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Attention: Theatre Directors!

Looking for a great play to produce this upcoming theatre season?  I've got some for you!  Available through Next Stage Press, all of the plays listed below are published, and they are just waiting to be produced at your school or theatre company:  https://www.nextstagepress.com/

MINOR INCONVENIENCES by Bradley Nies

Cast Size:  2M 1F
Running Time:  40 minutes

Ever have trouble getting the lid off the mayonnaise jar?  Ever not be able to find the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle you’ve been working on for a month?  Ever wondered why life is full of things that inconvenience us?  After hitchhiking along Houston’s busy FM 1960, a young waitress comes face to face with an unlikely duo who claim to be responsible for the minor inconveniences in our lives.  (Excellent for Middle School/Junior High)

PERFECT, MOTHER by Bradley Nies

Cast Size:  1M 1W
Running Time:  40 minutes

Caroline Nobles in a single mother living in the small Texas town of Horsenettle with her eight year-old daughter.  At first glance, we think Caroline to be the epitome of the perfect mother.  As the story unfolds, however, we find that Caroline will do anything to keep her daughter happy…including blackmail, lying, causing personal injury, and even murder!

THE TELL-TALE HEART by Bradley Nies

Cast Size:  2M 2W
Running Time:  50-60 minutes

In the New York City Asylum for the Insane in 1843, Eliza Clemm tells the story of how she murdered her father, Edgar Clemm.  In doing so, she desperately insists that she is not insane and beseeches the audience to understand her reason for the crime.  As she is repeatedly told by an unfeeling nurse, a brutish orderly, and the memory of her cruel father that the asylum is where she belongs, Eliza begins to accept her fate and considers embracing her new life among the lunatics.  This retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s frightening tale retains the horror found in his original short story.

HAUNTING THE HOUSE by Bradley Nies

Cast Size: 3M 3W
Running Time:  90+ minutes

In this haunted house, normal is nothing more than a setting on the dryer!  In the hopes of providing validity to his book about documented hauntings in Houston, Texas, Rice University professor Dr. Chesley Lawrence invites a local "ghost-hunter" to the home of a woman who thinks her house is haunted by the ghost of Sam Houston. As Chesley doesn't believe in ghosts, haunted houses, or anything paranormal, he and his wife concoct a plan that will guarantee a ghostly sighting before the evening is over.  The result is a crazy night of slamming doors, bloodcurdling screams, and hilarious misunderstandings.  (Digital version also available)

BOYS FROM HOUSTON HEIGHTS by Bradley Nies

Cast Size:  2M 1M/F Various male voices
Running Time:  2 hours

While searching for your dreams, be wary of the nightmares.  Based on the Houston Mass Murders, a series of homicides that took place in Houston, Texas between 1970 and 1973, this biodrama depicts the fictitious relationship between a male prostitute and a sadistic “lust” killer.  As the story unfolds, the play explores the possibility that real-life serial killer Dean Corll may have been raping and murdering teenage boys from a part of Houston known as The Heights from as early as the mid-1960s.  In doing so, the play also depicts a young man’s struggle to remove himself from the influence of one of America’s “monsters.”

ALCOHOL AND MUSCLE by Brad Nies

Cast Size:  3M
Running Time:  90+ minutes

On a summer night in 1979, a man picks up a male street hustler at a bus station in Houston, Texas, and they go to a motel that caters to the prostitutes that work in the area.  As the evening wears on, the hustler learns that he may be a pawn in a very dangerous game.  A game orchestrated by a man named Jeffery Dahmer.  After completing basic training in the US Army, Dahmer completed his Advanced Individual Training in San Antonio, Texas.  While no known killings happened during Dahmer’s stint in The Lone Star State, this edgy docudrama depicts a possible chance meeting of the man known as the “Milwaukee Monster” and a male prostitute bearing a resemblance to Dahmer’s first murder victim.


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