Some of my plays are particularly suited to seniors, because they involve situations particular to seniors, and/or because one or more of the major characters are seniors.
These include both Full-Length Plays, and One-Act Plays:
FULL-LENGTH PLAYS FOR SENIORS
BAGELS:
2 Males, 2 Females; all characters are 60+
Romantic comedy
Unit living room set
Running time 1 hour 40 minutes
Two seniors meet through an Internet dating service, but did the computer make a mistake?
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?
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:
3 M, 2 F (one 75+), one child 8-10 – either gender
Dramedy
Living room and kitchen, with an outdoor porch
Running time 1 hour, 50 minutes
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
COPERNICUS
Drama
1, either F or M, 30+
No set required
Running time 10 minutes
A person reflects on a former pet.
Copernicus was the name of the cat that the character owned for many years when he/she was a young child. After many years Copernicus needed to be put down. The character reflects on a replacement.
FATHER-DAUGHTER
Drama
1 F, 1 M
A concerned daughter tries to get depressed widower out of his funk.
A distressed widower, almost estranged from his adult daughter is urged by his almost estranged but concerned daughter to develop an interest, including writing plays.
Living room/dining room setting
Running time 15 minutes
GOD, BRING ME A MIRACLE!:
3 M (one 70+), 5 F (including one 65+ and one girl age 8)
Dramedy
Act 1 takes place in the family home, primarily a living room/dining room, while Act 2 takes place in a retirement home.
Running time is 1 hour 50 minutes
What happens when the family of a man with a great sense of humor considers placing him in a nursing home.
Al is getting up in age, forgetting things, his body declining. His family must decide whether to place Al in a retirement home. But Al has not lost all his faculties (or his sense of humor), and resists going. Finally, he agrees to go, and we see in the second act how he acclimates to his new “home”.
HOME WITHOUT HEIDI
1 F, 1 M
Comedy
A wife of a man recently home from the hospital is suspicious that he had sex with his nurse.
A short time after returning home from the hospital a wife wants sex with her husband, and when he is reluctant she accuses him of having sex with his hospital nurse. What will that do to their sex life?
Living room setting
12 minutes
OLD BROADS CAN’T DUNK:
1M (60+), 7F (all 60+)
Comedy
A park area near a basketball court
Running time 1 hour 40 minutes
Based on my one-act play, AT HALF TIME (described elsewhere). 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.
Later, the best player on the nun’s team joins the ladies as their new coach, since she’s 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.
SEX IS GOOD FOR YOU!:
3M (one 50-60), 2F (one 50-60)
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, SEX IS FOR THE HEART!, in this full-length comedy Al 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 RABBI & THE GRAVEDIGGER:
2 M (one 50-60), 2 F (one 50-60)
Dramedy
A cemetery
1 hour, 40 minutes
Seemingly mismatched characters 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 odd daughter. The final play involves the marriage of the gravedigger and Theresa’s daughter, the ceremony led by the rabbi, who has just encountered a strange woman appearing to be homeless.
Performed at the Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre in North Hollywood.
THE RABBI & THE SHIKSA:
3 M (one or two 60+), 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 and in Prescott, Arizona. In all cases the play was the most profitable play per performance in the history of that theater at that time.
ONE-ACT PLAYS FOR SENIORS
Each of these plays has important roles for seniors. In some all the actors are seniors.
AT HALF TIME
1M (60+), 5F (all 60+)
Comedy
A park area near a basketball court
Running time 20 minutes
This one-act is the basis of the full-length play, Old Broads Can’t Dunk. 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.
This is among the best selling and most performed one-acts published by Art Age (www.seniortheatre.com), It has been performed multiple times and was the winning play in the Senior Canadian Olympics competition in Vancouver.
BAGELS (the one-act play)
1 M (60+), 1 F (60+)
Romantic comedy
A living room
Running time 20 minutes
Two seniors meet through an Internet dating service, but did the computer make a mistake?
The full-length play of the same title, BAGELS, was based on this one act. Seniors Jake and Rachel are matched by an Internet dating service. She comes back to 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? Or did the computer just make a big mistake?
GRAVESIDE
1 M, age 60
Drama
Cemetery
Running time 15 minutes
In this monologue play (a highly personal one to me) a man visits the grave of his mother, to break news about himself.
In the process he reflects on the poor relationship he had with his father, buried nearby, and ultimately reaches an insight which turns his perspective upside down.
Graveside was performed (by the writer) as part of the Misconceptions program of one-acts.
HOME WITHOUT HEIDI
1 F, 1 M
Comedy
Living room
12 minutes
A wife of a man recently home from the hospital is suspicious that he had sex with his nurse.
A short time after returning home from the hospital a wife wants sex with her husband, and when he is reluctant she accuses him of having sex with is hospital nurse.
MEASURING
2 M (one 55+)
Drama
A park
Running time 20 minutes
Why is someone measuring the dimensions of a park bench?
A homeless man sleeping on a park bench is awakened by a younger man who wants to measure the bench dimensions. The younger man is measuring because he must find another bench just like it to meet the terms of the will of the man he thinks was his father. But who is his true father?
Measuring has been performed several times, once by the American Renegade Company, and as part of the Misconceptions slate of one-act plays, all performances in North Hollywood, California.
SEX IS FOR THE HEART
1 M (50+), 1 F (50+)
Comedy
Living room
Running time 18 minutes
A man recovering from a heart attack is reluctant to resume sex, much to the chagrin of his attractive and eager wife.
This play was the basis of my full-length play, SEX IS GOOD FOR YOU! In this one-act comedy Al had a heart attack while making love with his wife. Now he’s reluctant to engage in bedroom behavior. Sheila, his eager wife, wants to. Badly!
THE ACTAWR AND THE DIRECTAWR
2 actors, either gender
Comedy
Rehearsal space
Running time 10 minutes
Can a pompous director improve the performance of an actor in a 1 minute play contest?
the first rehearsal for a one-minute play, and the pompous director is attempting to pull a great performance from the actor, even utilizing quotes from famous directors such as Hitchcock, DeMille, and Bergman.
THE HOLE
1 F, age 50-65
Drama
A park
Running time 12 minutes
An older woman relives her childhood when her grandniece gets lost in the park.
In this monologue play Maud recalls her abusive childhood where she was beaten by her father right in this park after she had gotten lost. Earlier in the current day Maud had taken her grandniece to this park, and Mindy became lost. Once Mindy has been located an angry Maud must now deal with her.
The Hole has been performed as part of the Misconceptions slate of one-act plays in North Hollywood, California. It was also a semi-finalist in the Secret Rose 10-minute Play Contest.
THE REHEARSAL
1M, 1 F (55+)
Dramedy
A stage
Running time 20 minutes
An odd behaving older woman interrupts an actor while he’s rehearsing his monologue.
Bill is rehearsing his monolog, about how he never got enough attention from his important father, when an odd woman interrupts him several times. After a while the woman chastises him for talking so badly about his father. It turns out that the woman is his mother, who, later, confesses to him what it was like for her being married to that man.
This play was a semi-finalist in the Secret Rose 10-minute Play Contest.
TOYS
1M (50+), 1 F (50+)
Drama
Coffeehouse
Running time 18 minutes
Today is a special day for a schoolteacher, when she meets the owner of a toy company that makes toy guns.
A school teacher and an owner of a toy company meet at a coffeehouse. Today is the anniversary of her son being killed
by a gunshot fired by another student at his school. One of the products the toy company makes is toy guns.
Toys was performed as part of the Misconceptions slate of one-act plays, and also was performed in Lake Arrowhead, California.
RENEWING VOWS
1 male, I female
Drama
Outside a motel
Running time 20 minutes
An older man is about to renew his wedding vows with his recently deceased wife. Accompanying him is his daughter, who is having marriage difficulties.
MY NEWEST CHALLENGE
1 male, 1 female
Drama
Can be various settings
Running time 8 minutes
An older man reflects on various challenges he’s had in his life, including getting over a stammer, losing his beloved wife to an auto accident, raising children on his own, and overcoming cancer.
STILL YOUNG ENOUGH?
Comedy
1 F, 1 M
A park
Running time 12 minutes
2 seniors meet on a blind date. He’s interested in ultimately having sex. Is she?
TEACHING IMPROV
Comedy
2 actors, any age/gender
Any location
Running time 12 minutes
One actor seems to have problems following the rules of improv acting. The other actor tries to set that first actor straight
THE PEACOCKS PEP TALK
There are 2 versions of this play, one for mostly a male cast, and one a mostly female cast
Comedy
1 M, 5 F or 1 F, 5 M
A park area near a softball field
Running time 20 minutes
It’s between games of a doubleheader, and the Peacocks were just clobbered in the first game. The Coach is exasperated.
