SOLO PLAYS
All plays are available for licensing
HICK: A LOVE STORY *
A one-woman drama based on Eleanor Roosevelt’s 2,336 letters to journalist Lorena Hickok. Minimal set. 90 minutes. When the Associated Press assigned journalist Lorena Hickok to cover Eleanor Roosevelt during her husband’s campaign for President, the two women became lovers. Their affair lasted a few years, the relationship until Eleanor’s death. Against the backdrop of the Great Depression and New Deal, “Hick” tells their story using excerpts from Eleanor’s letters. Premiered to rave reviews in San Francisco in 2015. “Fringe Fave” and “Fringe Encore Selection” at the 2015 New York International Fringe Festival. * A two-persion version of HICK is also available
IMMEDIATE FAMILY
A one-woman drama. Minimal set. 75 minutes. Virginia, a middle-aged postal worker, visits her comatose lover, Rose, in the hospital. The tender and often hilarious one-sided conversation reveals the women's long-term intimacy, their lives outside "normal" society, and the legal barriers which deny Virginia status as a member of Rose's "immediate family." The spiraling narrative follows Virginia's movement from meek acceptance of hospital rules toward a decision to unplug the respirator that sustains Rose in her coma. Opened at National Women's Theater Festival in 1983. Since publication in Places, Please, many productions in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Translated into French and Dutch.
EGO TRIP or I'M GETTING MY SHIT
TOGETHER AND DUMPING IT ALL ON YOU
A one-woman play with eight characters. Minimal set. 75 minutes. One actress plays women both invented and observed by the playwright, including a secretary obsessed with stealing office supplies, a young lesbian recalling her tortured coming-out process, and a 5,000-year-old virgin with a unique understanding of the war between the sexes. Premiered in San Francisco (1981) and toured the Midwest (1984).
ONE FOOL or HOW I LEARNED TO
STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE DUTCH.
A one-woman farce. Minimal set. 75 minutes. A ferociously comic exploration of sex and intimacy among lesbians. A naive American dyke confuses Great Sex with True Love and moves to Holland for a charming Dutch lesbian. Romance is a predictable disaster, but the Fool is consoled by the magical city of Amsterdam. A lustful coat rack and a sadomasochistic teddy bear share the stage with the Fool. Opened in Amsterdam in 1987, toured Europe, the U.S. and Israel. Chosen one of the 10 best plays of 1988 by the S.F. Bay Guardian. Published in Tough Acts to Follow, 1993.
PLAYS FOR TWO OR MORE
All plays are available for licensing
HICK: A LOVE STORY *
A two-woman drama based on Eleanor Roosevelt’s 2,336 letters to journalist Lorena Hickok. Minimal set. 90 minutes. When the Associated Press assigned journalist Lorena Hickok to cover Eleanor Roosevelt during her husband’s campaign for President, the two women became lovers. Their affair lasted a few years, the relationship until Eleanor’s death. Against the backdrop of the Great Depression and New Deal, “Hick” tells their story using excerpts from Eleanor’s letters. Premiered to rave reviews in San Francisco in 2015. “Fringe Fave” and “Fringe Encore Selection” at the 2015 New York International Fringe Festival. * A one-persion version of HICK is also available
DIVIDE THE LIVING CHILD
A realistic drama. Five women. Realistic 1940's kitchen set. Two hours. Takes place in Amsterdam during the Nazi Occupation. Torrie van Toom, a kindly Christian spinster, has agreed to take a Jewish child into her home. But Hannah Bergman, a spirited adolescent, arrives accompanied by her mother, Miriam, who has nowhere else to go. Torrie's hopes for Hannah's conversion to Christianity clash with Miriam's deep devotion to Judaism. Hannah is torn between the two women, as she tries to find her way in her new life. Meanwhile, a nosy neighbor seeks to discover the truth of Hannah’s origins. A finalist for the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award (1995); received a staged reading at the Ashland New Plays Festival (1996), Aurora Theater (Berkeley 2002) and Jewish Ensemble Theater (Detroit 2002). The first full production by Ashland University in Ohio.
ENID'S FLY TRAP
A realistic comedy-drama. Nine women. Realistic bar setting. Two hours. A nostalgic view of an old-fashioned dyke bar. It's Enid's place, it's her 60th birthday, but with business going down the tubes, the drinks are no longer on the house. The regulars (aka the Buddies) arrive, an old flame drops by, and a mysterious and beautiful stranger eyes the proceedings. Activities include killing flies to feed the plant that is the bar's mascot, conjuring up an old singing group called the Pussies, and holding a lesbian revival meeting. The Buddies desperately try to figure out who stole Carla's wallet and how to keep Enid's Fly Trap alive in this age of AA sobriety and upscale yuppie dykes. Won the Restless Pens Playwriting Contest (1994) and was semifinalist for the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award (1993).
WAITING FOR THE PODIATRIST
A two-woman comedy with two hand puppets and five songs. Minimal set. 90 minutes. A middle-aged lesbian with a deathly ill father and a terminally irritated mother are all trapped in the nightmare funhouse known as Modern Medicine. While father lies comatose, Mother (a hand puppet) and Daughter (the actress) debate whether to pull the plug on their beloved patriarch. And if they don’t, where can they find someone to cut his gigantic toenails? Premiered in San Francisco in February, 2003. “Critic’s Pick” - San Francisco Chronicle. "Best of Fringe" - 2016 San Francisco Fringe Festival.
MIKVAH
Drama. Two women. Minimal set. 75 minutes. In a little Jewish village (shtetl) in Poland, Rachel, an educated, rebellious young bride unhappy with her abusive husband, falls in love with Chava, the unlettered attendant of the mikvah; the women's ritual bath. Refusing to obey her abusive husband, Rachel seeks an escape.
MEMORIES OF LESBOS AND YOU
One-act romantic comedy. Two women. Minimal set. 25 minutes. Luna and Gracie are madly in love and totally incompatible. So they flee to the island of Lesbos, to laugh and love and fight – for as long as they can hold out and hold onto each other. Published in Harrington Lesbian Literary Quarterly (2002). Produced in Pittsburgh, PA in 2001.
SACRIFICES, A FABLE ABOUT THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT
(written by Carolyn Myers with Terry Baum, Michelle Linfante & Renais Winter)
Folktale with song and dance. Eight to 15 women. Minimal set. Two hours. The village of Shebo keeps its women under control by offering their most rebellious female in a yearly sacrifice to the ferocious dragon lurking in the woods. Lilith, the latest "offering," discovers that the dragon is a myth and that a society of uppity women lives secretly in the forest. Lilith wants to return with this liberating knowledge to Shebo, but the woods women fear an end to their happy life. Premiered in San Francisco (1978), produced in Kansas City, Fayetteville, Arkansas and Austin, Texas.
DOS LESBOS
(written with Carolyn Myers)
A cabaret-style comedy with music. Two women plus musical accompaniment. Minimal set. 90 minutes. Two dykes (one newly "out," the other an old hand) contemplate coming out at work, coming out to parents, and coming out of their own internalized homophobia. They sing, dance, and romp their way through an examination of man-hating, lesbian identity and the knotty problems of their sex life. Written with Carolyn Myers. Opened in San Francisco in 1980; produced all over the U.S. and Canada, Sweden, Belgium, Italy and Australia since publication in Places, Please (1985), the first anthology of plays by lesbians. Translated into Swedish, Italian and Dutch
TWO FOOLS
A romantic comedy. Two women. Modular set that serves for many locations. 90 minutes. Gracie, an American, and Luna, a Costa Rican, try to find a place to live together -- a place in each others' hearts and a literal place free from fear of deportation and harassment. This is an erotic lesbian journey from Amsterdam to San Francisco, a serious play about immigration, racism and gay marriage, and a witty romance between two complex and believable grown-ups. Produced in San Francisco (1996, 2004) and New York (1998, 1999). Published in Intimate Acts (1997). Finalist for the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award (1996).
BRIDE OF LESBOSTEIN
(written with Carolyn Myers)
One-act farce. Three women. Creative, wacky set. A lesbian version of the Frankenstein myth. Mad scientist Dr. Gertrude Lesbostein has never found a woman good enough for her. So she endeavors to give herself the Perfect Bride by creating a mate with DNA from her 34 ex-girlfriends. She is aided in her fiendish designs by the slavishly adoring Igorina. But when the Bride actually comes to life.... Who will she choose?
WOMEN IN LINE
An absurdist one-act play. Four women. Minimal set. 30 minutes. A shy young woman and a timid grandmother waiting in line find they're both filled with rage against men.They fall in love and plot to kill a man, which a third woman tries unsuccessfully to prevent. Produced by Love Creek Theater (New York City 1991) and a battered womens' shelter (Ashland, Ore. 1985).
TEN MINUTE PLAYS
All plays are available for licensing
EVE IN THERAPY
Two-women comedy. After 5,000 years of feeling guilty for eating the apple, Eve goes into therapy. Her therapist is Dr. Lilith, another mythological figure, who just happens to be Adam’s first wife. Combining her own version of aversion therapy with some good old-fashioned “girl-talk” about Adam, Dr. Lilith helps Eve overcome her crushing sense of responsibility for the fall of mankind. Will Eve, with Dr. Lilith’s encouragement, take another bite?
BUBIE & HER BUTCH
Two-women comedy. Frannie is 65, a professor, and a devoted Jewish bubie (Yiddish for grandma). One could say she has a very conventional life but now, Frannie is in love with Chris, a butch lesbian. Very butch. What will Frannie’s family think when she shows up with her new lover at the annual Chanukah party? If Frannie can persuade Chris to wear some nice jewelry, maybe that will soften the blow. As the two women struggle over a pair of dangly feminine earrings, each discovers what she will and will not do for her lover.
