The PlayFinder™

This collection of socially distant shorts is designed to be performed on the internet as well as the stage. Playful and inventive, TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES taps into the delights and frustrations of staying connected.

Hey Stranger by Steph Del Rosso. Years after a messy breakup, Eve and Gideon reunite. What could go wrong? Possibly everything. A comedy about mixed signals and bad internet, ... Read more

A religious community is changed when a non-believer has an ecstatic experience. The 1830's Shaker society of Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, is set in ordered ways. Their once dramatic form of worship has by now developed into routine. The arrival of Fanny upsets the harmony; the Sisters suspect her to be a "winter Shaker," one who suddenly converts when life gets too hard on the farm. Fanny sees angels in the meadow, and soon all the young women are receiving spiritual "gifts" of so... Read more

Carrie and Michael are US Marines on security duty in a desert war zone. They would seem to have little in common. Michael seems to be "one of the boys," and Carrie is married with a husband back home. But with little to do but talk, these two soldiers begin to connect.... Read more

After viewing four hundred apartments, has Harris finally found the right co-op, or simply the right real estate agent—Alice? Harris must decide if it's time to trade in his artificial fish—and finally grow up.... Read more

Lives intersect in comic and dramatic fashion in a motel that has seen better days in Watkins Glen, New York. Break-ups and a wedding, a rapping reverend and a drone attack, the ridiculous and the sublime all come together in one unlikely place.

THE GORGES MOTEL is comprised of the short plays:
Missing by James Hindman
... Read more

GULF VIEW DRIVE is the third play in Arlene Hutton's Nibroc Trilogy—the trio of Hutton's plays that began with Last Train to Nibroc (1999) and continued with See Rock City (2005). In the first two plays, a young pair of Kentuckians named May and Raleigh meet, fall in love, marry and try to reconcile marital expectat... Read more

Lives intersect in comic and dramatic fashion in a motel that has seen better days in Watkins Glen, New York. Break-ups and a wedding, a rapping reverend and a drone attack, the ridiculous and the sublime all come together in one unlikely place.... Read more

Part of the collection One Christmas Eve at Evergreen Mall

THE STORY: ONE CHRISTMAS EVE AT EVERGREEN MALL follows eight intertwined stories in a Midwestern mall on the last day of shopping before the holiday. A diverse cast of characters—from a lovesick mall Santa to an over-eager mall cop, from a pair of brainy misfit teenagers to a pair of battling actors in a production of A Chri... Read more

In December 1940, an east-bound cross-country train carries the bodies of the great American writers Nathanael West and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Also on board is May, who shares her seat with a charming young flyer, Raleigh. Religious and bookish, May plans to be a missionary. Raleigh has been given a medical discharge and, inspired by West and Fitzgerald, is heading to New York to be a writer. Raleigh and May discover they are from neighboring Appalachian towns, and he decides to ... Read more

Adapted from the book Sala’s Gift by Ann Kirschner and based on a true account, LETTERS TO SALA is a remarkable story of a young girl's survival during wartime Germany. Five years. Seven Nazi labor camps. Over 350 hidden letters. Sala Garncarz Kirschner kept her secret for over fifty years, concealing her incredibly painful history in a Spill and Spell box. Everything changes when Sala reveals the cache to her grown daughter, Ann. LETTERS TO SALA draws from the emotional... Read more

Kath was the last visitor to leave a major amusement park before the pandemic lockdown. While reminiscing online about life pre-Covid, two roommates challenge each other’s experiences and ideas of what truly makes a person happy.... Read more

ONE CHRISTMAS EVE AT EVERGREEN MALL follows eight intertwined stories in a Midwestern mall on the last day of shopping before the holiday. A diverse cast of characters—from a lovesick mall Santa to an overeager mall cop, from a pair of brainy misfit teenagers to a pair of battling actors in a production of A Christmas Carol, from a petulant college freshman to a pair of newlyweds—navigate first meetings, second chances, and last-minute choices. ONE CHRISTMAS EVE wraps th... Read more

It's the weekend of the New York City Marathon, and Stephen, preparing for his first race, needs a good night's sleep. Emily, his wife's old roommate, shows up unexpectedly in the wee hours of the morning. In crisis and unable to find a hotel room, Emily is returning to the apartment she once lived in and where, years ago, she and Stephen may or may not have met. Seeing her old home brings back memories and Stephen, dealing with his own troubles with marriage and work, is jarre... Read more

Picking up a year after the ending of Arlene Hutton's critically acclaimed Last Train to Nibroc, this tender and funny sequel follows May and Raleigh through the end of World War II and introduces the characters of their two mothers-in-law. A medical condition keeps Raleigh from military service, and he is forced to sit idly on the porch, watching the cars drive by, as May supports them both as a hig... Read more

A high school student deals with the death of her biology class lab partner through a religious ritual about which she knows nothing. Family, friends, and social media collide and connect in Susie’s living room as she learns to mourn (and to sit) while honoring the memory of her friend and his culture. Commissioned by the Educational Theatre Association, SUSIE SITS SHIVA is a heartfelt reflection on life after unthinkable loss.... Read more

Part of the collection One Christmas Eve at Evergreen Mall

THE STORY: ONE CHRISTMAS EVE AT EVERGREEN MALL follows eight intertwined stories in a Midwestern mall on the last day of shopping before the holiday. A diverse cast of characters—from a lovesick mall Santa to an over-eager mall cop, from a pair of brainy misfit teenagers to a pair of battling actors in a production of A Chri... Read more