Category: Plays: Short

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Twinges from the Fringe

15 funny short plays. Including Bob’s most popular shorts: Scene Analysis for Fun & Profit, Men’s, Talking Cure, Nixon, Fun City, Sinatragate & Atlantis, The Lost Continent.

Great for Fundraisers.

Excellent for Auditions.

Fun to read.

Read on: (Kindle | Paperback)

Productions

Off-Broadway: Grove St. Playhouse (NYC)
Trilogy Theatre (NYC)
Streetlight Productions (NYC)
Shooting Star Theatre (NYC)
Regional: Heartlande Theatre Co (Ann Arbor MI)
Sauk Theatre (Jonesville MI)
May 2008, NEYT (Brattleboro, Vermont)
International: Nov 2001, KIMEP English Language Theatre (Almaty Kazakhstan)
Sept 2006, Teatrul Pi Buni Piatra Neamt, Romania

Publications

Reviews

  • Elias Stimac of BackStage calls Twinges “comical success… laugh inducing, eye opening, or thought provoking–and sometimes all three at once.”
  • Arlene McKanick of OO–Broadway Review says Twinges is “worth seeing!”

A few words from actors

  • “Audience” was a fitting end to the evening, and the audience really seemed to enjoy to breaking of the fourth wall — Nathan Fleming Director KIMEP English Language Theater, Almaty, Kazakhstan
  • “I used the ‘Fun City’ monologue at an audition at Park Square Theater (a prestigious theater company in downtown St. Paul, MN) for the play Born Yesterday, and I got a part!” — Barb Keith, actress
  • “I recently read ‘Donnyworld.’ I thought it was one of the funniest things I have ever read.” — Luke Leek, performer
  • “Thank you so much for the copy of Twinges , it is a very fun play.” — Samantha Wilson, actress
  • “The scene [Atlantis, The Lost Continent] from Twinges is great. It would be an honor to perform it as part of my audition.” — Jonathan Kapner, actor
  • “[Fun City] is quite possibly the funniest monologue known to man.” — Audrey Leigh Francis, actress
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Tragedy, a comedy

Harry Stevens has a good life. He loves his job teaching intellectually-disabled kids. His marriage is stable. He’s got a good home. But… A routine check-up turns dire. God shows up. Won’t leave. Best friend Bernard starts praying in the living room. Won’t leave either.

Details

Read it in: Light Matter (kindle | paperback) 

cast: 4 (1F, 3M)
set: Single set
length: 40 minutes

Publication & Productions

Published: Light Matter, Jan 01 2020

Off-Broadway: Emergence Theatre Co (NYC)

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The Last Days of Paradise

A strange woman is incarcerated at The Tombs… a dank, dismal, medieval New York jail. And a reluctant Public Defender gradually digs to discover the truth about the “Apart” and the heart of their mystery… “what son of a bitch killed your dream?”

Details

cast: 4, 2F 2M
set: Unit set (basement)
length: 40 minutes

Productions & Publications

Published: The Best Stage Scenes 1999

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Freefalling

Bartender Maureen Bacon finds out her ex-boyfriend—mob boss Bob McMahan—wants to seize custody of their daughter Barbara. In a hail of bullets, Maureen stages a final, desperate fight to free Barbara from McMahan’s clutches forever.

Details

cast: 5, 2F 3M
set: Bar (can be done site-specifically in a real bar)
length: 25 minutes

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Le Mot Juste

She awakens in a strange world surrounded by dictionary pages blowing in the wind. She has but one word to say it to express all meaning. What word does she pick?

Read it in: Light Matter (kindle | paperback) 

Details

cast: 3 (2F, 1M)
set: Single set
length: 10 minutes

Productions & Publications

Published: Light Matter, Jan 01 2020

Productions

Off-Broadway: Shooting Star Theatre, NYC
Regional: NEYT Theater (Brattleboro VT)
International: KIMEP English Language Theatre, Kazakhstan

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Scene Analysis for Fun & Profit

A hilarious short piece shows a married couple’s argument about a possible infidelity, as it zooms between a 10,000 foot view and right in your face. This is my very most popular short.

Read it in: Twinges from the Fringe (kindle | paperback) 

Details

cast: 2, 1F 1M
set: Single (Dining room of suburban home)
length: 10 minutes

Productions & Publications

Awards: Finalist, 2003 Heideman Award, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville

Off-Broadway production:
April 2003 Twinges from the Fringe, Shooting Star Theatre (NYC)

Regional production:
Jan 2002 Heartlande Theatre Co (Ann Arbor MI);
May 2002 Sauk Theatre (Jonesville MI)
March 2008 NEYT (Brattleboro, VT)

Published:
Twinges from the Fringe (kindle | paperback)
Also published in: The Best Stage Scenes 2000

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Men’s

“I don’t know! This lady just started banging on the door to the men’s room… don’t ask me why!” Two strangers—one spurned, the other widowed— fight, flirt, and finally find each kindness in each other while standing at the door of a restaurant Men’s room. This is my next-most-popular short.

Read it in: Twinges from the Fringe (kindle | paperback) 

Details

cast 2, 1F 1M
set Single (Men’s room door)
length 10 minutes

Productions & Publication

Off-Broadway: August 2001 Luminous Group (NYC)
October 2002 Shock Troupe (NYC)
July 2003 NYPD: Twinges from the Fringe, Shooting Star Theatre (NYC)
Regional: July 2000 Main Street Arts (Nyack NY)
College: May 2001 St. Andrew’s College (Aurora ON)
Also published in: The Best Stage Scenes 1999

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Flick See Gears in the Sparklight

A collection agent (credit professional), trying to do her job collecting on a bad debt, goes through increasingly mad cycles that affect, through time displacement, all parts of her life, crashing headlong to a final point of meeting.

Read it in: Light Matter (kindle | paperback) 

Details

cast: 3; 3F
set: Unit set or bare stage.
length: 10 minutes

Publication & Productions

Published: Light Matter, Jan 01 2020

Regional: NEYT Theater mainstage, Vermont 2008