Stageplays
Contact Richard directly by e-mail or by telephone at (916) 599-3486 for information about producing any of his stageplays.
Benched - Max, a senior citizen, convinced life is no longer worth living, makes his way to a favorite park bench where he plans to commit suicide. The plan goes awry when Max finds his bench occupied by Randall, a cheery fellow senior who refuses to leave. Randall takes it upon himself to prove to Max that he still has a great many reasons to live. Randall has a mystical bag of spiritual tricks and he uses all of them to convince Max he has more to do before he departs to the hereafter. (Cast of four: Two older men, one young man in his 20s, and a young woman in her 20s. A single set piece. Approximate running time: 80 minutes without an intermission.)
Ritual - Two teenage boys forge an unlikely friendship given their disparate cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Thrown together as neighbors in rural Minnesota--Daniel is Jewish, while Osma’s family is from the Gaza strip in Israel. As the boys grow closer, tension rises between their fathers. Emotions explode when Osma’s older brother arrives on the scene and is arrested as a former terrorist. Osma’s father is convinced that his neighbors are responsible for turning in his oldest son. It is left to the teenage sons to show their fathers the futility of an intolerance that has existed for eons. (Cast of five: Two 16 year old boys, one 26 year old man, and two men in their 40s. A single set piece. Approximate running time: 90 minutes without an intermission, but an act break is suggested.)
Billie - Billie Baumbacker (a small town eccentric) continues to grieve over the suicide of her husband two years earlier. It’s the 1980s and AIDS is in its infancy as “the gay plague.” Scottie has returned to the Kansas town he attempted to escape, with the assistance of Billie’s deceased husband. Rumors continue to run rampant about the reason why Billie’s husband took his own life. During an unplanned reunion Billie and Scottie find solace in one another during one evening of recriminations and confessions. (Cast of two: A woman in her late 50s and a young man in his early 20s. A single set piece. Approximate running time: 95 minutes without an intermission, but an act break is suggested.)
Surviving Braces - Teenagers explore contemporary issues and angst in a series of comedic and serious monologues and scenes. This piece is perfect for high schools hungry for material that is doable and relevant for young people. No one is forced to play someone else’s mother or grandmother. (Cast of four or sixteen: Half boys and half girls. The cast size may vary depending on the needs or wants of the specific school. A single set piece of platforms, with minimal props are the only requirements. Approximate running time: 110 minutes without an intermission, but an act break is suggested.)
Resting Place - A mother visits the grave site of her daughter on the anniversary of the daughter's untimely death. During an encounter with a cemetery caretaker the mother is forced to relive the incidents that led to the loss of her only child. The mother has no idea that her meeting with the caretaker is more than a mere coincidence. What could lead to another tragic death ends up being a dual rescue mission between two people who, under normal circumstances, would never have met. (Cast of three: A woman in her 40s, a man in his 40s, and a child of 9. The child’s part is a nonspeaking role. A single set piece. Approximate running time: 90 minutes without an intermission, but an act break is suggested.)
Crib - It’s Christmas Eve. A homeless couple seek shelter. The young woman is pregnant. The couples only recourse is to force themselves on a street con man who rips off the public pretending to be a Salvation Army Santa Claus. In an evening filled with accusations and emotional assaults this trio of outcasts are “delivered” to a place of peace and salvation through helping one another. (Cast of three: A young woman in her early 20s, a young man in his early 20s, and an older man in his 50s or 60s. A single set piece. Approximate running time: 95 minutes without an intermission, but an act break is suggested.)
Expecting - A young cartoonist and his wife are expecting their first child. While excited about starting a family, the surprising news forces the first time father to face reservations he has about his parenting abilities. During a series of dreams and fanciful flashbacks the would-be father is reunited with his sister, his parents, and two plastic toys that come to life and help the cartoonist resolve old pains surrounding the unfortunate death of his younger sister when she was only six (and the victim of child abuse). (Cast of seven: A young man in his 20s, two young women in their 20s, a man in his 50s, a woman in her 50s, two men in the 30 to 50 year old range. A single set piece. Approximate running time: 100 minutes without an intermission, but an act break is suggested.)
Castle - An older man and his emotionally disabled son break into the home of a wealthy female art dealer. The woman is held captive by the two men while they ransack her home for valuables. However, the older man’s son is struggling to find something much more important than material goods. The boy longs to be reunited with a mother he only vaguely remembers. Initially the art dealer attempts to save herself by offering to play the part of surrogate mother to the boy. Surprisingly the woman’s role playing allows her redemption for her failings as a mother to her own abandoned son. Together, “mother” and son (in a bizarre twist of plot) are able to turn the tables on the sadistic father who is not exactly who he has pretended to be. (Cast size of four: A woman in her 50s, two men in their 50s, a young man of 20. A single set piece. Approximate running time: 95 minutes without an intermission, but an act break is suggested.)
The Forgotten Mr. Wychoff - A famous playwright struggles with his feelings of irrelevance in the early 1970s. His plays, once hailed as masterpieces are being ridiculed as dated and passe, during a time when avant guard theatre is in its infancy. Feeling discarded and deserted by everyone, the 60 year old writer has come to believe his only option is to end his life. The problem is that the man doesn’t have the stomach to kill himself so, in a desperate attempt to end all his suffering he invites a drug dealer into his home and tries to taunt the dealer into killing him. The end result of this odd coupling is a touching bond that develops between this unlikely pair. (Cast size of two: A man of 60 and a man in late 20s. A single set piece. Approximate running time: 90 minutes without an intermission, but an act break is suggested.)
Freeze! - Two men (one black, the other a white police officer) are trapped in a corner market that has been looted during a racial uprising. Neither man trusts the other but, in order to survive what is going on around them the men are forced to come to terms with one another. During their encounter the men realize they have met before--almost 20 years earlier. As the men reminisce about their former meeting and their shared love for baseball they develop a mutual understanding and respect. Sadly the fragile peace is disrupted with the arrival of a younger black man who is angry at the world and anyone in authority--particularly the police, who he blames for the death of his little brother. The older black man is forced to make a painful choice in the hope of saving the young man. In the end there is a frightening revelation about “history repeating itself.” (Cast size of three: Two men in their 50s, one young man of 19. A single set piece. Approximate running time: 80 minutes without an intermission. Act break is suggested but not recommended.)
ONE ACT PLAYS AVAILABLE
Interrogation - A mother and wife faces an interrogation for the murder of her husband, but the woman is already prepared to confess to the crime. The detective in charge of the interrogation is a young female detective who has had past issues with her own father. During the interrogation the detective and accused murderer forge a bond from some shared common ground. Ultimately the two women became allies against a world oftentimes dominated by certain types of men. (Cast size of two: A woman in her 50s and a young woman in her late 20s. A single set piece. Approximate running time: 30 minutes.)
Member of the Board - A simple loan application takes on a bizarre twist when the applicant is asked by the loan officer to confess to a crime committed twenty years earlier. The confession is all that’s needed for the loan to be approved. Things grow even stranger when gender lines become blurred as the banker reveals a dark secret about who he (or perhaps she) used to be. Only one thing is certain. . .the banker was the victim of the twenty year old crime. (Cast size of two: Two men, both in there late 30s. OR a man in his late 30s and a woman in her late 30s who appears as a man. A single set piece. Approximate running time: 35 minutes.)
Father, Forgive Me - The confessional booth becomes the scene for an encounter between an other worldly creature and a pregnant priest. And, yes, the priest is a man. (Cast size of two: Two men in their 40s. A single set piece. Approximate running time: 30 minutes.)
Park Larks - A single man, looking for love in New York City, waits on a park bench for his blind date to show up. During his wait he has three different encounters. He first meets two aliens from another planet who speak a strange language but, otherwise, behave like tourists--happy to snap photos to take back to their home planet. His second encounter is with a woman who believes her entire life is being portrayed on a daytime TV soap opera that she can never miss. The third encounter is with the blind date, who turns out to be a man instead of a woman. (Cast size of five: Three men and two woman, ages are flexible. A single set piece. Approximate running time: 40 minutes.)
Inside - Four young men wake up in a strange room (that is more like an empty void) with seemingly no means of escape. There are no doors, windows, or bars in the room. The young men have never met before and have reasons not to trust one another. One of the young men only speaks Spanish and has some sort of mystical powers that, at first, threaten the others. The only thing the young men have in common is that they have all committed crimes of varying degrees of seriousness. Soon the young men realize their only chance for redemption and freedom is to understand their crimes and ask for forgiveness. (Cast size of four: Four young men in their late teens--two of the teens should be black, one is white, and one is Mexican-American and speaks only in Spanish. A single set piece. Approximate running time: 45 minutes.)
ALSO AVAILABLE
A number of ten-minute plays.
A book of over 80 monologues written just for teens and young children.