Full Length Plays
Their Garden -- a dramatization of the meeting of African American artist Meta Vaux Warrick (1871-1978) with sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) in 1901 in his garden in Meudon, France. The poet Ranier Rilke (1875-1926) was working for Rodin at the time. Each character has experienced the loss of a sibling, which has affected each character in its own way and each character's art. During this meeting, Rodin becomes aware of Meta's talent as a sculptor, which becomes an introduction into the French art world. But before Rodin dubs Meta a true sculptor, Meta must prove herself during this visit. 1w (African-American), 2m (Caucasian), 90 min. NEW!
Wild Fires -- set in the Boston studio of Edmonia Lewis (c.1845-1911), the first woman of African-American heritage to earn an international reputation as a visual artist, in 1863, as she works on a bust of John Brown. Sculptor Anne Whitney (1821-1915) bursts in, upset because her commission to sculpt a statute has been taken from her when the committee discovered that she is a woman. Soon, the actress Charlotte Cushman (1816-1876) rushes in to persuade Anne to sue the committee, while Edmonia is trying to convince her patron, the white abolitionist, Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880), that moving to Rome where Miss Cushman has encouraged a group of female sculptors to work and live, is not deserting the abolitionist cause. Single set, 4w, (1 African-American, 3 Caucasian), 90 min. Read this article in the League of Professional Theatre Women 30Blog, on the play and research.
Their Garden -- a dramatization of the meeting of African American artist Meta Vaux Warrick (1871-1978) with sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) in 1901 in his garden in Meudon, France. The poet Ranier Rilke (1875-1926) was working for Rodin at the time. Each character has experienced the loss of a sibling, which has affected each character in its own way and each character's art. During this meeting, Rodin becomes aware of Meta's talent as a sculptor, which becomes an introduction into the French art world. But before Rodin dubs Meta a true sculptor, Meta must prove herself during this visit. 1w (African-American), 2m (Caucasian), 90 min. NEW!
Wild Fires -- set in the Boston studio of Edmonia Lewis (c.1845-1911), the first woman of African-American heritage to earn an international reputation as a visual artist, in 1863, as she works on a bust of John Brown. Sculptor Anne Whitney (1821-1915) bursts in, upset because her commission to sculpt a statute has been taken from her when the committee discovered that she is a woman. Soon, the actress Charlotte Cushman (1816-1876) rushes in to persuade Anne to sue the committee, while Edmonia is trying to convince her patron, the white abolitionist, Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880), that moving to Rome where Miss Cushman has encouraged a group of female sculptors to work and live, is not deserting the abolitionist cause. Single set, 4w, (1 African-American, 3 Caucasian), 90 min. Read this article in the League of Professional Theatre Women 30Blog, on the play and research.
Low-Lives -- the backdrop is a suicide saloon in the lower east side of New York during the 1850s where a multicultural cast of characters -- Dominique a free black, Kathleen, and Shakespeare (a woman who for the price of a drink will recite passages from female characters in Shakespeare’s plays) -- find danger and redemption, which transforms these hours of death into a station on the underground railroad. Single set, 4w(one African-American, two Caucasian, One Asian), 2m, (multiple roles)(may use more actors), 90m. Immigrants Theatre Project & Lower East Side Tenement Museum; Mabou Mines, Experimental Theatre Wing (Tisch), NY. Resident Artist, Mabou Mines.
The Dream -- a graduate student (Charlene) delves into the life and death of an African-American author, whom she is researching, only to discover an uncanny connection to both the author and the author’s white patron. Inspired by the life of Zora Neal Hurston. Single set, 2w, (one Caucasian, one African-American), 1 m (mature), 2 hrs. The Yale School of Drama; Karamu House, Cleveland.
Autumn Leaves -- a family therapist (Tyrone) is preparing a special dinner because his wife (Gabrielle) has invited a surprise guest (Daren) to dinner, and who turns out to not only be homeless, but also Gabrielle’s lover for the past year. Single set, 1w (African-American), 4m (two Caucasian, two African-American), 2 hrs. Women ’s Project, NY.
The French Story -- an African-American writer (Judy who lives in the south of France) is visited by her mother (Anita) for the first time in five years and casually announces that she has invited Judy ’s brother (Daniel), whom Judy has not spoken to since the death of Judy ’s other brother in the war. Single set, 2w, 1m, 2hrs. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center) NY; Immigrants Theatre Project , NY; The Women ’s Project, NY. Finalist, The Eugene O'Neill Center.
The Visitor -- when a music teacher (Ms. Williams) in an inner city school takes early retirement in order to return to Italy to recapture a past dream of becoming an opera singer, a former student (Lakishia, 17) surprises Ms. Williams one evening with a visit to seek guidance after the murder of her mother and after discovering that she is pregnant, turning the evening into a time when both women are forced to face the truth about themselves and each other, making the unborn child each woman’s salvation. Single set, 3w (one off-stage voice), 90 min. Aura Productions, NY.
The Other -- after a mother (Beverly) is hospitalized with ovarian cancer and her daughter (Stephanie) sees how easy the mother and doctor (Dr. Wong) communicate, the daughter becomes jealous as more and more secrets about the mother’s past are revealed, causing more and more friction between these three women and a helpful orderly. Single set, 1m, 3w (two African-American, one Asian), 2 hrs. Readings: Game Productions, NYC; Venus Theatre Company, Maryland
The Apartment -- a homeless woman (Hattie) stalks a young teacher (Sharon) by entering her home when Sharon is not there to fill the refrigerator, clean up the apartment the way a mother would look after a child, at the same time there is an element of danger that surrounds Hattie as she keeps her knife very close, and, meanwhile Sharon is trying to figure out her own role in society. Single set, 2w (one mature), 2m, 90minutes. The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s Playwriting Conference , CT. Second Place, Theodore Ward Playwriting Contest.
Casting the Light (previously titled Shadows) -- when a minister (Frank) returns home after fighting in the Korean War and then spending time in a mental hospital, his daughter (Mona) who wants to go to art school and her mother (Ruth) who wants Mona to go to teacher's college, each expect Frank to take her side in this battle; instead Frank is more like a stranger who no longer has the fire of the old minister, nor the passion of a man who once painted beautiful pictures, leaving both women frustrated and desperate. Single set, 2w, 1m, 2hrs. The Yale School of Drama, Women’s Project, Theatre in The Works Playwriting Conference, Massachusetts. Finalist, Theodore Ward Playwriting Contest.
Ancient Echoes -- a Vietnamese family has immigrated to California after the Vietnam War, and a naive college student tutors to help this family adjust to a new life in America when this student encounters hostility from the father, despair from the mother, and an eager desire to become an American from the teenage daughter; every action that the student takes to help this family has the reverse effect, ending with the suicide of the father who believes that this action is the only way to save his family and to hold onto his culture. Single set, 3w (One African-American, two Asian) 1m ( Asian), 2 hrs. Women ’s Project, NY, The East West Players, Los Angeles.
Portraits -- four women who met in college spend a weekend together to celebrate the thirtieth birthday of one of the four; the celebration is hosted by the friend who is now a painter, and over the weekend the true portrait of each friend is revealed after much discussion, which forces each one to face the various compromises that each has made to reach the point where she is in life at this time. Single set, 4w (two African-American, two Caucasian), 90 min. Ceres Gallery, NY, Women ’s Project, NY.
The Girls -- the setting is a boutique in Cambridge (Harvard Square), Massachusetts, where four young women who have aspirations for bigger things, work and encourage each other some of the time, and where the unique inhabitants of the neighborhood use the boutique as a resting place as they go about their complex lives, which cause conflict with the young workers. Single set, 4w (two African-American, two Caucasian), 2hrs. Yale, CT.
The Washington -- when Judy moves to New York from the south to pursue her career as a painter, she stays at a residence hotel where there is a painting in her room that, when looking at it, transports Judy back to the 1850s in the south and she sees the inhabitants of the hotel living their lives in the past, which helps to explain their present situations and behavior Flexible setting, 3w (two-African-American, one Caucasian), 2m (multiple roles) (may use more actors), 2 hrs.
Script copies viewable on the National New Play Exchange
