Geographic Drama

Back in 2017, my play “Archetypes in Rehab,’ made its debut at the Playhouse on Park theatre in West Hartford, Connecticut. I wrote it for the theatre’s “Play in a Day Festival” which means I wrote it overnight in the theatre on Friday and it was performed in front of an audience on Saturday night. Luckily, I was blessed with a remarkable cast: Moira O’Sullivan and Sarah Vasconcelos (nee Kozlowski). I also had a terrific director named Erik Bloomquist. They worked hard all day long and did an amazing job performing the play. The audience loved it.

I felt even though I had written it in one evening, that with some tweaking the play had a chance to be more than a one night stand. So I did a revision, and then posted it on New Play Exchange (NPX). In 2021, I received an email from, of all the places, the United States Army entertainment division. They had located the play on NPX, and informed me they would like to do four performances on an army base in Germany. And they would pay me royalties. It appears my instincts were correct.

But that’s not all.

Last month (coincidentally, during a staged reading of another play) I received an email from a theatre student in Washington state named Madison Moore. Madison also found my play on NPX, and asked permission to stage the play as her senior project at Central Washington State University. I was happy to agree, especially since Madison informed me that it would not be performed in a theater–she would instead find a “pop-up” location out in the town of Ellensburg. It all sounded great to me. Madison also very politely requested the elimination of one line. I agreed to that as well, and it made me rethink just how necessary the line is in the play. Madison will be directing the play this summer.

Thus, “Archetypes in Rehab” is easily my most produced play, but also my only one to be performed on two coasts and two continents. I cannot wait to find who else finds it on NPX–my money is on a Kabuki adaptation in Omiya, Japan.

Please put your own guesses in the comment section below.