PLAYS

FULL LENGTH

Tweet
Before her brother’s wedding, Lily tweets a joke about him and his boyfriend, riffing on them being an interracial couple. Ignoring her neighbor’s warnings, Lily does not immediately delete the tweet. By the time she does, the social media backlash has escalated. Lily, her brother, and his fiancé have a standoff over how to respond as the re-tweets reach a fever level of misogynistic and violent language. Lily, receives a text from her firm firing her and collapses in a panic attack. As the family debates what to do, a long night of harassment by online trolls begins, culminating in the front door being broken down by the police. The next morning, the fiancé confronts Lily directly. Lily’s attempts to defend herself force everyone to face the truth of exactly what sentiments Lily harbors about race. Finally, exhausted and a bit wiser, Lily envisions a future with a new online persona – one of her own choosing – and a new day to day life struggling with family and race. (Full length 3F/3M)

For representation for Tweet, contact Mindy Kanaskie at United Writers and Artists.
New Play Exchange

Reason Enough
Teddy deals with loss in his life first by running, then by burying himself in his past. In the process, he reconciles himself to the memory of the woman who raised him (his Aunt Matty) and the memory of his best friend (Stephen). Five scenes are set in 1992, during Matty’s 65th birthday weekend. Teddy returns to Pennsylvania to celebrate and relocate from the mounting death toll in New York City. After welcoming him, his aunt has doubts about this move for Teddy. In the end, he returns to NYC. Alternating with these scenes are scenes from the summer of 1994. After his friend Stephen’s death, an increasingly distraught Teddy fixates on connecting with Stephen’s memory by involving himself with men with whom Stephen had sex. In his increasingly frantic effort to grasp at Stephen’s memory, Teddy drives himself to emotional disintegration, and on through to a tentative re-connection with his present. The final scene is the day of Matty’s funeral in the Spring of 1995. Teddy, having come to an uneasy peace with himself attempts to help a young friend cope with Matty’s death. (Full length 4M/1F) New Play Exchange

Natural Causes
Maria has many opinions. As one of the hard pressed siblings in Natural Causes she puts them to the test in her efforts to keep her family together despite very sane reasons to move on. The ultimate test comes when long gone brother Anthony returns to interrupt the annual festivities for Groundhog Day. He’s come to take their youngest sister, Joanna, away from a house where people end up drunk, on their knees, ripping up the carpet with a claw hammer; where a mother can’t bear to be in the same room as her children; and, where long held secrets make an obscure holiday more important than any other day of the year. Maria moves aggressively to stop him, first by doing away with his brother-in-law and then with Anthony himself. Though both her sister Rose (who drinks excessively) and her father see what’s coming, they are powerless to stop her. Maria finally gets what she wants most, a family moment frozen in time. For her it’s worth the sacrifice of a life or two. (Full length 4F/3M) New Play Exchange

ONE-ACTS

44 Hours
Victor and Ian meet and hook up on Friday night. Come Sunday evening they are still together. Ian thinks there is something here that’s worth pursuing; Victor is worried about the age difference (he is 50, Ian is 27). They go back and forth on the “yes” and “no” of going forward, finally resolving to at least go out for dinner and see what follows. (10 min 2M) New Play Exchange

The Best Men (Purchase in anthology on Amazon)
Will wants to ask Seth to be his best man when he marries his boyfriend, Derek. The problem is, Seth doesn’t believe in marriage. He’s also afraid of losing his best friend. As they work this out in Will’s SF apartment, a dual time line from 1967 reveals the apartments original tenant, fresh from MO. Gregory is also trying to work out where he fits in as a gay man. What binds these two timeline together are the names on the apartment wall, preserved from tenant to tenant, reminders of every man who passed through looking for his own place in the world. In the end, Gregory finds strength in his hope for the men who will follow; Will and Seth find peace in the strength of the men who preceded them. (10 min 5M) New Play Exchange

Enough
Simon wants Mila. Francesca wants Mila. But it’s not what you think. Two books, one editor; Simon and Francesca have a war of words for Mila’s attention, made all the more difficult for Simon who can’t stop rhyming once he’s upset. Mila untangles the knot, but not before everyone suffers just a little disappointment and a little happiness in equal measure. (10 min 2F/1M) New Play Exchange

Runaway (Purchase in anthology on Amazon)
When there is a disagreement over his new boyfriend, 16 year old Tommy runs away from home to his favorite Uncle in Manhattan. Uncle Tony is much less sympathetic than Tommy hoped for, but then Tony is hiding his own secret. Or at least he thinks he is. When his sister Rose arrives looking for her son, Tony discovers that the entire family knows already knows the truth and nobody cares. Certainly not Rose, who settles matters with her son and gives her brother some much needed perspective. (10 min 2M/1F) New Play Exchange