Mourning Dove

Full-length; 2 Women/1 Man

Winner of the 2024 Jerry Kaufman Award for Excellence in Playwriting

Leigh London, an aging former pin-up model struggling to keep her head above water as a legitimate actress, has a knack for rehabilitating injured birds. When Rocco, a local dog-walker, brings her a wounded sparrow, he discovers not only her va-va-voom past but happens upon a report of her death. Desperate to prove she’s still here, Leigh sets out to resurrect her life, her career, and a disabled dove.

The Night the Ocean Met the Bay

Full-length; 4 Women

Published by Next Stage Press; The Jerry Kaufman Award Citation for Excellence in Playwriting; Semi-Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights Festival

It is October, 2012 and Superstorm Sandy is fast approaching a barrier island off the south shore of Long Island. As she bears down, three disaffected sisters and the mother who made them are swept away from the security of a kitchen table and hurled right into one of nature’s knock-outs. Rocking in their lifeboat, they set off on a watery voyage into the night. Cold, wet, hungry, and lost, it isn’t long before rivalries and resentments surface and that’s when things get turbulent. This is a tale of survival.

The Showman and the Spirit

Full-length; 2 Women/2 Men

Winner, 2017 Stanley Drama Award; Finalist, Ashland New Play Festival; Semi-Finalist, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference; Semi-Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights Festival; Staged Reading, HRC Showcase Theatre; Project Y Epic Play Readings Series; Writers Theatre, “Soundings” series; Jersey Theater Center “Origins" series

A Bronx high school in 1976. Andy Levitt, an idealistic young teacher, is organizing an assembly to celebrate the life of the late James Hudson, a heroic African-American performer and activist. His guest speaker is Lawrence Muffet, a contemporary and friend of Hudson’s. Muffet, a Hollywood character actor known for playing the servile and stereotypical roles that Hudson refused, arrives under the impression that it is he who is to be honored. In the course of a school day, the teacher, the guest, his delicate daughter, and a beleaguered school secretary, collide amid misunderstandings, resentments, and pre-conceived notions. As this clash of temperaments and wayward efforts to do the right thing plays out under the specter of James Hudson, Lawrence Muffet must confront his own legacy and his place in the shadow of the great man’s spirit.

Hotbed

Full-length; 2 Women/2 Men

Project Y Epic Play Reading Series; Reading at Jersey City Theatre Center

A prequel to The Showman and the Spirit. It is Hollywood in 1951. Sex symbol and free spirit, Lola Dove has been left broken-hearted by James Hudson, an African-American performer and activist currently under heavy surveillance by the FBI. Her best friend, Julie Albright, an African-American actress who has been struggling to find her place in the studio system, suggests character actor and friend of Hudson, Lawrence Muffet might have some influence with Hudson. As Lola pursues Muffet, who happens to be playing her butler in the film she is shooting, Julie deals with her own budding relationship with the difficult but electrifying Edward Maples, the heart-throb of Black Hollywood who is determined to crack the mainstream. As the House of Un-American Activities bears down and bebop fills the air, we follow these four actors, all at a flashpoint in their careers. Passions run high and wild as they collide in their struggles with politics, love, desire, and the relentless need for work.

Bodega Bay

Full-Length; 3 Women/3 Men

World Premiere, Abingdon Theatre Company; Winner 2013 Jerry Kaufman Award; Best Stage Monologues for Men 2014 and Best Stage Monologues for Women 2014, Smith and Kraus

Nobody notices or remembers Louise Finch, a woman whose quiet and cautious existence is burdened by her devotion to her meth-addict brother. She is convinced that if she can find the mother who left them years earlier, order will be restored to the shambles of their lives. This shy, awkward woman who has never set foot off of Staten Island, takes off into the unknown. She embarks on an Odyssey that will hurl her across the country, exacting its price in danger and turning her from an insignificant spectator into an active participant in a chaotic world.

A Mother’s Prayer

Ten Minute Comedy; 1 Woman/2 Men

Mile Square Theatre, Hoboken, NJ, 7th Inning Stretch—7 Plays About Baseball; ARTC Staged Reading, Cooperstown, NY

It’s October 16, 2003. Game 7 of the American League Championship, New York Yankees vs. the Boston Red Sox. In a Staten Island basement, Ma, a devout Catholic and more devout Yankee fan, prays for the win. She is spurred on by one of her two sons who is hosting a raucous viewing party upstairs. While she prays, her other son shows up—the prodigal who has been gone for a year without a word. Tonight he returns with a terrible surprise.

Wild Men of the Woods

Full-length; 2 Women/3 Men

Lark Playwrights Week; Winner of the 2008 Jerry Kaufman Award; Semi-Finalist, Premiere Stages Play Festival

In the cold of January at the turn of the millennium, three men from very different backgrounds are falling through the cracks of the city streets. Locked out of life, they struggle to find their way into money, love, and a place to stay. A story of class, friendship, and also, great apes.

The Mooncalf

Full-length; 4 Women/2 Men

World Premiere, Abingdon Theatre Company; The Best Stage Scenes 2001, Smith and Kraus; Honorable Mention, Writers Digest Writing Competition

An unruly teenage girl, with a dying mother, is let loose in a cancer hospital, setting off a chain of events and discovery. In a place more chimerical than clinical, five characters bump against and grope towards each other, unearthing revelations about motherhood, death, dogs, drugs, and Fred Astaire.

Lucy’s Last Date

One Act; 1 Woman/1 Man

World Premiere, Third Street Theatre, Los Angeles; Honorable Mention, Dayton FutureFest Competition

A woman abandoned in a Florida motel by one date, waits for another in the company of a man who has given up boozing and chasing women for a revived faith and who wants to save them both from isolation.