Full Length

Dungeon Play or The life and times of George of Clarence after His Untimely End
©1999 William R.Cole

script sample

Dramady-History, full length play; one woman/four men, one simple set. Appropriate as a black box companion piece in rep with Shakespeare's Richard III.

Running Time: about 90 minutes with intermission

What if Richard of Gloucester spared his brother George's life and then hid the truth from brother Edward IV? Spanning 30 years of history here is a different telling of the end of the house Plantagenet than the one William Shakespeare told Henry of Richmond's granddaughter.
A tale of how brothers love and hate....

Production History - unproduced

 

Folksinger in My Pants
William R. Cole

3 men - 2 woman - Simple set (on a revolve) Running length: Full length - 90 minutes Comedy
(live music is necessary for this production)
A full length from the short ten minute play that can be found below.

The search for what it means to be an artist, the sacrfices one suffers and the redemption that can be found through the passion we hold for art.

Production History - unproduced

Wearing the Edges of Broken Glass Smooth with Your Tongue
© 1998 William R Cole

Dramady, full length (two companion one acts - see below); two women/three men, one base set and minimalist props, offers ethnically diverse roles and strong roles for women. Warning: nudity and strong sexual content.

Running Time: approximately 120 minutes with intermission.

Imagine you are the first man and woman on the planet with three troubled teens. No Dr Spock around to turn to for parenting advice and the boys are starting to feel their wild oats. Events conspire to set off the turning of a karmic wheel that will spin until the end of time. And that's just Act One.
Act Two asks you to imagine a not too distant future where one man and one woman must face a world without frogs, whales or birdsong. Seems we were so busy mucking things up that we neglected to build an ark. The wheels of progress bring the wheel of karma to a grinding halt. Can they get the machine started again? Do they want to?

Production history:

Produced by Theatre Babylon, February 1999 Seattle, WA.

Public reading, February 1998, Theatre Babylon, Seattle, WA

One Acts

Stumbling after Paradise
©1998, William R.Cole

Black comedy; 2 male, 2 female, ; simple set, Nudity and strong sexual content (Act One of Wearing the Edges of Broken Glass Smooth with Your Tongue).

Running Length: 60 minutes..

Did Adam and Eve live happily ever after? WE THINK NOT! In a cave east of Eden and west of Nod, Mom, Dad & the kids struggle to make a new life for themselves. You thought you knew what happened when the boys hit puberty - here is the true story.

Production history:

Produced with its companion; Feasting on a Banquet of Crumbs as a full length, Feb '99, Theatre Babylon.

Feasting on a Banquet of Crumbs
© 1998 William R. Cole

Drama/societal critique; one man, one woman; one simple set, Nudity and strong sexual content (Act Two of Wearing the Edges of Broken Glass Smooth with Your Tongue).

Running length: approx. 45 minutes.

Set fifty years in the future, what would you do if you found yourself the last man or woman on the face of the planet? No Noah this time around! The new Adam and the new Eve think they have the re-population dilemma worked out when an unexpected bombshell is dropped.

Production history:

Produced with its companion; Stumbling After Paradise as a full length, Feb '99, Theatre Babylon.

10-Minute Plays and other short work

Old Odd Ends
© 2004 William R Cole

Comedy: 15 minute play - three Men - two Women - Apologie to Samuel Beckett whose work served as an inspiration to this odd little piece about Henretta and Walter's slow decay in Purgatory. Their monotony is interrupted when one day hope is delivered with the garbage as they witness the arrival of younger, more innocent sinners. (WARNING : this script demands nudity for two of the actors)

Production history:
14/48 The World's Quickest Theater Festival - Seattle WA July 04

 

Only Wads of Old Chewed Gum
© 2004 William R Cole

Drama: 10 minute play - three Women - An object lesson in how three inter-related women break through the secrets that they hide from one another.

Production history:

14/48 The World's Quickest Theater Festival - Seattle WA July 04

Stirring up Mayhem
© 2004 William R Cole

Comedy: 1 minute play - two Women - one man.

An object lesson in how a strange clown in town breaks the ice and finds love.

 

Production history:

Ten Plays in Ten Minutes - Colloquial Theater - Buffalo NY Feb 04

 

Bent to a Thin Whisper
© 2002 William R Cole

Drama: two Women - one man - one actor of indiscriminate sex.

An old crone brings a small boy to a demon for lessons in the ways of the world.

Production history:

New - unproduced

Rub a Dub Dub
© 1998 William R Cole

Comedy: three men - simple or no set.

Running length: approximately 9 minutes.

Water water everywhere and not a thing to eat.
3 men in a tub consider their bare larder.

Production history:

NineHoles98, ten minute play festival, Feb, '98 Theatre Babylon.
Seattle Fringe Fest, March '98

 

6B No Elevator
© 1999 William R. Cole

Drama, 10-minute play; 1woman, 1 man - simple set.

Running length: 9 minutes.

A room with no door, a gagged man tied to a chair, and a woman at a window.
How one takes responsibility for their actions in our modern times.

Production history:

Staged Reading, Sphinx Night, May '99 Theatre Babylon.

SHORT but not Sweet (short works) October- November 1999 Theatre Babylon.

 

Do Duck's Quacks Echo?
© 2001 William R. Cole

Drama, One minute play; 1woman, 1 man - simple set. Running length: 1 minute.
A short version of 6B No Elevator (see above).
How one takes responsibility for their actions in our modern times.

Production history:

DNA Shorts Festival - Boise ID April 03

Ten Plays in Ten Minutes - Colloquial Theater - Buffalo NY Feb 04

 

Head of a Pin
William R. Cole

Comedy: two men - simple set.

Running length: approximately 9 minutes. Looking for a quiet corner of the universe from which to operate, William Z. Bub applies for a position beneath his resume.

Excessive Pleasure in Hissing
William R. Cole

Comedy: two men - one snake - no set.

Running length: approximately 9 minutes. As suggested by a Tom Robbins story found in Fierce Invalids from Hot Climates. A Bodhisatttva encounters a hooded cobra on a mountain pass.

 

Folksinger in My Pants
William R. Cole

Comedy/Musical : two men, two women - simple set.

Running length: approximately 9 minutes. The passion which drives us to create, creates beauty - no matter how hard the harden cynics try to crush our spirit to soar. (recently developed into a full length work).

Production history:
Staged Reading, New Plays Festival, Ashland, OR June 03- Winner: Best of Fest

Weep and the World Laffs
William R. Cole

Drama: three men & 'twins', simple set - a bus stop

A mysterious tupperware box and a man who waits for a bus that no longer runs witness the violent confrontation over territory between a bum and a three card monty dealer. What he sees and what he sees are two very different things.

How They Live on the Moon
William R. Cole

Drama: one man, four to six voices, a violinist - simple or no set. Multimedia technical requirement.

Running length: approximately 9 minutes. Adaptation of the book The Dinosaur Man by Susan Baur - a tale of madness and enchantment from the back ward.