The Library

Here, you can access part of my oeuvre (fancy word, that).

Essays

• Theater/Life: These essays explore how theater and life duplicate, explicate, and complicate the way we perceive ourselves and our roles in the narratives we call our lives.
• Volume 1: 1983: These were written during the summer of 1983, when I was teaching summer school. I gave myself the mythical job of writing a daily column of 750 to 1000 words.
• Volume 2: WEVO: These radio commentaries were done for WEVO, New Hampshire’s first public radio station, during the 1980s. I was lucky enough that the station manager liked what I wrote and offered me a gig as on-air commentator.
• Volume 3: Primarily from the 1990s, from my oh-so mature 40s, it is remarkable how many of the topics warm-blooded then are still warm-blooded today.
• Volume 4: Musings about turning 60, the power of home-base, the cosmos, float tanks, and other oddities from our human parade.
• Volume 5: Maunderings about why I love my wife, the death of a beata fish, unbelief as a belief and a perfect hate.
• Volume 6: Essays from 2020 to 2024 written for Scene4
  • 2024: B2 • Free Will • Irish • Sad Story of the Death of Cats • Rudy Bram • The Joyful Terrors of Owning a Home • The Body and the New House • I Miss You, David Graeber • Seamus’ Belly • On the Death of Small Creatures in Our Care • Corvid Mug • Latter Day Saints
  • 2023: Cordelia and My Ears • Fosbury Fiona • Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi • Welcome to Wrexham • “Strange Effect On Me” • The Singularity • A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto • Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick J. Deneen • Derry Girls Say Nothing • Participatory Fascism • ChatGPT Darling Killer • Four Cat Poems
  • 2022: Wazers • Going Dual • The Water Tower of Weehawken • A Pleasant Dinner • “Poor But Deserving Boys” • Materialism • Unradical Radicals • The Secret to Superhuman Strength • Blotter • Snake Hill, Memory and Memorials • The Spotted Lanternfly • Lizzo and the Flute
  • 2021: Masking • Housing Rages • WFH • Pronouns • I Miss You, David Graeber • When the Police Came to Our Classrooms • Corvid Mug • Naming the Birds • Rag and Bone Men • Hair Today • The Grey Cashmere Dress Overcoat • Sci-Fi Infrastructure
  • 2020: Making Sense of Non-Sense • On the Clock • A Letter to Astra Taylor • Two for the Road • I Say My Hell is the Closet I'm Stuck Inside • A COVID Reading • Will We Get the Insurrection We Need This Time Around? • Quarantine Love • The Lost Pleasures of Eldorado • The Fire Next Time • Immigration Nation • Catwrangling
• Volume 7: Essays from 2014 to 2019 written for Scene4
  • 2019: Simplify • By Whatever Light • Sidewalk Dimensions • The Passing of a Great One • The Good Widower • Balancing Act • Departures and Arrivals • The Nuclear Option • Pop-Up Oases • Medicinal Relationships
  • 2018 Flinders and a Lather • Bring on the Machines • Virtual • A Public Jewel • Prostethics • Trumpgood • Intellectual Dark Web • Some Summer Reading • Making Ourselves • Death and Kittens • Bodying Forth • Provider of Content
  • 2017: Is There a Perfect Hate? • Trump-Proofing America • On Sadness and Politics • On Exact Language • Escalations • The Grey Cashmere Dress Overcoat • Keurig Thinking • Fire Suppression Leads To Thought Expansion • Niggerized • It is a Lie • Why Should Religious Beliefs be Defended? • A Spiritual Discipline
  • 2016: Moving to the Dark(ish) Side • Flea Markets • It's Off to Work I Go • Passing Stones, Passing Thoughts • Writing for a Living • Inbox Zero • Genie Out of the Bottle • Watson Heston • Why I Love My Wife • “An Earnest Christian” by Watson Heston • Death of a Fish • What Is It That They Think They're Rebelling Against?
  • 2015: To Police • Our Tolerated Addicts • Je Suis Charlie: Why? • Torture • Viral • To Clothe Their Nakedness • The Seasonal Art of the Thunderstorm • The Thing About Vacations • On Skin Lesions, Geezers, and Hummingbird Wings • Hannah and Bill • Stints
  • 2014: Theatrical Politics • Touching a Nerve • Contra Dictions • The Midwife’s Magic Towel • Neuroself • War and Peace: The Solutions of William James • In a Healthy Society • Boiling Off the Lard • Promised Land • A Benedictine Theater • Museum of Air • Support for the Arts (Almost)
• Volume 8: Essays from 2008 to 2013 written for Scene4
  • 2013: Scene4 Magazine-Special Issue • Zero Dark Thirty • Red Rover, Red Rover • So Far, So Good • The Squirrel and My Cat • Going On 60 • Spiritual • Guns • “Affirmative Action Reaction” • Necro-Political Theater • Float Tank • What is an Economy For?
  • 2012: Not Here • Political Theologies • Authoritarian Musicals • Two Poems About Writing • I Want To Be Shallow • The Fever Dream of Captain America • Our Mediated Lives • Sociable Contract • Mini-Aurora • Memento Mori • Meeting John Doe
  • 2011: A Brief History of Writing and By Design • Untouched • Imagination and Identity • Blackfest, Part II • The Magic of the Magic of Theatre • Antoine's Beef/Luther's Hammer • Copy Rights and Epubs • Our Mediated Lives • Principles of Writing Plays • Writing Plays In A Time of War • Zucotti Park or Bust • Walkabout Thoughts
  • 2010: An Embarrassing Surprise? • Sita Sings the Copyright • Why Conservatives Should Fear The Market • Rage, Rage... • Outrageous Fortune • Slings and Arrows • English Only? • When Does Someone Grow Old? • Existential Eeyore: Part 1 • Existential Eeyore: Part 2 • Exposing Exposition • The Nature of Human Nature
  • 2009: Edward L. Bernays • The Curse of the Stage Manager • Rage, Rage.... • Old Lady On The Ten-Speed • Doing The Dramaturg • The Midwife's Magical Towel • The Life of the Daily Adequate • The Puritan Soul • Digitizing Theatre - Part 2 • The Color-Line • A Response to Les Marcott's “The Trouble With Che”
  • 2008: What Is Art in 2008? • Raising Consciousness • Dance • Eros On The Escalator • Jigging and Reeling • Playwrights’ Forum: A Real Forum for Playwrights • Sociable Contract • Dogme(fill in the year) • The Macho Zone • In The Small Hours • Seasonal Thoughts
• Volume 9: Essays from 2004 to 2007 written for Scene4
  • 2007: Keeping A Small Theatre Alive • Face • Spring • Why I Want To Be A Poet • The Desert of the Real • Directing "André" • The Gut In The Head • Three Definitions of Real Theatre • Necro-Political Theatre • What Is/What If • By Design
  • 2006: The Aesthetic Response • The Rights Of The Playwright • ThomPain • Digitized Theatre • The Thrall Of The Authentic • Dear Mr. Beckett • Original Sin • Art v. Commerce Politics Is An Egg The Theatre Cannot Hatch
  • 2005: Argentine Picada • Dogville • Scripts (de) Read • Knock On Wood • Leslie Lee • Good Art Slaps Us In The Face • Playwrights Forum • Fee'd To Death • The Fount of Melancholy • Interview with Adina Tal • Interview with Elfin Vogel • The Fallen Ice Cream • The Catch-22 of Screenwriting
  • 2004: Beyond the Slice • The Mysteries • Script Tease • The Map of Consciousness • The Sweats • All Is Almost Still • What is a playwright to do? • Some (More) Thoughts On Spanish and Theatre • SPT: The Playwright At The Heart • Market • Senpo Sugihara: The Japanese Schindler/Kazuki: This Is My Earth • What Is A Playwright To Do?: Part 3

Full-Length Plays

• Volume 1: Amusing Ourselves To Death • A Question Of Color • On The Nature Of The Dark Matter...
• Volume 2: Esquina • Ain't Ethiopia • A Bright Gold Promise
• Volume 3: The Happy City • Hardball • Homeward Bound
• Volume 4: In The Name Of • When The Phones Came To Liberty Creek • Light. Fantastic.
• Volume 5: The Measure Of All Things • Meet John Doe • NEA High
• Volume 6: Pictures At An Exhibition • Prisoner A-7 • Dancing At The Revolution
• Volume 7: Seven Ladies Macbeth • Shea Man • Time Lapse: A Fugue Of Sorts

One-Act Plays

• Volume 1
  • Click: When Marlin reveals to Pinto what he did in the park, it changes their moral universe.
  • The Most Dangerous Woman in America: All Emma Goldman, all the time.
  • Let Down The Rains: A cab ride from New York to Vermont is really not that long a drive.
  • When The Phones Came To Liberty Creek: In 1999, Liberty Creek, a rural “unincorporated territory,” gets phone service, and change is wrought by a dial tone.
  • Melts Into Air: A middle-aged man loses his job, and he and his wife decide to fight back.

• Volume 2
  • Mine Eyes: A PR flack working for the American white militia struggles to re-join a world he's done much to damage.
  • Poly X: Polyxena was the last sacrifice of the Trojan War—a play about anger, mayhem, and sport.
  • Samaritan: The parable's question—“And who is my neighbor?”—gets an answer.
  • Another Seascape: A riff on Edward Albee’s Seascape.
  • A Senior Moment: Jewel, Darcy, Salvia, and Seeromanie, all in their sixties, wonder why Chantelle, also in her sixties, is looking good these days—too good.
  • The First Day Of The Seventh Month: A healthy man decides he has six months left and lives as if that were true.

• Volume 3
  • The Sin Eater: A mother accused of child abuse for taking nude photos of her son takes jail time rather than admit any wrong-doing.
  • A Round Of Slaughter: An exiled playwright returns when her government turns democratic, but a former slaughterhouse doesn’t change overnight.
  • Still Small Voice: A writer, Robert Walser, comes to the end of his latest literary production.
  • Stimulus: Survivalists kidnap their political representative to buy him out so that he'll work for them directly.
  • The Business: Would Jesus ever have been a CEO?

• Volume 4
  • Termagant: What’s a Quaker super-hero to do when evil comes to town?
  • To...Or Not...: A pro-lifer and pro-choicer have some things to say as they cool their heels in a police van.
  • Translation: A linguist-for-hire translates a journal for a woman written to her by another woman.
  • When The Military Bears Its Breast...: Carver returns to the land she defended doing her tours. It is not a place that has a place for her.
  • Meet John Doe: A Radio Play: A radio version of the 1941 movie directed by Frank Capra with a screenplay by Robert Riskin.

• Volume 5
  • The Patron Saint Of Geeks: Bobby and Chad, tormented as “geeks,” contemplate equalizing the situation with their tormentors.
  • The Way: Aviva Matthews studies Lao-Tzu’s “The Way” to see if there is a way to end violence.
  • Translation: A linguist-for-hire translates a journal for a woman written to her by another woman.
  • The Real Temple: All of life is a journey through a slightly wacky King Arthur-world—bet you didn’t know that.
  • Macbeth’s Children: So many children die. Why?

Short Plays

These plays run from five to 45 minutes in length.

• Volume 1: Captain America in a taxicab to speed dating to how our devices love us and how we love them back.
• Volume 2: The philosophical digressions of the bulls at Pamplona to the origin of zoos to when clean water came to New York City.
• Volume 3: Senior porn to a new use for drones in romance to slipping into a painting.

Screenplays

• Volume 1: Ain’t Ethiopia • The Sunlight Dialogues • By The River
• Volume 2: Shea Man • Georgia’s Miss Baby • The Nun Drops Her Veil
• Volume 3: How Do You Like Your Blue-Eyed Boy • Click • Downsize • Equal. Separate. • Glory Train • Hold On • In The Fort • Everything’s Jake • Tips • Touching Down • The Letter

Novels

• Ain't Ethiopia: After whites lynch his wife, an African-American man goes to Spain in 1937 to fight Franco—only to find that he must face down the home-town fascists who murdered her if his life, and his wife’s death, is to mean anything.
• When Darkness Becomes Aware of the Light: From a world exhausted by its own pride and ambition, a new world is born.

Short Stories

• A Small Town and Other Stories: The first group of stories are the interconnected narratives of a fictional town in upstate New York. The rest are collected from across the years and range from Mexican ice cream with cayenne pepper to the deep history of glaciers.

Works for Children

• A collection of a poem about the alphabet, short novels of adventure, and fantastical plays.

Poetry

• Collected Poems: My poems, many of which have been published, try to infuse the ordinaries of life with a sense of the extra-ordinary: stones in a truck bed, the skeleton of a blue jay, an apocalyptic neighbor.

Non-Fiction

• Photoessays: Two long-form essays—“The 1922 Mill Strike in Manchester, NH” and “The Moving Wall” (about Vietnam veterans)—are accompanied by my photos.
• Selected Journalism: A compilation of articles, essays, interviews, and opinion pieces from a long résumé as a freelance writer and photographer.