Billy Aronson : : Plays

The First Day of School

Full-length play (4W, 3M) about marriage.
Awarded a commission from San Francisco’s Magic Theatre, where the play was presented in a workshop in the spring of ‘07.
Presented in Playwrights Horizons reading series and Ensemble Studio Theater-LA Winterfest, where it was selected as a Best of the Fest 2007.
Featured in National New Play Network's showcase '07.

Light Years

Light Years, Part One: Freshman Year

One-act play (2M/2W) produced in Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon 2000.
Published by, and performance rights handled by Playscripts, Inc.
Also published in Best American Short Plays 1999-2000 (Applause Books), and in The Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon 2000 (Faber and Faber).
New York Times review.
Curtain Up review.
Photos from Louisiana Tech performance, taken by Michael Rasbury.

The Art Room

A Feydeau farce re-imagined in a mental ward.
Full-length play (3M/3W) first produced at Woolly Mammoth Theatre in the spring of 1999.
Subsequently produced at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre in the summer of 2003.
Published in Plays From the Woolly Mammoth (Broadway Play Publishers).
Nominated for Kesselring Award for Best New American Play, 1999.
Boston Globe review.
Photos from the Wellfleet production, taken by Ben Arons.
Program note.

Night Rules

Reunions

One-act play (2M/3W) produced in Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon 2002.
Curtain Up review.
New York Times review.
Selected for publication in Best American Short Plays 2002-2003 (Applause Books), due out in August, 2007.

Guilt

One-act play (2M/2W) produced by the Actors Theatre of Louisville in Take Ten Festival in the spring of 2003.
Published in 10 Minute Plays From the Actors Theatre of Louisville: Volume 6 (Samuel French).

The News

Swing States

Assorted takes on mid-life lunacy.
Full-length play (2M/2W) comprised of 7 scenes for 4 actors: Old Friends, Night Rules, Guilt, Reunions, The News, Teenagers Doing It in the Back Yard, At the Beach.
Though most of the scenes have been produced on their own they have yet to be produced all together, as they were meant to be.
For script contact .

Of Two Minds

The Mauve LeClaire

Labiche's classic farce An Italian Straw Hat about a wedding day nightmare, transplanted to our jittery times.
Full-length play (4M/4W) presented in Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA Project's winterfest in March of 2005.
For script contact .

Little Red Riding Hood

The classic fairytale, thoroughly bastardized.
One-act play (2M/3W) published in Best American Short Plays 1992-1993 (Applause Books).
Also published by, and performance rights handled by Playscripts, Inc.
Frequently performed across the United States and overseas, the play has been translated into Spanish, Greek, Turkish, and Icelandic.
The first 50 theater groups to perform Little Red Riding Hood.
Photo from production of Little Red Riding Hood by The Armadillo Theatre Group, Fournos Theatre, Athens, Greece (2000).

Comic Shorts

Comic sketches and short plays, such as Creative Writing, Negotiation, Toast, All the Way Safe, and DeLEARium, have been frequently performed such venues as MCC, Adobe Theater, Home/Lunatic Fringe Festival, the American Place Theatre/Women's Project, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Public Theater/No Shame Festival, and the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen.

Bleep This Bleep

Four people who seem to be in a reality show seem to share certain basic values until they seem to start strangling one another.
One-act play (2M/2W) first performed at Earl Hamner Theater.