Composers and their stage works 



 

Only An Orphan Girl

Melodrama. Henning Nelms. 3 men, 5 women (one female part may be played as a male). 4 simple sets.

A long-suffering young lady seems destined not only to lose her lover but her life as well. The familiar characters of old-time melodrama here play their roles up to the hilt. The most thrilling scene is one in which dynamite (planted by the villain) is about to blow all the good characters to eternity. Just in time, however, Lucy picks up the dynamite and throws it out the door. On reflection, though, it seems that the thrill just described is actually topped by the even more exciting scene in the sawmill where Nellie, tied to a log, is approaching the circular saw which in a moment will tear her to pieces. The hero, who has been tied by the villain, is freed just in time to thrust aside the latter who draws a pistol on him and threatens to kill him if he dares touch the lever that will save Nellie. The villain fires. The hero is wounded. And, at this very instant, a friend opportunely appears to snare the villain, and Nellie is safe in the arms of her hero.
ISBN: 0-8222-0855-5

The Only Thing Worse You Could Have Told Me … Monologues

Dan Butler. : 1M (flexible casting) - Composite set

Billed as a "whirlwind tour of the gay American landscape," this one-man show juxtaposes 10 predominantly gay characters in 14 vignettes. The characters question, contradict and especially challenge one another's credo of what "being gay" really means.
ISBN: 0-8222-1613-2

Only You

Comedy. Timothy Mason. 4 men, 2 women. Unit Set

Leo is a little intense, planning a lifetime with Miriam on their first date. Even Leo's mysterious whispering mentor, Big Voice, can't succeed in getting Leo to lighten up, and Miriam shows Leo the door. Friends counsel friends in this romantic urban fairy-tale: while Leo seeks glib Eddies dubious advice, Miriam pours her heart out to the clueless Heather, and depressed Bo seeks help from anyone willing to put up with him. Eddie's party, thrown together to set things right among young lovers, ends by throwing the wrong people in bed together, with calamitous results. It takes the active intervention of Big Voice, a deus ex machina whose "eye is on the sparrow," to engineer a final zany costume party. Here love is resolved as well as it can be in a world where "between what we anticipate and what we receive a great gulf is fixed." Bo lands a sympathetic Heather, Eddie discovers his true vocation, Leo finds his Cinderella and Miriam, her unlikely prince.
ISBN: 0-8222-1488-1