Category Archives: Comedies

12 1/2 Full Lengths by David Lohrey

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Comedy/ Multiple characters, 2 Men, 2 Women/ Short play, 10 minutes

Synopsis: Eighteen short vignettes parodying short plays seen often in theatre festivals.

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Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
David Lohrey
411 Walnut Street #7829
Green Cove Springs, Florida
USA 32043
E-mail: lohr_burgh@hotmail.com

About the Playwright: David Lohrey completed his undergraduate degree at UC, Berkeley. Later, he studied creative writing at San Francisco State University, UCLA, and California State University, Los Angeles where he completed his MA. David now teaches at the college level in New Jersey, and is Literary Manager at Theatre-Studio, Inc. in New York City.

David’s plays have received productions and staged readings across the country, including Group Rep and FirstStage in Los Angeles, The Long Beach Playhouse, the Dayton Playhouse, the Turnip Company, ArtGroup, and TRU’s 2nd Annual NYC Play Festival.

His work has received awards in competitions such as New Century Writers’ Competition, Riverside Stage Company’s Founder’s Award Competition, Harvest Festival of New Plays at the Sonoma County Rep, the 1998 Writers’ Digest Writing Competition, the 1999 Writer’s DigestWriting Competition, and the Generic Theater Company’s Dog Days Festival. For three years, David has been a voting member for TheatreLA’s annual Ovation Awards. He has been a member of the Dramatists Guild since 1982, and recently joined the Play Selection Committee at the Long Beach Playhouse.

12½ Full-Lengths awaits its first professional production.

7-10 Split by Michael G Wilmot

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7-10 Split
Port Stanley Festival Theatre
Port Stanley, Ont., Canada

Comedy/ 4 Characters, 3 Men, 1 Woman or 2 Men, 2 Women/ Full Length, Two Acts

Synopsis: Ever since Earl’s aspirations to become a pro bowler evaporated, his wife Brenda has put up with one get-rich-quick scheme after another. Not one to give up easily, Earl attempts to use the internet to find his way to “Easy Street”. A Crown Prince from an exotic foreign country is offering Earl millions just to help him get his fortune out of the country. Lacking seed money to put his exit plan into effect of course, the Crown Prince requires an “investment” from Earl to demonstrate good faith. Earl wasn’t born yesterday however (well maybe the day before yesterday), and devises what he thinks is a foolproof plan to turn the tables on the Prince.

“…the London playwright throws strike after strike, breaking funnybones along the way.
The laughs come fast and furious…” – Entertainment Stage

“Michael Wilmot has rolled another strike with 7-10 Split!” – The Beat Magazine

“Wilmot has done it again with 7-10 Split. Audiences loved it!” – LiveAct, Whitby ON

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Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Professional rights:
Diane Carter
SRO Central
diane@srocentral.com
1-800-869-7351
Amateur rights:
Playwrights Guild of Canada

Amateur Rights Request Form

About the Playwright: Michael spent a number of years as an on-air radio personality before his love of theatre was sparked after being dragged to an audition to act as moral support for a friend.

His writing has been mainly in the field of comedy, including writing free-lance for Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” monologue and for Kevin Nealon during his stint on Saturday Night Live‘s “Weekend Update” segment. For a time he also had regular columns in two U.S. comedy newsletters.

As a playwright, his scripts have been performed across the USA and Canada, in Australia and Russia. No Tell Motel has been translated into Russian (under the title Love Shack) and was performed in Astrakhan Russia in 2016. His short play Nancy is published by Playwrights Canada Press in their short play anthology Long Story Short.

He is a member of The Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Dramatists Guild of America.

7-10 Split was first performed at the Port Stanley Theatre Festival in Port Stanley, Ontario, Canada in July, 2011.

“This play will make you laugh till your sides split!” – ArtsNiagara.com

“Pure entertainment, not to be missed!” – Barbara Clifford, Markham Economist & Sun

A Dog’s Life by Diane Grant

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Farce/ 11 Characters, 6 Men, 5 Women/ Full Length, Two Acts

Synopsis:
George Mercer has problem. Unless he can pay the rent by 5 pm, his landlord will lock the doors and throw his small, but dedicated, troupe of actors out of their theatre. Enter a celebrated business tycoon who offers to save the day, but there is a catch . . . there’s always a catch . . .

From Backstage West: “Playwright Diane Grant has come up with a clever concept for her backstage comedy, the farcical aspects of creating a play-within-a-play — also calledA Dog’s Life — juxtaposed with the fictional ensemble’s struggle to pay the rent.”

“A delightful comedy that will keep you giggling all evening . . . Diane Grant, resident playwright, has created a fun-filled, entertaining comedy that will be well worth the trip to the theatre.”
– Maestro Arts and Review, LA

“Brilliant.”
– Steve Guttenberg, Palisadian Post, LA

“. . . a well-constructed, light-hearted farce.”
– Jim Boyett, Theatre Resources Unlimited

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Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
Diane Grant
16513 Sunset Blvd., #5,
Pacific Palisades, California,
USA 90272
E-mail: diane@dianegrant.com
Website: dianegrant.com
ISBN # for “A Dog’s Life”: 978-1-943842-97-1

About the Playwright: Diane Grant is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter, whose film Too Much Oregano won the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize. She was a co-founder of Toronto’s Redlight Theatre, the first professional women’s theatre in Canada. Her plays, which have been produced and published in the US and Canada, include Nellie! How The Women Won The Vote, Sunday Dinner, Sex and Violence, The Piaggi Suite, Has Anybody Here Seen Roy?, A Dog’s Life, and The Last Of The Daytons, a semi-finalist for the 2007 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.

A Dog’s Life was first performed by the Write Act Repertory Company, Los Angeles, California in 2004.

 

A Night In The Kremlin — Book by Bernard Besserglik, Music & Lyrics by Bob Barton

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Musical Comedy/ Multiple characters, playable by 10 Men, 2 Women/ Full Length, Two Acts

Synopsis (from newyorktheatre.com): “A Night in the Kremlin is a wonderfully imaginative look at what happens when Harpo Marx travels to Moscow in 1933 amidst the building of the Soviet Union’s ‘Utopia.’ Once Harpo arrives he receives an interpreter, Valentina, and he befriends the Foreign Diplomat’s English wife, Ivy. After the two women take him to an audition at the Chekhov Theater (a hilarious moment), Valentina breaks down with unbearable grief. She shares with Harpo and Ivy that her boyfriend, Igor, is going to have to stand before the Party Committee to be judged and that it is likely he may be sent away. After getting all the details Harpo and Ivy both decide that Igor is being treated unfairly and that they will do whatever it takes to ensure that Valentina and Igor can live together without corrupt politics. So they go to Stalin!

“Stalin is deeply concerned with maintaining the Soviet Union and ensuring that it is for the working people. It is as he receives the good news that the US is recognizing the USSR that he encounters Harpo and Ivy. Unaware of the duo’s mission to challenge the Party Committee’s decision, Stalin starts to fall in love with Ivy. In turn, Ivy, uses her feminine ways to try to sway Stalin to reverse the committee’s eventual decision to send Igor away. Meanwhile Harpo attempts to use his comedic antics to trick and confuse Stalin into signing official papers to release Igor.”

Harpo met Stalin? Well, actually no. But he did visit Moscow in November 1933 as a kind of goodwill ambassador following the opening of US-Soviet diplomatic relations. We can imagine the rest.

Although Harpo is clearly the main character, Stalin runs him a close second. A set-piece scene at the close of the first act plays on Stalin’s (approximate) physical resemblance to Groucho Marx and the fact that Stalin was known to have a wicked sense of humour — of the dark variety, obviously.

Though the play’s humour is often farcical, the story structure is firmly based on historical reality and many of the events portrayed — for example, Stalin kissing ambassador Bullitt full on the lips — actually happened. Though enjoyment is the ultimate goal, the show aims also to cast a shaft of light on one of the great tragedies of the 20th century.

“A wonderfully imaginative look at what happens when Harpo Marx travels to Moscow in 1933 amidst the building of the Soviet Union’s “Utopia” . . . Although it would be very easy to assume that a musical about the Soviet Union might be dark, the musical numbers are primarily light and fun . . . Then there are sweet love songs . . . Overall a great time. I had a wonderful night at the Kremlin!”
– Michael Lockley, nytheatre.com


Bernard Besserglik interviewed about A Night in the Kremlin

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Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Amateur and Professional Rights:
Bernard Besserglik
E-mail: besserglik@wanadoo.fr
Production website: www.a-night-in-the-kremlin.com
Address: 21 rue Eugène et ML Cornet
PANTIN
93500 France

About the Playwright: Bernard Besserglik was born in London and lives in Paris. A former foreign correspondent (and still a regular film critic), he spent four years in Moscow and is interested in all things Russian. For the past 10 years he has written screenplays, mostly in French but also some in English. He has a short film currently in production and several other projects under option. He is currently writing I Spied for Stalin, a love-story set in wartime Moscow, for Lark Productions (UK). He first collaborated with Bob Barton on the musicalLash Me to the Mast, Adrian Mitchell’s take on the Odyssey.

About the Composer/Lyricist: Bob Barton studied musical theory when young and has played jazz as a solo artist and with bands since his teens, touring the US extensively. He has written original scores and lyrics and arranged existing music ranging stylistically from pop to classical for publicity and educational films and videos. He is adept in all styles, ranging from blues and boogie to pop and rock. His influences come from the great tradition of jazz piano players: Fats Waller, Earl Hines, Bud Powell, Oscar Peterson, etc., but he has developed his own unmistakeable personal style.

A Night In The Kremlin premiered at the Midtown International Theatre Festival, New York in August, 2009.

Sample songs:

Albert Finney Doesn’t Live Here Anymore by John Chambers

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Comedy-Drama/ 3 characters, 2 Men, 1 Woman/ Full Length, Two Acts

Synopsis: Steve is a disillusioned working class man. Liberated by the heady mix of music and radical politics in the ’60s and ’70s, the ’80s saw all his hopes of something better come to nothing. His teenage son “Lud” never held out any hope. He’s a Generation X-er — which adds to Steve’s frustrations. Steve’s wife Cath is caught between the warring factions. Her journey — and her direct action — becomes collective action. Can any of them see light at the end of the tunnel . . .

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Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
John Chambers
Email: artistan38@tiscali.co.uk

About the Playwright: John has had some 40 plays premiered in his native North West of England — ranging from a Number One tour to fringe. He has written for most Reps in the region and was Arts Council Resident Dramatist at Manchester LTC and Resident Writer at M6 Theatre. His plays have subsequently been performed around the UK and as far afield as Australia and the US. He’s also written over a hundred hours of TV drama, as well as plays for radio.

Albert Finney Doesn’t Live Here Anymore was first performed at Manchester LTC, 1997.

American Standard by Jonathan Joy

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Comedy/ 7 Characters, 4 Men, 3 Women, 3 Voices/ One Act

Synopsis: (From The Herald-Dispatch [Huntington, W.V.]): “A political farce that follows the lives of two rural Kentucky State Senate candidates, one Republican and one Democrat, forced to pool their resources and travel the campaign trail together.

“Two rural senate candidates, a Republican and a Democrat, are waiting on the endorsement of a legendary congressman whose seal of approval will push the election to one side or another. Then there is a twist. The Republican congressman is the father of the Democratic candidate and the best friend of the Republican candidate. Fed up with what politics has turned into and of what both of them are doing, he arranges for them to pool all of their resources and to travel to all of the outlying counties together. He will endorse the one who he feels has learned his lesson.

“There is, of course, a woman involved, and the two candidates wind up competing for her affection, the election, and for power in general. Like the Bush and Gore battle of 2000, a lot of drama takes place at two lecterns. The play, which uses minimal sets, also takes place at the Republican candidate’s office, a bar that the Democrat hangs out, a diner and the candidates’ hotel room, which they also have to share.”

Winner of the 2003 Wallace E. Knight Excellence in Writing Award and the 2003 1st Place Maier Award for Creative Writing.

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Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
Jonathan Joy
9604 SR 7 #35
Proctorville, Ohio
USA 45669
Ph.: (740) 886-7223
E-mail: joyjonathan@yahoo.com

About the Playwright: Jonathan Joy is theatre artist-in-residence at the Paramount Arts Center in Ashland, Kentucky. Annually, he works with over two thousand students (K-12) in educational theatre classes at the Paramount and at the Huntington Museum of Art and Huntington Renaissance Center in Huntington, West Virginia. His first play, Simply Selma, was published in 2003 by the One Act Play Depot. A Match Made in Heaven is now available at Brooklyn Publishers. His full length, American Standard, won two regional awards for playwriting including the 2003 Wallace E. Knight Excellence in Writing Award. His written work will also be included in three upcoming theatre books: Millennium Monologues 2, Shakespeare Festivals Around the World, and 60 Seconds to Glory: 220 Monologues for Women. His new play, The Princess of Rome, Ohio, was a 2004 Finalist for the Seven Devils Playwriting Conference in McCall, Idaho and a Semi-Finalist at the Dayton Playhouse Futurefest. Professional acting and directing credits include work with the Phoenix Theatre Circle in Columbus, Ohio; Virginia Stage Company in Norfolk, Virginia; Huntington Rep in Huntington, West Virginia; and the Backstage Players in Ashland, Kentucky. Since 1998, Mr. Joy has served as Director/Manager of Free Spirit Productions, a regional theatre troupe located in Kentucky and West Virginia. He holds an MA in English (Drama/Creative Writing emphasis) and a BFA in Theatre (Acting/Directing emphasis) both from Marshall University, where he is currently an adjunct professor teaching Theatre Appreciation.

American Standard was first produced by Free Spirit Productions at the Joan C. Edwards Center for the Performing Arts, Huntington, West Virginia in 2002.

And The Stones Will Cry Out by David M. Graham

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And
Comedy-Drama/ 3 Characters, 3 Men/ Full Length, Two Acts

Synopsis: When the arrogant Dr. Johann Beringer, Dean of the Medical School in Wurzburg, Germany in 1725, discovers some unusual fossils, he becomes convinced that the stones are a gift from God that will make him famous. What he does not know is that they are forgeries, craftily carved by a rival professor at the University, algebra teacher Ignatius Roderick.

With the unwilling help of the school’s librarian, Georg Von Eckhart, Roderick carves and distributes over 2000 stones, hoping to embarrass the ambitious Beringer. The scheme works, as Beringer writes and self-publishes an expensive book that brings him temporary notoriety. Sensing that the hoax has gone too far, the conspirators confess to Beringer that he has been duped, but the arrogant Doctor refuses to believe it. Events spiral out of control when Beringer is finally convinced, and the whole house of cards comes tumbling down, leading to a trial and its inevitable consequences.

Based on real events, And The Stones Will Cry Out is a tale of the uneasy war between faith and science, the difficulty of friendship, and of course, rocks.

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Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
David M. Graham
340 W. Regent St. Apt. 6
Inglewood, CA 90301-1160
Ph.: 323-395-9985
E-mail: onlylivingheartdonor@gmail.com

About the Playwright: David is a Georgia native who came to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of being poor and hungry. In the actor’s tradition, he has drifted from here to there and had many jobs — including BMW salesman and gravedigger. He is a seasoned actor and director, with many shows to his credit.

And The Stones Will Cry Out is David’s first full length play, though a short of his, The Death of a Sale, Man, was performed in Los Angeles, and three of his short works, The Right Impression, Eden 2025, and Stealing Home have been included in every year of the Arabian Shakespeare Festival. He has also (self) published the first novel in his series A Little Mythunderstanding..

A 50-minute version of And The Stones Will Cry Out was presented by the Gorilla Theatre Company for the Festival of Independent Theatres in Dallas, Texas in July, 2015. It was first produced in its current full-length form at Little Fish Theatre in San Pedro, California in August, 2015.

“Graham’s thought-provoking work builds upon a prank, which is revealed early on in the play, but the play doesn’t feel farcical. It feels like any good drama in which the conflict causes people to come to the crux of what ails them.” – Daily Breeze, Los Angeles

Arthur and Paul by Zsolt Pozsgai, translated by Peter Linka

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Comedy-Drama/ 8 characters, 6 Men, 2 Women/ Full Length, Two Acts

Synopsis:
Confined to a hospital bed in the farthest reaches of Africa, the great French poet Arthur Rimbaud spends his time harrassing the nurse and penning letters to the local Emperor, demanding compensation for his duties as a gun-runner. He receives an unexpected visit from the love of his life, the even greater French poet Paul Verlaine, whom he hasn’t seen in eighteen years. Their strained reunion — strained because the last time they were together Verlaine shot Rimbaud — is made worse by the arrival of Verlaine’s son and first wife, who have their own scores to settle with both men. When it turns out the tumour on Rimbaud’s knee is malignant and inoperable, he realizes the time has come to set matters straight with his various visitors.

Arthur and Paul is a witty, wise, and highly theatrical speculation on how one of the most fervent literary love affairs of all might really have ended — not with a bang, but with one last grand gesture.

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Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
Zsolt Pozsgai
H-7630 Pécs, Tétény u. 28.
Ph.: 00-36-30-2791324
horatiofilm@gmail.com

About the Playwright: Award-winning dramatist Zsolt Pozsgai’s plays have been seen worldwide. He is a winner of the European Drama Award, and three-time winner of the Hungarian Playwright’s Competition. Liselotte in May, his most performed play, premiered at the Deutsches Theater, Budapest, Hungary, in May, 2002 and has since been seen in over 22 stagings from New York City to Geneva, Switzerland to Vancouver, Canada. By the end of 2014, 57 of Pozsgai’s pieces, including tragedies, comedies, farces, and plays with music, had been performed in 87 theatres. He has also worked widely as a stage director, and as a writer and director for film and TV.

Arthur and Paul was premiered at the Madách Theatre, Budapest in 1995.

Arthur of the Little Round Table by Norman Weinstein

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Comedy/ 7 characters, 4 Men, 3 Female / Full Length, Two Acts

Synopsis (from Theatremania.com): “In Arthur of the Little Round Table, a new full-length comedy by Norman Weinstein, a naive antiques dealer declares, ‘Darwin was wrong about those damn monkeys of his. We’re descended from squirrels. Collectors’ll go nuts here!’

“In love with Mission furniture and ragtime (its contemporary), innocent Arthur must cope with a critical wife, an arrogant but famous collector-dealer attractive to women, a sleazy antiques picker, and difficult consignors and customers. He has much to learn about antiques and life, even as he hunts for the Holy Grail of Mission furniture — a piece by Gustav Stickley. By play’s end, his character has changed. For the better might be debatable.”

Playwright’s Notes

“Arthur Honeycutt, a former insurance salesman, has quit his job to pursue his dream…. It’s an interesting look into the sometimes cutthroat world of antiques, but on a more basic level is about the conflict between Arthur’s dreams and the disappointing reality.”
-The Off Off Broadway Review

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Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information: Amateur and professional rights:
Norman Weinstein
2250 Broadway, Apt. MG
New York, NY
USA, 10024
Ph.: 212-595-3787
Email: weindeb@nyc.rr.com

About the Playwright: Norman Weinstein, a writer by heart, has in the past also directed and acted, even touring with The Fantasticks in Greece. Above all, though, theatre for him means writing plays. He finds himself writing comedies, both full and short-length, and usually family and/or political in nature, many of which have had staged readings throughout Manhattan. Aside from writing he has held many jobs in the past, including pilot, Air Force newspaper reporter, antiques dealer, and a by-line writer for two decorative arts magazines. He is currently working on a drama about Eugene Jacques Bullard, the world’s first black combat aviator, and a full-length comic musical, Two Cats and a Kid.

Arthur of the Little Round Table was first produced at the Gene Frankel Theatre, New York City in November, 2004.

 

Assignment: Impossible by William Allen Brooks

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Comedy/ 4 characters, 2 Men, 2 Women/ One Act

Synopsis: Three students (Janice, Beth, and Paul) and one teacher (Mr. Ankart) have all been sentenced to a special weekend detention by Mrs. Donnelly, the school principal. Each of them is in hot water with the principal for their own reasons. Partly as punishment and partly as a last chance to redeem themselves, the four have been given a special task in this day long detention. It is the job of these four to come up with some sort of presentation on teen sex issues and present it to the rest of the school on Monday.

When the students are uncooperative in their attempts to form the presentation, Mr. Ankart pulls out the script that he has written for the day. It turns out to be far from anything that the student body would care about. Secretly, Janice writes her own script. When Monday morning rolls around, she takes over the stage from Mr. Ankart and holds a vote with the student audience to see which play they want to hear. Naturally, they choose hers.

All four characters take on roles in the play and tell the story of two couples at a party (Britney/Kevin and Cameron/Justin) trying to make decisions about sex in their lives.

In the play-within-the-play, Cameron, who has had sex before, convinces her friend Britney that she should have sex with her boyfriend Kevin if she wants to keep him around. On the boy’s side, Cameron’s date, Justin, tells Kevin that he has to go for it as well. The two couples leave the party early, but at the last minute Britney and Kevin decide not to go through with it.

The next Monday at school, Britney overhears Kevin and Justin sharing bedroom stories from the weekend. When she hears Kevin lying about what happened she confronts him with a slap in the face. Feeling awful about what he has done, Kevin tells the truth to the whole school over the intercom system. Inspired, Cameron tells the truth about her weekend, too.

Once the truth is out in the open, all four characters have the opportunity to talk honestly about what they’re feeling. They can work through all of the questions that they each have surrounding this difficult issue and come to the conclusions that are right for them.

And backstage, after the play, the actors share some surprises of their own.

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Performance rights must be secured before production
Contact information:
Amateur and professional rights:
William Brooks
204 Hilliard St. E.
Saskatoon, SK.
Canada
S7J 0E4
Ph.: (306) 934-8278 or (306) 341-4089
e-mail: williamallenbrooks@yahoo.ca
Playwright’s website: www.williambrooks.ca


About the Playwright: William is a playwright and actor living in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. As a playwright, two of his plays, The Captive and Hope & Fury, have been featured at the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre’s Spring Festival of New plays. Hope & Fury was premiered in Saskatoon in May of 2005 produced by Flux Theatre, followed by a production at Calgary’s Lunchbox Theatre. His youth play, Assignment: Impossible was toured by Persephone Theatre in 2006. His plays have also been seen at Globe Theatre’s On the Line and the University of Saskatchewan. As an actor, William’s work has been seen with Persephone Theatre, Quest Theatre, Vertigo Mystery Theatre, Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan, As-Q Theatre and Last Exit Theatre, among others.

Assignment: Impossible was first produced by Persephone Theatre in Saskatoon on tour in 2006.