The Crossword Play (Or Ezmeranda’s Gift)

The Puzzlemaker is holding a workshop to teach you to make a crossword puzzle! As the Puzzlemaker embarks on their creation, they reveal the tricks of the trade, but also something unexpected: there is power in puzzles.

Will the Puzzlemaker use their powers for good–or evil? And which choice means making a puzzle that will solve their life?

El Borracho

Raúl is ill. He drinks, because he always drinks, just like el borracho on the lotería card. In his final months, Raúl moves in with his ex-wife, who swore she’d never see him again, and their son, who’s longing to connect with his father at last.

Cinderella: The Real Story

This new take on an old classic tells the forgotten stories hidden in the fairy tale we all know so well. Hilarious, imaginative, and powerful, this play is specifically designed to be performed by young performers and may be adapted to a virtual or in-person performance venue.

The Christmas Carol Farce

Charles Dickens’s ghost arranges for a high school production of A Christmas Carol to be broadcast on TV. The cast is ecstatic, until they learn their performance must be cut to one hour. At the TV studio, they discover it must be cut to 40 minutes for commercials. Just before they go on-air, an overtime football game forces them to cut again. When all that’s left is 5 minutes, they perform a hilariously fast holiday classic.

The Coast Starlight

A young man armed with a secret that can land him in terrible trouble boards the Coast Starlight, the long-distance train that runs from Los Angeles to Seattle. With the help of his fellow travelers, all of whom are reckoning with their own choices, he has roughly one thousand miles to figure out a way forward. THE COAST STARLIGHT is a smart, funny, and compassionate story about our capacity for invention and re-invention when life goes off the rails.

Boca

Are you ready for some laughs? Soak up the good life in Boca Raton, a city that offers the fountain of youth. In this Garden of Eden, the sun always shines, the lawns are always manicured, and the weather holds steady at a perfect 75, just like Boca’s well-maintained seniors. Boca is a series of short intertwining comedies that follow a group of retirees in a fictional retirement community, the Boca Oasis, who, between rounds of golf, bridge and botox, discover the key to happiness lies within their very community.

The Burdens

Adult siblings Mordy and Jane have a problem. Their dreadful, centenarian grandfather is an emotional and financial tax on the family, and he just won’t die. Scheming almost entirely via text messages, the siblings hatch an outrageous plan to relieve themselves of their family’s burdens and their own.

Buddy Bro Bubba Dude

Men in twisted shorts! This roller-coaster ride of hilarious short plays is all about, and starring only, men! In these absurdly funny tales, you’ll meet men who are confident, men who are brave, and men who are as useless as the “g” in “lasagna.” There’s Wade, who, after badgering his widowed father to start dating again, scrambles to stop his dad from a rendezvous with the last woman he should ever romance. Bubba is a radio show personality who spills a small town’s juiciest secrets during an on-air meltdown. And then, you’ll meet two good ol’ Texas boys struggling to achieve the impossible—an honest conversation about the meaning of life…and sports. And these are just a few of the colorful eccentrics in these rowdy and rollicking short plays.

By The Numbers

BY THE NUMBERS is a fun and inventive collection of eight short plays inspired by mathematical theorems. But no math is required to enjoy them!

Born With Teeth

“Oh Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth!
And so I was, which plainly signified
That I should snarl and bite, play the dog.”
Henry VI, Part 3, Shakespeare & Marlowe

An aging ruler, an oppressive police state, a restless polarized people seething with paranoia: it’s a dangerous time for poets. Two of them — the great Kit Marlowe and up-and-comer Will Shakespeare — meet in the back room of a pub to collaborate on a history play cycle, navigate the perils of art under a totalitarian regime, and flirt like young men with everything to lose. One of them may well be the death of the other.

 

The Brightest Thing

An American Fable that’s tinged with sadness about a girl’s imaginary journey in a hot air balloon to rescue her mother.

Babel

Renee and Dani are expecting. Ann and Jamie are also expecting. And a Giant Stork suddenly starts talking. Set in the near future, Babel paints the picture of a society where embryos must be pre-certified. When each couple faces the test results, things take a complicated turn. This dark comedy begs the question, “How far will we go to create the ‘perfect’ world?”