PLAYS

Full-length plays

Storyville

Synopsis:  Storyville is a pulsing musical inspired by the larger-than-life woman, Lulu White, who shaped the contours of sex, race, and power in New Orleans. As a mixed-race bordello owner, influential businesswoman, and Queen of the Demimonde, Lulu White reigns supreme over the legal sex trade district “Storyville” in 1908 New Orleans. Tony Jackson (jazz piano virtuoso and proud, gay, Storyville resident) holds court at the keys in Mahogany Hall. When white “reformists” move for segregation and attempt to push Lulu and others beyond the District’s borders, Lulu takes them on in a fight for her survival. Although Lulu adroitly spins tales, maneuvers among power brokers, and woos the musical elite, it is not until she identifies with the larger community’s cause and takes its case to the Supreme Court of Louisiana that she finds personal fulfillment.

Genre: Musical

Cast: 8 Women, 7 Men

Notes: 

  • Semi-Finalist, O’Neill National Musical Theatre, 2023

  • Staged reading, The Magic Theatre, San Francisco, CA August 2021

(W)Hole

Synopsis:  PTSD-suffering Afghanistan War Veteran (Special Forces Army Sergeant Wilson)  is sentenced by  Veterans Treatment Court Judge Thuan Nguyen to twenty-four hours in a San Diego county jail for a parole violation. Sergeant Wilson starts becoming unhinged in his cell, when, to his disbelief, Judge Nguyen enters. Initially there to check on the Sergeant’s welfare, Judge Nguyen decides to remain and to keep the Sergeant company. As he compassionately assists the Sergeant, it soon becomes clear that the Judge is burdened by his own demons. Over the next twenty-two hours, the two vets discover scars visible and invisible, and assist one another with atoning and self-forgiveness. Is it possible for each of the two broken men to depart the jail cell “whole”?

Genre: Drama

Cast: 2 Men 

Notes: 

  • Finalist, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, 2021

  • Finalist, Ashland New Plays Festival, 2020

  • Developmental Reading, San Francisco Playhouse Rehearsal Space, San Francisco, CA  May 2019 

Martha

Synopsis: A play about race and family inspired by the true events in the life of controversial Martha Washington. When George Washington dies, he leaves behind a will that provides for the emancipation of his enslaved people upon both his and Martha’s deaths. Now that the terms of the will are made public, are such enslaved people seeking Martha’s early demise, or is Martha losing her mental stability as the underpinnings of the old order crumble away?

Genre: Drama

Cast: 4 Women;  9 Men 

Notes:

  • Developmental Reading, produced by the Playwrights Center San Francisco, October 2013 

  • Staged Reading,  produced by the Baltimore Playwrights Festival, Fresh Voices Scenes, November 2015 


Refuge 

Synopsis: After two tornadoes have churned through his hometown in Alabama, Black Sergeant Owen Miller returns to bury his mother and to tend to his hospitalized brother.  While seeking assistance, Owen is outraged when he learns of a rumor that his mother is dead and his brother is injured, because they were denied shelter from the twisters by an unknown White woman at the church door.  With only four days left on leave, Owen is determined to secure care and housing for his brother, and to find and hold accountable the woman who denied his family refuge.  But what if those goals are incompatible? 

Genre: Drama

Cast: 3 Women; 4 Men

10-MINUTE PLAYS

Bloodletting

Synopsis:  Approximately thirty years after George Washington's death, renowned intellectual Jared Sparks sets out to write a multi-volume biography of the first president.  In order to write a detailed and accurate account of Washington's death, Sparks contacts George Washington's adopted grandson (George Washington Parke Custis) who allows Sparks to interview the last survivor who had witnessed the president's death: the elderly enslaved woman, Caroline Branham.  Finding herself with a valuable story to tell, the fearless and wily Branham successfully negotiates with the powerful men:  bartering her tale for an unimaginable prize.  

Genre:  Drama

Cast: 1 Woman; 2 Men 

Notes:

  • 365 Women A Year in Los Angeles, produced by The Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative, Samuel French, Theatre & Film Bookshop, October 2016

  • PLAYOFFS Round Three, Co-Winner, produced by Playwrights Center San Francisco, July 2017 

  • PLAYOFFS Audience Favorites Showcase, produced by Playwrights Center San Francisco, November 2017

  • 365 Women A Year Festival,  produced by Rover Dramawerks Plano Texas,  March 2018 

Final Thaw 

Synopsis: After a life overseas as a diplomat, Vera returns to live with her elderly sister in Michigan.    Ice on the driveway, a broken hip and no cell phones provide the women with a final chance to get some things off their chests just as a late spring storm descends. 

Genre: Dark Comedy

Cast: 2 Women

Notes:

  • Developmental Reading, San Francisco, Will Dunne’s April Shorts 2016

Re-purposed

Synopsis: It’s early on the morning after Easter. While her children sleep, a frazzled single mother argues with a garbage man argue over a rabbit carcass in her garbage can.  Forget resurrection; are there second chances? 

Genre: Drama

Cast: 1 Woman; 1 Man

Notes:

  • Developmental Reading, San Francisco, Will Dunne’s April Shorts 2017

1-MINUTE PLAYS

Rites of Spring

Synopsis:  A mother plants spring lettuces outdoors with optimism, while her adult child (fearing the Coronavirus) urges her to conserve her energy inside. What type of rites of spring are these — could they be “last rites”?

Genre:  Drama

Cast: 1 Woman; 1 Man/Woman

Notes:

  • Written at the invitation of the One Minute Play Festival Coronavirus Plays Project

  • Produced by the One Minute Play Festival

  • Directed by Anna Trachtman, April 14, 2020, on-line with actors, director, and playwright located in disparate cities