Full-length plays
AK-47 Sing-Along
(4M, 2+F)
This television show has been brought to you by the letter A, the number 5, and the PR wing of Hamas. Additional funding for this grief and rage has been provided by the military policy of the Israeli right wing.
Aleph Mim Tau
(2M, 1F, 1 any gender)
After Zusa’s twelve-year-old brother is the latest victim of the unending violence in the Prague Ghetto, Rabbi Loew attempts a miracle. The result is the Great Golem of Prague: bold, charismatic, free, and maybe as dangerous to allies as to enemies.
The Chenchi Trials (work in progress)
(4M, 3F(2F with doubling))
Francis Chenchi is a bad man with a good sense of humor. Beatrice is his only child, and she takes after her father. Based on The Cenci by P.B. Shelley, Les Cenci by Antonin Artaud, the historical record, and all the ugly facts that haven’t changed since 1599.
Dirt, Part 1
(6F, 3M)
A family moves in next door, strange refugees from a faraway conflict. Their names are literally unpronounceable; their language is actually inaudible. When their daughter breaks a taboo, her family’s reaction seems unforgivable.
Dirt, Part 2
(6F, 3M)
Everyone’s English improves. Some people’s relationships improve, too. But the whole town is watching now, and when you work two jobs and miss a home you can never go back to, the eyes of strangers can start to wear you down.
Foreign Wars
(3M, 2F)
Ovid said desire is a war, Donald Rumsfeld said you go to war with the army you have, and Phaedra has come to Athens from Crete -- trailing a history of betrayal and perversion, and very ready to fight.
Fortunes, 405, ’06
(2F, 1M)
There’s a house in Echo Park, by Chavez Ravine, where a boy used to live with his mother, but the boy’s been gone for years, and the last person to see him makes her living turning over tarot cards and saying cryptic things.
Hippolytus Ruined
(3M, 2F)
Theseus killed the minotaur, so he’s a hero to Athens. Not so much to Hippolytus, his heroin-addicted son, and Phaedra, his unwilling second wife.
Lines in Code
(1F, 1M)
Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace meet at a party. Then they retreat into a personal world of high-stakes bets, light bondage, and jarring anachronism. The jokes are strange, but then, so is everything else.
Touch/tones: variations on a theme by DRH
(2F, 2M)
A professor of cognitive science and a violinist are trying to raise a child in a foreign country, and another, slightly less fictional professor wants to talk to you about a French poem. Based on Le Ton beau de Marot, Douglas R. Hofstadter’s magisterial book on translation, thought, and consciousness.
The Waking Edge
(6 actors, at least two male and at least two female, plus extras)
Dreaming is a terminal illness that’s decimated the Falling Generation. In the world the Rising Generation is building, there will be strawberries and wine glasses, but no electric irons, and nobody like Sharp.
We’re All Afraid, or, The Dinner Party of Terrible Revelations
(3M, 2F)
Tessa and Adam have been in a polyamorous relationship for years; now they're having a little dinner for their secondary partners to make an announcement. What are the odds that a play about people at a dinner party will show them on their best behavior?
Short plays
The Big Little Women’s Book
(5F, 1M)
“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents.” Do you recognize that line? Are you an American woman over 18?
Current-Caught
(2M, 1F)
A little girl plays in the waves as her father watches her, and the ocean takes hold with trance, possession, and a rip-tide.
Dina and the Bride
(2F)
Gay marriage doesn’t ruin straight marriage, but an infuriated lesbian bridesmaid with a semi-automatic handgun can kind of muck up a straight wedding.
Downstream
(1F, 1M)
A very short play about complicated, dirty, unstoppable, living rivers, and the people who leave condom wrappers and beer bottles on the banks.
Engines
(1F, 1M)
In the cold, two people invent machines to do what needs to be done. It can be very hard to admit what you need. Free-standing fragment of Lines in Code.
Forget This City
(3F, 2M, mixed-gender chorus)
Taken roughly from Euripides’s Bacchae. History, duty, and responsibility meets a god who can do what he likes and can make you do what you like, too. Original music by Angelique Mouyis.
In Ireland They Speak Irish; In Cornwall They Speak Cornish
(1F, 1M)
Tristan and Iseult don’t speak the same language. That hasn’t prevented them from understanding each other, though -- maybe a little too well for comfort. Winner, Red Bull New Plays 2018.
The Kinsey Three
(2F, 1M)
A short screwball musical about sexuality and romance. Winner of the Peter Matz/Martin Sosin Award for Excellence in Writing for the Musical Theater.
Lucrece from the Dark
(3M, 1F)
In the light and darkness of a violent act, language, justice, and the private mind move in and out of sight. Written for an NYU Humanities Initiative exploring the story of the rape of Lucrece.
Phaedra’s Elegies
(1F; 1F; 6F)
Three elegies for Phaedra, delivered by the tragic heroines of other plays. Commissioned by ERA and Poor Monsters for the Phaedra’s Phuneral event. I wrote the elegies from Ariadne (post Naxos), Señora Bernarda Alba, and Abigail Williams and co.
The Moral of the Story
(1M, 1F)
Once upon a time, there was a man walking on a beach. Once upon a time, there was a woman who was also a seal. Who is the hero of this story? Who’s asking? Who’s telling? Where are you going with this?
Rejoice, in the Imperative
(3F, 2M)
Possibly you’ve heard of Christopher Smart and his long, strange poem Jubilate Agno. If you haven’t, don’t worry; neither have many English PhDs. But I’m obsessed, and I put myself in the play, and it’s all a bit irregular. Written for an NYU Humanities Initiative exploring the intersection of art and scholarship.
Seal Woman Story
(2M, 1F)
The selkie story, told in a style that has a lot in common with some forms of South Indian folk theater.
Starvation Games, or, Ada Makes the Rules and Babbage Keeps Them
(1M, 1F)
Nothing to eat, and no touching allowed. Someone is trying to reach someone else. Free-standing fragment of Lines in Code.
Untitled (History Problem Comedy)
(1M, 1F)
You may have some history, you may be badly wired, but with some jokes, some kindness, and an appreciation for pop songs, and you might make it to the future. Written for R+J: A Telephone Play, or Don’t Drink the Milk.
Plays
Cecilia Lynn-Jacobs and Sean Michael Chin in Dirt (Part 1)