One Act (excerpt only - published work) A bitter waitress tries to get money from a crusty drunk and the bar's naive new owner - to fund a trip to kill her father. Merry Christmas! Published in the collection "Thin Lines" from Next Stage Press.

Full length - We meet Matthew and Tina on their wedding anniversary, which Tina forgot and Matthew didn’t mention so that he could bring it up at the perfect passive-aggressive moment.
Into this messy argument of a marriage comes Tina’s GBF (gay best friend) Christopher - who has left his boyfriend and needs a place to stay. His arrival will shake up their marriage - and revive Tina’s failing business - but his secret goal is to banish Tina from Matthew’s life and slide neatly into her place.
Torn by both love and resentment for Tina, and his suppressed but growing interest for Chris, Matthew struggles with his sexual identity and conflicting emotions in a rapidly escalating battle that comes to a head when Tina walks in on Chris and Matthew’s first kiss, and tries to shoot Chris but misses and gets Matthew instead. From there... things get worse.
Ultimately, love conquers all and everyone lives happily ever after, for a given value of happily.
"a delicious, highly appealing combination of shocks and surprises and pithy dialogue." - Blurb Magazine

TEN MINUTE PLAY (excerpt only - published work) A rubber duck, a toy submarine, a washcloth and a sponge face an existential crisis when they discover they are afraid of water - more than that, they are completely perplexed by it, and by their individual reactions to it. Rubber Duckie's ability to float above the others ("Well, I have natural duckness - it's a gift"), leads to argument and accusations, ultimately threatening to tear the group apart - but Rubber Duckie also conceals a dark secret - one that must squeak out in the end. Published by YouthPLAYS.
"Arthur M. Jolly's piece began as a seemingly one-dimensional skit about a Rubber Ducky, Sponge, Submarine and Washcloth traumatized by a small child, but quickly transformed into existential comedy and comic religious allegory." - Pittsburgh City paper

Full length (excerpt only - published work) A spoiled princess is tasked by a witch with finding three magical gifts if she wants to escape an arranged marriage to a stupid prince - but discovers that the true magic is within herself all along. Published by YouthPLAYS, Inc.

One Act - A frail hypochondriac tries to ask his neighbor's headstrong daughter to marry him in spite of a long history of rivalry between their families.
This play is an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Marriage Proposal, but set in Wheeler County, Georgia in 1881.

Ten Minute Play - A man with no feelings falls for a woman with no taste at a support group for the sensory deprived.
Published in Smith & Kraus' Best Ten Minute Plays of 2012
"Unique, lip-smacking, gourmet surprises.... The Four Senses of Love written by Arthur M. Jolly is a hilarious coupling of two members of a sensory-deprived support group." - Chicago Theater Beat

Ten minute play. Four men meet at the urinals of a restaurant bathroom - and clash over politics, physical attributes, the meaning of masculinity... and of life.

Full length play (excerpt only - published work) In 1953, after interrogation by the House Unamerican Activities Committee, four university wives meet for their monthly play reading, knowing one of them betrayed the others.
Tonight, their secrets and their deceptions will burst through the veneer of decency they struggle to maintain.
This is the night they have chosen to read Medea.

There are roles for six women - 2 in their 20's, three in their 40's or 50's and one a generation older than the others (60's up.) One of the women uses a wheelchair. There is one additional role for a man, for a total cast of 6F, 1M.

Note: This play has just been published by Next Stage Press. Having polished it literally until the final version sent to print, I know that any version previously downloaded here is out of date. If you want a perusal copy for a theatre proposal, please contact me directly, or, if you have the $, purchase the play through Amazon!
"Mr. Jolly’s play is in turns drawing room comedy, serious social satire, and bitter political drama. It is also utterly fascinating and perfectly absorbing. I suspect this play will have legs and I expect it will be picked up by many theatre companies looking to make the best use of their female actors." - Theatre Notes Review
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Full Length Play (excerpt only - published work) Long Joan Silver and her all-female crew take on discrimination and inequality as well as Squire Trelawney, Jim Hawkins and all the regular characters in this farcical new version of the classic adventure story Treasure Island.
The play solves one of my personal issues with every production I've seen yet: a lack of roles for women. In the original book there's only one woman, and she doesn't even have a name. I've seen the odd production that shoe-horns in a female pirate, but none that actually address the subject. This one does. In fact, the role of women is paramount to the themes of discrimination, privilege and greed that are background in the book but brought to the forefront in Long Joan Silver. It's also silly - with mad rat-eating, cheese obsessed Jen Gunn arguing over the going price of trading the treasure for a piece of Parmigiano - Is it organic? - to Dr. Livesy dressing up as a one legged woman to try and frighten Cap'n Sally Bones.
Okay, it may not be the book exactly... but it's the book funnier!

10 Minute Play. Jeanne and Boyd try to spice up their twenty-fifth anniversary by role-playing as a lady of the evening and her client on a street corner on the other side of town, when they run into an old college friend - and then the law.

10 minute play. A closeted gay man's plans for a romantic trip with his out partner are thrown into turmoil by an emergency phone call from home.

One Act for Middle School Students. I wrote this play while trapped in my Houston home by the rising waters of Hurricane Harvey - and all author proceeds, whether from sales or productions will go directly to charities working for hurricane relief.
In Rising, seven combative Middle School students, trapped in their classroom by rising floodwaters, struggle to survive against the storm outside and the rising conflicts between them. As they clash over their minimal supplies and desperate situation, differences are magnified, and friendships are both forged and tested, until they are faced with the ultimate decision: Flee into the storm now, or stay while the water around them gets ever higher.

10 Minute Play. Reynold, frustrated by his situation and trying to prove something to his partner Jennifer, attempts to make the world's most perfect fondue... without counting the cost.

10 minute play. Gabrielle is haunted by nightmares after the drowning death of her young daughter. Her husband Raoul is equally distraught - but he's also ripped apart by the fact that Gabrielle dreams their daughter is a monster coming to get her. It's a fight between two broken, hurting people lashing out to try and handle their pain. There is a brief appearance by the ghost of their daughter at the end - a non-speaking part, playable by almost any age actor, but useful for a child's first role.
The play premieres in May 2018 in Australia.

MONOLOGUE - a stand alone monologue, about two minutes long, written for a local High School drama class.

In Sugar on My Fingers, a seventeen year old girl confronts her older sister about an abusive boyfriend.

Full length play (excerpt only - published work) The play takes place entirely in a dump - a municipal landfill, where two estranged sisters have come to look for a letter from their mother. They've come from their mother's funeral - the first time they've seen each other in years, and as they dig through the literal and metaphorical trash heap, they get further and further into their complicated relationship with each other - and with the lives they led under the shadow of an abusive, domineering mother who still controls and influences them even after her death.
The published version of the play takes place in the US, but there is a UK-centric version of this play available from the author, created for the London premiere at the Rosemary Branch Theatre, with language and concepts translated for a UK audience.
"Trash is such a powerful play that once the setting has been quickly established, I wanted to stay and pay attention to this part-conversation, part-argument, part-fight between Diane (Emma Shenkman) and Becky (Georgina Philipps), sisters for whom sibling rivalry not only runs deep but intensely troubling, and even life-threatening." London Theatre One