Current Full Length Plays:
EPIPHANY VARIATIONS is a winter's symphony that starts Christmas Eve with a Jazz bassist, dubbed the Joyce of Jazz, in act of suicide from overdose. In that twilight between life and death, he imagines and remembers the story of Joyce's THE DEAD. This was the story his Mom read every Christmas. It is Dublin, 1896. A young scholar and his more earthy wife are at his Aunts' annual Christmas party. There, his Irishness and marriage will come into question. The second thread, concerns James and Nora Joyce in Zurich, 1919. They are more Bohemian versions of the couple from THE DEAD. It is Candlemas evening and Joyce's birthday. For his birthday, he and his friend, an American ex-pat, have planned a little rendezvous with the beautiful jewish woman he's spies everyday in her watercloset across from his. He thinks his worldliness will charm her into submission, but it is she who will dominate. The third strand comes from his childhood memory circa Kenyon College, 1973. It is of his and his mother's most embarrassing moment at her English Dept's Winter Celebration. He, his mother; who was a Joyce scholar and his Dad; who has just returned from Viet Nam, are planning to perform at her dept's Winter celebration. She hopes to show off her husband, family and bask in having published a woman's reading of Joyce. There, her choice of scholarship, ethnicity and marriage will be questioned. The final strand is his own wake. There in the present, the tensions between his gay friends and lovers, the Irish half of his family and his estranged Orthodox mother's return, tie all together in a sexy and literate telling. It has been described as having the wit and complexity of Stoppard and the poignancy of Michael Cunningham's THE HOURS.
It has had 3 readings in NYC, San Francisco and the Bay Area. It was a part of the Magic's Theatre's IN The House Workshops at the end January '04. It received 30+ hours of rehearsal, with local actors and director, culminating in a script in hand, semi-staged performance with audience feedback afterwards. It was enthusiastically received. It plays and flows with more ease, than it's initial description and read may tell.
The set in simple; a single Victorian room that could play in all periods. It is a true ensemble piece needing 9 versatile actors; 4W & 4M in their 20's, 30's and 60's and a 10-12 year boy. They each play like characters in throughout the times. Their transformations are as simple as a change of accent and a costume piece like glasses, a hat or shawl. Intrigued?
GABRIEL is my translation to the stage of George Sand's 1839 roman dialouge, GABRIEL/GABRIELLE. George Sand is best known, if at all, for her cross dressing and love affairs with Romanticism's elite. It's a shame that her writings aren't, and good luck trying to find her in an English translation. GABRIEL was originally written to be staged, but her and her play's views on gender roles and religion were too controversial for her time, so she had it published privately as a closet drama. The story is about the young Prince Gabriel di Bramante who was raised in an opulent and educated solitude. On his maturity, his ancient Grandfather, his only known relative, tells him of the reason for his seclusion and the families/his secret. He was born female and raised male to inherit the title and spite the Bramantes minor. She, as a he, vows to revenge himself and unite the family. He finds Astolfe, his only cousin, and saves his life in a bar brawl. They vow to be brothers forever. At Carnival, Astolfe ask him to dress as a woman to play a trick on his mistress, Faustina. He instead, dresses as an Angel in a white gown and Astolfe and all other men that night fall for his beauty. So much so, that Astolfe has challenged his friend to a dual over insulating Gabriel's and his honor. Gabriel tells his secret; she is a he, to stop the fight. Astolfe finds out Gabriel's true secret when he drunkenly walk in on him changing. His love for Gabriel hasn't been misplaced. They vow to be brothers, friends and lovers. That ends Act One. Act Two begins with Gabriel playing Gabrielle for half the year as Astolfe's wife. His mother hates her for taking his son and Bother Como has more on his mind than her salvation. They can't find happiness there, so they head to their hunting lodge in the forrest. Astolfe can't handle the solitude and in Florence, his jealously rages when other men and women seek out Gabriel's company. While at their retreat, his friend makes an unexpected call and Astolfe's green eyed monster lock Gabriel in the tower. He escapes to Rome where his grandfather's agents want to capture and return him home. Astolfe's friend want's to find out if his love has not misplaced. Astolfe wants the priest, that raised and educated him, to bind Gabriel in lawful marriage. Gabriel has other plans including going to the Pope to renounce his title and get the freedom to wander the world to seek his souls freedom. He play ends with him finding his freedom, tragically in death, but not before he defends his honor in a fencing match and is betrayed by one who was in his debt. It is comparable to LIFE IS A DREAM and a tragic version of TWELFTH NIGHT. Like a Shakespearean play, it needs a unit set and can flow quickly into various locations. It needs a cast of 10; 6M, 2W and 2 that could be either/or and cross dressed, if a few roles are double cast. Their ages range form the 70's to many in the 20's. The cross dressing emphasizes the gender questioning that was Sand's intent. It has had a reading here and in NYC with the 2004 Transgendered Theatre Fest in association with NYU.
