Playwright
Read Steve's plays
on New Play Exchange
Watch MUSICAL CHAIRS performed at the NY Theater Festival in October 2023
Artistic Statement
As an actor for several decades, I have had the privilege to perform classic works of Shakespeare, Moliere, O’Neil, Inge and Miller and contemporary pieces by Annie Baker and Donald Margulies, to name but a few. Breaking down master works to physically inhabit a character allowed me to further understand the craft of writing and analyze the artist’s working dramaturgy.
So for me, dramaturgy is the heart of successful storytelling, and I strive for a simple complexity while tapping into the zeitgeist with a fearless approach to themes of sexuality, religion and death
presented as uncensored truths, exploring uncomfortable qualities of character, story, or theme to penetrate the psyche, using humor as an anesthetic. Every character contains an aspect of me that flies off the page without judgment, as I will spend hours researching diverse ethnicities as needed to enhance the universal significance of my stories.
“Plot” is a four-letter word in the current playwriting world so I find plenty of conflict and arcs by merely delving deeper into the inherent drama of the characters and situations I create in realms of unique conceit and perspective.
The ultimate intention creates socially relevant and interesting narratives, resulting in emotionally provocative theatrical experiences.
Much of my current work deals with characters struggling to express their authentic selves - be it artistically, sexually or spiritually - often becoming magical with characters in various states of consciousness. Though I may be considered a ‘late-emerging playwright’ it is only because it took a lifetime to understand the world around me, what made me different, and restore the confidence to share my craft with the world.
The Plays
Full-Length
charrette
90 minutes
4 Men /1 Woman
Set in 1985, ‘charrette’ is a coming of age story following five senior architecture students punished with 24 hours over Spring Break to design a city facilitating human interdependence or risk not graduating on time, jeopardizing their futures.
While the story starts as a clash of egos, it escalates to a frenzy, fueled by a hidden love pentagon of pining, trysts and unrequited love. Revelations unravel to near-tragic consequences as they grow out of codependent children into inter-dependent adults.
tran-si-tions
90 minutes
4 Men /1 Woman
Set in New York at Christmas, this story is a modern star-crossed lovers fable following Ernie, a spiritually gifted gay death doula-in-training, whose first required vigil is a comatose homeless man, Kiel, in the final stages of AIDS, who wants to come back to life to experience true love.
Their 24-hour relationship allows Kiel to experience true love while finding forgiveness for his being outcast by his family, and Ernie to allow himself to love again after the recent loss of his partner. However; Ernie’s inability to maintain professional boundaries jeopardizes his calling to assist the dying, before the inevitable end that finally reunites Kiel with his father.
Musical Chairs
85 minutes
4 Men /1 Woman
Musical theater enthusiasts Tory and Nadine Lovett's fluctuating lives collide with their estranged neighboring subscribers over a season of touring Broadway musicals, where Tory, inching towards 40, is finally willing to embrace his repressed self brought out watching a musical number, though his wife is desperate to save the marriage. Denial is no longer an option, as their lives reemerge in a new paradigm struggling to balance modern needs, vows, and dreams, through a voyeuristic view of cultural evolution.
Leg of Lam
70 minutes
2 Men
This play of Afghan war vet Lamar Delgado, who needs his father, Oscar’s, help to remove his leg, is more than a surface story of a man suffering with apotemnophilia, but intended as a timely mythical allegory of every human’s quest to eliminate the negative effect of past personal traumas and generations of familial dysfunctions to be the true expression of their soul’s intention.
Bluegrass Requiem
100 minutes
4 Men/1 Woman
An experimental expressionistic musical inspired by those now trapped in rural Appalachia with the unbearable pain inflicted by growing unemployment from the vanishing coal industry, leading to rampant opioid abuse soothing lives lost of worth. ‘Percy Snelling’ is one of those suffering, catapulted through the revolving reality of his last opioid fantasy struggling to express his soul’s true calling before it ends.
Indigo Rising
120 minutes
2 Men /3 Woman
When son comes home from a Birthright trip from Israel, he announces to his family he will no longer be Jewish.
10-Minute Plays
The Glove
1 Man / 1 Woman
When active retirees, Howard and Roz, are rushing out of the house to their grandchild’s third birthday party, a baseball glove Howard wants to bring- but Roz insists doesn't fit the party’s ‘princess’ theme- ignites their fears of prejudice and lost expectations, in response to the chid’s recent trans diagnosis.
Cabhan Flynn
2 Men / 1 Woman
Set in New York City in 1910 and told in reverse chronology, the story starts with Cabhan Flynn asking his deceased brother, Durbid's girlfriend, Teresa, out on a date after the funeral. Followed by Cabhan arriving at Teresa’s to tell her Durbid fell from the Woolworth building and died and to believe he did all he could to save him, ending with the brothers working together high on the iron structure arguing before Durbid falls and Cabhan just watches.
Interview
1 Man /1 Woman
Recent college grad, Valerie Albright, wants a job to assist treasured Broadway writer, Norm Richards, whose flailing reputation requires a dramaturg to revive his career, although his irrational needs make hiring anyone almost impossible. Valerie is determined as she wants more than a job, but also the opportunity to reestablish a relationship with her estranged grandfather.
LOVE + WAR
2 Men
A reimagining of the mythical romance of Achilles and Troilus where their earlier pederasty inspires Troilus in needing Achilles to prove his love by consummating the relationship before heading off to war but Achilles needs Troilus to flee the camp quickly and safely.
A Dozen Mondays
2 Men
After a few months of weekly passionate sex, JD is ready to end this affair, but Tony wants to take it to the next level, and can’t see how his already having a boyfriend is a problem.
Handsome
1 Man /1 Woman
How the media and advertisers create unattainable levels of beauty for women is always in the news, and although the same circumstance exists for men the issue is never a headline.
This play opens the door to that discussion when an average man is invited to join The Handsome Club, and the possible effect that would have on the future of his marriage to a similarly average woman. In the end, the audience decides for themselves if a man can’t have it all will he choose the love of a woman over higher self esteem?
Breeders Cup
1 man / 1 woman
Biotechnology gives a new slant to modern sibling rivalry when Dawn Hodges’ plan to use birthing babies to successfully compete with her over-achieving Lesbian twin sister for the longed-for adoration of her bigoted father, is jeopardized by artificial insemination. Dawn desperately wants to get pregnant by her over-worked fireman husband, Ray, to secure her lead, but feels betrayed by his hidden change in fertility.
Genius
2 Men
A tragic-comedy of two arrogant graffiti artists looking to make a rise in popularity with a first all-city piece, decrying pop culture, though they ineptly execute their plan and run out of paint. With a street reputation at stake, a hunt for more paint at 3AM leads the boys struggling to quickly solve their dilemma, while maintaining their political objectives. Desperation for fame leads to heightened ineptitude and a tragic completion to the piece.
Day One
2 Men /2 Women
Libby Stein can finally take control of her life after a miserable marriage to a compulsive gambler.