Jerry's Plays
STRAUSS'S HOUSES 2M, 3F
The real estate agent Freddie Strauss, still trying to live down her hard-scrabble youth, tries to put on the right airs to sell million dollar homes to the wealthy young professional set. Her newest customer couple is prepared to buy at the full asking price. But they want a guarantee that the “cultural identity” of the neighborhood – the ancestry, child-rearing, religiosity, and social habits of the residents – are a good match for their sensitive palates. Freddie reluctantly agrees to carry out this investigation, right up until the community reacts to her probe by vandalizing her car, getting her evicted from her apartment, and pulling her realtor license. Isn’t culture supposed to be a good thing?
NEVER GO TO BED TIRED 3M, 3F
The free-spirited MARIE, who loves her liberty too much to work for a living, is sentenced to court-ordered therapy for stealing the engine from her ex-boss’s car and selling it back to him on e-Bay. But the treatment is an art therapy regimen she can’t stand, and the corrupt but artistic therapist is using Marie to commit even greater crimes for the purpose of settling a personal score. How far does Marie have to go to be truly free?
I SHOWERED WITH PRESTON 3M, 3F
The rabid fan group for Preston for the Road, a cancelled cult adventure series about a fugitive math teacher, has hit rock bottom. Sean Michael Sean, the enigmatic Irish actor who starred as Preston, refuses to make any new episodes. Friendless LOIS joined the fan group in the vain hope of recreating the tight circle of Bohemian BFFs she had in college. She puts her whole heart into a stage version of Preston to keep interest up and raise money. Now the stage show is a success. So why does everyone still hate Lois?
WHILE THE IRON IS HOT 2M, 5F
Florence has a love-hate relationship with the American labor movement ever since she walked away from a Chicago teacher strike. But when she’s hired to teach community college math to the next generation of manufacturing workers, she takes her class on a cross-country field trip to reenact the greatest strikes in American labor history. Everyone loves it, right up until the president of the college finds out.
FLOOD STAGE 2F
Flood Stage is an environmental disaster comedy. In a coastal city wracked by a climate change superstorm, the response of the mayor and the city council has been its own disaster. Only two women have the chops and the public spirit to save their hometown. And today, they both set out to destroy each other.
LIE LIKE A RUG 3M, 4F
A D student with a chip on his shoulder, Denny leaves home to start his own business. His resume-writing service, Lie Like a Rug, will empower any jobseeker to fraudulently land their dream job. Three charismatic potential partners each brag to Denny about their street-level artisanship and how he absolutely has to take them into his business in order to beat out their competitor, the notorious Lady Godfrey. He agonizes over losing control of his baby, right up until he discovers the conspiracy – each of his partners is secretly on Godfrey's payroll, all working to guarantee that Denny will fail.
DON'T TRY ANYTHING FUNNY 3M, 3F
What is the horrible accounting truth and why doesn't anyone want to hear it? Gwen is a mid-career CPA who secretly always wanted to be the class clown, and now she's running out of time. She might be able to make a career transition if only she wasn't the deputy state auditor charged with getting a corrupt government out of bankruptcy. Gwen gives the people her accounting truth, only to find that what they really wanted was the class clown.
SHE STARTED IT 3M, 3F
Suppose you’re a smart, talented high school senior and you know for a fact that nothing is true. On learning that her bomb-thrower online expose of the school board will prevent her from graduating, Mimi decides to stop believing in anything. But she loves her Dad. How can she give up without betraying him? Nominated by Planet Connections Theatre Festivity for Outstanding Playwright of a Reading.
BULLY FOR HER 2M, 3F
Holly has been the victim of bullying all her life. Now she is the recently elected reform mayor of a small Midwestern city that has seen better days, and the town needs a strong crack of the whip to turn it around. How does Holly do it without becoming a bully herself?
DIRTY LOOKS 2M, 5F
A romantic comedy about a youth empowerment program, Juventud de la Tierra, with a reputation as an incestuous cult, but a really well respected one. Our main character Bronwyn, an ex-teacher with a shady past, is desperate to make the transition to being a fundraiser. At her final job interview at Juventud, Bronwyn is told that she has the job, and that she is expected to become the program director’s girlfriend. Chosen as a semi-finalist for Landing Theatre Company's New American Voices.
WORKS FOR ME 4M, 4F
Did that last temp job seem like the beginnings of a police state, or was it just your imagination? In a gig economy world where the biggest temp agency has all but taken over the government, civil rights have gone out the window with fair wages and pension plans. Desperate for a job, Claire takes a promising position snuffing out a popular rebellion. She’s certain she can do whatever the job requires, until discovering that her best friend is the one leading the revolution. Public reading as part of the New York Madness MadLab series at IRT Theater. Chosen as an alternate for the William Inge Theater Festival.
OFF THE GRID 4M, 6F
Gordon is a frustrated bureaucrat in a state government saturated with vice and corruption. He still believes in changing the world through grassroots activism. But when his old flame Suzannah refuses to partner with him, politically or romantically, he finally brings himself to blow the whistle.
HOT AND BOTHERED 2M, 3F
A comedy about the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Our main character Minerva, an exchange student from the Dominican Republic, is failing at the subject miserably, and she will do absolutely anything to avoid the embarrassment and shame of returning home as a failure.
LIKE MONEY IN THE BANK 4M, 3F
In 1910 Chicago, a suffragist-social reformer woman asks an immigrant mechanic to build her a new steam boiler. But instead of central heating, the pair gets drawn into a political struggle over how money and labor will collide in the Progressive Era. Produced at the Theatre Row Studio in April 2016. Winner of the 2014 Planet Connections Theatre Festivity award for Outstanding Production of a Staged Reading. Short-listed for the American Actors UK Play Reading Festival. Finalist for the 2023 PlayFest Santa Barbara.
QUIT THE ROAD, JACK 6M, 3F
The teenage son of a divorced couple runs away from home and gets involved with the immigrant worker rights movement. Mom and Dad don't trust each other, so their only choice is to travel across the U.S. and Mexico in search of their son. A comedy about the North American Free Trade Agreement. A guest production at Theaterlab in New York. Presented by the Humble Play Festival of Appalachian Ohio Reading Series. Semi-finalist in the O'Neill National Play Conference and in the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference.
FIX NUMBER SIX 4M, 3F
A travel agent dreams of becoming an international master of espionage. Produced by Planet Connections Theatre Festivity 2013. Nominated for six Planet Connections awards, including Outstanding Playwriting of a New Script. Published by Next Stage Press.
GO FIGURE 3M, 4F
A mid-career accountant realizes that all her clients, her business partner, and her ex-boyfriend have been lying to her. In open rebellion, she turns herself into a celebrity whistle-blower. And then, standing in the limelight, she realizes that she's really an accountant. A semi-finalst in the Ashland New Plays Festival.
FARMERS IN LOVE 4M, 3F
A comedy-history about the 19th Century American Populist movement, seen through the eyes of a small group of activists who organize a chapter of the national Farmers Alliance in rural Texas in 1886. In struggling to take back their country, they confront the bankers, corporate monopolists and railroad barons of the Gilded Age, the kind of people who give exploitation a bad name.
RAISE THE ROOF 4M, 5F
After trying everything else, Della comes around to defending human rights for all, even though she really doesn't like people very much.
HALF-BAKED 4M, 3F
Our hero Davy is a business consultant who longs to be an American folk hero, or at least to sing like one. Produced by The Story People.
LOOKING FOR WORK 4M, 2F
A world where no one needs our work isn't so wonderful. Presented by All Souls Unitarian Church.
SANITY JANE 2M, 2F
Jane avoids any situation that can't be handled with a bar of soap or a black veil. She plans her life. The problem is that everyone else refuses to plan theirs.
WEATHERMAN 3M, 3F
Mitzi is the secretary to the director of the National Weather Service. Her job is threatened when a Florida gangster sends his favorite gun moll to seduce her boss and take over the bureau. Published by Concord Theatricals.
MAN OVERBOARD 2M, 1F
The hazards of love, friendship, and safe boating in Pittsburgh. Produced by High Five Productions.
