies and dancers.
    Simple or complex set depending on budget – simple or complex platforms
    Colorful Lighting is needed for color projections.
    Large wall for projections of film clips, art, etc.

    MOMMY, DADDY, SISSY, ROCK, MOTORHEAD, BEGGAR OR BAG LADY, NICE GIRL, (ALSO THE PROSTITUTE), YOUNG MAN, REVEREND MONEY, CASH, PAN, PIMP, COCHISE, COCHISE’S GRANDSON (REAL ESTATE BROKER), COLUMBUS, THE PRESIDENT, A POLICEMAN, A BOY, A GIRL, 3 OR MORE GROUPIES, 1 MALE AND 1 FEMALE DANCER.

    THE LOONY-BIN is a kaleidoscope collage play spanning American History, exploring the contemporary human condition in an improvisational, story-theater open format. It utilizes rhythmic, rock and roll, poetry, prose and dialogue and is a more 2-dimensional, Brechtian style presentation, rather than a realistic exploration of psychological motivations. It’s visuals are where the power lives, and, the improvisational tone and staging, captivating and often humorous.

    Juxtapositions onstage between the action, tableaus (posed paintings of each era stopped for moments) against real projections of contemporary human tragedy, history, and crime, is juxtaposed against the 2-dimensional satirical motif of over 20 characters – all seeking to escape or control the insanity American Genocide, Slavery and Abuse has created in contemporary life. What are our values? As the play progresses, both the stage tableau’s of the characters and the back wall projections create their own artistic expressions, like 3-dimensional, moving paintings, within the overall theme of the play.

    A Foley stage makes sound effects as actors mime them onstage, while a few musicians reflect mood, or work with Rock, as he goes through his rebellious phase playing electric guitar. A fragmented platform set allows for the many worlds this play explores, colliding, reflecting, crashing into one another like living in a demented city while maintaining its unified whole.

    The play follows Rock, Sissy, Mommy and Daddy, from Rock and Sissy’s teen years into old age. Their Transformations mirror the transformation of America – from violence, into chaos, from rebellion into complacency, as the system of Fascist Oppression in a Plutocracy run by Maniacal Oligarchs, Propagandize the Mass Audience into believing we are a free, great, open minded, fair, caring and compassionate “great” society while using them as working slaves. What really has changed?

    The audience is spoken to directly, almost like a confession by various characters, or become the witness of the action like any normal audience with a 4th wall, existing in various points in the play.

    Are we succeeding to transcend our heritage? Is a protest enough to pretend we’re evolving. The noise of the media, outcries of the abused, create national drama – but the actual inability to move forward, is crippled. Are these the seeds of change, or are we really just stuck within the same historical framework, with the only thing changing is the wall paper or pain job?
  • DOVES IN CEMENT by John Monteleone
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy
    Genre: dark comedy
    2 Characters
    1 Man. 1 Woman
    Simple Set
    75 pages

    This is a Work in Progress but ready to read to see if you're interested in it.

    Who are we alone? Who are we together? What does it mean to be an evolved human being?

    Two highly intelligent, well-educated, successful people, try to escape a marriage they believe they no longer can exist...
    2 Characters
    1 Man. 1 Woman
    Simple Set
    75 pages

    This is a Work in Progress but ready to read to see if you're interested in it.

    Who are we alone? Who are we together? What does it mean to be an evolved human being?

    Two highly intelligent, well-educated, successful people, try to escape a marriage they believe they no longer can exist within, but cannot seem to escape from.

    Their trappings are their memories which have defined their identities, and deepened their lives into profoundly complex contradictions, represented onstage by a large pile of baggage set against a barren stage – items that spur deep meaningful reactions that relate to the identities they have accepted.

    They want to leave the marriage but cannot. The pursuit of breaking free from who you are, or have become, becomes the ring in which the match, to find self, the fight evolves within. Walls up, claws out, hearts closed – break into an openness of self and one another that brings a fuller picture of the depth of connection and identity these two characters are evolving through and into.

    Throughout the play, they move in and out of the light, into darkness, transforming from one memory in their lives to another, as well as various locations of memory as they struggle to connect and disconnect. The Set is nothing but a few black boxes, as they mime any props like a suitcase, sitting at a table eating, etc. while the dark abyss surrounds them.

    Trapped inside an emotional and psychological game of love and relationship-roulette, throughout their attempts to escape from and reunite, we witness raw explorations of themselves, from the highly comic and neurotic, to their dramatic and tragic pasts together, and the larger scope of what love, relating and growth really mean. They struggle with messy love, difficult love, not love based on one’s vanity or ego. They are seeking to exist with one another, because they cannot exist without one another. Self and The Other define both relationships which are ever-changing through conflict, acceptance, and evolution despite the social confines that require survival used as the excuse for remaining together. Something far deeper is the glue, often mysterious, ethereal, and misunderstood.

    Their discoveries break wide open the shallow concepts of contemporary relating defined by labels and cliches that have been accepted, the baggage of the mind, heart and soul. The realization that they need one another, is as surprising to them as the revelation that they cannot separate from the past that has defined them, without losing their sense of self and world they exist within. And yet, to embrace the self, alone or within any relationship, we must not allow past definitions and other people’s perceptions of us, to define who we are now.

    Will they become free – were they ever – or is freedom a concept created because we’re never free? Will their relationship keep their wings bound in the cement of the past? Or can they fly together, as individuals and soar through new landscapes of our vast potential humanity?
  • 9 ONE ACT PLAYS by John Monteleone by John Monteleone
    Cast: 
    2–4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 14 more
    ·
    Keyword: one act play, comedy + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, fable/folktale, fantasy, farce, horror, immersive, melodrama, movement/physical, parody/spoof, political, satire, tragedy, verse
    Keyword: one act play, comedy, drama, tragedy, Surreal, existential, Farce
    This collection offers all 9 of John's One-Act Plays. 

    Many have been produced with both College-Level Students and Professionals in NYC.  As a Professor and Artist-in-Residence at a College for 15 years, John wrote and then worked many of the plays in this collection with his students, and saw the power they had on their development as young artists. He also workshopped and produce several...
    This collection offers all 9 of John's One-Act Plays. 

    Many have been produced with both College-Level Students and Professionals in NYC.  As a Professor and Artist-in-Residence at a College for 15 years, John wrote and then worked many of the plays in this collection with his students, and saw the power they had on their development as young artists. He also workshopped and produce several of them as full productions and staged readings in New York City, on Theater Row, The William Redfield Theater and others. The plays are innovative and challenging in style, genre, character, as well as teaching students about the possibilities of playwriting, acting, directing, and theater in general. Of course they are perfect for professionals too for many of the same reasons. 

    Check out the PRODUCTIONS section where many of the One Acts Plays in this collection have photos of student and professional productions. 

    PRODUCTIONS that have been done from plays in this collection:

    THE BOX 
    Professionally Produced in NYC at The William Redfield Theater

    HOMESICK
    Professionally Produced in NYC at The William Redfield Theater

    HE AND SHE
    Professionally Produced in NYC at Theater 22.
    Professionally Produced at Dowling College
    Student Production - Dowling College
    Student Production - Aquinas College

    DROWNING STALLION
    Student Production - Malaysia University

    TOMORROW
    Student Production - Dowling College

    CHARADE
    Student Production - Dowling College
  • THE BOX by John Monteleone
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: corporate greed, corruption + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, political, satire
    Keyword: corporate greed, corruption, manipulate, Con, money, power
    5 Characters
    4 Men. 1 Woman (can be a stagehand, no lines)
    Simple Set
    47 pages

    Produced at The William Redfield Theatre, NYC (Professional Production.)
    Produced at Dowling College Performing Arts Center (Student Production.)

    Four-character play exposing the demands of the business world transforming innocence into corruption.

    Rooster runs...
    5 Characters
    4 Men. 1 Woman (can be a stagehand, no lines)
    Simple Set
    47 pages

    Produced at The William Redfield Theatre, NYC (Professional Production.)
    Produced at Dowling College Performing Arts Center (Student Production.)

    Four-character play exposing the demands of the business world transforming innocence into corruption.

    Rooster runs his coop, a place where they sell anything to anyone.

    Boy, is a recent college graduate that wants anything but to be working for this creep, who was just like the boy once.

    Web, is a hot-shot salesman who is hiding in the closet because he died humanly and feels safe with limitations surrounding him. His death was due to the numerous boxes he lives in, psychologically, emotionally and humanly.

    Song, is an out of work singer-songwriter who now homeless, enters seeking money to get off the street.

    Through this surreal comedy, Rooster trains Boy and Song to learn what it means to survive today in the business world, and culminates in Boy taking over the coop so Rooster can retire, while Song takes on the role of the Boy at the end of the play. Until an innocent young woman enters who wants to become part of the business world.

    Boy’s transition into corruption from innocence, happens as Rooster trains him, and colors his face green as his is, dressing him in the same clothing he wears, until Boy is more ruthless and cut-throat than Rooster – which pleases Rooster.
  • HOMESICK by John Monteleone
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: family, nuts + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, farce, movement/physical, satire
    Keyword: family, nuts, morality, identity, power, control, dysfunctional family, psychological abuse
    4 Characters
    2 Men. 2 Women
    Simple Set
    50 pages

    Four characters explore the search for individuality amidst a family who embraces the social masks and unquestioned morality that validates their imprisonment, while systematically destroying them.
  • HE AND SHE by John Monteleone
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 5 more
    ·
    Keyword: adult relationships, marriage. growth + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, fantasy, movement/physical, satire
    Keyword: adult relationships, marriage. growth, identity, identity crisis, feminism, new male
    2 Characters
    1 Man. 1 Woman
    Simple Set
    47 pages

    This play explores the struggle for individuality while maintaining a relationship. The characters evolve through specific physicalizations revealing deeply emotional and psychological transitions of self and their relationship.
  • CHARADE by John Monteleone
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: meaning of life, identity + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental, immersive, movement/physical
    Keyword: meaning of life, identity, writer, creativity, meta-theater, Play within a play
    5 Characters
    1 Woman. 4 men, although the stage manager could be a woman.
    Simple Set
    43 pages

    Performed at the Dowling College Performing Arts Center as a student production.

    The Director/Writer of this play is creating the play as the audience watches. What enfolds is the creation that seems to be originating in his head. But the characters often do not like...
    5 Characters
    1 Woman. 4 men, although the stage manager could be a woman.
    Simple Set
    43 pages

    Performed at the Dowling College Performing Arts Center as a student production.

    The Director/Writer of this play is creating the play as the audience watches. What enfolds is the creation that seems to be originating in his head. But the characters often do not like how they’re being written and rebel, or think they’re rebelling, when that is actually what is being written. The characters attempt to define themselves, as the Director/Writer writes, but are not writing their lines – he is.

    Or is he?

    As the Director creates his play the characters go further into their thoughts, feelings, philosophies of life, art, theater and who they are as independent beings, called characters – until the Director/Writer has writer’s block.

    His creations feel trapped in their lines that seem to be in a play within a play, where no one seems to know who is really writing it – are they writing it or is the writer writing it? The Stage Manager in the audience, in the dark, gives them their lines when they go off script. But the Characters don’t often like the lines being given to them, yet have no choice but to say them.

    Even though the confusion is what is actually written in the script.

    Were they written by the Writer/Director, or the Characters in his head, that speak as he listens and writes what they say on the page, or, maybe something else is going on – something else is actually creating the characters in his head, that he listens to and writes down, but takes credit for.

    Except when the characters dislike what he’s writing. Or he dislikes what he’s writing.

    Charade was an experiment in Meta-theater although I was going beyond that.

    Being a writer, actor and director I became keenly aware of the fine line between what humanity is, and what character is. We study the creation of character, in acting – but that soon becomes clearly limited to what we’re really trying to understand.

    The human being’s inner experience is or “can be” vast, connected to all that is – in some ethereal if not intellectual way.

    Character is limiting down from that vast potentiality – labeling characteristics, past experiences and education that to become “the characters” they are – defining specific ways of thinking, responding, acting, hiding, lying etc. All limitations of limitations rather than possibilities of possibilities.

    Within that conflict, when writing a play, one becomes aware of the characters seeming to know what to say and do beyond the writer’s control – be it parts of the writer’s subconscious, or, working through conscious conflicts and ideas, the characters and the writer are doing a dance. Or perhaps we are just channeling something from something somewhere.

    As the Director attempts to shape the play about a play, being written by him, or perhaps the characters in his mind in the play, or, someone else – the actual playwright – ME who wrote all of them. But am I the creator because I have written the play, or just a conduit for something beyond myself.

    These tiers and textures, levels and dimensions, permeate and create The Charade of our existence, as we grapple to better understand who or what is really in control, what we can potentially experience if we’re open to possibility, and how we hide from that by boxing in our characterizations – and tell one another who we are.

    Charade, is fun, and thought provoking, and can use physicalized theatrical staging withing the fluent dialogue that dances between the Writer/Director and his creations.
  • DROWNING STALLION by John Monteleone
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: dreams, of the mind + 7 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, fantasy, horror, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: dreams, of the mind, loneliness, existential, loss, death, passion dying, life ending, regret
    3 Characters
    2 Men. 1 Woman
    Simple Set
    18 pages

    A study in loneliness and the slow deterioration of one’s passion. In the middle of a dark night, an old man confronts the ghosts of his dead wife and son, his sins against them, his own guilt, his fear of death, and his passion that is dying. We learn that the 2 characters involved in the play are really both dead, and are the...
    3 Characters
    2 Men. 1 Woman
    Simple Set
    18 pages

    A study in loneliness and the slow deterioration of one’s passion. In the middle of a dark night, an old man confronts the ghosts of his dead wife and son, his sins against them, his own guilt, his fear of death, and his passion that is dying. We learn that the 2 characters involved in the play are really both dead, and are the ghosts that torment him on the last days of his life.

    The language in this play is both stark and poetic, as the old man confronts his inner fears, demons, and aloneness . A projection of a white stallion, representing his life and passion, slowly galloping under the ocean waves, and disappearing, represents the dying of passion, and the ending of a life.
  • BARRIERS by John Monteleone
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama, political + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: Male Psyche, machismo + 7 more
    Genre: drama, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Male Psyche, machismo, psychological barriers, pain, Execution, Death Penalty, prison, cops, crime
    2 Men
    Simple Set
    52 pages

    Two characters, a cop and a killer, deal with the loss of love and personal imprisonment on the eve of the killer’s execution. A hardened cop, Joe Eagle, and a convicted Killer, Joe Snake, a one-time drug-addict and petty criminal, face off on the night prior to Joe Snake’s execution.

    The play is set in hard cement, a dark room, with large...
    2 Men
    Simple Set
    52 pages

    Two characters, a cop and a killer, deal with the loss of love and personal imprisonment on the eve of the killer’s execution. A hardened cop, Joe Eagle, and a convicted Killer, Joe Snake, a one-time drug-addict and petty criminal, face off on the night prior to Joe Snake’s execution.

    The play is set in hard cement, a dark room, with large bars everywhere. It’s the belly of the male beast and explores MALE IMPRISONMENT, the Macho Psyche, and the barriers that hold that construct against the brutal pursuit of vulnerability.

    Snake, killed the Cop’s daughter 6 years ago, because they were making love in a beautiful park, and he could not accept her beauty and love holding nothing but self-hatred within. As she pulled away, he grabbed her to give her his love, and broke her neck accidentally. But over a decade in jail, Snake introspects and becomes a deeply spiritual, whole and intellectual human being, while Eagle, due to the loss of his beautiful child, becomes hardened with hatred, vengeance, and retaliation.

    The conditions of Snake’s life, prior to the murder, mirror the conditions of Joe Eagle, after the loss of his daughter. The pain created hardened their hearts, created a deep, terrifying desperation to overcome it, but were both limited by their hatred and male conditioning in our culture which demands one be strong, suppress vulnerability, and protect.

    He’s brought Snake there to kill him with his bare hands, to purge the pain of his lost daughter from within through retaliation.

    But what happens is a breaking of barriers we don’t expect, as the two men face off with their full humanity, and nothing to lose, in this hardened jungle of persecution, judgement and transcendence.

    What happens when love is taken away – what’s left?

    The barriers of our consciousness reflect hardened hatreds from years of genetic and social threat, murder, and fear. The male psyche, this machismo-mentality we’re taught to believe in, creates walls of indifference in both thinking, and feeling – shutting out, rather than opening up to any truth that does not condone the limited perspectives they’ve accepted.

    Breaking down the barriers, is the center of all growth; the most difficult barriers to lift are those within ourselves.

    How difficult is it to break free of your own identity, when your inner world is filled with these limitations?

    As Snake says – “Please rephrase the violence.”
  • TOMORROW by John Monteleone
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, fable/folktale + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: regret, aging + 5 more
    Genre: dark comedy, fable/folktale, fantasy, satire, verse
    Keyword: regret, aging, marriage, relationship, unfulfilled life, dreams unfulfilled, Jack and Jill
    3 Characters
    1 man. 2 Woman (1 of these women can be a man instead)
    Simple Set
    18 pages

    Produced at Dowling College with student actors.

    This “Jack and Jill” couple seeking the idyllic life, regret the moments they share together as they live them.

    The language is based on the Jack and Jill English nursery rhyme but with contemporary American...
    3 Characters
    1 man. 2 Woman (1 of these women can be a man instead)
    Simple Set
    18 pages

    Produced at Dowling College with student actors.

    This “Jack and Jill” couple seeking the idyllic life, regret the moments they share together as they live them.

    The language is based on the Jack and Jill English nursery rhyme but with contemporary American language.

    As an old woman, (perhaps one of them one day) experiences her last DAY on earth, sitting upstage in a vertical box, also regretting her life, as the two main characters, Jack and Jill, sit at their desks never moving from them, stage left and right.

    Throughout the play, they put on age make-up and age from their 20’s to old age before our eyes, juxtaposed against their dialogue of regret.

    The brevity of the play, about 20 minutes, reflects the swiftness of our existence and the uselessness of regret as we witness a lifetime perish before us like a wisp of smoke, dissipating in thin air.
  • SNAPSHOT by John Monteleone
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: memory, memories + 7 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, fantasy, movement/physical, tragedy
    Keyword: memory, memories, parents, children, relating, illness, sickness, existential, existential fear
    3 Characters
    1 Man. 1 Woman. The child, or 3rd character, can be male or female
    Simple Set
    42 Pages

    Produced at Dowling College with my adult acting students who I considered to be professional actors.

    The play takes place in the mind of the child, now an adult, remembering the last days of his parents lives. The child remembers, and as he does, the parents...
    3 Characters
    1 Man. 1 Woman. The child, or 3rd character, can be male or female
    Simple Set
    42 Pages

    Produced at Dowling College with my adult acting students who I considered to be professional actors.

    The play takes place in the mind of the child, now an adult, remembering the last days of his parents lives. The child remembers, and as he does, the parents come to life in chilling, sharp images that penetrate what it means to grow old, the interpersonal relationships we have to our parents, and the common human thread we share together.

    Images, like a movie of one’s life shot in quick, transformational snapshots, reflect their parent/child/spouse relationships, the mystery and swiftness of life, and the ephemeral connections they shared together as the child struggles to come to terms with their deaths. Each moment, despite how long it lasted, is but a snapshot of time in the scheme of things and our lives. As if we’re caught in a swift, indifferent river of time. The Child attempts to find a center to these images, memories, joys and pains, as he / she too, grows old.

    The last image sums up the experience; the child grasping for air, trying to hold onto the memories of them, like photographic snapshots that hold the memory and the experience, but not the flesh.
  • MANMADE by John Monteleone
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental + 5 more
    ·
    Keyword: existential, meaning of life + 5 more
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental, fantasy, immersive, satire, verse, young audiences
    Keyword: existential, meaning of life, Theater of the Absurd, hobos, knowledge, business, the machine
    2 Characters
    2 men or 2 women or 1 man and a woman
    Simple Set
    30 Pages

    Two seemingly homeless men, Blab and Yak, are hobos with PhD’s who exist on the Mojave desert that is strewn with old junk.

    Bored, they explore the “air”, and “ideas” that seem to exist within it, and the meaning of meaning, the meaning of existence, to pass the time. But they grow even...
    2 Characters
    2 men or 2 women or 1 man and a woman
    Simple Set
    30 Pages

    Two seemingly homeless men, Blab and Yak, are hobos with PhD’s who exist on the Mojave desert that is strewn with old junk.

    Bored, they explore the “air”, and “ideas” that seem to exist within it, and the meaning of meaning, the meaning of existence, to pass the time. But they grow even more bored.

    Finding junk laying about in the sand, they create a sculpture – a man, so they don’t feel as alone and productive. They contemplate creating a business to sell him, to overcome their boredom. As they contemplate the meaning of their lives, ponder and survive their human frailties and the absurdity of their universal and self-created condition. Their man-made sculpture of a robotic-type machine-man seems to overpower the landscape; their creation is bigger than they are, but completely useless to what they really need.

    The man-made junk man, is a testament to the evolution of materialistic quests via the machine, masking the brutal indifference, the miracle and beauty of raw nature, and who we are as human beings within the conflict.