Dramatic Works

Dramatic Works

issue 23

Featured
Night Train
Night Train

ERNIE

I don’t have memories.

ANNALISE

What does that mean?

Duty
Duty

MOTHER is sitting in a chair, with a blanket wrapped around the lower half of her body,  watching television. Sounds are of war: shouting, screaming, gun shots, etc. but no news  commentary.  If there are words audible, they are not in English or in a clearly identifiable  language and are muffled, distorted.

Taking Charge
Taking Charge

HENRY is sitting at a lovely table for two. ANNA lights a candle and serves them both, then sits also.

ANNA: I made your favorite.

HENRY: You didn’t.

issue 22

Featured
This Haunting Red
This Haunting Red

HELENE

Is she with us now?

LUKE

That’s kind of the whole point. Yeah. She’s always here. Just … lurking out of sight. Throwing shit around when no one’s paying attention.

A Very Nice Fire
A Very Nice Fire

GILLIAN

I think we still have a few minutes.

ANNE

I can smell the smoke. It’s musty. Is forest fire smoke different from—

Glory
Glory

I want to tell you a story. I’ll warn you that I don’t remember the ending and some of the middle is foggy. But I think that it’s important. And I think I want you to know.

issue 21

Featured
Authenticity
Authenticity

CAST: Noor — Female, light-skinned, actor

Mia — Female, tanned, actor

(Both about the same age)

Preexisting Condition
Preexisting Condition

JOCELYN Jocelyn Sheavis, age 35. Talent Acquisition professional, R&W Quanti-Systems. 

LYDIA Lydia Tawellent, age 25, but looks even younger. Job applicant. 

SUIT Corporate Security Executive, age 45. Wearing business suit. 

Everything Was Stories
Everything Was Stories

In which Swannie J locks herself in the bathroom when told she should attend her father’s funeral, the telling done by Auntie Silber who traveled all the way up Pewabic Mountain from the valley below because she’s the only one who had a sense about where to find Swannie J, her having kept tabs on the shunned child through phone calls and occasional visits.

Fallout: A Ballad of Peace and David Hasselhoff
Fallout: A Ballad of Peace and David Hasselhoff

SYNOPSIS

The end of the world came out of nowhere and the fallout continues.

issue 20

Featured
Waiting For Gilbert
Waiting For Gilbert

(DOG wags his tail, runs to the window and jumps on the windowsill.) 

DOG 

I think it’s him! He’s back! I knew he would come back. 

A Marriage is a Story We Tell and Keep Telling
A Marriage is a Story We Tell and Keep Telling

(We are in darkness. A beat. Then:)

FI: Did you notice the little red fox this morning?

What is Held Within a Scene (A Short Story in Play Form)
What is Held Within a Scene (A Short Story in Play Form)

Stage. A hospital bed is stage right. An unconscious teenaged girl lies in the bed. She has a breathing tube. Other tubes crisscross her chest and are attached to a monitor, and intravenous bags are affixed to a pole at the head of the bed.

issue 19

Featured
Stocked
Stocked

Stocked, HQ. Bright warehouse designated by mini rooms. There is movement with people walking around, creating scenes. MAC walks to the center and looks ahead at a camera.

Why Ain’t a Grape a Berry? The Colored Thespian Complex When Progress Gets Hairy
Why Ain’t a Grape a Berry? The Colored Thespian Complex When Progress Gets Hairy

A college theatre classroom at a PWI (primarily White institution). It is packed with student and faculty production team members — cast, understudies, designers, etc. — for a production of Why Ain’t a Grape a Berry? that is hanging in the balance.

issue 18

Featured
Mouth Stuff
Mouth Stuff

A playground. Recess. FOUGLAS (pronounced like “Douglas”) kicking wood chips around. CLEMENTINE under a slide pretending to be a cat.

Belief Me
Belief Me

A ten-minute sci-fi comedy about serious stuff.

A Soft Place To Land
A Soft Place To Land

A man stands among several playsets. A play kitchen. A play school. A play veterinarian. A play pizzeria and food delivery stand. None of them come above his waist. 

issue 17

Featured
bounty
bounty

A rural road somewhere in the American South or Midwest in a not-too-distant future.

From BLACK, sound of a SIREN, then cop cherries flash.

A teenage girl in a field hockey uniform appears in pinspot. Her name is SLONE.

Social Soliloquy
Social Soliloquy

A digital rendition of Hamlet’s soliloquy “To be or not to be” performed as a contemporary group text chat. 

The End of Society
The End of Society

When an African-American woman submits an unusual piece of original art to a show whose theme is ‘The End of Society as We Know It’ debate ensues between the white arts administrator and the artist.  They navigate a treacherous maze of verbal sparring, populated with racial barbsand personal threats.  The play is a satire on race relations and the role of art in society.