Rosemary McLaughlin's One Act Plays
Horsefeathers
World premiere, Chicago Cooperative Stage, directed by John Bettenbender, Jr.  New York premiere directed by Andra Gordon at the Women Playwrights Collective.  Published in Intimate Acts play anthology, Brito Lair, publishers. Audiotape available, directed by author.

One act comedy, 2 females, 1 interior set.  TERRY and LUCY celebrate their tenth anniversary with fast-paced repartee and the purchase of the ultimate bed.  What will they have to look forward to now?
 
 
 

The Red Wagon
produced by Village Productions, NY, directed by Joanne Sagherian.
One act comedy, 2 females, exterior set.

SETTING:  Cherry Grove, Fire Island, New York;  early morning in late May; RANDY, 36,  European-American, enters dressed in a Brooks   Brothers suit and dress pumps, dragging a red wagon onto the beach; it is lined with a tarp,  filled with rocks;  she pauses, stands for a moment  staring downstage, out to the sea; she  blesses herself and begins cramming rocks into  all of her pockets.  Offstage, JOY, a 25-year old Chinese-American, is cursing. RANDY is momentarily distracted but continues  stuffing rocks in her clothes until JOY enters, still cursing, hopping on one foot, holding the other, offering other-worldly plans for RANDY.
 
 
 
The Chair

    Dark Comedy; two male, one female; one exterior set (essentially, one chair)
    SETTING: The place is America, North or South or possibly Cambodia. It could be Europe.  More specifically, this is a fairly prosperous town with a good-sized population.  The weather is sunny, for the present.
    CHARACTERS: Should be cast without regard to race/ethnicity. JUAN- a zealous and energetic man, certain his moment has come. TU- a little older, wiser, wearier than Juan; accustomed to power. WOMAN-  may be younger; moves like a squirrel; impestuous, living more on instinct than principle.
    The play opens with JUAN and TU in a tableaux that recalls the infamous photo from the Viet Nam War when a South Vietnamese officer was about to shoot another man point-blank in the temple.  Here the gun is in place but the tableaux is broken by TU's sneeze.  For now...
 

To Your Health
One act comedy; Two male actors;  One interior set.
Performed as staged reading by Waterfront Ensemble.

AT RISE we see the office of a stationery supply store, with two desks, phones, file cabinets, etc.  It is a Friday, the end of a long work day.  WHITNEY, a robust man in his thirties, founder and C.E.O. of the company, works on some papers at his desk, jotting down figures in pencil, then  furiously erasing them and jotting  down some more.

   ALFRED, an average looking 35, a sales  associate, enters carrying cleaning  supplies.  WHITNEY does not look up
   as ALFRED methodically wipes down the other desk and everything in his path, including phones and staplers.
He is about to be fired.


 
 
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