Pitfalls and Treasures: Published in The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2022
Before we ring in 2023, I’m happy to share that Smith & Kraus’s anthology, The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2022, edited by Debbie Lamedman, is out and available! I’m so honored that my 2-person play, Pitfalls and Treasures, has been published in this fabulous anthology. In the play:
Mary and Andrew are lonely and troubled parking lot seagulls, each ostracized by their former flocks. When Mary happens upon the injured Andrew, she embarks on the desperate challenge to remove twine wrapped around his leg. This play is about, well, yes, seagulls. And being seagulls, in a parking lot, with a numb leg and no flock, the stakes are high. But it’s also about love and loss, hope and failure, trust and apprehension, desperation and resignation. And of course, a seagull and a french fry! It’s a bit dark, a bit funny and a bit sweet.
Along with Pitfalls and Treasures, this anthology includes 50 other great new plays. While all of the plays included are diverse in theme, topic, style, and genre, in her foreword, Ms. Lamedman points out their commonality; they are all, “timely, cutting-edge, thrilling pieces of theatre.”
Ten-minute plays are unique pieces of theater. The “short stories” of theater, they give us a window into a few meaningful moments in time, and it’s a delightful challenge as a playwright to make sure the audience is brought in to the world, the characters and the story pretty darn quickly. I love writing in this format, and, short as it may be, I fall in love with my characters, as they become much larger than 10 minutes. I hope may feel a similar way as you dive into a 10-minute theatrical short!
Gregory Perry Photography, WCT 2021 production featuring Rob McEvily and Missy Flower, directed by Mel Nocera.
The original production of Pitfalls and Treasures was especially sweet as I had a fantastic team of people bringing the play to life: Under Mel Nocera’s keen direction, Missy Flower and Rob McEvily made the seagulls Mary and Andrew charming, funny, sharp and heart wrenching. Much gratitude also to WCT and their Executive Director, Alan Lutwin, for producing the play and their dedication to new work. And of course huge thanks and recognition to editor Debbie Lamedman for her amazing work on this anthology!
Click here to get The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2022 on amazon. Additionally, you can read an excerpt of Pitfalls and Treasures here or click below for a complete digital copy of the play:
