Full-Length Plays
The Mourner
Synopsis: Reema comes to Glade Family Funeral Home and Cemetery with an unusual request – she wants to bury the body of her cousin, the perpetrator of a gruesome terrorist attack that left dozens injured and several dead. Eleanor, the funeral home owner, refuses, and the two women are thrown into a struggle over the fate of the body in this loose adaptation of Antigone inspired by real events following the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Genre: Drama
Running Time: Approx. 2 hours
Cast: 3 women, 2 men
Notes: I developed this play as part of Custom Made Theatre's Undiscovered Works program, where it had two staged readings in 2017, a workshop production in April 2018, and a reading in New York City in September 2018.
Ageless
Synopsis: Ninety is the new thirty at the turn of the 22nd century. When Marin refuses to take the anti-aging drug celebrated by the rest of society, she invokes her mother's ire and risks becoming marginalized in a culture that worships youth, denies death, and treats old age as a malady. When Marin's choice begins to affect not only her but the people she loves, will she hold out, or cave to social pressure?
Genre: Drama
Running Time: Approx. 95 minutes
Cast: 4 women, 2 men
Notes: My first play set in the future, Ageless is about mothers and daughters, mortality, aging, denial, and forgiveness. It was developed with Quantum Dragon Theatre as part of their Forge program and produced in December 2017.
"Probing and poking us to face our unnatural and narcissist fears of ageing, Ageless leaves us impressed." -- Gilad Barach, Theatrius (read full review here)
The Execution of Croesus
Synopsis: After waging a doomed war on Persia, King Croesus is imprisoned, along with his wife Lissandra and son Lydus, while the victorious King Cyrus determines their fate. Croesus, tormented by his conviction that he is a pawn of the Fates, yearns only to be executed—and is prepared to drag his family with him. Meanwhile, Cyrus’ son Cambyses and daughter Atossa have their own wishes for the captives. As the characters try to outmaneuver one another, the battle over Croesus’ life becomes more desperate and ruthless, until it is settled in an unexpected way. Loosely based on an account by Herodotus, The Execution of Croesus is an original take on a classical story that explores the age-old question of free will versus fate.
Genre: Drama/tragedy
Cast: 5 men, 2 women
Running time: 60-70 minutes
Notes: One of my first plays, this is a classically-inspired piece that explores free will, fate, justice, vengeance and forgiveness. I wrote an early draft as part of a playwriting class at UC Riverside in 2010, and it had a developmental reading with the Playwrights' Center of San Francisco in October 2011. A revised version will have readings with Custom Made Theatre Co. in May and October 2018.
Caeneus and Poseidon
Synopsis: A verse play inspired by the Greek myth of Caeneus, a young man who was assigned female at birth. After the sea-god Poseidon grants his wish for a new body, Caeneus feels compelled to hide his former identity from all but his closest friend, Hippodamia, as he seeks the acceptance of his kinsmen and community. But as he and Hippodamia begin a relationship that challenges their society’s strict social order, and as a vengeful Poseidon works behind the scenes to bring about Caeneus’ downfall, the young man must find the strength to openly embrace his identity and his past.
Genre: Drama
Running Time: Approx. 90 minutes
Cast: 5 men (incl. 1 transgender man), 3+ women,
Notes: This verse play was originally written as a one-act for the 2012 San Francisco Olympians Festival and had a staged reading in 2012. A full-length version was read with the Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco (PCSF) in 2013, and with City Lights Theater Company in 2014. The play was a finalist in Pride Films and Plays 2013 Women’s Work competition and in the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation's 2014 new play contest; the latter organization awarded it a production grant. I co-produced it in March 2017 as part of the Second Stages series at Dragon Theatre in Redwood City, CA. For more information about that production, visit our website for the show, www.poseidonplay.com.
La Fée Verte
Synopsis: When France bans absinthe in 1914, struggling poet Marmion fears he will lose his only source of inspiration. He authors a petition against the ban, aided by Dennis, a suicidally depressed bartender who drinks in order to hallucinate his deceased fiancée. But Marmion’s brother Mallory, a Catholic priest with his own secret addiction, is determined to keep the ban in place. As the three men’s agendas clash, each must discover the source of his dependence on the “Green Fairy.”
Genre: Comedy
Cast: 3 men, 1 woman
Running time: Approx. 2 hours
Notes: A lighter piece, written after I was introduced to absinthe. (I don’t care for the taste, actually.) I wanted to tell a story about the things people use to invest their lives with meaning — whether religion, love, or even art — and the dangers of becoming too dependent on any of them. It received staged readings at the Playwrights' Center of San Francisco, the Pear Avenue Theatre, and Paper Wing Theatre, and had a 6-performance developmental production by Acadiana Repertory Theatre in Lafayette, LA in February 2016.
Synopsis: Reema comes to Glade Family Funeral Home and Cemetery with an unusual request – she wants to bury the body of her cousin, the perpetrator of a gruesome terrorist attack that left dozens injured and several dead. Eleanor, the funeral home owner, refuses, and the two women are thrown into a struggle over the fate of the body in this loose adaptation of Antigone inspired by real events following the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Genre: Drama
Running Time: Approx. 2 hours
Cast: 3 women, 2 men
Notes: I developed this play as part of Custom Made Theatre's Undiscovered Works program, where it had two staged readings in 2017, a workshop production in April 2018, and a reading in New York City in September 2018.
Ageless
Synopsis: Ninety is the new thirty at the turn of the 22nd century. When Marin refuses to take the anti-aging drug celebrated by the rest of society, she invokes her mother's ire and risks becoming marginalized in a culture that worships youth, denies death, and treats old age as a malady. When Marin's choice begins to affect not only her but the people she loves, will she hold out, or cave to social pressure?
Genre: Drama
Running Time: Approx. 95 minutes
Cast: 4 women, 2 men
Notes: My first play set in the future, Ageless is about mothers and daughters, mortality, aging, denial, and forgiveness. It was developed with Quantum Dragon Theatre as part of their Forge program and produced in December 2017.
"Probing and poking us to face our unnatural and narcissist fears of ageing, Ageless leaves us impressed." -- Gilad Barach, Theatrius (read full review here)
The Execution of Croesus
Synopsis: After waging a doomed war on Persia, King Croesus is imprisoned, along with his wife Lissandra and son Lydus, while the victorious King Cyrus determines their fate. Croesus, tormented by his conviction that he is a pawn of the Fates, yearns only to be executed—and is prepared to drag his family with him. Meanwhile, Cyrus’ son Cambyses and daughter Atossa have their own wishes for the captives. As the characters try to outmaneuver one another, the battle over Croesus’ life becomes more desperate and ruthless, until it is settled in an unexpected way. Loosely based on an account by Herodotus, The Execution of Croesus is an original take on a classical story that explores the age-old question of free will versus fate.
Genre: Drama/tragedy
Cast: 5 men, 2 women
Running time: 60-70 minutes
Notes: One of my first plays, this is a classically-inspired piece that explores free will, fate, justice, vengeance and forgiveness. I wrote an early draft as part of a playwriting class at UC Riverside in 2010, and it had a developmental reading with the Playwrights' Center of San Francisco in October 2011. A revised version will have readings with Custom Made Theatre Co. in May and October 2018.
Caeneus and Poseidon
Synopsis: A verse play inspired by the Greek myth of Caeneus, a young man who was assigned female at birth. After the sea-god Poseidon grants his wish for a new body, Caeneus feels compelled to hide his former identity from all but his closest friend, Hippodamia, as he seeks the acceptance of his kinsmen and community. But as he and Hippodamia begin a relationship that challenges their society’s strict social order, and as a vengeful Poseidon works behind the scenes to bring about Caeneus’ downfall, the young man must find the strength to openly embrace his identity and his past.
Genre: Drama
Running Time: Approx. 90 minutes
Cast: 5 men (incl. 1 transgender man), 3+ women,
Notes: This verse play was originally written as a one-act for the 2012 San Francisco Olympians Festival and had a staged reading in 2012. A full-length version was read with the Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco (PCSF) in 2013, and with City Lights Theater Company in 2014. The play was a finalist in Pride Films and Plays 2013 Women’s Work competition and in the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation's 2014 new play contest; the latter organization awarded it a production grant. I co-produced it in March 2017 as part of the Second Stages series at Dragon Theatre in Redwood City, CA. For more information about that production, visit our website for the show, www.poseidonplay.com.
La Fée Verte
Synopsis: When France bans absinthe in 1914, struggling poet Marmion fears he will lose his only source of inspiration. He authors a petition against the ban, aided by Dennis, a suicidally depressed bartender who drinks in order to hallucinate his deceased fiancée. But Marmion’s brother Mallory, a Catholic priest with his own secret addiction, is determined to keep the ban in place. As the three men’s agendas clash, each must discover the source of his dependence on the “Green Fairy.”
Genre: Comedy
Cast: 3 men, 1 woman
Running time: Approx. 2 hours
Notes: A lighter piece, written after I was introduced to absinthe. (I don’t care for the taste, actually.) I wanted to tell a story about the things people use to invest their lives with meaning — whether religion, love, or even art — and the dangers of becoming too dependent on any of them. It received staged readings at the Playwrights' Center of San Francisco, the Pear Avenue Theatre, and Paper Wing Theatre, and had a 6-performance developmental production by Acadiana Repertory Theatre in Lafayette, LA in February 2016.