Copyright © 2022 by Theatre Odyssey, Inc.

All rights reserved.

CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that the plays represented in this book are subject to a royalty. They are fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America, and of all countries covered by the International Copyright Union (including the Dominion of Canada and the rest of the British Commonwealth), and of all countries covered by the Pan-American Copyright Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention, and of all countries with which the United States has reciprocal copyright relations. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound taping, all other forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction such as CD-ROM and CD-I, information storage and retrieval systems and photocopying, and the rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved. For any such reserved use, permission must be secured in writing from the author or the author’s agent.

First Edition, May 2022

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

Cover design by Don Walker. Images licensed from iStockPhoto.com.

ISBN-13: 979-8-9857015-2-4

Theatre Odyssey

P.O. Box 1383

Sarasota FL 34230-1383

www.theatreodyssey.org

Contents

Prologue

2018 Ten-Minute Play Festival

* The Card Game by Michael Bille

** Cliché by Keith Whalen

*** Death of Honor by Bernard Yanelli

The Hallmark Man by Seva Anthony

Silent Letters by Cece Dwyer

A Love Story by Dan Higgs

U-Turn by Frank Motz

Bob’s by Fredric Sirasky

# Too Many Cooks by Luke Valadie

2019 Ten-Minute Play Festival

* Family by Numbers by Arianna Rose

** Coming To Town by Keith Whalen

Family Visitation by Paul Donnelly

Volition by Tony Gunn

Who Done It by Robert Wanderman

Crunchers by Frank Motz

A Conundrum by Dan Higgs

Life on Earth by Connie Schindewolf

# The Tragedy of Benjamin Finch by Mary Margaret Steber

2020 Ten-Minute Play Festival

* Single Rider by Michelle Pascua

** Finding Help by Marj O’Neill-Butler

Final Curtain by Marvin Albert

Happy Mother’s Day by Fredric Sirasky

Solastalgia by Sylvia Reed

The Mis-Trial of Anne Hutchinson by Bernard Yanelli

We Interrupt This Program by Arthur Keyser

What I Got Nobody Wants by John J. Kelly

# The Theater Man by Kea Kamiya

2021 Ten-Minute Play Festival

* White Angel by Keith Whalen

** Dancing in the Elevator by Dorothea Cahan

Crime and Punishment by Arthur Keyser

On Robots and Raindrops by Monica Cross

Science Friction; Or, the Rapid Deconstruction of a Rational Mind by Ken Preuss

Sex, Lies and Styrofoam by Arianna Rose

Togetherness by Jan Wallace

Undue Influence by Laurie Stoner

# Flying Solo With IBD by Spencer Opal-Levine

* Best Play Award

** Runner-Up

*** Audience Favorite

# Best Play, Annual Student Ten-Minute Playwriting Festival

Prologue

Theatre Odyssey has published three previous volumes of ten-minute play finalists, dating back to our founding in 2006. This fourth volume includes plays produced from 2018-2021, a period that certainly saw some of the best of times and the worst of times in the theater world.

Festivals for the first two years of this period were staged at the beautiful Jane B. Cook Theatre at the FSU/Asolo Center for the Performing Arts in Sarasota. But then, in 2020, COVID struck and turned all of our worlds upside down. From Broadway to regional theaters, professional and amateur alike, stages went dark for nearly two years.

After careful consideration, Theatre Odyssey felt strongly that the show must go on in spite of the circumstances. As many theater companies turned to Zoom presentations, we committed ourselves to staging and preserving the festivals as audio programs. We believed that radio-inspired Theater of the Mind was a dramatic format that had proven entertaining and popular for a very long time. Back to the Future, as we soon found ourselves saying!

We purchased high quality audio equipment, rehearsed and recorded in safe environments and employed rigorous safety protocols. The polished audio files were then broadcast from a festival page on our website. Thankfully, not one of our actors, directors or studio staff became ill and the festivals proved to be very successful. Thanks to this format, you can still listen to those plays on our website at theatreodyssey.org.

The quality of this radio work was some of the best we have seen in years and our highly credentialed adjudicators quickly learned their task hadn’t changed much at all. Our plays have always been judged prior to the live performances based upon the written script. This is a playwrights’ festival and while we always aim for professional productions, our dedication has always been to the words they put on the page. It’s what makes reading these works from the past two years as satisfying as those that were produced onstage in previous years.

Theatre Odyssey has a strong commitment to theater education and the pandemic also impacted our Annual Student Ten-Minute Playwriting Festival, now in its tenth year. During the past two years we continued with the audio format for the Student Festivals as well and the winning plays from those two years as well as the previous two years are also included in this anthology.

We would like to thank all of you who support Theatre Odyssey through the purchase of these festival books, tickets to our live performances and generous donations throughout the year. Truly, we couldn’t do it without you!

Michael Bille, President

Theatre Odyssey

May 2022

2018 Ten-Minute Play Festival

Dates: May 3-6, 2018

Location: Jane B. Cook Theatre, FSU/Asolo Center for the Performing Arts , Sarasota

Best Play Award

The Card Game by Michael Bille

Runner-Up

Cliché by Keith Whalen

Audience Favorite

Death of Honor by Bernard Yanelli

Student Playwriting Festival Winner

Too Many Cooks by Luke Valadie

Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School

The Card Game 

by Michael Bille

Directed by Brendan Regan

with

Neil Levine as Michael

Richard LeVene as Bill

Characters

MICHAEL: Male, retirement age.

BILL: Male, retirement age.

Time

The present

Setting

A retirement community in Venice, Florida.

Michael, in his eighties, is seated on a shaded bench. In a few moments, BILL, his friend, same general age, will enter. At rise, Michael is manipulating a deck of cards, still in the box, while obviously contemplating something. As BILL approaches, MICHAEL inconspicuously slips the cards into his inside jacket pocket.

BILL: Thought I’d find you out here, ready to head in?

MICHAEL: We got plenty of time... Take a load off.

Bill talks as he sits down on the bench.

BILL: You watch the ballgame last night?

MICHAEL: Made it to the seventh inning, couldn’t keep my eyes open. These games are too damn long.

BILL: Too many pitchers... Seems like they’re calling the bullpen every other batter.

MICHAEL: Remember back when guys like Warren Spahn or Whitey Ford were pitching?

BILL: Of course I do

MICHAEL: Well, they not only started the game...They also finished the damn game.... And then went out and partied til two in the morning!

BILL: Different world, Mickey. Pampered millionaires playing for greedy billionaires! (Pause, looks to the building.) Maybe we should head in, might not be any decent seats left.

MICHAEL: Billy, it’s not a Broadway play ... it’s a memorial service at a retirement community,!

BILL: Ernie’s been in there at least a half hour already... likes a good aisle seat up front.

MICHAEL: Yeah, well I hope he’s making good use of that time scouting out a new fourth for the card game. Ritchie’s gonna be hard to replace.

BILL: (Using his hands.) I know. You need to be able to hold the cards, see the cards and then hear good enough to know what you’re bidding...

MICHAEL: Ritchie could hold em, see em and play the hell out of em.

BILL: Only good thing about Ritchie passing on is that I’ll end up with more money in my pocket. I think he was born wearing a poker face!

MICHAEL: And laugh? God he made us laugh. Never heard the same joke twice!...

BILL: I know... Like you said, tough to replace.... But we’ll find somebody. (Pause.) Maybe Larry...

MICHAEL: Larry’s an OK player... But god, what a motor mouth. Ask him what time it is, he tells you how to build a god damn clock. Game would last all afternoon!

BILL: Our bullpen’s shrinking, Mick. We might have to make a few ... compromises.

MICHAEL: Yeah, well we shouldn’t be making too many compromises. You start replacing guys like Ritchie with knuckleheads, you don’t have a poker game, you have a cluster fuck! (Beat.) If we don’t find somebody decent, we should probably just bust up the game up! You can’t play a decent game of poker with three guys!

BILL: Don’t worry we’ll find somebody...

MICHAEL: (Pause.) So, how you feeling these days?

BILL: Why you ask?

MICHAEL: Rich just went in for a checkup not ten days ago... doc said he was running on all cylinders. (Pause.) Now he’s sittin’ in there in a fancy urn waitin’ on his own memorial service.

BILL: Time waits for no man... gotta make every day count. I looked in the mirror this morning? Saw a sixty-year-old man locked in an eighty year old body… How the hell did that happen so fast?

MICHAEL: I quit looking in the mirror a long time ago... An ugly old stranger kept staring back at me. (Pause.) Say, how about Burt Daniels?

BILL: I don’t know, ever since that incident with Louise Jensen, he hasn’t been acting too social.

MICHAEL: She the one with the heavy lipstick... short, low cut dresses?

BILL: That’s her...

MICHAEL: So, what happened?

BILL: Sure you didn’t hear?

MICHAEL: No I didn’t hear! I can’t keep up with all the goofy gossip around this place.

BILL: Well, a week or so ago Burt was lying in bed, just about asleep when his front door opens and who walks in but Louise... wearing nothing but a see-through nightgown and robe. At first, he thought he was having a bad dream!

MICHAEL: Sounds more like a nightmare.

BILL: But then, she closes the door, calmly walks into his bedroom, takes off her robe and crawls under the sheets.

MICHAEL: Jesus Christ! Then what happened?

BILL: Nothing! He just laid there, afraid to move. Around two-o’clock in the morning she finally woke up, put her robe back on and walked out the door just as calmly as she came in.

MICHAEL: Why didn’t he just kick her out of bed, call the front desk?

BILL: Afraid waking her up or pushing her out sudden like might cause a big commotion.

MICHAEL: Who the hell cares!

BILL: Mick , You know they got zero tolerance for that stuff around here . One sketchy sexual incident and you’re out.

MICHAEL: Oh, for god’s sakes, nobody’d believe that crap...

BILL: He said.... She said!

MICHAEL: Well, Burt’s a decent enough guy, but probably not a good fit anyway. Bets the bank on every goddamn hand. He never quite figured out the point of the game is to win money, not throw it away!

BILL: Well, there’s always Art Benson. (MICHAEL gives BILL a long, incredulous stare.) You’re right, you’re right... Sorry I even brought it up!

MICHAEL: (Long pause.) Seriously, maybe we should just bag it.

BILL: Bag what?

MICHAEL: The game! Finding Ritchie’s replacement has gotten to be a real pain in the ass. Maybe it’s some sort of sign, or message... Maybe it’s time to... I don’t know, fold the group.

BILL: Then what are we gonna do, play Bingo? Chase women?

MICHAEL: Apparently you don’t need to chase women around here, they just barge in and crawl right under your sheets..... You don’t even need to buy ‘em dinner!

BILL: Look, maybe it won’t be a quality player like Rich, but we’ll find a good fourth. And, there’s new people moving in here every month. One of ’em just might be a real shark.

MICHAEL: I don’t know, sounds like a long shot ... And, I’m serious, if we can’t find somebody who knows how to play a decent game of poker.. I’m out.... Nothing but a big waste of time.

BILL: You really don’t wanna do that, Mick!

MICHAEL: Why’s that?

BILL: Well, first of all, we’d miss you.

MICHAEL: (Uncharacteristically humble.) Well, I’d miss you guys too....(Beat.) And second, I’d have to go through the whole rigmarole of finding a replacement for Ritchie and for you.

MICHAEL: (Incredulous, stares at his friend.) Seriously! You’d keep the game going without me?!

BILL: I would ... And I’m sure Ernie feels the same way. I love playing cards. But, more than that? I love being with you guys. The stories, the laughs... that’s what it’s really all about. If Rich knew you wanted to pull out ... (Looks up.) And today he just might ... it’d break his heart

MICHAEL: Why you so sure... I think he’d completely understand.

BILL: Because he started this game! He’d hate to see it dissolve into nothing because his best friend just... walked away.

MICHAEL: (Pause.) I thought you started the game!

BILL: Nah, Rich got it going. Larry, the guy before you decided he didn’t like retirement in Florida and headed back to Ohio. You’d just moved in... Rich asked me to ask you... (Puts a hand on Michael’s shoulder.) Made a call to the bullpen, you saved the game.

MICHAEL: (Pause.) He never told me that....

BILL: Mick, our card game, like everything else around this place, is gonna keep going on long after you, me, Rich and everybody else are gone.... I feel like it’s our job, our obligation to, you know, keep the game going... for the next guys.....

MICHAEL: (Pause, thoughtful.) Yeah, the next guys... (Pause.) Strange, isn’t it?

BILL: What’s that?

MICHAEL: How the four of us got thrown together down here... coming from different places, different lives... Almost different worlds... What are the odds?

BILL: Don’t know the odds, but I think we got real lucky.... Got dealt an inside straight... I’d hate to see you fold on a winning hand. (Pause.) So, what time is it now?

MICHAEL: (Checks his watch.) Getting close...

BILL starts to get up

BILL: Well, I better hit the head before the festivities begin. Otherwise, I’ll be gettin’ up in the middle of that endless birth to death musical slide show everybody’s doing these days... God, I hope to hell it’s not set to Somewhere Over the Rainbow again. (BILL starts to walk away.) You coming?

MICHAEL: Yeah, I’ll be there in a minute... Save me a place... in the back...(As BILL starts to walk away.) Hey, Billy...

BILL stops and turns to MICHAEL.

MICHAEL: If I stick with it... the group... promise me one thing...

BILL: What’s that?

MICHAEL: Don’t go gettin one of those annual check-ups anytime soon... (Beat.) Seems like getting a clean bill of health is what kills a guy around here ...

BILL: Sound advice, I’ll definitely give it some serious thought...

Bill walks off as Michael remains sitting. After a few moments he reaches inside his sport coat and pulls out the deck of cards again. He looks at it for a few moments as he fondles the box, looks to the sky for a moment and then back to the box.

MICHAEL: I was gonna retire these, Ritchie... put em up front for the memorial…you know, with your picture and the mementos and all. They’re the cards we used that last time we all played together. (Pause.) But I think we’re gonna keep playin’ with em for a while... Help me feel like you’re still in the game. (Pause.) I just wish like hell you got dealt into my life fifty years sooner... We’d a had a hell of a time... And a whole lot of stories to tell, wouldn’t we?

Michael remains seated for a few moments before he returns the cards to the inside of his sport coat. He then slowly gets up and heads to Ritchie’s memorial service.

END OF PLAY

THE CARD GAME © 2018 by Michael Bille, reprinted by permission. For performance rights, contact Michael Bille: bille@michaelsmedia.com.

Cliché

by Keith Whalen

Directed by Brendan Regan

with

Andrea Dovner as She

Harry Lipstein as He

Ashley Strand as Cop

Characters

HE: 35-60

SHE: 35-60

COP: Male or Female, 35-60

Time

The present, late afternoon

Setting

A park bench

SYNOPSIS

A nervous man pours his heart out to a stranger on a park bench, only to become exasperated with her unusual way of speaking. When a cop comes upon the pair, he attempts to settle the argument but ends up embroiled in their quarrel. Finally, the man takes drastic action to resolve things once and for all.

To obtain a copy of the script and request production rights, contact Keith Whalen: keith6812@gmail.com.

Death of Honor

by Bernard Yanelli

Directed by Ren Pearson

with

Shawn Cacciola as Philip Hamilton

Tom Aposporos as Gouverneur Morris

James Kassees as Alexander Hamilton

Characters

Philip Hamilton: Male, 19, son of Alexander and Betsey Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton: Male, 46, first U.S. Treasury Secretary and primary advisor to George Washington

Gouverneur Morris: Male, 49, Hamilton’s closest friend

Setting

New York City, November, 1801. The play takes place in Alexander Hamilton’s study, a room that contains a walnut desk, a walnut bookcase, a cushioned chair, and a fireplace. Over the fireplace mantel hangs a large framed copy of the first page of the U.S. Constitution, featuring in large bold letters: We the People. (Note: If a fireplace is not available, a simple interior wall will do.)

Historical Background

The play is based upon a series of actual events that occurred in 1801.

Lights up on Morris, who sits and reads a newspaper. Philip enters.

PHILIP: (Smiling.) Mr. Morris, greetings!

MORRIS: (Rising with the help of his cane.) Master Philip! Look at you! My, how you’ve grown over past two years.

PHILIP: Thank you, Sir. My father told me you had finally returned home from Paris and that you would like a word with me.

MORRIS: I would.

PHILIP: What would you like to discuss?

MORRIS: Philip, I know all about your intense quarrel with your father yesterday, as well as your proposed duel with George Eacker. Your father has told me everything.

PHILIP: (Stunned.) Well, if that’s the case, then ... then I suppose there’s not much for me to say.

Morris stares warily at Philip, then walks over to gaze at the U.S. Constitution above the mantel.

MORRIS: (With his back to Philip, he reads aloud.) We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility ... (Turning back.) Did your father ever tell you that I penned those now famous words?

PHILIP: He did, Sir, when I was a young boy. You must be quite proud.

MORRIS: Not quite as proud as he was, since your father was the one who—

PHILIP: Mr. Morris, I know how much you care about my father—and me—but if he asked you to come here to talk me out of my duel, I’m afraid he’s wasted your time.

MORRIS: But I don’t understand. Why would you enter into such a confrontation when it appears that your opponent’s intention is to take your life?

PHILIP: (Suspiciously.) How could you possibly know George Eacker’s intention?

MORRIS: Because I met with him this morning.

PHILIP: (Furious.) Did my father put you up to that?

MORRIS: No. I met with him because I care about you, and because I know you’re in a precarious