PLAYS by Judd Lear Silverman

Click on a title below to find a description and a brief production history for each play. (Use the right mouse key or the back button to return to the list.)

Full lengths:

ALL COME RUNNING HOME
BINDINGS
CREON'S CRISIS
EDDIE HAS ALLERGIES
GAUGUIN AND THE SAVAGES
HEART
JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED
METAMORPHOSIS . . . AND WAITERS
THE RESURRECTION OF DAVID
TODAY'S SPECIAL

One Acts:

A LOOSE INTERPRETATION
A LITTLE RED PILL
A PROMISE
A REASON FOR ALL THINGS
A ROYAL BITCH
A TEMPORARY LAPSE
A TRAGIC TAIL (INSPIRED BY POE)
ALL THE COMFORTS OF HOME
ANDROCLES AND THE LION
AT LEAST I GOT MY HEALTH
ANXIETY AND GRANDMA
BEST LAID PLANS
CONQUERING THE FEAR
CORRECT ADDRESS
COUSINS
DEATH BY MISADVENTURE
ELENA
FAMILY BUSINESS
FINAL FRONTIER
FISH STORY
GALLERY AFTERNOON
HARPO'S WIFE
LOTTO FEVER
MY LOST YEARS
NEVER WEAR A DEAD MAN'S SHOES
OLD BUSINESS
POINT OF DEPARTURE
POOR MOUSE
REHEARSAL DINNER
RESTLESS BIRDS
STATE SECRET
SETTLING ACCOUNTS
SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED
THE NAME OF THE TREE
TOSSING ORANGES
TRUTH IN ADVERTISING
VIOLATING UNCLE PIGGY
WORDS FAIL ME

Screenplays/Teleplays:

AARDVARK DREAMS
BLISS
HAM: AN ACTOR'S TALE
I'LL NEVER FORGET WHATSHISNAME (GOLDEN GIRLS)
MAXIMUM SECURITY
NEVER WEAR A DEAD MAN'S SHOES

 

DESCRIPTIONS & PRODUCTION HISTORIES

CREON'S CRISIS takes the antagonist of so many classic Greek dramas and places him at the center of his own drama--with often comedic results. Why is Creon always left to clean up the mess left behind by Oedipus, Antigone, her brothers, and others? While he remains the good civil servant administrator, they end up the heroes--and he's tired of it and declares himself at war with the Gods. A Greek Chorus of Three Bums--part Beckett, part Damon Runyon, and possibly representing Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripedes--observe, comment and counterpoint as Creon stumbles through his way to an ultimate discovery. A semi-finalist in the Reverie Productions National Playwriting Competition.

HEART is an off-beat comedy about hearts of a mechanical kind, as well as various affairs of the heart. When a plumbing contractor's own ticker wears out, the opportunity arises to receive an experimental artificial heart. But does he want it? Our incapacitated hero not only has to deal with the indignities of being a human guinea pig, but also with the crazy, somewhat messy life that has brought him to this very point. What is one's given time--and do we really want to live beyond it? It has been read publicly at Theater Factory, 78th Street Theater Lab, EST in NY., INTERACT in Los Angeles, and recently, EST WEST in LA.  On the strength of HEART and GAUGUIN AND THE SAVAGES, Judd received a major playwriting grant from the Berrilla Kerr Foundation. In September 2002, HEART was a finalist in the Stage 3 Theatre Company's Festival of New Plays 2002 in Sonora, CA. In December 2004, it received two staged reading performances at the Caldwell Theatre Company in Boca Raton, FL, and in July 2005, it was voted "audience favorite" at the Dayton Playhouse FutureFest 2005, where it was one of six nationwide finalists.

GAUGUIN AND THE SAVAGES is about Daniel Savage, a burnt-out Wall Street banker who one day discovers "art" and decides that he wants to become an artist in the worst way possible--and unfortunately, that's exactly how he goes about doing it, much to the chagrin of his family, his colleagues and just about everyone he encounters. A comedy of modern art and commerce, the play had a successful concert reading in New York. and received a workshop production by Provincetown Rep/NY in the fall of 1994.

THE RESURRECTION OF DAVID is about the return home of an abducted and abused child after a three year absence. The play deals not only with the devastating scars of a kidnapping but with an equally devastating homecoming and an American family's questionable ability to adapt. The play has had several public readings and has received strong response from directors and producers on both coasts.

TODAY'S SPECIAL is a romantic valentine about two very different people from very different backgrounds who meet by chance in a dilapidated roadside diner. One must always be open to adventure--and love--for one never finds it where one expects. The play was successfully produced in Los Angeles, first as part of the matinee series at Theater West and subsequently in a second production at the CAST Theater.

BINDINGS is a comedy about familial relationships, the avoidance of risk and the dangers of subjugating one's own desires and ambitions in the name of love for another. A successful pot-boiler novelist aspires to write something of "greater artistic merit" while his devoted sister/secretary harbors secrets of her own. The play has had several successful readings on both coasts. BINDINGS was produced Fall 1993 at the Courtyard Theater in New York City by Calico Productions.

ALL COME RUNNING HOME is the story of a Connecticut Jewish family the summer after the death of their partiarch. Three generations explore moving on in different ways through difficult life changes, some with more ease than others. Humor remains the name of the game. The play has had developmental readings in Charles Maryan's Playwrights/Directors Workshop, and was presented in a concert reading at The Triangle Theater in New York in November 2000.

METAMORPHOSIS . . . AND WAITERS is a story of searching for love in the 90s and how one attempts to move toward a mature relationship. A ubiquitous waiter serves as our guide as we follow a 30-something bisexual, Darryl, on his quest for a true and loving relationship, along the way disrupting both gay and straight relationships and even fathering a child. The play has had developmental readings in Charles Maryan's Playwrights/Directors Workshop.

EDDIE HAS ALLERGIES is a children's theater piece about a young boy whose chronic allergies--or else, the medicine's designed to control those allergies--leave him groggy, lonely and prone to fantasy! This is a tale of the child who feels like "odd man out" and how that feeling different might ultimately turn to his advantage. Also--the magic of a sneeze is revealed! (Book and lyrics in search of a composer.)

JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED is a comedy of ill manners, based loosely on the Moliere doctor plays with a tough of Joe Orton thrown in for good measure. Set in the present, a mother on the seventh year of her deathbed is determined that her twice-divorced son, who never became a doctor, will now marry one before she goes to her eternal rest. A clever healthcare worker and a young male doctor assist in an attempt to get our hero out of his jam, but things go awry (as things are wont to do).

 

One Acts:

NEVER WEAR A DEAD MAN'S SHOES is an eccentric one-act, based on an old wives' tale of the title. Possessions, both material and spiritual, are the topic here, as are companionship and the value of a pair of good wing tips. The play was read publicly at Pace University as part of an Afternoon of Plays, presented by Charles Maryan's Playwrights/Directors Workshop, on the weekend of December 4th & 5th. It recently was voted Best Play and Audience Favorite (Series A) at the Turnip Festival Theater's Annual 15-Minute Play Competition in New York. It was also presented in the Winterfest 2000 at EST in Los Angeles in March 2000, and was presented by Connecticut Heritage Productions in Middletown, CT in April 2001. It was then presented in New Jersey at 12 Miles West. A concert version, featuring Arlene Nadel and Dana Watkins (from the original production) and Elizabeth Gee was presented by Playwrights for Pets at Baruch Performing Arts Center in April 2007. SHOES has also been filmed by independent filmmaker Alan Steinfeld (released date to be announced).

ANXIETY AND GRANDMA is a one-act dream play about a not-quite-so-young man, his grandma who raised him, his disappointments and his fears about measuring up--and it's a comedy! Presented by Brooklyn's Gallery Players in the 8th Annual Black Box Series, June 2005.

DEATH BY MISADVENTURE is an aburd one-act based on an even more absurd true story about being struck by lightening, framed as a dramatic re-enactment based on facts known and unknown.  The play was presented as part of an evening of one-acts at the Neighborhood Playhouse in NYC, May 2000.  Another production was presented by Barefoot Theater Productions in December 2000 at the DUMBO Theater Exchange in Brooklyn (directed by Francisco Solorzano), and a third production (directed by Daniel Isaacson) was seen at Pace University in the Spring of 2001. A new production, directed by the author and featuring Amy Blitz, Chad Corbitt and Karen Now, was presented July 26th, 2003 at the Brooklyn Lyceum, part of the Swamp King One Act Play Tournament.

FISH STORY is the bizarre tale of a husband and wife and how an overlapping topic approached from different angles may well drive them apart. Presented as part of an evening of the author's animal plays as a fund-raiser for Animal Care & Control, produced by Playwrights for Pets, in February 2005.

POINT OF DEPARTURE, a generation gap meeting at a bus stop between two strangers, deals with seeds sown back in the "Woodstock" days. The play was presented in a concert reading at Pace University by Charles Maryan's Playwrights/Directors Workshop, and was subsequently produced at EST in Los Angeles in the spring of 1999, featuring Helen Eigenberg and Charles Parks, under the direction of Barbara Tarbuck. Currently in workshop at the Actors' Studio.

ELENA, a one-woman short play about a Russian immigrant . . . reflections on whatever happened to the "Uncle Vanya" gang. ELENA was presented as a part of an evening at the Turnip Festival Theater, titled "Chekhov in America". Presented in January 2005 by Playwrights for Pets as part of the evening, FLYING SOLO, with Arlene Nadel as Elena.

LOTTO FEVER is a comedic one-act about religion and the lottery and the lives of two women on the front porch of a two-family house. It was produced in the spring of 1998 at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City and in January 2000 at the 12 Miles West Theatre Company in Montclair, NJ. Another production, with Darcie Siciliano and Jonna McElrath and directed by the author, was performed at Expanded Arts, also in 2000. More recently, it was read in May 2005 by Playwrights for Pets as part of LADIES' NIGHT, was seen in the Samuel French Short Play Festival in the summer of 2005, and was presented by the Acts Factory Players in Collinsville, CT as part of their Spring Shorts 2007.

CORRECT ADDRESS, a one-act, is a tale of gay lovers--one living, one not--who must deal with shipping home the dead man's belongings to his mother, in the process coming to grips with many of their unresolved issues. An early version was presented by Love Creek Productions in their Mini One-Act Festival in Spring 1991. The revised script was presented by Theater Factory as part of the XVII Annual Off-Off-Broadway One Act Festival, sponsored by Samuel French and Love Creek Productions, at The Nat Horne Theatre in June 1992. It was voted one of the best of the festival and was subsequently published by Samuel French in their best of the festival anthology. Another production by the Hotel Macklowe Artists Guild marked the re-opening of the historic Hudson Theater, a Broadway house on West 44th Street in New York. In the summer of 1994, it was produced by Silent Echo Productions at the International Edinburgh Festival Fringe (on a double bill with SETTLING ACCOUNTS) and at the London Fringe after a short New York pre-Scotland run. As recently as June 2005, it appeared in the festival presented by the Actors Alliance of San Diego, directed by Erin Cronican with Matt Scott & Joey Landwehr. (Voted "BEST OF FEST" and winning awards for "Best Director" & "Best Actor" (Messrs. Scott & Landwehr).

SETTLING ACCOUNTS, a one-act, is the story of a husband and wife sitting down for their monthly financial meeting of the minds and all the various surprises, both emotional and financial, that arise during America's least favorite past-time--paying bills. The play was presented successfully in a public reading and was subsequently produced in Spring 1991 at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and by Theater Factory as part of the XVII Annual Off-Off-Broadway One Act Festival, sponsored by Samuel French and Love Creek Productions, at The Nat Horne Theatre. It received another production by the Hotel Macklowe Artists Guild in June 1993, and in 1994 was produced by Silent Echo Productions at the International Edinburgh Festival Fringe (on a double bill with SETTLING ACCOUNTS) and at the London Fringe after a short New York pre-Scotland run.  In October 1999, it was produced on a bill entitled OH GROW UP! (or LESSONS IN GETTING OVER YOURSELF) at the Neighborhood Playhouse (a return to where it had taken its first steps).

OLD BUSINESS is a one-act about a middle-aged teacher and her elderly mother, a stroke victim, and examines how we build our familial roles--and why. It was presented by Polaris North in New York City, June 1993 and by Love Creek in New York in February 1995 and subsequently in June 1995 in the annual Samuel French One Act Festival.  It was recently presented in March in Los Angeles at EST West's Winterfest, with Barbara Tarbuck and Helen Eigenberg.  (NOTE: SETTLING ACCOUNTS, CORRECT ADDRESS and OLD BUSINESS were created to go under a collected umbrella called PERSONAL AFFAIRS.)

SHAKEN, NOT STIRRED is a one-act about a book interview between an ambitious young writer and a seemingly mundane, aged ex-Ziegfeld girl, who suddenly becomes much more interesting during the cocktail hour. A play that looks at personal truths and revisionist history! Presented by the BASIC Theater as a reading in their Just the BASICS series.

STATE SECRET is the tale of intrigue and missing laptops in the U.S. State Department.

GALLERY AFTERNOON, a ten-minute satire, looking at art and the consumer in the age of Jesse Helms, Newt Gingrich and an NEA struggling to stay afloat. A wealthy potential patron wanders into a Soho gallery looking to "acquire" art--leading to many discoveries for both the patron and the gallery manager. It received a public reading at the Basic Theater Marathon. It is slated for public reading in May 2005 (with Elizabeth Gee and Dana Watkins) as part of DUETS, presented by Playwrights for Pets at the Baruch College Engelman Performing Arts Center.

BEST LAID PLANS is a one-act about a successful lady newspaper publisher and a country mortician, and how one may plan for one's future--but not necessarily at the expense of the present.

HARPO'S WIFE is a one-act about two old friends/rivals in a local bagel shop, talking seemingly about nothing--but actually talking about the past forty-something years and the whole way their lives took shape.

POOR MOUSE, a ten-minute comedy, follows our recalcitrant hero, Albert, as he grapples with a "mouse problem" and his own sense of morality, having to choose between "them or us."

A LOOSE INTERPRETATION is a one-act that takes an odd look at how couples communicate through what they say--and what they don't say--and just how much help would they accept if someone else would do the talking.  The play received its first production in October 2000 at the D.U.M.B.O. Arts Festival in Brooklyn, New York at the DUMBO Theater Exchange (DTX).  Eric Hunt directed, with the cast featuring John Harlacher, Stephanie Kokinos, Natalie Leonard and Peter Weisenburger. This production was revived (with Luke Leonard and Susanne Bruno joining the cast) for the American Theater Nexus at BRIC Studio in Brooklyn on May 15, 2003.

AT LEAST I GOT MY HEALTH is the second "bagel" play (HARPO'S WIFE being the first) that looks at ordinary folk in a bagel eatery when faced with a major life crisis. (A third bagel play is to come.)

A TRAGIC TAIL (INSPIRED BY POE) is a bit of a shaggy dog story (pun intended!) that looks at a tragic error in its speaker's calculation, which has surprising consequences.  It was presented in EST West's Winterfest in March 2000, with Charles Parks as Shemp. A subsequent production was performed at the the Buttonwood Tree in Middletown, CT, presented by Connecticut Heritage Productions.

A LITTLE RED PILL is about depression, anger and a cure--with some potential side effects. Produced as part of New Works Festival, Barefoot Theater Productions, NYC, Oct. 2001, with Andre Simmons & Mark Smith. In the summer of 2005, it had simultaneous productions in New York at the Samuel French One-Act Festival (sponsored by Gallery Players) and in Houston at the Festival of Originals, where it was one of five nationwide winners, presented by Theatre Southwest. It recently was part of Playwrights for Pets' MISCHIEF NIGHT in October 2006, featuring Dana Watkins and Brian Fuqua.

REHEARSAL DINNER takes place in the lounge area just outside the mens' and ladies' rooms of a posh restaurant where a rehearsal dinner is being held for the next day nuptuals. A lot of couples and coupling going on here, but are the bride and groom meant to be? A farce for young loves making "the big commitment."

TOSSING ORANGES takes place in a coffee shop in Singapore, where two Americans abroad have a chance encounter as they watch a maiden ritual being performed across the river on Chinese New Year. Presented as part of LADIES' NIGHT by Playwrights for Pets.

COUSINS is the city mouse and the country mouse: a prodigal journalist desires to return to small town life, to the dismay of his country cousin, the local sherriff.

MY LOST YEARS, a reverie induced by a sidewalk book vendor, in which a man attempts to connect deeply with his past, only to find that the connection is after all in the simple things.

A REASON FOR ALL THINGS is a Cambodian fairy tale (based on a supposedly true story) about a young woman who dies and returns to her family as a peacock, as told by a Western journalist longing to believe in miracles. Presented as a public reading by Gallery Players.

WORDS FAIL ME is a middle of the night crisis between a couple, a man who fears that he's lost the ability to really communicate, and his wife, who tries to convince him that his skills are what they ever were.

FAMILY BUSINESS, commissioned by American Music and Dramatic Academy in New York, is a family in crisis play, as three siblings try to decide what to do with the family deli/grocery store once their beloved father is suddenly out of the picture.

RESTLESS BIRDS is a short one-act in which an escaped emu from a local zoo reeks pandemonium on the local citizenry--and gets two police detectives (one younger, one middle-aged) thinking. Presented by Gallery Players in the Samuel French One-Act Festival, Summer 2005.

ALL THE COMFORTS OF HOME explores change and receptivity to differences, by way of a date brought home for a night of pleasure, only to get side-tracked by the discovery of an eel in the bathtub. The play had its premiere production June 2005 at the Gallery Players Black Box Series in Brooklyn (under the direction of Matt Schicker, featuring Maria Ryan and Craig Colfelt). It was subsequently presented as a public reading by Playwrights for Pets in February 2005.

TRUTH IN ADVERTISING, triggered by a recent report that the Bermuda Tourist Bureau has used stock footage of places other than Bermuda for its ads, has a couple examining the many images they all too readily buy into, often with surprising results. The play was part of the 10th Annual Fifteen Minute Play Festival, sponsored by the Turnip and American Globe Theatres, in April 2004, featuring Laura Gillis and John Moss under the direction of Don Williams. (They were to reprise these performances for Playwrights for Pets in the Fall of 2005.) The play also was presented in full performance by New England Actors Theater (NEAT) in the 7th Annual Short and NEAT Festival in June 2005.

A ROYAL BITCH, taken from recent royal news items, tells of the ordered visit to "a dog whisperer" by one of Princess Anne's prized bull terriers, Florence, after a week in which she bit a maid and mauled the Queen's favorite corgy. Performed in public reading by Playwrights for Pets, February 2005.

A PROMISE, based on a "true" news story from New Delhi, tells of a disappointed lover and a lawsuit--a man with both sets of sexual organs had sexual reassignment surgery, only to have the woman of his dreams announce her engagement to someone else. Performed in a Public Reading in November 2005 at the Neighborhood Playhouse by Indrani Das and the late Shay Ansari.

CONQUERING THE FEAR is a comedy/fantasy about really solving a "mouse problem". When a woman is too afraid to deal with a rodent, she calls for an exterminator, only to meet the ultimate in pest control--a six-foot tall cat, who also seems quite handsome and quite eager to move in. The play has received public readings by Playwrights for Pets in New York and the Herring Run ArtsFest in Middleboro, MA in the Fall of 2005.

VIOLATING UNCLE PIGGY was inspired by an article on a survey of Australian parents, where an overwhelming percentage confessed to having "borrowed" from their children's piggy banks to cover emergency purchases (delivery tips, a bottle of milk, etc.) The black comedy looks at the tacit arrangements that occur between parents and their children-and the reality that sometimes contradicts the "official story." If fundamental relationships accommodate lies, then what about the rest of our lives? As written, a young boy interrogates the "criminals"-his mom and dad. (The play works successfully cast either with actual children and adults OR in a more stylized presentation with a grown-up as the Boy and gender switching of the parents.) The play was performed at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD as part of their "8 in 48" Festival in January 2007. The play was then performed at Acts Factory Players in Collinsville, CT in May 2007, and in the Gallery Players 10th Black Box Play Festival in June 2007.

A TEMPORARY LAPSE is a one-woman piece about a temporary secretary who must take the phone message from Hell, all the while wondering about her own conduct. The play premiered at the Gallery Players 10th Black Box Play Festival in June 2007, with Katie Braden originating the role of Claire.

FINAL FRONTIER, a short comedy inspired by the recent news-making item regarding the remains of the actor James Doohan, best known as "Scotty" in the Star Trek series on TV and in the movies. Posthumous space travel is possible, as three very different travelers find out in this not-so-far-fetched version of a real event. The play's public premiere, in a concert reading, was part of Playwrights for Pets IN TRANSIT evening, October 22, 2007 at Baruch's Performing Arts Center in NYC, with Kaseem Bristow, Elizabeth Gee, John Moss and Dana Watkins providing their vocal talents.

THE NAME OF THE TREE, based on a Bantu folktale, is a variation of the tortoise and the hare story that tells of how slow-and-steady behavior can result in the most positive outcome. Originally written for and performed by students at The Calhoun School, the play received its first performance with adults at a benefit for Animal Haven, presented by Playwrights for Pets in February 2007.

ANDROCLES AND THE LION is a new look at the old fable in the "fractured-fairytale" vein. A young slave who has the talents of an "animal whisperer" meets more than his match when the King of the Beasts joins his clientele. Flip and funny, this piece was originally written for and created by by the students at Calhoun School. Its first presentation by adults for kids of all ages is scheduled for February 2007 at Animal Haven SoHo, presented by Playwrights for Pets in NYC.

Screenplays/Teleplays:

BLISS is a black comedy screenplay adapted from the book by Australian novelist Peter Carey. An advertising executive survives open heart surgery but is convinced he has actually died and gone to hell. Commissioned by Film & General Productions in London (producers of Bill Forsyth's GREGORY'S GIRL and Lindsay Anderson's BRITANNIA HOSPITAL among others), the rights were allowed to return to the author who made a poorly received version of it in Australia. This version is Americanized and more accessible.

AARDVARK DREAMS, a screenplay, is the tale of a puppeteer who goes to work for his wife's toy manufacturing father--only to learn some hard lessons, not only about American industry but about coming to terms with the compromises we all must make for a little "grown-up" comfort in this world.

HAM: AN ACTOR'S TALE is a short screenplay/teleplay dedicated to anyone who has ever stuck it out in this business in the hope of becoming "an overnight success." Daniel Hammond (nee Bernstein), a perfectionist and professional "pain-in-the-butt," tries desperately to stay afloat as an actor and artist, only to find quitting even more difficult than hanging in there.

I'LL NEVER FORGET WHATS-HIS-NAME is a spec sitcom script for THE GOLDEN GIRLS.

MAXIMUM SECURITY is a sitcom co-created with G. Sterling Zinsmeyer about a "country club" prison for Wall Street frauds, tax evaders, celebrities, etc. The current package includes a story "bible," character descriptions and two sample scripts.

NEVER WEAR A DEAD MAN'S SHOES, adapted from the one-act, has been filmed and is in post-production, under the direction of Alan Steinfeld.
 

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