Mark Cornell

Mark Cornell

Mark Cornell has had more than 85 of his plays produced in theatres around the world. His plays include Sprucehaven B, Two Turtle Doves, All the Answers, Theater More Like Baseball, Desert Song, The Other Half, which won the 2019 Getchell Award, and On Pine Knoll Street, winner of AACT NewPlayFest 2020 (The Sauk). He is an ensemble member with Moonlight Stage Company in Raleigh, partner with Paul Newell with...
Mark Cornell has had more than 85 of his plays produced in theatres around the world. His plays include Sprucehaven B, Two Turtle Doves, All the Answers, Theater More Like Baseball, Desert Song, The Other Half, which won the 2019 Getchell Award, and On Pine Knoll Street, winner of AACT NewPlayFest 2020 (The Sauk). He is an ensemble member with Moonlight Stage Company in Raleigh, partner with Paul Newell with Full Nelson Theater, and co-creator of Marked Men Films with Mark Jantzen. He lives in Chapel Hill, NC. He has an MFA in playwriting from UCLA.

Plays

  • On Pine Knoll Street
    Thelma is a colorful and quick-witted 87-year old woman struggling with her memory. Her devoted daughter Marilyn, with whom she now lives, is trying to make the best of the situation. When Marilyn asks her neighbor Curtis, a struggling writer and stay-at-home father of a special needs child, to care for her mother and her beloved cats while she is at the beach, it sets in motion a friendship that tethers two...
    Thelma is a colorful and quick-witted 87-year old woman struggling with her memory. Her devoted daughter Marilyn, with whom she now lives, is trying to make the best of the situation. When Marilyn asks her neighbor Curtis, a struggling writer and stay-at-home father of a special needs child, to care for her mother and her beloved cats while she is at the beach, it sets in motion a friendship that tethers two families. Funny and heartbreaking, On Pine Knoll Street is an intimate look at the joy and fragility of life, the meaning of home, and the things we do for love. Full length.
  • The Other Half
    The Other Half is a love story. It centers around Michelle, a tough, but damaged young woman, and John and Luke, the identical twins in her life, one of whom she falls in love with. Set in the foothills in Placerville, California, the play tells its story jumping backwards and forwards over a six-year period. Luke, a painter, meets and falls in love with Michelle. The play navigates through a series of life...
    The Other Half is a love story. It centers around Michelle, a tough, but damaged young woman, and John and Luke, the identical twins in her life, one of whom she falls in love with. Set in the foothills in Placerville, California, the play tells its story jumping backwards and forwards over a six-year period. Luke, a painter, meets and falls in love with Michelle. The play navigates through a series of life events – Luke’s funeral, Luke’s first art show, Michelle moving in, John moving away, Luke and Michelle losing a baby, Luke on the plane that kills him, and John returning to collect his brother’s things. The play is about the impact we have on each other, the role of intimacy, love and sacrifice, identity, and what it means to be an identical twin and what it’s like living with one. The play features only two actors – late 20s to early 30s. One actor plays both twin parts – they are never seen on stage at the same time.
  • Carolyn Adams
    As Thanksgiving approaches, men in a used sports equipment shop in a small Northern California town gather in a back room to watch Monday Night Football. Laughter and good times are sideswiped when into the fray comes a young woman who they suspect is the reincarnation of well-loved local girl who died tragically many years ago. Carolyn Adams is a comic-drama about friendship, love, holding on, and letting go.
  • Sprucehaven B
    Set in a remote cabin in Maine, Sprucehaven B spans decades in the hard, tragic life of Isabel, a tough, but fragile woman, in her enduring search for love. A ghostly, dark, violent full length told in three parts.
  • At Birth
    Set in a mobile home in the south, At Birth is a comedy about the crashing of cultures between two couples that meet when their babies, now eight months old, are discovered to have been switched at birth by a disgruntled nurse. Madness ensues. The play also features an oversexed 38-year old grandmother, a talkative parrot, and a large, dead snake. Full length.
  • One Life
    The beauty, and the pain, of one man's entire life from birth to death. 10 min.
  • Bad Thing
    Two brothers on a life-changing car ride to the hospital. 10 min.
  • All the Answers
    After a man dies, he goes to a place between heaven and hell where all of life's questions can be answered. 10 min.
  • Story Road
    At a desolate truck stop in Wyoming, in the middle of the night, a father and daughter try to come to terms with their new life. 15 min.
  • Theater More Like Baseball
    Friends at a play, pre-show, mulling the changes they wish to see to theater. 10 min.