PNWF 2019 Program D

The Scottish Loo
by J. Thalia Cunningham
produced by Prime Stage Theatre

In the ladies’ room at a mythical political convention, Lady Macbeth meets Hillary Clinton. The two women are campaigning for their husbands, but given their brains and ambitions, they begin to think they should get rid of their husbands, join forces, and run for election themselves. However, mutual support disintegrates when individual, insatiable thirst for power intervenes - with disastrous consequences.

J. Thalia Cunningham is a playwright, travel writer, and photographer. Plays have been commissioned, produced, and developed in United States and internationally. Published by Smith & Kraus and Applause. Member: Actors Studio Playwrights/Directors Unit; League of Professional Theatre Women; The WorkShop Theater Company. Education: BA, The Johns Hopkins University.

Cunningham has traveled to 120 countries, writing for national travel publications. Her experiences include trekking with mujahedeen in Tora Bora after sneaking over the Khyber Pass disguised as an Afghan woman; participating in West African voodoo rituals; and talking her way out of an arrest (erroneous) for prostitution in the tribal area of Pakistan, while Pakistani soldiers aimed the nostrils of their AK-47s at her own.

Charlotte's Revival
by Ben Scranton
produced by The Theatre Factory

Charlie Walker runs an old movie house assisted by his teen-aged son Tommy. While changing the movie marquee late one night, he is confronted by Charlotte Lange, a troubled and grief-stricken loner with a tragic past. Through a series of fictional movie references, and an emotionally shattering story, she accuses Charlie of a personal indiscretion dating back to high school. The events upend their world and force Charlie to confront his relationship with both Charlotte and his son. His memory is tested as he struggles to do the right thing.

Ben Scranton is the recipient of a Playwriting Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. His plays have been produced and received staged readings in California, Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey and Massachusetts. He is a two-time recipient of the Robert R. Lehan Playwriting Award from Westfield State University in Westfield, MA. He is the recipient of additional playwriting awards in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Iowa. His plays include At Work with Maude and Maxine-The True Story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, The Back Porch Gang, Blessings, Reprieve-The Last Battalion of Children, Charlotte’s Revival, and Weighting to be Noticed. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Actors' Equity Association and the Screen Actors' Guild.

Eternal Hellfire and Damnation: A Love Story
by Maury Zeff
produced by R-ACT Theatre Productions

When the Roman god of the underworld Dis kidnaps Proserpina, a young maiden, and spirits her to Hades as his bride, her mother Ceres is none too pleased. As the god of the harvest, Ceres has some leverage. But when she heads down to Hades to confront Dis and rescue her daughter, she finds Proserpina enjoying her newfound freedom. As Ceres and Dis negotiate Proserpina's fate, Proserpina makes plans of her own, involving a music festival and a guy named Sisyphus who, against all odds, has finally gotten that stupid boulder up that stupid hill.

Maury Zeff is a writer whose plays have been produced in the Best of PlayGround, The World's Funniest Play Competition, ShortLived, the Planet Earth Arts Festival, the Vermont State Drama Festival, and elsewhere, and whose fiction has been published in Southern California Review, American Fiction 2012, Embark, and elsewhere. He has directed plays for PlayGround, Ross Valley Players, and in the Berkeley Rep Theatre Lab. Maury has an MFA (Long Fiction) from the University of San Francisco and has received fellowships from the San Francisco Writers Grotto and the PlayGround theatre company.