Comedy-drama/ 7 Characters, 3 Women, 3 Men, 1 either gender/ Full Length, Two acts

Synopsis: (From NewYorkTheatre.com): “Babes in America is a new play by Carole Clement about a woman named Liz Small who is suffering from information overload. An obedient wife and mother of two, Liz finds herself confronting the absurdities of the Information Age — ‘information overload and experiential underload.’ Struggling against the inertia of her own values, she must move beyond the expectations of others while avoiding the ‘Siren Song’ of new technology.”

(From www.offoffoff.com): “We’re in a perfect little suburban housing complex where the husbands go out to work and the wives stay home and scan stacks of newspapers into their computers, so their children will never be information-deprived for the rest of their lives. Liz Small (Kate Lunsford) — who’s slightly out of her mind as a mom, forcing her two kids (Alexandra Leeper, Ryan Paulson) to continue their babyhood well into their teens — is the first to crack. She starts to spiral down to reality and wonder whether scanning all day long is really the way to educate the family.

“She has another idea — go outside the cookie-cutter house and see what’s out there.

“‘I think I could learn from experience!’ she imagines.

“‘Even if you could, says her skeptical hubby, who hopes to achieve a totally electronic existence, ‘do you realize how long it would take? Your whole life!'”

Character and production notes

“An often-inspired comedy about a gated-community family on the edge between going totally digital and pulling the plug on their technological rat race . . . .

Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
Carole Clement
8371 Villa Marina Court
Mentor, Ohio
USA 44060-2039
(440) 209-0634
clement@ncweb.com

About the Playwright: Carole Clement lives in the Cleveland area and is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Cleveland Playwright’s Salon, and past President and Director of Development for the International Centre for Women Playwrights.Among the competitions that have recognized her works are the Sundance Film Festival, Jane Chambers Competition, Last Frontier (Edward Albee) Competition and the Eugene O’Neill Competition.When not writing, Clement is probably gardening, pumping iron, ballroom dancing, or digging on archaeological expeditions.Babes in America was premiered by the Breakaway Theatre Company at Theatre for the New City, New York City in September, 2001.

“Babes In America gets off plenty of clever lines, poking fun at gated communities, homeowners’ associations and the bright electronic future . . . . It takes on [its] big subject with wit, imagination and a strong sense of purpose.”
– www.offoffoff.com