Plays Written by Joseph McDonough
FEAR ITSELF
ORDINARY AMERICANS
BARDOLATRY
EDGAR & EMILY
ONE
WAYFARER’S REST
SPARK OF THE SUN
MORNING DANCER
THE LIGHTNING TOUCH
STONE MY HEART
TRAVELS OF ANGELICA
Synopses:
Fear Itself – (3W 3M) Fear Itself dramatizes the story of the evolving relationship between Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and Winston and Clemmie Churchill, from the time of the London bombings through the end of World War II. The play focuses on the Roosevelts’ and Churchills’ joint fight against Hitler, injustice, and fascism–a struggle that still echoes deeply in our world today.
Ordinary Americans – (2W 3M) In the early 1950’s, Gertrude Berg and Philip Loeb, the largely now-forgotten pioneering stars of early television’s groundbreaking sitcom, The Goldbergs, heroically struggle to save their show, their careers, their freedom, and their friendship in the face of McCarthyism, antisemitism, and the polarized political climate of the country. Based on actual events, Ordinary Americans reveals the double-edged sword between speaking out against injustice and bigotry and staying silent.
Bardolatry – (1W 1M 3N) Bardolatry is a play about the eccentric Shakespeare collectors, Henry and Emily Folger, and their amazingly intense obsession with obtaining all things Shakespearian. It’s a fast-paced, highly theatrical telling of their story told with comedy and pathos. The first act focuses on the Folgers’ obsession with obtaining the famed Vincent First Folio– often thought to be the original first copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio. The second act takes place years later as Henry and Emily grapple with the painful loss of time and what to do with their now-massive collection.
Edgar & Emily – (1W 1M) In this comic fantasia, an increasingly reclusive young poet (Emily Dickinson) is unexpectedly visited in her bedroom one snowy Massachusetts night by a desperate man (Edgar Allan Poe) who is fleeing and hiding from a mysterious stranger who is trying to kill him. Throughout the evening as they struggle, challenge each other, and ultimately find they have much in common, Edgar confronts the death he has been evading while Emily confronts her impending choice to fully embrace a life of artistic solitude.
One – (2W 1M) One tells the story of three lonely people—a disturbed young woman in crisis, a conceited Hollywood actor, and a grieving Emily Dickinson scholar— who each become obsessed with the heartfelt letters written over a hundred years ago by a doomed Civil War soldier to his lost love. The lives of these three struggling people become intertwined in unexpected ways.
Wayfarer’s Rest – (2W 1M) In this modern fairy tale, a worried American woman escapes the Nazi bombing of World War II London by fleeing to a cottage in a mysterious English forest where she meets two timeless and ancient people, Ana and Dylan, who both have the ability to know all the details of her future by looking into her eyes. Does she want to know what they have to tell her? Can she live with this knowledge? And what will be the consequences for Ana and Dylan if they tell her?
Spark of the Sun – (2W 2M) Set in 1956, Spark of the Sun is a comedic drama about Mickey, a down-on-his-luck but always optimistic salesman, and Vina, a painfully shy woman and scientific genius who has developed the theoretical plans for a solar-powered automotive engine. Together they concoct a wild plan to try to demonstrate their promising new idea to an executive with the General Motors Corporation.
Morning Dancer – (3W 2M) It is the week that John F. Kennedy is about to be elected president and the Irish-American women who run a small struggling bakery are excited. But their lives become unsettled when the bakery’s owner, Cara Gallagher, who is living with advanced lupus, is visited by her disoriented former fiancé who returns to the bakery after cruelly abandoning her and fleeing the country years earlier.
The Lightning Touch – (2W 2M) In 1969, while the world is fixated on the Apollo moon landing, two strangers arrive at the Chicago motel where Erin O’Connell works with her blind Aunt Agnes. One of these men, Horace, might actually be a faith healer, and Erin wants Horace to help Agnes see again. But, for reasons he doesn’t understand, frightened Horace has recently lost his healing touch—in fact, it’s gone in reverse—now people have been suddenly dying after he lays his hands on them.
Note: Spark of the Sun, Morning Dancer, and The Lightning Touch are each independent full-length plays, but together form a trilogy.
Stone My Heart – (4M 1W) Stone My Heart is a jazz-infused, darkly comic re-imagining of Othello set among the political machinations in the Chicago city morgue. Winner of the Mickey Kaplan New American Play Prize. The stammering Robby secretly loves Jessica, who is living with Marcus, the city’s new chief coroner. Jessica struggles with the recent death of her father, while at the same time sensing troubles with her stormy relationship with Marcus. Into this mix, the manipulative Terrence seizes all opportunities to use their desires and secrets for his own gain, destroying one after the other in this compelling story about the destructive forces of obsession, passion and power.
Travels of Angelica – (3W 4M) 1657: A writer wanted for treason barely escapes from England with his daughter to start a new life with a new identity in Virginia. Can he outwit his blackmailing neighbor and escape capture before completing his most important work? Today: Two graduate students come to Virginia in search of clues about this forgotten author, hoping to make an important literary discovery. As the play twists and turns between the past and present, this time-traveling tale explores history, hope, heart and the possibility of a remarkable future. Winner of the Mickey Kaplan New American Play Prize.
Bio:
JOSEPH MCDONOUGH is a playwright with a variety of experiences and interests, having written original plays, adaptations, and the books of musicals. Just before the pandemic, his play Ordinary Americans (about blacklisted early television pioneers Gertrude Berg and Philip Loeb) received its world premiere in a commissioned co-production by Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach and GableStage in Miami. His plays have been developed and produced around the country and he has twice received the Kaplan New American Play Prize at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.
Website: www.josephmcdonough.org
* Please note that some titles are handled by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, Dramatic Publishing and Playscripts.com. Please ask if you don’t see a particular play.