DILATING

This is an evening of four one-acts that can be performed individually, with just two of the plays, three of them, or all four. The plays were put together with a common theme of pregnancy and were designed to create an ensemble or strengthen an existing one (giving each actor two to three contrasting characters to play and all actors a significant amount to do).   The plays themselves consist of a kitchen sink drama, a black comedy, an absurdist farce, and what I'm call the genre of "interlocked happenings".

OKAY

(3M, 4F, single set, black-comedy)

“Cascades of Mac’s spectacular text pour out of the hairsprayed teens without a single false note.” -- Time Out NY

Inspired by (not based on) a true story of a teenage girl who gave birth during the high school prom, "Okay" is a solo or ensemble play wherein seven seniors attend their final rite of passage.   The plays laboring central character (locked in the central stall of the girls room) squashes down her contractions one by one as her peers enter the girl's room and articulate their loss of innocence.   A period piece, set in May of 2003, Okay is about the beginning of the end of the American empire.

Premiered as an ensemble play by Spring Theater, NYC and subsequently performed in the EST marathon of one acts, directed by Jose Zayas.  Premiered as solo-play at HERE (Ethyl Crisp Productions), directed by Marc Parees.

THE LEVEE

1M and 1F, single-set kitchen-sink drama

After several miscarriages, a couple choses to discontinue their attempts to have a baby.

Premiered in Chashama’s Oasis Festival with subsequent productions at Vital Theater and Vox Humana (LA).

A CREVICE

(3M, 3F, single set, absurdist farce)

A 90 year-old Malthusian pediatrician and his ever-devoted nurse are caught in the middle of a cataclysmic event.  One that prompts the pre-mature births of hundreds of babies.

MAURIZIO POLLINI

(3M, 4F, single-set, interlocked happening)

In this play about parenting three scenes happen simultaneously:  an Upper East side mother and her “vaginal activists” (and 10-month pregnant) daughter get their monthly pedicures;  a Puerto Rican pedicurist wants to take her baby to Carnegie Hall to see a piano concert; and a past-his-prime Pritzker-winning architect, his male “assistant” and his estranged heterosexual son play golf. 

Premiered by Blue Roses Theater Company.  Directed by Gareth Hendee.