by Tom Cole

In April of 1971, a Doctor specializing in "impact grief" arrives at Valley Forge Army Hospital in Pennsylvania from NYC to treat a "special case": Dale Jackson (D.J.), an African American soldier and recent recipient of our nation's highest military honor, is suffering from the extreme effects of PTSD and immeasurable survivor's guilt. During the course of the Doctor's session with D.J., the two verbally spar until the physician draws out the horror and disgust that has traumatized the patient and reveals similar shared experiences although two people could not seem initially more different, in the hopes of helping this severely wounded hero begin to heal before it becomes too late.

by Cathy Hamilton and Carol Starr Schneider

Brushes: A Comedy of Hairs is about the complicated relationship between women and their hair since time immemorial. Brushes with disaster, vanity, envy, self-doubt, sex, death - even the law - are explored in hilarious and poignant style. Woven together with strands of universal wisdom by a b-list goddess, the follicular follies flow from ancient Greece to the Bad Hair Days Inn to a new salon on the block called Blow Me Now. Grab your mother, daughter, best friend, better half and ex-stylist as we drink to our mistakes and celebrate our collective crowning glory.

by Vincent Marano

Fresh out of foster care, a young woman is contacted by the birth mother she never knew. Or was she? A mysterious journal unlocks the mystery of a family tragedy, but is it the whole story. And will her real family ever match up to the imaginary one she has nurtured for so long. Sometimes ignorance is more than bliss, it's safer.

by Tony Sportiello

Coach Jeffries utters an offensive remark while talking on his phone from his own home.  The remark is recorded and suddenly Coach Jeffries is on every front page in the country.  The President of the University, John Grayson, now has a decision on his hands.  Fire the coach, as the student body, faculty and media demand, or listen to his own conscience, which wonders - "at what point are our private conversations open to public scrutiny?"

by Dave Dannenfelser

It’s the possible last days of Stephen Crane’s brief life as he suffers from Tuberculosis in a Sanatorium in Upstate New York. What did the author of The Red Badge of Courage, considered by some to be the first anti-war novel, really think about war? Stephen struggles with this and other questions while dealing with fellow patients Robert Louise Stevenson and Edna Ferber and his memories of his relationships with his wife, Joseph Conrad, H.G. Wells and other literary giants. But his real-life experiences pale in comparison to the visitations he receives from the apparitions of family members and the materializations of fictional characters from his novels and stories. 

Our second annual unGala will be Monday, Oct.19 at 353WEST- that’s 353 W.46th.  Our Jewel Box Award will honor Jim Dale and his 50 years on stage. The unGala gives us an opportunity to broaden our reach of support, while celebrating the company with members who can join the party. 

by Walter Brandes

Suspense and paranoia surround an archaeological dig that uncovers an unknown foreign object in the Akuhma Desert. It is up to an unlikely team of a physicist, a geologist, and two cooks to reveal the secrets of the mysterious find. In this sci-fi thriller with smatterings of comedy, the group of four begin to unravel the truth of what is in the desert and, in doing so, destroy the reality they once knew.

A FAMILY GAME

by Leegrid Stevens

A recent death in the Dudley family is understood and coped with through the world of a classic 8-bit video game. While dodging ghosts, zombies and evil Aunts side-scrolling through the neighborhood, the Dudleys attempt to rewrite history and ultimately win a game they lost long ago.

by Dana Leslie Goldstein

Decades after they marched together for civil rights, the friendship between two academics is tested when a racially charged controversy flares up at the campus where they teach.

TWO  ONE-ACT PLAYS ABOUT NEW YORK CITY

by Jack Feldstein

THE VOICES OF JULIE LEVINE

When Julie Levine's father re-appears, he's obsessed with an insane plan concerning the Jews of New York. One that drives Julie crazy in every way.

THE CONFESSIONS OF PETER McDOWELL

In the cut-throat world of New York theater, middle-aged artistic director and playwright Peter McDowell must face his greatest challenge ever when 19 year old playwriting genius, Andrew Livingston enters the scene.  And forces Peter McDowell to face his worst nemesis. Himself.  

by Ken Jaworowski

Five characters find their lives veering between comedy and tragedy as each comes to a turning point: an ex-con starts a coaching job at an inner-city high school; an accountant struggles to keep her cool amid various disasters; a nun who doubts her faith is presented with a terrible dilemma; a blind man gets a second chance at sight; and a mental patient may just be more sane than those around her.

by Ivana Shein

The Lovers is a play about a Marc Chagall painting which John and Melanie (lovers living in London), are obsessed with. We move back and forth in time between two love stories: Marc and Bella Chagall in Paris and Vitebsk, Russia at the beginning of the 20th century and John and Melanie in London, England at the beginning of the 21st century. As we negotiate between past and present, trauma and romance, the discrepancy between the fantasy of love and the reality of love becomes more apparent. Semi-finalist, 2015 O'Neill Playwrights Conference.

A PLAY WITH MOVEMENT

by John McKinney

A high school math teacher, caught in a troubled marriage and disillusioned with his life in general, is presented with a moral dilemma when he begins to tutor a savant-like Asian girl with ties to the occult -- and a blossoming sexual curiosity. The play explores various psychological and spiritual themes through the use of music and dance.

by Jack Feldstein

Genius or lunatic? Or paradoxically both? In Spain, the final years and decline and ultimate descent of the eccentric and brilliant artist Salvador Dali into madness were decadently intertwined with his wife, Gala. In THE DESCENT TO DALI which is based on real life events, we learn the strange and surrealistic happenings of this powerhouse art -star couple, Gala and Dali, until their controversial deaths in 1982 and 1989 respectively.

A Science Faction Play by Richard Kent Green

Four people participate in an experiment to perfect and enhance the human body with microscopic, robotic technology.

by Colleen Murphy

A mysterious vagrant flies off the roof of a condo development and lands on the balcony of a long-married couple. This strange arrival leads to unexpected revelations about their lives, their marriage and their mutual loneliness with each other, sparking a wild desire to go out on a limb and into the night. This thought-provoking comedic drama by Governor General Award-winning, Quebec-born Colleen Murphy ingeniously achieves a satisfying balance of wry humour and melancholy.

Colleen Murphy won the 2007 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama

The first in a trilogy of new plays
by Greg Oliver Bodine

In March, 1925 a young, neurotic sculptor seeks out a renowned professor and presents him with a strange bas-relief based on his own disturbing dreams, associated with the words, ‘Cthulhu’ and ‘R'lyeh’—words the professor knows from a mysterious cult whose followers worship a gigantic, ancient deity they believe will emerge from the depths of the ocean to once again rule over the earth.  

by Jack Feldstein

With songs by Rivky Grossman

A NYC actor, Vincent Grapelli, has lost his way in life... and in THE
KINGDOM OF VINCENT GRAPELLI, a magical show that's both cabaret and
musical theater, he must find it again.

Interwoven with 20 exquisite new songs by musical prodigy, Rivky Grossman.

by Laura Hirschberg

Michael doesn't know what to do with his life.  He could easily attribute his latest bout of aimlessness to simply being 28... but a surprising encounter with his brother, and visions of an altogether more exotic sort, send Michael down a far more complicated and painful path of revelation.

by Liz Amberly

When a college student Jessie works at her father’s adoption agency, she meets a Guatemalan woman who claims her son had been stolen. As Jessie tries to unravel the mystery surrounding the adoption, she also faces her own family's past. The two stories intertwine, and everyone must make some unexpected choices.

by Richard Isen

Gregory, a 50 year-old gay, semi-retired Psychology Consultant has a near-death experience, triggering the appearance of THE LADY, an apparition out of the Hollywood silver screen who pushes Gregory into a dangerous relationship with a beautiful young male escort; leading him to a deeper understanding of what it means to love.

by Robert Strozier

You're sitting next to a guy at a play who laughs very loudly--annoyingly so--at all the funny parts. Does he maybe know someone in the cast, you wonder. You pointedly glance his way several times, hoping he'll get the hint and lower the volume. You stand to leave at the end, and he says, "Your looking at me repeatedly was really offensive." Tempers rise, words are exchanged, and you go your separate ways.  Luckily, you'll never seen him again. Or…will you?

by Muriel Broadman

What could go wrong for Rose-Red, her Father who gave her a scroll and a pair of magic slippers, and her Grandmother who knows how to talk to birds?  Everything, when Father marries a scheming fortune hunter with two nasty daughters.  But Grandmother is looking out for her, as is the magic jinni in the well.  This Middle Eastern/Jewish Cinderella has been adapted from the old folk tale "The Red Slippers" by Muriel Broadman, a long-time theatre critic and advocate for good children's and family entertainment.  Suitable for all ages.