JOHN DONALD O'SHEA   (1941 - )


John Donald O'Shea
   Nationality:
USA
   Literary Agent: *:
n/a
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   Website:
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Plays by John Donald O'Shea

JOHN DONALD O'SHEA
Case of the Music Guild Murders, The
1st Produced:
-
-
Company:
-
1st Published:
ISBN
125
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Genre:
murder comedy
Comedy
Parts:
Male
2
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Case of the Music Guild Murders, The
When a third Music Guild director is found floating face down in the nearby park lagoon, Detective Mike O'Hara with the assistance of his boss, the Chief of Police, undertake to bring the murderer to justice. The investigation is confused by the fact that the victim has been shot, stabbed, strangled and poisoned. The brutality of the murder causes the police to suspect that the murderer will be found within the Guild's stable of sopranos.
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JOHN DONALD O'SHEA
Day Black Bart Balderdash and Dangerous Dan McGrew Went to Dueling at Miss Kitty's Golden Nugget Saloon, The
1st Produced:
Edison Junior High School Drama Dept.
2007
Company:
-
1st Published:
ISBN
-
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Genre:
A Wild West Melodrama/ Farce
-
Parts:
Male
4
Female
4
Parts Other:
5 m/f
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
When Dangerous Dan McGrew and Black Bart Balderdash, partners in prospecting for gold, decide to play a friendly game of cards in Miss Kittys Golden Nugget Saloon, the boys go for their guns when Bart accuses Dan of cheating. But as they do, their duel is repeatedly interrupted by the other well-meaning citizens of the town, who offer the boys everything from wills, to dueling licenses and prepaid funeral services.
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JOHN DONALD O'SHEA
Day Ma's Boys Done Went to Town to Rob the Bank, Again!, The
1st Produced:
Seton Junior High School, Moline, IL
2007
Company:
-
1st Published:
ISBN
-
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Genre:
Farce/Melodrama
Melodrama
Parts:
Male
6
Female
6
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
set in the hiss of Arkansas, 60 min
Synopsis:
Ma Scraggins has decided it's time to marry off her "four" illiterate sons, Claude, Cletus and Clem (in reality there are only three boys, but nobody at Scraggins' Gulch is particularly proficient in math). To that end, she requests the assistance of Pastor Hezikiah Cropkiller, the local man of the cloth. But before the efforts Pastor Cropkiller can bear fruit, the "four" Scraggins' boys, during the course of a failed bank robbery, take matters into their own hands. They "bag, and kidnap their prospective brides, and bring them home to Ma for her approval. But Belle, Gloria and Prudence, the prospective brides, once "unbagged prove to be rather unlike Ma, "the girl that married dear old dad."
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JOHN DONALD O'SHEA
Death Warrant For Dracula
1st Produced:
Edison Junior High School, Rock Island, IL
2003
Company:
-
1st Published:
ISBN
-
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Genre:
Farce, 60 min
One Act
Parts:
Male
4
Female
5
Parts Other:
1 flexible
Notes:
aka Dracula Encounters Title IX
Synopsis:
Disguised as Professor Alucard (Dracula spelled backwards), Count Dracula takes a teaching position at a small women's college. But instead of preying upon hapless Victorian females, Dracula finds himself the victim of an accomplished student athlete, Lucy, who is more than happy to clobber him with her tennis racket and golf club. And if that isn't bad enough, Dracula encounters a host of zany faculty members including a biology professor who crawls on the floor and eats insects, a music professor who writes horrendous musicals, and a spooky poetry-reciting English professor who has corrected one too many exams. When Dracula is eventually captured, he discovers that modern vampire hunters aren't exactly old school. Instead of simply driving a stake through Dracula's heart, these civilized vampire hunters can't stand the sight of blood and can't bring themselves to kill Dracula even though he has been dead for 400 years. To Dracula's horror, the hunters contemplate even more torturous ways to end Dracula's taste for human blood like filling his fangs with Super Glue and forcing him to become a vegetarian!
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JOHN DONALD O'SHEA
First Herald Angel, The
1st Produced:
Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church, Moline, IL
1998
Company:
Quad City Music Guild Minishow Players
1st Published:
ISBN
9781894870832
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Genre:
Christmas Play, religious theme
Youth Audience
Parts:
Male
1
Female
2
Parts Other:
2
Notes:
-
First Herald Angel, The
On the first Christmas Eve a poor shepherd happens across a small child in the hill country about Bethlehem. To the shepherd's surprise, the child explains she is an angel practicing to be a herald angel so she can announce the Savior's birth. The shepherd, taken by the child's sincerity,believes the child's story, and asks to see the Savior. The shepherd's wife, however, has her doubts.
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JOHN DONALD O'SHEA
Ginzberg's Irish Wake
1st Produced:
Quad City Music Guild [Mini-show]
-
Company:
-
1st Published:
ISBN
-
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Genre:
-
Farce
Parts:
Male
3
Female
2
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
An Irish farce with traditional Irish songs from the Public Domain
Synopsis:
When Mary O'Malley's husband passes away years before his time, the beautiful and bereaved widow holds a traditional "Irish Wake at her home. When pianist David Cohen warrants to the Widow O'Malley that "he knows all the Irish numbers," she hires him to play at the wake, only to discover during the festivities that his assurances were untrue. When he is unable to play the Irish "standards" for the mourners to sing, Mary labels him a fraud and refuses to pay his agreed on fee, withholding half of it. Feeling that his professional competence has been impugned, David sues the Widow O'Malley and importunes his longtime friend, Kate Green, a prominent member of the defense bar, to represent him when the case appears in the Small Claims Courtroom of the Hon. Abraham Ginsberg. Unintimidated, Mary O'Malley defends herself, and in the process calls Father Shamus Rory Mulligan as her expert witness, in a trial that takes one strange twist after another. The show features five traditional Irish numbers from the Public Domain
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JOHN DONALD O'SHEA
Grandma Rosie
1st Produced:
Seton Catholic Junior High School, Moline, IL
2008
Company:
-
1st Published:
Brooklyn Publishers, 2008
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
A light comedy; a reminiscence
-
Parts:
Male
3
Female
3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
GRANDMA ROSIE is a short comedy in three acts. Rosie is a 94 year old woman who lives alone in her home. She is still spry, but her memory is not what it was. Rosie is fortunate to have a loving family who frequently looks in after her. Her grand daughter, Sara, is her main support. But with Rosie, the most prosaic incident, can turn into an unexpected major incident. The play present three molehills that Rosie turns into mountains.
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JOHN DONALD O'SHEA
Inspector Findout and the Lost Cherry Pie
1st Produced:
Edison Junior High School, Rock Island, IL
2005
Company:
Edison Junior High School
1st Published:
Brooklyn Publishers, LLC, 2008
ISBN
-
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Genre:
family comedy
Comedy
Parts:
Male
1
Female
5
Parts Other:
1 m/f
Notes:
written by John and Erin O'Shea
Synopsis:
When the cherry pie which Mom baked for dinner disappears, she deputized her son, Tom, under his nomme d'guerre, Inspector Findout, to ferret out the culprit. In the course of that investigation, he examines all the "usual suspects," which in this case include the family dog, and four uncooperative sisters
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JOHN DONALD O'SHEA
Little Nell and the Mortgage Foreclosure
1st Produced:
-
-
Company:
-
1st Published:
ISBN
9781894870610
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Genre:
-
Melodrama
Parts:
Male
2 or 3
Female
2 or 3
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Little Nell and the Mortgage Foreclosure
Nell and her aunt are about to lose the family homestead to the unscrupulous banker, Wiley Whiplash. Whiplash offers to forgive the mortgage, but in exchange Nell must marry him. Nell's childhood friend, Casey Cleandeed arrives from law school to save the day. Unfortunately Cleandeed, not withstanding his J.D., is none too bright.
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JOHN DONALD O'SHEA
Revolting Cheerleaders, The
1st Produced:
Edison Junior High School, Rock Island, IL
2007
Company:
-
1st Published:
ISBN
9781894870955
To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
farce
One Act
Parts:
Male
6
Female
6
Parts Other:
-
Notes:
-
Revolting Cheerleaders, The
Cheerleader Erin O'Connor has been dating Scott Superbowl, the quarterback of the high school football team. To celebrate his recent birthday, she bought him a lobster dinner and an expensive shirt. An ungrateful Scott then asks Lorilie Lugnut to the homecoming dance. A furious Erin responds by refusing to participate in the long standing tradition of cheerleaders buying and providing snacks for members of the football team. When Abby Dolan sides with Erin, they are both voted off the team. Now even more furious, they take the only reasonable course. They prepare to sue their fellow cheerleaders before the Student Council, while the members of the football team take steps to insure a verdict in their favor.
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JOHN DONALD O'SHEA
Stuffed Animal, The
1st Produced:
Grand Ballroom, Plaza One Hotel, Rock Island, IL
1993
Company:
Quad City Music Guild Minishow Players
1st Published:
ISBN
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click, otherwise
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Genre:
Christmas Show
Youth Audience
Parts:
Male
1
Female
6
Parts Other:
3
Notes:
-
Synopsis:
One Christmas eve, Abigail Grace, the proprietor of a little shop known as the "Stuffed Animal," takes Cindy Kim, a young woman, into her shop in search of "Sabrina Ballerina," Cindy's favorite childhood doll. While in the shop Cindy comes to meet Sabrina's new friends
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