The year is 1939. After a solid year building a name for himself as a detective, Phil Lebowski comes across a piece of evidence that will lead him to “the one that got away.” Hot on the trail, Phil gets wrapped up in a job with his ex-friend on security detail of a priceless jewel. Suddenly, they are caught in a madcap situation full of gangsters, thieves, and murder! Can Phil find the killer, retrieve a giant ruby, and wrangle all the crazy suspects before he “sleeps with the fishes” in this comical whodunit.
Crooked Hand: Game of Cups is the sequel to Crooked Hand, also by American playwright Jeff Carlson.
Author: Jeff Carlson and Zach Triplett
Type: Two-act play
Genre: Comical whodunit, crime, film noir
Cast: 6M, 3F, 1N
Ages of the actors: Adult. No ages specified
Suitable for: All ages to watch and teens up to perform
Length: 100 minutes
Set: Detective’s office, conference hall, a radio show live from a prison which can be invisible or seen at the director’s discretion
Level of difficulty: 7/10 – cutting back and forth between the radio show and actual events happening live on stage
All in the Past is a murder mystery set in 1934 Shanghai. Vera is a White Russian expatriate turned con-artist whose latest scheme is a psychic business she runs with her landlady, Lily. She is approached by a customer with a proposition to find a woman from his past, who he believes is currently in Shanghai. Vera takes the offer but soon learns that this proposition entails more than a paycheck when the missing woman is found murdered in the home of Vera’s ex-boyfriend. She then embarks on an investigation that forces her to confront demons from the victim’s past as well as her own in order to solve the mystery and exonerate an innocent man.
PERFORMANCE HISTORY
NYU Shanghai’s Theatre Club, Shanghai, China – 2018
Author: Lauren Ennis
Genre: Murder mystery play scripts, whodunit
Type: Two act, 2 act play
Cast: 11-12, 7F, 5M (small parts may be doubled)
Ages of the actors: 20’s up. The leads are in their thirties but can be 40’s as well.
Length: Two hours
Suitable for: Pg 12 (violence)
Set: Various – various apartments, offices, backstage at a club
In this whodunit play script, dozens of circus clowns pile out of a car. One doesn’t. Thus begins the new murder mystery comedy by Mark Aloysius Kenneally. Artie and Nick are two detectives who thought they had seen it all. But they find out that when you’re interrogating suspects like Chuckles, Pozo, and Backwards Bobo… clowns can turn out to not only make you laugh, but also… drive you crazy. Who killed Bubbles? And why? Join Artie, Nick and Doctor Amy Harris-Talmun, the police psychiatrist, as they try desperately to solve the most bizarre, challenging, surprising and humorous murder mystery they’ve ever investigated.
CLOWN CAR, under the previous title, SUFFER FOOLS GLADLY, received its first staged reading at The Players Theatre in in Sarasota, FL. July, 2007. Then had a staged reading at Ten Grand and a Burger in New York City, September, 2007. It had a staged reading at the DeLand Theatre Festival, DeLand, FL in January, 2008 and another Staged Reading in Midland, TX in August, 2009 (It was a finalist in the 2009 McClaren International Comedy Playwriting Contest). SUFFER FOOLS GLADLY received its World Premiere Production at Stetson University, DeLand, FL in September, 2009.
Further Production History:
Liberty Lake Community Theatre – WA, USA – 2016
Okaw Valley High School, IL, USA – 2017
Oakbrook Preparatory school – SC, USA – 2018
Starlighters II Theater, IA, USA – 2018
Little River School, KS, USA – 2019
Lake Air Montessori, TX, USA – 2021
Circle Theatre of Barnwell, SC, 2022
Pennwest Edinboro University, Alpha Psi Omega Gamma Kappa, PA, USA – 2023
Author: Mark Aloysius Kenneally
Genre: Crime,Whodunit, Comedy
Type: Two act play
Number of Actors: 4M, 5F.
The roles of the clowns have been written with the intention that they all be played by one Actor and one Actress with minimal costume and wig changes to heighten the confusion and frustration as it builds throughout the play. However, it is recognized that individual producers, such as school and community theatre groups may wish to expand the cast size by having these roles be played by different actors and actresses, or have some of the roles played by actresses rather than actors or vice versa. This decision is entirely permitted by the author and is left up to the individual producers.
Ages of actors: One policeman in his thirties, and one male and female character each in their thirties. The clowns can be of any age.
Set: Various different rooms at a police station in any “small town U.S.A.” and at the big top circus. The sets should be suggested with as simple set pieces as possible. Many of the locales can simply be suggested with lighting changes and/or with as little as a table and a few chairs as set pieces. Level of Difficulty: 7/10 – especially if the same actor is playing multiple roles
The author will allow workshopping of the script. Read more about playwright Mark aloysius Kenneally.