Arthur M Jolly

A barista reveals a brutal truth about the customers at the coffee shop.

Full length (excerpt only - published work) When privileged Anastasia is sent to a Siberian gulag for the murder of her abusive husband, her arrival destroys the intricate web of hierarchy, alliance and treachery among the other four inmates of her bunkhouse. To save herself, Anastasia must save all of them: the prostitute, the killer, the lifer... and Prushka - the mouse.
The feature film based on this play - Where We Disappear - is available on iTunes, Amazon, Fandango, DirecTV, Vudu and other streaming services.
"A Gulag Mouse is the one that approaches genius, the one that has a chance of outliving its author, the one I'm thinking about as the next week begins and will be thinking about for a long time to come." - Anchorage Daily News
Content Warning: Spousal abuse, violence, discussion of sexual violence.

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

Content warning: includes stage violence - both slapstick and realistic, brief discussion of past abusive relationship, onstage kiss.

A young couple struggle to reconnect after being separated by World War II - and sixty years later, the couples' daughter struggles to connect with her father as he battles Alzheimers.

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.
Content warning: Discussion of an abusive history including implied sexual abuse, alcoholism.

Ten Minute Play - (Excerpt only - published work) Four teenagers, lost in the remains of a forest after a devastating fire, search for the former camp site of their friend who started the blaze - but find that ghosts, secrets, and guilt endure long after the flames have died.

One Act (excerpt only - published work) Reginald Niebold, stricken with cancer, holds a secret that his symptoms have deteriorated, and he knows his time is almost up. Niebold, however, is determined to wring the last moments of joy out of life, and his irrepressible spirit will awaken even jaded Nurse Lauder, who has worked on the ward too long to care anymore. Published by Next Stage Press in the collection "Thin Lines"
"a nuanced, moving portrayal of one man's last great battle." - Urban Milwaukee

10 Minute Play. A jealous husband shoots a houseguest - his wife's former boyfriend - in a complete accident. Maybe.

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

Two miners, trapped by a cave-in one of them triggered, confront their fears as they await rescue.
Part of the 2024 SAMUEL FRENCH OOB FESTIVAL 2024 at The Vineyard's Dimson Theatre, New York, NY.

10 Minute Play - Jerry is faced with the task of telling his estranged adult daughter that he has a terminal illness. He plans on using a go-between: Teddy and Bunny, who initially seem to be her siblings but in fact are her childhood toys - a stuffed Teddy bear and a rabbit - which he used as puppets when she was a little girl.
This play is published in The Best American Short Plays 2015-2016, and produced as a short film in 2017.

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.

10 Minute Play - A comedy about a middle aged widower trying to cope with his 12 year old daughter's first period.

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.

10 minute play. Stanley has invented a time machine to send his best friend Jenny back in history to shoot Adolf Hitler. What could go wrong? Well, to start with Stanley's future roommate turns up and shoots Jenny dead... and that's just the beginning of their time travel complications!
Content warning: onstage character shot (comedic effect, they appear alive seconds later)

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!

An unproduced, raunchy adult comedy that was set to premiere in Houston, Texas in April 2020. Guess what happened to that production. Ah well...
Can a team of volunteer astronauts stay sane in the confines of a mock spaceship on a simulated multi-year mission? Um.... no. NASA was looking for the best of the best and got these people instead.

Full length. NOW AVAILABLE FROM NEXT STAGE PRESS!
A reimagining of A Christmas Carol without the old rich miser in it at all, but instead centering on Mrs. Dilber - Scrooge’s maltreated housekeeper - as she meets Marley and the Spirits of Christmas before they haunt Scrooge, and sets off on a past, present and future adventure of her own.

Second note: There is a RADIO PLAY version of this script available for the asking!
Last Note: The play premiered in 2022 at Loft Ensemble Theatre in Los Angeles under the former title Mrs Dilber's Fabulous Bedcurtains.

Monologue - a two minute monologue for a teenage boy, confronting his teacher with how well he is coping in the aftermath of his father's suicide.
Content warning: themes of suicide and abuse.

10 minute play, and a radio-play version is available! Soon to be published in Smith & Kraus' "The Best 10-Minute Plays of 2024."
Two siblings are stuck with the weird, creepy - and maybe not even human - kid from next door, on July Fourth, when there are firecrackers to be stolen and played with. Let freedom ring!
Suitable for high school, possibly Middle although it might be too edgy.

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. What's worse, a dead rat in the toilet or a dead husband in the kitchen? Is there a difference?
In the play, Babs has to make some tough decisions when her old flame Abby turns up on the run from her abusive husband - who she's stabbed in the back of the neck with a kitchen knife.
It's a dark comedy with a heart of murder. (This play was formerly titled "Of Rats and men")
Content warning: discussion of past spousal abuse, mostly implied.

Full length (excerpt only - published work) Seventeen year old Kirstie gets caught sneaking home after curfew. Her mother, Sarah, has been waiting up with a bottle for company. Sarah's thirty-four, which, if you'll do the math, explains why she's so distraught about Kirstie being out with a boy... Michael. Kirstie's first crush.
Years of bitter conflicts gradually erupt in a night of head games played to the limit as Sarah and Kirstie finally confront the unspoken issues between them, including Sarah's conviction that becoming a mother at 17 ruined her life.
Michael's arrival after Kirstie has fled in tears only makes things worse; but eventually, as the layers of lies and truths wielded as weapons are stripped away, the core of their relationship is exposed - and can be rebuilt.
Content Warning: On stage violence, abusive relationship, discussion of prior sexual abuse (implied), themes of self-harm, adult F/teen M "seduction" scene.

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.
Content warning: children in jeopardy from natural disaster; discussion of race as a factor in hurricane response efforts.

10 minute play - Shades of Glen Garry, Glen Ross in a life insurance office, when irascible co-workers and their awkward boss must decide who gets the commissions when the leading salesman gets squished by a bus.
The play took first place in the Tree City Playhouse 10 minute play competition.

10 minute play. A mother reveals to her three bickering children that her cancer has returned - more aggressively - and she has only a few months to live. Sibling rivalry in the face of family tragedy...
While the play is dramatic, the characters use humor to deal with their situation - and I have debated describing it as a "dramedy"... like so many of my plays, it skates back and forth across that line.
Content warning: cancer and discussion of end of life planning.

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.
Content Warning - please read the description for themes.

One act (25 minutes) This is the story of Straw, Sticks and Bricks - random building materials who long to be houses, and their fateful meeting with three pigs being chased by a Big, Bad wolf! It's the life of characters in a fairy tale we never even think of as characters!

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.

Content warning: Discussion of domestic violence & physical abuse.

Brand new, unproduced - and I'd love to get any feedback!
Four survivors of a shared traumatic childhood experience - a visit to a chocolate factory that went disastrously wrong - confront the terrifying news that a man they thought was dead is plotting to give away five new golden tickets.

10 minutes - Two mothers come to blows while sweeping the stage before their daughters' dance recital. The play centers stage combat for the quarterstaff.

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.

10 Minute - Janet, a nineteen year old college drop out, is heading home to her parents after failing every single course, unsure of how to break the news to them. To make it through the all-night drive, she's hired professional road trip copilot Randy, a 50 year old guy, divorced, missing his daughter. The play starts after her car has driven into a ditch, and they find themselves stranded on the side of the road near Yosemite, right by a sign saying "Do Not Feed the Bears". Yes, they do end up on the sign, listening to an angry bear and gradually forming an unlikely friendship.

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
Content warning: Onstage kiss, discussion of disabilities and "passing".

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 is 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 at nextstagepress.com!
"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. Now available from Next Stage Press!
When a young maiden who has never touched a sword learns she must defend her inheritance in a duel, she struggles with a milksop suitor, a servant girl posing as a Prussian fencing master, a Prussian fencing master who thinks he is there to marry her, a stodgy lawyer and her domineering aunt – the finest blade anywhere - to save her house and lands. Like all classic farces, everyone gets the ending they deserve in unexpected ways... but will they be satisfied?

10 Minute comedy, selected for the Midwest dramatists Conference 2024. The last two men on earth - a witty, urbane homosexual and a desperate incel with a crush on the last surviving woman, struggle to convince her to take them with her after their food supply runs out.

10 Minute Play. Charles Dickens' Scrooge meets the Ghost of Christmases Yet to Be Yet to Be - and learns that the modern take on the holiday isn't quite what the other spirits led him to believe. Why choose the biggest goose in the shop when you can have a nice vegan nut-loaf instead?

36 minutes.
This is a one act version of my published full length play, edited to be UIL performance length! I'd love to get some feedback, and I will probably tweak it after the first performance before I submit it to my publisher as the official one act version.
The Ithaca Ladies Read Medea is about 1950's faculty wives who get together for a play reading, while suspecting that one of them has betrayed the others to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee.
The full length version includes the role of Senator Mundt, who interrogates each of the four faculty wives about their husband's activities.

Published by YouthPLAYS.com. A 15 minute play for younger actors and youth groups - a staging of the famous poem that begins "Twas the Night Before Christmas" - that goes off the rails with interruptions, arguments, dancing sugar plums, and of course a mouse stirring a big bowl with a spoon!

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.

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.

PUBLISHED by YouthPLAYS.com. In a moment of irony, this one-act about eight students attempting to stage a banned play in spite of the opposition of the school administration and their own parents, was originally nixed by a school principal. It ended up premiering in the 2023 Kansas Thespians Festival by Fort Scott High School.
It covers some heavy topics but has no adult language or profane references. As one of the parents in "There is no Play" says, after hearing that the play they are protesting has no dirty words, "Yeah, but it has dirty ideas. We don't like the ideas."

One act play. Joe and Sal - a feisty young couple, smart, sarcastic, and deeply in love - are challenged on the night Joe comes home with unexplained blood on his shoes. Sal tries to cope as best she can - in spite of her phobia about blood, anxiety over the pregnancy test she's been waiting for, fear of AIDS and an inexplicable rain of blood falling from the sky... Nothing is quite as it seems in this exploration of anxiety and hidden secrets in a seemingly perfect relationship. Published in the collection "Thin Lines" from Next Stage Press.

Full length play - Joining Sword and Pen winner! 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