←The Depot for New Play Readings

In January, 1882, Irish poet Oscar Wilde, 27, visited his literary hero, Walt Whitman, 62, in Philadelphia. Little is known about what transpired, but in the two-hander “Wilde about Whitman,” David Simpatico delivers a dramatic answer. Over two acts, Simpatico’s vividly drawn poets tango in a dance of desire and rage. At stake is Whitman’s legacy: will he accede to demands he cut twenty-five erotic poems from Leaves of Grass to prevent its being banned? With witty repartee, double entendre, and haunting recollections about the Civil War, the play swings through a gamut of emotions. A gem. Highly recommended.

In “The Springvale Armadillo,” Donald Loftus explores the little known history of leprosaria, medical colonies for the care of patients with Hansen’s disease, or leprosy. This absorbing play focuses on Ruby, who lives in an institution based on the historical Carville. The dialog crackles, and Loftus deftly employs flashbacks and dreams for heightened emotional effect. Mystery hovers throughout the action, giving the play a slight gothic feel, without the typical trappings of the genre. In the end, Ruby’s life and stoicism are poignant and moving. Strongly recommended.

Jack Rushton’s “The Wheelhouse” is smart, witty, and alarming. Set in an unnamed corporate meeting room, the play examines systems: how to manipulate them and the people in them. In this world, where a shadowy regime concentrates power in a few hands, everyone is expendable, and no one escapes the tentacles of a soulless technology: two employees wrestle for supremacy in a menacing meeting room where no one ever wins. A fascinating story that will keep audiences gnawing their nails. Highly recommended for evenings of shorts with a sharp bite.

John Mabey’s “Buried Treasures” brings us two characters searching for the past, for something they are missing, something that was taken from them. The language is particular, familiar but surprising, and the setting, beside a river that rises and falls, reflects the play’s undercurrent of emotion. While realistic in its portrayal of sibling love and rivalry, “Buried Treasures” moves the audience with its lyricism and the power in what is left unsaid. The play is ideal for children’s theater and would be a welcome addition to any evening of short plays about family.

Joan carries a suitcase of a purse, a sign of her well-organized “stuff,” yet somehow in the last year she’s lost contact with her son Matt. After Matt seemingly wills himself to death and donates all his organs, Joan searches the ICU for the recipients to find answers, to find the question, to find Matt. Alex Dremann’s “The Cure” aims to make us laugh and break our hearts at the same time. With naturalistic dialog, a simple set, and unforgettable characters, “The Cure” trades easy answers for mystery and lyricism. A powerful play. Highly recommended.

In Stephen Kaplan’s “Un Hombre,” a widowed mother, Rebecca Wolfson, and her son, Josh, are frozen in grief. While Josh struggles to prepare for his Bar Mitzvah, Rebecca hides in her basement studio where she unintentionally sculpts a golem. The new heart in a wounded family, the golem communicates in Hebrew, Spanish, and English and sings licks of musical theater, both to console Rebecca and Josh and to help them reconnect to each other and to living. Poetic and theatrical, “Un Hombre” examines timeless philosophical questions with humor and tenderness. The final scene will break your heart. Highly recommended.

Mary and Bill have been married for twenty-four years, and Bill wants to celebrate with a game of “H-O-R-S-E.” Good-humored but competitive, Bill attempts to teach Mary, an unathletic librarian, how to shoot a basket, and with each pass of the baskektball, the dynamics of their marriage emerge with ever-increasing clarity. That we love this wife and husband is testament to Kathleen Cahill’s comedic writing; “H-O-R-S-E” is a wildly entertaining riff on the adage that we can know someone for decades and still have more to learn. A swish through the hoop never sounded so good. Strongly recommended.

The Mackinac Bridge, infamous for length and height, provides a comedic setting for Maripat Allen’s delightful “Five Miles Long, Two Hundred Feet High.” Jennifer must cross the bridge, but terrified by stories of cars having been blown over the bridge’s side, she pays someone to drive her and meets Jason, a veteran who understands fear. With Aristotelian unity of time and place, Allen’s play entertains us through every minute of the journey, one in which Jennifer and Jason cross more than the Great Lakes below them. Strongly recommended.

In Glenn Alterman’s “Unheard,” awkward silences punctuate the conversation of an estranged father and son, between whom incommunication has been a primary characteristic. Ironically, then, offstage sounds (hospital bells, a commanding voice over an intercom), move the action forward to an unexpected revelation. The result is a piercing meditation on the mysteries of filial attachment and the silence of death. A powerful ten-minute play, “Unheard” can be produced either in an audio format or in a fully staged production. Strongly recommended.

In ten episodes of a Survivor-like contest, Greg Lam’s “Treachery Island” elicits plenty of laughs, as a group of predictable types—the scheming contestant, cynical showrunner, and dumb jock—manage the multiple crises of an unexplained global catastrophe. Reimaging the reality genre as a workplace drama, Lam gives us three-dimensional characters off-script and off-camera, whose actual survival we care about. With multiple plot twists in every episode, the play delivers a fast-paced, brilliant satire of both reality television and the tropes of apocalyptic literature. Ideal for multiple formats: radio, stage, or screen as a limited television series. Highly recommended.