3 ten-minute plays: "Reality Book Group", "Room with Maintenance", & "Bluefish"

[Dr. Richard Grossman]

Hi everybody,

Here are two 10-minute plays that come highly recommended (ok, I wrote them)!  From the e-publisher description:

Two layered, mischievous 10-minute plays to laugh about and think about.

What's more important: the book or the members? In "Reality Book Group", three college professors invite a book loving ex-con to join them. Selected from 53 plays written by New England's premier playwrights, "Reality Book Group" was top-billed in the Boston Globe and performed at the 2012 Boston Theater Marathon. A local favorite among book clubs in the Boston area, the play will be print-published in Boston Theater Marathon XIV, 2012 Anthology (Smith & Kraus).

"Room with Maintenance" is the author's latest play. A crude carpenter and an intellectual with a swollen leg find themselves locked in a room together after they die. Each reminds the other of his ex-wife. Are they in Heaven, Hell, or someplace entirely different? Why were they "placed" together? And who's going to fix the broken toilet? Brace yourself for an intimate view of the postmodern afterlife!

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/217274


Not recommended for those offended by “adult” language (both plays)--or irreverence (Room with Maintenance)!

Definitely (according to those who know me best--including my patients) my voice!   For better and for worse.  

All reviews are welcome!

Richard
 

[Dr. Richard Grossman]

By the way, if you’re an aspiring playwright, or someone who loves plays, the Boston Theater Marathon ( http://www.bu.edu/bpt/btm.html )is a terrific event held every year.  Anyone (who lives in New England) can submit up to two 10-minute plays.  And anyone can pick up a packet of 10 plays and rate them.  Over 400 plays were submitted this year.  The 100 plays with the highest scores make it to the final round, where the plays are judged and rated by New England theater professionals.  The top 50 (53 in 2012) are performed, one after another, by New England theater companies on a Sunday afternoon/evening in May.  New England playwright luminaries, e.g. Israel Horovitz, Robert Brustein, etc. almost always contribute plays.  Proceeds go to charity.  Kate Snodgrass, the BTM’s founder and director, has done a terrific job in making the event both fun and successful.  If you’re able to go, I highly recommend it!   And if you're a New England writer, why not enter?

Richard   

[Lollie]

Is that your foot? 

[Dr. Richard Grossman]

Hi Lollie,

(Shhhhh!  None other!)

Richard

P.S.  A leg figures in "Room with Maintenance"!

[BonesMS]

Hi Lollie,

(Shhhhh!  None other!)

Richard

P.S.  A leg figures in "Room with Maintenance"!

LOL!!!!   

[Dr. Richard Grossman]

Hi Lollie,

(Shhhhh!  None other!)

Richard

P.S.  A leg figures in "Room with Maintenance"!

LOL!!!!   

  Thanks again for the read, Bones!

Richard

[BonesMS]

Hi Lollie,

(Shhhhh!  None other!)

Richard

P.S.  A leg figures in "Room with Maintenance"!

LOL!!!!   

  Thanks again for the read, Bones!

Richard

You're welcome, Richard!

[Dr. Richard Grossman]

Hi everybody,

OK, this being the Voicelessness Board, a place where important questions are answered:

This guy works/teaches at Harvard Medical School, and he thinks about the afterlife in terms of heavenly bliss, floating among the clouds, etc: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/heaven-real-says-neurosurgeon-claims-visited-afterlife-213527063.html .

And I worked/taught at Harvard Medical School, and I think about the afterlife and imagine Angelo the Maintenance Man, a guy who fixes toilets (ok, and everything else that needs fixing).

Even worse, the guy writes about his thoughts and has a best selling book on his hands (http://www.amazon.com/Proof-of-Heaven-ebook/dp/B008AK8FHM), and I write about my thoughts (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/217274), and what do I have? Pffft!

Would someone please tell me:  "What did I do wrong?  What did I do wrong?!!!”


Richard  

[Hopalong]

Dear ((((Doc G)))):

You didn't drink the KoolAid.

But nearly everybody else did.

 

I feel ya,
Hops

[Dr. Richard Grossman]

Thanks, Hops.  No Kool-Aid for me!  In fact my mother who was extremely independent and tough/critical minded (hmmm, I wonder where I got that from), and very smart, didn’t allow us any processed sugar growing up.  She was a health food advocate for her children in the late 50’s and early 60’s—long before it was popular to be one.  We ate granola (no corn flakes, or god-forbid, frosted flakes), oatmeal with wheat germ, honey (no jelly or jam), orange juice with brewer’s yeast in it (I kid you not—and it almost ruined my taste for beer [I say almost!]), organic peanut butter, carob (no chocolate), organic apples, whole wheat bread, etc. etc.  My father had a shelf all his own where there was Skippy peanut butter, strawberry jelly, white bread, and Hershey Bars etc. which we would stare up at, longingly.  One of the consequences is that when my brother, Jeff, comes to visit me from Israel, I always buy three gallons of ice cream, which we (well, mostly he) consume in very short order.  (Jeff is extremely independent, tough/critical minded, and smart (e.g. he got his high school degree from University of Chicago) in ways very different than me: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/.  Luckily, he appreciates my writing: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/2012/08/two-short-plays-must-reading.html or else he would tear it word from word.)

But getting back to the subject at hand (and now, manually removing my tongue from cheek), I have no regrets about my life choices, path, successes, and failures.  And it sure would be nice if I ran into Angelo the Maintenance Man in the afterlife (esp. after maintaining for all these years an 1895 2-family Victorian which Hildy and I bought in 1979.)

Besides, the guy (above) who will be floating in the clouds didn’t have the pleasure and excitement (as I did) of nearly being arrested by the Boston Police swat team at the end of the final rehearsal of “Reality Book Group”.  (Yes, there was/is a gun involved.)  My next play will likely be “Reality Play Rehearsal.”

Most importantly, thanks to all who read the plays, and especially to those who commented/reviewed!  It meant a lot to me.

Best,

Richard

[teartracks]

Hi Dr. G,

“Reality Book Group,” a 10-minute play by Dr. Richard Grossman, was top-billed in the Boston Globe and performed at the 2012 Boston Theater Marathon.

Congratulations!  That is quite an accomplishment.  

tt

PS  What did daughter think?

[Dr. Richard Grossman]

“Reality Book Group,” a 10-minute play by Dr. Richard Grossman, was top-billed in the Boston Globe and performed at the 2012 Boston Theater Marathon.

Congratulations!  That is quite an accomplishment.  

Hi tt,

Thanks!  It is something I will always be very proud of--especially since I’m a dilettante!  (Oops, my friends say I’ve now officially lost that title and am forbidden to use the word.)

PS  What did daughter think?

She “really liked” “Reality Book Group” and “liked” “Room with Maintenance”.  “Room with Maintenance” reminded her of “Ionesco—dark, absurdist”.  Re: getting top billing, she congratulated me, although 4 or 5 years ago we went together to see a couple hours of the Boston Theater Marathon, and she (like me) was unimpressed with most of the plays we saw (it's a tough genre:  writing a beginning, middle, and end that offer interest, believability, surprise, etc. all in a 10-minute play is very difficult). So, she used to laugh at me when I submitted plays to the Marathon (i.e. “Why are you wasting your time with that!")

The real surprise at this stage of my life is that my father, 87 and an unpublished literary critic in his own right, liked/laughed heartily at both plays—calling the latter one “post-modern”.  Perhaps my biggest accomplishment of all    !

Best,

Richard

[teartracks]

And who's going to fix the broken toilet, the crude carpenter or the intellectual?  Did it matter on the 'other side'?  My guess is that it didn't until or unless the media got hold of it?   

tt

[Dr. Richard Grossman]

Hmmm.  Interesting guess, tt!  But not quite right.  So as not to spoil the plot, let me pose your query as a multiple choice question:

Who’s going to fix the toilet?

A.   A deus ex machina

B.   an angel sent by God

C.   Angelo the Maintenance Man

D.   All of the above.


Richard   

[teartracks]

Okay so it's a ten minute play.  How many 'characters' can a ten minute play support?  It's art.  Art doesn't play

well with logic. Absurdity is truth played backwards?  There's Angelo and the intellectual. A deus ex machina could easily

be the reflection of each.  Kind of a supernatural, talking out of both sides of his/her mouth that binds them in their misery?  An

emotional quick fix?

Random thoughts that made me guess A.

tt

PS  I don't think the toilet got fixed  (.