Plays by Kato McNickle
Full Length:
GIRLS. IN BOYS PANTS.
The world of art and the world of words are set to collide as Danni prepares to interview Sophia for a story she writing about the content of art on their college campus. A debate ensues, a dance begins, as an unconventional romance, of sorts, unfolds. Accompanying Danni and Sophia on their journey is a chorus that becomes both the inner and outer worlds occupied by the two women. They are Sophia’s art, Danni’s story, inhabitants of the coffee shop and martini bar, the buildings around them, and their thoughts put into the air to be breathed.
4 woman, 2 men, an open space, occasional furniture, 2 microphones.
Winner Best Play from 2Cents Theater INK Fest, and published as part of the anthology The Best Plays from American Festivals 2015, Applause Books
ARIADNE ON THE ISLAND
On an island recently abandoned by an enemy force, a group of survivors struggles to resume their lives in the midst of devastating loss. Ariadne on the Islandis a riff on the myth of the sister of the Minotaur, who falls in love with a foreign hero and betrays her father in order to save this man’s life. After the pair escape they find themselves on the island of Naxos, where the hero will abandon the girl, and she will find love with the god of wine. 2
women, 2 men, a single set made from barrels, boards and rope.
Winner of the Silver Clauder Award and performed as part of the Little Festival of the Unexpected at Portland Stage, and an O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Finalist.
MINOTAURS. TOREROS.
A fusion of myth, flamenco, and the poetry of Lorca, Minotaurs. Toreros.finds a woman matador preparing for a fight, as a boy makes a wish on a magic ring, a young woman in blue finds a yellow bead, and a man plays guitar casting a spell. It takes place in two alternate worlds, that of the Spanish bullfight, and the trap of the labyrinth, that are forever connected to one another. What was Theseus with the Minotaur if not the first matador slaying a bull?
2 women, 2 men, a single set
O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist
IN SEARCH OF A BETTER LIFE WITH ELVIS
A girl hears an ancient voice calling “Memphis” so she goes off to Tennessee In Search of a Better Life with Elvis. The thing is, the voice meant Egypt. Off-track from the get-go, Jezzy is on a mission to make peace with her father, a deceased Elvis impersonator who forgot he wasn’t really Elvis, even if it means stealing her mother’s car, trading it for a guitar, and ignoring the lady in the moon calling to her.
2 women, 2 men, a single set
Winner African American Playwriting Award from University of California San Diego
WISH PLAY
Wish Playbegins with a promise made to a friend. Darla has given her word that should anything happen to Carol, she would retrieve her diary before anyone else can find it. But this is no ordinary diary. It is a hand-made journal that Carol stole from a young man on an island a year earlier. What neither Carol nor Darla realize is that this is a book that wants its readers to compose a wish, commit the wish to its pages, and then demands that the story of the fulfillment of the wish be written down within it. Failure to relay the rest of the story leads people to a single, sleepless, omnipresent obsession: to find the book and write the story. To what lengths will people go to possess the book and finish their stories? The power of the written word and the needs of secret desire unravel this group mourning the loss of their friend. Can the spell of the book be broken?
4 women, 2 men, a single set
O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist
A YANKEE TRADER
A Yankee Traderknows a good trade and won’t let the good trade pass. Dillon Taber wakes to find himself down on his luck and the law on his doorstep. In a moment of desperation he trades his wife for a car in order to preserve his freedom. This bargain brings disaster to his marriage, his children and his dignity after he loses the car to the waters of Long Island Sound in the Great Hurricane of 1938.
3 women, 3 men, boy, 1 girl, a fluid set
Winner of The Virtual Theatre PEN IS A MIGHTY SWORD, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist
JOAN’S VOICES
Joan’s Voicesis the last three days in the life of Joan of Arc. Through conversations with her voices Joan struggles to accept her fate at the hands of her enemies and the seeming failure of her mission in this tragic coming of age story.
3 women, 2 men, a single set that is a medieval prison cell
Winner Best New Play 2001, Spirit of Broadway Award, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist
TO DIE FOR WANT OF LOBSTER
Perpetual slacker Jack is living with his sister, but meets the beautiful Lena at a blackjack table and invites her in. Lena decides to stay and to pit the strange sibling pair one against the other. Only one will survive.
2 women, 1 man, a single flexible space that represents rooms of a small home
O’Neill Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist
PLAYS ONE-ACT
30-60 minute one-act plays:
CHANCE OF RAIN: A NOAH RIFF
A play for teens and family audiences. The play begins in The Void. The Void splits and we are aboard the “Moby Duck One” an authentic World War II retired Duck Boat that now serves as a tourist transport along the streets and shoreline of Pawcatuck, Connecticut. Chuck, the “Moby Duck One’s” skipper is picking up his kid sister at the theater after auditions for Shaw’s Saint Joan. Their dad is busy toiling away at a special project with a looooooming deadline — you got it — an ark. Soon the whole place will be under water, but first the kids must load enough supplies, burgle the local zoo, and Sally must learn her lines, having won the coveted role of Joan.
3 women, 3 men, a single set with some flotsam and jetsam. 60 minutes
Winner of the Theater for Youth National Playwriting Award, University of Central Missouri
COUCHFULLALUV
CouchFullaLuvis a thirty minute romp through love, commitment, and a flurry of feathers. Two couples and a recent divorcé are all in search of the perfect couch, but this is no ordinary day at the Furniture Showroom. Feathers drop from afar onto a particular couch and act as the currency of love for the three couples. This divinely selected piece of furniture unleashes the passions of all who sit there.
4 women, 2 men, a single set and location with a couch in the center of it all
30 minutes
15 Minute Plays
LEAK
The last Leak-Seek team is ferreting out the last leak in the world. The world has been smoothed over and covered because it’s safer and more convenient. Unfortunately, it leaks. Boxx and Pingo are the team sent to repair the last leak in the Celestial Ceiling. Only problem is, once they’re finished then the whole job is thru to. They’ll be outta work. What’s a man to do?
The play requires a single amber set, some fancy-do-da equipment, and a drip-drip-dripping sound and two actors, one older, one younger, of either gender.
REPLACING A COG
Martha has called her daughter, Cheryl, to the house to help with something that “couldn’t wait.” The pair are in the garage where Martha has just remembered that about a year ago she had wanted to go for a bike ride, but the bicycle was broken. She wants her daughter to help her fix the bicycle, but first they have to shuffle through all of the boxes that are filling the garage… not to mention that Cheryl knows nothing about fixing bicycles.
2 women, a single set/location with boxes and a bicycle
CALIBAN REX
On an island, Caliban discovers Ariel locked in a tree. By using his mother’s magic written in her book he can release the airy spirit, but first Caliban wants to be made king.
2 actors, a tree, a book, and a decaying body
SARAH LAUGHED
Sarah has awakened from a dream in which she saw her son, Isaac, cleaved in two by the hand of Abraham, her husband. Unable to put the vision to rest, she searches for her husband and son, but they are gone. They have left to make sacrifice, as they have done many times before, but this time Sarah knows there is something terribly wrong. As she races to the place of sacrifice, she recalls her life with her husband, of falling in love, of leaving their tribe, of her sacrifices for the sake of her husband. But this last sacrifice is too much to bare. So she races to the side of the mountain, a place where she is forbidden to go, and she will save the life of her son.
2 women, an open space
10 Minute Plays
BOY MINOTAUR
Early evening in the late summer, the boy minoutaur falls in love with the girl who seems to understand him, until she has to leave and he can’t follow. To go with her would be a disaster. 1 woman, one man, a single space and music from the stars
A SONG IN AND OUT OF THE 3rd DIMENSION
A Song In & Out of the Third Dimensionis a 10-minute trip through a tear in space/time, to a place where Shade had hoped to live the rest of a long life with his beloved Bet. But this morning Shade noticed his shadow missing, and he knows this might be the end. Nearby, the world is thumped into order by DJ – a woman with a voice that balances the world. Bet is on her own mission, having dreamed about her lost grandmother, she is on the lookout for her return. This small island of refuge might be on the verge of collapse. At least they will die happy.
2 women, 1 man, 1 either gender, a single open space
SWIMMING IN THE OCEAN
A beach on an island off the coast of New England on the last day of summer. Two sisters watch the sunrise, as one works up the courage to tell the other that she plans to leave this place where they have grown up together and been for most of their lives.
2 women, 1 man, a single space with a cottage door to the rear.
HELP ME OBI-WAN KENOBI
A one-person show about falling in love with Star Wars while a life falls apart – all while playing tracks from the record. This immortal music lives in our bones.
1 person, the Star Wars soundtrack on vinyl, a record player.
ABOUT A HUNDRED PANCAKES
Heideman Award Finalist, Actors Theater of Louisville
About a Hundred Pancakes takes place in an Oklahoma Highway Diner in the early moments of the morning before sunrise. A young woman has been traveling and eating pancakes every morning she’s been on the road, but these, here, are the best. Really. The best.
The requirements: an older woman, a younger woman, a man, a diner counter, one or two stools, a booth or table, a cup of coffee, a plate of pancakes.
yeah so today today i mean today
A 10-minute play in a rent-by-the-hour hotel in an American city. Swish Gorgeous isn’t her real name, and after a decade or more of turning tricks, Swish knows she needs to get out or die. Frank, a regular nice enough guy likes his weekly Thursday trysts, but his Thursdays are about to change. Swish has a proposal that, if she can get Frank to agree, will save her life.
The requirements are spare: a woman, a man, a bed, and a chair.
#EvilEye
A short comedy about short tempers, smart phones, and a thoughtless curse.
2 women, 2 men, and open space, a guitar and a smart phone.
kato mcnickle 