INTERVIEW WITH ARCHIE
(Run Time-1:One Hour and Four Minutes)
Video of live performance June 3, 2023 at The LAVA Arts Center, Greenfield, MA.
Interview with Archie focuses on two themes: Faith and Dementia and yet it is not “about” either. Rather, this play explores the experience of “two men-of-the-cloth,” one old, one young, with Faith and Dementia. “Archie,” a 90 year old retired Catholic Bishop who doesn’t believe Heaven exists, meets Elijah, a 20-year old Evangelical Seminarian who whole purpose in life is to get to there.
CAST: Tracy Trimm as Archie Doherty; Seth Rosenbaum as Elijah The Seminarian; Louise Krieger as Mrs. Crowningshield; and David Fersh as Brother Murphy.
KEEPERS OF THE SECRET (Run-Time - One Hour and Forty-Two Minutes)
Recorded as a ZOOM Virtual Theater Production during the pandemic.
Based on Judeo-Christian tradition and mythology, Keepers of the Secret focuses on Katheryn, a young postulant preparing for Holy Orders. Katheryn is informed by Sister Clara, Abbess of the Convent of St. Agnus in Dublin, that she had been “chosen” to reveal an ancient secret to the world, a secret that cannot be told, only discovered. Katheryn enlists the aid of Brittyn, her childhood friend and fellow postulant and Brother Bertrand, the Librarian at St. Agnus. Together they set off to discover the ancient secret, but there are forces that will do anything to prevent them from succeeding. Cardinal Francisco Cisneros, Protector of the Faith at the Vatican has searched his whole life for an ancient parchment believed to be given to Jesus of Nazareth by an angel, a messenger from God, 2000 years ago in the Garden of Gethsemane. Cisneros has tracked the parchment to the Cathedral of St. Agnus where it was hidden by a Keeper of the Secret many years ago. Believing that what is written on that parchment could destroy the church, he sends his “Investigator,” Tomás Torquemada, to Dublin as the new Bishop with instructions to find the parchment before Katheryn and her allies do “no matter what it takes.” Torquemada will stop at nothing, including murder, to keep Katheryn from discovering the parchment and the ancient secret that could, indeed, destroy the church or change it forever.
CAST: Valerie O'Hara as Sister Clara de Leon; Brittyn Dion as Katheryn of Dublin; MacKenzie Lee as Brittyn of Dublin; Tom Fields as Brother Bertrand; David Arthur Bachrach as Francisco Cisneros; and, Angel Fabián Rivera as Tomás Torquemada.
THREE COMEDIES
(Run-Time- Total Forty-Two Minutes
Recorded as a ZOOM Virtual Theater Production during the pandemic.
I: PROCEED TO THE ROUTE (Run-Time- Twelve Minutes)
Henry Graham Murray as The Driver
Melody Morris as the Voice of SIRI
Millions of people have come to depend on personal digital assistants like “Cortana,” “Alexa,” and, of course, the ubiquitous “SIRI.” GPS positioning is an astounding technical achievement and SIRI will usually get you where you want to go...but not always. This short play focuses on a series of miscommunications between Harvey Paterson, a lawyer just trying to get across town and his very “personal” digital assistant.
II: COKE? I DON’T LIKE COKE! (Run-Time- Five Minutes and Thirty Seconds)
Suzanne Hayes as The Woman
Maggie Pitt as The Nurse
An elderly woman with a hearing impairment is admitted to the cardiac ward of a major urban hospital. She is interviewed by a nurse who struggles to be heard. It seems that the woman has forgotten her hearing-aids. The result is a series of misunderstandings as the increasingly frustrated nurse tries to remain calm and kind to the woman.
III: BETTY, THE STATEN ISLAND FERRY FAIRY (Run-Time- Twenty Three Minutes)
Allison Wachtler as Betty
Joshua Wolf Coleman as The Passenger
George Patterson, The Passenger, is a middle-aged lawyer taking the Staten Island Ferry to work in Manhattan as he does every day. Today will be an unusual day for George, he will meet Betty, an otherwise normal-looking person who happens to believe that she is a fairy. George and Betty strike up a conversation with Betty trying to convince George that she is a real fairy and George trying to convince Betty that she is not. When Betty reveals knowledge about George that she could not know, George begins to question his sanity, but wait...turns out there is a logical explanation...or is there?
GO TO "PROCEED TO THE ROUTE" VIDEO
GO TO "COKE" VIDEO
AND GOD LAUGHS (Run-Time - Fifteen Minutes)
Recorded Live sans Audience, AMS Studio, Glastonbury, CT. April 11, 2023
And God Laughs is a single character play. Cardinal Rowan O’Sullivan, aka “Sully,” has served the Church all his life believing “The Story.” “For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 [NIV] But now, in his thirty-fifth year of service to the Church, Sully has been diagnosed with Stage-Four Alzheimer’s that, contrary to prospering him, will profoundly harm him and will dash all hopes for a future. But Sully has his own ideas, so he strikes up a one-sided conversation with Jesus hoping to negotiate a change of plans only to be reminded of that ancient Yiddish saying, “Mensch tracht und Gott lacht,” Man plans...AND GOD LAUGHS! But, in the end; who will have the last laugh?
CAST: John McDonnell Tierney as Sully
EXTRAORDINARY HERO
(Run-Time - One Hour and Fifty Minutes)
Recorded as a ZOOM Virtual Theater Production during the pandemic.
Our story begins with “our hero,” Sara, an “ordinary” person in the “ordinary” world. Sara feels the universal need to find love, security, and justice while at the same time feeling free to live her life as she desires. She is feeling very alone as she asks, “Can Anyone Hear Me?” Much to Sara’s surprise, there is a response to her cry! “I can hear you!” It is Vox, The voice in Sara's head, who, along with Joseph, The Mentor, will be the characters in Sara’s adventures. Sara’s journey begins when she hears “the call to adventure,” disrupting the comfort of her “Ordinary World” and presenting the challenge of a lifetime, to overcome her fears and personal demons, to heroically rise from the ashes of defeat, to become more fully human able to experience the joys, the sorrows, and the fullness of life.
CAST: Estefanía Mena as Sara; Brittyn Dion Bonham as Vox; Michael Green as Joseph
HUMANITY'S CHILD
(Run-Time - Fifty-Five Minutes)
Recorded LIVE The Players Theatre Off-Broadway 2019
In HUMANITY’S CHILD a compelling story, appealing music and endearing characters engage audience emotions as “Sara" (aka Humanity’s Child), "Vox" (the voice in Sara’s head) and Humanity’s Cousins face a world in disarray, a nation divided, a planet in deep trouble and a very uncertain future. Composer/Playwright John McDonnell Tierney’s script and score is at once wildly entertaining and deeply moving drawing on universal human experiences (fear and joy), encouraging action (speaking up), and offering a vision for a just, sustainable future. The music of HC2020 is extremely accessible to audiences of all ages drawing on contemporary styles and familiar forms with sing-able melodies, moving harmonies, engaging rhythms, and memorable lyrics...audience go away humming our tunes. Similarly, the script, based on research, rings true in spite of being written by a septuagenarian. Be with Sara, Vox and The Cousins as they discover their inner-strengths and personal resilience
CAST: Lizzy Moreno as Humanity’s Child; with Natassha Amalia, Momoyo Arai, Sarah Bialkin, Cora Jean-Baptiste, Jenn Nicole Keanini, Leica Lucien,Refilwe Maitisa, Genevieve Inez McCarthy, Keena McDonald, Savannah McManus, Hanako Morikawa, Annie Raczko and Madison Wyattas Humanity’s Cousins
PEACEMAKER (Run-Time: One Hour and Eight Minutes)
Recorded Live at the Charter Oak Theater, Hartford, CT. May 7, 2016
Prelude: Members of an ancient tribal community gather at the council fire as have the ancestors of all the peoples of the Earth. A singer and storyteller, relates the dreams of Humanity’s Child whose name is Peacemaker. In the story, Great Mystery sends Spirits of the Upper and Lower Worlds into the dreams of an unborn child to tell the child stories of two paths: the path that leads to life and the path that returns to the whole. The Storyteller calls on many listeners to play roles in the stories. A pregnant woman and her husband become SpiritMother and SpiritFather. They tell the child story-songs of love and nature and experiencing both from a place of joy. Two other listeners at the council fire become Uncle Coyote and Aunt SpiderWoman who will tell very different stories. Four young women become the Spirits of the Sky Nation and four young men become the Spirits of the Rock Nation. All of these “dream characters” play yet other characters in the child’s visions.
Act I: As the play unfolds, the unborn child, moments before birth, asleep in its mother’s womb, is visited by beings who deeply love the child yet have differing views on what choice this “child of humanity” should make. SpiritFather and SpiritMother urge the child to choose the path of life. Coyote and SpiderWoman, knowing the depth of sorrow in the world, urge the child to choose not to be born, to abandon the physical body and return to origin as pure energy…one with the Great Mystery.
Act II: The dreaming Child seeks guiding visions. In a first vision the child is visited again by Grandfather’s Spirit, he sings of the child’s potential to become “a risk taker, an earth shaker, a peace maker.” But then, in a second vision, the many-headed monster HidesItsFace reveals a world of human cruelty, disrespect, ignorance and sorrow. The child is overwhelmed and questions whether its spirit is truly strong enough to face the world that the humankind has made. The child has a third vision in which Grandparent’s Spirit responds to each fear with support and compassion, promising a continuing presence on the journey that is life. The child makes the choice to walk the path of life, to be a peace maker. But, HidesItsFace returns in a final vision with an ultimate challenge to self-awareness. Humanity’s child recognizes, for the first time, the duality; the child recognizes and accepts the full self. With this leap of self-knowledge, everything changes. The spirit beings come together into a single-minded unity...a sacred community. They set the child off on life’s journey with the hope that, on the Earthwalk, Great Mystery’s song will be remembered and sung by a peace maker.
Finale: Just as the child arrives at the place of emergence, the woman of the tribe playing SpiritMother goes into labor and delivers her baby. Humanity’s Child begins another Earthwalk time knowing that there will be many choices to make on each step of the journey. Similarly, each "witness" - each human being who encounters and perceives the spirit of the work, may also emerge from the experience, like the child, newly born and free to make peaceful choices in their lives. The play ends in a joyous celebration with cast and audience.
CAST: Jonathan Kruk, Bianca Day (May 6), Talia Raquel (May 7), Shawn Phillips, Sarah Elizabeth Charles, AC Lincoln, Dianne Mower, Marion Cowings, Suzanne Amaral, Debbie Busick, Mary Case, Jan Lin, Jean Porschen, Ruth Elliot-Hilsdon, Susan Shabazian, Nancy Stewart, Loyd Davis, August Miller, Michael Stearns, Paul Willis, Jr.,Paul Aherne, Jas Hilsdon, Howard Lehman, Errol William