Posts in playwriting
Tickets Available Now! "THE SUPER VARIETY MATCH BONUS ROUND!"

Get your seats now for my new comedy "The Super Variety Match Bonus Round!" at Rogue Machine Theatre!

Directed by Cameron Watson and starring Bonnie Bailey-Reed, Mark Taylor, Paula Christensen, and Ninja Ortiz, this fun romp opens November 12 and runs weekends until December 19.  Here's a synopsis:

For Mags Eagleton, the world has become a scary place kept fiercely at bay by the confines of her well-worn recliner. When her loving husband Erns surprises her by renting their late son's bedroom to a very modern kid who is visiting their rural Texas town for a three-day desert music festival, things take a turn for the trippy. This rollicking comedy explores the risks of desperate love, the exemplary form of the 1970s game show, and the psychedelic side effects of fear your doctor may not have warned you about.

Tickets are $35, except for "Pay What You Can" Night on Monday Nov 14, and the Opening Night Gala which includes a champagne/dessert reception (opening gala tickets are $55).

Grab your tickets today and plan for a lively, post-election evening of fun!

The Alabama shirt is unrelated to the show -- we were playing LSU that day, and even though I was at the theater for tech, I have to wear my good luck game-day attire....

The Alabama shirt is unrelated to the show -- we were playing LSU that day, and even though I was at the theater for tech, I have to wear my good luck game-day attire....

Wonderful Week at Gulfshore Playhouse New Works Festival!

My play "Miss Keller Has No Second Book" was one of four plays selected for Gulfshore Playhouse's New Works Festival in Naples, Fl, and what a great week it was! I was blessed with an amazing cast, director, stage manager, and along with the hard-working staff at GS, the entire process was productive and delightful. The surprise factor was the engaged and enthusiastic audience -- a smart, sensitive, honest, theater-savvy crowd who valued their own participation in helping to develop new theater.

Thanks to all who made me feel so welcome, and who embraced my play so wholeheartedly! This play (and this writer's soul) feels so much better because of you.

Rewrites, and rewrites, and rewrites...

Rewrites, and rewrites, and rewrites...

The stellar cast prepares...

The stellar cast prepares...

L-R: Me, Annette Trossbach (Director), and Kristen Coury (Artistic Director, Gulfshore Playhouse) at the post-reading talkback

L-R: Me, Annette Trossbach (Director), and Kristen Coury (Artistic Director, Gulfshore Playhouse) at the post-reading talkback

I mean, COME ON. Taken on Naples' Fifth Ave just after my reading.

I mean, COME ON. Taken on Naples' Fifth Ave just after my reading.

"The Super Variety Match Bonus Round!" at Rogue Machine Theatre in L.A.!

Wonderful news! L.A.'s celebrated Rogue Machine Theatre will be producing a world premiere of my newest play, "The Super Variety Match Bonus Round!" this fall. Directed by beloved director Cameron Watson and scheduled to open November 5, this rollicking comedy explores the risks of desperate love, the exemplary form of the 1970s game show, and the psychedelic side effects of fear your doctor may not have warned you about. 

Check back here for more details about the design team, the cast, and how to see this funny, thoughtful, brand new show.

Gulfshore Playhouse New Works Festival!

So honored to be selected as one of four playwrights who will be workshopping new plays at the prestigious Gulfshore Playhouse in Naples, FL during the first week of September! My play, "Miss Keller Has No Second Book" will be featured in their 2016 New Works Festival, and will have a public reading on Sunday 9/11 at 3:00 p.m.  More info and tickets HERE!

Finalist for the Heideman Award at Actors Theatre of Louisville

So excited to learn that "The Presentation," one of my ten-minute plays, is a finalist for the 2017 Heideman Award at Actors Theatre of Louisville. The play was submitted for consideration of this award as well as inclusion in ATL's National Ten-Minute Play Contest.

Established in 1989, the National Ten-Minute Play Contest remains one of the most enduring and significant means by which the literary staff at Actors Theatre of Louisville connects with American playwrights and is introduced to vibrant new voices for the stage. The Heideman Award was established in 1979. Made possible by the late Ted Heideman, a Louisvillian, the $1,000 cash prize is bestowed annually upon the winner of the National Ten-Minute Play Contest (1990 – present).

Won't know final results until February, but I'm honored to be selected as a finalist for this prestigious prize.

"Chain Link" at Nylon Fusion in NYC
Skyler Gallun and Nikita Tewani, as directed by Lori Kee at Nylon Fusion (NYC). All photos credit: Al Foote III

Skyler Gallun and Nikita Tewani, as directed by Lori Kee at Nylon Fusion (NYC). All photos credit: Al Foote III

My new short play, "Chain Link," will be produced as part of Nylon Fusion's "This Round's On Us" series Friday June 3 and Saturday June 4 at 9:00 p.m. The evenings will also feature a World Premiere by the brilliant John Patrick Shanley.

Directed by Lori Kee, the short play features Nikita Tewani and Skyler Gullen.

The performances will take place at TADA! NYC, 15 W. 28th Street, New York, NY 10001. Tickets available here and more info at NylonFusion.org. Catch it if you can!

"The Super Variety Match Bonus Round!" in Playwrights Union "First Peek" Series

My newest play, "The Super Variety Match Bonus Round!" is part of the Playwrights Union "First Peek" play reading series on Sunday June 5 at 2:00 p.m. sharp, at the VS Theater, 5453 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90019. Tickets are FREE and available at Eventbrite (it's a small space, please get your tickets in advance to avoid crushing disappointment).

Synopsis for "The Super Variety Match Bonus Round!":
When a very modern kid with no vowels in his name rents a bedroom in the small home of a small-town Texas couple during a big desert music festival weekend, and that couple is struggling with grief and progress and how to find their tiny safe place in a big scary rapidly changing world, and that kid kindly decides to dose their applesauce with his own personalized candy-flip of party psycho-pharmaceuticals, and then that couple finds themselves in a 1970s-era game show experiencing a truth reckoning that shakes the very foundation of their marriage, hilarity ensues.

I mean, COME ON.