Playscripts

Rufus' Rhythm and Blues Revue

Production, The Oasis Rock Room. Oasis Entertainment Complex, Hamilton. Summer 1997.

I wrote this piece in homage to Bermuda, which was my adopted homeland for nearly 15 years. It is a musical travelogue, hosted by a cantankerous, but loveable old bluesman/puppet named Rufus, who shares the stage with three other cast members and a live band.

Encounters of the Discriminatory Kind

Staged Reading, Goddard College. Plainfield, VT. August 2004.

I had my first encounter with racism at five years old when I discovered that I was not allowed to play in my best friends’ home because I was black. This experience has profoundly affected me my entire life, and I wrote Encounters to help exorcise the demons that surround that memory. Crafted from dozens of personal interviews with people from diverse races, ethnicities, and backgrounds, it as an exploration into how the effects of the first incidence of racism, discrimination, and prejudice can shape an individuals’ psyche, attitudes, and worldview.

Choices

Production - Spring into the Arts, The Bermuda Ministry of Education, Arts Division. Victor Scott Primary School, April 2006.

I wrote this piece out of the frustration I felt why trying to find an appropriate play for my students to perform in this annual talent showcase. A one-act play written for middle schoolers Choices is a snapshot of the lives of two best friends, one has no family other than his mother and is struggling with the decision to join a gang, and the other, who pledges to support his friend no matter what as long as it doesn't require him to do the same, because his father will kill him.

What a Girl Wants

Production, The Womens’ Resource Centre and Healing Stage Productions, Bermuda, June 2006.

After finishing Encounters, I wanted to write a cabaret piece for myself so I began picking songs and writing dialogue to piece it all together. I sent the first draft to friends and colleagues, and to my surprise, the responses were unanimous - this was a full-blown play. After being challenged (I’m a sucker for a challenge!), I took the advice and sat down to expand and edit the draft as suggested. In What a Girl Wants, five women at various stages of their lives, dish about everything from break up diets, to men, from shopping, to men, to children, to men…you get the idea.

Who'Story?

Written in 2005, Who'Story? makes the statement that African-American History is American History, plain and simple. A smorgasbord of dramatic and humorous monologues, storytelling, and sketch comedy, the piece features obscure stories about African-Americans and their contributions to American culture and society. Topics include African-American inventors and scholars, women, the American west, and the bonds of kinship between American and Canadian citizens of African descent.

The Magic City Massacre

Staged reading, The Creative Convergence Festival, Baltimore. The Baltimore Theatre Project.

I love history, and I’ve always been interested in the whys and how of life, and what forces have created current states and modes of existence. As a child growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I noticed the disparities between North and South Tulsa, and wanted to know why this was so. The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 was a major reason why.

Set in the fictional ‘Museum of Forgotten History”, this piece is a multimedia musical in which the ideologies of justice as defined in the Constitution and Amendments will be contrasted against the injustice and miscarriage of justice through the episode of the riot, which enjoys notoriety as arguably the most devastating race riot in American history.

U-Turn

Public reading, Towson University, March 2008.

A husband's philandering forces a woman to confront herself, her feelings, and finally, her husband in this darkly comic ten-minute play, which is told almost entirely through the voices of the supporting characters Gun, Bedsheet, and Poison.

Say Goodbye

Public reading, Towson University, May 2008.

Plain and simple, this one act grew out of a class assignment. In this sweet comedy, an older woman supports her granddaughter as she transitions into singlehood after the unexpected death of her husband.