DESPERATE TERRITORY
Georgia Sanfilippo has been doing her best to destroy her marriage, seemingly guided by something beyond her control. Today a parcel has arrived at her door. Her brother Ben’s belongings, after a year of forwarding to his past addresses, now sits at her feet. Benjamin had lived with Georgia and her husband, Michael, until two years ago when a bitter quarrel sent him traveling across the country on a trip that he and Georgia had fantasized about since their childhood. She hasn’t heard from him since. The two were singularly close in those years but her marriage, combined with Ben’s homosexuality imposed a separation which Ben was not inclined to accept. Georgia denies that her self-destructive brother might be dead despite Michael's pointing out the origin of the package - a hospice in Montana. But is it Ben's ghost Georgia now faces with each token or memento she draws from the box of his property? Or has her need to know if she is responsible for his death conjured him? Either way, Georgia wagers her marriage that she is innocent of his destruction. As her relationship with Michael falls apart, she orchestrates scenes from her past in a desperate search for clues. At last she arrives at a place she had tried to forget - alone at her mother's deathbed. There, she sees, was where her youthful courage first deserted her, where she lost the will to fight, where she became convinced she’d never win. By this time Michael is about to abandon her. To keep him, Georgia must fight her own fear of love and loving, and save the one person in her family she never rescued - herself.

GONE ASTRAY (Winner, 1998 Stanley Drama Award)
"GONE ASTRAY" concerns a mother who for nine years, insists her abducted child is still alive. Since her daughter’s disappearance, she has frozen herself, her husband and their retarded, son in a changeless state. Now, with the missing girl's twentieth birthday approaching, she is enraged at God and tempted by unknown spirits. When a Lakota Sioux young woman appears at her doorstep, a supposed psychic who is persuaded to recover the lost child, the woman’s quest brings her to a place known only to Native Americans, half spirit/half real. There she must grapple with guilt, God and ghosts in order to break the spell of waiting which has engulfed her family and her soul.


A RAPE IN GLORIOUS (Winner - 2000 Arlene R. and William P. Lewis Playwrighting Award for Women)
In A RAPE IN GLORIOUS, Joan Berk, a young Jewish art student is driven to remain in school when the Depression brings a cut in funding to her college, eliminating her scholarship. The school is named after Sir Thomas Mallory and the only remaining grant in his name carries with it full tuition. To win, she abandons her dream of becoming a sculptor and develops a proposal based on the subject of her art project - Joan of Arc. She then flatters the English professor who awards the prize, Niven Landau, a Mallory authority venerated in the community as well as the only Jew on the faculty. When he sexually assaults her she is confronted with the choice of reporting him to the authorities or enduring a private inquiry on campus conducted by the Board of Directors. The head of the Board sees Niven as likely to draw donations from the Jewish community and therefore valuable to the financial survival of the school. As the inquiry ensues, Joan herself seems on trial. Soon her very sanity appears at stake as she finds herself mistaking Joan of Arc’s trial with the ordeal in which she is embroiled. The similarities cannot escape her - Joan was demonized by the English and idealized by the French. Joan is equally confused about her own morality and motives as she faces the choice of betraying a fellow Jew or her own personal honor.


A FAIR WIND FOR YARROW
In the summer and fall of 1955, the country seems focused on the World Series, none more so than Brooklyn Dodger fan, Russell, living across the Hudson River from New York City with his grandmother and great aunt. There Russell awaits not only the outcome of the Series, but his sixteenth birthday. When Russell was three, his glamorous mother Irene divorced Van, Russell’s father, then moved in with her own mother, Millie, and her Aunt Stella. When Irene died shortly after, Van allowed Millie and Stella to raise his son while he visited infrequently. Now, plunged into adolescence, Russell discovers a journal that Millie has hidden of his mother’s writings and is soon mesmerized by Irene’s romantic account of her sophisticated youth in 1930's Manhattan. Irene becomes completely real to Russell who develops a crush on her, just as Van, because of failing health, is now trying to draw closer to his son. Russell’s fascination with Irene alarms and angers Van who still nurses the humiliation of her decision to divorce him. Soon years of hurt and anger erupt for them both, drawing Millie into the conflict. Faced suddenly with Russell’s fierce adoration of the mother he barely knew, both Millie and Van, in whose hearts the ghost-like Irene still resides, are forced to confront their unsettled grief and love.

HOUSE OF ANGELS
In New York of 1914, the home of widow Amelia Vane is astir with plans for the approaching wedding of her youngest daughter, Helen. While Helen is all composure and ladylike grace, her older sister Autumn, like their late father, appears to suffer from what has yet to be classified as an illness - manic depression. Mr. Vane’s death has left the women in a precarious social position at a time and place where social standing is imperative. Because of this, Amelia prefers not to examine Autumn’s illness and refers to her merely as “difficult.”

Helen’s engagement to a wealthy businessman, James Paxton, son of their late father’s employer, will secure all their futures. When James introduces an artist, roguish Henry Lafont, into their midst to paint Helen's wedding portrait, the charming facade of innocence and propriety Amelia has created begins to crumble. It soon becomes apparent that while the senses of all three women are kindled by Henry's presence, Autumn has allowed herself to catch fire. Suddenly her mood swings, penchant for telling the truth and acting on impulse intensify, with serious consequences.

When Autumn discovers her father’s correspondence with European doctors about his illness, raising questions about herself, the threat she poses to Amelia and Helen can no longer be concealed. Her relentless search for the truth not only endangers her family's future, but may ultimately cost Autumn her sanity.

RIDE THE DARK CARS   See Review
Nicky, a frail young woman is convinced that her husband Joey might kill her. One evening she risks Joey’s fury by inviting home to their Brooklyn apartment a woman she claims is her supervisor at the Fifth Avenue department store where she works. As soon as Joey leaves the room, a cryptic exchange between the two women suggests a deadly plot is afoot with Joey the unsuspecting victim.

When Joey returns, the women proceed with their secret agenda. After learning he is a bartender at a restaurant across the street, Suzanne begs for a demonstration of Joey’s skills and attempts to get him drunk. But when a sudden turn in the conversation reveals Joey’s antisemitism, Suzanne appears thrown. Delighted to learn that Suzanne is Jewish, Joey asks her help in shaking down a happily married Jewish radio star named Larry Champion by photographing him in a compromising position. Joey reveals that his boss at the restaurant promised to call if Larry, an apparent regular, stops by so they can go over tonight - Suzanne will seduce Larry and Nicky will take the photos. Nicky vainly tries to dismiss Joey’s comments about Jews but Suzanne becomes more and more enraged. When the phone rings and Joey goes off to answer, Suzanne receives Nicky’s assurance that her husband has never actually seen Larry Champion, and impulsively rings up her partner, the third player in their as yet unspoken plan.

Moments later Charlie, Suzanne’s partner, arrives at their door, introducing himself as Larry Champion sent over by Joey’s boss to score drugs. Although Nicky is unnerved about the sudden change in plans, a not altogether sober Joey accepts it. But when Suzanne drinks far too much, Nicky, jealous and angry at Suzanne’s strangely seductive behavior toward her husband, switches her allegiance. Nicky tries to communicate secretly to both Suzanne and Charlie that she wants to cancel their murderous scheme but it appears to be too late. By now Joey’s behavior has fanned Suzanne's violent mission into a deadly personal flame.