Plays
Adam’s wife, Carolyn, has died suddenly, and Adam has come to explain how and why, both to himself and to Brian. Discovery of the truth reveals the relationship between two men raised together but embarked on very different paths in life. In a clash of emotions and beliefs, each is forced to confront himself and confess his sins, the bond of brotherhood tying them together in tragedy.
The brother Regina raised from childhood arrives on a sudden visit. With him is his new girlfriend, or possibly she’s his fiancee? There’s something more to the couple, which worries Regina, knowing Will as she does. There’s also something between her and Dave, a recent event which becomes entwined in her complicated relationship to Will, leading to a disastrous decision mistakenly meant to save a lost child.
It’s Corky’s birthday, a fact he won’t accept. It’s occurring on the day of his wake, and he’s waiting to see who, if anyone, shows up to eulogize him. What he gets instead is a true picture of himself through the eyes of those conducting him between life and fate, that which each of us creates and is left alone to face.
An obviously troubled young man has murdered his parents. His defense attorney’s son has recently committed suicide. In the course of a preparatory meeting, their personal stories arise and intermingle, posing the unasked question: Whose nightmare is it?
Henry Meeker has conspired with his wife, Ava, to have his business destoyed and collect the insurance, his rationale and resolve apparently intact. However, he now treads through the ashes of memory, forced to discover how and why it really came about, and the true consequences of his act. With the realization that he can't escape being caught, he reaches an inevitable conclusion, the only one that will allow him finally to rest.
The Loman brothers are reunited, 40 years after Willy’s suicide in Death of a Salesman. Biff’s surprise visit to Hap leads them to relive their shared past, as well as face their individual lives and try to understand the separate roads that brought them to this place.
The Woodwards’ adopted daughter, Elizabeth, is missing; Paula has hidden her away. The girl’s original family wants her back, and a court hearing has been ordered to decide the issue, but Paula isn’t taking the slightest chance that she could lose the case, and thus, her daughter. As an attorney for the State, Alan is deeply devoted to his job and the letter of the law, but now finds he must choose between that devotion and his family. Legal arguments and procedure mesh with a domestic battle, in which morality, the law and their marriage are put on trial before the audience as jury.
The owner of the Royale Theater is throwing out the troupe who occupied it and selling the place. In contemplating the future, an unlikely pair of Shakespearean actors find a common dream and set out to make it come true, hoping to convince whoever buys the Royale to put them back in the theater to perform with a new company and a radical idea. Religion, vice and Shakespeare compete for the prize at the beginnings of Chicago's history with racism and corruption.
On the day before his brother’s funeral, Charlie Slater has to write his eulogy, no easy task for a religious man who firmly believes in a literal bible. Making the job even harder, Buddy is on his case, not only to get the eulogy written, but also to face up to his own life of resentment as being of his own creation. Charlie must eventually admit to and try to repair his failures with his wife and son, before confessing to having committed the worst sin of all against his brother.
Cliff Hale is preparing to leave the hospital, waiting for his wife, Joan, to come pick him up. Only Cliff doesn’t quite remember why he’s in the hospital, how he got there, or how long he’s been there. Dr. Reyes must guide him along a torturous path through changing memories, his fears and prejudices, to the horrifying truth.
Clarence Marsh, just released after serving twenty years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit, appears at the home of James Burke, the rogue cop who sent him there.
A routine inquiry into a young boy’s apparent accident evolves into a psychological investigation, wherein Father Riley is forced to confront himself and admit the truth of what he is: a coward and weakling, a monster created by his own innate and tragic flaws.
Successes
My Brother's Keeper was presented as a staged reading by Urban Stages, NYC, on February 26th, 2024.