PLAYS

Hard Travelin’ with Woody

A solo play with music, premiered at FringeNYC, produced North Coast Rep, Southern Appalachian Rep, Chicago and Portland Fringe, currently touring. For video, audio and more, go to HardTravelinShow.com



SYNOPSIS:

Woody uses his wit and greatest songs to rally a union meeting of mineworkers striking for a living wage.

Hop a fast-rattler through the Dustbowl with Woody Guthrie and commune with the spirit, stories and songs of America's greatest saint-of-the-workingman and poet-of-the-people in Randy Noojin's critically acclaimed solo play with music. 
 

“Captures the spirit of Woody, this is solid, entertaining work that should travel far and wide in these hard times, just like Guthrie himself." 

THE HUFFINGTON POST

"A constant delight, this is a great show for Guthrie fans and for those hearing these songs for the first time."
NYTHEATRE.COM

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 "Blows the dust off Guthrie standards, restoring their intended sting and deepening their soulfulness."
BACKSTAGE.COM





You Can’t Trust the Male

​Originally produced at Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Marathon, published by Dramatic Publishing Company, also published in Applause Books’ Best American Short Plays, and Smith and Kraus’ The Great Monologues from the EST Marathon.



CHARACTERS:

Harvey – a mailman
Laura – Brooklyn girl



SYNOPSIS:

A painfully shy mailman falls in love-at-first-sight with a feisty Brooklyn woman on his route.  When he learns through her mail that she’s taking a Spanish class, he enrolls and conspires to finally meet her in class and ask her out.





Unbeatable Harold 

Commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville, published by Dramatic Publishing Company, produced regularly nationwide.  Screenplay adaptation made into a feature film starring Dylan McDermott, Charles Durning, Henry Winkler and Gladys Knight.



CHARACTERS:

Harold – Asst. Manager
Wanda-- Waitress



SYNOPSIS:

On their five-month anniversary, Harold, the Asst. Manager of the Wagon Train Steakhouse, is going to propose marriage, and Wanda, a waitress there, is going to break up and leave her job to work at the skating rink.





Boaz 

Commissioned and produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville, published by Dramatic Publishing Company.



​CHARACTERS:

Rich – young man
Clayton – old man



SYNOPSIS:

Rich waits for his father at his crazy grandfather’s house in Boaz, Alabama to accept a loan, in exchange for which Rich must return home to work in the family business.  When Rich finds out his grandfather’s coffee cans are all filled with hundreds of dollars worth of change, Rich has to make a big decision.  





The Memory Collection

Recipient 2007 Access to Artistic Excellence NEA Grant in Musical Theatre; commissioned and produced by Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre.



CHARACTERS:

MEN:
Bascom - 50s, singer, plays fiddle and banjo, dancer
Josh – 20s, singer, plays guitar, dancer
Woodrow – 40s, singer, plays guitar
Huddie – 40s, singer, plays guitar
Alan – 40s, singer, plays bass
Samuel – 40s, buck dancer, musician
James – 30s, singer, plays guitar
Zebulon – 10, singer, fiddler, dancer

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WOMEN:
Nellie – 50s, Bascom’s wife, sings, dances
Cindy – 20s, singer, fiddler, clogger
Azalea – singer, plays dulcimer and autoharp
Josefa – 30s, singer, dancer
Kern – 30s, singer
Traci – 8, dancer



DANCE COMPANY:

A group of 8 dancers.  When possible, the CHARACTERS double as DANCERS. 



BAND:

The above cast of characters and dancers is populated with proficient musicians who play bass, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, dulcimer, guitar, and harmonica.



​SYNOPSIS:
After losing his young wife to illness, Josh, a young New York folksinger, fearlessly hops a freight train south to Turkey Creek, NC to try to meet his folk mentor, song catcher Bascom Lamar Lunsford.  After a terrible train accident, which he is only beginning to remember clearly, Josh miraculously meets Bascom at his Turkey Creek home and enters a literal paradise of mountain folk music, balladry, dance, stories and enchantment.  After sampling the moonshine, Josh begins to obsess on why a beautiful clogger girl, Cindy, reminds him so much of his late wife?





The Complaint 

Produced at The 45th Street Theatre and Bloomington Playwrights Project.



CHARACTERS:
Gary Ortega – Actor, late 20s, early 30s

Bud Benjamin – Director, late 20s, early 30s

Gretchen Miller/Merrill Levin/Gayle Harrington – The Woman, late 20s, early 30s

Daniel Evan Archer – The Cop, 40s

Cliff Bellamy – Internal Affairs Agent, late 30s



SYNOPSIS:

When a pot-smoking actor files a complaint of excessive force on a cop, the cop gets revenge by sending a pretty young rookie undercover to entrap him.



The Knife Trick 

Commissioned by Shorter College, produced by Terre Haute Theatre; and two productions at Attic Theatre.



CHARACTERS:

Becky Baily – 20s, a wild child, hitchhiker, adventurer, reckless 

Daryll Dossett – 30s, a bus driver

Peggy Small – 20s, pre-med student

Dina Small – 20s, Peggy’s older sister

Rob Cooper – 20s, jack-of-all-trades, adventurer, country boy, vulgar, but attractive

Shannon Baily – 20s, Becky’s twin sister (played by same actress), uptight medical student in class with Peggy

Agent John Makower – 30s, FBI, skeptic, obsessive



SYNOPSIS:

When a psychic pre-med student helps locate a dead body she’s pursued by a serial killer. Great for midnight plays and Halloween.

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Just Say Something

Produced by Artistic New Directions.



CHARACTERS:

Roger – Computer Science student
Karen – Literature student

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SYNOPSIS:

The most banal of conversations has so much going on underneath: what if we could hear what people really mean under their small talk?

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SCREENPLAYS

The Complaint





The Last Bus

Writer/Director

Four-minute film

Watch it here.