Win a Free Copy of "Collected Obsessions"

I have a special fondness for people who go through life battling or embracing their obsessions.  (I might be one of them myself...)   Earlier this year, Heuer and Brooklyn published an anthology, Collected Obsessions, of eight of my short plays, each of which focus on lovable lunatics whose fixations include numbers, the rapture, a co-worker, lovers, spiders, silence, an extinct bird, and the act of writing.  Whether their paths end in laughter or tears, the characters in these plays pursue their desires with singular focus and intensity.

This is a particularly good collection for advanced high school and college groups--it has a flexible cast size (4-20), with a bunch of challenging, fun roles. 

I'd love to get more students to take a look at these plays, so I'm giving away copies of the script to the first and second students who leave comments on this post and who e-mail me their contact info.  Be sure to tell us the name of your school and drama group and the title of either a recent or upcoming production.

The titles of the plays are:  Insomnia, Crowded Heart, The Sky is Falling, Quiet, Den of Iniquity, The Invisible Husband, Confirmed Sighting, and Measuring Matthew.  All have been produced professionally in Boston and/or New York, and there's even been a film made of Measuring Matthew (currently making the festival rounds).  The scripts get used individually by hundreds of students every year in competition and performance, but now there's a chance for all of them to be on the stage together, at once.  And that would be really cool.  If you're at a school that's done a production of Collected Obsessions, I hope you'll contact me and let me know.

Collected Obsessions and other New Releases from Brooklyn Publishers

I've been fortunate to have my work published by Brooklyn Publishers for quite a few years now.  They specialize in plays for use by high school students, for use in class, production and in competition.  For me, they've provided additional life to many of my ten-minute plays which I originally wrote to be performed by adults (and have been) and now are used as duets in competition by hundreds of students every year.  If I've learned one thing from my Brooklyn experience, it's that you don't have to dumb down your work for it to appeal to students.  As actors, they want challenges.

The new catalog just came in the mail a little while ago.  I get a surge of positive energy from thought of this catalog arriving in the mailboxes of tens of thousands of high schools across the country, and directors and students paging through in hopes of finding a script that will excite them.

This year's catalog has a few new entries from me that I hope students will find (In the online catalog, they can read excerpts from the play.)  (The short plays have been mentioned on this blog before, but they've only just been added to the printed catalog.  Collected Obsessions is only newly available.)

Collected Obsessions.  Full-length collection.  3-16 women, 1-3 men (4-20 total).  This is a collection of eight of my most popular plays, all of which feature characters dealing with a variety of obsessions.  This is a great ensemble piece, giving an audience an evening of comedy and drama.  (The plays include Insomnia, Crowded Heart, The Sky is Falling, Quiet, Den of Iniquity, The Invisible Husband, Confirmed Sighting, and Measuring Matthew.)

Confirmed Sighting.  Ten-minute duet.  2 women.  Fiona and Kelly have spotted an ivory-billed woodpecker, once thought extinct, in the swamps of Arkansas. Fiona is an ornithologist and this sighting will make her career, but Kelly owns the photographic evidence that Fiona desperately needs.  This comedy has been extremely popular with audiences in theatres in New York, Boston, and Baltimore.

Recognition.  Ten-minute duet.  2 women.  Drama.  A chance encounter between an adoptive mother, Allison, and the birth mother of her child reopens old wounds. How far will Allison push Tanya for information? This is another of my "adoption" plays, and in some ways is a companion piece to Stop, Rain.  I developed this play with Mill 6, as part of their T Plays festival, of plays set and written on Boston's subways.

(Kalie Quinones from the 2010 production of Recognition by Little Fish in California.  Photo by Mickey Elliot)

Stick Up for Mars: Fiona and Kelly are halfway to Mars, but after a year in space their personalities are wearing on each other. One little Post-It note might be the last straw. A zero-gravity comedy. (Originally produced in 10x10 in North Carolina. Think "Odd Couple" in space.)

Schedule-Meisters: Schedule-Meisters promises to help ease any mother’s busy schedule, but Mary might be their most challenging customer yet. (This was my first play produced in Australia.) (It's a hoot. A dark comedy that harried parents will appreciate.)

Here's a photo from Schedule-Meisters in Minnesota:

(photo by Joan Elwell of Anissa Lubbers and Jan Arford)


If you're a student or teacher and have production photos from any of these plays, please send it to me. I'd love to feature it on my web site and blog, and put it on the Brooklyn site.