STAGEPLAYS
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“FELIX & FANNY”
About composers Felix Mendelssohn and his sister Fanny. He published her music under his name. (Finalist Stage & Screen Contest, and recorded by CART)
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“VS. ROBERT SCHUMANN” (aka “COUNTERPARTS”)
Courtroom hearing in which composer Robert Schumann is forced to sue Clara Wieck’s father for her hand in marriage. (GPTC selection)
Click here for VS. ROBERT SCHUMANN available at Lulu.com
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
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“SERENADE”
Young Johannes Brahms is the go-between for Clara and Robert Schumann, at the mental institution where Robert is a patient and Clara is forbidden entry. After Robert’s passing, Brahms proposes marriage to Clara Wieck Schumann.
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
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“CLARA & JOHANNES”
A two character play based on the letters of musician/composers Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms.
(Read in Genesis Studio November 2016.)
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This Irish play trilogy begins with "BRIGID OF KILDARE" (453 AD), followed
by "AN IRISH SONATA" (18th century National Composer Turlough O'Carolan's
story—creator of the jig), and ends with "THE STONE OF KILHARA"
(contemporary). Hopefully, by the end of the trilogy, a feeling and understanding
for some of the rich history and culture of Ireland will be experienced by the
audience.
“BRIGID OF KILDARE” (recorded 2014 by California Artists Radio Theatre)
“AN IRISH SONATA” (A Celebration of the Life of Turlough O’Carolan)
“THE STONE OF KILHARA” (read at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre)
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“BRIGID OF KILDARE”
In 453 AD Ireland, a young slave girl is inspired to create the first convent for nuns, a school where boys and girls can be educated together, the singing of the Mass by women, and the creation of “The Book of Kildare”. (Produced for radio by C.A.R.T.)
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
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“AN IRISH SONATA”
In 18th Century Ireland a young iron smith [Turlough O’Carolan] loses his sight and is forced to learn to play the harp in order to support himself. Harpist Blind Mary tells him: “Turlough, you play the instrument you have.” Spending 50 years traversing Ireland with a horse and guide, Turlough manages to create the “jig”, to tell Jonathan Swift the story that would become Gulliver’s Travels, to win the hearts of countless maidens, and to play the role of trickster to his fellow harpers.
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
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“THE STONE OF KILHARA”
In County Galway at the end of the 20th Century, as his last rites are being read to him, lightning draws the eye of sculptor Padric Kilhara to the large standing stone outside his whitewashed, thatched-roofed cottage. Padric’s determination to see his Irish heritage carved into the stone before his own passing, leads to the entire town helping to carve the stone before the end of Lent. All goes smoothly until the stone is vandalized. (Read at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre)
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
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“SATAN AMONGST US”
In 17th century Massachusetts Bay Colony, Anne Hutchinson is being tried for heresy. The entire action of the play (except for Anne’s final courtroom rebuttal) takes place in Anne’s prison room during March of 1638. “Apparitions” who pass through Anne’s prison room are: Goody Hawkins, Mary Dyer, Faith Hutchinson, and Elizabeth Cotton. [This work can be performed by One Actress or by 5.] (Gassner Award Finalist)
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
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“SPIRITS OF THE OLD MANSE”
The Transcendentalists of 19th Century Concord, MA—Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne—and the house that was continuously occupied by Emerson-Ripley ministers and their families since pre-Revolutionary War days, form the backdrop for this drama about the woman—SARA ALDEN BRADFORD RIPLEY—who was the Transcendentalists’ whetstone. The illustrious spirits are seeking release from the Old Manse, where time converges and folds back upon itself.
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
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“THE PEACEMAKERS”
The real ending of the Civil War after Appomatox Courthouse, when two warhorse Generals from opposing sides —SHERMAN AND JOHNSTON—risked court martial in order to meet in secret at the Bennet Place Farm in Durham, North Carolina to hammer out the peace agreement that would finally end the war. (Stage & Screen Finalist and read at the O'Neill Conference Center (CT) and at the S.D. Old Globe Theatre)
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH SECOND VIDEO FEATURING APOLLO DUKAKIS AND TIME WINTERS>
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“ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE”
A celebration of the rainbow of Pioneer women who helped shape the history of Colorado and who are celebrated in the “WOMEN’S GOLD TAPESTRY” that hangs in the CO Statehouse: Margaret Crawford, Aunt Clara, Dona Salazar, Chipeta, Mother Cabrini, and Silver Heels. (Produced at The Jones Theatre, Westcliffe, CO)
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
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“LORD OF THE SMOKIES”
The Phaedra/Hippolytus myth set in the Smokey Mountains of 1910. Moonshiner THADEUS STEED takes himself a young bride [FATE O’DARE] , but shortly after his wedding, he is forced to flee from the revenuers. In his absence, his younger brother HYRAM falls in love with FATE. Original music by Barbara Rottman. (Sergel Award Finalist)
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
"THADIUS STEED" (MUSICAL VERSION) with music by Barbara Rottman and lyrics by Lichtman-Fields/Rottman. (Selected and presented Fall 2016 for TRU Workshop N.Y.C.)
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“THE WETBACK”
Set in San Ysidro, CA in 1976, this juvenile hearing for a Mexican illegal farm worker, presents insights into the ongoing problems confronting these isolated individuals in American society. (Finalist Forest Roberts/Panowski Award, produced at Lex Theatre, Hollywood, CA)
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
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“LEARNING TO DANCE IN THE RAIN”
Torn between caring for her mother [SARA] in hospice care, and her son [WALTER] in the throes of mental illness, writer ILANA SNYDER’s exploration of the Myth of Icarus from the mother’s perspective, helps her to find the insights she needs. SARA, a professional artist, draws intriguing images up until her final breath and, as an act of love, imparts a sense of empowerment to her ill grandson by permitting him to be the only person able to release her from her earthly bonds. (Semi-Finalist Ashland New Play Festival. NYC reading featuring Olympia Dukakis)
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
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“TRUCK STOP”
In Hattiesburg, Mississippi of 1980, Eartha’s Truck Stop Diner, where truckers have all of their needs met, is an oasis in the middle of Klan country. The widow Eartha, who is black and had been married to a white trucker, has been harboring her fugitive son in her upstairs room hoping to reach the statute of limitations for his crime. Unfortunately, things do not go according to her plans.
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“FAUSTINE”
A female version of the Faust story finds our heroine [FAUSTINE WHITE] studying at Oxford, where she is paid a visit by a midnight caller [SIR LUCIFER] who offers her time travel (past and future) in exchange for her soul. Faustine journeys back to ancient Greece, to 19th century America to meet Mary Baker Eddy, and finally to the NIH of the future to bring back cures for disease. The Devil, insisting upon equal time, takes her to see the editor of a tabloid journal, to see a nightclub act performed by the 7 Deadly Sins, and to reveal the failings of the modern world. Can Faustine outwit him?
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“WAGADU”
In 1983 the second Great Sahelian drought occurred in West Africa. For the first time in recorded history, the NIGER RIVER STOPPED FLOWING. The play traces the quest of CHIEF BANTU and his son BAMAKO to seek out the 4 Wagadus (goddess with 4 faces) in each part of Africa, in order to bring the rains back to their parched land.
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
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“THE SCANDALMAKERS”
During the summer of 1816, while residing in a villa in Geneva, Switzerland with her lover [PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY], her step-sister CLAIRE and her lover [LORD BYRON] and his lover-personal physician [JOHN POLIDORI], 20 year-old MARY GODWIN enters into a bet to see who can craft the scariest story. Mary discovers that she has the ability to exorcise the monster within herself via the creation of her original FRANKENSTEIN story. (GPTC selection.)
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
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“THE RAMBAM”
"The Rambam" enters the 12th century fantasy world where the spirit of the recently departed Maimonides (aka the Rambam) is being forced to remain on earth in order to help to determine who has the correct claim to him. How can it be that Moslems, Christians, and Jews are all claiming the saintly scholar and physician as one of their own?
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(Original music available for each project by Jackie DeShannon)
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
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“MIDWESTERN SKIES”
NIKKI JOHNSON travels to New York City in the early 1990s to pursue her dream of becoming a novelist. She falls for her room-mate’s boyfriend [JAKE ROTHMAN] and finds herself having to choose between a career and a personal relationship. (Finalist Forest Roberts Theatre Contest)
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
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“FAREWELL TO THE LAST DRIVE-IN”
In 1980s Santee, CA the drive-in movie theatre is the center of the community. Everything is unfolding on the stage beneath the drive-in’s big screen where the high school principal will present the awards and scholarships between the drive-in’s double-features. Prom Queen Greer’s boyfriend wants her to marry him and help him to run the drive-in theater he loves. Greer is torn between her boyfriend’s offer and the college scholarship she’s just been awarded.
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(available for purchase at CARTRADIO.COM)
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“FELIX & FANNY”
featuring Michael York & Samantha Eggar
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
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“BRIGID OF KILDARE”
featuring Samantha Eggar, Monte Markham, James Lancaster, Elizabeth Dennehy, Richard Herd, Annie Gagen, Amelia White, John O’Callaghan, Tom Wilson, and Joe Flood
<CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO>
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