BIG BROTHER 2010 - a Drama in 12 Scenes
October 30, 2009
Professor Lahaie has just completed the script for his most recent play entitled BIG BROTHER 2010. This new dramatic piece explores the recent trend of big government to limit American freedoms. The scene is set in 2014 after the US President has signed the Internet Control Act, allowing the government to limit free speech on the Internet. The story follows Big Brother's attempt to hunt down and destroy a rogue blogger named Spartacus who defies the government's takeover of the Net and broadcasts the cold hard truth of the fall of the Republic. The play is scheduled for a World Premiere in the Dover Theater on the campus of Gardner-Webb University from March 2 - 6, 2010.
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LUMINARIUM - A Play in Five Acts
November 07, 2008
LUMINARIUM is a dramatic retelling of the conversion of King Drtad, the first of the Armenian kings to embrace the Christian faith. The play moves past the genre of historical drama as it follows Drtad’s encounters with the Most High God and his prophet Gregory the Illuminator. The play has recently been translated into Armenian.
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GLORIA DEI - A Drama in Two Acts
June 28, 2007
This drama explores the ethical choices surrounding the starvation of a young woman diagnosed as being in a Persistent Vegetative State or PVS. Although a fictional story, this play echoes the Terry Schaivo court case from 2005. This play premiered in February 2008 in Gardner-Webb University's annual Playwrights Workshop.
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LEAR ReLOADED - A Deconstruction in 4 Acts
November 4, 2008
In the spring of 2007, Gardner-Webb University Theater mounted a daring postmodern deconstruction of Shakespeare's play King Lear entitled LEAR ReLoaded. This photo book and script is a record of that unique and exciting production complete with photographs, notes, candid backstage photos, and the complete script.
This retelling of the King Lear myth explores the weak dualities of god/man and blessing/cursing in order to underline the medieval mindset of the original work and reposition the narrative as a post-modern dramatic event. Although the play is a derivative work, it preserves much of the Bard’s original language.
More Information Online!
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THE BELOVED A New Translation of Aimee
December, 2007
Dr. Ute Lahaie and Professor Scot Lahaie translated Heinz Coubier's early-20th century comedy from the German. With the new title THE BELOVED, this tranlsation premiered at the Keller Theater in 1989. Performance rights for those seeking to produce the show are available through Will Meisel Verlag, Berlin.
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PURGING MARY - A Drama in Two Acts
This drama uses the domestic conflict surrounding a planned abortion to expose the political intricacies of abortion-on-demand in America, as well as shallow religious hypocrisy in the American church. A powerful 90 minutes of theater!
Play Synopsis: Joe Seymour and his wife Mary wait in a hospital room for test results. At Joe’s insistence, they are seeking to abort the baby in Mary’s womb. A black man has allegedly raped her one weekend when her husband was away on business. Joe’s southern upbringing makes the thought of bringing this child into the world unbearable. But Joe is a deacon in his church and chairs the local Right-to-Life movement. Counseled against his dangerous course of action by pastors and friends, Joe forces his wife to move forward with his decision to terminate the pregnancy, effectively ending his relationship with church, friends, and community. A tenacious physician discovers that the age of the fetus is inconsistent with the date of the rape—evidence that the child in Mary’s womb does not belong to the man who raped her. This revelation leads Joe to believe that he was just hours away from aborting his own child, which causes him great consternation and regret. While the repentant couple revels in their nuptial joys, the doctor runs a paternity test to verify his assumptions, but discovers that Joe is not the father of the baby. Backed in a corner, Mary owns up to her long-standing marital unfaithfulness, forcing the play to its frightful climax. Mary declares that she will leave her husband for her lover and that she will have the baby. In a fit of rage, Joe strangles her until she is unconscious. With Mary lying prone on the bed, Joe violently pounds her womb, forcing Mary to miscarry her child. With great chaos, the play ends with Joe contradicting everything he has worked to establish, leading to his total ruin.
The play requires a cast of 4 men and 2 women, and a single realistic interior. Running time is approximately 90 minutes. Performance rights are handled by the author. Producers interested in working on this brand new play should contact the author directly to request a perusal manuscript.
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GADFLY - an Ironic Cabaret in Two Acts
May 15, 2009
This play, which is an ironic comedy with music, explores the power of the establishment to determine what we call accepted truth, and chronicles how it has historically been the outsider that has moved our understanding of truth forward. The play is a cosmic Cabaret where special guests are invited to defend their teachings or actions, to include Socrates, Galileo, & Darwin. Backed by a ukulele and a squeeze box, a Poet Guide named Virgil keeps the action moving forward as the "Idols of the Institution" play judge and jury over the minds of our history's greatest thinkers.
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CUBICLE - The Office Musical
November 4, 2008
A wry look at life in the office, this Musical tells the story of Alan Zookowski in his battle against management's attempt to reduce the workforce by ninety-five percent. The music for the show is by Roger Lowe.
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MARTYR! - A New Translation of Polyeucte
December, 2007
Dr. Ute Lahaie and Professor Scot Lahaie translated Pierre Corneille's neo-classical tragedy POLYEUCTE from the French into 21st-century English. With the new title MARTYR!, this tranlsation premiered on the stage at Gardner-Webb Universit
y in November 2007. Performance rights are now available for those seeking to produce the show.
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DOGFALL - A Drama in Two Acts
Dog●fall (dôg´fôl) n. 1 A term used in classical wrestling describing the event of two players hitting the mat simultaneously, whereby neither wrestler receives credit for the throw. 2 A draw or stalemate.
The action of the play takes place in a mostly abandoned tenement building in Dallas, Texas. Mike Howard—a radical from the far religious right—has kidnapped Dr. Jake McKenzie, Dallas’ famed suicide doctor—with the intent to serve his own homegrown justice upon the doctor, since the courts have yet to convict him of any wrongdoing. Mike presents evidence of McKenzie’s wrongdoing in a mock trial while silencing McKenzie’s attempt to justify his actions. Underestimating his elderly captive, Mike lets his guard down and is overpowered by the wily physician. Instead of escaping his captor, McKenzie places the now-chained radical on trial in like manner, an opportunity the doctor uses to defend his own actions and give voice to the radical left. The plot takes an unexpected turn as the play reaches its climax, throwing both characters into turmoil. Constructed as a dialectic, this play explores the extreme positions (both politically and socially) represented in the Right-to-Die debate active in the United States over the last twenty-five years. Although the play's focus is on doctor-assisted suicide, the author explores the whole of the ethical quagmire represented in the right-to-die movement—abortion, euthanasia, sanctity of life, the life to come, religious zealotry and more.
DOGFALL has received the following honors:
- * Southeastern Theatre Conference's (SETC) Charles Getchel New Play Award (2004/05).
- * The Mark Gilbert New Play Award for 2005 awarded by the Greensboro (NC) Playwright's Forum and selected for production in the annual NC New Play Project.
- *North Carolina Theatre Conference's (NCTC) New Play Award for 2004.
- *Semi-Finalist in Edward Albee's Last Frontier Theatre Conference, 2004.
DOGFALL was first workshopped in Gardner-Webb University's Playwright's Workshop in 2003 starring Matthew Winning as Mike and Karl Mosbacher as Dr. McKenzie. The play was presented as a staged reading at North Carolina Weslyan University and at the NCTC state convention in November 2004. It has yet to receive a professional production; interested parties should contact Professor Lahaie directly to discuss terms. The poster image above was for the workshop production at GWU.
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THE CATTLEMAN'S SUITE - A Comedy in Two Acts
Located on the thirteenth floor of the Dallas Grand Hotel, the cattleman’s suite is the chosen site of Julie Drithers’ not-so-happy engagement party. Her father, a once wealthy but now almost bankrupt Texas oilman, has rented the old suite again to celebrate his daughter’s engagement in the same place and manner that he had celebrated his own engagement thirty years earlier. Only this time the engagement is the father’s idea, not the bride’s. Through the calculated wedding of his daughter to Matt Snooker, the son of his best friend and founder of the industry’s leading pipe and rigging company, Mr. Drithers hopes to save his own ailing oil company and avoid disaster. However, he gets more disaster than he can handle when Bobby, Julie’s true love, sets out to rescue his one-and-only. Drithers' problems seem small compared to Julie’s wrath when she learns of the deception played upon her. Add an untimely pregnancy, two clumsy villains, a hotel staff from hell, and the recipe for comedy is complete! Published as The Cattelman's Suite: A Comedy in Two Acts. New York: iUniverse, 2002.
This play is the first in a planned trilogy of Texas Hotel Comedies. The following two plays, which are presently in progress, are entitled THE CATTLE BARON'S BALL and COWPOKES AND CATTLEPRODS.
The play requires a cast of 9 men and 3 women, and a single realistic interior. Running time is just under two hours. This is ideal fare for community theater venues, dinner theaters, or high school drama groups. The image above is from the front cover of the published script. Performance rights are handled by the author.
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MARYTR! - The Screenplay
The story begins in ancient Rome with a young Roman girl named Pauline saying goodbye to the handsome Roman soldier Severus as he marches to war. Their love has been forbidden by her noble father Felix because Severus has no claim to fame, fortune or pedigree. For virtue's sake, she obeys her father, while he seeks a noble death on the field of battle. Pauline then travels with her father to Armenia, where he has been appointed Governor of the province. It is there she meets the handsome Armenian prince, Polyeucte. In the meanwhile, Severus fights bravely on the battlefield hoping to find a noble death, but inadvertently distinguishes himself instead, eventually saving the Emperor himself from certain death. It is on that occasion that he falls on the battlefield against the Persians, his body being snatched away by the enemy. When news of Severus' death reaches the frontier, Pauline is cast into a long season of mourning, wherein Polyeucte becomes her constant comfort and companion. This leads to their engagement and marriage the following spring.
The story reaches its mid-point when we discover that Severus did not really die on the battlefield that fateful day, but actually recovered from his wounds in the camp of the Persian King. After many attempts to recruit Severus to the Persian army, he is exchanged for a hundred Persian prisoners. Severus is hailed as Rome's greatest son as the Emperor showers honors upon him for his brave deeds. Severus then travels to the Armenian frontier to ask Felix for Pauline's hand in marriage since he is now worthy of her hand, but discovers that she is newly married to the young prince, ending his hopes for marriage.
In the meantime, Polyeucte has converted to the Christian faith, which leads him to radical action against the pagan gods-a desecration of the pagan temple. This brings about his imprisonment and his co-conspirator's execution. The law demands Polyeucte's repentance before a pardon can be issued to him, but as a zealous young Christian, he is resolute and refuses to repent his deeds, preferring death instead. Because Felix fears that the now-powerful Severus may take vengeance upon him for denying his match to Pauline, he holds to the letter of the law and has Polyeucte executed for his crime. This leads Pauline to reject her father and the Roman gods, converting instead to the faith of her Christian husband. She then demands that Felix execute her as well, since she is guilty of the same crimes as her husband. She even topples a few statues of Zeus to insure his compliance. This leads to a visitation of grace upon Felix who then repents his actions against Polyeucte, gives up his claim to rule as Governor, and is subsequently converted to the Christian faith, acknowledging that he made Polyeucte a martyr and that Polyeucte has made him a Christian. Severus threatens to bring the full weight of his wrath down upon Felix, but is struck by the change in Felix and Pauline. He thus vows to be the protector of Christians in the province and to stand against the Emperor's mad scheme to annihilate all those that call themselves Christian.
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DOGFALL - A Screenplay
The action of the film takes place mostly in an abandoned tenement building in Dallas, Texas. Mike Howard-a radical from the far religious right-has kidnapped Dr. Jake McKenzie-Dallas' famed suicide doctor-with the intent to serve his own homegrown justice upon the doctor, since the courts have yet to convict him of any wrongdoing. Mike presents evidence of McKenzie's wrongdoing in a mock trial while silencing McKenzie's attempt to justify his actions. Underestimating his elderly captive, Mike lets his guard down and is overpowered by the wily physician. Instead of escaping his captor, McKenzie places the now chained radical on trial in like manner, an opportunity the doctor uses to defend his own actions and give voice to the radical left. The plot takes an unexpected turn as the play reaches its climax, throwing both characters into turmoil. Intwined with this plot is the story of Lionel Fisher, Police Detective, and his attempt to find the missing doctor before it is too late.
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THE OLD MAN AND HIS WILL - A Screenplay
The film tells the story of the elderly William Jefferson Makepeace. At age 83, he has amassed a fortune but has sacrificed everything and everyone who was close to him to accomplish it. Having been diagnosed with a terminal disease, he invites the four people closest to him to an afternoon of drinks where he plans to read his last will and testament, and then to divide his estate among them. The four friends include his brother, his secretary, a young protégé, and an elderly business partner. When not even one of his guests appears for the party, he reads his will to the empty chairs, disinheriting the lot of them and giving his estate to charity. He then ends it all with a collectible firearm he keeps near his bed.
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MARGOT MEETS GOD - A Screenplay
Description coming soon!
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A PIECE OF THE WALL - A Screenplay
Description coming soon!
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SIX SOLDIER JUNCTION: A SOLDIERS' ANTHOLOGY
A Long One-Act Play. Written about the first American conflict in Iraq (Desert Storm), this 25-minute post-modern drama looks at the atrocity of war through the eyes of the soldiers who were there. The media coverage hailed Desert Storm to be a major American victory--almost no blood shed by the allied force, while hundreds of thousands of Iraqi soldiers were wiped away or captured. This play reveals that no military conflict is without repercussions for the individuals who fought it. Published in NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL, Volume One: New One-Act Plays by Emerging American Playwrights. New York: iUniverse, 2003.
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THE OLD MAN AND HIS WILL - A One Act Play
William Jefferson Makepeace, age 83, is terminally ill. He has experienced great success in a high-level business career and has amassed a considerable fortune. Unfortunately, he has not enjoyed it and has had no one with whom he could share it. At the end of his life, he summons the four people closest to him for an afternoon tea--his purpose is to read his living will and divide his fortune with them before his illness takes his sanity and autonomy. Not understanding the gravity of the invitation, not even one of his invited guests appear for the reading of the will. Speaking to an empty table, the old man disinherits the four friends and gives his fortune to his servants. He then kills himself in despair.
Published in NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL, Volume Three: New One-Act Plays by Emerging American Playwrights. New York: iUniverse, 2006.
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GRASSHOPPERS AND BETTLEBUGS - A One Act Play
Description coming soon!
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DRESSING FOR THE OCCASION:
or the rise and fall of architect James - A One Act Play
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MEETING MISTER WRIGHT - A One Act Play
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