The Marriage of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein, photo by Richard Termine.
Pictured: Alyssa Simon, Grant Neale, and Jan Leslie Harding
Alma Baya
Alma and Baya are living on a hostile planet, in a living pod designed for two. A stranger from a destroyed pod, much like theirs, arrives and seeks refuge. Baya lets her in, but Alma is convinced that there are not enough resources for three, and that at least one of them will die. Slowly, they unpack the mystery of who the stranger is, at the same time as they unpack the history of how they got there.
Selection for Great Plains Festival; Finalist for the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, NPC.
Produced at A.R.T./New York’s Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre in New York City.
Cast: 3W; Running time 70 minutes.
The Marriage of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
A marriage farce in which four actors play over thirty characters, celebrating the union of perhaps the best known same sex couple of the 20th century. Picasso has brought two of his mistresses and one of his wives. Hemingway has also brought his wife but is more obsessed by his matador. Meanwhile, all involved discuss matters of art, genius, friendship, religion, genius, sexuality, money, genius, fame, and of course love. Identities are merged and submerged. Written in a style that echoes Stein’s work, this is a comic fantasy with serious intent.
Produced at HERE Arts Center in New York City.
CRITICS PICK from The New York Times; 2nd Prize from the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation's Playwriting Award.
Cast: 3F, 1M; Running time: 80 minutes.
The Shylock and the Shakespeareans
In ancient Venice, of sorts, a mob of white supremacists calling themselves the Shakespeareans has taken over public discourse. Jacob, a Jewish diamond merchant (called Shylock as a slur), finds himself entangled with Antonio, a member of the Shakespeareans. Meanwhile, Jacob’s daughter Jessica has fallen in love with the son of Asian immigrants and faces her own battles against prejudice. And in Belmont, a young heiress named Portia subjects her suitors to a strange, nonsensical game. When Antonio’s business encounters hardship, he reneges on a debt with Jacob then spreads the rumor Jacob wants him dead. A trial in a kangaroo court follows. A darkly humorous retelling of The Merchant of Venice.
Produced in full at The New Ohio in New York City.
Cast: 4W, 8M; Running time 110 minutes with intermission.
The Neurology of the Soul
A play about the nexus of neuroscience, marketing, love, and art. "A love story about an ex-artist named Amy who participates in an experimental study conducted by her husband, a cognitive neuroscientist named Stephen...Einhorn handles the depths of these kinds of [neuroscientific] dilemmas with an impressive ease. As a neuroscience writer, I can attest that this is difficult to achieve." - Stephen Macknik, Scientific American.
Produced at A.R.T./New York’s Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre in New York City.
Cast: 2F, 2M; Running time: 95 minutes.
The Resistible Rise of JR Brinkley
The true story of John Brinkley, a medical con man from Kansas who became famous for his cure for impotence: implanting the testicles of a goat into men’s scrotums. His rise from doctor to radio star to politician. Told in a Brechtian style, with country music.
Produced as part of the New York International Fringe Festival at the Martha Graham Studio
Also adapted into a four-part audio drama podcast, available here.
Cast: 2F, 3M (flexible); Running time: 100 minutes.
Doctors Jane and Alexander
An exploration of the lives Alexander S. Wiener, the co-discoverer of the Rh factor in blood, and his daughter Jane (the playwright's mother), a psychologist. An examination of ambition and achievement in art and science, and how our expectations for ourselves are formed by the accomplishments of our parents and grandparents.
Winner of a Sloan Grant from Ensemble Studio Theater for plays on a scientific topic.
Produced at HERE Theatre in New York City.
Cast: 4W, 3M (flexible); Running time: 100 minutes.
Golem Stories
Set in 16th century Prague, this play is a new take on the legend of the golem (a man made from clay), put in the context of other Jewish legends of the supernatural. It is both a ghost story and a love story, set in the domestic atmosphere of the Rabbi's home, while the world around is full of violence. Golem Stories features historical figures Rabbi Loew, an important scholar of Jewish law and the Kabbalah, and King Rudolf II, the highly unusual King of Bohemia best known for his obsessions with alchemy. It focuses even more on the women of Rabbi Loew's household: his wife and two daughters. In the center of it all, of course, is the golem, who is not the lumbering monster everyone, including the Rabbi, expects him to be.
Winner Best Play, Spotlight On.
Produced (workshop) at the Spotlight On Festival at Chashama in New York City.
Cast 3 W, 4 - 5 M; Running time: 90 minutes.
Rudolf II
In 1600, Rudolf II, the bisexual and bipolar Holy Roman Emperor, is obsessed with alchemy and astronomy; as well as his longtime mistress and his newest lover and valet, a converted Jew. His enthusiasms establish Prague as a center of artistic, scientific, and sexual investigation. Set completely in Rudolf’s bedroom, the increasingly reclusive Emperor confines himself in a suffocating atmosphere filled with court intrigue. The play features several historical figures, including astronomer Tycho Brahe; Elizabeth Jane Weston, Latin poetess and daughter of the original Faust (Edward Kelley); and the spirit of Libuše, the prophetess who founded Prague.
Produced at the Bohemian National Hall/Czech Consulate in New York City.
Cast: 3W. 4M; Running time: 120 minute with intermission.
Linguish
“An inspired absurdist comedy, follows four strangers infected with a mysterious form of aphasia who are quarantined in a No Exit bunker. Literally at a loss for words, they must invent a new language in order to communicate—or to keep from going crazy. Side effects may include hilarity, we are told (it's definitely contagious)” - Village Voice
Produced with the one-act Strangers at Theater 5 as part of NEUROFest in New York City; Produced with the one-act Strangers at Three Brothers Theater in Waukegan, IL.
Cast 2W, 3M; Running time: 60 minutes.
The Living Methuselah
The oldest living man survives every disaster is human history, with the help of his wife Serach, the oldest living woman. But when a doctor tells him he will only live until the end of the play, will this be his final curtain?
Produced as a workshop at Theater 22.
Cast: 3W, 2M; Running time 70 minutes.
The God Projekt
Co-authored with Kevin Augustine. A raucous and darkly humorous minimal extravaganza on religion and secular morality. Alone in a Beckett-inspired vision of paradise, God does his level best to manage his divine office. But while fielding an unending flow of prayer requests, he uncovers a secret from his ancient past he'd rather remain forgotten. Featuring Catskill-style comedy and bloody puppetry.
FOUR STAR review in Time Out New York.
Produced twice at La MaMa in New York City, both times as part of their puppetry festival. Co-produced by Lone Wold Tribe.
Cast: 2M, puppeteers; Running time 120 minutes with intermission.