Matched with Cupid and Psyche, the Love and Death Cycle will eventually include The Rape of Persephone and The Seduction of Adonis, and conclude with Cupid and Psyche.

The Rape of Persephone

Aphrodite wants dominion over everything - even death. So she sends her son, Cupid, out to shoot Hades with his golden arrow.

But Cupid is terrified of death and so comes up with a better plan: he'll seduce the Fates and convince them to stop cutting the thread of men's lives. The elder two Fates see right through him, but he succeeds with Clotho, the youngest of the Fates who can only see what is past.

Now in command of the shears of Fate, Love seems unstoppable. But Aphrodite is still not satisfied - the goddesses are turning virgin: a living death. And Persephone is on the verge of joining them.

When Hades himself rises to discover why no souls are coming to him, Cupid has to act quickly. He shoots Hades, and gives to him Persephone against her will.

But even this plan fails as Hades realizes that Persephone does not love him back; as the gods rebel against Aphrodite's greedy reach...and as Clotho sees what Cupid has done and, plucking out her own and her sister's eyes with the regained shears of Fate, curses Cupid: that one day Death will triumph over Love.

Persons of the Play:

Cupid

Hades

Aphrodite

Artemis

Demeter

Persephone

First Fate: Future

Second Fate: Present

Third Fate: Clotho (Past)

The Seduction of Adonis

Cupid, terrified by his encounter and the curse placed by Clotho has sworn off women and taken to bedding and befriending men instead. Among his companions are two mortals: Adonis and Orpheus. But he finds no solace here, either. For Aphrodite, still wounded from her recent loss to Hades, takes Adonis to be her lover, and Orpheus is head over heels for Euridyce.

Nor is treachery very far behind: for Persephone, now Queen of the Underworld, is set upon revenge. When she is rebuked by Cupid, she pursued Adonis - who has grown weary of Aphrodite's possessiveness. And as for Cupid's other companion - well, it's a simple thing for the Goddess of the Dead to take the life of Orpheus' bride, sweet Euridyce.

So when Orpheus comes to reclaim Euridyce, begging Persephone for mercy, Persephone makes it a test for Adonis. Adonis promises to remain faithful only to Persephone - unfortunately, Persephone did not promise to remain faithful to her own word, and calling out Orpheus' name in his wife's voice, she reclaims Euridyce's soul and dooms Adonis to be her bondslave forever.

Persons of the Play:

Cupid

Adonis

Orpheus

Aphrodite

Persephone

Euridyce

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Oedipus Cycle (Three Play Cycle in Iambic Pentameter)

This cycle will include Oedipus Rex, Seven Against Thebes and Antigone, focussing especially on family dynamics and reprucussions of our actions through the ages.

Oedipus

The day that Oedipus names his eldest son, Polynices his heir (over his adopted son, his wife Jocata's other child, Eteocles, by her former husband), the prophet Tieresias announces a terrible curse upon Thebes.

Oedipus immediately begins searching out the root and cause of this curse. Is it his own pride and ambition, taking the kingship? Is it the license he's allowed his eldest daughter, Ismene - who's been leading her cousin Haemon on, despite Antigone pining over him? Is it the favoritism he's shown Antigone? is it that he passed over his adopted son Eteocles for his own son, Polynices? Is it the murder he committed, killing the old king on the road before coming to Thebes? Is it that he's fleeing his own curse...to marry his mother and kill his father?

Mystery upon mystery unravel as the family secrets are revealed one by one. Worst of all, that Jocasta, Oedipus' wife, had learnt several years ago that Oedipus was indeed her son...and had not told him...and had continued to live like his wife, instead, reasoning that she had lost her son once, she would not lose him again.

At this, Jocasta takes her own life rather than look her husband-son in the face, and Oedipus himself plucks out his eyes before his children stop him.

Persons of the Play:

Oedipus

Polynices

Eteocles

Tieresias

Creon

Haemon

Jocasta

Euridyce (Creon's Wife)

Ismene

Antigone

Seven Against Thebes

With his father, Oedipus, gone with Antigone and Tieresias to find some sort of salvation, Ismene grown more wanton every day, and his entire world falling apart having learnt that he is a child of incest, Polynices is further devastated when his half-brother, Eteocles declares himself king and banishes Polynices from Thebes. After all, Eteocles reasons, of everyone there, he's the only one who isn't tainted by incest.

But Polynices knows that although Eteocles may be the perfect politician, he's far from a good man. And so taking his best friend, Prince [placeholder name: Iago] with him, Polynices goes out to find others who will fight with him for the right to govern Thebes well.

Polynices finds four other princes who join with him...and one princess [placeholder name: Eowyn] who proves herself a good fighter and a better strategist. But [Iago] cannot bear to see his place of honor usurped by a woman - worse, by a woman the idealistic Polynices is falling every day more and more in love with.

Feeling rejected, [Iago] offers his service to Eteocles - winning his favor by learning a new prophecy from the Oracle, that Eteocles will kill Polynices in battle. What [Iago] fails to tell Eteocles, is that Polynices will also slay his brother.

Polynices forces wage war on Thebes, the very day after Polynices and [Eowyn] are married. And true to the Oracle's word, the brothers slay each other in single combat. Gloating, [Iago] goes to claim dominion over [Eowyn], when she, rising from where she weeps over Polynices' body, stabs [Iago] in the gut, saying: "This is how a woman grieves."

Seeing his chance, Creon, the late Jocasta's brother, takes the crown of king for himself. He orders [Eowyn] to be put under lock and key, betrothes Ismene to his own son, Haemon - and hopes against hope that the dangers have ceased.

Persons of the Play:

Polynices

Eteocles

Creon

[Iago]

[Four Princes]

Haemon

Euridyce

[Eowyn]

Ismene

The Oracle

Antigone

Antigone returns to Thebes, after seeing her father led to salvation at last, only to find everything she's known as changed. Her brother, her protector, Polynices is dead, by Eteocles' hand - and Eteocles', slain himself by Polynices - is being hailed publically as a hero. Creon is king, Ismene is betrothed to Haemon...and Polynices is to be left for the vultures and wild dogs.

But Antigone is tired of all the lies and deceptions, of all the spins on the facts, of everyone who's trying to bury the truth. And so she sneaks out and buries her brother, Polynices - even though she knows it means certain death.

Meanwhile, that very night as the court celebrates the night before Haemon and Ismene's marriage, Haemon comes to the sudden and terrible realization that all his life he's been a "Yes Man." Yes, he'll turn a blind eye to the politics; yes, he'll turn a blind eye to the incest; yes, he'll turn a blind eye to his own father, Creon, burying the truth.

Therefore, when he meets Antigone again - fresh from burying her brother, Haemon realizes where his true heart has always been: with beautiful and strong Antigone. But Antigone is too scarred by the knowledge that she's born of incest to compound it with accepting Haemon as her lover - even though she had pined after him her whole youth. As she tells him: "There is a love beyond love." That is what she is trying to find.

Word arrives that Antigone buried Polynices and the Guards surround her and bring her before Creon, who attempts to cajole his wayward niece into doing the political and expedient and above all quiet thing and just forgetting that the past year ever happened. He will find her a husband - he'll even break off the marriage between Haemon and Ismene if she wants - he will do anything, so long as she says nothing.

Left alone, Antigone asks [Eowyn] - who is forever planning her own death in grief for Polynices - what she should do. [Eowyn] tells Antigone to do what is right, even if it's difficult - especially when it's difficult. Seeing a way to make her own death matter, [Eowyn] tells Antigone to run to the hills and bury Polynices (whom the Guards exhumed) again. Antigone does so - fleeing under the cover of [Eowyn's] own self-immolation.

But Creon is ready for such an event as this. He meets Antigone on the hill, along with all the court and all the guards and gives her one last opportunity: either bury her freedom in a white bridal gown or bury herself in a maiden's winding sheet.

Creon: What have you done, Antigone? What have you done?

Antigone: What have I done, dear uncle? By God, by God!
I endured.

Creon, at a loss for what else to do, orders Antigone brought into the cave under the hill, left with the body of Polynices, and left for dead.

Just to make sure Antigone doesn't crawl her way out, Creon sets a firing squad to slay her, before he tears down the rocks at the entrance of the cave. But just before he gives the order to fire, Haemon - disguised as one of the squad - jumps through to shield Antigone' body with his own, and is riddled through with the shots himself.

Horrified, Creon orders the whole of the world to topple down on them - thus leaving us inside the tomb with Antigone and Haemon, dying in her arms. And as he draws his last breath, Haemon smiles and says that he has found the love beyond love.

Persons of the Play:

Creon

Haemon

Euridyce

Ismene

[Eowyn]

Antigone

Guards, etc.

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Scattershot!
(Pieces I'm playing with....)

An Evening's Diversion

A series of short-one acts, all vaguely interconnected, that would include:

Wallace's Will

The French Butler

As well as:

The Accidental Assassin (One-Act? Full-Length?)

A completed comedy about euthenasia...which may or may not want to be longer.

Colin McClaren has come to the Rosenblatt estate with one mission: disguised as Dr. Gustav Koffenhäk, he's supposed to kill sprightly matriarch Edwina Rosenblatt. Possibly by means of poisoned strawberry ice cream.

Nor is Edwina upset at this idea - since she knows her son Duarte hired Colin to kill her, and so she went and offered Colin the inheritance and the estate and her granddaughter Isabelle - if Colin will pretend to kill her, but really help her escape with her faithful maid, Jaquinetta, to Sparta. (Buff men. Teeny skirts. What's not to love?)

Only, Colin's starting to get cold feet. He came for the money. He's staying for the girl. And he's got an agenda of his own.

A Gentlemen's Gentleman (One-Act)

The reverse of The French Butler - where the former focussed on the romantic scrapes of the aristocratic Philip Higgins and the equally blue-blooded Madeline Applebaum - while the servants went in and out practically unseen...

This play focusses on Henry, the butler, in his quest to become not just a gentleman's gentleman...but a gentleman himself. It's the only way (he thinks) that he can ever be worthy of the vivacious Tess's love.

Full of cameos from The French Butler and Mrs. Wimbleshankes and her pet gardener, Pthwlp...this one should be fun whenever I get to writing it.

Married Affairs (One-Act)

Reallllllllly loose idea, but this is the home for Jasper Lovelace. (Get thee to reading Wallace's Will to learn and love the name!) The idea is that it's not couth to be caught loving your wife, so both wife and husband go to extremes to pretend they're having affairs with others...when they're really sneaking off to see each other. A dab of Chesterton's The Man Who Lived and a good bit of Moliere and I should probably get a plot together....

The Thirteenth Fairy (One-Act)

Part of the Grimms Agahst series (see also Charming Princes), The Thirteenth Fairy tells us the real story behind the curse of Sleeping Beauty. Fairy Godmother Lilynimble Merryweather pulls the short straw and finds herself cast in the position of Designated Evil Archetypal Thirteenth Heavy (DEATH)...a role she's unsuited to play. Every single one of her curses ends up being far too sweet - a rain of teddy bears, a really nasty papercut, wrinkled clothes for life! - and so the other twelve fairies, fed up, show her what evil curses are really all about!

Everyone's a Star (One-Act)

A way to get seven or more women on the stage and maybe only two guys. About seven stage moms complaining to the head of a talent agency, "Everyone's a Star" about the lack of female roles in Snow White. Of course, they all want their girls to be Snow White...and the only open female role is the Wicked Witch. Possible subplot involving one of the theatre girls dragged along with her mom and some cute actual acting out of Snow White with another "theatre girl" (actually a boy with an overzealous stage mom) and the two of them running off together at the end of the play. Poisoned apple provided by impressario? End with major cat fight and possible explosion behind the curtain with feathers wafting through to the audience? Bears some thought.

A Comedy of Murders (One-Act)

A farce on Agatha Christy-type books, we begin with the detective telling everyone who the murderer is...except that at the high point, it's revealed that the guy who done it, got done in. Worse, there's an angry audience member wandering around the stage, ready to spill the beans on everyone. Even worse, every time the detective tries to pin it on a new person, that person winds up dead! A lesson in careful improv, lots of silly deaths, and possibly the introduction of the surly and homocidal Bob the Janitor....

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Musical Plays

Straight Plays

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Playwright Page

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The Snow Queen (Opera)

Kay is recently returned from University, much celebrated - a little older, a little wiser, a little sadder - and with a promise to the Snow Queen that he's afraid to keep. When he meets his childhood friend, Gerta, who invites him to remember the child he was and the happiness they had together, he immediately sees in her another possibility for the future: the past.

But Gerta does not want to grow up, does not want to think of such things as love and marriage - and she flees from Kay. With no other alternative, Kay turns himself over to the Snow Queen - as he has promised - to learn all her cold wisdom. She whisks him away to her castle, with the promise that if he can prove an intangible thing, he will be free.

Gerta rushes in and realizing her mistake and cowardice, sets out to find Kay - journeying through her own landscape of growing up, from the Queen of the Summer, to the Gypsy Girl - at last to the Snow Queen, there to free Kay by proving her own love in her person.

Persons of the Play:

The Snow Queen/Queen of the Summer/Gypsy Girl - Soprano

Kay - Baritone/Tenor

Gerta - Second Soprano/First Alto

Songs written so far:

Live Your Life to the Fullest (Double Chorus)

Philosophies (Kay and Chorus)

In My Garden (Gerta)

And How Was I to Know/Return to the Garden (Kay and Gerta)

Ice, Snow (Snow Queen)

Entrance to the Palace of Ice (Instrumental)

If You Can Find Eternity (Snow Queen)

Where Have You Gone? (Gerta)

There is No Beauty (Snow Queen, Gerta, Kay)

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The Steadfast Tin Soldier
(Opera - Theatre for Young Audiences)

Pictures to the right are original costume renderings by Emily C. A. Snyder.

The musical box doll, Corianna, wants nothing more than to be real. So when Christoffer, a Tin Soldier with only one leg, professes his love to her, she uses him to escape the world of toys into the wide world.

There, Corianna discovers everything she ever dreamed and more. But when she meets Maledicte, who promises that with his kisses she will become real, Corianna falls into grave danger: for Maledicte creates hearts, true - but only so he can sell them.

Fortunately, Christoffer, the Steadfast Tin Soldier, has followed Corianna out into the world, vowing to bring her to safety. Along the way he discovers the one thing that can kill Maledicte: a heart made of gold.

When Christoffer finally finds Corianna, her heart has come at last to life. And when Maledicte arrives, demanding Corianna's heart, Christoffer offers his own. But as soon as Maledicte touches it - he crumbles and dies, because Christoffer had a heart of gold all along.

However, no man can live without his heart - not even a doll - and Christoffer dies in Corianna's arms, as she finally realizes the meaning of the song her music box had sung:

Round and around
What was lost now is found
It was always in front of you.

Persons of the Play:

Corianna - Soprano

Christoffer - Baritone

Maledicte - Tenor

Songs written so far:

Corianna's Lament (Corinna and the Dolls)

We're the Soldiers Made of Tin (Men of the Company)

I've Seen Your Face Before (Corianna, Christoffer, Company)

Dear Sir, If You Would Only Stop and Listen (Corianna)

I Have Been Told that in Those Tales of Old (Christoffer and Corianna)

Waltz of the World (Christoffer, Corianna and Company)

I'm a Picker of Pockets (Maledicte)

Hail the Soldiers, Home from Battle (Company)

Just My Boy and Me (Grandmother and Christoffer)

Lullaby (Grandmother)

Maledicte, Make All of My Dreams Come True (Company and Christoffer)

Every Time He Kisses Me (Corianna, Christoffer and Maledicte)

Waltz of the Heart/Finale (Corianna, Christoffer, Maledicte)

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The Little Match Girl
(Opera? Musical?)

In war-torn England, just after the first World War, a Soldier returns disillusioned with life - particularly the shallow life of the upperclass, particularly that life on Christmas Eve. But just when he goes to throw himself in the Thames, he sees the Little Match Girl on the point of death and decides to become her savior instead.

Taking her to a townhouse, he and the girl start in on a close friendship - to the bafflement of his friends, his mother and most particularly his fiancee - who all suspect the worst of him.

But the Soldier is determined, having lost so many in the war, to save this little girl. However, even the best soldier is no match for the sickness of the body, and on New Year's Eve the Little Match Girl happily goes to another Savior's arms, promising the Soldier that all will be well and that death is nothing to be afraid of. As she sings:

For there's a world outside these walls you've built
And there's a world beyond your fears
And if you would only trust your hand in mine,
I would show you there's a Paradise -
Outside of Eden.

Listen to the Song on: YouTube

The Little Match Girl passes on, and the Soldier realizes that he couldn't save her - but that she had saved him.

Persons of the Play:

Little Match Girl - Second Soprano

Soldier Gentleman - Tenor

His Fiancee - First Soprano

His Mother - Mezzo Soprano

His Best Friend - Baritone Bass

Songs written so far:

One Match/Prologue (Little Match Girl, Company)

The Hymn (Company)

Angel of Mercy (Soldier Gentleman)

Dear Sir, In My Previous Letter (Fiancee)

It was Snowing the Day That My Childhood Died (Soldier)

The World is Topsy-Turvy (Fiancee, Best Friend, Mother)

Angel of Mercy/Never Has to Know (Soldier, Little Match Girl)

Outside of Eden (Little Match Girl)

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Twelve Dancing Princesses
(Musical)

This one's really rough, but there are several awesome elements of it: first being that there are twelve dancing princesses (more roles for women, yeah!), and second being that the oldest girl gets the guy.

Right now, part of the difficulty is deciding whether this version wants to be updated to the time of speakeasies...or if it wants to stay in doublets and petticoats. (It really affects the music.)

Some rudimentary ideas include that this is the story of the eldest daughter - sort of her own Faustian myth - as she's seduced by the lead gypsy/warlock/shoe salesman (!) - and as she's brought back, almost against her will, by the soldier.

I haven't done a lot of work on this, as the song list will attest. Ah ca!

Persons of the Play:

Eldest Princess - Mezzo Soprano

[Eleven Other Princesses] - Various

King - Baritone Bass

Gypsy - Tenor

Soldier - Baritone Tenor

Songs written so far:

Soldier's Entrance (Instrumental)

(Possibly) I'm Going to Run Away (Eldest)

(Possibly) Never Saying Goodbye (Eldest?)

Shoes for Dancing (Gypsy and Eldest)

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