Matthew Everett

Jake Gilmore, 24, is an Olympic freestyle skier on the X-Games circuit about to come out of the closet in a very public way. Ken Markus, 48, is a gay playwright who’s been out longer than Jake has been alive. Despite differences in age, experience and profession, the two men have formed a loving relationship which has somehow survived a year in the closet. Coming out to family and friends may prove just as tricky. The play “TV Boyfriend” alternates between two timelines – the events in the present surrounding Jake’s coming out, and the night Jake and Ken first met, which turned into a long weekend together forming the foundation of the relationship that prompted Jake to step out of the closet and into the light. Since one of the characters is a playwright and the two men first meet in a theater, the script also consciously operates on a third (meta) level outside the two time streams, where actors out of character address the audience in words and song through the fourth wall, make-up is removed and clothes changed in view of the audience as scenes progress and transition, and characters call attention to the use of actors in multiple roles ("is it weird that she reminds me of my mother?"; Jake bonds with his agent over their sisters, the actress in the role the agent later takes on the role of Jake's sister, etc.) The play ultimately becomes the vehicle of the two men sharing their story.

Thanks to his mischievous friend Jeffrey, who’s begun dabbling in witchcraft, Micah has accidentally dosed his best friend Auggie with a love potion. Which might be fine, if Auggie wasn’t straight, and married, or if Auggie’s wife Sarah wasn’t pregnant, or a practicing witch. With the help of Duncan, who runs the local metaphysical supply store, the race is on to whip up the antidote before anyone does something they’ll regret.

(a romantic comedy with monsters in one act) (50 minutes) - If you’re a werewolf, dating is hard enough. But when your ex is a zombie who just won’t go away, that can complicate matters. A romantic comedy with a supernatural twist, because everybody’s a monster a couple of days a month.
Terry has recently been diagnosed with latent lycanthropy - a carrier of the werewolf virus, which can be spread through sexual contact. In a restaurant, Terry’s date, Robin, reminds them of Terry’s doctor, and a memory of a recent medical appointment. When Robin steps off to the restroom, the waiter arrives. The waiter turns out to be Glenn, the zombie remains of Terry’s former lover, who has some unfinished personal business with Terry. But then, Terry has unfinished personal business with Glenn as well.

(This play is written to be non-gender-specific, so the actors could be in any combination of male or female. Adjust the pronouns accordingly.)

(mythology as a dark romantic comedy in one act) (90 minutes) - Medea’s sons want her to tell them a story. So Medea tells the tale of an epic love story gone horribly wrong – the story of how the young adventurer Jason met the princess Medea, the story of how the boys’ mother met their father. Medea conjures the other players in the tale, unfolding the origin of the Golden Fleece, and the quest of Jason and the Argonauts. But truth is a slippery thing – depending on the person telling the story, and the reasons they’re telling it. The messier the story gets, the more variations which appear. Throughout, the goddesses and gods of legend meddle in affairs of the human heart. Medea betrayed her father and her country in order to help Jason obtain the Golden Fleece. She helped murder her own brother to aid their escape. Before it was all over, a giant, two kings, and a princess, among others, were dead. And depending on which version you believe, Medea’s sons die as well. But who kills them, and why? “Medea and Jason: Rubicon Waltz” explores the stories and lies we tell others, and ourselves.

(a drama of "don't ask, don't tell" in two acts) (2 hours, 15 minutes) - 2010, the year it all finally started to change, somewhere in the United States of America: Seth is a young Marine serving during wartime. Nicholas is his civilian husband who waits back home. In addition to the strain on their relationship caused by distance and absence, they must hide their love for one another behind code words and secret identities because of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy barring gays and lesbians from serving openly in the United States military.

Seth's mother Anne assists them by providing the cover of a woman's handwriting for Nicholas' daily letters, but Nicholas and Seth's resolve is starting to weaken.

Jonas, another young gay Marine in Seth's unit just coming to terms with his identity, forms an intense bond with Seth overseas.

Tyson, a former Army soldier who got fed up with "don't ask, don't tell" and didn't reenlist, now works alongside Nicholas, providing temptation as well as a reality check.

When Seth returns home for an unexpected leave, with Jonas at his side, and post-traumatic stress following him from the battlefield, old relationships are tested, and new ones bloom. In the end, the realities of war call on one man to make the ultimate sacrifice.

(a wedding comedy-drama in one act) (90 minutes) - A double wedding. Two couples - one straight, one gay - divided over what their ceremony should mean to themselves or anyone else. A lovelorn lady minister who has a secret of her own. A policeman torn between the picket line outside the church and the ceremony he's obliged to protect. A protester with ties to the bride and the grooms who's willing to throw rocks through stained glass windows to keep the vows from taking place.

****************

Eleanor and Ephram, sister and brother, are both getting married on the same day. And they're each getting married to a man. With protesters, policemen and a TV news crew outside the church, inside the couples are split over what their day and their ceremony should mean, to themselves or anyone else.

Patrick, Ephram's groom, agrees with Eleanor that they all need to make a statement by getting married. But Roland, Eleanor's groom, and Ephram both just want a simple ceremony and a quiet day.

Another attraction begins to blossom between the female minister, known as the Duchess, and one of the policemen standing guard over the church, Duke. But a secret from the Duchess' past may prove more of an obstacle than the two of them can overcome.

Meanwhile, outside among the protesters, Patrick's younger brother Jacob hurls a rock through the stained glass window in an effort to keep the wedding from taking place. When the rock draws blood, one couple may not end up getting married today, or any other day.

Men have died from time to time,
And worms have eaten them,
But not for love.
- As You Like It, William Shakespeare

(a Christmas musical in two acts) (2 hours) - book and additional lyrics by Matthew A. Everett, music and lyrics by Rob Hartmann - Six actors (three men and three women) portray eighteen characters in four interlocking stories which span four generations of an American family in the living room of the Harrison home on a day prior to Christmas in 1998, 1971, 1951 and 1921. These holidays hold a mix of love - both requited and unrequited, pregnancy, unemployment, war, divorce, mourning, and distance - both physical and emotional. Equal parts humor and heartache, the script and musical styles jump back and forth in time, until the tree is decorated, the families in their new configurations are united, and new traditions are forged as old ones are reaffirmed.

In 1998, Abby has been recently widowed by the sudden death of her husband Jeff. Abby's three grown children return home for the holidays, some more willingly than others. Son Ethan arrives with new wife Molly (secretly pregnant). Youngest son Jeremy, on winter break from college, is having the hardest time adjusting, due to unresolved issues with his late father, and his first personal experience with mortality. Eldest daughter Gail tries, with mixed success, to play peacemaker. Jeff's spirit and memory crowd every room as Abby's attempts at humor and normalcy grate on her captive audience.

In 1921, David has lost his job and is in danger of losing the family home. A new job presents itself, but would require him to be away for the holidays, and for some time after. As David is dogged by the thought that his family may no longer need him, his wife Abigail fears that if David leaves, he may not return. The couple struggles to find a way to communicate with one another and strengthen the family before it is pulled apart, perhaps for good. The needs of their children, Margaret and Joshua, and the conflicting opinions of their close friends Will and Ann further complicate the situation.

In 1951, Margaret is grown up with a family of her own. Her son Mickey is returning, injured, from the Korean War, with his army buddy Ben in tow. Her daughter, Abby, here only ten, runs rampant through the house. Her husband Ned plays referee in the sparring match between Margaret and Mickey's fiancee Kitty. Once all six of them are under the same roof, a love triangle reveals the frayed edges of family ties and romantic alliances brought about by Mickey's time under fire in Korea.

In 1971, Mickey and Kitty's nineteen year marriage has finally come unglued, and the awkward juggling of kids and competing family commitments brings everything to a boil.

(a one-act comedy about sexual, romantic, & spiritual identity - and a guy in a dog suit) (90 minutes) - A tight-knit group of college friends struggle with sexual identity, spiritual yearning, and romantic confusion - and all is somehow made right by Skippy the Wonder Dog, a young man in a dog suit with problems of his own.
Harris likes Ralph who likes Isobel who likes Linc who likes Skippy, who he doesn't know is Spencer under that dog suit. Harris is struggling to be true to his fabulous self in a butch gay boy's world. Ralph is trying to get out from under his brother Linc's shadow. Isobel is trying to free herself from her irrational obsession with Linc. Linc is just trying to hold together the pieces of his broken heart in the wake of his first big breakup. Diana is struggling to come out to Isobel, which is complicated by the fact that Diana has bonded with Isobel over their common religion, but also likes Isobel as more than a friend. And Spencer would like to be more than just the guy in the dog suit at the mall for Linc, but can't reveal himself to him while on duty - a job he needs to support himself since his parents kicked him out. Window shopping has just become a contact sport.

(a haunted love story in two acts) (2 hours) - Byron's been dead nearly two years but Cian's still having conversations with him. Cian's brother, Vince, was Byron's best friend in life. Haunted by fading memories of Byron, Vince is angered by the visits his brother is receiving, particularly because Vince was a constant presence at Byron's hospital bed during Byron's last days, while Cian could hardly bring himself to visit twice.

As the brothers fight for custody of Byron's ghost, the two people who love them push for Vince and Cian to get on with their lives. Gabby, a bartender and Vince's long-term girlfriend, defends her religious convictions against Vince's feelings that God has betrayed him by allowing Byron to die. At the same time, Andrew, a reformed hustler, courts Cian but is frustrated by Cian's continuing devotion to Byron's memory.

Moving fluidly between past and present, "Heaven and Home" is about the different kinds of love and friendship, grief and loss. How a sense of humor and a hand to hold are sometimes the only things that can lead you out of a dark place. A story of the afterlife and the life after.

(a romantic interlude involving money and sex) (25 minutes) - Jonathan's parents gave him a hundred dollar bill to go get something he wants as a graduation present. What he wants is to lose his virginity before he graduates. And he wants to lose it with David, the frat boy he shares a lab station with in chemistry class. On the night before graduation, alone in the chemistry lab, the young men strike a bargain. Following through may be more complicated than either of them imagined.

(four related short plays) (1 hour) - When Dana and Ash, two high school sweethearts now in their thirties, meet again in the ruins of their old elementary school, the undertow of old emotional ties threatens to undo their current relationships with others. Will Dana be able to resolve his conflicts with his lover Julian over the long-distance relationship into which their connection is evolving? Will Ash find love with Aidan the pizza boy? Will Dana and Ash find their way back to each other? Should they?

The four parts of the "Dandelion Snow" cycle can be performed as stand-alone pieces, in combination or all together as part of the larger story (1 hour).
Dandelion Snow (10 minutes), Across Their River (10 minutes), Extra Cheese (30 minutes), Tools (10 minutes)