Colin Crowley

Colin Crowley

Colin Speer Crowley is a playwright-lyricist who has written a variety of dramatic works, including four musicals, fourteen straight plays, a rock opera, and a few screenplays. His work has been performed throughout the United States, including California, Washington, Maryland, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Louisiana, Colorado, Kentucky, Texas, and New Jersey. Plays and...
Colin Speer Crowley is a playwright-lyricist who has written a variety of dramatic works, including four musicals, fourteen straight plays, a rock opera, and a few screenplays. His work has been performed throughout the United States, including California, Washington, Maryland, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Louisiana, Colorado, Kentucky, Texas, and New Jersey. Plays and screenplays by Crowley have been recognized in over 50 national and international contests since 2012 and songs to which he’s written the lyrics have been performed in musical revues in London. Additionally, Crowley has had the pleasure of seeing his work performed in theatrical capitals on both sides of the Atlantic, including New York City and London’s Covent Garden. Crowley is a member of ASCAP, Dramatists Guild, The Lambs of New York, the Playwright’s Center, the New Play Exchange, and Phi Beta Kappa and also served as founder and president of the theatrical group Speerhead Theatricals.

Plays

  • Respectfully Yours, Julia Sand
    It’s the year 1880 and Chester Alan Arthur has just been elected Vice-President of the United States, despite being a creature of the New York political machine and a participant in the rankest corruption. As a devotee of soirees above all, Arthur is content to remain in the largely ceremonial role - until, that is, the actual President is shot and killed. Propelled into history, Arthur must choose between...
    It’s the year 1880 and Chester Alan Arthur has just been elected Vice-President of the United States, despite being a creature of the New York political machine and a participant in the rankest corruption. As a devotee of soirees above all, Arthur is content to remain in the largely ceremonial role - until, that is, the actual President is shot and killed. Propelled into history, Arthur must choose between feeding the corrupt impulses of his friends and doing what is right for the country. He waffles, he wavers - and then suddenly he receives an inspiring letter from a mysterious woman who gives him the courage to stand up for himself and for what he knows is right.
  • The Last Flight of the Electra
    “The Last Flight of the Electra” is a full-length, one-act play set in December, 1968 about the self-contented, intensely private millionaire Aileen Craigmore, whose life is turned upside down when her obsessive secretary, Sandra Houser, accuses her of being Amelia Earhart, the famous aviatrix who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in July, 1937. Obsessed by Earhart, Sandra has long been a fan of the aviatrix...
    “The Last Flight of the Electra” is a full-length, one-act play set in December, 1968 about the self-contented, intensely private millionaire Aileen Craigmore, whose life is turned upside down when her obsessive secretary, Sandra Houser, accuses her of being Amelia Earhart, the famous aviatrix who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in July, 1937. Obsessed by Earhart, Sandra has long been a fan of the aviatrix and, to Craigmore’s increasing horror, like a magician pulling rabbits out of a hat, produces more and more “evidence” that Craigmore is really the living, breathing Earhart, freed from Japanese captivity after World War II by the United States government. A tense, manic game of cat-and-mouse follows as the increasingly determined Sandra seeks to corner the increasingly desperate Craigmore into admitting her “real” identity… whatever that may be. “The Last Flight of the Electra” is an exciting, even haunting play about the nature of identity – who we truly are and who we choose to be – and, indeed, the extent to which there is any difference between the two.
  • A Flower of the Field
    It’s the winter of 1349 and the Black Death is at its height – and none more so than in the city of Kilkenny in southeast Ireland. There we find St. Francis’s Abbey, where Father John Clyn, a gentle friar, is the sole surviving member of his order and spends his time tending the hundreds of infected people in the abbey. Recently, however, a rumor has emerged, started by a mysterious man, that a distant well...
    It’s the winter of 1349 and the Black Death is at its height – and none more so than in the city of Kilkenny in southeast Ireland. There we find St. Francis’s Abbey, where Father John Clyn, a gentle friar, is the sole surviving member of his order and spends his time tending the hundreds of infected people in the abbey. Recently, however, a rumor has emerged, started by a mysterious man, that a distant well cures people of the plague if they walk through its waters, causing the sick to flee St. Francis’s Abbey. Clyn does not believe the story of the well is real and dreads what will happen to the people of Kilkenny who have put all their faith and trust in a cruel falsity.

    Before too long, Clyn learns from the self-important Richard Ledrede, Bishop of Ossory, that another danger lurks – namely, Dame Alice Kyteler, an accused witch who murdered her four husbands some twenty years ago and who fled Kilkenny after the Bishop tried to capture her, taking with her the daughter of a maidservant who was subsequently burned at the stake. Ledrede, formerly imprisoned by Kyteler and filled with vengeance, has heard that Kyteler was recently sighted in Kilkenny and warns Clyn to look out for her. Around the same time, Clyn also finds himself tending an infected man – Mathias O’More – who suddenly appeared at the abbey and who Clyn recognizes as the man who previously spread the lie about the well.

    Despite Mathias’s deception, Clyn nevertheless heals the man and feels a special connection to him. As such, he tries to take the gritty, cynical Mathias and mend his broken soul – but this plan is interrupted when a mysterious, sinister woman appears at the abbey door one night. It’s none other than Alice Kyteler herself, accompanied by the quiet, shellshocked Basilia de Meath, the young girl with whom she absconded over twenty years ago. Mathias is repulsed by the evil Kyteler and, losing faith in Clyn as a source of goodness, flees the abbey.

    Because Basilia is unwell, Clyn allows Kyteler and her maidservant to stay at the abbey, but then quickly senses that Kyteler is there for a more nefarious purpose, especially when she refers to Clyn as “Robert Artisson” - a name he knows only too well, because it is his own. Indeed, says Kyteler, she knows he isn’t really John Clyn at all, but a fake, a phony, and a fraud, who took the real John Clyn’s identity as his own and is masquerading as a healer.

    Cornered by Kyteler, Clyn locks her in a chamber, buying himself time to plan his next steps – which include a hope that Mathias will have a change of heart and return to help Clyn take care of the sick… for when the people of Kilkenny learn that the distant well does not save lives, they will return as desperate as ever – and who else is there to give them hope?

    With Kyteler imprisoned, Mathias still absent, the Bishop on a vengeful streak, and now being saddled with a mute, distant young maidservant – as well as very little time – Clyn must fight to champion the hope he has worked so hard to build – but how can he do it... and who and where is the real John Clyn?
  • I and the Emperor
    Come October 1815, the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean has a new visitor – Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, fresh from his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo and condemned to spend the remainder of his life in “house arrest” on the island. Anticipating the controversial conqueror’s arrival is the 16-year-old Betsy Balcombe, who has lived most of her life hearing stories of...
    Come October 1815, the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean has a new visitor – Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, fresh from his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo and condemned to spend the remainder of his life in “house arrest” on the island. Anticipating the controversial conqueror’s arrival is the 16-year-old Betsy Balcombe, who has lived most of her life hearing stories of Napoleon as a Genghis Khan-like marauder.

    Before too long, Betsy is able to test these rumors herself, since the Emperor, waiting for his final residence to be prepared, temporarily moves into a cottage on her father’s property. In the following weeks, Betsy raises up the courage to speak to the Emperor and come to know him more and more – and know him, too, in undulating waves, first as a harmless, petulant child, but second as a misunderstood man with heart and soul.

    The house of cards collapses when Betsy stumbles upon Captain James Wallis, a man who was imprisoned for 10 years by Napoleon some years back, prior to a daring escape across the Seine. Could it be that Wallis’s first-hand account of torture and murder is true and the Emperor is the monster everyone else claims? When Betsy tries to find out, Napoleon erupts in rage, turning into a crazed, raving madman and bringing Betsy back to the raw reality that the man she has come to trust, even admire, is, at heart, callous and cruel.

    Feeling tricked and foolish, Betsy exiles herself from the Emperor for some months and is only prompted to see him again through entreaties by one of his servants, who recognizes that the Emperor, increasingly sick and lonely, misses the young girl’s spirit. Betsy is determined not to revive her relationship with the Emperor, but finds herself doing just that when the spiteful new Governor of St. Helena expels Napoleon’s personal physician, leaving him, in his sickened condition, ripe for death. Buoyed by sympathy and a new realization that cruelty is not just a Napoleonic vice, Betsy determines to see the Emperor again, despite the introduction of new, restrictive pass laws – but can she gain appropriate clearance before he dies and finally make peace with the man and his complexity?
  • Margo Asher Died Here
    Nestled in the rural hills of Litchfield, Connecticut is the Margo Asher Home for the Aged - a Chateauesque mansion once owned by the independent, world-traveling photographer Margo Asher. The nursing home is overseen by its anal-retentive Executive Director, Roger Managee, assisted by a headstrong, no-nonsense nurse (Mabel) and a more gentle, social-climbing Somali immigrant (Aamiina).

    One day...
    Nestled in the rural hills of Litchfield, Connecticut is the Margo Asher Home for the Aged - a Chateauesque mansion once owned by the independent, world-traveling photographer Margo Asher. The nursing home is overseen by its anal-retentive Executive Director, Roger Managee, assisted by a headstrong, no-nonsense nurse (Mabel) and a more gentle, social-climbing Somali immigrant (Aamiina).

    One day, a new resident comes to live at the Margo Asher Home – an elderly man named Mr. Wixom, confused and barely communicative – brought there by his son, David, a gruff owner of a construction company. Before too long, the elderly gentleman is found to be connected at the hip to another resident, the more alert, vinegary Mrs. Chatwick, whose professional, feminist daughter, Shirley, is a women’s rights attorney.

    As Mr. Wixom and Mrs. Chatwick become more and more of a pair, David and Shirley grow closer, too, sharing similar stories of parental neglect and similar feelings of parental pity.

    Then it happens…

    One night, Aamiina enters Mr. Wixom’s room to ensure he is sleeping soundly, but finds this is not the case - he and Mrs. Chatwick are having sex.

    While seemingly consensual, this sexual incident causes ripples of controversy, including among the other residents, with the antiseptic Managee seeking to downplay and limit the sexual encounters, the cautious, career-focused Aamiina following Managee’s lead, and the headstrong Mabel rejoicing in the sex as a sign of rebellion and true living. David and Shirley similarly are of differing opinions. Shirley sees the sexual relationship as evidence of her mother’s liberation after years of being a forced housewife. David worries that his father is being used, as he was by exploitive employers throughout a poor, working-class life.

    As time passes, the controversy grows greater and greater, the battle lines grow deeper and deeper, and the questions become ever starker… Are Mr. Wixom and Mrs. Chatwick using sex to express some great burst of freedom and life – or is this something darker? Is the old Mr. Wixom aware enough to consent? Does he even know who Mrs. Chatwick is? Is this rape? Is Mrs. Chatwick unfairly targeted for disdain? And what role does the head nurse, Mabel, really play in all of this – and what might be her motivations?

    The answers are enough to tear apart the seams of more than one relationship.
  • Dear Mr. Whitefield
    It’s 1751 and Selina Hastings, the widowed, wealthy Countess of Huntingdon, is on a mission to reform the religious establishment of England and transform it into an uplifting voice for the destitute and downtrodden. A mutually agreeable alliance with the crafty Earl of Chesterfield and the prickly Viscount Bolingbroke has proven disappointing, netting few positive returns, so the Countess recognizes that more...
    It’s 1751 and Selina Hastings, the widowed, wealthy Countess of Huntingdon, is on a mission to reform the religious establishment of England and transform it into an uplifting voice for the destitute and downtrodden. A mutually agreeable alliance with the crafty Earl of Chesterfield and the prickly Viscount Bolingbroke has proven disappointing, netting few positive returns, so the Countess recognizes that more drastic steps are in order. These steps lead her to George Whitefield, an infamous, rabble-rousing preacher, so detested for his condemnation of lords and prelates alike (and, generally speaking, all forms of social respectability) that his face is only safely seen in self-imposed exile in America, where he runs an orphanage. Bereft of money for his orphans, a desperate Whitefield has returned to England, seeking funds from his motley crew of followers, when the Countess corners him through a mutual acquaintance – Welsh preacher Howell Harris, one of the Countess’s many religious projects – and promises to supply funds for Whitefield’s orphans, if the man himself will preach to the nobles in her popular soirees and attempt to convert them from their wayward views.

    At first, Whitefield resists the Countess’s alliance, scarred by a lifetime of condemnation and rejection and desperately, if silently, conscious of his own faults and wretchedness – but the Countess, seeing the hidden greatness in Whitefield, refuses to give up on him and eventually convinces him to join with her in partnership. The partnership is an imbalanced one, however, with the rather controlling Countess, in an excess of caution, leaving most of Whitefield’s more emotional appeals on the cutting room floor – and that’s not the only concern. Shortly before premiering Whitefield in her well-attended soirees, the Countess loses the only political card she has ever played – namely, her friendship with the heir to the English throne, the Prince of Wales, who dies suddenly and unexpectedly.

    Abandoned by the opportunistic Chesterfield, as well as by her headstrong son Francis and her Welsh preacher Harris - all of whom, for different reasons, cannot accept any association with the infamous Whitefield - the Countess finds herself isolated. Still, she refuses to throw Whitefield to the wolves - and Whitefield, in turn, amazed by this interminable faith, especially when contrasted against years upon years of misfortune and rejection, finds within himself the better man long hidden from public view.

    In time, the day arrives to introduce Whitefield to society… but, with the Countess now persona non grata and Whitefield still detested by the “better sort,” will anyone even be around to hear him preach?
  • The Footsteps of God
    In late 1620, religious dissenters from England, fleeing persecution in their homeland, make landfall in North America and seek to build a new life in a new world filled with hope and free from turmoil. William Bradford is the newly appointed governor of the colony, after the death of the prior occupant – and, indeed, many other people besides. The Pilgrims have declined from one hundred in number to barely...
    In late 1620, religious dissenters from England, fleeing persecution in their homeland, make landfall in North America and seek to build a new life in a new world filled with hope and free from turmoil. William Bradford is the newly appointed governor of the colony, after the death of the prior occupant – and, indeed, many other people besides. The Pilgrims have declined from one hundred in number to barely fifty, with starvation haunting their ranks. They are unable to make the soil prosper or tame the nearby wildlife – and, to make it worse, their every step is watched by local, supposedly threatening natives.

    In good time, one of these natives makes himself known to the colonists. He comes from Massasoit, chief of the Pokanoket people, one of the mightiest leaders of the region, who wishes to learn more about the English. Encouraged, the reticent Bradford, along with compatriots Myles Standish and Edward Winslow, meet this mysterious king and his people. Desiring greater collaboration, Massasoit demonstrates his friendship by loaning the English colonists a most remarkable man – Squanto – a native who speaks English after previously having been abducted by English fishermen.

    Before took long, Squanto becomes a staple of colony life – and, more than that, a savior. He teaches the colonists how to plant local corn, quelling the threat of starvation, and helps to arrange a treaty of peace with Massasoit. Deeper than that is the relationship that fast develops between Bradford, the lonely, reserved Englishman, and the cheeky, jaded Squanto –one a man of spirituality and faith and the other a man of practicality and “getting by.” In time, Squanto and Bradford recognize soul mates in each other – two lost people trying to build a new home, and hopefully finding one in each other’s company.

    Just as peace is within reach, however, a serious accusation is made against Squanto, concerning alleged plots by him against Massasoit. Enraged, Massasoit demands Squanto be handed over for execution – a move seconded by Standish and Winslow, who distrust the native and fear losing Massasoit’s support – but Bradford, blinded by friendship – or faith? – refuses. An indelible rift rises between the English colonists and the Pokanoket, which, when a nasty Fall descends, threatens to destroy the English colony, now without allies.

    At that moment, it is up for Bradford to decide – should he give up Squanto for the safety of the colony… and is Squanto, indeed, all that he appears?
  • Whit(e)man
    It’s not easy being different – and no one knows this better than Walter (ie: “Wally”) Whitman, a black man with an identity crisis... because, as Wally tells us, he is, in fact, white.

    As he relates his story to us, we learn that Wally has always been white – on the inside, that is – from his early life in the wealthy, leafy suburbs of Connecticut to his accomplished stint at Yale and Harvard....
    It’s not easy being different – and no one knows this better than Walter (ie: “Wally”) Whitman, a black man with an identity crisis... because, as Wally tells us, he is, in fact, white.

    As he relates his story to us, we learn that Wally has always been white – on the inside, that is – from his early life in the wealthy, leafy suburbs of Connecticut to his accomplished stint at Yale and Harvard. After a year of joblessness, where, among other things, Wally loses a job opportunity with the big firm Gambol Customer Solutions for revealing his true race to the CEO, Wally is inspired to come out of hiding, encouraged by his transgender neighbor, Mandy, who has already made a change from man to woman. Over time, Wally and Mandy grow closer – but Wally still doesn’t feel comfortable revealing his true racial identity, fearful that Mandy won’t accept him for who he really is.

    Fortunately, Wally does find an outlet for his feelings through Mandy’s therapist, Dr. Angele Kleinheister, a world-renowned psychiatrist who specializes in personal identity and who quickly (if clandestinely) becomes Wally’s greatest cheerleader. Dr. Kleinheister, like Wally, was born into the wrong race. Not only is she Mongolian, but she plans to undergo racial corrective surgery in Nepal. Before too long, Wally can no longer keep his true identity from Mandy, especially after Mandy reveals that she doesn’t like white men. Mandy, however, dismisses Wally’s claims of whiteness, prompting an ugly exchange that leads to a sudden rupture between the two close friends.

    Mandy-less and desperate, Wally decides to make the ultimate change to whitehood – but, to do this, he needs money. Recalling an ambulance-chasing trial attorney recommended by Mandy, Wally pays this attorney a visit and brings a suit against Gambol Customer Solutions for denying him a job based on race – although staying mum on which race exactly. Meanwhile, Wally tries to reconnect with Mandy without success, until Dr. Kleinheister returns to the United States, having become Mongolian (and having purchased a nice summer cottage in Ulaanbaatar in the process). Thanks to Dr. Kleinheister, Wally and Mandy are eventually reconciled, and Wally, determined to lie no more, defies his ambulance-chasing attorney and, come the day of his discrimination trial, confesses before all the world that he is – and has always been – a white man.
  • Memory
    In some far-off field in a far-off time and place, there stands a large, overpowering tree – and, under the tree, there is a figure as mysterious as the scene itself. He is joined soon by a man and a woman, who, the figure reveals, are destined to meet again and share true peace – and then the moment expires, for it is but a dream.

    Before long, we are transported to a similar tree in a similar...
    In some far-off field in a far-off time and place, there stands a large, overpowering tree – and, under the tree, there is a figure as mysterious as the scene itself. He is joined soon by a man and a woman, who, the figure reveals, are destined to meet again and share true peace – and then the moment expires, for it is but a dream.

    Before long, we are transported to a similar tree in a similar field with a similar figure underneath it – and, in good time, there comes a similar woman… but now we are very much in reality. The woman, who vividly cherishes the dream, recognizes the tree before her and soon comes face-to-face with a familiar-looking man. Overcome by the moment and the realization of dreams coming true, she exits hastily.

    About a month later, the woman returns to the tree and finds the man she previously met is waiting there for her. He, in turn, finds her intriguing and beautiful and implores her to open her mind and speak to him. The woman reveals the dream, although the man cannot remember it – but the woman believes he will learn. Just as the man and woman connect, however, the woman reveals she must leave for a long time.

    Over the next year, the man and woman stay in touch and grow in closeness, until the day comes when they reunite. The man is enchanted by the prospect of advancing the relationship to the next level, but the woman wants to retain a certain spiritual distance – a distance of no expectations and mutual comfort and understanding. The man can’t accept this and demands more – and, distraught, the woman leaves, never to return.

    Repeatedly over the next few weeks, the man comes back to the tree in the field, ashamed that he lost the woman and feeling empty without her. One time, however, he notices the mysterious figure under the tree, who explains that the woman is never coming back. The man wonders where she has gone – at which point, we learn the woman is up in the tree, looking down upon him. From her perch, she comforts the man and urges him to learn from what they have shared and continue on with his life.

    Then the man wakes up - because the entire experience for him was a dream.

    …but, then, don’t dreams come true? For the man, they do – because, when he next appears, it is as a suppliant of sorts, looking for the tree in his dreams, like the woman before him – and, like the woman before him, he finds it… and not only that, but he finds a similar-looking woman underneath the tree. She doesn’t remember any dream – but, for the man, it is more than reality… and, with that, he and the woman exit together, so he can share with her the dream and the destiny they are meant to share.
  • Leave It to Ms. Minor
    Now he is a 70-year-old has-been hosting a game show that nobody watches.

    Enter Caitlyn Minor.

    The intriguing, brilliant Minor quickly takes Chappin’s life by storm – growing like an ivy plant and wrapping herself around every corner, every facet of his existence – until it’s hard to tell the one from the other, the man from the woman, the master from the servant.

    ...
    Now he is a 70-year-old has-been hosting a game show that nobody watches.

    Enter Caitlyn Minor.

    The intriguing, brilliant Minor quickly takes Chappin’s life by storm – growing like an ivy plant and wrapping herself around every corner, every facet of his existence – until it’s hard to tell the one from the other, the man from the woman, the master from the servant.

    As observers of this spectacle are four people – Chappin’s long-time friend, his dutiful manservant, his estranged daughter, and Minor’s lover – all of them with different opinions about the tangled, human web being woven before their eyes.

    As Minor’s control of Chappin’s life becomes evermore suffocating and evermore alienating, Chappin is brought to new heights of glory – but to what end and at what expense? – and could it be that the toll on the ambitious, determined Minor will be greater still?

    Ultimately, time will tell – but only we can answer - is Caitlyn Minor sinner or saint... mastermind or manipulator... partner or parasite... advocate or abuser?
  • One Little Wish
    It’s the mid-Eighteenth Century in the colonial backwater of Paraguay. An old, bitter man, Rodrigo Gruñón, lives alone in a house with only his pear tree for comfort. Señor Gruñón previously had a youthful love affair with a young girl named Adrianna and planted the tree as a symbol of their love – but Adrianna deserted her young lover and left him alone with the pear tree. Now, however, to Señor Gruñón’s...
    It’s the mid-Eighteenth Century in the colonial backwater of Paraguay. An old, bitter man, Rodrigo Gruñón, lives alone in a house with only his pear tree for comfort. Señor Gruñón previously had a youthful love affair with a young girl named Adrianna and planted the tree as a symbol of their love – but Adrianna deserted her young lover and left him alone with the pear tree. Now, however, to Señor Gruñón’s dismay, the pear tree is threatened by predatory young children and tax-happy bureaucrats, who routinely come to steal its pears.

    A solution appears when Señor Gruñón finds that a beggar he feeds is, in fact, none other than Saint Peter. Peter, touched by the old man’s generosity, offers to grant him one wish. Señor Gruñón wishes for anyone who tries to take his pears to be stuck up the pear tree until he wishes them down again – a curse which soon works well... too well. The curse not only scares off little children and annoying tax collectors, but also ends with Death being trapped in the tree, when he comes to take Señor Gruñón into the afterlife.

    The terribly bored government of Paraguay is soon besieged with complaints against Señor Gruñón and his pear tree. Up until now, an elegant, if mysterious, widow, La Señora Maravilla, has defended the old man from afar, keeping enemies at bay; but now that Death’s up a tree – which is to say no one anywhere is dying, because Death cannot make his rounds – a mob cannot be prevented from confronting the old man.

    Four months later; Señor Gruñón is in solitary confinement, Death is still up the tree, and no one anywhere is dying – chaos reigns. La Señora Maravilla takes charge by revealing to the forlorn old man that her mother was Adrianna (his younger lover of old) and that Adrianna left him because her father found out about their affair. La Señora Maravilla then offers to make a crafty bargain with Death: Señor Gruñón will release Death from the pear tree if Death takes him briefly to the afterlife to reunite with Adrianna. Death agrees, cheekily; but then La Señora Maravilla takes off Death’s masks, revealing that Death is, in fact, a woman – and a very beautiful one at that. If Death double-crosses Señor Gruñón and leaves him in the afterlife, she will stay forever unmasked – unfeared and unfretted.

    Death reluctantly takes Señor Gruñón to Heaven, where the old man meets Adrianna and comes to terms with his past. However, after returning to Earth – all is normal again – Señor Gruñón sees little point in living. La Señora Maravilla, widowed and alone, then suggests that she and the old man live together as father and daughter, treasuring each other’s company and finding the gems of life that have been denied them.
  • Hello World
    Hello World” takes place in a distant world, when the Earth was dominated above by the Gods, led by Zeus, and tended below by the Humans, a simple-minded, mute, lifeless crew of male servants. Previously, the rebellious God Prometheus had attempted to wake the Humans out of their trance-like stupor by attempting to give them the gift of fire and other knowledge besides – but he failed. Zeus took revenge by...
    Hello World” takes place in a distant world, when the Earth was dominated above by the Gods, led by Zeus, and tended below by the Humans, a simple-minded, mute, lifeless crew of male servants. Previously, the rebellious God Prometheus had attempted to wake the Humans out of their trance-like stupor by attempting to give them the gift of fire and other knowledge besides – but he failed. Zeus took revenge by having Prometheus chained to a rock on Mount Caucasus, his liver plucked out daily by birds, and exiling his well-intentioned, if rather dense, brother, Epimetheus.

    “Hello World” opens as Epimetheus finds himself welcomed backed into the trust and affection of Zeus and the other Gods. An oddly-friendly Zeus even designs a new present for Epimetheus – a human, but a female one – named Pandora. Without further ado, Pandora is sent to the Earth and she and Epimetheus quickly become smitten with each other. In time, the God and the Human marry, but, curious and full of questions, Pandora pesters Epimetheus to distraction.

    In good time, the placid, laid back Epimetheus finds himself disturbed by his wife’s interest in everything and her kind treatment of the Humans. Pandora also expresses interest in a vase given her by Zeus as wedding present – a vase which she’s warned never to open, But Pandora’s thirst for knowledge is too intense and, after some commendable restraint, she accidentally knocks the vase onto the ground. Out pour a retinue of dark creatures – the Miseries – who, now unleashed, will spread darkness, storms, winter, age, and death into the perfect Earthly world.

    After the release of the Miseries, the Earth has changed; the sky occasionally becomes dark, the wind occasionally becomes fierce – perfection is gone. Prometheus and, farther off, a shamed, hidden Pandora, shutter in fear at the new world before them. Epimetheus, estranged from Pandora and embarrassed at his past love for her, is similarly distraught. The Humans, too, who have confronted “death,” now pester the Gods above with their newfound ability for emotion.

    Before too long, the Humans, enraged, but finally alive, are on the hunt for Pandora – the destroyer of their old world. Eventually, they find her hiding with Prometheus, but Epimetheus stops them from doing her any harm. He has learned from the other Gods that the vase affair was a trap by Zeus to try and scare the Humans away from further curiosity. The Humans are ashamed of their actions, but Epimetheus has a plan to enact – and a renewed love to pledge to Pandora.

    In good time, Zeus and the Gods discover that the Humans, at the direction of Epimetheus, have set fire to the world. An enraged Zeus threatens to do away with the Humans once and for all, but Pandora convinces him that the new Humans – emotional, knowledgeable, curious beings – aren’t a bad thing. Touched, Zeus agrees to give the Humans their freedom, but warns that he therefore won’t always be there to help them – a sacrifice the Humans are willing to make. As a result, the Humans are given their world – Epimetheus and Pandora are given each other – and the world is given its future.
  • Fifteen Men in a Smoke-Filled Room
    It’s June, 1920 and the Republican National Convention is in full swing. A distant fourth in line for the presidential nomination is Ohio Senator Warren G. Harding. A simple, good man, Harding, wearied of politics and wanting peace in life, would rather not seek the presidency. He instead dreams of living a quiet, normal life with his young mistress, Nan... but not if Harding’s ambitious campaign manager, Harry...
    It’s June, 1920 and the Republican National Convention is in full swing. A distant fourth in line for the presidential nomination is Ohio Senator Warren G. Harding. A simple, good man, Harding, wearied of politics and wanting peace in life, would rather not seek the presidency. He instead dreams of living a quiet, normal life with his young mistress, Nan... but not if Harding’s ambitious campaign manager, Harry M. Daugherty, has anything to say about it.

    Daugherty intends to plot and scheme Harding into the White House – because, asserts Daugherty, Harding is fated to be president. Florence Kling Harding, the acerbic, intimidating wife of Harding, protests. A visit to a psychic some years back resulted in a prediction that Harding would die during his term, if he became president – but Mrs. Harding, although fearful of the future, finds herself paralyzed to act against the dictates of the stars she so admires.

    Cursed by an ambitious campaign manager, a starry-eyed young mistress, a paralyzingly superstitious wife, and the frightening pull of inevitability, Harding seems fated to be president – or is he?

    “Fifteen Men...” explores the extent to which fate controls our lives and whether those life events we deem “fateful” are really just the aggregate result of the deficiencies and idiosyncrasies of flawed human beings.
  • Few Thy Voice
    Illyria Swan was once a movie actress – radiant and beautiful – but now? Now she is a shell of her former self. Years after abandoning her father when she was young, she suffered a mental breakdown and now lives her days in perpetual guilt at her paternal abandonment. This guilt is tempered only by the love she can give to senile old men who have themselves been abandoned by the people they love - abandoned in...
    Illyria Swan was once a movie actress – radiant and beautiful – but now? Now she is a shell of her former self. Years after abandoning her father when she was young, she suffered a mental breakdown and now lives her days in perpetual guilt at her paternal abandonment. This guilt is tempered only by the love she can give to senile old men who have themselves been abandoned by the people they love - abandoned in an underfunded nursing home, managed by a shifty, con-artist proprietor, Richard Crenshaw. Illyria’s husband, Fenno Masterson, a leader in finance, devoted to his wife and anxious to keep her from tumbling ever further into depression, is tasked with ensuring she always has an old man to love and tend. The most recent one of these, a mute Alzheimer’s patient named Patrick O’Malley, is the father of a lucre-loving, sharp-tongued widow – Eloise Olympia Pambeck-O’Malley – who is glad to be rid of her burdensome father and his even more burdensome medical bills.

    This time, however, an innocent attempt at “reverse adoption” – adoption of the old, not the young – turns sour when the allegedly mute Mr. O’Malley suddenly begins to speak to Illyria and reveals to her a family secret of murder… specifically, the murder of his wife by his daughter. Fenno and his all-around aide and assistant, a fallen police officer named August Jaysen, simply cannot believe that the old man actually speaks to Illyria – but Illyria is adamant that he does and quickly becomes protective of the old man’s safety. Mr. O’Malley, alas, never speaks in front of anyone but Illyria - perhaps because he can’t really speak at all, assuming his “speech” is nothing but the invention of Illyria’s troubled mind.

    …or perhaps not, for Eloise Pambeck-O’Malley appears rather nervous when she hears from Richard Crenshaw that her father is allegedly talking up a storm about “murder.” Meanwhile, Illyria can only descend further into hysterics, insisting that the murder referenced by the old man must be solved and the murderer punished. Fearing that this unsavory desire for justice may reveal a little too much – too much about Mrs. Pambeck-O’Malley’s past and too much about Fenno Masterson procuring senile old men for his wife – Crenshaw and Mrs. Pambeck-O’Malley reach a decision: the old man must be silenced, before he says anything further… and, if necessary, Illyria must follow him.

    Perhaps they get away with it, perhaps they don’t – but, either way, nothing can free us from the eventual truth behind the old man’s ranting and the secret that lies so pendulously in wait.
  • Encore, Encore
    involvement with the Algonquin Round Table and its assorted geniuses… but is there more to the woman than the jests and quips?

    We meet Dorothy as she begins her journey to literary fame. A lowly caption-writer for Vogue magazine, she manages to amuse her way into a job as Drama Critic of Vanity Fair, where she quickly becomes established as a famous wit of the age.

    But there is...
    involvement with the Algonquin Round Table and its assorted geniuses… but is there more to the woman than the jests and quips?

    We meet Dorothy as she begins her journey to literary fame. A lowly caption-writer for Vogue magazine, she manages to amuse her way into a job as Drama Critic of Vanity Fair, where she quickly becomes established as a famous wit of the age.

    But there is more to Dorothy than that…

    Back home, she is not a critic or a wit, but a wife – a wife to a man addicted to alcohol and morphine, courtesy of his service in the First World War. The man in question – Eddie Parker – wasn’t always a shadow of a man, but that’s what he has become, and Dorothy resultantly learns the hard lesson that a shadow is difficult to embrace… always and forever slipping out of your fingers.

    As Dorothy’s career surges, her personal life collapses, her husband becomes evermore mired in hopelessness – but who is there to know? Dorothy, the insurmountable wit, is always playing the part of the critic – a steel woman dealing in laughs, not tears and made of barbs, not emotions – a constant actor on a stage, maintaining a smile through encore after encore, even when her heart is breaking, her husband is dying, and her life is collapsing.

    When and how will she get off that stage… or will she ever?
  • Philosophus
    It’s the summer of 1753 and the city of Frankfurt in Germany has a distinguished visitor – the delectably conceited French philosopher Voltaire – who, having recently fled the court of Frederick II, King of Prussia, after a misfortunate falling-out, is looking for refuge on his way back home to France. Accompanied by his very Italian manservant, Collini, Voltaire has a sensitive manuscript in his possession – a...
    It’s the summer of 1753 and the city of Frankfurt in Germany has a distinguished visitor – the delectably conceited French philosopher Voltaire – who, having recently fled the court of Frederick II, King of Prussia, after a misfortunate falling-out, is looking for refuge on his way back home to France. Accompanied by his very Italian manservant, Collini, Voltaire has a sensitive manuscript in his possession – a book of poetry, written by King Frederick himself – a book which, if it were exposed to the world, would make the King appear sensitive and weak and make it impossible for anyone to fear Prussian militarism. The crafty philosopher knows this all too well and, in a delightful act of revenge, can’t wait to publish the King’s manuscript and embarrass him before all the world.

    Alas, Voltaire’s plan quickly goes awry, thanks to the Hitlerian Baron Franz von Freytag, representative of the Prussian King, who, bolstered by his secretary Dorn and by an obsessive love of authority (especially the very, very tyrannical kind), is on a mission to hunt down Voltaire and rescue the King’s manuscript. Voltaire soon finds himself trapped in Frankfurt and at the mercy of the Prussian authorities – a situation which is not helped by the unexpected arrival of Mademoiselle Denis, the philosopher’s buxom, sex-obsessed niece – or, indeed, “niece.” Nor does Voltaire manage to find any respite from a wily, nasty, money-grubbing German shrew, Frau Schmidt, the wife of the Prussian consul, who would sell out her mother for a dime – or, indeed, a philosopher for much more.

    After a series of escapades, Voltaire is arrested by the blustery Baron von Freytag and imprisoned in the house of his now-nemesis, Frau Schmidt – imprisoned, indeed, for over a month, since, after all that, the baggage with the King’s manuscript is held up in Leipzig and has yet to arrive in Frankfurt. In the meantime, hankering for freedom, Voltaire cleverly plots his way free of Frau Schmidt’s house, using sophistry to drive Freytag’s secretary, Dorn, to suicide, and then dressing up Collini as the deceased Dorn, through which an artful plan of escape is devised. The plan is foiled when Baron Freytag makes an early return and, after a series of events, finds himself locked in Frau Schmidt’s house by the wily philosopher, as Voltaire, Mademoiselle Denis, and Collini make a b-line for liberty.
  • Shadows of Men
    It’s April, 1937 and Spain is in turmoil, cursed by a civil war between the government of the Republic of Spain and the Spanish military. It is a great struggle between democracy and fascism in an age where human beings are defined by the ideologies in which they believe. Into the midst of this turmoil steps a coterie of American celebrities - among them journalists Martha Gellhorn and Josephine Herbst and...
    It’s April, 1937 and Spain is in turmoil, cursed by a civil war between the government of the Republic of Spain and the Spanish military. It is a great struggle between democracy and fascism in an age where human beings are defined by the ideologies in which they believe. Into the midst of this turmoil steps a coterie of American celebrities - among them journalists Martha Gellhorn and Josephine Herbst and novelists Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos. For Dos Passos, however, the war in Spain has a more personal component, since the novelist’s friend, José Robles, an employee of the Republican government, has mysteriously vanished. Dos Passos eventually learns from José’s wife, Margara, that his friend was arrested in the middle of the night some weeks back and has not been seen since.

    Although coming to Spain to participate in a propaganda film, Don Passos quickly finds that his attention becomes solely focused on finding his friend – a source of irritation with the blustery, acerbic Hemingway, who despises Dos Passos’s obsessive focus on friendship when the grander cause of the Republic is at stake. As Dos Passos continues his search, how much is he willing to give up for his friend - and could his friend, in fact, be a traitor to the Republic? The answer is more devastating than Dos Passos could ever expect – because, by the end of Act One, he learns his friend was shot by the government (or is it the ever-present Russians?) for being a fascist traitor.

    By this time, Dos Passos himself is suspected of fascist sympathies by Hemingway and his friends, so eager and constant is his concern for his traitorous friend. As a result, there’s little for Dos Passos to do but leave Spain as quickly as possible – but, before he does, there is one human life that needs saving and it seems that only Dos Passos can save it.
  • The Beggar of Bethesda
    Two thousand years ago, the mighty temple in Jerusalem is one of the greatest sights in the city and a place of wonder and worship. Nearby lies a pool, surrounded by colonnades, in which miracles are performed – or, at least, so people believe. Rumor has it that an angel from Heaven comes down to stir the waters every and now. Anyone lucky enough to be the first to submerge himself in the water is cured of his...
    Two thousand years ago, the mighty temple in Jerusalem is one of the greatest sights in the city and a place of wonder and worship. Nearby lies a pool, surrounded by colonnades, in which miracles are performed – or, at least, so people believe. Rumor has it that an angel from Heaven comes down to stir the waters every and now. Anyone lucky enough to be the first to submerge himself in the water is cured of his ills. It is no wonder that mendicants and cripples from far and wide come to the Temple, hoping to catch the waters.

    …and then there are the people who just lay around the temple, hands outstretched, preying on the generosity of the crowds.

    We are introduced to one of these – the Beggar – who looks at the world forever with a grin and smirk. He is accompanied by a tired prostitute, Miriam, a long-suffering companion who has walked down the alleyways of life with him.

    Then, suddenly, everything changes.

    One day, a mysterious shadow falls on The Beggar – a man from seemingly nowhere who can perform miracles – and, all of a sudden, the Beggar is standing and walking. The man commands that the Beggar “sin no more” – and leaves. The “miracle,” however, is not necessarily welcome – especially not to the temple authorities, as represented by Josephus, the cold, foreboding chief scribe to the high priest. The Beggar finds himself an unwanted visitor in the city and is commanded to leave – which he does, ending up in some a far-off village, there to spend his days begging listlessly and with evermore limited success, since a man with working legs is less sympathetic than a man who is lame.

    After months of poverty, the Beggar feels lost and hopeless, confused by the unwanted miracle that has befallen him – and then he meets Miriam again, who, like the Beggar, has ended up walking the streets of the village. It is then we learn the truth: that the Beggar was never crippled to begin with, but only playing the part to make money, and yet the mysterious man he encountered forced him to rise and expose the lie – and, in the process, has given him a chance, perhaps his only chance, to live a better life. Miriam wants to start this new life with the Beggar, one not framed by deception and trickery; but the Beggar, while open to honesty, doesn’t believe this is possible without a little financial stability, and that financial stability can only be found in a reserve of money mistakenly left behind in an almshouse in Jerusalem – the very place to which the Beggar was warned never to return.

    So the Beggar goes to Jerusalem, where the man who truly cured him has been arrested and is going to be crucified. As for the Beggar, his fate may not be much better.
  • Hail and Reign
    As the Chronicler introduces the play, it is 1135, in England. King Henry I has died, with only a daughter to succeed him on the throne, and the reluctant promises of his noblemen to recognize her as Queen. The daughter, living in France and going by the title Empress Matilda, is informed of her father’s death and sets off swiftly for England, leaving her beloved son, Henry, behind, in the care of her estranged...
    As the Chronicler introduces the play, it is 1135, in England. King Henry I has died, with only a daughter to succeed him on the throne, and the reluctant promises of his noblemen to recognize her as Queen. The daughter, living in France and going by the title Empress Matilda, is informed of her father’s death and sets off swiftly for England, leaving her beloved son, Henry, behind, in the care of her estranged husband.

    But being a woman, and a haughty one at that, who has lived most of her life abroad, Empress Matilda is unpopular in England. She’s also no friend of the Church. The powerful Bishop of Winchester sets in motion a plot to deny her the throne by persuading the well-meaning nobleman Stephen to usurp it instead, and a coronation is staged.

    Landing on the shores of England, Matilda declares war. The country descends into chaos as barons take up opposing sides. England’s newest King is also her kindest: he and his wife, Matty, adopt Will, the abandoned
    son of an opposing warlord.

    Stephen learns that Matilda’s forces have besieged the city of Lincoln. Moved by the pleas of his countrymen, he decides to leave at once for the battlefield, where he is captured. Stephen’s forces are defeated and Matilda takes London. The Bishop of Winchester deserts to the side of the Empress. Matty fears that all hope is lost, but she is persuaded by the Chronicler, Will, and Stephen’s partisans to push aside her fears and take up her husband’s cause.

    Meanwhile, the newly crowned Queen Matilda, seething with resentment, rules with an iron fist and little joy. She has found that a crown means little when the heart is wounded; to her dismay, her son Henry has remained behind in France, conquering castles with his father.

    Matty, leading the rebel forces, displays a natural gift for battlefield strategy, although she’s only fighting this war to have her husband back with her. As Matty’s forces advance, Matilda becomes unhinged and takes out her wrath on humble townsfolk and allies alike. When a mob of Londoners marches upon the royal palace demanding her overthrow, Matilda flees London, abandoned by nearly everyone except for her most loyal soldier, Robert of Gloucester.

    Matty’s troops enter London, but England is still without a King, since Matilda continues to hold Stephen captive far from the city. Matty’s forces manage to capture Robert of Gloucester, and Matilda agrees to release Stephen in exchange for him. England returns to the rule of King Stephen. Her dreams shattered, Matilda seems resigned to return to France, to the husband and son who never loved her. But just as our play closes she abruptly decides to fight on, unable to accept the hopelessness of her cause.

    Kind-hearted Will is sad to see the story end here, for the Empress Matilda has lost everything. Not everything, the Chronicler confides, revealing to Will what will happen in the future: a peace treaty recognizing Stephen as rightful king until his dying day, at which time Matilda’s son will inherit the throne and become King Henry II. Matilda, for all her flaws, faced down the thunder of history for the sake of the son she loved.
  • Harriman-Baines
    Carter Harriman is a brilliant and famous artist who’s known for composing modern Classical music to the lyrics of the mysterious poet Melody Baines. He is also an enigma, a recluse, famous for dodging the public spotlight – a Howard Hughes, of sorts – but not if ambitious journalist Axel Wheel has his way. Wheel has been staking out Harriman (the word “harassing” works, too) and has extorted the composer into...
    Carter Harriman is a brilliant and famous artist who’s known for composing modern Classical music to the lyrics of the mysterious poet Melody Baines. He is also an enigma, a recluse, famous for dodging the public spotlight – a Howard Hughes, of sorts – but not if ambitious journalist Axel Wheel has his way. Wheel has been staking out Harriman (the word “harassing” works, too) and has extorted the composer into giving an interview one cold, eerie, and, when the power goes out, extremely dark night. The evening is further complicated by the surprising appearance of Minnie Baines – the meek, pointless, psychic sister of Melody – who seems a perpetual caretaker to other people’s problems. The three of them – the composer, the journalist, and the sister – are soon thrown together before our eyes, along with Melody Baines herself, whose cruel, caustic spirit haunts the Harriman house and who communicates with the worshipful Harriman through her psychic sister.

    During the course of the evening, the metaphorical darkness of Carter Harriman and his relationship with Melody Baines is slowly, excruciatingly revealed to us, through flashbacks and the nettling interview of Axel Wheel. Harriman is exposed to be a lonely troglodyte who has walled himself off from a world he doesn’t and cannot understand (and which doesn’t and cannot understand him either). Melody Baines is found to have been a needy manic depressive whose alcoholism and cruelty (especially to her tormented sister, Minnie) lived at odds with the beautiful poems she composed. And Minnie Baines... she is revealed to be much, much more than the stick-figure caricature she portrays.

    Before the play is over, the disturbing truth is revealed: we learn that Melody Baines, far from being the great poet in a great collaboration, is merely a smokescreen, a phantom, a prism through which two desperately lonely people – Carter Harriman and Minnie Baines – communicate with the outside world and with each other… but unveiling the lie behind that prism is enough to cut their lifeline to humanity.