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Give Me My Sin Again (An Evening of Seven Deadly Plays)
Approx: 85 min Casting: Ideally 4M/1F (with doubling) Using mock Shakespeare (or Fake-speare) as transition material, this collection of short plays explores the seven deadly sins as they appear in the modern world. Along the way we see suburban one-upmanship, a paper hoarder literally drowning in memories, a movie review causing a drunken confrontation, a grenade in a public space, a sermon from the church of Heavy Metal, a thief that steals one’s memories, and dating in an age where nothing seems real without someone else watching. |
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The Watch
Approx: 40 min Casting: 2 M This play features a Pinteresque pair of career criminals stationed in a seedy motel room. Constantly looking out the window, they have been assigned to watch for something but, unfortunately, have no idea what. When it comes out that one has been assigned to kill the other, the ultimate existential quandary reveals itself. What they are saying...
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The Perfect Independent Film
Approx: 10 min Casting: 1 M, 1 F, 2 Flex While trying to recall the events of a whopper of an office party the night before, an adorably awkward couple discovers that two struggling screenwriters have been writing a transcript of their lives. What they are saying...
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The Lady and 'The Tyger' (or William Blake's 'How I Met Your Mother')
Approx: 10 minutes Casting: 1M, 1F “The Lady and 'The Tyger' or William Blake's 'How I Met Your Mother'” shows us how our first impressions of people can be mistaken and that taking the risk to fall in love is worth it, despite the mixed emotions it can generate. A man is sitting quietly reading poetry when he is accosted by a very unusual woman. Somewhere between her screaming about not wanting to be touched and him describing the meaning hiding within a William Blake poem, they manage to make a strong interpersonal connection. Exploring themes of our illusionistic first impressions and the duality of our emotional reaction to the new, “How I Met Your Mother” is evidence that love can spring up from even the most bizarre of encounters. What they are saying...
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And what a damn fine morning it is
Approx: 10 min Casting: 2M In this comic play, two suburban male stereotypes emerge from their houses one morning. As they exchange niceties, it becomes apparent that beneath their pleasant facade lies a deep-seated resentment of the other. What follows is a flurry of consumerist one-upmanship, culminating in the revelation of the true source of their competition. What they are saying...
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The Sum of Your ExperienceApprox 10 min Casting: 2M While trying to get home one night, a man is robbed at gunpoint by an eerie stranger who demands not money, but instead, his memories. As the man recounts events from his life, he slowly loses his personality and the thief gains it. All of us are, after all, the sum of our experiences. What they are saying...
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You Can't Build an Empire Without Burning a Few LibrariesApprox: 10 minutes Casting: 1M, 1F, 1 Flex Two enthusiastic trainers attempt to teach a crop of new recruits how to work at the ancient Library of Alexandria on the eve of its destruction |
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COINTELPRO Visits the Church Basement Ladies
Approx: 10 minutes Casting: 1M, 2F Although the COINTELPRO was designed to infiltrate and disrupt the actions of American hate groups, occasional mistakes were made - so why not make them funny? Here a COINTELPRO agent badly disguised as an old woman works his way into a small town ladies civic group and aggressively takes down its leader. Set at the end of the 1960's, the play serves as a satire of Cold War Era paranoia as well as the state of our modern methods of espionage. We just don't learn from our mistakes, do we? |
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How to Succeed in Romance without Really Connecting
Approx: 10 minutes Casting: 2M, 1F "How to Succeed..." explores the nature of romance in the age of Facebook and how living in a society that ensures the average person is on video at least eight times a day has fundamentally altered who we are as a people. Beginning as a light parody of How to Succeed in Business..., the play quickly transforms into a broad satire about not only the state of 21st century relationships, but also the very condition of our modern voyeuristic existence. |
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A Couple of Metal Gods Sitting Around Talking
Approx: 10 minutes Casting: 2M As two bandmates enjoy their mid-afternoon breakfast, one of them suggests the ultimate cardinal sin in the church of Metal – maybe they should include a power ballad in their setlist. It then becomes the other’s duty to set him back on the path of the Righteous and not let his lapse of Heavy Metal faith disrupt their Mission to convert the un-metal masses. What they are saying...
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An Unfamiliar Waltz
Approx: 10 min Casting: 2M, 1F
When three people simultaneously discover a grenade, they are faced with the decision of what to do. What they are saying...
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time to change the pitch
Approx: 10 minutes Casting: 2-3 M, 1 Flex, doubling, 3 pre-recorded characters An extremely broad satire of the quest to create green vehicles, "Time to Change the Pitch" emphasizes the attempts, both genuine and half-hearted, by the auto industry to create a greener mode of transportation. Ultimately, the play points out that the basic flaw is a system based on the combustion engine, but also that it is important to continue to search for possible solutions, even in the most bizarre of locations. Set in a showroom, a sleazy car dealer takes a 1950's American family through the colorful history and failure of alternative fuel vehicles, with pitstops along the way to hear pitches from the president of Toyota and for the atomic powered car. (Yes, it was real!) Featuring a few characters with pre-recorded dialogue as well as the option for three pre-recorded video segments, “Time to Change the Pitch” also has the potential to be a true multi-media production, if so desired. What they are saying...
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Everybody's a Critic
Approx: 15 minutes Casting: 2M “Everybody’s a Critic” concerns the frustrations of a film school dropout and a stranger in a bar, who in the process of existentially analyzing the cannon of great American cinema, a dangerous anger bubbles to the surface that threatens to destroy one of them - or maybe not. In turns both philosophical and funny, “Everybody's a Critic” explores the question of why we are drawn to stories of inaction and ineptitude, not only in our entertainment, but also in our own lives. |
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Back IssuesApprox: 10 minutes Casting: 1M, 1F A paper hoarder, still grieving from the drowning death of his daughter 15 years earlier, becomes trapped within the debris in his apartment and is rescued by an aspiring actress ready to abandon her dreams. |
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Things You Can't Lose (Like TV and Tattoos)
Approx 15 min Casting: 2M, 1 F In the spirit of healthy competition, two male co-workers at a popular tattoo shop try to impress a female customer who is getting her first tattoo. In doing so, they humorously explore the darker side of pop culture (specifically Gilligan’s Island, M.A.S.H. and The Wizard of Oz). Even “Over the Rainbow” has a dark side. |
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The Last Firefly
Approx 4 min Casting: 1M In a bar, late one hot summer night, a man explores why humans have the innate need to make physical connections with each other, and the lengths to which they will go to make contact. What they are saying...
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Christopher Durang Brings Medea Back to Disneyland
Approx: 15 minutes Casting: 2M, 2F, doubling involved Chirstopher Durang is the master of the theatrical parody, right? So it was about time someone parodied him. In this play, the basic story of Medea is told through an exaggeration of Christopher Durang's stylistic lens. “Christopher Durang Brings Medea Back to Disneyland” finds the tale transplanted to a dry-docked Disneyland cruise ship/resort hotel - that may or may not be located in Dresden, London or Bangkok - and makes Medea and her nurse Larry endure hardship after hardship through a series of bizarre encounters. Here the character of Medea is joined by a wise-cracking female chorus played by a single male actor with multiple heads, a forgetful nurse that has lost the ability to reproduce through experimental surgery involving a ham, and a litany of male characters all played by the same actor. Featuring quick change character doubling and more literary references per page than even the quickest of audiences can catch, "Christopher Durang Brings Medea Back to Disneyland" is a piece that is sure to delight both fans of Mr. Durang and classicists alike. What they are saying...
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