The Plays

| In Publication | Other Full Length Plays | One Act Plays | Monologues | Novels |

Publications

• Vile Affections
  In 1621 the government and church finally took notice of Mother Benedetta Carlini. She had been claiming to have visions for eight years, but it was not until she began to grow in power that church officials sent the Provost to investigate this so-called mystic. The Provost seeks the truth, but the truth he uncovers shakes his world beyond anything he could have expected. Vile Affections is based on a true story of the first recorded Lesbian relationship... more
  

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Other Full Length Plays

• Still Photos
  (aka Why'd Ya Make Me Wear This, Joe?)
  A 1940’s love story, that just happens to be about two women. Aubra is a housebound, Fifth Avenue opera diva, whose career collapsed when she was crippled in the polio epidemic of 1931. Charlie is a modern day “Rosie the Riveter,” whose job as a projectionist at the Flatbush Cinema fuels her dreams of becoming a movie producer.... more

• Screaming in the Wilderness  (4 females, 2 males, 1 either gender, 2-4 primitives of either gender)
  Screaming in the Wilderness is a comic drama about a woman looking for God. A young priest (from a fictitious religion) comes forward who might lead her to exactly what she’s looking for, but her life experiences make her suspicious of him. She uses her TV news journalist position to spy on him and discredit him... more

• An Appearance of Desire  (1 female, 3 males)
  What  lengths will a middle-aged Professor go to save her career? Caught between needing to save herself, wanting to nurture the talents of one of her extraordinary students and the genuine feelings that come up for her towards him, Professor Linley does the unthinkable... more
  

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One Act Plays

• You Can't Get Uptown on the Downtown Train  (1 female, 1 male)
  On a deserted subway platform in January a working girl is accosted by a very unusual robber.  This is my most frequently requested one act play.  It works well for class work and competitions... more

• Kvetching with the Virgin Mary  (1 female, 1 male)
  The Virgin Mary is trying to get her son to settle down and get a real job.  This is my most produced play... more

• Our Lady of Stone  (3 females)
  Cath Kyle, an ex-nun returns to her former convent when summoned by her old friend and mentor, Sister Dominic. Going back to the convent is not easy for Cath and shortly into the play it becomes apparent that Cath and Sister Dominic have a lot of unfinished business to sort out... more

• Afternoon Lovers  (1 female, 1 male)
  Two middle aged professors meet for their usual afternoon tryst, but there’s something different about this day... more

• Twisted Appetites  (1 female, 1 male)
  Sandy and Sam meet in the park for a blind date, which neither of them is too happy about until a strange attraction draws them to each other... more

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Monologues

• Sister Dominic  (1 female)
  Sister Dominic is on the verge of telling her true feelings to Cath, an ex-nun, and a friend she hasn’t seen in eight years.  From Our Lady of Stone.

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Novels

• The Violence of Gentle People
  
  Synopsis
  

It is 1967 and the kids have taken to the streets. They are freeing themselves in ways the world has never seen before. Professor Elizabeth Linley, at forty-four, feels too old to break out of her conventional bonds. Her students have nothing to lose: no community judgments to be concerned with, no important jobs to maintain, no reputations to uphold. Still, burning deep within Elizabeth is a secret and unrestrained Dionysian passion. This passion begins to erupt and cause her to violate socials norms, at first in secret, but later, in plain view.

Her small college town, Lake Ambrosia, West Virginia, has not caught up with the times. In truth, they’d prefer to go back to an even earlier time. The administration is conservative and parochial, diametrically opposed to her true nature, so she lives a double life.

Parker Daniels is an attractive student writer who Elizabeth genuinely tries to help. Gradually, it becomes apparent that the two of them are developing feelings for each other. Another one of Elizabeth’s students, Andrew Yost, is a flamboyantly gay student. She admires him because he is always “so much himself.”

Elizabeth’s inability to accept all of herself causes her to go to great lengths to hide what she’s done. This leads her to dig herself in deeper until finally she is about to lose everything she holds dear.

When Elizabeth fears her secrets are about to be exposed, which could lead to humiliation and the loss of her job she concocts a plan to save herself. She sends Parker to New York City to write a novel, while she financially supports him. Her intention is to take Parker’s book, revise it herself and present it to the school as her own work. She’s been told publishing could save her job and reputation.

Elizabeth arrives in New York City in August, 1968, the bloodiest year of the Viet Nam War, to collect “her” book. She does not know that Parker, in an act of self-destruction, has burned the book. When she gets to New York she is surprised to find Andy in Parker’s apartment. Andy has come to New York City to help Parker hide from Elizabeth that there is no book. On that hot August afternoon in Parker’s fifth floor walk-up, Professor Linley, Parker and Andy have their own war over a book that does not exist.

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