Bradley Nies, Playwright

While surfing the web this morning, I found an interesting article about real spooky stories of the stage.  The following four tales come from Lisa Kay Jennings of theatrenerds.com.  Check out the website for more details! Emma Livry-A French ballet prodigy, she made the fatal mistake of fluffing her tutu next to a gaslight. Moliere-France's greatest playwright, he died of Tuberculosis while performing his play The Imaginary Invalid. The Man in Grey-An unknown man whose remains were found in 1848 walled up in a theatre in London. The Phantom of the Opera-Gaston Leroux's novel was based on a real-life disfigured contractor who fell in love with and kidnapped an opera singer.

I just finished a play that will have a staged-reading this June!  Enter Three Murderers related the ties that Jeffrey Dahmer, Jay Kelly Pinkerton, and Ronald O'Bryan had to Texas.  The reading will be hosted by Theatre Suburbia and sponsored by Scriptwriters Houston! Enter Three Murderers, Three Plays by Bradley Nies: *Alcohol and Muscles- While stationed in San Antonio, Texas, Jeffrey Dahmer meets a male prostitute bearing a resemblance to his first murder victim. *The Lord of Dead Things- While paying dominoes with a prison chaplain in Huntsville, Texas, Jay Kelly Pinkerton confesses to the violet murder and rape of an Amarillo woman. *The Man Who Killed Halloween- After poisoning his eight year-old son on Halloween in Deer Park, Texas, Ronald Clark O'Bryan refuses to admit his guilt to the heinous crime.

I am currently working on a play that takes place during the "Satanic Panic" that troubled the United States throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s.  My working title is "The Devil's Hour;" a tribute to Lillian Hellman and her classic play, "The Children's Hour." According to Aja Romano, who writes for Vox Media, most people attribute the "Satanic Panic" to the false claims made against daycare centers during the 1980s.  Allegations of this nature involved reports of children being abducted and bred for sacrifices, pornography and prostitution.  While my play doesn't deal with the abuse of children, it does deal with the allegations made against a counselor at a shelter for homeless male teens.  According to a resident of the shelter, the counselor requests he take part in a satanic ritual in exchange for being allowed to stay at the shelter after breaking the rules.  As part of these allegations, the troubled tee