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Hamlet: A Farce by George Freek

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Comedy/ 7 characters, 3 men, 4 women/ One Act

Synopsis: George Freek’s Hamlet: A Farce gleefully turns the original inside out. Instead of a brooding prince wrestling with revenge and mortality, Hamlet is an arrogant, self-important schemer whose grand plans are continually undermined by his own ineptness. Recently returned from Wittenburg, he tries to gin up support for his bid to become King by sending out his childhood best friend, Horatia, to spread the lie that his father was murdered. He also affects to be “melancholy,” leading his mother, Gertrude, and her mild-mannered paramour, Claudius, to ask the court surgeon to treat him for the condition.

Meanwhile, Ophelia must stave off Hamlet’s romantic advances because she wants to marry Laertes, her father’s adopted son. Things are eventually sorted out, as Hamlet is dispatched on a diplomatic mission to Norway, thus avoiding both a duel with Laertes and the usual ensuing bloodbath, and Horatia, having revealed her true feelings for the muddleheaded Dane, sets out with him. Throughout, famous lines from Shakespeare are quoted, interrupted, misunderstood, or mangled, and Hamlet: A Farce is revealed as the perfect antidote to melancholy!

 

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Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
George Freek
515 Douglas St.
Belvidere, IL 61008
Ph.: (815) 484-3938
gfreek@juno.com

About the Playwright: George Freek’s plays have been produced by the Organic Theater in Chicago, the Milwaukee Repertory, the West Coast Ensemble in Los Angeles, and the Pittsburgh New Works Festival, as well as the 13th Street Theater, Love Creek Productions, and the Theater-Studio in New York. He has received grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts—the latter for a Residency at the New American Theater in Rockford, Illinois—and has also enjoyed residencies at Southern Methodist University and Southern Illinois University.

Hamlet: A Farce was first produced by Stage Door Theatre, Fredericksburg, VA, in 2010.

 

A casually dressed young woman and man toss playing cards high into the air.

52 Pick-up by TJ Dawe and Rita Bozi

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A casually dressed young woman and man toss playing cards high into the air.

52 Pick-up
The Howland Company
Toronto, ON

Comedy-Drama/ 2 characters, 1 woman, 1 man, but can be cast with 2 male actors, 2 female actors, or non-binary actors in either role/ One Act

Synopsis: The story of a romantic relationship in 52 scenes, performed in a different order with every performance.

From Mooney on Theatre [Toronto, ON.]: “It’s not a linear tale. Every performance is different…. Two actors take the stage; they throw a deck of cards in the air. Each card has the name of a scene written on it. They pick up a card and perform the scene. And so it goes through all 52 cards.”

“Wonderful.” – Mooney on Theatre

“Imaginative and touching.” – Jordan Bimm, NOW Magazine

Performance rights must be secured before production

 

Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
TJ Dawe
tjdawe.ca
tj@tjdawe.ca

About the Playwrights: TJ Dawe writes, performs, directs, dramaturgs, company manages, and teaches an online course on creating one person shows. Rita Bozi is a writer, performer, former dancer, and therapist.

52 Pick-up was first performed at the Montreal Fringe Festival in June 2000 and has since been produced at numerous theatres in Canada, the U.S. Mexico, Iceland, and France.

“A resplendent romance.” – Willamette Week

“As amazing as people say — thrilling and involving.” – Glenn Sumi, NOW Magazine

“Joyful, sad, touching, happy, funny, and poignant. I laughed and I cried. I wasn’t the only one.” – Mooney on Theatre

A tall man in the uniform of a German commander fills a wine glass set on a desk as portly man in a bishop's robes examines an envelope, as audience members in the background look on.

Colloquia by David Zarko

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A tall man in the uniform of a German commander fills a wine glass set on a desk as portly man in a bishop's robes examines an envelope, as audience members in the background look on.

Colloquia
Teatro del Carmine
Orvieto, Italy

Drama/ 2 characters, 2 men/ Full Length, 75 mins.

Synopsis: The waning days of the Second World War; as the advancing Allies bomb targets in Italy and the retreating German army follows a scorched earth policy, an Italian bishop and a German commander are thrust into their own conflicts in the town of Orvieto.

Struggling to communicate in Latin, their one shared language, they grapple with perplexing and constantly shifting dilemmas, but it is when they discover a shared love for the music of Bach that they begin to develop trust — even a friendship — that allows them to declare Orvieto an open city, and to save it from destruction.

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Most of Colloquia may be read by clicking on the “Read It Now” button above. To obtain a complete reading copy, contact the playwright at dazarko49@gmail.com.

The script is also available from the playwright in an Italian translation.

Contact Information:
Amateur and professional rights:
David Zarko
dazarko49@gmail.com

About the Playwright: David Zarko (DGA, SDC) was founding artistic director of The Metropolitan Playhouse of New York, 1991 through 2000, and producing artistic director of Scranton, Pennsylvania’s Electric Theatre Company for 10 seasons until its demise in 2011. He has over 90 professional directing credits plus more than 50 in academic theatre. He has taught and directed at C.W. Post L.I.U., American Academy of Dramatic Arts NY, Marywood University, and others. Read about others of his plays on New Play Exchange.

Colloquia was first produced at Teatro del Carmine, Orvieto, Italy in June 2019.

A woman in a colorful print dress stands with her hand on the chest of a man in shorts, with one hand on his hip, as both look out at something we don't see, with concern.

Wangle Dangle by L.R. Ring

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A woman in a colorful print dress stands with her hand on the chest of a man in shorts, with one hand on his hip, as both look out at something we don't see, with concern.

Wangle Dangle
Hudson Backstage Theatre
Los Angeles, CA

Comedy-Farce/ 10 characters, 5 male, 5 female (1 role can be doubled)/ Full Length, Three Acts

Synopsis: Labeled an angry shrew after a disastrous marriage to British rocker Izzy St. Claire, Jessica is given a chance to revive her once promising acting career by way of an important TMZ interview. Friends Greg and Chloe arrive for the weekend. Presumed dead after a plane crash, Izzy decides to hide out at Jessica’s Florida home — without telling Jessica — in hopes of boosting his flagging record sales.

Greg is all too willing to help the rock star. He stashes Izzy on the Wangle Dangle, Izzy’s old sailboat — acquired by Jessica in the divorce. Meanwhile, Izzy’s record company discovers he’s playing dead and dispatches a hit woman to keep him that way . . .

Enter Florencio “Floro” Colón, Jessica’s new boyfriend and self-proclaimed “man of the wind.” Floro and Jessica have a surprise for their guests. They’re all going sailing . . .

Wangle Dangle was nominated for Best New Play or Musical by Broadway World.

“A masterpiece of humor . . . The jokes and action are fast paced yet crafted beautifully with care and a watchful eye.” – All About the Stage

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Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
Lawrence Ring
213-503-7468
lring@pacbell.net
or
Chris Emerson
Literary Manager
Authentic Literary, Culver City, California
310-838-3333

About the Playwright: Despite early training as a journalist, L.R. Ring, a Los Angeles native, chose philosophy as his area of study at UCLA. After determining the universe will have its way regardless of our wishes, he turned his attention to comedy. “Humor and wit in all things,” is Mr. Ring’s motto.

He has enjoyed success as a screenwriter, most-recently optioning a script to Tri-Fold Pictures (Altered), and subsequently being hired to write another (Off With His Head). He has directed and produced movies, (Among Thieves, California Roll) and is responsible for a number of short films.

Wangle Dangle was was first produced at the Hudson Backstage Theatre, Los Angeles, California in October 2024.

“This madcap farce is at once a classic slapstick comedy in the tradition of commedia dell’arte and the Marx Brothers, and a biting contemporary satire of modern celebrity culture.” – The Blacklist

The Not-So-Secret Life of Rowena Riddle (Superhero) by Zoe Henderson

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The Not-So-Secret Life of Rowena Riddle (Superhero) by Zoe Henderson

The Not-So-Secret Life of Rowena Riddle (Superhero)
Nanaimo Young People’s Theatre
Nanaimo, BC

Comedy/ 1 character, 1 woman/ One Act

Synopsis: Meet Rowena Riddle: middle-aged superhero and irrepressible raconteuse. She is on a mission. The only problem is … she can’t remember what it is! Can the audience help her?

In the meantime, sit back and listen to tales about her thrilling adventures and watch her demonstrate her (very) unusual superpower.

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Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
Zoe Henderson
heyzoehend@gmail.com
Ph: (647) 667-0182

About the Playwright: Zoe Henderson is a multi-disciplinary artist/educator living in Nanaimo, B.C., Canada. She is Artistic Director of Nanaimo Young People’s Theatre.

The Not-So-Secret Life of Rowena Riddle (Superhero) was first produced by Nanaimo Young People’s Theatre as a touring show on central Vancouver Island, BC, Canada in August 2023.

The Dangerous Christmas by Charles Carr

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A Dangerous Christmas by Charles Carr

The Dangerous Christmas
California Center for the Arts
Escondido, California

Drama/ 9 Characters, 4 men, 5 women, some gender flexibility/ Full Length, Three Acts

Synopsis: “It’s the holidays. Keep murder in the family,” suggests The Dangerous Christmas, the newest hit comedy-thriller from master storyteller and multiple award-winning author Charles Carr. Inspired by actual events, The Dangerous Christmas details how a mysterious antique and the man determined to possess it by any means pull friends into a decades-old murder that turns their world upside down and threatens their very lives.

The Dangerous Christmas deftly blends a challenging mystery that will keep you guessing with wry humor and a heartfelt message about the meaning of the season. It just might become one of your holiday favorites!

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Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
Charles Carr
charrcarr@gmail.com
Ph: 760-933-9173

About the Playwright: Charles Carr is a multiple award-winning, nationally published author (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press/Eldridge/Heartland). Carr is also a noted television producer/director with documentaries currently airing and/or in production on Cox Cable and elsewhere.

Carr has received many writing accolades including recent back-to-back San Diego Press Club awards. Many of his stories, articles, and essays appear in college textbooks published by Macmillan; St. Martin’s Press; Bedford, Freeman & Worth; and associated imprints.

Carr’s background in the world of journalism has created an excellent basis for penning scripts and stage plays, most of which have a classical literature, historical, or true crime footing. His theatrical works have been produced at prestigious venues across the nation and attended by thousands. Works include Mark Twain’s A Christmas Carol; Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Angels; Passage Into Fear; Mr. Scrooge & Mr. Dickens; The Dangerous Christmas; All the Time in the World; and Hope Springs, Eternal.

The Dangerous Christmas was first produced by North County Players at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido in December, 2022.

The Goodies by Alan Rossett

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The Goodies by Alan Rossett

The Goodies
Avignon Festival
Avignon, France


Comedy/ 2 women, or 8 women play 8 characters/ Full Length, Two Acts

Synopsis: Beware au pair girls! Annie, a first-time mother at 35, hires Bibi, an exuberant 18-year old, to care for her baby while she returns to work. Bibi is keen, but when Annie returns home one evening to find that her new hire has gone off dancing and the baby has nearly burned down his nursery, she fires her.

An agency sends her a series of replacements, each more dreadful than the last. Meanwhile, Bibi’s next employer is Granny, an old crone who has gained custody of her grandson over the objections of her daughter-in-law, Marissa. Bibi inadvertently allows Marissa to kidnap the child. Panicked, she flees and finds herself in an unfamiliar train station where — after discovering a distressing letter from her mother in her apron pocket and realizing she can’t return home — she meets a kindly middle-aged woman, Alice. It transpires that Alice just happens to be out looking for an au pair, at 5 a.m., in a train station, to take care of her daughter. What are the chances?

It takes a few weeks, but Bibi eventually discovers there is no daughter, and Alice is just a lonely widow looking for companionship. But Bibi has begun to grow up and, sensing Alice’s desolation, befriends her.

Several years later Annie and Bibi bump into each other in a public garden, each wheeling a baby carriage. How did they get there and where are they going?

“Witty, wicked, wild” – Elle Magazine

“A lovely show and a very, very funny one.” – France Culture

“…a funny, original play.” – L’air d’Avignon

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Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
Alan Rossett
91, rue Nollet
75017 Paris
France
Ph.: O1 7375 57 65
Email: rossdoal@aol.com

About the Playwright: “Cocteau meets Woody Allen” was film-director Jean Delannoy’s comment on Alan Rossett, the only American to have French language plays produced regularly in France . . . and to receive awards from the Centre National des Lettres. Born in Detroit, he began his career as an actor in New York, where he appeared for a season with the Living Theatre and also as James Earl Jones’ first Iago. Relocating in Paris, he wrote and directed an evocation of Montmartre Light and Shade with Charles Boyer. Then his comedy High Time went from London to Sydney to New York (at the Actors Studio) and wound up, translated, in a Parisian cafe theatre before transferring to La Bruyere, a Broadway category house.
Rossett made the language cross-over into French with two plays set in restaurants which he staged in the midst of diners at a show biz hang-out, running 200 performances. Many other productions followed of his French-language plays, including How It Happened, Cat As Cat Can, Love On Ice, Calamity Jane.

His French plays are published by Avant-Scene Theatre, Editions des quatre-vents, Editions Art et Comedie et Librairie Theatrale. He has adapted into English many of his own works as well as a series of plays by colleagues that have received grants from the Beaumarchais Association of the French Author’s Society. Rossett has done English versions as well of Alain Decaux’s historical pageants (Chateau Blois Comes To Life and De Gaulle: the Man Who Said NO. As an actor, he has appeared in films of Marcel Carné, Woody Allen, and over 50 others.

The Goodies was was first produced under the title Annie Bettie et Cetera at Théâtre Essaïon, Paris, France in 1985.

“Rossett’s comedy, alternately biting and funny, is also notable for its underlying humanity.” – Information Service Press

Tide Beyond The Rift by Fred Rohan-Vargas

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Tide Beyond the Rift by Fred Rohan Vargas

 
Comedy-drama/ 4 Characters, 2 men, 2 women/ Full Length, app. 90 minutes

Synopsis: Liza, a middle school teacher, has found happiness with her husband, Bill, and their daughter, Kelly. In her past is an emotional wound: As a child, she was brought to America as part of Operation Peter Pan, a CIA-run mission to remove children from Fidel Castro’s Cuba. As a result, she spent most of her youth in an orphanage. But she has put that behind her — or so she thinks.

One day, she receives a letter from her long-lost father, Sebastian, asking if he may visit her. She is reluctant at first, but eventually agrees. When they meet, Sebastian uses humor and understanding to overcome Liza’s natural caution. Gradually, they begin to bond, and Kelly grows closer to him too. But when Bill makes a sudden discovery, Sebastian is forced to confess to Liza his true reason for visiting, with shattering effect.

Cuban Children in the early ’60s who were part of Operation Peter Pan during Fidel Castro’s takeover.

 

 

 

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Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Fred Rohan Vargas
Email: info@miuprod.com
rohanvargas@gmail.com
Playwright’s Website: miuprod.com

About the Playwright: Fred Rohan Vargas is the author of several full lengths, one acts and children’s plays that have been produced throughout the country and abroad. He holds a MFA in dramatic writing from New York University. Two of his plays have been published by The Riant Theatre (Anything But Black) and JAC Publishing and Promotions (Crystal). He is founder and executive producer of Mixing It Up Productions, LLC. He has received three nominations for his play Tide Beyond the Rift at the Midtown International Theatre Festival (2014) and has had his play Crystal produced in Bucharest, Romania the same year. As a producer, Fred has just finished a three month run at the 13th Street Repertory Theatre of his children’s musical, Yaki Yim Bamboo the Musical.

Fred also shows his ability in other genres by writing instrumental pieces for jazz, film and TV. A renaissance artist in the making, he has been noted by Song of the Year Songwriting Contest, Unisong International Song Writing Contest, Billboard World Song Contest, John Lennon Songwriters Contest and Great American Song Contest. His music is on a compilation of 3 CDs.

Fred has served on the theatre/dance grants panel for the Queens Council on the Arts, the panel of judges for the Daytime Emmy Awards (sponsored by The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences) and the Board of Directors of the New York Children’s Theatre. He is currently a member of The Broadway League, Theatre Resource Unlimited, The Dramatists Guild and The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

Tide Beyond The Rift was first produced as part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival at the Jewel Box Theater, New York, NY in July 2014.

Cathexis…or is it something else? by Julie Marino

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Comedy/ 6 Characters, 3 men, 3 women/ Full Length, Two Acts

Synopsis: Tony-winning playwright Brett has lost his creative mojo and ended up at a small regional theater as Artist-in-Residence, hoping to fix the disaster that is his latest script. But Brett does not play well with others, and he especially doesn’t want input from those he considers small-town wannabes and not in his league.

Meanwhile, the members of the company, all hard-working professionals with years of experience, have no patience for the carryings-on of divas. After weeks of putting up with Brett’s resistance and tantrums, the cast decides to rewrite the play themselves, without his help or even his knowledge.

Instead of the searing drama they started with, the result is a laugh-out-loud farce that everyone except Brett seems to love. While Brett struggles to reconcile his overblown self-image with his need for a hit, the others gleefully dive into a project that rekindles their excitement and sense of joy.

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Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
Brian Sherman
IPEX Literary Agency
Ph: 646-355-8050
bts@ipexartists.com

About the Playwright: Julie Marino is a playwright and producer living and working in Manhattan. Her previous play, Welcome to Paradise (also published on ProPlay), was a semi-finalist in the National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Center in 2015, and had its world premiere at the Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea, Michigan in June, 2019. Other works include Mondo Condo, a musical comedy about life in a retirement community, not to mention a love triangle, money laundering and the Russian mob, and Wildfire Season, which was presented in workshop form by Pier Studios, New York City. Julie is also the writer/producer of Synesthesia Radio Theater, which produces and presents radio dramas for podcast. Further samples of her work may be seen on her website, juliemarino.nyc.

Cathexis…or is it something else? was presented in a workshop reading at Pier Studios in New York City in 2021. It awaits its first full production.

James Joyce on the Witches’ Sabbath by Giuseppe Cafiero

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James Joyce on the Witches’ Sabbath by Giuseppe Cafiero

James Joyce on the Witches’ Sabbath
Compañía Teatral Quinto Piso
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Drama/ 13 Characters, 9 men, 4 women, doubling possible/ Full Length, Two Parts

Synopsis: 1934. Kusnacht, Switzerland. Herr Dr. Gustav Jung’s clinic for the mentally ill. One of the patients is Miss Lucia Joyce. In a nightmarish atmosphere, her father, the Irish writer James Joyce, is pressed by the ghosts of his past to revisit his life, and his relationship with a daughter lost to madness and love for him.

The ghosts gradually become the protagonists of the drama. In song and word, they reconstruct the fragments of Joyce’s love-hate bond with Lucia, as well as his resentment towards Ireland, which ultimately led him to wander in exile.

They also become a Greek chorus in honor of the black bard William Blake, god of metaphysics. Drawing on the 16 engravings that illustrate his poem “The Gates of Paradise”, the poet opens up Joyce’s whole life, past, present and future.

Blake’s prophecies and Lucia’s phobic anguish plunge Joyce into his own Walpurgis Night. As the ghosts of his unconscious dance before him, to the sound of Monteverdi’s “Addio terra, addio cielo”, he lives out his own death and the heartrending anguish of having to abandon Lucia to her madness.

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Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
Giuseppe Cafiero
g.cafiero23@gmail.com

About the Playwright: Giuseppe Cafiero lives in the Tuscan countryside, in Lucignano, in the province of Arezzo, Italy.

Born in Naples, he spent his childhood in several Italian cities. In Bologna, he frequented the intellectual circles at Roberto Roversi‘s renowned bookstore, Palma Verde. The first part of his novel James Joyce — Rome and Other Stories was initially published in one of the bookstore’s influential magazines.

Cafiero later worked for various radio producers, including Radio Capodistria and Italian Swiss Radio. Moving to Tuscany, he was finally able to devote himself to reading and pursuing his literary work.

Other work for radio includes collaborations with the RAI, Radio Sveringes, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He has also written re-editions, free adaptations, and translations based on the work of an extensive spectrum of authors, from Shakespeare to O’Neill, Raspe to Daudet, Toller to Brecht.

In addition to James Joyce — Rome and Other Stories, Cafiero has published the bio-fictions Vincent van Gogh and Gustave Flaubert: The Ambiguity of Imagination.

James Joyce on the Witches’ Sabbath was first produced under the title Ánima Joyce by Compañía Teatral Quinto Piso, Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2014.