Sam Affoumado

How to get away with murder? Try the “panic defense.”
The Panic Defense, a docudrama, is loosely based on four actual murder cases of members of the LGBTQ+ community. The personal lives of these four victims unfold as they divulge their struggles, their hopes and their dreams in search of better lives for themselves and for those they love. Unfortunately, their gender identities are the catalyst to four senseless, hate-filled murders depriving each of them of their future.

After their deaths, they are victimized again by a judicial system that allows “gay panic defense” strategies to bolster claims of diminished capacity, self-defense and provocation thereby lessening the charges and reducing the criminal sentences for the perpetrators including acquitting them of all charges. Gay Panic defense strategies (still legal in 42 states) seek to capitalize on the bias in favor of heterosexuality and blame the victims for their own demise. With the increase in violence fueled by growing homophobia and transphobia in the USA, the question remains” Does our judicial system afford equal justice to members of the LGBTQ+ Community?

Hel’s Kitchen, a comedy-drama, is a period piece set in The Bronx of 1961. It is a realistic account of a watershed weekend in the life of a young woman. Helen, the eighteen year old, sewer-mouthed fat girl, along with her friends Vinny (the stud), Stanley (the brain) and Fern, a student of beauty culture, are not quite prepared to leave their teen years behind them. They discover that their relationships to one another must be re-defined in order for them to survive as a group and emerge as individuals. Helen has always used her clique to insulate herself from life but she recognizes that she has been standing still while the rest of the world has been passing her by. She is caught between two opposing forces. Her friends want Helen to remain in her role as leader of the group. Helen’s mother, Sadie, also wants her to keep the status quo because she herself is terrified of change. Helen’s brothers want her to break away and expand her horizons; one because he thinks it’s in her best interest, the other because he wants her to meet a better class of people like his new fiancée, Bonnie, the quintessential Bronx Princess. Helen’s new awareness becomes the source of her struggle to find the proper balance between the comfort of the old and the challenges of the new.

Dummies takes place during the 1967-1968 school year in a NYC public junior high school. John Lucci, a new Special Education teacher, avoids the draft and the inevitable tour of duty in Viet Nam by taking on a class of students who have been rejected everywhere else. John loses his heart to the children, two especially. He and the defiant, “emotionally disturbed” and potentially brilliant Angel develop a tumultuous relationship that causes each to grow. And John is continually pushed to do better by the hyperactive Rosetta, whose unflagging honesty demands of her teacher and classmates that they always do the right thing.

John’s deepening appreciation for the children leads him to insist on their right to the kind of education that will truly develop their potential. However, his advocacy alienates the administration to the extent that it may cause him to forfeit the job that has, so far, saved him from the draft.

SUDS, a gay serial, comedy-drama, takes place in a NYC Brownstone. It’s about the entangled lives
of a group of unconventional people some of whom have provocative pasts they do not wish to divulge
to their present circle of friends. We follow Marty Hardman and the muscular love of his life, Jock,
through their ups and downs, ins and outs. The friends who help them through love and loss include a writer of children’s books, a pretentious master-chef, a “non-performing” drag queen/fortuneteller who may
actually have psychic gifts, a prostitute, and a man with a questionable identity. Every one has something to hide, but all secrets eventually are exposed, for good or ill. Through a series of mishaps, false-identities and a personal tragedy, we find real people struggling to live with themselves and one another.

More Suds (a stand-alone piece) is the second installment of the gay, soap-style, comedy-drama, SUDS. We follow Marty Hardman and his devoted city pals, Chris (the pretentious Chef de Cuisine) and Don (writer of children's books and Doctor Seuss enthusiast) to their new country digs. The peace and quiet of the countryside is shattered with the unexpected arrival of Marty's autistic Uncle Ira and a hot but kinky pondscaper. Adapting to the “country life” isn’t as easy as it seems. Long time friendships are tested, relationships are strained and family ties prove awkward when the boys settle into their gay “Green Acres.”

Straight-Talking examines the inner identity struggle of a vulnerable high school senior, who is outed when photos of his sexual indiscretion appear on Facebook. His well-educated but misguided parents try to “fix” the problem by sending him to a ‘conversion’ therapist to rid him of his unwanted same-sex attraction. After undergoing gay ‘conversion’ counseling, he is sent to a weekend retreat where he is
exposed to abusive practices meant to help him on his journey into manhood. Unquestionably, the unconditional support of his best friend and his sister help him to discover his authentic self. In the process, he exposes the inherent flaws in the ‘conversion’ ideology and practice. His transformation is a revelation.

Under Wraps – Synopsis

The mayor has taken control over a bureaucratic school system, appointed a like-minded chancellor and, together, they attempt to rid the system of unwanted teachers despite the fact that teacher tenure
protects them from being fired.

While his union stands on the sidelines, Javier Díaz-Johnson, a well-respected, high school history teacher, is being warehoused together with an incompetent, aging English teacher, an art teacher who suffers the indignities caused by his outbursts due to Tourette’s Syndrome, a Special Educator accused of illegal practices, as well as other unwanted teachers, all strangers to one another. They are banned from their respective schools and mandated to report to a reassignment center: spending long days in a small, windowless room with nothing to do but wait. They are waiting for a judgment that may never come. Some of them are innocent and some are guilty of minor infractions while others may have committed more serious
offenses but none of them deserve their prolonged punishment. With their careers shattered, their reputations tarnished and their fate hanging in the balance, hostilities are unleashed as Javier Díaz-Johnson tries to unite the group with a call-to-action. His own sense of justice and fair play contributes to his demise as the nightmares unfold in the “Rubber Room.”

A hospital clown and a Soap Opera leading man compete for votes on a reality game show. Each one is determined to secure the final ticket to join the eleven, previously selected, pioneers on their journey of a lifetime. They will do or say anything to win the prestigious award: a year in a simulated space habitat, monitored by reality TV and the eventual leadership role of commander-in-chief of the one-way flight to Mars.

At a local school carnival, Jamal (a nerd) confronts the unexpected when a fortune-teller gives him an opportunity to see his future. At her concession, “Spin The Bully,” she beckons him to engage with
the fierce prototype in order to get a glimpse of what his future may hold. Will he continue to be victimized by the bully in his life or will he learn something about his own character as he experiences the world through the bully’s eye?

As part of their history class project, high school sophomores, Emma and Chris, must choose historical figures that represent their ideal of heroism. The day before the project is due, they work together in Emma’s bedroom, trying to figure out how best to present their respective heroes. Both of them have strong opinions about who is hero-worthy but their inability to see the other person’s point of view begins to jeopardize their budding relationship as well as their class project. As they struggle with the assignment, they discover more about each other and about themselves than they do about their historical figures of choice.

A gay couple, having difficulties in their new relationship, seeks the expertise of a, once famous, sex therapist. During their initial visit to Doctor Truth’s office, John and Wayne experience more than they had bargained for as the madcap, Doctor Truth "tells it like it is."

Every Tuesday evening, in Flogsta, Sweden, something strange happens. People open their windows and scream at the top of their lungs. During one of these screaming marathons, two international students at Uppsala University meet for the first time. Angelo, a New Yorker, has turned his passion for violent, armed conflict video games into a future career move by enrolling in a Master Program for Game Design while Valentina, an ardent pacifist from Spain, is studying Global Conflict Resolution. Will their immediate attraction to one another be thwarted by their ideological conflicts or will screaming help them to assuage their differences?

Two college interns are saddled with the monumental task of selecting the final script to be added to a group of finalists for a theatre company’s emerging playwright contest. They frivolously disregard many play entries until a stranger visits them.

Home Sweet Home is a comedy-drama about a relationship between an elderly, irascible, film critic
and his young health aide. Robert has had a stroke and has lost his ability to communicate with others.
He must now endure a lengthy stay at a rehabilitation facility. Kendrick, his recently assigned aide, is the only person who seems to have no trouble understanding him.

Meetings of the Mind is about three, twenty-something, strangers who meet
on a street corner bench. They are drawn together by a common interest
or so they think. Two of them are first-time members of a meet-up group they joined
via the Internet. Their cordial interactions turn sinister as they learn far more about themselves
and each other than they bargained for.

Peanut Butter Patty- Synopsis
Peanut Butter Patty is a drama about a middle-aged couple, Tammy and Earl, who have fallen on hard times. Earl is on disability while Tammy tries to pay the bills and save the marriage by working as a “greeter” at their local Wal-Mart. Their relationship is on a downward spiral but their lives are about to dramatically change, when an unconventional Girl Scout pays them a visit.

A soon-to-retire, special education high school teacher is visited by a former student who is now in college. Both the teacher and student have lessons to learn.

Mr. Horner, the nursery school principal, admonishes two of his teachers, Georgie and Baabara for having caused a nursery rhyme scandal at their school’s annual Rhyme Week competition. They are accused of being too “progressive” in their presentations. But what could they have done to enrage the parents and the school board and generate such controversy?

Internet Sleuths run amok when one of their own behaves erratically and undermines their ability to solve their case of the missing newly-wed.

Two antagonistic college students are trying to make the world a better place by studying Aristotle’s Ethics. Though they live in close proximity to each other geographically, their respective communities and life experiences are worlds apart. Can they find a common moral ground and find happiness?

Will a troubled, middle school educator find help from a Grief Counselor or can a simple morning coffee ritual provide a gateway to a healthier life?

An elderly woman, living in a memory care unit, finds happiness and a higher purpose when she successfully assassinates the house plant that has become the bane of her existence.

During a period of isolation and a recent personal loss, Jay takes a lesson, from an unusual source, as he imagines himself in a world with a more promising future.

From his basement, a man delivers a self-taped Webinar to explain how to survive a man-made disaster. He is promoting a special kind of mask that may save us all from an ongoing threat.