Playwright Portrait, Melissa James Gibson, Excerpt from This

The Playwright Melissa James Gibson, 2006

pswb©2011

THIS

ALAN

What if you wake up and discover you’ve been living a dinky life you know

JEAN-PIERRE

A What life

ALAN

Dinky/ dinky

JEAN-PIERRE

I don’t know this word Dinky

ALAN

Of no importance

JEAN-PIERRE

Dinky

ALAN

Like when 

you’re in the middle of telling someone a story and as you’re telling it say 

midway through 

you realize that your story isn’t as good as you thought it was but

It’s Too Late To Go Back

Do you ever fear that your life is like that

Mother Kathleen Liles, 2010

Mother Kathleen Liles 2010
Rector, Christ & Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church 

pswb©2011

Playwright Portrait, Susan Mosakowski, Excerpt from Man-Made

The Playwright Susan Mosakowski, 2007

Man-Made

DARWIN

I never thought that that UPSTART, that that BUG collector could make such advancements. I devoted my life to this work when Wallace was only in knee pants. Twenty years ago I set sail on the Beagle. For five long years I cataloged an endless procession of life. Algae, kelp, and seaweed of all shapes and colors waved beneath me like a brilliantly painted flag from the ocean’s floor. Ammonites with their fossil chambered shells begged for my ear. Batrachians hunted my fingers with their forked reptilian tongues. I sought every life form—Brachiopods, Marine Mollusca, Cephalopods, and Cetacea; those my Emma are the naked skin fish, the dolphins and whales. I chased Corolla, Cotyledons, Crustaceans, Curculio, and Edentata through the jungles of Cape Horn and Tierra del Fuego. The smell of eucalyptus fills my nose by merely uttering their names . . . oh Emma, if you could have only seen these places, overgrown and glorious.

Playwright Portrait, Andrea Lepcio, Excerpt from Get In The Car

The Playwright Andrea Lepcio, 2009

pswb©2011

GET IN THE CAR

Our JACKSON

Want to ride in my convertible Oldsmobile Coupe.

OUR EDITH

Mama told me not to ride with strangers.

OUR JACKSON

Jackson Pollock.

OUR EDITH

Edith Metzger.

OUR JACKSON

Now we're not strangers. Hop in.

OUR EDITH

That's not what happened. You had no need to charm me. And you didn't. I was your lover's friend. Here at her invitation.

OUR JACKSON

Visiting. Everyone's always visit. Ing.

OUR EDITH

When one visits a famous person, one is especially courteous. Whether or not one actually fawns, one certainly acts aware of the other person. Of their needs and mood. It's hard to feel more significant than the father of abstract expressionism. It's hard enough for a woman to feel more significant than a man. Imagine an unknown woman, known man. Abstract expressionism.

Playwright Portrait, Crystal Skillman, Excerpt from Birthday

The Playwright Crystal Skillman, 2006

pswb©2012

Birthday

LEILA

In my building.

When it was snowing out of nowhere here last month.

All these seagulls fl y past my windows.

Fucking weird, right?

Right in the snow.

The way they moved, right up to the windows, glide

their bodies right by, then raise up, that’s grace I

thought.

I’d like to move like that.

Some people make mistakes but can move through

them, let them go and they don’t hurt.

They don’t cry in hallways and look like shit.

They sit in corners and keep it all inside.

But I can’t.

I have this wish, the way I want things to be.

And when I see it, in my head, it’s good, it’s good but

how can I make that…

I dream about it.

Being that.

I wake up.

It’s a feeling.

Alive like…

Like there are all these possibilities.

But I wake up.

I lose it.

Playwright Portrait, Gary Sunshine, Excerpt from Good Deeds for a Weary World

The Playwright Gary Sunshine, 2006

pswb©2011

GOOD DEEDS FOR A WEARY WORLD

MIKEY, standing next to the destroyed flame broiler, speaks to THE EMPLOYEE.

MIKEY

The flame broiler.

It's the heart of this.

The heart.

Maybe you could have done something.

Cause did you HEAR IT? HUH? Squeaking or grinding or.

Did you ask, like, did you say ¡Hola¡, Flame Broiler, how can I help you? Cause we all need you to suck the fat and the gristle and the sores out of the patties and leave nothing but the taste behind?

You could have asked, Can I restart you? Or grease you up? Reposition the element? Jigger your chains? Can I cool you down, is that it, are you overheated from all the hard work you've done for us? What can I do, Flame Broiler, you could have asked this in my absence, you could have gently asked the machine, YOU COULD HAVE ASKED!

But I'm sorry.

I'm out of line.

I've got a lot.

There's a lot.

Did a piece of your brain die?

Did the fence rip through your scalp when you crawled into this country?

Were you brilliant before?

Were you beautiful before?

Did you deteriorate?

Because you didn't tell me. When I hired you. You never said. You didn't say that was your plan.

To deteriorate.

Nobody ever says.

You understand, though. I'm going to have to.

EMPLOYEE

Fire me?

MIKEY

Kill you. No. I meant. Lay you off. Cause there’s no work.

FROM THIS JOAN by Gary Sunshine

JOAN

Adrienne’s teaching me to be guiltless.

HOWIE

A little guilt never hurt anybody.

JOAN

And frank.

HOWIE

Which I find to be very sexy.

JOAN

And liberal.

HOWIE

Oh how unique, a liberal Jew from New York--

JOAN

--I was completely dependent on my husband for everything but money and I refuse to get into that situation again--

HOWIE

--Your husband’s dead, dear. (Beat.) Look. I know what it’s like for you. I can see. Down here, older. By yourself. You feel like no matter where you go, you never leave any footprints. You’re still alive but there’s hardly any trace of you. But I could be your footprints, Joan. Let me change the way you walk on this earth.

Playwright Portrait, Ann Marie Healy, Excerpt from What Once We Felt

The Playwright Ann Marie Healy, 2007

pswb©2011

WHAT ONCE WE FELT

ASTRID

Macy

You haven’t even touched—

Look at this food:

This is beautiful food!

You never get to eat at Panet

This food will change your life //

Enjoy enjoy my dear

MACY

Change your life

ASTRID

(Pulling a kumquat out and eating it with her fingers)

You really should try one

They’re stuffed full of liquor

Like sucking a shot from a wet sock!

MACY

What did you offer Claire to entice her?

ASTRID

I shouldn’t have

It was ahem

A very unconventional contingency //

I shouldn’t have even tried

MACY

What did you offer her?

(Pause)