OKAY, WALT WHITMAN. By Gianfranco Lentini

Gianfranco Lentini is an NYC-based queer playwright, teacher, journalist, and First Generation Italian American. Gianfranco’s work has been developed and produced by Torrent Theatre, UNDER St. Marks Theatre, A Night of Play, Theatrical Response Team, Burlington County Footlighters, and the inspiraTO Festival (Canada’s largest short play festival). His work has been published by Molecule Literary Magazine and The Coachella Review. He is currently an Adjunct Professor for New York University’s New Studio on Broadway’s Summer Program and a Teaching Representative for the Theatre Development Fund’s Wendy Wasserstein Project. You can learn more about Gianfranco’s work at heygianfranco.com and on Instagram at @HeyGianfranco.

Matches by Daniil Lebedev

Daniil Lebedev is a writer and filmmaker. Born in Novosibirsk, Russia, he studied literature and cinema in Paris. He is the author of experimental and documentary films, as well as several works for theatre. He currently lives in Strasbourg. danlebedev.com  

Not Exactly John Wayne by Kerry Muir

Kerry Muir’s prose has appeared in Kenyon Review, Crazyhorse, Fourth Genre and elsewhere. Her essay “The Bridge” was named as a notable in Best American Essays 2016, edited by Edwidge Danticat, as was her essay “Blur” in Best American Essays 2018, edited by Hilton Als. Her plays have received awards and honors from Nantucket Short Play Festival & Competition, Gibraltar International Drama Festival, The Great Platte River Playwrights Festival, Maxim Mazumdar New Play Competition, and elsewhere. Her play, Esme & Jasper, Out to Sea received an honorable mention on The Kilroys’ THE LIST. Her play The Night Buster Keaton Dreamed Me was published in a bilingual English-Spanish edition…

A New Color Every Day by Sean Dance Fannin

Sean Dance Fannin is a queer dramatist born and raised in Kentucky and writes plays aimed at dismantling cynicism and apathy as an antidote to fascism. Sean’s play Dead Wait received its premiere in Kentucky, followed by the development of The Airplane Game with Derby City Playwrights in Louisville. After moving to Chicago in 2021, he began producing and hosting the podcast Come and See, aimed at persuading book readers to read published plays as literature; at this time, he also started the blog Wasted on Worry and Willing to Wilt, comprised of short and unique theatrical concepts. In 2022…

A Blue Hydrangea

by Eric Braman

A 10-Minute Play

Cast of Characters

BLUE            A Blue Hydrangea
PINK             A Pink Hydrangea
CAROLE      The Great Gardener (optional voiceover)
GEORGE     The Great Gardener’s Husband (optional voiceover)

Scene
A backyard garden.

Time
Late spring/early summer.

Lights up on a garden. A hydrangea bush with multiple heads of blossoms is seen center stage, all of them pink except one, which is blue. The blossoms are asleep. The sun rises at start of play waking the blossoms from their slumber.

PINK
Good morning world.

BLUE
Good morning sun.

PINK
Good morning dirt.

BLUE
Good morning butterfly.

PINK
Good morning little ants.

BLUE
Good morning Lilies and Roses and Jasmine.

PINK
Good morning Cherry Tree, good morning Kale!

BLUE
Good morning family.

PINK
(turning toward BLUE) Good morning – OH MY GROVE!

BLUE
What is it?

PINK
What happened to you?!

Everybody To Their Own Thing

By Ellen Birkett Morris

CAST
Max Anderson, Age 43
Jack Hensley, Age 72
Jenny Anderson, Age 41

SETTING
The Andersons’ dining room table.
Four chairs surround the table; a place is set at each.

TIME
Present day

(Lights up on Jenny, Max enters and kisses her on her forehead).

MAX: You’re sure you don’t mind company.

JENNY: Not at all honey. It’s been a while since we had someone to dinner. It was…

(She stops herself and furrows her brow.).  

MAX: Dad. We can talk about it. I want to talk about it. It isn’t like someone just disappears when they die.

Ritual Cleansing

By Paul K. Smith

Roles:

  • THIEF: Any age, any gender, any heritage. Projects menace.
  • CLERK: Any age, any gender, any heritage. Registers threat.
     Plaintive and Conciliatory for the first five minutes.

Place:  A convenience store in an American city.

Time:   Just before midnight

Night.  A convenience store.  Empty.  Except for the CLERK.
A big clock with a clock face – the hands show it is ten minutes to 12.   

At Rise: The CLERK is behind the counter, ritualistically wiping cans in a display, using a long feather duster.  Wiping clean  and counting familiar places in his circuit.

(Outside, a THIEF walks back & forth, fighting a temptation to go in, rob the store. Finally he goes to the unlocked door – but sees a CLOSED sign.

(The THIEF enters the store. Lots of pockets in what he wears.)

(CLERK continues to dust cans.  Watches for the big clock to release him.)

(CLERK counts out each can he dusts.) 

(THIEF watches him until the menace of his presence registers. . .)

CLERK: Forty-nine. . .

THIEF: (Menacingly:) Would be no problem to blow the back of your head off, would it?

CLERK: (Matter-of-factly:) Did you find what you need?

Reina: A One-Act Play

By Joe Bulvid

Cast
(In Order of Appearance)
Jeff:   A young male, dressed in business casual
Quinn:   A young male, dressed in business casual
Reina:    A mysterious young female dressed in jeans, a T-shirt and a leather jacket

SETTING
A bar in New York City. There are numerous barstools. It is 7:30 pm in July.

AT RISE
QUINN and JEFF sit at barstools
C. REINA sits at a barstool
RC. BARTENDER works behind the bar.

JEFF: Stay for one more? Come on, Quinn!

QUINN: Jeff, you’re killing me. Pamela’s gonna think I got mugged in the subway. And I don’t want to text her because then it becomes a thing.
(mimics his wife)
“You really should have told me about going out with Jeff. I could have gone to the 7pm cycle class or had some me time with my new vibrator.” If I just go home, she may be pissed, but it’s like she doesn’t think about what she could have done.

Egg In Spoon

By Rachael Carnes

CAST OF CHARACTERS
Leah – A mother, in her 40s
Sophie – A girl of 15
Janet – A grandma, in her 60s
Eleanor – A great-grandmother

SETTING
In a public park, on a pleasant spring day.

TIME
Late afternoon

At rise, SOPHIE is sitting behind                                                                         the picnic table, on her phone.

 LEAH: Will you please put your phone down?

SOPHIE: In a minute.

LEAH: There are people here who want to talk to you.

SOPHIE: I’m in the middle of making plans for later!

LEAH: Put it away or I’ll take it away.

SOPHIE: You’re not taking my phone away.

LEAH: I’m counting down.

SOPHIE: I’m 15 years old! You can’t “count down” on me. (snorts)

Times Change

By Bruce Shearer

CAST OF CHARACTERS
Bob Dylan, musical legend and survivor
Fan, A music lover who may or may not be a journalist

SETTING
The play is set in a backstage corridor.

SYNOPSIS
A fan or journalist meets Bob Dylan in a backstage corridor and asks him a few questions.

BOB DYLAN IS WALKING DOWN A BACKSTAGE CORRIDOR WHEN A FIGURE STEPS OUT OF THE SHADOWS AND SPEAKS TO HIM.

 Fan: What was it about Donovan that so upset you, Bob?

(BOB STOPS AND ALMOST STEPS BACK.)

Bob: Who are you?

Fan: I’m a fan.

Bob: Not from Rolling Stone?

Fan: We’re all rolling stones, Bob.