Works by Charles Morey:
A CHRISTMAS TRIFLE FOR TWO CLOWNS AND MISS ISABEL
THE THIRD SKY
A MOST DANGEROUS MAN
BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA
DUMAS’ CAMILLE
THE SALAMANDER’S TALE
THE GRANITE SLATE
THE YELLOW LEAF
Synopses:
A Christmas Trifle for Two Clowns and Miss Isabel – (1F, 2M) It’s Miss Isabel’s 97th Christmas Eve, a festive annual event celebrated with her closest remaining family. A six-course meal with Martinis to start, wines appropriate to each course and Champagne throughout. All served impeccably by the indispensable family retainer James and the new man, Chuck. Unfortunately, all Miss Isabel’s family are deceased, and the unflappable James and unsuspecting Chuck must fill in – while consuming liberal amounts of the aforementioned libations. What could possibly go wrong? As James reminds Miss Isabel: “Family holiday gatherings are much like theatrical entertainments. Hope for the best, expect the worst.” “A Christmas Trifle…” is not only hilarious throughout but concludes with a sweet holiday twist. A farcical tour de force for three actors and at 75 minutes, a perfect holiday offering.
The Third Sky – (3F, 2M) THE THIRD SKY is a comedy about death, loss, literary ethics, old love, new romance, acceptance and redemption. The play takes place over the course of one day and night in January of a recent year in Hancock, New Hampshire, somewhat in the shadow of Crotched Mountain. George is an aging novelist who has recently lost his younger wife, Kate, a noted poet, to cancer. Essentially unable to function, he retreats to an attic bedroom emerging only to make vodka martinis and sardonic quips. His son, Tom, enlists his mother and George’s ex-wife, Anna, to try to bring George out of his depression. Carrie, the assistant to George’s and Kate’s agent, unexpectedly arrives with contracts and galleys for Kate’s last book. Carrie asserts that the contracts must be signed immediately despite the fact George has yet to read the manuscript which deals unsparingly with the months preceding Kate’s death. As the first act ends, it is revealed that Carrie is operating solely on her own and has a desperate agenda in wanting to see Kate’s work published. Also, making a first appearance in George’s household on this January day is Louise, a pot-smoking, aging hippie born again Pentecostal who found Jesus while vacuuming and quotes the Grateful Dead and Dante with equal ease. The plot swirls around literary ethics (or the lack thereof) and Carrie’s bungled scheme. Despite initial antagonism, Tom and Carrie find themselves falling in love and eventually into bed. George and Anna explore an old relationship and perhaps re-kindle lost love. All comes to a head in a 3:00 AM impromptu meal in which Anna’s perception’s, Tom and Carrie’s embarrassment, Louise’s intuition, and the un-expected appearance of the Northern Lights (“The Third Sky”) bring George to his own small epiphany.
A Most Dangerous Man – A MOST DANGEROUS MAN is a dramatic and compelling portrait of the great labor leader, Walter Reuther, and the ever-relevant fight for the American worker. This highly theatrical music-theatre piece is set within the visual world of the Diego Rivera “Detroit Industry” frescoes. Rivera himself serves as conscience and guide for both audience and protagonist as he drives the narrative through labor struggles, protests, and strikes, beatings by corporate goons, mob assassination attempts, political and law enforcement obstruction and the determination and courage that ultimately led to the success that changed the very fabric of American life. Reuther’s climb brought him not only to the heights of fame and the centers of power but to the inevitable compromises that allowed him to hold on to his “seat at the table”, culminating in a moving recommitment to his ideals shortly before his tragic death. A MOST DANGEROUS MAN is a remarkable journey through Twentieth Century America, from the depths of the Depression through the tumult of the 60’s, told with great theatricality in both music and storytelling.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula – (9F, 6M) A potent and theatrical adaptation of the classic horror novel that is strongly faithful to the original. “The script crackles with a vigorous, at times pounding style… wonderfully theatrical… no less erotic than the novel, in fact, it comes across as more so.” (The Event)
Dumas’ Camille – (3F, 5M) A play with music, “Dumas’ Camille” is both a deeply romantic love story and an intellectual mystery exploring the relationship between truth, memory and art. In 1895 Paris, the aging Alexandre Dumas observes a rehearsal of Verdi’s “La Traviata”, the opera adapted from his novel and play “The Lady of the Camelias” which in turn were inspired by his youthful real-life love affair with the most beautiful courtesan in Paris, Marie du Plessis. Prompted by selections from the opera that weave through the text Dumas is forced to confront his guilt, regrets and memory of lost love as he tries to reconcile the conflict between the reality of actual events and the varying levels of fiction and artifice he and Verdi created. The play asks the questions: what is the the artist’s responsibility to fact and the real individuals from whom he creates art? And ultimately, what is truth? “But, what ultimately is most real?” Dumas demands. “Your facts or the string of words we create to carve tactile reality into something we can comprehend. Until we shape it with words, give it narrative form, does it even exist?” Critics have called “Dumas’ Camille” Thrilling… Superb… a thought- provoking meditation on how deeply art can move us. (Salt Lake City Weekly) Beautifully structured… Masterfully told… (Deseret News) Blends music and drama in an unusual way … intriguing…remarkable… (Salt Lake Tribune)
The Salamander’s Tale – The Salamander’s Tale is a true story of fraud, forgery, murder and the Mormon Church.
Mark Hofmann, on the surface a faithful, mission serving Mormon, forged and sold hundreds of documents to collectors all over the country. His creations included letters and autographs of Washington, Lincoln, Mark Twain and even an “unpublished” poem by Emily Dickinson. All were authenticated by acknowledged experts in their fields. Principal among his forgeries were documents relating to the early history of the Mormon Church, some of which were embarrassing to the Church as they cast doubt upon the motives of its founder, Joseph Smith, and the official origin stories. Church leaders purchased some of these documents in an attempt to conceal their contents from the public. Hofmann had found the perfect victim, an institution so defensive about its past that it sought to acquire and bury, almost without question, any document that seemed to contradict official beliefs. When Hofmann’s schemes began to unravel, he killed two people with pipe bombs in an attempt to conceal his crimes. This play is part “who did it”; part “how he did it”; but mostly “why did he do it”? At its core it is a play about the relationship of faith to fact, the very nature of religious faith itself and an investigation into the psychology of an individual who is utterly without faith while wearing all the outward trappings.
The Granite Slate – (4F, 2M) The Granite State is a smart and topical new comedy about aging, love, loss, literature, family – and blackmail. It is about both the responsibility of being an artist and the price one pays – not to mention the price one pays for being related to an artist. George is a famous novelist who has secluded himself in a New Hampshire farmhouse where he broods upon the death of his third wife and his fears of aging. When he unexpectedly wins a major literary prize with a serious cash award attached, his world collapses into chaos upon the arrival of his son and future daughter-in-law; his new girlfriend, a beautiful and smart Russian stripper with a passion for literature; and his two ex-wives, one, an actress, the other, once the model for the “iconic sixties feral-child hippie sex goddess” in George’s first major novel, now a Texas Tea Party stalwart. The inevitable explosion of recriminations, ego, need, jealousy and greed is fueled by extreme weather, Russian food and plenty of vodka but ultimately resolved by a bundle of forgotten letters and a chainsaw.
The Yellow Leaf – (2F, 3M) Hopelessly entangled love affairs, savage wit and jousting egos combine to create a fascinating, funny, and haunting evening of theatre based upon historical fact. In the fateful summer of 1816, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft and their companions flee England escaping scandal. Shuttered in Byron’s villa on the shores of Lake Geneva, they turn to the supernatural as Byron challenges them to each write a ghost story – a competition that will not only spawn Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein but also shape the destinies of these extraordinary individuals whose lives defined an age.
Bio:
CHARLES MOREY is the author of twelve produced plays that have received over five hundred productions around the world. FIGARO was commissioned and produced Off-Broadway by the Pearl Theatre Company and was named a NY Times “Critic’s Pick.” In addition, he has written LAUGHING STOCK, which has received some three hundred productions worldwide, THE GRANITE STATE, DUMAS’ CAMILLE, THE YELLOW LEAF, THE LADIES MAN (over 80 productions to date) , as well as adaptations of the 19th century classic novels, THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, A TALE OF TWO CITIES, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, DRACULA and THE THREE MUSKETEERS. His plays have been produced at numerous professional theatres in the U.S. including: Denver Center Theatre Company, Pioneer Theatre Company, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Geva Theatre Center, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare and Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Asolo Theatre Company, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, A Noise Within, Meadow Brook Theatre, PCPA Theaterfest, L.A.Theatreworks, Peterborough Players, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Elm Shakespeare Co., Centenary Stage Co., Creede Rep., Arvada Center, Shadowland Theatre, Sierra Rep., Theatre in the Square, Cortland Rep., Tamworth Barnstormers, Hope Summer Rep. as well as hundreds of amateur, university and international productions as far afield as New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Austria, Singapore, Argentina, Israel as well as Ireland, the U.K. and Canada. LAUGHING STOCK has been playing in Russian translation since 2013 in Moscow in the repertory of the Arcadia Theatre and, more recently has been added to the repertory of two other Moscow theatres, The Cherry Orchard Theatre Center and the The Russian Army Theatre. THE THIRD SKY – as yet unproduced in English – received its world premiere at the Vilnius Chamber Theatre in Lithuanian translation. THE SALAMANDER’S TALE, about the Mark Hofmann forgeries of early Mormon documents, remains as yet un-produced.
FIGARO was a N.Y. Times “Critic’s Pick” and a L.A. Times “Critic’s Choice” in its west coast premiere at A Noise Within. LAUGHING STOCK was nominated for the American Theatre Critics Association Steinberg Award and won the “Best New Play” citation from the New Hampshire Theatre Association and the “Readers’ Choice” Award for Best Play from the Sarasota Herald Tribune. In it’s 2013 revival by the Peterborough Players, it won six New Hampshire Theatre Association Awards including “Best Play.” DUMAS’ CAMILLE received the City Weekly “Slammy” award for Best New Play in Utah. THE LADIES MAN received the “Readers’ Choice Ovation Award” from the Denver Post for Best Comedy. THE GRANITE STATE was nominated as Best New Play by the New Hampshire Theatre Awards in 2014. His, as yet un-produced play, THE SALAMANDER’S TALE, was a finalist for the Woodward/Newman Award for Drama. DUMAS’ CAMILLE was a finalist for the 2003 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and THE THIRD SKY was a semi-finalist in 2016. A MOST DANGEROUS MAN was a semi-finalist for the O’Neill National Music Theatre Conference in 2023.
He began his career as an actor working with many New York and regional theatres. He served as Artistic Director of the Peterborough Players from 1977 through 1988 and as Artistic Director of the Pioneer Theatre Company from 1984 through 2012. He has guest directed for many of the nation’s leading regional theatres. He has served as both a panelist and on-site evaluator for the National Endowment for the Arts and on the Board of Trustees of the National Theatre Conference and The Players. He is a member of SDC, the Dramatists Guild, AEA and SAG-AFTRA (honorable withdrawal). He received a BA from Dartmouth College and a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University. He is a Fellow of the MacDowell Colony.
Website: www.charlesmorey.com
* Please note that some titles are handled by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, Dramatic Publishing, Broadway Play Publishing, and Playscripts.com. Please ask if you don’t see a particular play.