n/a

Tiffany Theater in Los Angeles, CA

1986

Lotus Productions

Dramatists Play Service, NY

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Comedy

4

1

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Notes: -

Synopsis: Things are not going well at the Gallagher Publishing Company, an old-line textbook house which is faced with mounting losses because of the failure of its latest publishing venture. Staving off financial ruin is the pressing problem, and the men who head up the company have varying opinions as to how to deal with the crisis. Elliot Gallagher, the ineffectual son of the former (and very dynamic) president (and now president himself) wants to bring in a rather shady outside investor, but his colleagues fear that this would lead to a takeover which could cost them their cushy jobs. Marty Blasingame, the meek-mannered company treasurer, urges that they file for bankruptcy; while Casey McDermott, the hard-driving veteran sales manager, has a more draconian suggestionburn down their warehouse and collect the insurance money. They even go so far as to interview a professional arsonist, who proves to have more conscience than they do when he turns down the job because of the possibility of harming people in nearby tenements. One glimmer of hope is an imaginative new educational program devised by the resourceful editorial chief, Carolyn McNeil, but where to find the money to develop it? In the end Elliot, after wrestling with the spectre of personal as well as professional disaster, pulls himself together and decides to invest his own money in the businessa move considered radical in corporate circles but, in this instance, perhaps the only way to salvage not only the company but also the integrity of those committed to it.

The Triad Playwrights Company in New York City

1974

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Comedy

One Act

1

1

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Notes: -

Synopsis: Having fled to New York from Oak Harbor, Ohio (and husband), Loretta, running low on funds, applies for a position with a one-man advertising firmonly to have the owner (Leonard) greet her with the news that he is going out of business. In fact he has to scratch to refund the carfare she spent coming to see him. But Loretta, who has come to the big city to 'find" herself and a better life, senses that the recently divorced Leonard may be the man she has been looking for all along. And Leonard, despite his determination to resist, finds himself drawn ever more deeply into a very funny and progressively more revealing conversation with the smitten Loretta. In the end their encounter makes both of them face up to some inescapable truthsabout love, and life, and the need to find your own way, whatever the obstacles.

Wonderhorse Theater in New York City

1978

Cherubs Guild

Dramatists Play Service, NY

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Play/Drama

4

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Notes: -

Synopsis: The setting is the basement recreation room where "The Stardust Boys," a local Ohio polka band, meet to rehearse. Urged on by their leader Stosh, they are getting ready to make a demo record that Stosh hopes will lead to the fame and fortune that have eluded them thus far. The other players, who hold full-time jobs and have been content to settle for the extra income their weekend bookings provide, humor Stoshbut the mood darkens when Nick, the accordion player and star composer for the group, announces his decision to marry and leave the band. What is suddenly at stake is the very existence of "The Stardust Boys" and their newly kindled hopes for the big timea prospect that Stosh cannot easily accept. Tension mounts as Stosh confronts Nick with the perfidy of his decision, and the others, joining in, reveal the problems that shadow their own lives. In the end it is clear that their music, and the escape it provides, has been the sustaining force of their lives, and its loss, however stoically borne, will return them to the tedium and bleakness that they have struggled to surmount.

South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, CA

1983

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Dramatists Play Service, NY

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
(below) are AbeBooks for secondhand & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Comedy

3

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Notes: Men's Singles--updated and revised in 2005--was produced by The English Theater of Hamburg, Germany on February 10, 2005

Synopsis: Every Tuesday night, Rob, an advertising executive in his late twenties, gets together with either Larry, a salesman in his mid-thirties, or Kurt, a psychiatrist in his early thirties, for a tennis match. Rob yearns for marriage but is in love with a woman who has been offered a job in Los Angeles and wants him to pull up stakes. Larry, a self-confessed male chauvinist, has tired of his marriage to a high school sweetheart and believes there's nothing a "bachelor pad" wouldn't solve. Kurt is gay and, after two live-in lovers and countless one-night stands, is attempting his first relationship with a woman, in hopes of finding stability at last. By the end of the play, Rob has decided to put his career ahead of marriage; Larry has had second thoughts about a breakup with his wife; and Kurt, reconciled to his fate, is hoping for a date with the guy who has the court after them. Having helped one another through the pitfalls of women, jobs and just staying alive, the three have come to recognize the true nature of friendship and the audience has come to know, and care about, three unique human beings who, at last, might just be on the verge of discovering the sense of direction and maturity that has previously eluded them.