Selected Plays

Writers John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, and Martha Gellhorn are in Madrid covering the Spanish civil war in the hopes that they can convince America to help the Spanish Republic defeat the fascists. But when Dos’ friend José Robles goes missing, Dos chooses to investigate his translator's disappearance instead. Hem tries to thwart Dos, fearful that Dos’ investigation will damage the Republican cause, while Martha wrestles with remaining objective despite her support for the Republic. As the stories Dos is told about Robles shift, Dos becomes convinced that the government he is there to champion is behind his friend’s murder, leading him and Hem to clash over what’s more important – telling the truth or defeating the fascists.

It is 1944 and Robert Oppenheimer and his brother Frank are racing to beat the Nazis to the nuclear bomb. Afraid of Germany's head-start, Robert and his boss, General Groves, push their scientists to avoid waking up to a mushroom cloud over New York. And with growing concern over his Communist associations, Robert has no time to think about the consequences of his gadget. But in 1945, when they see the weapon's devastation, Frank has doubts about its use. General Groves, however, is determined to go forward, and when Robert realizes opposing the weapon will ruin his career, he is forced to choose between his conscience and his ambition, his brother and his bomb. (Full-length play.)

Incendiary Agents takes place in 1969 and is the story of five friends led by a charismatic and idealistic Catholic priest on a daring nighttime raid of the local draft board office in an effort to disrupt the draft and make a statement against the Vietnam War. But when the FBI offers one of the raiders a choice between carrying out the raid and getting his own son sent home from the war, each of them is forced to decide which is more important -- their principles or the people they love -- and how much they're willing to give up for what they believe in. (Full-length play.)

Tell Me You Love Me tells the story of four friends living in New York City in the months following the September 11th attacks and the effects the fear of that period has on their marriages and relationships. This quickly paced whirlwind of a play echoes the relentless cycle of government warnings and breaking news that was the norm after the attacks. From the stripping of our civil rights to the rounding up of Middle Eastern immigrants to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the prison abuse scandals that followed, the play, much like the morning paper and the nightly news, is about the mean, stupid things people do to each other when they're scared. (Full-length play.)

Trapped in a cliche American diner in a cliche American town, three cliche characters watch as Barack Obama wins the presidency. Egged on by the diner's lonely Old Man and mocked by its Hispanic-looking Cook, the naive Waitress allows this victory to raise her hopes that her life will finally improve. But when the money she thought she had saved disappears -- yet again -- she is forced to face that she and the others are stuck in their hackneyed and threadbare world, no matter what cliches the politicians promise. (One-act play.)

A playwright is taught a lesson when he writes a particularly violent and brutal play about torture and his characters, sick of being subjected to such treatment, kidnap and torture him into changing the ending. (One-act play.)