This play is the contents of my brain inclusive of the dumb jokes, non sequiturs, emotional roller coasters, yearnings, and surprises that swim tireless through my thoughts.

| Full length comedy |

A group of people work at a cemetery in the fictional Ashworth, New Hampshire... some wishing they were elsewhere, others perfectly happy to be miserable where they are. Ronnie used to be married to Bobby, who is unhappily married to Ricky. Mike plays drums in a wedding band on the weekend and can't stop talking about how incredible the song "Pour Some Sugar on Me" is. Johnny shows up at the cemetery surreptitiously recording a podcast called "Welcome to AshTown." They all work together digging holes and passing the time. When the WalMart of cemeteries opens across the street everybody begins to worry about losing their jobs. So they plan to put on a play to raise money to buy the cemetery themselves. The only problem is nobody goes to plays anymore...

This play began as an exploration of my relationship with my father, who passed away many years ago. He was a person I never knew so I created a fictional father/son reconciliation for me to live vicariously through.

| Full-length play |

Having reached rock bottom, Harry reconnects with his estranged artist father. When the old man's health appears in decline, Harry is caught between cashing in his famous father's art in order to save himself, and reconciling their long-ago destroyed relationship.

| Ten minute play |

Due to her schizophrenic episodes, and a family ill-equipped to give them the care they need, Cary was institutionalized. Bree has come to visit for the first time and is hopeful Cary will be well enough to leave the hospital, and will accept hospitalization was the only solution for the family. Cary, however, has a lot more on their mind and Bree’s arrival only reinforces fears that everyone is against them. As they speak together it becomes clear neither will get what they want and their relationship as siblings may never return to what it used to be.

Published by Smith & Kraus's in the anthology The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2023

This was originally inspired by the lives of Henry Molaison and Clive Wearing, as well as the work of Oliver Sacks, but I wrote this play because I am pathologically afraid of losing my memory. 

| Full-length play |

Henry suffers a head trauma causing him to lose the ability to create new memories. Maria, his wife, and Patrick, his doctor, become entwined as they both struggle to balance their own lives with the life of a man stuck in one perpetual moment. At a time when Patrick becomes frustrated by the lack of progress in his work, Maria convinces him to allow Henry to play piano. When music reenters their lives everything seems to change for the better, until they learn what is lost may never return.

This play was inspired by several things: dating back to 2012, I took several trips to Poland, exploring both the theater and the country itself. I became enamored with Warsaw, Wroclaw, and Krakow and heartbroken by Auschwitz and the complicated relationships the Polish people have with their history. Prompted by these trips I began to explore my own cultural history and on one trip in particular I was able to connect with a distant Polish cousin who shared with me some genealogy research she had done. This play, set in the context of the current political climates of Poland and the U.S.A., is my attempt to reconcile my present with my past while trying to find the place art occupies in times when society seems to be struggling for its essential survival.

| Full length play |

A play about the value of family and friendships and finding your voice in a time of turmoil.

The surprising death of his estranged father, and Freddie’s many strained relationships, prompt him to travel to Poland to meet his long lost cousin Tekle and finish the genealogy research his father was never able to complete.

The uncovering of family secrets during the Holocaust, has him rethinking his life, relationships, and purpose in the world.

"Here Rests the Heart" challenges us to find our voices and account for what matters most in the world, and calls us to take action with what precious little time we get to live.

A couple years ago I was commissioned to write a short play. The news of Tamir Rice's shooting was all I could think about. He did not immediately die when the police shot him. He was on the ground, bleeding to death, and nobody attended to him. They just waited for paramedics to arrive. I could not shake this fact. I never will. I wrote this piece to honor Tamir Rice and his mother.

| 10 minute play |

Inspired by the shooting death of Tamir Rice by a police officer in Cleveland, "Protect & Serve" explores the aftermath of a similar tragedy. Following the funeral for her son, a mother confronts a police officer and a friend of the family. She desperately pleas for him to explain why this happened and who was looking out for her son as he laid bleeding on the ground. She is ultimately left wondering what parents are supposed to tell children when the people who are meant to protect them could be a source of danger.

| Adapted into short film, directed by Kate Jopson. It can be viewed at this link: https://vimeo.com/262125566 |

This play evolved out of a simple curiosity I had: What the hell did Ted Kaczynski write in that manifesto he famously wrote years ago? I read the document and started to think about how a person could pick and choose elements of any philosophy or worldview and make their own sense out of it. A story about how a domestic terrorist might come to be evolved out of this.

| Full-length play |

The sad truth of domestic terrorism is the perpetrators tend to be white men, disillusioned by the changing world around them. In "Underground" a young subway musician gives up his search for love and grapples with his disillusionment by exploring the philosophies of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. On his final day playing guitar in a Boston T station, commuters patiently wait for him to kill the noise of the train with a tune that might never come unless his one true love appears...

In 2016 I found myself in a room full of playwrights from several Central and Eastern European countries. We had all been invited to a small conference to discuss our work. In a breakout session with five other writers from Poland, Ukraine, and Hungary we were discussing the turmoil in Belarus and Belarus Free Theatre and I started to imagine what our lives as playwrights might be like if the rightwing leaders of our countries pushed us into fascism and banned the performing arts. The seeds for this play were planted that day.

| Full-length play |

This is what fascism might look like for theatre-makers.

Five former theatre makers convene a meeting in a near-future, fascist America, when all forms of art (and even the utterance of any art-related words) have been banned. These artists discuss what a person is to do in a world when one's purpose in life has been eradicated. During the discussion both the artists and attendees of The Meeting begin to learn even the most fascist society can never stop people from being who they truly are.

A man recounts the moment when as a child he took that first step from lightness to darkness.

An audio version of this piece can be heard here: https://soundcloud.com/brian-james-polak/fledglings-a-monologue