| John Walch. Mr. Walch's plays include The Dinosaur Within, Circumference of a Squirrel, The Nature of Mutation, Jesting with Edged Tools, Craving Gravy or Love in the Time of Cannibalism, Alice Threw The Looking Glass: A Parody of Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style," as well as numerous one-acts, collaborations, and shorts.
His plays have been produced at theatres such as The Mark Taper Forum, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, the State Theater, Kitchen Dog Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and off-Broadway at Urban Stages. His work has been developed or commissioned through the Public Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, A.S.K. Theatre Projects, Shenandoah International Playwright's, The Playwrights' Center/PlayLabs, the Mark Taper Forum, and the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London.
Awards include: Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays; the American Theatre Critics Association's Osborn Award; the Charlotte Woolard Award from the Kennedy Center, recognizing a promising new voice in the American theatre; the Marc Klein Playwriting Award; and three Austin Critic's Table Awards. He was a Sloan playwriting fellow at Manhattan Theatre Club and a James Michener Fellow at the Michener Center for Writers at UT @ Austin, where he earned his MFA in Playwriting. He served as artistic director of Austin Script Works and has taught graduate playwrights at the University Texas /Michener Center for Writers, Florida State University, and the Playwrights Workshop at University of Iowa.
His plays are published through Playscripts, Inc. and other works have appeared in various anthologies including: Humana Festival 2004: Complete Plays, Best Stage Scenes, and Best Men's Stage Monologues.
John currently lives in Brooklyn, NY and is a resident playwright of New Dramatists. |
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$14.95 per book
Discover a monologue book like no other. Actor's Choice: Monologues for Women gives you an extraordinary array of cutting-edge new monologues, from comedic to dramatic and everything in between. Unlike other monologue books, the source of every monologue is easily accessible -- each play is available through one website (www.playscripts.com), where you can read nearly the entire published script online for free. Explore the work of today's most celebrated theatrical voices, including Naomi Iizuka, Rinne Groff, Jane Martin, Pulitzer Prize winners Lynn Nottage and David Lindsay-Abaire, and many more!
Also in this series:
Actor's Choice: Monologues for Men
Actor's Choice: Monologues for Teens
Actor's Choice: Scenes for Teens
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Political drama/comedy
Short, 10-12 minutes
3 males (3 actors possible: 0-3 females, 0-3 males)
$30.00 per performance; $9.99 per book
NOTE: This play is part of an anthology called Great Short Plays: Volume 2.
What's the difference between the Turkey & Giblets Dinner and Fisherman's Catch Banquet? This seemingly benign question arises in the pet food aisle of a grocery store as privileged college grads Michael and Conrad argue over the ethics of caring for an abandoned cat in their apartment complex. But as their debate heats up, Michael has a surprising and unsettling encounter that starts to reveal the complexity and proximity of the world hunger crisis.
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Comedy
Full-length, 65-85 minutes
1 female, 1 male, 6 either (8-40 actors possible: 1-39 females, 1-39 males)
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
First-year college student Alice is in serious danger of failing her English course when she follows her composition paper into the trash -- and ends up in a hallucinatory world where the rules of grammar are turned upside-down. If she wants to pass, she'll need to deal with gunslinging run-on sentences, thugs hawking colloquialisms, fearsome Modifier Leeches, and more. Inspired by Lewis Carroll and parodying the terse manual The Elements of Style by Strunk & White, this ingenious comedy explores the fantasy world of language in all its grotesque mutations.
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| "An inspired take on Alice in Wonderland. The world of words has never been so interesting -- or indeed amusing -- as our young heroine is led through a mysterious land filled with nouns, adjectives and passive tenses. Surprisingly addictive viewing." |
| --Anna Millar, The Scotsman (Edinburgh) |
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Drama/Comedy
Full-length, 75-90 minutes
1 male
$75.00 per performance; $8.99 per book
An inner-tube, a bagel, a donut, a lifesaver, a holiday wreath, a tire-swing, a cycle of abuse, a halo of hatred: circles, both real and figurative, whirl out of control in this darkly comic one-man show. And at the center of them all sits an enigmatic squirrel. Orbiting that squirrel is Chester, a self-described rodentophobe who spins the outlandish, funny, and bruising tale of growing up with a father who developed a rabid hatred for squirrels -- a hatred that eventually infected every aspect of his and his son's life. Pursued by memories of his intolerant father and the legacy of bigotry, Chester is pulled into the black hole at the center of his own life where he encounters the mistakes, the fears, the guilt, and the humanity that make him whole again.
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| "Painful memories, tempered by bittersweet rushes of levity and a hint of redemptive power, fill the 90 exhilarating minutes of John Walch's new play Circumference of a Squirrel." |
| --Naomi Siegel, The New York Times |
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Comedy/Drama
Various durations
Various cast requirements
$9.99 per book
NOTE: This book contains 10 plays. To perform any of the plays, each must be licensed separately.
With a diverse blend of themes, styles, and cast requirements, Great Short Plays: Volume 1 contains ten extraordinary comedies and dramas. From two actors confusing their roles with their actual lives (Big Ole Washing Machine by Stephen Belber), to the inner thoughts of two terror-stricken subway riders in New York City (Moving Shortly by Sheri Wilner), to a marriage reconciled with puppet therapy (The Rebirth of Beautiful by John Walch), these collections deliver a little bit of everything in half the time.
To purchase this book of 10 plays, click "Order this play" above. To perform an individual play, click on its title below:
Big Ole Washing Machine
Bloody Thanksgiving
Christmas Breaks
Good Night, Valsetz
Here and Now
Margo at Sea
Moving Shortly
Patriot Act
The Rebirth of Beautiful
Two Guys Moving Heavy Stuff
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Comedy/Drama
Various durations
Various cast requirements
$9.99 per book
NOTE: This book contains 10 plays. To perform any of the plays, each must be licensed separately.
With a diverse blend of themes, styles, and cast requirements, Great Short Plays: Volume 2 contains ten extraordinary comedies and dramas. From the oldest living human with exactly ten minutes left before the end of the world (The Last Woman on Earth by Liz Duffy Adams), to marital advice from Mohandas Gandhi to a truck driver (Gandhi Goes Fishing by Al Sjoerdsma), to ethical discord involving world hunger and cat food (Aisle 17B by John Walch), these collections deliver a little bit of everything in half the time.
To purchase this book of 10 plays, click "Order this play" above. To perform an individual play, click on its title below:
Aisle 17B
But Who's Counting
A Free Man in Paris
Gandhi Goes Fishing
God Like a Jumpstart
The John Philip Sousa Workshop
The Last Woman on Earth
The Lessons of My Father
The Miracle of Chanukah
Views
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Comedy/Drama
Short, 10-12 minutes
1 female, 1 male (2-3 actors possible: exactly 1 female, 1-2 males)
$30.00 per performance; $9.99 per book
NOTE: This play is part of an anthology called Great Short Plays: Volume 1.
Joseph wants a baby to help put his life back in order, but Mary isn't ready to consider a baby until Joseph puts his life back in order. And his truth-telling puppet therapy is bringing up things they'd both rather not hear, in this funny and moving examination of a shaky marriage.
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| "A humorous look at a caving marriage... The best therapy they get is from sock puppets playing each of their characters and telling truths neither wants to hear...the festival's best." |
| --Mark Lowery, Fort-Worth Star Telegram |
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