A. M. Shea

A. M. Shea

Ph.D. in Educational Theatre, New York University; M.A. in Drama, The Catholic University of America' B.A. in English, Anna Maria College. Professor Emerita (Theatre), Worcester State College. Dean of College of Fellows, New England Theatre Conference. Playwighting—Production History

"The Dirty Irish"—(Ten-Minute) Staged by Barrington Stage Company, Feb. 19-March 5, 2017-Short-...
Ph.D. in Educational Theatre, New York University; M.A. in Drama, The Catholic University of America' B.A. in English, Anna Maria College. Professor Emerita (Theatre), Worcester State College. Dean of College of Fellows, New England Theatre Conference. Playwighting—Production History

"The Dirty Irish"—(Ten-Minute) Staged by Barrington Stage Company, Feb. 19-March 5, 2017-Short-Play Festival: Build a Wall, New Carpa Theatre (Arizona State University), 2011
-Staged reading by Our Voices, Sept. 2016, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA

"Best in Class"—(Ten-Minute) Staged by Barrington Stage Company, Feb. 11-18, 2016

"Briar Rose"—(TYA) workshopped by South Eastern Regional Technical High School, as entry in Massachusetts Educational Theatre Guild Festival, Feb 27, 2016

"Family Archive"—(One Act Play)—staged by Turtle Lane Theatre, Auburndale, MA 2010; staged by Torrent Theatre (New York City), April 2016.

"Last Word" (Full length) Retitled "The Muse in Autumn"— First prize winner, Newburyport (MA) New Plays Festival, January 2011; read at Kelly Square Yacht Club, Worcester, MA, 2009, and also at Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Valdez, AK 2009; Finalist, Ashland New Play Festival, 2014. Staged reading, InProximity, June 2018, New York City.

"Land’s End Café " (One Act Play), First prize winner, One Act Play Festival on the Mumford, Whitinsville. MA January 2014; staged reading at Curtain Theatre, Columbus, OH, January 2007, (second prize winner); read at Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Valdez, AK, June 2007,

Madame Secretary, Frances Perkins –monodrama, Various bookings, 2009-2016.

"Members Only"--(One Act Play), read at Last Frontier Theatre Conference, June 2006; staged at Boston Actors’ Theatre, August 2007

"Old Friends, New Benefits" – second prize winner, staged at Newburyport (MA)New Play Festival, January 2011;

"With Improvements by the Actors" (Ten-Minute Play), performed at Boston Theatre Marathon April 2004 subsequently produced throughout the summer by Shakespeare and Company, Lenox, MA. Published in Netherlands by Anco Entertainment B. V.

"The M-Pill" (one-act)--read at the 2004 Last Frontier Theatre Conference, Valdez , AK. Staged in workshop by Redfeather Theatre 2005.

"The Servant of Two Masters," by Carlo Goldoni, translated and adapted, produced at Worcester State College, 1979.

"Winter Glory," original children’s play book and lyrics, produced by Worcester Children’s Theatre,1979.

"Perfectly Clear," book and lyrics, translated and adapted from Moliere’s Les Femmes Savantes, produced at Worcester State College, 1974. ##

Plays

  • Members Only
    Dr. Richard Middling may know his way around a root canal, but he is totally out of his element as he tries to tell his wife of his decision to marry his secretary. Miriam, his very capable fox of a wife, is not the least bit surprised, when she meets him for a lunch date at their private club, where he intends to break the news. She is not ready to fade into the background as a pitiful and pitiable first wife...
    Dr. Richard Middling may know his way around a root canal, but he is totally out of his element as he tries to tell his wife of his decision to marry his secretary. Miriam, his very capable fox of a wife, is not the least bit surprised, when she meets him for a lunch date at their private club, where he intends to break the news. She is not ready to fade into the background as a pitiful and pitiable first wife. Miriam has already heard about Richard’s fling at every one of her numerous volunteer activities, and she is not about to give up on her considerable investment in Richard’s security—and hers. With a veneer of “caring for” the hedgehog Richard, she wipes up this mess on her comfortable life with as much effort as it would take to wipe a stain off bathroom porcelain.
  • The Muse in Autumn
    In a rustic retreat in northern New England, Gwyneth and her older, invalid husband, the once-famous poet, Marshall Rivers, are visited by an ambitious and self-absorbed young academic Professor Laurence (Larry) Grant, who hopes that an interview with Rivers will seal his chances for tenure. Now paralyzed and mute after a series of strokes, the aging writer nevertheless still has a caustic wit, which he is...
    In a rustic retreat in northern New England, Gwyneth and her older, invalid husband, the once-famous poet, Marshall Rivers, are visited by an ambitious and self-absorbed young academic Professor Laurence (Larry) Grant, who hopes that an interview with Rivers will seal his chances for tenure. Now paralyzed and mute after a series of strokes, the aging writer nevertheless still has a caustic wit, which he is able to share with the audience, although with no other member of the cast. Larry arrives almost simultaneously with a young woman, Maggie.
    Alone with Maggie, Gwyneth recounts the soul-crushing sacrifices committed out of devotion to a "Great Man." Although she was only a twenty-year old undergraduate creative writing student, she had submitted to the married and middle-aged Rivers' demand that she never burden him with children. As his once-fading career jump-started, she stopped writing altogether.
    Maggie gradually reveals herself to be the love child of Rivers and another young student he had an affair with after he grew tired of Gwyneth. Like Gwyneth, Maggie’s unfortunate mother never found her individual voice as a poet after Rivers seduced her and plagiarized her poems. Larry is torn between maintaining the "integrity" of his career-building research on Rivers, or revealing Rivers as a fraud. Gwyneth, finally finding her “voice,” devises a subtle revenge on Rivers not only for stealing her writing but also for impregnating another woman while denying her motherhood. Helpless, Rivers is forced to live with the voice of his silenced student chasing him to his grave.

  • The Dirty Irish
    In Prohibition era New England, the Brahmins can’t always get what they want, so they avoid the wrath of the law by just sending the immigrant domestics to procure hootch for them.

  • With Improvements by the Actors
    In seventeenth century London, at the first rehearsal of the "new Danish play," overly ambitious actors quibble over how to improve the words of the bard.
  • The M-Pill
    Brief Blurb--
    CLAIRE and WARREN discover that total recall can be dangerous to quality of life.

    Synopsis--
    An elderly, married couple volunteer at the local medical school for an experiment involving a magic pill that promises total restoration of fading powers of memory. The loving devotion and mutual dependency that has grown over the patina of advancing years shatters in a...
    Brief Blurb--
    CLAIRE and WARREN discover that total recall can be dangerous to quality of life.

    Synopsis--
    An elderly, married couple volunteer at the local medical school for an experiment involving a magic pill that promises total restoration of fading powers of memory. The loving devotion and mutual dependency that has grown over the patina of advancing years shatters in a drug-induced total recall that dredges up infidelities, hen-pecking, painful losses and various other past events not meriting retention. Coming out of the drug, the couple stun the examiner by bowing out of the study that may lead to remembering everything. Their selective amnesia, they conclude, is helping them stay together in these, their last, days.

    A precarious mix of humor and pathos. It plays like a mix of “On Golden Pond” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” One moment Warren and Claire are extolling their enduring love for each other and the next lashing out with vituperative recrimination.

    Paul Kolas, Telegram & Gazette, May 21, 2005
  • Family Archive
    Brief blurb
    Two sisters, cleaning out the old house after the death of their mother, find family secrets lurking in mundane paper clutter, secrets whose revelations will change their relationship forever.

    Synopsis
    Ginny, a successful family practice lawyer, and her beloved younger sister, Molly, are at odds as to how to handle the physical detritus cluttering their late mother’s...
    Brief blurb
    Two sisters, cleaning out the old house after the death of their mother, find family secrets lurking in mundane paper clutter, secrets whose revelations will change their relationship forever.

    Synopsis
    Ginny, a successful family practice lawyer, and her beloved younger sister, Molly, are at odds as to how to handle the physical detritus cluttering their late mother’s house. Ginny would gladly toss the whole mess, whereas Molly finds sentimental attachment to every scrap of paper. When Molly finds a discrepancy between the documentary evidence and the oral folklore of the family, Ginny is forced to give up the secret that she is actually the woman who gave birth to Molly. Ginny nevertheless cannot bring herself to reveal to Molly the identity of the father. As the lights dim, the audience is left hanging as to whether Ginny will ever be able to articulate the secret of Molly’s dreadful paternity.

  • Briar Rose
    Sc. 1--The King and Queen celebrate the birth of their new daughter, Princess Rose, by inviting the Powers, the figures of the Zodiac, to a feast. Each Power gives its characteristic blessing, except for Aquarius. But Time appears as a crone and curses the royals for omitting her, saying that some time after her twelfth birthday, the princess will prick herself on the needle of a spinning wheel and fall dead....
    Sc. 1--The King and Queen celebrate the birth of their new daughter, Princess Rose, by inviting the Powers, the figures of the Zodiac, to a feast. Each Power gives its characteristic blessing, except for Aquarius. But Time appears as a crone and curses the royals for omitting her, saying that some time after her twelfth birthday, the princess will prick herself on the needle of a spinning wheel and fall dead. Time leaves and the Aquarius changes the curse of death to 100 years sleep. The King bans all needles.

    Sc. 2--Twelve years later, the princess’ birthday party. The overly protected Princess Rose, petulant and bored, lackadaisically accepts fabulous gifts from the first two foreign ambassadors, but is genuinely thrilled by the gift from the mysterious “third ambassador.” The gift, a magical robe must be altered. The King allows the “third ambassador” to perform alterations on the site--only because the “ambassador” promises to use no sewing instruments, but magic alone. After reducing the robe to its essential fibers, the “ambassador” (actually Time in disguise) offers Rose a spinning wheel to build it up from the start. She pricks the princess’ hand with the needle from the wheel. As the royal family swoons, Aquarius appears, banishes Time, and creates a living briar to protect the sleeping bower.

    [Intermission?]

    Sc. 3--One hundred years later. The Briar, exterior. Two foreign knights errant, Austin and Boris, attempt to break through the thicket by rushing at it, or jumping over—each is in turn caught in the deadly briars. Victor, a wandering scholar, patiently removes each thorn from the other two knights, and in doing so frees an opening for himself to pass through. Rose is revealed asleep at the center of the bower. Victor tries to bring her back to consciousness by describing the lively world outside the briar, but the Princess continues to sleep.. He finally says that unless she wakens for him the briar patch will claim him too. She wakes with a start and impulsively kisses him, breaking the spell and bringing the court back to life. Victor, Rose and the royal parents plan to spend some time to get to know their new selves as they prepare for a royal wedding. The ring of briars blooms with glorious roses.

  • Last Word (Renamed--See THE MUSE IN AUTUMN)
    See THE MUSE IN AUTUMN