Latest work 

 Runaways

starring

Richard Newman* & Sofia Newman

Opened May 4/2010 at the Havana Theatre

1212 Commercial Drive,

Vancouver

Eli Golden, eighty-five,  has run away from the managed care home in which his son has placed him because he believes his father  is no longer capable of the independence he cherishes. Eli encounters Pandora Wonder, a fifteen year old who has also run away from home. They find common ground in that  each of them, in their own way, detests being treated like a child. The meeting, which  is  at times hilarious and at times poignant ,leads to friendship and understanding.

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The rest of the plays

and there are a lot of them, so just keep scrolling down 

to read any of the works online email the playwright at heo@shaw.ca

Harvey Ostroff and Dennis Catrell

       Viagra Diatribes in rehearsal

*** NOTICE ***

The amateur, stock and professional rights to these works are controlled exclusively by the playwright without whose permission in writing no performance of it may be given. Royalty fees are negotiated individually by the playwright. Royalty must be paid every time a play is performed whether or not it is presented for profit and whether or not admission is charged. For definition purposes, a play is performed anytime it is read or acted before an audience. All inquiries concerning performance rights should be addressed to Harvey E. Ostroff 12687 18a Ave. Surrey, B.C. Canada V4A5T6 or email: heo@shaw.ca

COPYRIGHT LAW GIVES THE AUTHOR THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO MAKE COPIES.

All plays are fully protected by copyright. With the exception of the works for children, No alternations, deletions or substitutions may be made in the play with the prior written consent of the author. No part of this play may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, videotape, film, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author. It may not be performed either by professionals or amateurs without payment of royalty. All rights, including but not limited to the professional, motion picture, radio, television, videotape, foreign language, tabloid, recitation, lecturing, publication, and reading are reserved by the author.

email:  heo@shaw.ca to read  on online copy of any of the works

 Full length stage plays

The Viagra Diatribes

Type: Comedy-One act: full length

Concept: Two octagenarians meet daily  to talk about "this and that, kibbitz a little bit and watch the world go by."

Setting:   A park bench on a lovely fall day.

Time:     The present

Characters: 2m

Length: Seventy-five minutes

Storyline: Eli Golden,  and Anton Illych,  have been friends since their childhood. Now, in their mid-eighties, both are retired and dealing with the complexities of aging. They meet each day at the same location. Eli is showing signs of Alzheimers and Anton has recently received devastating news from his doctor. Subjects such as erectile disfunction, keeping fit and desire are raised. Although comic in nature, the play also deals with many of the serious issues that face our older population.

Dramatis Personae:

 Eli Golden: eighty three, a retired bookseller has been widowed for eight years and still living on his own in a small apartment above the bookstore that he once owned.

Anton Illych: eighty four and suffering from advanced rheumatoid arthritis is a former  biology professor. He has recently been placed in a care home by his daughter.

Performed at Western Washington University 2006 and  The Vancouver Fringe  Festival 2007

Probable Destiny

Type: Drama - One act: full length

Concept: A hostage taking in a senior class three weeks before final exams.

Setting : A classroom in a suburban high school

Time: The present

Characters: 3m, 2f, one offstage voice, 1 extra

Length: Ninety minutes

Storyline: As the play begins, four students and one of their teachers are lined up to take their grad photos. After this brief scene, a gun is fired in a darkened classroom and the rest of the play takes place in real time. One of the students takes hostage three of his classmates and their teacher. The ERT (Emergency Response Team) is called in, pandemonium ensues and the play drives recklessly to it's surprising conclusion. Before the final draft was written, the script was vetted both by a member of the RCMP and the former warden of a maximum security prison. It was also given a staged reading by high school students and carefully compared with the ERT rule book for one of the large school districts in our province

Dramatis Personae:

Pandora Woo:  Eighteen is dressed in Goth style. She is extremely intelligent and pretty if somewhat overweight.

 James Gibbons: Seventeen is handsome, intelligent and athletic. His posture is erect.His demeanor is friendly.  He wears dark slacks and loafers rather than the common jeans, sneakers and tee-shirt uniform that most students wear today.

Courtney Lamont:  Seventeen is incredibly beautiful. Her voice is rich and bespeaks the vocal training she has had along with all of her acting and modeling lessons.

 Amandeep (Andy) Johal: Eighteen is the last of the students. He is dark, rail thin with liquid brown eyes, curly hair and a winning smile. His jeans under the gown are frayed and his sneakers, worn.

 Alan Goldenberg: Sixty-two, the teacher, is tall and lean with a neatly trimmed beard and a ponytail. He wears a tee shirt with an Escher print, jeans and sneakers. 

Awaiting production

Political Will

Type: Political satire -Two acts

Concept An octogenarian father challenges his son in an election campaign

Setting: The Premier’s office and a variety of simply defined areas

Time: The present

Characters: 4m, 2f

Length: Two hours

Storyline: Will Cleaver is entirely fed up with the bumbling and unfeeling attitude of his son who is currently running for re-election as Premier of the Province of B.C. and with the help of his best friend, his grandson and his grandson’s girl,  decides to challenge him in the upcoming election.

Dramatis Personae:

 Darryl Cleaver: Fifty-four, Premier of B.C. a good-looking but foolish man with silver hair, a ready smile and a glad hand style

 Gillian Banting:  Mid-thirties, Premier’s personal assistant. Intelligent, dedicated and detailed.

 William Cleaver: Eighty, the Premier’s father and a lovable curmudgeon

 Arthur Cleaver: Fifty-seven, Will’s eldest son, he is dull and mirthless.

 Sammy Cleaver:  Twenty-eight, Arthur’s  son. A bright young man with modern ideas.

 Kelsey Wang:  Twenty-five, Sammy’s girl. An intelligent artist with great skills and ideas.

 Produced by Ocean Park Players 2003

Escape

Type: Drama - Two acts

Concept: Houdini escapes from the netherworld.

Setting : The barn of a suburban hobby farm.

Time: The present

Characters: 4m, 2f

Length: Two hours

Storyline: As the play opens, Houdini is revealed to us as a spirit who waits at the window of a different séance each Halloween eve hoping to escape into the world of the living.

The séance is held at midnight in a barn at the suburban home of the protagonist, Sam Blanchard, a professor of Parapsychology, after one of his annual Halloween parties. Vinnie, a manic-depressive with delusions is used to seeing that which is not there and is able to see and to contact Houdini even before the séance begins. As the play progresses, "The Master of Mystery," using Vinnie as his medium, gains in strength and ability. Eventually, he emerges and traps the participants in his own world. In order for them to gain release, one of them must replace Houdini in the spirit world. Houdini is both the antagonist and the catalyst around which the action of the play revolves.

Dramatis Personae:

Houdini: We see him as he was in the prime of his life. He is a proud, determined and forceful egomaniac with the values and outlook of his times searching in the void for his wife Bess so that he can tell her the password and return to her as he promised.

 Sam: Mid thirties, recently divorced University professor, an expert on parapsychology and Houdini. He bears a secret, which is revealed, at the end of the play. Both Maggie and Pauline desire him.

 Vinnie: Mid forties, a manic depressive schizoid gardener. He has a cast of characters that dwell in his electric mind and provides much of the comic relief in the play.

Maggie: Mid thirties, a successful actress who grew up in a satanic cult, practices white witchcraft and was Sam's lover while they were in University.

Pauline: Mid thirties, a neurotic television journalist who recently lived with Sam and wants him back.

 Roger: Mid-seventies, a columnist with the Globe and Mail, mentor to Sam and former English teacher who once had a brief interlude with Maggie while she was one of his students.

  Staged reading New Play Centre, Vancouver B.C.

DeliMax

Type: Drama - Two acts

Concept: The Jewish owner of a Montreal delicatessen, a survivor of Auschwitz, believes that the French separatist movement in Quebec is the holocaust revisited.

Setting: A Jewish delicatessen in Montreal during a winter storm

Time: 1984.

Characters: 3m, 2f

Length: Two hours

Storyline:

 Max Farber, was twelve years old when he was taken to Auschwitz. Forty years later, on the evening of a severe ice storm, he incarcerates his French-Canadian waitress, Monique Dubois, 20, and her ultra-nationalist boyfriend, Rejean Poulin, 23. Rejean denies the Holocaust and states that he would like to banish all the English and the Jews from Quebec in order to end the oppression of his people. Farber, 52, owner of Farber's Delicatessen, now Delimax, lives with Nathan Epstien 72, his fellow survivor. With Nathan's help he decides to teach them the meaning of oppression. The lesson gets out of hand. Yetta Mandlebaum, 50 is the fifth character in the play. A native Montrealer who has moved to Florida, she has just come to town for her grandson's bar mitzvah. Max is a widower. His former wife, also a survivor, recently took her own life.  Yetta wants to bring Max back to Florida with her.

Dramatis personae:

Max Farber: Early fifties, literate, intelligent but psychologically damaged widower, delicatessen owner and survivor of the concentration camps.

Nathan Epstien: Mid-seventies, former Olympic athlete and fellow survivor from Auschwitz. He and Max share a dark secret from the camps. Max takes care of him. Nathan will do anything for his friend.

Monique Dubois: Twenty. Pretty, efficient and in love. Monique works as Max's waitress and has since she was seventeen. She looks after her parents and is loyal to Réjean.

Yetta Mandlebaum: Fifty. An old friend of Max and his late wife Molly. She has left Montreal and currently lives in Florida. Yetta is back in town to attend her grandson's bar mitzvah. She hopes to convince Max to go back with her to West Palm Beach.

Réjean Poulin: Twenty-three. Good looking, passionate young man. Rejean denies the Holocaust and states that he would like to banish all the English and the Jews from Quebec in order to end the oppression of his people.

Produced  by Western Washington University 1985, regional finalist ACTF

 Lautrec

Type: Monodrama - Two acts

Concept: Two days in the life of Toulouse Lautrec.

Setting: Le Moulin de la Gallette, the artist's studio

Time: 1984.

Characters: The actor plays a variety of roles

Length: 1 hour and forty minutes

 Storyline: The first act takes place in May of 1898. The artist has achieved his greast success and is beginning his downward spiral. We learn about Lautrec's youth, his work at the ateliers and meet some of his friends including : Jan Avril, La Goulou, Aristide Bruant, Van Gogh, Degas and his agent and greatest friend, Maurice Joyant. Bad reviews on a major show in the spring of '98 drive him into a punishing alchoholic journey.

Act two takes place just after his release from the sanatorium at Neuilly. He is being watched over by Paul Viaud and painting again; trying hard not to slide back into the bottle. Through a series of flashbacks we watch his deterioration and recovery.

Dramatis Personae:

 Lautrec is the only character but the actor who portrays the artist will play a wide variety of roles. Lautrec himself is charming , brilliant and self-destructive.

Produced numerous times, including the Vancouver Fringe Festival and a provincial tour in 1988

My Music

Type: Drama - Three acts

Concept: A ninety four year old man outlived his family. A social worker comes to take hime to a home. He becomes stuck in the past.

Setting: At the home of Yossel Zaiger in Montreal, Canada in America

Time: 1910 - 1985

Characters: 7m , 2f ( The play is designed so that four actors 3m and 1f can play all of the roles.)

Length: Two hours.

Storyline: My Music is a love story. This is the oddyssey of Yossel Zaiger who came to Canada, as a twenty year old, in 1910 with his young bride Hilda and outlived his family. In the first act , Yossel and Hilda arrive as "greeners" to stay with Cousin Avrum in Montreal. Yossel, a violinist, finds work with the Montreal Symphony.

In the second act, Hilda has just died of cancer He and his thirty-eight year old son, Sonny, are sitting shiva with the Rabbi and discussing the care of Yossel's" retarded grown daughter Dora. Sonny wants to send her to a home.Yossel refuses and to appease Dora, sets up the illusion that Hilda is coming home.

In the final act, Yossel, now ninety four, has outlived everyone. His grandaughter has sent a social worker to wrest him away from the home he has lived in for the past sixty-five years and not left for the past thirty. He is stuck in time. It is 1909 and he is a musician in the village of Zhitomir courting his bride to be. He cannot leave because he is waiting for Hilda.

Dramatis Personae:

Yossel Zaiger: Two actors play Yossel whom we meet when he is in his twenties, fifties and nineties. He is a talented musician and incurable romantic. He gets into trouble after playing at a concert in Kiev and has to leave his country or be arrested by the Cossacks. After his wife dies in 1950, he sets up the illusion that she will return in order to appease his retarded daughter. he begins to believe the lie and when we meet him in his nineties. He is convinced that Hilda will come back to him.

Hilda Zaiger: She is eternally twenty. We meet her in the first act as a young and fearful immigrant and in the third as a vibrant vision of Yossel's joy. She is strong despite her trepidations and her charm is ethereal.

Avrum Rubenson: Twenty-five. He has red hair and is a fastideous man sports a straw boater. He welcomes Yossel and Hilda to his home and extolls the virtues of assimilation.

The Conductor: An elegant man in his late forties.

Sonny Zaiger: Thirty-eight, darkly handsome with a pencil thin moustache. He was said to resemble the actor Tyrone Power. He is in mourning.

Rabbi Beilis.: Mid-thirties. He is kind but misguided.

Dora Zaiger: Dora, at thirty-five, has the mind of a nine year old. She loves her parents with a child-like desperation. Her clothing is drab. Her smile is beatific.

Richard Stein: Thirty-four, a social worker. He is a clean-cut man in a non-descript gray suit.

Produced as one act entitled Yossel’s Music by Studio 58. 1983.  Opening scenes to be included in the AJT playwrights forum in New York this June.

One Act stage plays

The Bubbeh*

Type: Drama - One act

Concept: An archetypal bubbeh meets a modern grandmother in the ICU after both have suffered heart attacks.

Setting: A cardiac ward in an urban hospital

Time: The present

Characters: 3f

Length: 50 minutes.

 Storyline: The play contrasts the fates of Esther Birnbaum , a typical Yiddische Bubbeh and Clara Penner, a sixty-something realtor on the move. They meet in the semi private room they share in the ICU after both have suffered heart attacks. Clara is in denial about aging and refuses to admit that she is now a grandmother while Esther dotes on it. Both harbor secrets that are revealed during the play. The third character in the play  is Jocylyn their nurse.

Dramatis Personae:

Esther Birnbaum: She admits to eighty five years. Her white hair has streaks the colour of yellow parchment and is worn in a bun. She has a pretty face with rimless glasses and when she smiles she becomes the archetype of the Yiddish Bubbeh, round, kind, caring.

Clara Penner: She is 60 but looks 40. She jogs and exercises frantically to keep up her youthful appearance. Clara is a realtor with a voracity for getting the job done. Her daughter Audra has recently adopted a new baby which she refuses to see and she treats her fifteen year old nephew like a friend

Jocylyn Goldenberg: She is twenty-five and perky with red hair and a bubbly personality.

  *Written as a companion piece to The Zaideh.

The Zaideh*

Type: Drama - One act

Concept: An errant son wants to take his own son to meet the Zaideh who lives in an old folks home and is beginning to succumb to Alzheimers

Setting: A visiting room in the Maimonides home for Jewish golden agers

Time: The present

Characters: 3m

Length: 50 minutes.

Storyline: Eli Golden has not seen his harsh and unforgiving father for seventeen years. The Zaideh is living in a home and suffering from the beginnings of Alzheimers. Eli brings his son, Dylan, a modern teen who is into heavy metal and punk to meet the Zaideh for the first time. It is a difficult and revealing meeting.

Dramatis Personae:

 Eli Golden: A bearded man in his early fifties wearing designer jeans and a black tee shirt with an Escher print. He is a successful wildlife artist recently divorced and has been estranged from his father for seventeen years.

Dylan Golden: Eli's seventeen year old son. Dylan's movement has economy and grace. His hair has recently been dyed bright blue. He, too, is dressed all in black. Jeans, a Marilyn Manson tee shirt, a black belt with silver buckle, and trim and dusty army boots. He has been working out and looks it.

The Zaideh: He is eighty-seven and seems weak. He is wearing a checked bathrobe and worn slippers. There is about four days of stubble on his face but his sparse hair has just been wet down and combed. He refuses to speak to Eli and has some dementia.

*Written as a companion piece to The Bubbeh.

Both plays given staged readings by the Playwright’s Theatre centre in Vancouver, 1998.

Children's Theatre

 These plays have been written as playmaking exercises with my classes. All casts are entirely flexible. 

It's a girl!

Type: Children's Theatre One act

Concept: A female football star quarterback has moved to a sexist town.

Setting: multiple simple sets. Dean's bedroom; a classroom; a practise field.

Time: The present

Characters: flexible

Length: 40 minutes.

Storyline: A new girl moves to town and wants to join the football team. She is ridiculed. That evening, Drew, the star halfback, has a strange dream. When he awakes the following morning,, the sexes have been reversed and the whole town learns a lesson.

Dramatis Personae:

Narrator:

The Guys

Dean: A high school football player

Joey: His best friend and member of the team

Jim: One of the guys and member of the team

Scott: The quarterback.

Darren: Dean's kid brother. A real hanger on

 The rest of the guys: Shane, Gord, Jason, Kyle and Justin

 The Adults

Coach: A shop teacher and coach of the football team

Mr.(s) Hemple: The Social studies teacher

Gloria: Dean's mother

 The Girls

Julie: The new girl in town; a terrific athlete

Michelle: Number one cheerleader

Jennifer: Michelle's best friend. She has a generous nature

Terri: A cheerleader and the follower of the group

Jill: A cheerleader who would one day like to be miss America

Lisa: A reluctant cheerleader.

Erin: She thinks that chearleading is demeaning.

 The rest of the girls: Kathy, Carolyn, Suzie and Dawn.

 (The cast of twenty-five may be adjusted according to the size of your class)

The Nerd Zone

Type: Children's Theatre One act

Concept: A "cool" family moves to a town where nerds are the norm. "It's okay to be different."

Setting: multiple simple sets. Bare stage, six drama blocks and two chairs are required. The office, The Ice bungalow, a Nerdville street,, a classroom, the new home of the Ice family, the mountain trail.

Time: The present

Characters: All roles are flexilble.

Length: 40 minutes.

Storyline: The Ices, an ultra-cool family move to a small town after Joe Ice, the father, is transferred there by his boss. The two teen-aged boys at first put down the town, the school and all of the occupants. They agree to go on a bird-watching hike with the scoutmaster/mayor and most of the kids in town. One of them gets lost and needs to be rescued. They find out the true nature of the townspeople and learn an important lesson in tolerance.

Dramatis Personae:

Narrator:

Joe Ice:, the cool father. Sets up dance clubs

Slick Ice: the cool son

Jazz Ice: the other cool son

Roxy Ice: the cool mother, a novelist.

Popsicle: The cool dog.

The boss.

The nerds: Clarence, Charlie, Ellie, Franklin, Karl, Shelly, Marvin, Melvin, Wilma, Lucy.

The teacher: Mrs. Twit

The mayor:

(The cast of nineteen may be adjusted according to the size of your class)

Three-Ring Christmas

Type: Children's Theatre Christmas play

Concept: A poor family finds happiness in the circus.

Setting: Various simple settings; the Jonas household, the street, the dressing room; the big top

Time: The fifties

Characters: Flexible

Length: 40 minutes.

Storyline: The Jonas family is suffering from the unemployment blues. The two children, are found by their long-lost uncle who is the ringmaster of the Flying Tiger Circus caravan and is playing in town. They join the circus, have a happy Christmas and they all live happily ever after.

Dramatis Personae:

The narrator

Harold Jonas: The father

Emily Jonas: The mother

Amy Jonas: The youngest child

Peter Jonas: The oldest child

**Circus cast may be expanded at will.**

Peter Jonas: The uncle and the Ringmaster

Bobo and Booboo the clowns

Igor the strong Man

Gerald the Juggler

Terrence the tightrope walker

The Old Toymaker

Type: Children's Theatre, Christmas play

Concept: The son-in-law of An old toymaker, who has always made toys by hand, threatens to take over and computerize the toy shop.

Setting: Various simple settings; the toy shop, the Stolfe household, the street, the lawyers office.

Time: the past

Characters: Flexible

Length: 40 minutes.

 Storyline: Grampa Schpieler has always made his toys by hand. When his son-in-law threatens to computerize the toy shop, the toys led by Anitra the magical princess doll come to life and save the day.

 Dramatis Personae:

The people:

The narrator                                                                 Gerri the schoolyard bully

Grampa Schpieler the toymaker                                   Mr. Glockner the restaurant owner.

Laurie-Anne Stolfe his granddaughter                                     The toys:

Charles Stolfe his son-in-law                                      Anitra the princess doll

Martha Stolfe his daughter                                          Jack-in-the box

Ogden Willis the lawyer                                              Agatha the blue elephant.

Julia Willis the lawyer ( Ogden's wife)                        Teddy the shy teddy bear

Sammy, Laurie-Anne's friend                                      Sssimone the purple snake

Frick A construction worker                                        Tommy the toy soldier

McGrath his (her) partner                                           extras

Gerri the schoolyard bully

Once again, the cast is expandable

 Earth to Arthur

Type: Children's Theatre. One act mask play

Concept: An astronaut lands on a curious planet

Setting: The surface of the planet of Rombolio

Time: The present

Characters: four maskers, and the astronaut

Length: 40 minutes.

 Storyline: An astronaut lands on a strange planet and decides to stay rather than to claim it for the Earth Federation.

Dramatis Personae:

The Announcer

Arthur the Astronaut: Hero type, physically alert, strong sense of dedication to duty, almost overwhelmed by his mission, agressive when threatened.

Romboliolians:

Macho Preener: Totally concerned with self, doesn't listen, not much depth. Preener's movement is cocky and arrogant. He requires praise constantly and treats all objects as his own.

Slithery Cautious: Slow to come to a decision, careful and easily frightened. Slithery is the real leader of the native group. He sees all of the possible solutions to a problem.

Bouncy Curious: Rushes in and gets into trouble without thinking, must touch everything and everyone. Bouncy has an infectious personality. She is not intelligent but, like a child, knows no fear. Life for Bouncy is a joyful puzzle.

Baby Bouncy: Like her mother in every respect. She is more child-like with even greater energy.

All characters may be played by either male or female actors. It is the intent of the playwright that masks be utilized for the aliens.  

Make Mime Music

Type: Children's Theatre; One act Mime play( can be adapted for flexible cast that would include a classroom production.)

Originally concieved for Axis Mime Theatre and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Concept: A young man who adores music but can neither sing nor play an instrument discovers a talent for conducting..

Setting: various settings

Time: The fifties and sixties

Characters: flexible cast

Length: 45 minutes.

Storyline: This is the life story of Charlie Chimes. We begin at his birth,  go through childhood, high school and the workplace. Until he discovers his talent he is a poor soul of a man; one of life's losers.

 Dramatis Personae:

Narrator                                                           The school bully                     

Baby Charlie                                                  The band Master.

Mr. Chimes                                                     The band

Mrs. Chimes                                                   The assembly line workers (3)

The doctor                                                       The music teacher: Miss Loretta Treble

Charlie's first friend.

The school children ( 8 - 20 )

The soccer team

All plays designed for children have been performed before audiences at the Johnston Heights Theatre.

 Eighty five students performed Make Mime Music on a tour to Ashland, Oregon and San Francisco Ca. to great acclaim

Stan Engstrom  and Peter Thomson

in a scene from

 Political Will 2003