
ALLIGATOR MOUTH, TADPOLE ASS
by C. Julian Jiménez
Drama, Full-length
ALLIGATOR MOUTH, TADPOLE ASS is a twistedly queer memory play about a troubled man in 1986 looking for answers at Miss Chelley's Fortune Shop in NYC. Instead of the answers he craves, he connects with a young man working there whose memory is constantly triggered by their incredibly intense connection. They cruise and dance their way through the past leading them to a dangerous night of improper role play.
AMERICA IN ONE ROOM
by Jason Odell Williams
Comedy-Drama, Full-length
When eight strangers receive an invitation to the America in One Room event in 2019, promising robust discussions on a wide range of social and political topics, sparks fly, tempers flare, and comedy abounds. At a time when everyone thinks they’re right, it will take more than political debate to find common ground. Inspired by the real-life convention of the same name, AMERICA IN ONE ROOM is a comedy-drama that tackles our...
Two actors, who were “America’s Sexiest Couple” on a popular ‘90s sitcom reunite for the first time in 25 years. They face a lifetime of unresolved issues, longings, resentments, and regrets. Plus, the network wants to reboot the show. Career and personal aspirations collide. Professionally and personally, where do they go from here?
ANTEBELLUM
by Robert O'Hara
Drama, Full-length
This haunting, provocative play sheds light on the similarities between racism and homophobia in Nazi Germany and the American South when a black, gay, transgender prisoner escapes Germany only to find themselves embroiled in the racially-charged hotbed of 1939 Atlanta, Georgia.
In the opening scene of this comedy, a writer meets the ghost of Franz Kafka, which sets off an existential chain of events forcing the cast to confront the meaning of life. Through a series of hilarious random encounters, the play questions whether we can understand our existence or is life just one long Zoom meeting interrupted by Amazon and Doordash...
BABEL is a dark comedy set in the near future. Two couples are having trouble getting pregnant and the lengths they go to in order to have a baby raises the specter of eugenics, explores the societal value of a baby, and asks us what we are willing to risk for love.
If you like Booker’s “Black Mirror,” Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go,” or Haley’s “The Nether,” then this play is for you.
Barbecue centers on around the O'Mallerys, a dysfunctional group of siblings who come together for a park barbeque in order to stage an emergency intervention for their sister Barbara, whose drug habit has gotten out of hand. However, there are in fact two O'Mallery families, one white and one black. Each appear in different, yet similar scenes that juxtapose to create a dialogue about racial and family politics.
A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes
by Kate Benson
For those of you just tuning in, Thanksgiving is already in progress here at Wembly kitchen. The stands are nice and full; it’s quite a crowd that’s gathered. They’re in for a real treat.
BERTA, BERTA
by Angelica Chéri
90 Minute One Act
Sabrina Jackson cannot cope with the death of herson by a White cop. Rather than herald the Black Lives Matter movement, Sabrina retreats inward, living out a comic book superhero fantasy. Will Sabrina stay in this dream world or return to reality and mourn her loss?
BLESSINGS FROM THE PANDEMIC, a theater piece in five movements, is a mosaic of poetic reflections exploring our journeys in response to the events of the pandemic: the big, the small, the humorous, the challenging, and even the inspiring.
Are you ready for some laughs? Soak up the good life in Boca Raton, a city that offers the fountain of youth. In this Garden of Eden, the sun always shines, the lawns are always manicured, and the weather holds steady at a perfect 75, just like Boca’s well-maintained seniors. Boca is a series of short intertwining comedies that follow a group of retirees in a fictional retirement community, the Boca Oasis, who, between rounds of golf, bridge and botox, discover the...
TRAGICOMEDY
An aging ruler, an oppressive police state, a restless polarized people seething with paranoia: it’s a dangerous time for poets. Two of them—the great Kit Marlowe and up-and-comer Will Shakespeare—meet in the back room of a pub to collaborate on a history play cycle, navigate the perils of art under a totalitarian regime, and flirt like young men...
A rollicking expedition into the dangerously funny and decidedly off-beat terrain of the U.S. male at his madcap best!
BY THE NUMBERS is a fun, inventive, and diverse collection of eight short plays inspired by mathematical theorems.
It’s Carmela’s birthday, and she’s finally old enough to accompany her big brother on his errands. On their way to the laundromat, past fields of what her Mamí calls “flores de cempazuchitl”, Carmela finds a puffy white dandelion to...
by Paul Schmidt
Madame Ranevskaya, who has spent five years in Paris to escape grief over her young son’s death, returns to her home in Russia ridden with debt. She is obliged to decide how to dispose of her family’s estate, with its beautiful and famous cherry orchard. The coarse but wealthy merchant Ermolai Lopakhin suggests that Mme Ranevskaya develop the land on which the orchard sits. Eventually Lopakhin purchases the estate and proceeds...
This new take on an old classic tells the forgotten stories hidden in the fairy tale we all know so well. Hilarious, imaginative, and powerful, this play is specifically designed to be performed by young performers and may be adapted to a virtual or in-person performance venue.
CLICK follows a hacktivist named Fresh who turns industrial espionage into high art. As this virtual Banksy takes over the global imagination, the man who stole her life develops a technology that sends the two of them on a collision course at the heart of the corporate empire, where innovation comes at any cost. A cyberpunk drama for the #MeToo era, a story of...
CYRANO DE BERGERAC is brand new adaptation in verse of the famous crowd-pleasing tale of love, honor, and panache, by way of a warrior-poet with a huge nose and a huge complex about it.
A group of high school seniors face their final year learning online with a beloved teacher as a pandemic rages outside. Together they face social isolation, missed milestones, the loss of friends and family, places in the world and what the birth of a new social justice movement means for them.
In this new adaptation of Dracula from Kate Hamill, the playwright-actor confronts the sexism in Bram Stoker's original work, turning it into a feminist revenge fantasy.
In EIGHT TALES OF PEDRO, two sets of storytellers, some now and some in 17th century Mexico, cross a country - risking everything for a new life. As they tell their tales, their lives and plots combine and intertwine into the same conclusion.
Mark St. Germain brings to life Eleanor Roosevelt, the most influential First Lady the world has ever seen. From her “Ugly Duckling” upbringing to her unorthodox marriage to Franklin, Eleanor puts her controversial life, loves and passions on the stage.
Emma Woodhouse prides herself on being a matchmaker with an impeccable track record, much to the chagrin of her dear friend Mr. Knightley. Her latest scheme revolves around the sweet Harriet Smith, whom Emma advises to reject a perfectly good marriage proposal in favor of another eligible...
What happens when those woodland fairies aren’t busy with the business of A Midsummer Night’s Dream? Why, it seems they all have jobs in some of our favorite fairy tales and have very sad love lives—that is, until Puck finds the famous flower touched by Cupid’s arrow. It’s all about love and kindness and accepting change. And it’s funny.
Juliet is losing her marriage. Her mother Pam is losing her memory. And there’s a mysterious forest growing in and around their living room. Is it any wonder Juliet starts sleeping with one of her high school students? A play about weird love and what to do when there aren’t any right answers.
Beauty never showed up. After centuries under the curse, the Beast and his remaining magical servant (a hopelessly optimistic lamp) move into a shabby Chicago apartment, hoping for a lower cost of living and better luck with girls. In the threatening, impossible, completely ordinary world of paying rent and taking public transportation, is a happy ending even possible? A romantic tragicomedy about facing the witch in your head, and finding the wish in your heart.
Married couple Larry and Jinx embark on a luxury cruise and encounter a glamorous celebrity couple. A frivolous agreement leads to sex, comic complications, and Larry and Jinx having to resort to infidelity to save their marriage. Guilty Pleasures is a modern version of a sophisticated throwback Noel Coward-type screwball comedy.
Drama, Full-length
A popular online political & social commentator is forced to examine her own legitimacy when agoraphobia prevents her from physically engaging in the very activism she boasts about on the internet. When a boots-on-the-ground community organizer invades her space, they must both deal with manifestations of fear arising from existing in America while Black. Is it just in their heads, or has racism come to their doorstep?
H*TLER'S TASTERS
by Michelle Kholos Brooks
Dark Comedy
Three times a day, every day, a group of young women have the opportunity to die for their country. They are Adolf Hitler's food tasters. And what do girls discuss as they wait to see if they will live through another meal? Like all girls, throughout time, they gossip and dream, they question and dance. They want to love, laugh, and above all, they want to survive.
HOOK'S TALE
by John Pielmeier
Family Adventure, Full- length
Captain James Hook (née Cook), badly maligned by a certain play and despised by generations of Peter Pan fans, finally gets to clear his name. The good Captain, with the aid of his friend Smee, tells his life-story in this family-friendly play, recounting his friendship with and ultimate betrayal by Peter Pan, his romance with Tiger Lily, his familial relationship with the Darling family, and his adoption of a lovable crocodile...
Join these fierce females, wild women and unforgettable eccentrics on a comedic rocket ride of hilarity!
More information and the Acting Edition of this great new comedy from the masters of the genre is now available!
The world premiere of Ibsen’s controversial play Ghosts took place in Chicago, performed by a group of Scandinavian immigrants: a little known fact. Grimm’s play spins a yarn based on this ‘great reckoning in a little room’ and explores the immigrant experience and opportunities for self re-invention against the backdrop of...
Meet the Berrys, a multi-generational Black family living under one roof in the 1970s. Their lives orbit around Rose, a strong-willed matriarch whose superstitions and secrets drive her relatives nuts. Through pointed wit and playful sarcasm, the family elders share fantastical stories about...
Inspired by Jack and the Beanstalk and designed and developed for children, Jacked! fuses storytelling and poetry with hip-hop and break-beat music to encourage a dialogue about substance abuse and the overwhelming effects the opioid epidemic is having in our communities.
It is the morning after the brutal murder of Julio Rivera, a gay Puerto Rican man in Jackson Heights, Queens. The murder became the first gay hate crime tried in New York State during the 1990s. In Julio Ain’t Goin’ Down Like That, the community reacts and is taken on a journey of self-discovery by a fabulously...
In the nursery rhyme criminal justice system, citizens are represented by two separate yet equally ridiculous groups: the nursery rhyme police who investigate nursery rhyme crime, and the nursery rhyme district attorneys who prosecute the nursery rhyme offenders. These are their stories.
LES DEUX NOIRS: NOTES ON NOTES OF A NATIVE SON
Set in the legendary Parisian café Les Deux Magots in 1953, LES DEUX NOIRS reimagines the meeting between Native Son author Richard Wright and essayist/activist James Baldwin. It explores the tension between Baldwin's searing critiques of Native Son and Wright's unbridled indignation in...
LICKETY SPLIT: WOMEN AND MEN IN OUTRAGEOUS SHORTS is a compilation of short plays selected from HONEY SUGAR LADY DOLL: WOMEN IN BODACIOUS SHORTS and and BUDDY BRO BUBBA DUDE: MEN IN TWISTED SHORTS.
A writer agrees to help an incarcerated man with his parole statement and embarks on an unexpected journey confronting her own grief....
When struggling actor Tom Braddle discovers that his former fiancé has written a new play with a part for him. his hopes for reuniting are dashed by a realization that the play is all too autobiographical. Did Adam have a hand in the tragic death of his wife and child? A dizzying constellation of competing stories and interests swirl around the company and then - Adam disappears...
When a freshman is unexpectedly given the coveted role of Lady Macbeth, a few upperclassmen actresses invite her over to “celebrate” her casting and reassert their positions at the top of the theatre department’s hierarchy. As the Fireball and Svedka flow, the girls interrogate their own sense of ambition as well as the...
The magician Prospero and his daughter Miranda dazzle their audiences until the day Miranda quits. This funny, bittersweet play dives deep into the ups and downs of a father-daughter relationship. Viewer discretion advised if you have a father or a daughter (or know anyone who does).
Mark and Jason were keeping things casual until Jason got pregnant. But however unplanned the pregnancy was, nothing could be less expected than the chain of events it would set in motion. Robert O’Hara’s audacious, hilarious allegory envisions an uncannily familiar future—one long after women have gone extinct from centuries of mistreatment—where man’s capacity to...
Mary and Joseph...and Company tells the story of Mary and Joseph as they journey toward Bethlehem to be counted in the census, and their amusing encounterswith characters the whole family will recognize. This fresh (and slightly irreverent) reimagining of Mary and Joseph draws on the comedic styles of Don Knotts, Steve Carell, John Cleese, and Kristen Wiig and provides warmth and laughter during the holiday season!
Hilarious and heart-warming, this unconventional new comedy tackles love, loss, and coming to terms with growing old. After hooking up at a funeral, Angus and Abigail find themselves waking up the next morning wrapped in sheets on Angus’ sofa. Strangers just the day before, Abigail thinks she may finally be ready to take another chance on love, but Angus has a few issues to work through first. Enter neighbor Ollie, formerly a baseball player for the...
A woman walks into a bar. Her name is Porto. She’s a regular. She likes this bar: serious food, serious wine, serious bartender–a staple in a gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood (perhaps Bushwick?). Her friends, her wine, and her artisanal snacks are there; her doubts about being a Modern Woman are...
PROMAPOCALYPSE!
by Michael Griffo
What kind of future will you have living in these here United States? Remember when you were eleven years old and you had a bike, one that made you dream about a world bigger than the one in which you live? This is that memory. Except it is now. This is the first play in the AMERICAN PSALM seven-play cycle.
THE REVOLTING TEENS OF SHERWOOD
by John Maclay and Joe Foust
75-minute Play, Comedy
A funny, frolicking, fresh look at the timeless tale of the legendary hero Robin Hood. When Robin, LittleJohn and Friar Tuck are captured, it falls to Marianand the Merry Men-in-training to come to the rescue.Full of swashbuckling adventure, breathtaking daring-do,and laughs aplenty, this new take on a classic tale is suitable for the entire family.
Stan Zimmerman (The Golden Girls, Roseanne, Gilmore Girls) brings to life the last words written in letters by individuals lost to suicide — including celebrities, veterans, kids that were bullied, LGBTQ, and the clinically depressed — and those who have survived suicide attempts. The play has traveled across the country, raising awareness and offering hope for suicide prevention.
A small midwestern college decides to stage Shakespeare’s classic tale of young star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet with an all female cast. Add in a mysterious guest director with dubious credentials and a bizarre show concept, and anything might happen. Can the students rescue the bard from being hijacked? A smart, hilarious, thoroughly contemporary...
SANCTUARY CITY
by Martyna Majok
Drama, Full Length
In post-9/11 Newark, NJ, two teenagers who were brought to America as children become one another’s sanctuaries from harsh circumstances. When G becomes naturalized, she and B hatch a plan to marry so that he may legally remain in the country and pursue the future he imagines for his life. But as time hurtles on and complications mount, the young friends find that this act challenges and fractures the closest relationship either has ever had.
THE SEAGULL
by Anton Chekhov
Translation by Paul Schmidt
The main characters, all artists, are guests at a country estate. They are Mme Arkadina, a middle-aged actress; her lover, Trigorin, a successful writer; her son Konstantin, a writer; and Nina, a young aspiring actress whom Konstantin loves. Mme Arkadina, jealous of Nina’s youth and promising career, acts cruelly and hatefully toward Konstantin, belittling his new play and...
SELLING KABUL
by Sylvia Khoury
Drama, Full Length
Taroon once served as an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Now it is 2013, and the Americans — and their promises of safety — have begun to withdraw. Taroon spends his days in hiding, a target of the increasingly powerful Taliban. On the eve of his son’s birth, he must remain in his sister’s apartment, or risk his life to see his child. With shattering precision, Sylvia Khoury’s tense drama traces the human cost of U.S. immigration policy and the legacy of our longest war.
SENIOR LIVING
by Tor Hyams and Lisa St. Lou
Comedy
SENIOR LIVING is a play with music about people dying to live.
At Riverdale Manor, a retirement community in the Bronx, seniors contemplate the possibility of dying from a broken heart, if divorce is even worth it at a certain age, and when is the right time to have sex again. A talent show, with the promise of cake for dessert, sets the scene for a series of life-changing vignettes that debate what to do with the time we have left.
The Men’s Peer Education group at Watson College is dedicated to unpacking and exposing male privilege. These “sensitive guys” believe that through increased self-awareness they can end sexual violence on campus; but when a shocking rumor surfaces, the group is shaken to the core. Sensitive Guys features a cast of women and gender nonconforming...
17 MINUTES is the length of time Sheriff’s Deputy Andy Rubens stood outside of a school while a shooter was inside. The play 17 Minutes explores the communal and residual effects of a shooting through Andy, a man who struggles with his own complicity in the tragedy, and who seeks meaning in the wake of the shooting.
Shakespeare Young@Part®: Some Comedies, introduces the audience to six of Shakespeare’s comedies. The shortened comedies that are included are Two Gentlemen of Verona, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, and The Taming of the Shrew.
SHAKESPEARE'S DEAD DAMES
by David Overton
20-40 minute, comedy
6F, 1M
After their in-performance deaths, six female Shakespearean characters find themselves in a holding area until the play they are a character in gets revived by another Shakespeare company so that they can (re)live their tragedy over (and over) again. It’s a comic romp that evokes Jean-Paul Sartre’s “No Exit” meets Luigi Pirandello’s “Six Characters in Search of an Author” meets “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.”
The notorious and as-yet undiscovered genius, Vincent Van Gogh, presents Sherlock Holmes with a most unusual case. Aided by his partner Dr. Watson and his paramour Irene Adler, the trio embark on a rousing adventure and find themselves confronting the evil daughter of Professor Moriarty. With a helping hand from Oscar Wilde, the world's greatest detective attempts to solve one of the most audacious crimes of the Victorian era and uncover a Post-Impressionist conspiracy.
SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE ADVENTURE OF THE FALLEN SOUFFLÉ
It’s the day before Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, and her son, the playboy Prince of Wales, arrives at 221B Baker Street pursued by Anarchist assassins. The greatest chef in the world, Auguste Escoffier, also arrives, his career about to be shattered by blackmail and scandal. This action-filled tale of royal debauchery, priceless gems, and gourmet food will provide Dr. Watson with the material for Sherlock Holmes’ most bizarre and tastiest case.
London: November, 1905. England and the world are changing. As civilization edges towards the horrors of World War I, every day brings new tensions in Europe and technological advances that make Victorian England feel like a distant dream. Into the rooms of Sherlock Holmes come Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison—with new inventions that will alter the course of human history—only both inventions have gone missing. Can Holmes, Watson, and Irene Adler somehow unravel the...
Inspired by Gen Silent, a 2010 documentary about LGBT seniors, Silver Foxes is described as a gay version of "The Golden Girls." Benny and Chuck, two older gay men, rescue their dear friend Cecil from a homophobic senior living facility and bring him to live with them in Palm Springs. From the comic-writing duo Stan Zimmerman and...
Kareem, a Black teen, waits for the bus, at night, in a suburban White neighborhood. He is approached by O’Donald, a White police officer. They struggle. A shot rings out. Kareem is dead. O’Donald says he feared for his life. The Police Union’s representative defends the shooting as self-defense. Kareem’s Aunt Janice protests her nephew’s death as racial profiling. There are no witnesses, but the truth will...
SMALL ENCHANTMENTS
by Lila Rose Kaplan
Dark Comedy
60-70 minutes
12 Princesses sneak out to a Ball every night. Or so they say. You see, their father locks them in the palace. Some say he’s overprotective, others say he’s evil. Either way, 12 young women are trapped. And where is their Mother, you might wonder? Oh, their Mother is a dying tree and their aunt a moody river. But these are 12 most unusual young women. These are fierce Princesses unlike...
The lives of two couples are thrown into upheaval when a brushfire threatens their upscale Southern California homes. They must confront what’s really important to them — Material items? Careers? Relationships? SMOKE GETS IN YOUR HOUSE treats the natural disaster seriously while still finding enough absurdity to make this play a genuine dark comedy.
Set as an enormous political tide is turning throughout Europe, Tales from Red Vienna explores the effects of war on women, the circumstances that control their lives, and the dreams that set them free.
Three Sisters is set in a small, remote town dominated by an army base. The action takes place in the Prozorov family home over a span of several years.
Born and bred in a thriving metropolis, the Prozorovs came to this small town when their father was made commander of the local army brigade. Now, the Prozorov...
Thrice Upon a Midnight Clear gives audiences a peek into the unlikely—but hilarious—conversations of The Three Wise Men, The Three Wise Women, and The Three Not-So-Wise Shepherds in this traveling triptych as they follow the Star of Bethlehem contemplating its wonder, its mystery…and a good game of golf!
Emma Phelps is a paleoclimatologist, focusing on ice in Greenland. In drilling and studying ice core samples, she sees first hand the symptoms of our changing planet, which makes the need to act all the more crucial and urgent. In addition, Emma, as a recent widow, experiences grief that compounds itself with each passing month. Now she's been asked to testify in Washington D.C. in a senate committee regarding climate change legislation, and in this intersection of...
TRW is pleased to publish this sparkling new collection of ten short plays - comedies and dramas, absurdist and naturalistic - from a wide-ranging group of exciting playwrights.
TRW is pleased to publish this sparkling new collection of ten short plays - comedies and dramas, absurdist and naturalistic - from a wide-ranging group of exciting playwrights.
Diana and Max meet at 9 years old, the day their parents start having an affair. In the ensuing decades, they see each other through highs and lows, trying not to make the same mistakes their parents did. A play about trying not to fall in love with your best friend so you end up hating them.
UNCLE VANYA
Chekhov Adaptation
by Paul Schmidt
UNCLE VANYA portrays the visit of an elderly professor and his glamorous, much younger second wife, Yelena, to the rural estate that supports their urban lifestyle. Two friends—Vanya, brother of the professor's late first wife, who has long managed the estate, and Astrov, the local doctor—both fall under Yelena's spell, while...
In this intimate ghost story, Mary Jane Kelly has a problem. She’s a pound forty behind in her rent, her window is broken, she has lost her key, and her boyfriend just moved out. And it’s 1888—not a good time to be poor and “unfortunate” on the streets of London. Somewhere out there in the foggy shadows, Jack the Ripper, one of the world’s most notorious criminals is at work. Mary only has two ways to secure her own...
Mona Mansour, award-winning playwright and alumna of The Public’s Emerging Writers Group, delves into the Palestinian struggle for home and identity in THE VAGRANT TRILOGY, a single epic story told in three parts. In 1967, Adham, a Palestinian Wordsworth scholar, goes to London with his new wife to deliver a lecture. When war breaks out at home, he must decide in an instant what to do—a choice that will affect...
Mitch wants to be a carpenter. Heather wants to be a woodcarver. The wolf wants to be an intellectual. Ruby wants to escape the wolf. The woodcutter wants to escape the narrator. A fable-inspired play about love and wood and finding your purpose.
Four former Jeopardy! champions meet for a weekend to prepare for the Tournament of Champions. When the front-runner is murdered, it becomes a game of cat and mouse between three brainiacs and a wily detective. Comedy, clues, and surprises await.
The story of two older women navigating the perils of aging in suburban Detroit.
Virginia Campbell was a longtime housekeeper for Denise Miller and her family, helping Denise raise her children during a difficult divorce. But when she shows up for work, Denise is very confused. Especially since she thought she had let her go several months ago. When an accident in the kitchen keeps Virginia from being able to walk, Denise offers to care...
ZOMBIE: THE AMERICAN is a cross between Jacobean tragedy and Dr. Strangelove, a futuristic political satire set in the year 2063.
Thom Valentine, the first openly gay President of the United States, faces a host of problems: an imminent civil war, the threat of an African invasion, an adulterous First Gentleman, and zombies in the basement of the White House! With his power, his marriage, and the nation’s well-being at stake, he must decide what he cares most about saving…and at what cost.