Ben Dudley

In 1913 New York, Victor has found tremendous success as a novelist and playwright, churning out hit after hit (as well as the occasional baffling bomb). His wife, Irene, has grown increasingly suspicious of his idiosyncratic behavior over the years and hires a detective to find some answers. Though her potential suitor Conrad considers Victor an imposter at best and a demon at worst, Irene knows in her heart that Victor is from another time.

Beginning as an homage to drawing room plays and comedies of manners, Zeitgeists explores the idea of being pressured to fit into a society that's entirely foreign to you, with scenes set in 1913, 15,750, and 2019.

After a home invasion leaves her unable to feel safe, Rachel sublets an apartment to write her next book in solitude. However, her lingering paranoia and her prying neighbor Tasha shatter any hope of escaping her problems. These distractions build until Rachel becomes convinced that something horrific happened to the apartment's original owners, the Coopers, who occupy the stage with Rachel but at an earlier time.

Four artists – the Musician, the Writer, the Painter, and the Mathematician – have been placed into an induced sleep, during which they will have the equivalent of 40 years to pursue their passions and create the definitive works of their fields. After decades of isolation, they become aware of each other for the first time. As their differing relationships with art clash, it dawns on them that they may have been in this subconscious state for far longer than 40 years, a revelation that reframes all of their creations.

Frank is the nanny of Brandon, a wealthy 30-year-old man who lives his life as a toddler 24 hours a day. After three years, the two have grown close, but Frank is troubled when he notices self-destructive tendencies in Brandon. He recruits Sandy, an altruistic but guilt-ridden woman he meets at the park, to go undercover as another adult baby to find what’s hurting Brandon without alerting his mother, his greatest enabler.

After living with painter Elyse and her free-spirited fiance Edward for years, screenwriter Denny is staggered when Edward dies and Elyse plans to move away. Desperate to give meaning to the death of the man that served as his muse, Denny tries to turn Edward’s final “pure, unfiltered” words into a documentary, though it becomes clear to Elyse that Denny’s memories of Edward are anything but pure and unfiltered.

Dan and Louise discover that the rest of the office is obsessed with their will-they-won’t-they sexual tension. As they learn how deep this parasocial rabbit hole goes, it comes to light that there are conflicting perspectives of their relationship in the office, ranging from saccharine to smutty. The two grapple with their bizarre co-workers, trying to make sense of their relationship and their co-workers’ fervent dependency on them.

This rapid-fire comedy was first staged (in a shorter form) in the Cincinnati Fringe Festival and was briefly revived for an encore at another theatre the next year. This full-length version offers plenty of opportunities for comic actors to showcase their talents and plenty of (optional) opportunities for multimedia.

Insecure about the state of the world and the declining quality of his comic strip Garfield, God is already on edge when a fetus – moments from birth – comes into his life… and won’t leave. The two form an unlikely bond as God desperately tries to convince the fetus to continue on to Earth by taking him on a road trip through the endless and unsettling void of pre-life. Along the way, the worn-out deity and his oddly optimistic creation meet God's parents, search for inspiration, and visit Earth for a couple of decades.

Beginning life as a daily webcomic, Fetus and the God was first performed on stage in 2014, premiering in six 15-minute episodes over the course of two months. In 2020, the Know Theatre of Cincinnati produced a full-length audio version of the play, recorded remotely during the pandemic.

A doctor explains to his date how he settled on his specialization.