TEN SECONDS is available for production through Yes Plays. Click on the logo for information
Synopsis:
Ray is a star softball player who (dimly aware of the boy's condition) mocks and strikes his team's autistic scorekeeper Skeet during an argument. Facing jail-time and the loss of his marriage, daughter and livelihood, Ray meets with Skeet and his mother Mrs. Holt. Skeet has forgotten the incident and wants to deliver a statistical award to Ray, in keeping with Skeet's obsession with numbers. Mrs. Holt, however, remembers all too well. Ray wants Skeet to remember to assuage his own guilt, but Skeet cannot. Ray turns instead to Mrs. Holt, who excoriates Ray for his inability to understand the pain he caused. Ray tells a story about his overweight daughter, who joins soccer to please him. Although he thought she was enjoying it, he finds out she was enduring put-downs about her weight. Mrs. Holt is touched by the story and says she no longer bears Ray ill will.
Character Breakdown: (4M, 1F)
Ray Walsh (30-40) Athletic, fiery, angry softball star and devoted father. Acts impulsively and violently due to family issues not revealed until the end of the play.
Skeet (early 20s) Autistic scorekeeper who is obsessed with statistics and numbers. He inadvertently sets off Ray, but cannot remember the incident. Has mannerisms and speech patterns indicative of his condition.
Mrs. Holt (late 40s, early 50s) Reserved mother of Skeet who agrees to meet with Ray for her son's sake. Devoted, defensive mother, who is capable of both anger and compassion.
Mazz (30-40) Ray's teammate and lawyer. Straight-shooter.
Brady (30s) Another teammate. (Small role—can be eliminated if necessary.)
“Ten Seconds is a powerful play which illustrates the negative effects of our perceptions of, and actions toward, people with challenges,” Anita Tecce, HGGMT Artistic Director
TEN SECONDS was the winner of the Carlton E. Spitzer Excellence in Writing Award from the Hugh Gregory Gallagher Motivational Theatre. They raise public awareness of disability issues and discrimination--click on the flyer below for more information about their work.
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Seriocomic one-act play (6M, 2F)
Contact bcpkid AT gmail.com for information
Four patients at an AIDS ward in the early 1990s try to come to grips with their respective fates and their family's reactions.
"The play is written with compassion and humor, full of insights into the characters and their critical situation." James F. Cotter, Times Herald Record
ROSES was originally produced as a benefit for Art for AIDS. Click on the logo to the left for more information about their work.
Absolution: Synopsis/Character Breakdown
one act absurdist comedy/drama (2M or 2F)
Contact bcpkid AT gmail.com for information
Absolution is a two character play that takes place in a stark “Office of Absolution”, where all citizens’ offenses are all too easily dispensed with. A Citizen begins to relate his unnamed crime to the man behind the desk (known only as Central), but is told that there is no need; a simple matter of filling out the correct paperwork will suffice for complete forgiveness. Citizen finds this hard to believe and a bit of a disappointment; he is pleasantly shown the door as the bulb above the door lights up, signaling the next person to be absolved. Strangely, the light stops burning when Central leaves. One month later, Citizen shows up at the office once again, haunted and disheveled. Central is not much better—the office is in utter disarray. Citizen complains that the absolution did not work, that he still feels horribly guilty for what he has done. Central barely hears him, explaining that the office has been a shambles since the light went out, decreasing productivity. At the end of his rope and angry at the system Central personifies, Citizen announces that it was he who pulled the plug on the light. This, apparently, is a crime that cannot be exonerated. Citizen begs for forgiveness, but Central offers none. Citizen finally threatens Central with a chair and forces him to hear his true crime. Three weeks later, Citizen has joined Central as his assistant. He changes the light bulb over the door as part of regular duties and show of servitude.
CENTRAL (m or f), 40-50, an official
in the mythical “Office of Absolution,”
officious, precise, unerringly pleasant
and solicitous
CITIZEN (m or f), 35, confused, nervous,
guilty, seeking absolution for an unnamed
crime
ABSOLUTION
"...a commentary on modern-day industrial bureaucracy – a sort of surreal Dilbert strip... intriguing and well-played ."
Gail M. Burns, GailSez
"...a chilling satire on humanity that has lost its way...in a world where bureaucracy rules."
James F. Cotter, The Times Herald Record
The Art of Negotiation
Hollie Rosenberg (director), Laura Mae Baker (Representative) and George Tsalikis (Colonel) from Thespian Production's "Imperial Garden of Disillusion" production.
The Art of Negotiation
seriocomic one act play (2M)
Contact bcpkid AT gmail.com for information
The Art of Negotiation takes place in a political meeting room wherein a Representative of a powerful country is enlisting the aid of a foreign Colonel. In a cheery voice, the Representative tells the Colonel his country must be destroyed. After the initial shock of this statement, the Colonel realizes he must somehow re-forge a relationship with the Representative for the sake of his country's future.
THE GAME ROOM
THE GAME ROOM
existentialist one act play (4M)
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The four major players from the 1950 Alger Hiss spy trial--Richard Nixon, Joseph McCarthy, accuser Whittaker Chambers and Hiss himself--meet in an afterworld "Game Room" where, unaware of their previous connection, they constantly one-up each other over a game of chess.
"Petti has taken a rarely dramatized subject and treated it in both an interesting and thought-provoking fashion."
Cynthia Topps, Times Herald Record
or any other reason why...
or any other reason why...
one act drama (1M, 1F)
Contact bcpkid AT gmail.com for information
A 40-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl document their illicit relationship, going back and forth between a police department three years ago and a psychiatrist's office in present day.
