Full Length Productions

Act Your Age

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A full-length dramedy, ACT YOUR AGE concerns a man who is reluctant to be a grandfather. Although age 60, he conceives of himself as still quite young. His wife is excited about the baby’s arrival, setting up a conflict with him. At about the same time fellow players in his regular basketball game have asked him to leave because of his decline in basketball ability. His daughter, in addition to being aware of her father’s reluctance, is also having marital problems, since her husband seems not to want the baby.

Based on my one-act play of the same title, in this romantic comedy seniors Jake and Rachel are matched by an Internet dating service. She visits his apartment to play Scrabble, but after the game he wants to go to bed with her. She refuses but has to spend the night because of a freak snowstorm. Is he successful to luring her to bed? Did the computer make a big mistake? Do they end up taking a trip to Hawaii?

The 18 week run of BAGELS was the longest run in the history of the theater in which it was performed.
The most recent production was at the Secret Rose Theatre in Los Angeles.

Boxcar & Eugenia

A drunk Santa shows up on the porch of a feisty Jewish widow.
Boxcar, a very big man, now a minor actor dressed up as Santa Claus, shows up drunk on the porch of Eugenia, an 82 year old virtually blind widow. She invites him to live with her, much to the chagrin of Susan, the social worker who has befriended Eugenia. Despite conflicts with the two women, Boxcar makes himself useful by doing odd jobs around the house. He finally turns his life around and lands a job at a nursery, and even is cast as Falstaff in a production put on by his theater Group.

Performed at the Victory Theatre in Burbank, California, and the Secret Rose Theatre in North Hollywood, California

Hilarity abounds when ten wacky guest speakers arrive at Greenwood High’s Career Day to educate students about the “thrilling” job opportunities that await them.

There’s a plastic surgeon, a garbage man, a historian, a homemaker, a French dry cleaner, a hangman, a philosopher, a lifeguard, an orthodontist, and a circus worker. And to add to the Career Day excitement the assistant principal performs her own unusual brand of stand-up comedy, and the school’s ditzy cheer coach demonstrates with zeal her cheerleading skills. All this takes place while the mystery of who is tagging the school with graffiti remains unsolved.

The play utilizes a series of monologues, giving many actors an opportunity to “take the stage”.  It is easy to produce and requires only chairs for staging.

Published by Big Dog Publishing (www.bigdog.com)
Performed at various schools.

Doubting Thomas

Part of the set is living room, part park bench area
Running time is 115 minutes

Read the Reviews! Click Here

I Got Troubles

Each of the characters comes into Angie’s Coffeehouse with troubles. Do they leave the coffeehouse still having those troubles?

Not Just A Comic Genious

When a man, at the urging of his concerned daughter begins to pen funny plays in his living room based on his friends and family, his world turns topsy-turvy. Not only does he discover his own delightfully quirky comic side, but he develops a different relationship with his daughter. This father-daughter dramedy proves that sometimes daughter — not daddy — knows best!
Living room/dining room setting
Running time 1hour 45 minutes

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Wackiness ensues when the owner of a chicken slaughterhouse meets up with the vegetarian owner of a coffeehouse.

Joe Carbone, the owner of a chicken slaughterhouse, feels guilty about what he does and thinks about changing his profession. To help him decide he takes a job as a waiter at Angie’s Coffeehouse, where he meets people in varied occupations and learns what their jobs are like. Meanwhile, he and Angie are strongly attracted to each other, but she is a vegetarian, and he still owns the chicken slaughterhouse.

Performed at the NoHo Actors Studio, North Hollywood, California, as well as several other theaters across the country, including schools.

Published by Big Dog Publishing (www.bigdog.com), and Norman Maine Publishing (www.normanmaine.com).

This production first ran at the Actors Studio Theater in Los Angeles, and moved shortly to the nearby Lonny Chapman Group Rep, with a slight change in play line-up.

Some plays are comedies, others are dramas, or dramedies. More detailed play descriptions are provided in the One-Acts section.

The plays included:

BEGGARS: 1M, 1F; dramedy

DISCUSSION AFTER THE PLAY READING: 3 actors, any gender; comedy

GRAVESIDE: 1M; drama

HEAVENS: 1M; dramedy

MEASURING: 2M, drama

PIGEONS: 2M, 1F; comedy

SEX IS FOR THE HEART: 1M, 1F; comedy

THE HOLE: 1F; drama

TOYS: 1M, 1F; drama

WAITRESS: 1F, drama

NOT ONE MORE FOOT OF LAND! (Subtitled, “Major Ridge and the Trail of Tears”).

11 M, 4 F

Drama

Black box

Running time 1 hour 50 minutes

The story of Major Ridge, the most controversial Cherokee that ever lived.
This play is currently in development, having had several staged readings. It follows the life of Major Ridge, a Cherokee, from about the period 1790-1840. Was he a traitor to his people or their savior?

The Trail of Tears refers to the United States government forcing the Cherokees to move from their ancestral lands in the southeast to territory west of the Mississippi River. Thousands of Cherokees died on the long journey. The forcible eviction was made possible by a treaty arranged for by Major Ridge and others, which many Cherokees considered illegal.

A few roles, principally Major Ridge, his wife, their son, and John Ross are played throughout by one actor. All other actors play multiple roles at the discretion of the director.

OLD BROADS CAN’T DUNK:

1M, 7F

Comedy

A park area near a basketball court

Running time 1 hour 40 minutes

It’s half-time, and the team in the Over 60 Women’s Basketball League, is losing 59-6 to a team of ancient nuns who have taken a vow of silence.

Based on my one-act play, AT HALF TIME (described elsewhere), the best player on the nun’s team joins the ladies as their new coach, since she has been kicked out of the order for cursing when she was tripped by one of the ladies during the second half of the game.

Most recent production was at the Secret Rose Theatre in Los Angeles.

REBECCA’S GAMBLE (written with Robert Begam)

Drama

Number of different characters is 19. But actors can play multiple roles. Minimum of 9 actors.

3M, 2 F, remainder flexible.

Courtroom set

Running time 2 hours

A riveting courtroom drama cabout a murder case. But was it murder?

A trial in which Rebecca Adler, a doctor at a facility which does cryonic suspensions, is accused of the murder of her friend, the terminally ill Kent Eastman. (Cryonic suspension involves, freezing ‘dead’ bodies for later reanimation.)

She is accused of murder because, at Kent’s request, she administered an overdose of anesthetic which ceased all his bodily functions. The reason for doing this was so that his suspension could be started immediately before much tissue deterioration took place.

Act 1 consists of testimony from prosecution witnesses, including the victim’s mother, a technician, an insurance executive, a pastor, a CPA, a molecular biologist, and a neurosurgeon. Act 2 consists of testimony from another doctor, a rabbi, a pathologist, a computer scientist and neurobiologist, and a physicist and neurobiologist.

Prior to the start of the production five members of the audience are selected as jurors, and they render the verdict once all the testimony is completed, and the attorneys give their closing arguments. (Over the course of the original production, about half the verdicts were not guilty, and half guilty – usually voluntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter.)

Many of the characters have androgynous names, including the judge and most of the witnesses.

Read the Reviews! Click Here

SEPTEMBER 10:

2M, 1F, 8-15 other actors (depending on doubling roles) – either gender

Drama

The set is at the discretion of the director.

1 hour, 40 minutes

The events of September 11, 2001 changes lives, especially those of a married couple thousands of miles away.

On September 10, 2001, a wife confesses to her husband that she’s had an affair. They begin to argue, but after being interrupted by their son, they agree to hold off further discussion until the next day. When, the next morning, airplanes crash into the World Trade Center, their world is turned around. For the next few weeks they’re transfixed by the televised events and we meet various characters affected by the disaster – a man who has lost his son, a fireman who has lost his brother, a Red Cross worker, an evangelist, a woman who has returned to attending church services, and so on. Later on, a few months later, we encounter many of the same people. Meanwhile, the stories of these people are interwoven with that of the couple whose marriage is at risk.

Performed at the Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre in North Hollywood.

SEX IS GOOD FOR YOU!:

3M, 2F

Comedy

Unit living room set

Running time 1 hour, 40 minutes

A man recovering from a heart attack is reluctant to resume sex, much to the chagrin of his attractive and eager wife.

Based on my one-act play, SEX IS FOR THE HEART!, in this full-length comedy Al Golden had a heart attack while making love with his wife. Now he’s reluctant to engage in bedroom behavior. Sheila, his attractive and eager wife will do anything (well, almost anything) to get him into the bedroom, including asking a gorgeous younger woman to seduce him.

Produced twice at the Secret Rose Theatre in Los Angeles.

THE $4 MILLION GIVEAWAY

4 M, 3 F

Drama

A luxury hotel suite, divided into a bedroom and living room area

Running time is 1 hour 50 minutes

A mysterious rich man gives $4 million to his “friends”.  But there’s a catch.

Jesse Morgan returns to New York City 18 years after absconding with cash from his employer. Now very rich, he stays in a suite in the luxurious Knickerbocker Arms, and calls together several “friends’ from his past, including his ex-wife, his ex-best friend, his former employer, and a street person. He offers $2,000,000 to two of them, but there’s a catch. The “friends” have to select which two of them receive the money. And most of them hate each other.

The situation is turned topsy turvy when an unexpected person suddenly shows up in the midst of the group deciding who gets the money.

THE RABBI & THE GRAVEDIGGER:

2 M, 2 F

Dramedy

A cemetery

1 hour, 40 minutes

Characters appearing to be mismatched find common ground at a cemetery.

This production consists of three one-act plays, tied together by the characters and the location. The three plays can be performed individually, or in combination.

In the first, the gravedigger encounters a rabbi planning to kill himself because he’s distraught over the death of Theresa, the non-Jewish woman he loved. The second involves a romance between the gravedigger and Theresa’s daughter, who is very odd. The final play involves the marriage of the gravedigger and Theresa’s daughter, the ceremony conducted by the rabbi, who has just encountered another strange woman appearing to be homeless.

Performed at the Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre in North Hollywood.

THE RABBI and THE SHIKSA:

3 M, 2 F

Dramedy

Rabbi’s office

1 hour 40 minutes

A romance definitely not made in heaven.

The rabbi begins an affair with a non-Jewish woman selling carpet to the temple. The rabbi is already having trouble dealing with conservative members of the temple, who’d like to see him removed. His job is threatened when the romance gets into the open, and his secretary, who has silently harbored her feelings for the rabbi, turns against him.

Performed at the Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre, and later at the Secret Rose Theatre, both in North Hollywood, California, and also at the Hollywood Boulevard Theatre in Hollywood, Florida. In all cases the play was the most profitable play per performance in the history of that theater at that time.

Read the Reviews! Click Here.

The Rabbi’s Mission

2 F
4 M
Dramedy

Two women enter a rabbi’s office: one his former girlfriend, the other a younger woman engaged to another man. No, this isn’t the setup to a classic Jewish joke — it’s the premise of The Rabbi’s Mission, a dramedy that examines the thorny topic of what makes someone Jewish. The Rabbi’s Mission is a sequel to the highly successful The Rabbi and the Shiksa (but don’t worry, you don’t need to have seen the first play to enjoy this one!).

Click here to read the reviews on The Rabbi’s Mission!

THE YENTAS WEAR RED HATS

6 F, 2 M

Comedy

Senior women form a Red Hat Society chapter to bring back fun into their lives.

The Yentas just won the championship of the Women Over 60 Basketball League, but now life has become boring again. Shuffleboard, quilting, bingo and aquatics ballet aren’t scratching that itch. When a team member mentions the Red Hat Society, a group all about women having fun, the Yentas rush to form a local Red Hats chapter.

Simple living room set.

Running time 140 minutes

TROLLS STOLE THE NORTH POLE (musical)

Musical, with book and lyrics by Art Shulman, music by Nick Pierone

Number of different characters is 11-12

4M, 4 F, 3-4 flexible

North Pole, and South Pole

Running time 75 minutes

Interactive musical with lots of great songs.

An interactive children’s musical, with 19 songs, in which two trolls divert a shipment of materials to make toys from the North Pole to the South Pole. So, the elves can’t make toys. And Xmas is fast approaching. Will kids around the world not get toys this Xmas? When Santa discovers what’s going on he sends elves, Mrs. Claus, and a reindeer to the South Pole on a mission to bring back the missing materials.

CHAMP & HIS FOUR WOMEN
1 Male, 4 Females
Dramedy
Unit living room set
Running time 1 hour 40 minutes

Champ’s wife, who he calls Princess, has been dead for a year, but she appears as a figment of his imagination. (We see her on stage.). He is depressed, missing her so much. But then three other women appear who change his life – his nosy next-door neighbor, a real estate agent who wants to sell his condo, and a clerk at the market who makes his daily ham and cheese sandwich with potato salad on it.

BIAS (Zoom recording)
3 males, 3 females, 1 any gender
Drama
Various offices
Running time 1 hour 45 minutes

A college professor is accused of discrimination by a student he had caught lying and cheating.

WHOOPSIE-DOOPSIE
4 males, 4 females
Comedy
Black box set, but set pieces rearranged to represent various locations
Running time 1 hour 15 minutes

Billy has a very very big problem in this whimsical quirky comedy featuring Billy Harrington — popular, smart, good-looking, captain of his Huckle Buckle team, and son of philandering professor Gordon and wacky mom, Molly. Billy’s world turns upside down when he gets unwelcome news from his girlfriend, Joannie!!! Meanwhile, Billy’s Dad is having an affair with Joannie’s Mom. And who knows what Billy’s Mom is doing with Joannie’s Dad. Uh-oh! All around Whoopsie-Doopsie!

IT ALL ENDS IN TUNA FISH
15 roles, 8 male, 7 female. Various ages
However, actors can play multiple roles, so the play can be done with as few as 7 actors.
100 minutes
In this full-length dramedy, a playwright solicits his wife’s help in deciding which one of his one-act plays to submit to a contest. We see the various one-act plays depicted on stage, and bickering between husband and wife occurs between plays.

JUST ANOTHER DAY IN ETERNITY
18 characters, 11 M, 7 F. Various ages
However, with multiple casting can be done with as few as 7 actors.

100 minutes

In this full-length spoof, The Big Guy (in heaven) must find a new personal assistant. One candidate is Peter, the gatekeeper. Another, Peter’s competition, is Mary M. To help determine whether Peter is the best person for the job, The Big Guy observes Peter as he greets various arrivals such as The Marquis de Sade, Godot, Donald Trump, Lizzie Borden, Socrates, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Princess Diana, and others.