Episodes

  • The Ghost Ship Hunter by Christopher Johnston
    Apr 3 2022

    The Ghost Ship Hunter

    Written by Christopher Johnston

    Directed by Rachel Zake

    The year is 2078. Dr. Candace Wheatstone and her partner, Frank Drake, V, use time travel to find clues to treat diseases that emerged during the era of global climate change and COVID. However, using time travel also to find evidence of ancient ghost ship stories has become Frank's hobby, often getting him into trouble. That leads to this journey back to the Arctic Ocean in the 1770s, when Frank gets blown off a ghost ship in an ice storm. Candace and her father Alexander, a distinguished forensic astrophysicist, must figure out what really froze the old pirates in place -- including one running down a corridor -- before a whaling ship found their three-masted schooner off the coast of Greenland.

    Produced with Radio on the Lake Theatre

    Cast Robert Hawkes – Alexander Wheatstone, Ph.D. Benjamin Gregg – Frank Drake, V, Ph.D. Erin K. Moran – Cadence Wheatstone, M.D.

    Sound Effects Engineer John Watts

    Music "Ride of the Valkyries" by Richard Wagner [RoyaltyFreeMusic]

    Recording (c) 2022 Playwrights Local

    The Ghost Ship Hunter (c) 2021 Christopher Johnston

    Additional information available at http://www.playwrightslocal.org/ghost-ship-hunter/.

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    PLAYWRIGHTS LOCAL

    Cleveland's Home for Dramatic Writers

    www.playwrightslocal.org

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    21 mins
  • Love and Ecstasy by Gail Nyoka
    Sep 23 2021

    Love and Ecstasy

    Written by Gail Nyoka

    Directed by Terrence Spivey

    From Ireland to Barbados, to Trinidad and to England, trauma passes through five generations of women. Each one denies her truth at her own cost and suffers in her own way. Each searches for love. The narrator has reached a crisis. Like her great-great grandmother, she is a seer. It is at this point of crisis that the narrator discovers her hidden abilities. Is she descending into madness? Do her ancestors have anything to teach her? And is she able to listen?

    Produced with Radio on the Lake Theatre

    Cast Jeannine Gaskin - Violet / VyVy Christina Johnson - Jean Jill Kenderes - Susannah Sharron McPherson-Foxx - Narrator

    Sound Effects Engineer Victoria Watts

    Music “Now The Silence” by Juan Sánchez “Fireflies” by Whitesand

    Recording (c) 2021 Playwrights Local

    Love and Ecstasy (c) 2021 Gail Nyoka

    Additional information available at http://www.playwrightslocal.org/love-and-ecstasy/.

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    PLAYWRIGHTS LOCAL

    Cleveland's Home for Dramatic Writers

    www.playwrightslocal.org

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    36 mins
  • Things Needing Explanation​ by Julia Fisher
    Aug 29 2021

    Things Needing Explanation​

    Written by Julia Fisher

    Directed by Anne McEvoy

    Jacklean is driving her whip-smart teenage granddaughter Georgia to her house for the weekend when they decide to play Things Needing Explanation - a game from Georgia’s childhood where the two try to outsmart each other with made-up crime scenes. But when an invented crime begins to have eerie parallels to the real world, Georgia and Jacklean must unite their love of murder mysteries and each other to solve the case and save their family.

    Produced with Radio on the Lake Theatre

    Cast Dominique L. Gardner - Georgia Nadia Salett - Hattie Amy Schwabauer - Neely Lisa L Wiley - Jacklean

    Sound Effects Engineer John Watts

    Music "Black Fingerprint" by Dylan Owen

    Recording (c) 2021 Playwrights Local

    Things Needing Explanation (c) 2021 Julia Fisher

    Additional information available at http://www.playwrightslocal.org/things-needing-explanation/.

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    PLAYWRIGHTS LOCAL

    Cleveland's Home for Dramatic Writers

    www.playwrightslocal.org

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    36 mins
  • The Portraits by Tom Hayes
    Jul 15 2021

    The Portraits

    Written by Tom Hayes

    Directed by Brian Zoldessy

    After attending the funeral of their father, two adult siblings are stranded in a remote area next to their family plot. With a storm threatening and strange sounds coming from the nearby forest, 40-ish Ben and his younger sister Sam are forced to leave the plot on foot. As they walk, the two re-hash events of the past. They both air their grievances until the strange sounds begin to take physical form, forcing them into an abandoned house. Strangely, the house is not entirely empty and not entirely unfamiliar. There, they discover a truth they did not know, and come to terms with their shared history.

    Produced with Radio on the Lake Theatre

    Cast John Busser - Ben Lindsey Mitchell - Sam

    Sound Effects Engineer John Watts

    Music “Aftermath” by Kevin MacLeod

    Recording (c) 2021 Playwrights Local

    The Portraits (c) 2021 Tom Hayes

    Additional information available at http://www.playwrightslocal.org/portraits/.

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    PLAYWRIGHTS LOCAL

    Cleveland's Home for Dramatic Writers

    www.playwrightslocal.org

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    24 mins
  • Heirloom by Mike Geither
    Jun 3 2021

    Heirloom

    Written & performed by Mike Geither

    Heirloom is a non-­fiction solo performance about four generations of my extended maternal family that’s based on interviews and historical records. Beginning with my mother and her siblings, and moving on to her father and grandfather’s lives, it examines the social and emotional inheritance of an extended family affected by incest, alcoholism, violence and genocide. It attempts to shed understanding on how any single person may affect the generation of family members that follow him or her and to glean a greater understanding of the dynamics of incest and rape.

    Produced with Radio on the Lake Theatre

    Sound Effects Engineer John Watts

    Music “Royalty Free Army Music” by Dar Golan “Royalty Free 70's Music” by Dar Golan

    Special Thanks John Watts, Karin Randoja, Dan Riordan, & Amy Schwabauer

    Recording (c) 2021 Playwrights Local

    Heirloom (c) 2020 Mike Geither

    Additional information available at http://www.playwrightslocal.org/heirloom/.

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    PLAYWRIGHTS LOCAL

    Cleveland's Home for Dramatic Writers

    www.playwrightslocal.org

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    46 mins
  • Family Markers by Faye Sholiton
    May 26 2021

    Family Markers

    Written by Faye Sholiton

    Directed by Fred Sternfeld

    On a June day in 1960, a still-grieving brother and sister made a horrifying discovery. Just days after their brother's burial, someone had exhumed his body and moved it, with no forwarding address. Exactly 50 years later, two adult strangers with the same last name run into each other at the family plot. They will attempt to sort out what might have gone wrong while everybody was above ground. And whether this brand of mishegas is hereditary.

    Produced with Radio on the Lake Theatre

    Cast Mary Alice Beck - Leah John Busser - Lee

    Sound Effects Engineer John Watts

    Music “Vivaldi: Spring” by Notepad Music

    Special thanks to Cantor Kathy Sebo for the use of her voice in this recording.

    Recording (c) 2021 Playwrights Local

    Family Markers (c) 2020 by Faye Sholiton

    Additional information available at http://www.playwrightslocal.org/family-markers/.

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    PLAYWRIGHTS LOCAL

    Cleveland's Home for Dramatic Writers

    www.playwrightslocal.org

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    22 mins
  • Limbo by Agnes Herrmann
    May 20 2021

    Limbo

    Written by Agnes Herrmann

    Directed by Brian Zoldessy

    Tess has recently lost her mother; Susan lives with her own mother, who has crippling arthritis. They meet on a commuter train heading home, after a blown transformer cuts the power out. Tess gets claustrophobic in the dark. Susan becomes a chatterbox. The atmosphere grows stifling. The two think they have nothing in common...but do they? In Limbo, the statement “your truth is my truth” becomes a reality that neither Tess nor Susan can deny.

    Produced in partnership with Radio on the Lake Theatre.

    Cast Agnes Herrmann - Susan Lindsey Mitchell - Tess Paul Slimak - Conductor

    Sound Effects Engineer John Watts

    Recorded live in studio in December 2020.

    Additional information available at http://www.playwrightslocal.org/limbo/.

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    PLAYWRIGHTS LOCAL

    Cleveland's Home for Dramatic Writers

    www.playwrightslocal.org

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    23 mins
  • Entanglement by Les Hunter
    Mar 13 2021

    ENTANGLEMENT A Historical Fantasy of Almost-Love and Almost-Loss, Art History and Entry-Level Quantum Physics

    Written by Les Hunter

    Directed by Christine McBurney

    Entanglement reimagines the 1925 moment when physicist Erwin Schrödinger discovered quantum mechanics. In this alternate history, Schrödinger's breakthrough in physics (and love) is inspired by art historian Gertrud Bing. Bing and her mentor Aby Warburg famously asserted that all societies develop at a relatively similar and interconnected rate, despite differences of space and time. This theory is spookily similar to the phenomena of quantum entanglement, which holds that two particles, once entangled, move and change at the same moment. Schrödinger made this discovery during a two-and-a-half week sexual spree in the Swiss Alps. Cats may or may not have been killed.

    Produced in partnership with Radio on the Lake Theatre.

    Cast John Busser - Erik Cathleen O’Malley - Gabriele

    Sound Effects Engineers John Watts Victoria Watts

    Recorded live at Radio on the Lake Studio Theatre in Shaker Heights, Ohio, on November 13, 2019.

    Additional information available at playwrightslocal.org/entanglement.

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    PLAYWRIGHTS LOCAL

    Cleveland's Home for Dramatic Writers

    www.playwrightslocal.org

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    25 mins