New Play Exchange
Full-Length
Silver Spring
2021 Kesselring Prize
Semi-Finalist O’Neill National Playwrights Conference 2024
5f, 6m, et al.
Full-Length. During their final visit together, the author explores the death of his older brother: what came before and what comes after. An autobiographical exploration of grief and family.
The Ask
Semi-Finalist Local Lab13
1nb, 1f
Full-Length. When Tanner, a young activist and fundraiser from the ACLU, solicits Greta, an affluent donor on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the seams between two generations of progressives start to show.
Saving Throw
5m
Full-Length. Five men reunite as adults to complete a Dungeons & Dragons campaign they began in their teens. A comedy about friendship and the complexity of finishing things.
The Sea The Mountain The Forest The City The Plain
1m
Full-Length. A man recounts the story of his search for a lost traveling companion. With a mix of Beckettian humor and echoes of a world in crisis, The Sea The Mountains The Forest The City The Plain explores how the desire for human connection can overcome even the most desolate circumstances.
Bluebeard
8f, 2m
Full-Length. An all-too timely timeless tale. Margaret has been married to a wealthy man with a prominent blue beard. Will she follow the rules of the house? Or peek behind the red door?
That Which Isn't
1f, 2m
Two-Acts. Helen meets with James in a quiet field somewhere far from the city. Years later, she meets with Marcus in a crowded restaurant in Los Angeles. These two goodbyes explore the process of losing the people we love, and how we remember the people we don't.
Samuel French New Play Exchange
Why We Left Brooklyn (or The Dinner Party Play)
Semi-Finalist O’Neill National Playwrights Conference 2013
5m, 5f
Three Acts. Everything is changing. Jason is finally ready to give up acting - and New York City - for a solid teaching job in Columbus, Ohio. His wife, Michelle, would join him, if not for the budding book deal. On the eve of Jason's departure, their closest friends have gathered among packed boxes and uncertain prospects to mark the occasion with a farewell dinner party. On a blisteringly comic battleground littered with crushed hopes and artisanal flatbreads, ten strivers reckon their successes and wonder how much longer they can hold out.
The Listeners
4f, 2m
Full-Length. A surreal drama about memory and ritual. A family that runs an ad-hoc bed and breakfast. Two drifters arrive at their doorstep.
When Is A Clock
5m, 3f
Full-Length. When Gordon's wife vanishes, the only clue to her whereabouts is a bookmark in dog-eared copy of Traveling to Montpelier. With little help to be found at work, from his son, or from the police, Gordon takes off to a rural bookstore to find some answers. At turns both scathingly funny and disturbingly compelling, When Is A Clock features Freeman's celebrated deconstruction of American culture - which has been called "nonviolent, though as savage as any slasher film" by the New York Times.
Samuel French New Play Exchange
Glee Club
8m
60 mins. Eight misfit members of Romeo, Vermont's cut-throat glee club are on the verge of meltdown after their soloist makes a disastrous decision to stop drinking right before a performance. Will they be ready in time for the big recital? Will they mend torn friendships and wounded hearts? Isn't music the most important thing? An explicit comedy about singing, friendship, and the riffs in between.
The Most Wonderful Love
4f, 5m
Three Acts. When Mother and Father celebrate their long and happy marriage with an unprecedented ceremonial unwedding, their friends and relations gather from all over to feast on the spoils; get ready for this sprawling satire on contemporary marriage and American fundamentalism.
The Great Escape
2f, 2m
Three Acts. Things have changed since Henry last visited Mom; for starters, the décor is decidedly kitschier, and his sister Catherine decidedly creepier; and Mom has a new husband; and she’s locked herself upstairs.
The ENC
6m 2f 3gn
Full-Length. The ENC is a new version of The Emperor's New Clothes. When a famed tailor creates a special garment for the Emperor, it throws the citizenry into chaos. His counselors must decide: do they participate in the Emperor's parade to celebrate his new raiment? Or do they risk admitting what their eyes can see?
A Long Trip By Sea
3m 1f
Full-Length. Norman Nusse is the last surviving passenger on a ship adrift in the Apollonian Sea, the remnants of his civilized life on a distant war-torn shore. Luckily, he paid for the very best service, and is well attended by the First Mate and Captain. Will their tenuous civility survive the approach of a mysterious vessel?
Brandywine Distillery Fire(Exposition/Denouement)
6f, 1m
A non-narrative theatrical collision, developed with improvisation and accident. (Brandywine Distillery Fire was developed as Exposition and Denouement before its final iteration.)
The Death of King Arthur
5f, 11m
Five-Acts. Thomas Mallory's L'Morte D'Arthur is transformed into a five-act play in verse in this thrilling epic tale. The Holy Grail has been found and the Round Table has won its place in history, but Lancelot has returned from the Quest in shame, a secret sin on his head. King Arthur discovers the sin, and the ensuing struggle dramatically exposes the deep flaws and nobility of the Arthurian myth as it examines the transition from an idealistic monarchy to a modern and pragmatic democracy.
That Old Soft Shoe
2f, 4m
Two-Acts. In That Old Soft Shoe, a Senator from the Pacific Northwest arrives to inspect the goings-on in an undisclosed location, throwing the staff into turmoil. Will their dancing lessons prove sufficient? Or will they all wind up working at a phone bank in Dallas? after all, it's a new administration.
Confess Your Bubble
1 m
Solo. Due to a plea bargain, Senator Carl Corpuscle, a Democratic Senator from the Great State of Washington (not D.C.) is delivering a speech about his life and views on the government to students at a local high school. attendance is not mandatory, and only students over 17 may attend. Senator Corpuscle talks about his role in the Democratic administration, delivers a civics lesson, and offers dire warnings - with slides to illustrate his points.
One-Act
in the great expanse of space there is nothing to see but More, More, More
7f
One-Act. in the great expanse of space there is nothing to see but More, More, More follows seven women through the fractured experience of a foreboding diagnosis.
The Language
1f 1m
One-Act. The Language dramatizes the excavation of an secret, lost language.
The Americans
3m
One-Act. A young man writes a poem, “The Americans,” so beautiful that the walls of his room rise into the sky and explode, covering New York in wood and plaster rain; for three young men vaguely nervous about what their lives are becoming, it is, at least, something different.
Short Form
a hand emerges from the water
2m
Ten-Minute. a hand emerges from the water is a fractured portrait of a harrowing memory.
The White Swallow
1f, 2m
Ten Minute. A couple orders up a young male prostitute on Craig's List, for a very particular fetish.
What To Do To A Girl
1f, 2m
Ten Minute. Professor Axiomatic describes women and how they work to the Hilltop Prep School for Boys.
The Metaphor
1f, 2m
Ten Minute. Seeking to overcome a porn habit, a lonely man seeks the advice of a progressive Episcopal Priest.
Trayf
2m
One-Act. A giant talking lobster visits a drunken rabbi, in order to convert to Judaism.