A Santa Carol, The “Musical”
Description: This comedy examines the stress of being Santa Claus. Meet and Greets with children are the only break he gets from the bureaucracy of the job. Santa becomes increasingly frustrated while spending a day dealing with off season meetings in Santa’s Village. The outlandishness of the meetings leads him to quit. It is up to the comedically inept ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future to convince Santa to return to the North Pole.
Development History: The original 10 minute play received a cold read and I performed the entire score acapella for an audience and posted videos of the song on my youtube channel.
10 Minute Play and Score (in reverse order)
Claire the Chair Presents the History of Broadway
Description: The play gives a brief history of Broadway told from the perspective of two theater seats in a Broadway venue. It uses their fictional theater (which is an amalgamation of several different Broadway theaters) as a way of showing how Broadway shows and the Theater District has changed each decade from the 1920s to today. The history “presentation” keeps getting interrupted by a second chair that roasts all things Broadway, and provides biting social commentary on the world today. Mayhem ensues. The play also explores anxiety, PTSD and trauma based humor.
Development History: This play has received a cold reading (in parts) and a rehearsed reading.
Cold Reading (in reverse order)
The Life of Lily: A Tragic Comedy
Description: A heartwarming and heartbreaking tale of a fathers love for his daughter. On the surface, the play is a character study of a deeply nuanced female character as she progresses through various stages of life with the help of her father… and Mr Fuzzy Bottom. Each scene is an event from a year in her life, from ages 4 to 24. The play covers things from mundane events like making a mothers day card and going to a musical to life altering events like the suicide of a friend and deciding what to do about an unplanned pregnancy.
Below the surface is a tale of tragic loss and grief. THe play begins with a cryptic phone call, and after Lily’s happy ending, the play cuts back to the phone call to reveal the true nature of the play. (spoiler) The father is informed his wife has just had a miscarriage. The entire play took place in his mind, imagining the life of the daughter he just lost.
Development History: This play has received two rehearsed readings, one through Kent State Trumbull’s Sips and Scripts Program and the other at Ensemble Theatre’s Colombi New Plays Festival
No videos available
Princess Lily and the Greedy Wizard (Musical)
Description: This is a comedic fairytale about Princess Lily, who spends her days riding around her forest on her unicorn Delilah, dealing with the actions of a greedy wizard who is collecting ingredients for a potion to turn lead into gold. The wizard takes items from three individuals, then kidnaps Delilah. Lily and the three individuals set out to rescue Delilah.
Development History: The original 10 minute play version of this musical received a staged production at the borderlight festival in Cleveland through the playground series. I'm still looking for someone to transcribe music for the songs I wrote and possibly compose accompaniment.
Bad Demo of the opening song, The Ballad of Delilah (Song is written for a female voice)
Romeo and Jules
Description: A Play about star crossed lovers set in modern time. Romeo (the son of lesbians) and Jules (the child of Evangelical Christians) meet in geometry class. Afterwards, Jules shares his secret. Her legal name is Juliet, and his mother does not know he’s a boy. They fall in love quickly, giving Jules the courage to tell his mother the truth. It goes horribly wrong, and Jules prepares to commit suicide, but Romeo comes to his rescue
Development History: Select scenes have received a cold reading at Cleveland Public THeater’s Dark Room.
Due to the nature of the play, the actors performing in the cold read requested I not record their performance.
Turn right in 500 feet
Description: After his GPS took him on a wild ride, Jack meets Angela on a deserted road. They spend a couple of hours trading their tales of woe, and he begins to fall in love. He takes her home. Soon after, he realizes she left her purse in his car. He attempts to return it, but is immediately detained by the police, and charged with her murder. A tale unfolds that only one person fully understands, the victim.
Development History: THis play received an informal virtual reading over several sessions and A play festival analyzed the script during the selection process and provided notes. I am currently using the feedback to rewrite this play, though one of the feedback I received is that it may make a better movie than a play.