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An interrogation tale inspired loosely by the detention of Colombia's Patricia Lara in the mid-1980s. Two INS agents detain and try to break a Latin American journalist and a Brooklyn rabbi - both suspects believed to be involved with terrorist groups. The interrogations go very badly and the tables are turned against one of the INS agents."... To say that HOSPITALITY by Allan Havis betokens an auspicious beginning is an understatement of fairly large dimensions. Nearly everything about this production is first-rate. The script, an interrogation drama which brilliantly defeats the normally static two-characters-and-a-table configuration of the genre, not only is tough and taut, but gratifyingly witty and urbane ..." -Nels Nelson, Philadelphia Daily News"... a trenchant political drama that belies its innocuous title ... An exceptional script ..." -Hari., Variety

A grieving widower must accept his wife's death to save himself and his relationship with his daughter. David loves his wife, Gillian. Unfortunately, she died two years ago. David deals with his grief by continuing his romance with her "ghost" during walks on the beach at night. While David lives in the past, other family problems crop up in the present. Brother and sister-in-law Paul and Esther visit to try to help David's daughter, Rachel. She has lost her mother and needs her father to snap back into the real world for her sake."... Though TO GILLIAN begins as a simple dramatization of its hero's obsessive mourning, it gradually expands to become a richer form of family drama ... [Mr Brady] writes with a rueful sophistication that keeps his story's sentimentality at bay ... TO GILLIAN is peppered with sharp, evenhanded observations about the tenuous ties that connect husbands and wives and parents and children ... if TO GILLIAN is a play that sends a ghost flying out of [the] heavens, its appeal derives from its author's keen sensitivity to life down here on earth." -Frank Rich, The New York Times"This first major work by Michael Brady has well-dimensioned characters, solid conflict, piquant writing and gives off a warm, affirmative glow ... When it has become not uncommon to encounter plays with no sympathetic characters, audiences will respond affectionately to everyone In GILLIAN. Working on a small canvas, the author is in impressive control of his material ..." -Richard Hummler, Variety

UNFINISHED WOMEN deals with the events in a home for unwed mothers on the last day of jazz musician Charlie Parker's life, March 12, 1955. The play digs beyond statistics and sociological theories to find the unarticulated, half-understood longings of teenage mothers."UNFINISHED WOMEN is an underground classic. It reaches beyond statistics and sociological theories to find the unarticulated, half-understood longings of teen-age mothers ... The title implies the central conceit of the play: the juxtaposition of the Hide-A-Wee Home for Unwed Mothers (the unfinished women) and Pasha's boudoir, where Charlie Parker (the 'Bird'), the brilliant black saxophonist of years past, spent his last days. Many types of girls find themselves in this home: the child of middle-class upbringing who got 'caught'; the innocent who was raped; the savvy, street-smart girl who let the music make love to her, as well as the strict nurse who turned her illegitimate child into a 'niece.' Charlie Chan, that stereotype of Oriental inscrutability, presides over all, a comment on the power of images in our society. The play focuses on that moment when the girls must decide whether to keep their babies or to give them up for adoption. Despite their fantasies of rescue by 'caring' young fathers, they must decide alone. Meanwhile, Bird slowly dies in the plush boudoir of his longtime mistress, trapped in a narcotic fog and the lost dreams of his exploited talent." -From Margaret B Wilkerson's introduction to the play in 9 Plays by Black Women

Loosely based on a Grimm fairy tale, THE HANDLESS MAIDEN weaves together three stories, that of a miller and his wife who have fallen on hard times and whose story includes devils, wizards, and cross-country treks; that of an ambitious New York lawyer who decides to give it all up and travel to Seattle to see Bill Gates' mansion, her magic castle; and that of a man who is about to be married in Seattle but decides he must first see an old lover. Their stories ultimately converge in an enchanted diner."Jeremy Dobrish's delightful new comedy combines a Grimm's fairy tale with two contemporary stories, which being with a man planning his own wedding and a woman who is made a partner in her law firm before her husband is. Eight actors in dual roles segue easily from comedy to seriousness, from farce to realism and the piece brims with goofy charm. Three cheers for all involved ..." -The New Yorker"... crafty intermingling of folklore, musical comedy and soap opera ... another lighter-than-air vehicle on which to float an evening of stylish daffiness. Adobe productions resist categorization; THE HANDLESS MAIDEN can count among its inspirations the work of Stephen Sondheim, Rod Serling, Sid Caesar, Walt Disney and even Agnes Nixon." -Peter Marks, The New York Times

An urban family of three is faced with a medical crisis upon a second financial crisis. Structured as a memory play, this story for four actors highlights the surfacing identify of a young man caught between filial loyalty and freedom. As the mother attends to both men, a domineering father is in free fall."One young man's experience of grief and loss. A fraught father-son relationship, a tight mother-son bond. Nathan is lost and confused, trying to revisit and understand himself and the last twelve months of his life. His mother was erroneously diagnosed with cervical cancer. Heartache Number One. Then his successful, entrepreneurial father, being hounded by the I R S, is in peril of imprisonment. During the traumatic process, Dad suffers a life-threatening heart attack and later, a stroke. Nathan's safe, self-involved little world - his parents at a geographical distance, his girlfriend kept at an emotional distance, his academic life far away from the family business - spirals out of control. He has to be forced to remember, look back, process the whole series of events, by an other-worldly muse of memory ... There's a poetic and ethereal quality ... There's a deep and moving family story here, a parable for our times. As a new work, it shows considerable potential." -Pat Launer, San Diego News Network

Subtitled "a light and dark skin comedy," CHIAROSCURO is set on a cruise ship peopled by black singles where "pretty" means light-skinned, and all the men are dark, and Papa Legba, the African trickster spirit, is disguised as a ship steward."... there are only a very few dramatists who come immediately to mind when thinking about the major contemporary African American playwrights: Lorraine Hansberry, LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), Adrienne Kennedy, August Wilson, Ntozake Shange, and Aishah Rahman. Although she has not had the general name recognition of her contemporaries, Aishah Rahman has been widely celebrated for the craft, language, and vision of her plays. Her daring, innovative fusion of form and function has positioned her in the forefront of American women writing for the theater, and in the forefront of those playwrights who expand the limits, refuse the boundaries, and seek new territories in the formal and stylistic properties of drama as a genre and the theater as a medium." -Thadious M Davis, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English, Vanderbilt University

A kinky, deranged comedy built on the sale of a vintage Ford Mustang and an unidentified body in the car. Two women meet and against their better judgment cross the border into Mexico for an unusual resort weekend. "Allan Havis, who co-directs the playwriting program at U C S D, earned his reputation for mordant wit and chilling dramatic climaxes everywhere but San Diego. Now, finally, one of his weird dramas has opened here - the creepy and highly entertaining PRIVATE PARTIES ... Billed as a Thelma and Louise kind of show, it is that, but with layers and a jaunty, laid-back So-Cal tome that'll curl your painted toenails ... the fun and provocation of this 80-minute two-hander. The gals live and breathe in the writing ... You may not want to know them better, but you come away feeling that however fantastical their trip, they're the real thing." -Anne Marie Welsh, The San Diego Union-Tribune

A golf magazine is the setting for David Wiltse's farce on the intrigues of the office. "The editorial office of a golf magazine seems an unlikely place for a comedic farce. But it makes perfect sense in the context of SCRAMBLE! By David Wiltse ... Actually, SCRAMBLE!, isn't about golf at all; it's about a very typical small office and the Byzantine romantic intrigues that go on there. The fact that this office houses a golf magazine is merely secondary to the struggles over sex and power that are the real focus of the staff's interest. The play's title, SCRAMBLE!, does owe a nod to a variation of the game of golf by that name. In the basic game of Scramble, each member of a four-person team tees off on a hole, then the best of their tee shots is selected and all players play their second shots from the location of that best tee shot, continuing on until the ball is holed. There are numerous variations on the theme, such as Texas Scramble, Florida Scramble, Reverse Scramble, and so on; there is even an organization called Scramble Golf America that organizes Scramble golf tournaments. Wiltse's play is a lot like the game, in that nobody knows quite who's on top and who's doing what to whom from one moment to the next. The plot is almost secondary to the jokes and silliness that result ... Wiltse is one of today's most versatile playwrights, but although he refuses to be limited to one genre, he is consistent when it comes to creating memorable characters. The split-second exits and entrances, the double entendres and the mistaken identities are all delivered in classic farcical style, but the characters are the ingredients that make SCRAMBLE so much fun to watch. The six players in SCRAMBLE all inhabit the too-close-for-comfort headquarters of a golf journal that is reportedly about to be sold, making all the employees extremely nervous about the future of their jobs. But even with unemployment looming, that doesn't stop the three men and three women from trying out several variations on the theme of interoffice love (or, as some would call it, workplace sexual harassment). There's sexy Temple, who doesn't know much about golf but definitely wants to get ahead in the publishing world, no matter how she has to do it. There's Jane, a high-strung copywriter with kooky layers of mismatched clothing and the unfortunate habit of talking so fast that only her true friends can understand what she's saying. There's Carter, who is a bit too comfortable in his job, considering how hard he works at it. On the management level are Sam, an editor with the instincts of a dominatrix, and Otis, the only member of the staff who seems to actually play golf. Finally, there's Johnson, a tongue-tied newcomer and Man of Mystery. Is he a genius? A poor nebbish? A spy dispatched by the new owners to report on the antics of the staff and decides who should stay or go? When these six characters collide, anything can happen. Wiltse has shown once again that he can master any stage genre ... There are plenty of quick sight gags, sound effect jokes and pratfalls going on here, in addition to all of Wiltse's clever wordplay ..." -Jackie Lupo, Scarsdale Inquirer

Four middle-school girls, played by adults, remind us of what it meant to be eleven years old and how adulthood is perhaps less removed from the needs and desires of childhood than we may wish to acknowledge or admit. "Why would adults go to see a play about eleven-year-olds? Possibly because none of us ever really stop being eleven. Y York's new drama, BLEACHERS IN THE SUN, holds a mirror up to grown-ups to darkly illuminate the world of modern adolescent girls, which is just like ours, only amplified. Love, betrayal, sexuality, addiction - all the virtue and vices of humanity are present here - distorted through the eyes of the youth to become something at once monstrous and beautiful. The premise is deceptively simple: four middle-school girls meet behind the bleachers to engage in the secretive business of growing up. One is fat; one is smart; one is rich; one is poor. All are confused and lonely. BLEACHERS is a version of ourselves we had hoped to leave behind on the playground as maturity and experience taught us to hide behind masks of civility and social custom. Eleven-year-olds, however, hover on the cusp between childhood and adulthood, occupying a brief and rare space in which their personalities are completely developed but they are not yet expected to behave as adults ... It is both funny and frightening ... Put simply, BLEACHERS IN THE SUN is a fantastic play." -Rachel Brown, Honolulu Weekly

In a house poised between land and sea, a husband and wife, both academics, are facing personal and professional crises when a mysterious young woman enters their lives. Many secrets from past and present burst open as the husband's life begins to unravel and as his wife seems more and more under the illusion that he is her onetime hero, Charles Lindbergh. A witty, imaginative and perceptive play about marriage, family, betrayal, redemption, and the forces that try to pull a couple down as they struggle to rise above them. "Compelling! ... High art ... a play about life's seemingly neurotic nuances that challenges the viewer to admit that we all have to fool ourselves sometimes in order to deal with life." -John de la Parra, Red Bank.com

The perfect rent-controlled New York City apartment has one fatal flaw - the roommate from hell. The play takes place on the day the newest roommate can't take it anymore. Classic humor of mistaken identity mixed with new-age twists. THE WALL OF WATER is farce with all the sharp edges showing - it is an intractably woven tale that tackles subjects as serious as death and as important as scientific inquiry, and everything in between. A farce about the nature of madness, the way it is infectious, how we treat it and how we decided who is and who isn't. A play with four leading roles for young women about strong women and the men who love and sometimes sedate them. "... THE WALL OF WATER quickly bursts through the dam of conventional theater for two hours of the kind of inspired and breathtaking chaos so rare on America's stages that we may have forgotten the word for it. The word is farce ... Even though Sherry Kramer's play is gleefully packed with all those most cherished elements of classic farce - mistaken identity, miscommunicated messages, misunderstood orders - the exasperations which fuel the play's wacky fires from start to finish are recognizably - and sometimes grimly - contemporary ... What distinguishes Kramer's farce from even her most esteemed European counterparts is four strong female roles at the heart of this eloquent craziness ..." -Margaret Spillane, New Haven Independent

"FATHERS AND SONS contains many pungent exchanges, and a meaningful subject: the estrangement of fathers and sons through several generations of African-American men and how it might be healed. The omnipresent phantom Benard Goodwater is the bad daddy incarnate-a trumpet-toting, be-bopping ne'er-do-well, who serves as a jive Greek chorus. He was clearly a lousy father to his haunted son Leon. And Leon returned the disfavor to his own offspring Marcus, by becoming a coke-sniffing, child-neglecting womanizer himself. In FATHERS AND SONS, the two living relations, and the ghostly one, confront one another during a family crisis… Bradford's dialogue can sizzle and sting, and he exhibits a real flair for sexy romantic banter. That gift is exploited in the more intimate, sensuous scenes… Clearly, the playwright wants to explore how a man like Marcus can overcome a legacy of parental neglect and misogyny to forge a committed marriage-and maybe even a reconciliation with his father." Misha Berson, Seattle Times

The play follows a group of strangers in the waiting room of an AIDS clinic over the course of several months. "WHAT ARE TUESDAYS LIKE? is a small epic set entirely in the waiting room of a New York AIDS clinic. In scenes long and short, Victor Bumbalo follows a handful of human beings - male and female, white and black, gay and straight - over the course of a deadly year. Nobody has shown more strongly how adversity can drive good people apart and how courage and heart are needed to bring them back together. Bumbalo's drama is tough yet tender, lean yet spacious, as clear as water yet heartbreakingly powerful. It is a miraculous play." -Christopher Bram, author of Gods and Monsters and Exiles in America "Many AIDS plays written in the darkest days of the epidemic captured the pathos and anger aroused by lives cut short against a backdrop of bigotry and indifference. But few writers managed as gracefully as Victor Bumbalo to combine pathos with a bracing jolt of comedy. His characters rage and weep but never allow the disease to conquer their spirits, or their ability to laugh at themselves and the world. WHAT ARE TUESDAYS LIKE? is a tender, funny, altogether gorgeous piece of work." -Joe Keenan, Emmy Award-winning writer of Frasier and author of Blue Heaven and My Lucky Star

Trapped during a storm in a ferry terminal with no food, no electricity, and no cellular signal, these pilgrims of the night pass the time sharing salacious tales that range from adultery to a biblical flood. "In the six tales of PILGRIMS OF THE NIGHT, and in the framing narrative, Jenkin explores many of the raw nerve ends in our society; the deep need to believe an absolute, while at the same time reveling in the gratification of the present; the difference between titillation and satisfaction; the bizarre nature of reality; and the real nature of the bizarre." -Times (Seattle) "Jenkin's PILGRIMS OF THE NIGHT is a wonderful combination of innocence and guile, primitive impulses and sophisticated craft. Zombies, a headless woman, an island paradise, an erotically frustrated fry cook, a psychopathic neurosurgeon, a silver fairy, and a formerly live deer all make memorable impressions." -Post-Intelligencer (Seattle)

Coconut Joe is looking for the perfect consignment of coconuts for the biscuit factory he works for. His search has taken him to Berlin, where he is double crossed by a beautiful woman and ends up as a prisoner in a nuclear waste plant. He escapes and makes his way to Venice. He boards a ship but it sinks. But Joe manages to escape on a life raft with a Pirate Queen. They are washed up on an island and end up in a hotel that is full of down and outs who cannot pay their rent. They put on a puppet show to amuse themselves. "LIKE I SAY, a new play by one of America's leading writers, is set at the seaside Hotel Splendide, where a peculiar group of travelers try to make some sense of life and get ahold of some ready cash. This mysterious and comic story takes us to the edge of America and the end of the line." -Royal Court Theatre, London "Len Jenkin has an unusual talent for reaching into the shadowy places in the human psyche and coming up with evocative images - like thrusting an arm into a barrel of black slime and coming up with a handful of gold nuggets." -Journal American (Seattle)

This stark, disquieting drama depicts the eleventh-hour effort of a hired tutor to transform the life of a very bright, self-destructive teenager before a Columbine tragedy occurs in San Diego. "... the disquieting drama visits a shockingly dysfunctional family and its truly troubled teen ... The tables turn several times in this intense, suspenseful one-act ... Especially intriguing is the fact that we never quite know at the end what really happened, or what will happen next. Is the kid really a Bad Seed? Did this amoral adolescent, under the tutor's tutelage, actually develop a conscience and a sense of remorse by the end? Will the tutor live? Havis isn't telling. I love this play. The writing is terrific, smart and slick, scary and inscrutable all at once ... The play is superb ..." -Pat Launer, Center Stage, Jazz 88.3FM (San Diego)

Joanie wants recognition for her paintings; her crime-boss husband, Nick, can ensure that she gets it. Slut-shirt May wants to learn how to paint so she can have a picture of her dead mother; her mechanic husband, Jake, wants to elevate himself to crime thug so that May will respect him. Nick just wants Joanie to love him the way he deserves ... Two men, two women, two loopy marriages, some paintings, and some crime collide in this comedy about marriage, ambition and art. "If there is a common thread in York's projects, it is that they are full of uncommon characters: children, 1960's housewives, black financial consultants, Native American activists. Very few of York's characters seem to have anything to do with the playwright herself ... and her attention to those differences gives her work a frankly political spin ..." -American Theater "... York herself has an ethereal, gentle quality. Her work has a piercing intuition. It is literate and often treads a line between blackness and humor ..." -MidWeek, Hawaii "Though treating weighty issues, York doesn't clobber you with them, instead maintaining a light touch. While her themes may be familiar, she (finds) a fresh and individual approach ... accurately capturing the quirks of human attitudes and interplay ..." -Houston Chronicle "She makes her points by not taking herself too seriously, even as she offers astute observations ..." -New York Times "York has a real flair for wry, intelligent humor ..." -Seattle Times "York has a wonderful gift for writing funny lines, and she endows her characters with individual senses of humor ..." -Bellevue Journal American

On a rainy night in Los Angeles, a young couple get an abrupt visit from two old friends. But they're not stopping by for pleasure but to warn them that someone, or something, from their past is coming for them all ... "David Lynch, Amy Tan and The Man Show collide in FREAK STORM ... Matt Pelfrey's new one-act about the inscrutability of those we love juggles macabre comedy, relationship drama and political incorrectness ... Pelfrey is undeniably talented, demonstrating a flair for bilious ribaldry." David C Nichols, Los Angeles Times "In the skilled hands of playwright Pelfrey, this is a classic, dramatic moral dilemma that goes ... right to the guts ... with primal force and power ... Add FREAK STORM to the list of fine works by Pelfrey." -Backstage West "... unsettling exploration of the human psyche ... this gripping morality play." -Martin Hernandez, L A Weekly "The climactic scene with a garbage disposal is so shocking that some avert their eyes, others turn away, but all are riveted to the seats, wondering how it will resolve. You'll have to see the play to know what went down the disposal - prepare to be shocked! ... FREAK STORM is really freaky ..." -Entertainment Today "This domestic disturbance reveals very scary stuff about the world of men ... This unsettling drama which benefits from ... a lot of dark comic material from Pelfrey's bag of tricks." -K C R W (radio)

Based on a true story, SEDITION follows an innocent man accused of sedition during the war hysteria of World War I. "Passing Veterans Green on my way home from the Westport Country Playhouse last week, I was struck by the suddenly ambiguous statue of a World War I doughboy carrying his kit bag, helmet and rifle. Somehow, he looked burdened rather than glorious, more worn-out than brave. Surely the memorial hadn't changed; it was me. I was coming from David Wiltse's new play and my head was full of questions about America's participation in that tragic, famously unnecessary conflict. A playwright who rattles the way you see things must be doing something right. In SEDITION, Mr Wiltse reaches back to his own family history, chronicling his grandfather's World War I run-in with the enforcers of patriotism. It's a compelling story in itself, but Mr Wiltse pointedly underlines the parallels between Woodrow Wilson's decision to enter the war against Germany and George W Bush's decision to invade Iraq ..." -Sylviane Gold, New York Times "David Wiltse's political drama SEDITION ... is an eloquent, incisive and witty play sure to push a theatergoer's buttons and trample raw nerves. In the tradition of Ibsen's AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, Miller's THE CRUCIBLE and Mamet's OLEANNA, SEDITION is a passionate plea for personal freedom, honor and justice. Just as Miller's THE CRUCIBLE examines a (then) contemporary injustice - HUAC's bullying effort to ruin liberalism through the prism of a bygone travesty, the Salem witch hunts of the 1690s - Wiltse's use of the past begs the question of the present ... SEDITION is provocative theater filled with complexity and expressiveness. To whichever side one leans, it is highly unlikely that the play will leave anyone feeling indifferent." -E Kyle Minor, New Haven Register

Three generations of a family move ever westward, restless, seeking. As they migrate from Croatia, through Wyoming, and on to Japan, the land of opportunity keeps moving, and the past keeps catching up. This unforgettable family provides an exquisitely rendered commentary on the human condition. "Smart, funny, provocative, a bit elliptical ... Anthony Clarvoe's account of the immigration experience, with a heavy shading of his own family's story of leaving Croatia, is an admirable new American play ... AMBITION FACING WEST is the story of three generations of Croatians and their determination to better themselves by facing constantly west. This gives the play a nicely circular construction both in space and time. Not only are the characters constantly on the move, but Clarvoe ... gracefully maneuver[s] the characters back and forth in time. Most of the actors play two parts, usually two generations apart, which is another intriguing touch ..." -Ed Siegel, The Boston Globe "A moat surrounds the semicircular stage of AMBITION FACING WEST. It's a striking symbol of both containment and freedom, the two opposing images at the heart of this sprawling, yet wonderfully spare play ... AMBITION FACING WEST manages to cover enormous territory without overwhelming ... The title, AMBITION FACING WEST, refers to the dreams of opportunity that have sent people westward throughout this century. Using the far-flung path of one family as his frame, Clarvoe opens in turn-of-the-century Dalmatia, but swiftly slips back and forth between 1940s Wyoming, 1980s Japan and 1910 Croatia. Throughout the journey, we see the eternal pull between parents and children - the desire to hold them close struggling with the drive to offer them something better ... AMBITION FACING WEST resonates with impressive depth, and his words continue to ripple long after that moat water becomes quiet again." -Terry Byrne, Boston Herald

NIAGARA FALLS consists of two interrelated one-acts: AMERICAN COFFEE and THE SHANGRI-LA MOTOR INN. AMERICAN COFFEE: A working-class couple plots to drug their gay son and his lover to keep them from attending their daughter's wedding. THE SHANGRI-LA MOTOR INN: The newlyweds are ensconced in the Shangri-La Motor Inn for their wedding night. While the groom is anticipating the evening ahead, the bride is discussing the annulment of her not-yet-consummated marriage with the gay motel clerk. "Rich comic cadences ... Bumbalo is a funny guy." -Marilyn Stasio, New York Post "Funny ... Lively ... Bumbalo demonstrates a healthy satiric wit, aimed at both straights and gays, and a lively sense of comic dialogue." -Bernard Weiner, San Francisco Chronicle "NIAGARA FALLS dares to tread in delicate areas ... Bumbalo scores some sharp character comedy ... the play's overall treatment of a situation and a rejected social class who receive little 'gay' treatment is most welcomed." -Nicholas de Jongh, The Guardian (London) "Funny and incisive." -Rob Baker, Daily News "Bumbalo must have secretly taped parents across the country. He outdoes Neil Simon ... It is a finely written work." -John Kerr, Bay Area Reporter "A maximum of both humor and pathos ... I could have cheered." -James M Saslow, The Advocate "There is a basic humanity here that one finds in very few plays." -Michael Bronski, Gay Community News "NIAGARA FALLS is a tender, canny, and frequently hilarious comedy." -Alan Stern, The Boston Phoenix

How far would YOU go to defend your family? AN IMPENDING RUPTURE OF the BELLY concerns Clay Stilts' desire to fortify his house in preparation for both a new baby and the apocalypse he's convinced is just around the corner. Clay worries about so many things, nuclear terrorism, avian bird flu, killer earthquakes, riots, small pox crop dusters flying over Dodger Stadium. His obsessions are sidetracked when a slowly escalating battle with a neighbor who refuses to curb his dog explodes in an impulsive act of violence. In one reckless moment, Clay's world spins out of control, becoming a microcosm for a global struggle against threats to our security, both real and imagined. "Pelfrey is undeniably talented ... a gripping, funny play." -Los Angeles Times "Matt Pelfrey's galvanizing black comedy resembles those nightmares that nag at one's psyche the following day - too off-kilter to accept as reality, yet infused with imagery too haunting to dismiss ... Pelfrey's thought-provoking work is mesmeric from the first moment to the last." -Backstage "Pelfrey has a gift for oddball concepts and sardonic dialogue." -Variety "A brilliant little bulletin from the paranoia frontier." -L A City Beat

A MARRIAGE MINUET tells the witty tale of two married couples who know the temptations of monogamy all too well. For these middle-class suburbanites, flirtation leads to temptation, and temptation leads to infidelity. Five sophisticated characters provide a theatrical glimpse into the never-ending dance that we call marriage. "Go see this play ... This is the kind of play that could change your life ... I loved this play ... here's something I really like: art that is serious and sincere and tries to tell us something true and reform us and make us whole. That is what I liked about this play. Maybe that doesn't matter to you. Maybe what you'll like about this show is that it's cleverly structured and theatrically innovative. Maybe you'll like that it's really funny ... what had me blinking back tears and jumping from my seat at the show's end was that it tried so hard to tell me - simply, directly, honestly - something important. The dialogue is wickedly clever, mixing realist conversation with baldly generalized substitutions and vocalizations of private thoughts, which critically expose the characters' intentions, hypocrisies and insincerities. It mixes over-the-top silliness with bitingly smart observations about marriage and other social constructs. The jokes are sharp ..." -Eric Delp, Herald (Bradenton, FL) "Bonbon adjectives and fizzy feelings come into play when contemplating David Wiltse's A MARRIAGE MINUET, including words that haven't been used in reviews for awhile, like 'delightful' ... The play's outline is as old as French farce ... But Wiltse's approach is ultimately modern, powered by a glib style that skips over the tedium of small talk and goes straight to the snappy lines, epigrammatic observations and libidinous foolishness. If some of the technique and stylings evoke writers such as David Ives, Woody Allen, Elaine May, and Jules Feiffer, well, it's not such bad company to emulate ..." -Frank Rizzo, Variety "The mark of a good (or even great) playwright is the ability to write in many genres. Will Shakespeare, who wrote the deep tragedies of KING LEAR and ROMEO AND JULIET also wrote the slapstick farces THE COMEDY OF ERRORS and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Even Neil Simon, today's undisputed laugh master, has leavened his work with many serious moments. Now David Wiltse, who authored last season's powerful THE GOOD GERMAN, has stepped up with a change of pace with A MARRIAGE MINUET ... Whether dealing with comedy or tragedy, Mr Wiltse is a master of words, and he uses them to create bright, brilliant, brittle epigrams that elicit strong and consistent audience laughter. An obvious admirer of Oscar Wilde, Wiltse writes in a style that not only does justice to him, but also to Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and Phillip Sheridan as well. Wiltse is a keen observer of humanity, and as such, he cannot help but develop a certain cynicism and an acerbic wit. MINUET is a study of the realities and the illusions of marriage, love, the mating game and sex. It states that morality is an illusion, a self-deception, and that all of us are buffeted by the winds of time and victims of opportunity ..." -Jerry Layton, Curtain Calls "Romantic comedies don't get any more clever than David Wiltse's new A MARRIAGE MINUET ..." -Jack Zink, Sun-Sentinel (Florida)

Len Jenkin's noir fantasy entertainment is a cross between a surreal radio melodrama and wacky comedy filled with music and fantasy. Margo Veil is a young actress whose strange adventures lead her into an ever-changing landscape of dream and reality. "Len Jenkin not only has a vivid imagination, but he also has an artist's command of his craft." -New York Times "Len Jenkin has an unusual talent for reaching into shadowy places in the human psyche and coming up with evocative images." -Journal American (Seattle) "Jenkin's plays have plenty of plot and delicious language, but the transience of experience is the main theme that runs through Jenkin's work. He manipulates theatrical illusions with a playful manner that recalls Jorge Luis Borges, to disguise meditations on mortality." -Village Voice (New York) "Jenkin explores many of the raw nerve ends in our society; the deep need to believe an absolute, while at the same time reveling in the gratification of the present; the difference between titillation and satisfaction; the bizarre nature of reality; and the real nature of the bizarre." -Times, (Seattle)

A fantasy drama on clairvoyance and supernatural events surrounding the life of an African American PhD candidate who is researching folklore and ghost communication within immigrant communities in California. She is bothered by the contact with her father and with the arrest of a serial killer of young children."An amazing, intriguing ghost tale that reinvests energy and wit throughout the contemporary San Diego/Tijuana landscape you'll never think of pre-school institutions and federal prisons in the same way again. This original, lyrical retelling of children's campfire boogeyman should haunt you beyond words." -Arthur Kopit

A roller-coaster ride through the American scene, from the Fascination Parlor to Leroy Smiles the Crab-boy, and from the movie set to the tattoo parlor to Frankie the Finn. A concert for actors. "Len Jenkin not only has a vivid imagination, but he also has an artist's command of his craft." -New York Times "Len Jenkin has an unusual talent for reaching into shadowy places in the human psyche and coming up with evocative images." -Journal American (Seattle) "Jenkin's plays have plenty of plot and delicious language, but the transience of experience is the main theme that runs through Jenkin's work. He manipulates theatrical illusions with a playful manner that recalls Jorge Luis Borges, to disguise meditations on mortality." -Village Voice (New York) "Jenkin explores many of the raw nerve ends in our society; the deep need to believe an absolute, while at the same time reveling in the gratification of the present; the difference between titillation and satisfaction; the bizarre nature of reality; and the real nature of the bizarre." -Times, Seattle

KRAKEN explores the true-life encounter between legendary American novelists Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1856. Melville, in the midst of a spiritual journey to the Holy Land, stops to visit with his old friend Hawthorne, now the American consul in Liverpool. As they spend the evening together, they discuss and confront their, fears, failures, things of this world and the next, books and publishers, and all possible and impossible matters. "Len Jenkin not only has a vivid imagination, but he also has an artist's command of his craft." The New York Times "Len Jenkin has an unusual talent for reaching into shadowy places in the human psyche and coming up with evocative images." Journal American (Seattle) "Jenkin's plays have plenty of plot and delicious language, but the transience of experience is the main theme that runs through Jenkin's work. He manipulates theatrical illusions with a playful manner that recalls Jorge Luis Borges, to disguise meditations on mortality." Village Voice (New York)

An American chess master returns home for a defining emotional match with his challenging and unpredictable father, who years ago coached him to success. A taut, true and ultimately forgiving play about the negotiations we all make as parents and children, this intricate drama beautifully delineates the complexity that exists within the strict boundaries of a chessboard or a family. "An interesting mind bender that examines the love-hate relationship that a father and son have with each other and with the war game that defines them." -Jan Nargi, broadwayworld.com

While cruising for sex in a back alley, Paul kills a young man. He rushes to his sister's apartment drenched in blood, and she helps him cover up his crime. Her husband, Nicholas, is not pleased to see Paul as Paul was dating his best friend, Kevin, who has died of an AIDS related illness. Lori the mother of the murdered young man goes to her priest for comfort. It turns out she is having an affair with him. "QUESTA is a mystery play and a wonder. It has the excitement of a taut, packed thriller; it explores guilt, suffering and redemption with real depth. The talents of Victor Bumbalo - the comic charm, the moral courage, the range of characters - are in perfect accord." -Margo Jefferson, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic, New York Times and author of On Michael Jackson "Noteworthy talent abounds in Victor Bumbalo's poetic morality play." -Los Angeles Times "Intense and emotionally riveting. A well-written and gripping play!" -Cynthia Citron, K A B C (radio) "Riveting! Fascinating! Mesmerizing! ... Victor Bumbalo's vivid script ... QUESTA has a life of its own that will most definitely linger long after this run is completed." -Sarika Chawla, IN Magazine "Remarkable! Strong! Victor Bumbalo's dialogue is on the mark." -Jonas Schwartz, theatremania.com "Praise goes to Bumbalo's script for neither over or under doing anything and providing strong characterizations for all seven characters." -Tolucan Times