THE STORY: Award-winning playwright Craig Pospisil’s collection runs the gamut from lighthearted comedy to dramatic pieces.
ON THE WINGS OF A BUTTERFLY. A playwright tries to come to terms with the scope of the disaster in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. (1 man or woman.)
FREE. A panicked man on a subway car tries to conquer his anxiety by taking his clothes off…much to the chagrin of a couple in the same car. (2 men, 1 woman.)
WHAT PRICE? A woman finds herself interrogated by a nameless official, who threatens her and her children unless she gives him a name. (1 man, 1 woman.)
NO CHILD LEFT. Mrs. O’Reilly instructs her first-grade class on the four Rs—reading, 'riting, 'rithmatic and Republicanism. (1 woman.)
GUERILLA GORILLA. It’s some time in the future, and the theatre has been declared illegal, but that won’t stop Alana and Sandy from trying to see an underground theatre group perform A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (2 men, 2 women.)
TRAIN OF THOUGHT. Wade is obsessed with Nina, a woman he sees on the train, while she imagines her boyfriend, Frank, thinks of nothing but her, and Wade’s girlfriend, Marcy, can’t make sense of her own thoughts. (2 men, 2 women.)
QUANDARY IN QUANDO. The president of the United States will do anything to stop a crisis in a foreign land he’s never heard of from ruining his weekend at Camp David. (2 men.)
GUNS DON’T KILL. Mrs. O’Reilly is back, and this time she’s come to class armed. (1 woman.)
IN A WORD. Char explains why she’s avoiding people and the things they have to say. (1 woman.)
PERCHANCE. It’s hazy, but what Robbie remembers is that he and Cass are in love. Unfortunately, she’s decided to move to San Diego to be with Antonio. (2 men, 2 women.)
A QUIET, EMPTY LIFE. As Stephanie quietly tries to get dressed for a function she has to attend, a Narrator reveals the secrets of the life she didn’t know she had. (1 man, 1 woman.)
MANHATTAN DRUM-TAPS. A young Irish immigrant and an African-American dockworker are caught up in the 1863 New York Draft Riots. (2 men, 2 women.)
“[TRAIN OF THOUGHT is a] clever, contemporary urban comedy [that] takes us inside the heads of four late-night travelers headed downtown…Pospisil draws out neat surprises from his characters as they move toward their destinations (metaphorical as well as literal); the writing is crisp and witty and has the ring of truth.” —NY Theatre.
“In FREE, we find a grown man who strips completely nude on an empty train car. Once he has re-clothed, he persuades a fellow rider to remove her clothes as he guards the doors from peeping eyes. There is something so sneaky and satisfying about the thought of stripping on the subway, and the quiet way the story is revealed is wonderfully fulfilling.” —The Cinema Source.
“In Pospisil’s A QUIET EMPTY LIFE…the fraught emotions [are] quite affecting.” —Boston Phoenix.
