FAIR GAME: Or The Importance of Being Honest - A Full-Length Musical Satire Based On a True Story About Fake News

Winner Best New Script, nominated Best New Score, ariZoni Awards of Excellence

Mystery and history collide when lies, ripped from century-old headlines, return to haunt five real-life people who defamed Sarah Winchester, the rifle heiress who built an extraordinary mansion in San Jose, CA. After Winchester's death in 1922, they used the press to escalate baseless rumors that ghosts and insanity had haunted the kindhearted woman. Why? To promote her beloved home as a haunted house, that lures tourists to this very day. "Fair Game" introduces a mysterious figure who challenges these promoters to examine their motives and consciences. Will they give up the ghost?

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FEEDING THE FURIES - A Biting Full-Length Satire in Two Acts

Third Prize, The Baltimore Playwrights Festival

Aspirations run amok when Ruthie and Marty Furie set out to live the 1960s American Dream that glorifies upward mobility, domineering husbands, and obedient wives and children. While Ruthie and Marty successfully keep up with the Joneses, their marriage is rife with conflict and they can't control their counterculture kids. As we eavesdrop on the Furies' hilarious restaurant conversations it becomes apparent they all hunger for much more than what's on the menu.

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APHRAH-CADABRA - A Full-Length Comedy Drama

Honorable Mention, Jewish Plays Project's Playwriting Contest

Things aren't always what they seem after a Middle Eastern refugee mysteriously appears at the Jacobs' Passover Seder, setting into motion a series of extraordinary events that unleash opposing views about harboring refugees and the meaning of the Exodus story. As the Jacobs debate politics, polarity and truth, they discover that assumptions and words must be checked if extremem points of view are ever to be reconciled.

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LOOKING BACK  - A Full-Length Historic Western Docudrama 

"Looking Back" is inspired by the true-life story of Dick and Evie Engel, ranchers who lived in 1950s Cave Creek, Arizona.* They plan to strike it rich by subdividing and selling their 640-acre spread, but fall in love with the Sonoran Desert's lush landscape and geologic gems. Having sunk their last penny into the ranch, they find themselves having to choose between living in prosperity or Paradise. (*Based on a collection of Dick's letters in the Cave Creek Museum.)

Listen to the feature broadcast: https://kjzz.org/content/1862830/history-cave-creek-comes-alive-new-play-living-library-project

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DANCING ON ICE - A One-Act Spiritual Docudrama

A near-death experience heals deep wounds between a mother and daughter, and teaches them the two most important lessons of their lives. An older version titled "A Very Good Time For Healing" won First Place in the Helen-Jean Play Contest.

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A CHORUS LINE FOR PLAYWRIGHTS - A Mockumentary in No More than Fifteen and No Fewer than Five Minutes

Three playwrights confess that they will submit to just about anything for their ten/forty-five/one-hundred-fifty-but no-less-than-ninety minutes of exposure.

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TAP, CHIP OR STRIP - A Ten-Minute Satire

A cashier dismisses the added security of the chip credit card technology, oblivious to her own role in divulging more personal information about herself than a credit card transaction ever could. 

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MURDER WITH A TWIST - A One-Act Prohibition Era Mystery Play

It's January 16, 1919, the evening before the National Prohibition Act goes into effect. Buster the Cop and Temperance the Teetotaler warn Rocco the bartender that they expect him to comply with the new law. But Rocco scoffs at the idea of running a "dry" establishment, insisting the mob has his back. Someone gets bumped off, and of course, there's a "twist" -- after all, the action takes place in a speakeasy. Adaptable as an interactive play in which restaurant or party guests have the opportunity to figure out "who done it” before the actual culprit is revealed.

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NOBODY'S FOOL  - A One-Act Cold-Case Mystery Play

Thirty years after Al Capone is cleared of the notorious hit on Bugs Malone's men, someone finally spills the goods on who really done it.

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THE EMPEROR'S NEW NOSE - A Ten-Minute Parable

An emperor who believes he is perfect falls from his perch in this fractured fairy tale with a timely moral.

 

THE DRAWING LESSON - A Heartwarming Short Play

An excursion to draw a tree blossoms into an illustration of how a grandfather and his granddaughter are bound together through the cycles of life.

 

Read my plays on the New Play Exchange:   https://newplayexchange.org/