The PlayFinder™

Richard Aglow is a failure. A once-promising playwright, he finds himself a virtual shut-in with only rejection letters to amuse himself. Until today. He's started writing again! And as luck would have it, inspiration has hit on the very day his wife, Lela, an aspiring actress who married Richard despite his homosexuality, has met one of New York's leading producers. This is Richard's chance, a golden opportunity to get back in the game. Of course, he'll have to overlook the fa... Read more

THE ALTRUISTS revolves around a dedicated, if disorganized and demented, group of young radicals. These are the kids who protest. They protest arts funding and arms funding. They protest school cutbacks and AIDS cutbacks and welfare cutbacks. They march for gay rights and children's rights and Women Against Drunk Drivers. But their morality is put to the test one day when Sydney, a shallow, anorexic soap-opera actress, fires a gun into the hulking body of her sleeping boyfriend... Read more

How do we love someone who falls outside our moral code? BEAUTIFUL CHILD presents Harry and Nan, a couple whose marriage has become a comfortable battleground of witty barbs and infidelity. Everything they think they know, however, is called into question when their son, Isaac, an art teacher and painter, comes for lunch and asks if he can stay. The world's no longer safe for Isaac, as his secrets are about to become public—he has fallen in love, and has been having an affair, ... Read more

CLAIRE, the first piece, finds a beautiful matron who might have walked out of a Noel Coward play. Claire is trying to recover from an incident that occurred in the morning, an incident that brought home, all too painfully, the reality that the beautiful world that she called home is gone forever. Shaken and frightened, she finds peace only while making love with a much younger man, a man who allows her to forget herself and retreat into a world where "we were children and easi... Read more

Claire, the first piece, finds a beautiful matron who might have walked out of a Noel Coward play. Claire is trying to recover from an incident that occurred in the morning, an incident that brought home, all too painfully, the reality that the beautiful world that she called home is gone forever. Shaken and frightened, she finds peace only while making love with a much younger man, a man who allows... Read more

After their plane crashes, Phyllis, and her son, Bishop, are stranded on a desert island for five years. During their stay, Bishop is transformed from a stuttering, Katherine Hepburn-obsessed little boy, in to a feral savage who eventually rapes his mother. Phyllis devolves from a glib, callused sophisticate to a helpless, addled shell. Left to fend for themselves, they dine on the bodies of those less fortunate and eventually become lovers. At home, we see Howard, Phyllis' hus... Read more

Arloc Simpson is fabulously wealthy but desperately lonely, living a solitary life for many years. When one day he reads the obituary of a former lover, he knows at once he's in trouble. "Pneumonia is a code word when you read it in the paper!" For the first time, he wrestles with the idea of his own mortality, and has a blood test, the results of which he cannot bring himself to read. The envelope sits, unopened, taunting him. "It's my enemy. And my apartment isn't big enough ... Read more

Amanda, an anorexic poet of some pretensions, has been married for three weeks, but her husband, Ford, has been missing for two. She calls a crisis hot line and reaches Bea, a volunteer. Bea's answer to Amanda's problems is to diminish them by complaining about her own deceased husband's inattentiveness, her son's embarrassing nature, and also to dispense hilarious (but useless) advice. Just as Amanda nears her wit's end, Ford walks in so she simply hangs up on Bea. Meanwhile, ... Read more

THE LYONS starts in a hospital room. As Ben Lyons lies dying, his wife of forty years, Rita, flips through decorating magazines, planning a living room make-over. "I know you won’t actually be there to enjoy it, but I’d like to think you’d like it." It's clear Ben and Rita have been at war for many years, and that Ben's impending demise has brought no relief. When they're joined by their children, Lisa and Curtis, all efforts at a pleasant visit or a sentimental goodbye ... Read more

We open at the wedding of Taylor and Cynthia, a golden couple beloved by everyone—almost. Libby, Cynthia's hard-drinking sister, is in love with Taylor herself and she can take it no longer. "The hypocrisy, the bone-chilling grotesque hypocrisy!" Fleeing to the back yard she discovers Paul, Taylor's best friend, a charming fellow, who, since childhood, has harbored a secret love for the groom himself. As Libby and Paul are forced to deal with unrequited love, their lives change... Read more

THE STORY: PHILIP, Claire's son, addresses the audience next. Stylistically he is her polar opposite, a mass of anxiety and tension, who lives a life without intimacy or human contact. Fearful and full of self-loathing, Philip becomes fixated on a young man, whose name he doesn't know. Terrified of rejection, he lives his life for furtive glances. Finally conquering his fear, he attempts to make contact—an act of bravery that leads to a terrifying and violent result. (1 man.)... Read more

An absurdist black comedy about the demise of the Duncan family, and, by extension, the species. Emma Duncan, a hypochondriac with memory problems, and her orphaned fiancé, Tommy, confront her mother, Grace, with the news of their intended marriage. Disapproving at first, Grace acquiesces and puts Tommy to work as a maid. Shortly after, Grace's son, Todd, returns home and announces he has AIDS which sets off a frenzy of denial-spurred activity. The father, Arthur Duncan, reache... Read more

We meet Sebastian Bliss and his twin sister, Bernadette Dixon, at their mother's funeral, after she was killed by an errant shower head. It is a reunion for the siblings, having not seen each other in years. After the funeral Bernadette can barely stop weeping, while her brother is merely irritated by what he feels is her humiliating display of emotion. We follow Sebastian to a therapy session with Dr. Hillary MacMahon, an extravagantly needy woman, who, upon hearing that Sebas... Read more

THE STORY: ROGER & MIRIAM follows the lives of a suburban mother and her awkward son for more than twenty years. From summer camp, to finding new love after AIDS has robbed us of our innocence. Roger and Miriam confide in each other through a series of letters, often funny, sometimes tragic. While their paths are very different—Miriam experimenting with extra-marital affairs, Roger holding on to a childhood ideal of love—they both, ultimately come to a similar conclusion. "We were two peo... Read more

Martin has just married the girl of his dreams. Only moments after their vows, however, Irene reveals that she, in fact, is deeply in love with someone else, a gas station attendant named Emil. To make matters worse, she called Emil during the reception and he’s on his way to confront the groom. By the end of Act I, Irene has left Martin to be with her love.

Act II is set forty-six years later. Noah, Irene’s son, is waiting for his mother to be delivered by the police,... Read more

Nate and Laurel are a seemingly happy couple living on New York's Upper West Side, busy, content and comfortable—until the surprising arrival of Hal, Nate's long-lost brother. A once-successful television writer, Hal is just out of rehab. He's out of cash and alone in the world. But what seems to be a casual visit, a chance to reconnect, is quickly revealed to be something much more ominous. As he attempts to write his first novel, Hal insidiously usurps Nate's place in the hom... Read more

Audrey Langham, an actress of some repute but greater temperament, reaches her breaking point while rehearsing Medea in Chicago. She walks off the stage and out of the production. With no place else to go, she heads to her daughter's summer house on Cape Cod. Kitty and her husband, Dennis, however, hardly greet Audrey with champagne and confetti. Audrey gets a warmer reception from the star-struck widower next door and his troubled son. A summer by the sea full of hilari... Read more