n/a

n/a

Great Valley High School, Pennsylvania

-

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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

Play for Children

-

-

-

Fexible casting, 20-40 performers

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
It is the summer of 1916, and the circus has come to the small town of Eddington, Tennessee. But the star of the show, an elephant named Big Mary, ("the largest land animal in captivity") is not happy, as her trainer, Maurice Weglellen, is about to be married to a local belle, Ella Mae Clayshulte, and to commit his charge to the questionable care of his assistant, Red Lavelette. Disrupting the wedding ceremony, and then trotting off after the newlyweds, Big Mary reacts angrily to Red's attempts to bring her to heel by giving him a fatal toss over her headwhich presents the townspeople with the problem of how to deal with crime by an elephant. The nearsighted mayor decides to mete out justice with a gun (but succeeds only in wounding an innocent bystander); the sheriff nervously (and without effect) orders Big Mary to cease and desist; and only the local black preacher, Rev. Stokes, appears to keep his head. Eventually everybody in town gets involved in the situation, and despite the pleading of Badger McQueen, a young black orphan girl who wants desperately to join the circus (black people can't in 1916), "wiser" heads prevail and it is ordained that Big Mary must hang. Which, with the help of Old Bud Fenwick's derrick, she doesto the enlightenment of all, for, as the Rev. Stokes ironically points out, "children learn what they learn from their elders"which, it is hoped, means from the bad examples as well as from the good.

New Mexico State University

1979

-

James T White, New Jersey

1980

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

-

Play/Drama

3

4

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
After three years in the Peace Corps, James, a young speech therapist, joins the faculty of a school for the deaf, where he is to teach lip-reading. He meets Sarah, a school dropout, totally deaf from birth, and estranged both from the world of hearing and from those who would compromise to enter that world. Fluent in sign language, James tries, with little success, to help Sarah, but gradually the two fall in love and marry. At first their relationship is a happy and glowing one, as the gulf of silence between them seems to be bridged by their desire to understand each other's needs and feelings, but discord soon develops as Sarah becomes militant for the rights of the deaf and rejects any hint that she is being patronized and pitied. In the end the chasm between the worlds of sound and silence seems almost too great to cross&but love and compassion hold the hope of reconciliation, and a deeper, fuller understanding of differences that, in the final essence, can unite as well as divide.

University of Rhode Island/New Repertory Project, RI; Guthrie 2, MN

1977

-

-

-

I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com

-

-

-

-

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:

-

-

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

1998

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

-

Play/Drama

7

3

4b 5g

Notes:
written by Mark Medoff and Phil Treon

Synopsis:
High school senior Robin Wingstrom's life is going nowhere. She's juggling a newspaper route, schoolwork, basketball, and a would-be boyfriendall with little success. To make matters worse, her only living relative, Gramps, is a senile old poop who's driving her certifiably nuts. When Robin misses a key shot in an important basketball game, her team loses, their coach collapses (dead on the spot), and Robin becomes the school goat. A new coach arrives. Smooth-talking Miles Murdock offers Robin the deal of her lifean infallible jump shot. It's a 100% sure thingguaranteed. She can't miss! But a price must be paid. As Robin's jump shot earns her glory, Gramps suffers a series of excruciating maladies. The cafeteria lady, Lily Wintergarden, knows there is more to Coach Murdock than meets the eye, but she's not into helping folks anymore. It's a Faustian deal Murdock has struck with Robin, but he doesn't need any more souls; it's just plain old human suffering he relishes. Despite Murdock's diabolical intentions, Robin leads her team to the state championship game. It's the biggest contest of her life, and when she and Murdock go one-on-one, it's crunch time!

Las Cruces, New Mexico

1969

-

in "Four Short Plays", Dramatists Play Service, New York

1974

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

Red Farce

One Act

2

1

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
Selected for inclusion in "Best Short Plays," this revealing and bitingly funny play projects still another uncomplimentary aspect of our infamous treatment of the American Indian. The approach is outlandishly farcical, but the truth of the situation is chillingly real as is the justice of the red man's revenge.

Dallas Theater Center, TX

1978

-

-

-

I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com

-

-

-

-

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:

Albuquerque, New Mexico

1971

-

in "Four Short Plays", Dramatists Play Service, New York

1974

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

Absurdist comedy

One Act

2

2

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
An absurdist comedy which contrasts the widely divergent life styles (and personalities) of two couples to devastating effect. The action focuses on the plight of the unwashed Al, who fails repeatedly (and hilariously) in his attempts at suicide, only to find redemption in the love of the tidy Harriet.

-

-

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

2003

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

-

Play/Drama

19

7

doubling possible down to 20 actors

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
Based on the true life story of Lt. Col. Ralph Hayles (U.S. Army, retired), GUNFIGHTER: A GULF WAR CHRONICLE tells the story of an Apache attack helicopter pilot whose career and life are changed by a tragic friendly fire incident during the Gulf War of 1991. Mr. Hayles was the first soldier in over two hundred years of American military history to be named publicly by the military and media as the shooter in a friendly fire situation. GUNFIGHTER is the rich story of media and military, ambition and duty, and it reveals the complexity of professional relationships when they collide with technology and personal ambition. "This is a very patriotic play and represents many of the great things about our country, such as freedom of speech," says Mr. Hayles, who now lives and works in San Antonio. "Freedom of speech protected me but tore my life to pieces on the front end." The play is very presentational and allows for fabulous sound and video support.

Huntington, New York

1976

-

-

-

I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com

-

-

-

-

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:

Los Angeles

1984

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

1987

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

-

Play/Drama

4

5

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
The place is a university resident theatre in the Southwest, where a brilliant but unstable former faculty member, Howard Bellman, has returned to direct a new play after a stay in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. The play, a first effort by a talented deaf writer named Marieta Yerby, purports to be about a woman who shot her alcoholic husband because he beat herbut the intuitive, probing director quickly senses that Marieta has withheld a key element in her story, an element which could change the work from a "little revenge piece" into a "big play about domestic violence." Despite her resistance, Bellman sets out to extract the truth from Marieta, a process in which his relentless, bullying tactics soon threaten both his own position and the future of the project itself. But, as the pressure mounts, the unique nature of the collaborative process is brilliantly underscored and, when Marieta eventually confesses that the real story is of her rape by her drunken father, the resulting emotional catharsis both chastens the participants and frees them to find new levels of artistic expression. In the end the truth becomes the playor vice versaand those involved, in delving ever more deeply and unsparingly into the meaning of their shared enterprise, must also, for better or worse, come to confront the truth about themselves as well. NOTE: This play is particularly suitable for production by those groups who have presented this author's Children of a Lesser God.

Santa Fe

1986

-

in "The Hero Trilogy", Peregrine Smith, Salt Lake City

1989

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

-

Play/Drama

3

1

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
In the first act, subtitled THE DIRTY PICTURE MAN, Stephen (Red) Ryder, the reluctant nineteen-year-old hero of the original play, is now a twenty-seven-year-old Vietnam veteran who has lost a hand in the war. Part owner and manager of a movie house in Austin, Texas, which has recently begun to show porno films, he recounts, in an engrossing and revealing monologue, the events of his present lifehis numbing, sometimes disquieting duties as concessionaire and general factotum in the cinema; his involvement with a local religious cult; and the still lingering doubts about his manhood which have remained with him ever since, eight years earlier, he had found himself thrust, almost accidentally, into the role of a hero. The second act, subtitled TERMINAL, takes place four years later, when Stephen returns to his former home in New Mexico to attend his mother's funeral. There he encounters people from his past: his former sweetheart, Angel, once a waitress in the diner where the events of the first play took place; his avaricious, brutal stepfather, Ray, who tries to browbeat him into signing over half of his late mother's property; and a former high school classmate, Dickie, now the night manager of the local bus terminal, who still carries around a newspaper account of Stephen's bravery and secretly wants to challenge him. In the ensuing confrontations, each of these characters reveals more about himself, or herself, than each might have wished, but each in his own way also comes to terms with what he or she has become in the years since the fateful night of terror when the legend of Stephen "Red" Ryder first came into being.

-

-

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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

-

Play/Drama

3

2

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
A brilliant young mathematician, Archie Landrum, goes to work for and befriends a retired high-school English teacher, Katherine Samuel, who has recently lost her beloved husband. When Katherine's substance-abusing TV-star daughter, Lucy, returns home to the family farm to dry out, Archie becomes obsessed with her and, ultimately, murders her when she makes it clear she is unavailable. Deputy Sheriff Gilbert Tellez, a former suitor of Lucy's, is charged with babysitting Archie in the county jail. Public Defender, Joseph Smith, a former suitor of Katherine's, is to defend Archie. These five circle each other with their individual needs and furies; as the circle becomes tighter, implosion is inevitable.

ACT, San Francisco

1972

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

1976

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

-

Play/Drama

4

3

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
Self-assured and unyielding, Bart Kramer after accepting an important business position inexorably intrudes himself into the lives of his associates. Coldly and dispassionately he sets out to "save" it, particularly the young man who has been named as his assistant, and the awesome power of his driving ego is so great that resistance to his will is futile. A potent, baleful force wreaking havoc not only on the younger man but on all who come in contact with it, "The Kramer" becomes almost Christ-like in his power, yet Satan-like in the terrible toll his actions take. And the otherworldly quality of the man, and the play, is emphasized by the fluidity and fragmentation of the stagingas though the action were occurring in a strange, sometimes ethereal dream, grounded in reality but filled with disturbing overtones of dark and scarcely understood forces. In the end Kramer is as inscrutable and elusive as ever, but the cruel reality of the damage he has done to others remains to be ponderedas does the haunting, provocative question of "why?"

Las Cruces, New Mexico

1985

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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

Childrens Play

Youth Audience

3

2

3 boys, 4 girls (flexible casting)

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
Becka, age twelve, and Boomer, age eight, are sisters whose parents are in the middle of a trial separation at Christmas time. Becka, a precocious computer hacker, has become cynical and withdrawn. Boomer tries to be the peacemaker, eternally positive and anxious for all around her to be happy. Their parents, Dean and Irene, both child therapists, disagree on how to deal with the problems of their own children. While taking her sister to the mall to see Santa, Becka is goaded by her hacker friends into telling Boomer that there is no Santa, and when she does, this threatens to ruin Christmas for the family. While Dean and Irene try to deal with the fallout, the magical and mysterious Mrs. Rosen, comes into everyone's lives and begins to change the equation. She challenges Becka to prove there is no Santa by using her computer to see if she can't find him hooked up to a network somewhere. Becka, feeling more and more remorseful over what she has done to her sister, is intrigued by Mrs. Rosen's challenge and by the end Dean and Irene have reconciled, Becka has a brighter outlook on life, Boomer gets her Christmas wish, and Santa&well, of course he's real.

Las Cruces, New Mexico

1979

-

-

-

I don't think the play has been published but you could try abebooks.com

-

-

-

-

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:

San Francisco

1985

-

in "The Hero Trilogy", Peregrine Smith, Salt Lake City

1989

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

-

Fantasy

3

2

-

Notes:
music by Jan Scarborough

Synopsis:
Aaron Weiss, a young activist lawyer, and his feminist classmate, Ava Jean Pollard, have come to the Southwest to help the Apache Indians in protecting their land from exploitation by monied interests from the East, who are looking for a site to use as a toxic waste dump. They quickly run afoul of a redneck judge, William S. Hart Finlay, who is the most powerful man in the territory (and who stands to profit from the land deal), and his erstwhile sweetheart, Lisa Belmondo, who is beginning to tire of Judge Finlay's boorishness and possessive ways. As the battle lines are drawn, Aaron, who in childhood had often fantasized that he was really "The Majestic Kid," a two-gunned hero devoted to fighting injustice, is joined by the model for his imagined personaa former movie idol named "The Laredo Kid," who now reappears (to Aaron only) to goad and counsel his disciple. But Aaron, his resolve weakening (and especially so when he falls in love with Lisa Belmondo), is a disappointment to his mentor, who fumes and fusses (unseen by the others) while Aaron wishes he were back in Brooklyn. In the long run Aaron recovers his sense of purposeand backbonebut not before he realizes that to be of useful service to others he must first discover himself. And this he does in a series of warm-hearted and very funny scenes, which are infused with a poignancy and gentle humor all too rare in the modern theatre.

Las Cruces, New Mexico

1974

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

1974

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

Comedy for Children

Comedy

-

-

-

Notes:
written by Carleene Johnson and Mark Medoff

Synopsis:
Jeremy Jack, a turtle, is dissatisfied with his lot in life and has decided that his only hope is to rid himself of his shell. With the help of his friend Lou (a lizard), he begins an odyssey that leads him from Miles, Niles and Giles (triplet raccoons), and others, on to Oliver the Oracle (who can't stay awake long enough to be of much help). In fact no one seems to be able to figure out a way to free Jeremy from his burden. During all this he is stalked, and finally trapped, by Bad Irving (a sinister buzzard), who covets his shell and concocts diabolic schemes to win it. In the end Jeremy not only escapes intact but also learns a most important lesson: to accept what you are, and to make the best possible use of attributes with which Nature has endowed you.

-

-

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

2004

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

-

Play/Drama

2

2

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
In the arenas of science and love, who has the right to do what to whom? The play follows the story of a gorilla named Graham  unique because of his ability to communicate in American Sign Language but also quite valuable as a research subject in a quest for an AIDS vaccine  and the two researchers who battle for the right to use Graham for their own purposes. PRYMATE considers the ethical dilemmas facing the scientists, who are also lovers, while simultaneously exploring the human relationship between them.

-

-

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

1998

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

Childrens comedy

Youth Audience

1

-

10 boys, 4 girls (flexible casting)

Notes:
written by Mark Medoff and Ross Marks

Synopsis:
A funny, heartwarming story of two brothers who, through a time of hilarious crisis, learn who they can really count on. Wesley Wyatt, a goofy computer nerd, his younger brother Boysy, have built (along with their father) what arguably is the world's most technologically advanced fort. Along with the father's very real "humanoid robot," the two boys form a neighborhood club. Their club and Wesley's leadership is quickly threatened when the stylish "King" Victor, a spirited wanna-be bully, moves into town from the big city and wants possession of the fort. Wesley's cowardice loses the fort, but not before he leads a comically unsuccessful campaign to save it. Push comes to shove, literally, when Wesley finally stands up to Victor. Older and bigger, Victor starts to beat up Wesley when Boysy comes to his rescue, saving his brother and the fort. Victor retreats, crying all the way home. Victor turns out to be a sweet, misunderstood kid, who excels at piano, and in the end, joins the brothers and the neighborhood kids in the local Little League game. This whimsical, fast-paced play can be understood and enjoyed by anyone who has ever had to overcome an obstacleor a schoolyard bully.

Great Valley High School, Pennsylvania

1992

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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

Childrens Play

Youth Audience

8

8

1b 1g

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
Imagine: Your father goes off to be a hero and you are left to deal with everything. Your mother doesn't want to mother anymore so you have to. Your brothers and sister need to be taken care of so you take care of them. The really scary thing is that your father is the king and your mother, the queen. You are a princess and you have to take control. And you're just a young girl. Throw in an evil sorcerer, a dragon, several spells, a mysterious knight and some swans, and you're off on a most delightful journey. First Stefanie's mother is turned into a tear drop and her brothers and sister are turned into swans. This is all the doings of the evil Leopold T. Bosco. Why is he doing this? He wants Stefanie all to himself. But, with the aid of Horace, the sorcerer's assistant, and Debra, a real swan, Stefanie sets off to tackle the tasks that right all the wrongs. She must collect a scale from the tail of Madame Zhenobia, the dragon from the Kingdom of the Stars, take a thistle from Madame's garden, and many more adventures to conquer the evils she faces. It's just not easy being a princess these days.

Pelican Studio Theatre, NY

2005

Nicu's Spoon

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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

-

Play/Drama

3

2

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
Two handicapped Vietnam veterans, Stephen Ryder and Jerry Marcus, want to make a high-class movie with explicit sex, to go a step beyond Last Tango in Paris. They elicit the interest of the young explicit film star, Fawn Sierra, who arrives in the hills of Austin for a creative meeting with her "manager," Calvin Rhodes, a "gentleman" who may be an ordained minister or may be evil incarnate. Calvin's dark manipulative personality slowly emerges as he tries to wrest the project from the writers. Trying to keep the events of the day in balance is Lin Ryder, the Stephen's Vietnamese wife. Ultimately, Cal destroys all semblance of balance and Lin is able to reestablish order only through catastrophic violence of her own.

-

-

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

-

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

-

Play/Drama

1

1

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
Is TJ who he says he is? Is Sally who she says she is? Or is each who the other says the other is? A black man invades a white womans life, claiming shes someone she says she isnt. The results are a racial and personal conflagration that changes both the intruder and intruded upon. A modern twist on Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson that unleashes a tsunami of anger and emotion leading to cleansing.

-

-

-

in "Four Short Plays", Dramatists Play Service, New York

1974

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

Black Comedy

One Act

2

1

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
A remarkable inventive black comedy-fantasy, which details the conflict between a harried Jewish intellectual, his vapid sex-kitten wife, and the cynical Mexican-American "wetback" who comes between themdoing the poor man out of his wallet, his wife, and ultimately, his way of life.

Las Cruces, New Mexico

1967

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

1975

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

-

Comedy

3

1

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
Leeds, a brainy, tart-tongued graduate student, has bet his "super-jock" roommate, Ward (a Phys Ed major), that Ward can seduce Honor, the wife of a young professor (Ron). But Leeds has also wagered that if Ward is success-fad, Ron will make an attempt on his life within 48 hours. Thereafter, as can be expected, the situation grows progressively more complex, with fun and fear brilliantly juxtaposed. In the resultant comic mix the acerbic Leeds does his best to manipulate circumstances to his own advantage, while narcissistic Ward, bored Honor, and bumbling Ron all fall victim to his stratagems. In the end, the result is not tragedy but pure, bubbling comedy, laced with wit and filled with revealing insights into the natures of our four singular and attrac-rive principals.

Las Cruces, New Mexico

1972

-

in "Four Short Plays", Dramatists Play Service, New York

1974

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

Told for Speech, Mime and Dance

One Act

7

1

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
Highly resourceful in its imaginative theatricality, this unique play captures the excitement, tensions and exhilaration of youth in its depiction of a "war" between two neighborhood "gangs." Nostalgic and redolent with memory, the play also foreshadows the later, and perhaps lesser, world of adulthood.

New York

1973

-

Dramatists Play Service, NY

1974

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

-

Play/Drama

5

3

-

Notes:
-

Synopsis:
The scene is an all-night diner in a sleepy southwestern town, the time early Sunday morning, when the night attendant, young Stephen (Red) Ryder, is about to turn his duties over to his daytime counterpart, Angel. Her friend Lyle, who runs the filling station and motel across the road, stops by for breakfast, followed by an affluent young couple en route to New Orleans. With the arrival of another couple, Teddy and Cheryl, the existing calm quickly vanishes. Their car, in which they are smuggling marijuana into California, has broken down, and while they wait for it to be repaired, Teddy begins to taunt and then bully the others in the diner. With black, sardonic humor he gets at each in turn, stripping away their pretensions and exposing their innermost secrets and fears. They are soon his helpless victims, too terrified to resist as he binds and robs them before heading off down the highway, this time alone. In the end the others, after freeing themselves, realize that they have come through their ordeal without serious harmat least physically. But for each a searing moment of truth has been faced and, in a deeper sense, they know that they have been changed more than they would have the desire, or perhaps courage, to admit.