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Screenplays
Jack and Willy are two desperately out of work actors resorting to the oddest of odd jobs to get by. Just when things seem most desperate, their luck changes as their elaborate dine-and-ditch scheme leads them to be mistaken for gangsters. They're hired for a very simple assignment -- rescue Amanda, the daughter of a wealthy businessman, from the cult she's joined in New Mexico. But the assignment is nothing but simple as the real gangster, Stan, pursues them across the desert, angry to have lost the job, and Amanda turns out to be more than a handful. Jack and Willy may be kidnappers, but she's in charge. As the trio heads back to LA, Stan in pursuit, Jack and Willy have to pull every trick they've ever invented just to survive, but the very fetching Amanda may be the real danger, as she tests their patience, their talents and their friendship. Jack and Willy may have nothing, but at least they have each other.
When you look into the abyss, it looks into you... While waiting to find out if he's been accepted into the LAPD Police Academy, twenty-three year-old Ray Nicholas works for his uncle Andy, a private detective. It's here that Ray stumbles across a long-forgotten case, the unsolved murder of seventeen year-old Jackie Jay at the end of the disco era. At first, his interest is academic, but the more he tries to uncover the truth about this martyred beauty, the more he learns about himself. It's a dark journey that will turn his world upside down, changing his perceptions of everyone and everything he knows. As Ray journeys through the labyrinth, he comes ever closer to dark truths long buried, threatening to wake the sleeping beast within.
Jason Bedwell and Linc Dobrinsky are lifelong best friends trapped in a dead-end midwestern town at the end of the 1950s. Seeing no future, Linc suggests they head west to Hollywood to make their fortune as models for Physique Magazines, and Jason naively agrees. But neither of them ever suspects that these magazines are erotic entertainments for other men, nor that there's a fortune to be made if only certain provincial sensibilities are abandoned at the golden gates.Tempted by a straight photographer and his unconventional girlfriend, Linc will do anything for a buck while Jason tries to preserve whatever innocence he lost back home. The only problem is, Jason is discovering things about himself he never admitted were true as he meets Morgan, a Native American Communist beat poet with no illusions about the way the world works. Muscle Boys is an homage to innocent times that were never so innocent, and an odyssey through a world that had not yet discovered the other meaning of the word gay.
A pretty young maid, a jealous brother, a man fearing his own approaching middle age. A single gunshot splits the Kansas sky and leaves a mystery. Prominent attorney and mayoral candidate Silas Fearl's wife, Dora, lies dead. Suspects are many, but answers few. Dora's brother, Elisha, seems to have the biggest motive, and has lately gained a reputation as the town drunk. And his guilt or innocence may not matter, since Silas's best friend is also the Sherrif. A flashback within a flashback and lies within lies, The Ringbearer uncovers issues of power and powerlessness, corruption and truth, and looks at how family scandals transcend generations. Based on events from the author's great-great grandparents' lives which happened in 1872, this is a timeless tale told in a post-modern style.
Danny and Oscar. A boy and his dog, living the small town life. But when local bullies and a nasty neighbor make things difficult for them, a well-timed wish changes everything over night. Suddenly, Oscar can talk and has thumbs, and has plenty to say. Unfortunately, Oscar isn't the only dog with new found gifts,poocposse to stop the nefarious plans of Fifi -- a chihuahua with anattitude, an evil plot and twin doberman enforcers. But first, Danny and Oscar both have to learn about fear and instinct, and what it really is that makes humans and animals the same -- and different.
Stage Plays
Mexico City, 1951. Writer and junkie Bill shoots and kills his speedfreak wife Joan in front of guests at a cocktail party. Was it an accident, a murder or a bizarre form of suicide? Viewed through the skewed lens of Bill's own mind as he's interrogated by the Mexico City Police, Bill & Joan is a phantasmagorical illusion populated by the real and the imagined, a journey through the complicated relationship of two people bound to complete each other -- or destroy each other. A finalist for the Lois and Richard Rosenthal New Play Prize at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Bill & Joan, like its subjects, breaks all the rules and has no limits.
Alexandria, Egypt, 415 A.D. As religious fanatics struggle to take control of the city, one woman, the pagan philosopher Hypatia, stands between them and the destruction of freedom and truth. When an ancient document purported to be an eyewitness account of Christ's Crucifixtion comes into Hypatia's hands, the Christian bishop, Cyril, will do anything to get it, using a former student of Hypatia's, now a priest, as his instrument. But the priest may have been more than Hypatia's student, and the document may tell a very different story than the one everybody knows. Winner, 2001 New Century Writers Awards
Set in a near future that might-yet-be, The Man Upstairs is a timely dark comedy about paranoia, prejudice and the power of love. Stella, a successful American romance novelist married to a Muslim man, lives in a time of war, when distrust leads to hatred and prejudice. Forced to choose between protecthing her husband and doing what is considered right and patriotic, Stella is caught in the middle of her own government's crimes against humanity...
Jeremiah Bentonville, former stage magician, has discovered the joys -- and profits --of working as an undertaker on the battlefields of the American Civil War. What does it matter if he inflates the casualties a little bit? The living don't notice the dead, and it's just so easy to make a fortune doing the business of war. Noah Johnson, Jeremiah's apprentice, is trying to learn his master's cynical ways, until the discovery of a pornographic locket and the arrival of a beautiful young widow searching for her husband's body complicate matters. As Noah conducts his own business with the widow, Jeremiah's suspicions grow. He, more than anyone, should know an illusion when he sees it. Then, the North informs Jeremiah that they suspect he's cheating them. But they won't hang him, provided he can prove his numbers. Tomorrow morning at dawn... Winner of the SCR New Plays Prize and PEN West Award for Drama Finalist
London, 1725.This city is a wicked place where wild gangs run free and mothers sell their own children for money for gin. When a man's severed head is found on the banks of the Thames, the local magistrate thinks the identity of the killer is obvious, determined to prove that Catherine Hayes killed her husband, whether she did or not. It doesn't help that Catherine lives with her two teenaged lovers and that her husband was a violent man. It doesn't matter, except to one man -- Jack Frye, the executioner, who comes more and more to question whether murder is ever right, even when the king commands it. A true story.
Money... sex... scams... real estate... That's what family's for... Anton and Michelle are ready to pull their big scam and con unsuspecting senior citizen Richard out of everything -- until Richard throws a screamin' monkeywrench into the works. He wants to play matchmaker, although his skills in that area are somewhat lacking. Now, Anton and Michelle have to play Richard's game while playing their own and keeping their other agendas secret. Add into the mix the world's most annoying slacker brother, a mother just released from prison and a famous porn star turned madame, and by the time the game is over, no one will know what hit them. As lies pile upon lies and everyone schemes against everyone else, Screamin' Monkey Love! explodes into a low farce about high crimes and petty thieves.