A THOUSAND CRANES
SYNOPSIS:
Texas, October 2018: White GOP Congressman Walt Woodhouse faces a tough mid-term election in his purple district. When his coed daughter is attacked and left in a coma, he leaves the campaign to be with her. Police suspect a white young man seen lurking in her area. To prevent a pregnancy from rape, her Doctor recommends the morning after drug. Walt’s wife and estranged gay son urge him to consent, but he refuses on religious grounds. When detectives find footage of his daughter on the night of the crime with a black man, Walt reconsiders the drug and faces a reckoning with his God, his family, the world, and himself.
Dramaturg: Morgan Jenness
CHARACTERS (4M, 4F)
WALT WOODHOUSE, 63. A white Christian GOP congressman facing a tough reelection.
MARIE WOODHOUSE, 62. Walt's faithful wife.
DETECTIVE ZAMORA, 40s. A policewoman in Waco.
DOCTOR DHAR, 40s, A progressive doctor specializing in head trauma.
LIZZY WOODHOUSE, 22. Walt's coed daughter.
NICK WOODHOUSE, 32. Walt's estranged gay son living in NYC.
HIRO (also PATRICK), 30s. Nick's Japanese immigrant husband.
CASSIE BURKE, 33. African-American older sister of a missing young man.
DUET FOR THREE
SYNOPSIS:
New York City, 1929. KAY SWIFT is on her way to becoming the first female composer to have a hit Broadway show. Her husband, prominent banker/poet PAUL JAMES, writes the lyrics. They create the musical FINE AND DANDY around a baby grand in their sumptuous living room as the Depression takes hold outside the doors of their townhome. They may also be writing the musical to save their marriage, which is increasingly threatened by Kay’s open ten-year affair with GEORGE GERSHWIN. DUET FOR THREE explores the nature and boundaries of love, and brings Kay Swift back into the spotlight after being undervalued in life and unjustly forgotten in death due to her sex. The play features a young ELEANOR POWELL, who got her big break in the show. It also features a wonderful roster of Swift/James songs, including enduring standards, “Fine and Dandy” and “Can’t We Be Friends.” Commissioned by the Kay Swift Trust, DUET FOR THREE comes with rights to all music attached.
MUSICAL ARRANGEMENTS: Aaron Gandy
Dramaturgs: Martha Wade Steketee and Morgan Jenness
CHARACTERS (3M, 4F)
KAY SWIFT, 33. A beautiful, lively, brilliantly talented composer, wife and mother.
JAMES (PAUL JAMES) WARBURG, 34. Kay’s wealthy, talented poet/banker husband.
GEORGE GERSHWIN, 33. A celebrated genius composer.
MAIRZY GRIMES, 50s, A faded Broadway star fighting back her way back from skid row.
ELEANOR POWELL, 18. Naive, Quaker-raised, but gaining fame as a tap dancer.
HARRY MATHERS, 40s. A Broadway producer.
ANDREA (ANDY) WARBURG, 9. Kay’s middle daughter.
DAMSEL
SYNOPSIS:
Plucky Bostonian Kathy met, fell in love with and married her gentle husband Randall shortly after enduring a highly-publicized kidnapping, rape and subsequent trial eight years ago. Now bedridden from a troublesome first pregnancy, she finds herself competing for Randall's attentions with a female co-worker who may or may not be the silhouetted victim in a televised crime documentary. Randall 's knight-in-shining-armor obsession drives Kathy to look at their own initial meeting and courtship in a new and disturbing light.
CHARACTER BREAKDOWN: (1M, 3F)
KATHY, 40. Pregnant. Having doubts about her suitability for motherhood due to emotional damage from an earlier trauma.
RANDALL, 40s - 50. Her kind, caring husband.
SUSAN, 38. Randall's British co-worker. Attractive. Mysterious. Reserved.
ANGELA, 17. Susan's bi-racial American daughter. Brilliant. Emotionally volatile..
Developed in the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages. Initial developmental readings featured Michael Emerson, Carrie Preston, Jennifer Van Dyke and Rutina Wesley.
Presented in the Primary Stages' Fresh Ink Reading Series at Primary Stages, directed by Jenn Thompson, with Mary Bacon, Stephen Kunken, Alanna Spence and Jennifer Van Dyke.
Further developed at TACT (The Actors Company Theater), with a reading directed by Scott Alan Evans, with Finnerty Steeves, Jeff Talbot, Kelly McAndrew and Carla Duren.
SPF FINALIST.