One-Act Plays

BEST TEN-MINUTE PLAYS 2022 – from SMITH & KRAUS 

  • STUCK INSIDE THE WALLS

BEST AMERICAN SHORT PLAYS from APPLAUSE BOOKS

  • CAPTAIN ABALONE (2002-03)
  • LOVE ON THE B-LINE (2005-06)
  • HEARTS AND MINDS (2006-07)
  • LAUNDRY AND LIES (2007-08)
  • SISTERS (2008-09)
  • THE SUBTERRANEANS  (2014-15)

PLAYS FOR TEENS (Commissioned and produced by Stella Adler Studio)

  • ACCEPTANCE (Cast:  3F)
  • THE SUBTERRANEANS  (Cast:  2F, 1M)
  • KISSING COUSINS (3F, 1M)
  • TAKING THE PLUNGE (4F, 1M)
  • THE FAMILY PLOT (4F)

LAUNDRY AND LIES

Comedy.
A man desperate for truth becomes entangled with a recreational liar.
Cast: 1W, 1M

Productions: Ensemble Studio Theatre and Rude Mechanicals Theatre Company

Appears in Applause Books’ Best American Short Plays 2007-08

WILD TERRAIN  

A retired professor and his dreamy wife battle over love, art and the relativity of memory.  Cast: 2W, 1M

Production:  Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon of One-Act Plays

PEOPLE OF THE BOOK

An elderly Shakespeare scholar wrestles with the loss of the words which have given his life meaning – and the love of an 82-year-old virgin.  Cast 2W, 1M

Productions:  Theater for the New City; Play Group Theatre

THE INFANT SOCIETY
Comedy.
The whole world wants Lisa, age 33, to have a baby.   Lisa has other ideas.

Cast: 3W, 2M (with doubling)

Excerpt appears in Dramatic Publishing’s Scenes and Monologues for Mature Actors

A WOMAN OF RUMORA
A surrealistic comedy.
Betty Laughingbrooks discovers that a handsome stranger has taken up residence in her bathroom.

Cast: 2W, 1M

Winner:  Brave New Plays Competition

HB PLAYWRIGHTS SHORT PLAYS from SMITH & KRAUS

  • SURVIVING MOM in The Hospital Plays
  • CAPTAIN ABALONE in The Beach Plays
  • LOVE ON THE B LINE in The Subway Plays

DRAMATIC PUBLISHING

  • TAKING OFF in 25 in 10
  • THE TURNOVER in 25 in 10

 

Storm in the Iron Box

STORM IN THE IRON BOX is inspired by the life of psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich, who studied with Freud and emigrated to America in 1940. He’s best known for his invention of the “orgone box” and the school of therapy named after him. Reich’s struggles to bring his work to the world are intensified by his own tempestuous, quixotic nature as well as fierce opposition from the Food and Drug Administration. His main adversary is Pauline MacBrindy, a young prosecutor who believes his novel sexual theories are a threat to traditional American values. The love-hate relationship between Reich and MacBrindy becomes a microcosm of society’s response to Reich: initially fascinated but finally needing to oppress him and his new, unusual, fervently human ideas. Reich ends up in prison, but also succeeds in changing MacBrindy and the world.

Cast:  3W, 6M

“Adam Kraar’s new play… raises bold questions about just how free Americans really are and circumscribes the ongoing struggle between scientific progress and prevailing moral codes. Kraar’s writing is more than solid, and his sneaky way of integrating screwball comedy into an otherwise straight biographical study is genuinely inspired. …STORM provides audiences with more than enough meat to chew on, and its hypnotic appeal demonstrates just how hungry we are such a tasty dish.” — Memphis Flyer

“STORM IN THE IRON BOX taps storytelling mother lode. …Playwright Adam Kraar didn’t miss his chance at the lure of miracles. Folks who are interested in strange science might enjoy Playwrights’ Forum’s new show about real-life psychotherapist turned weirdo Wilhelm Reich. …The play’s crowning moment, when Reich points his orgone cannon at the sky (which really happened) and makes it rain, is both dazzlingly Frankensteinian and quixotically pathetic.” — The Commercial Appeal

  • National Play Award runner-up
  • Workshop production at Playwrights Forum (Memphis)

The Goddess Cure

THE GODDESS CURE is a sex comedy about Barry Feinman, a Southern gentleman living in New York. Barry is convinced he’ll die if he doesn’t meet the ideal woman by his 35th birthday. Barry’s quest entangles him with ancient fertility rites, a matchmaking Jewish (and very Southern) grandmother and a world-famous, neurotic sex therapist.  Cast: 3F, 2M

Productions:

  • Phil Bosakowski Theatre (New York)
  • Maple Leaf Theatre (Ohio)

The Spirit House

An American diplomat’s family living in Thailand in 1965 discovers the magic – and danger – of being innocents abroad.

Cast: 3 F, 3 M

“Written with passion and vigor, this play transforms the simple idea of an American family in Thailand into a thickly layered story of how the spirits of one culture can seep into the skin of unsuspecting visitors.” — The Michigan Daily

“Fairly boils with from-the-gut emotion. A living-room showdown…is as lacerating as any sexual battle I can recall on a stage.” — Ann Arbor News

“Kraar’s intriguing script is especially timely given today’s political climate.” –Between the Lines News

“…without question the [Key West Theatre] Festival’s best offering…” –Backstage

  • Awarded Playwright-in-Residence Fellowship from Manhattan Theatre Club
  • Workshops at Key West Theatre Festival and Geva Theatre
  • Finalist, Humana Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville
  • Premiere at Performance Network of Ann Arbor

New World Rhapsody

Born in the U.S. but raised in Asia, Lenny, 21, arrives in New York City bursting with plans of doing amazing things in the multi-cultural mecca he’s loved from afar. Lenny gets an alarming crash course in reality – but refuses to give up his American dream.

Cast: 4W, 3M (with doubling)

“RHAPSODY takes us on the edgy, psychedelic trip of a young American, Lenny Kenowitz, who, like the playwright himself, returns to this country after a lifetime spent in India. This quasi-autobiographical tactic lets Kraar explore, without wallowing in sentimentality, the possibility that the Statue of Liberty’s famous welcoming words still mean something – that she is still profoundly alive.” — The Herald-Times of Bloomington

  • Commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club
  • Bloomington Playwrights Project New Play Award
  • Workshopped at New York Stage & Film Company

The Abandoned El at Illinois Theatre Center

“An outstanding world premiere of Adam Kraar’s powerful look at love, love lost and looking back in order to move forward. Kraar’s writing reaches all corners of the mind… vivid, human, often humorous. [THE ABANDONED EL] is definitely on track at Illinois Theatre Center.”
 — The Star, Sun Times News Group


In THE ABANDONED EL, two ex-lovers encounter the ghosts of their tangled relationship at the elevated subway station where they first met. Sixteen years after their stormy break-up, Robbie and Shari are mysteriously drawn together. They share dark secrets, struggle to settle accounts, and then discover a hidden connection.

“Kraar’s writing reaches all corners of the mind… vivid, human, often humorous. [THE ABANDONED EL] is definitely on track at Illinois Theatre Center.” — The Star

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The Lost Cities of Asher

THE LOST CITIES OF ASHER is a memory play about how the legacy of exile and loss is passed from generation to generation. Eva, daughter of a Holocaust refugee, strives to overcome her family’s dark past by raising her daughter in a way that will allow her to be spiritually free. Can Eva rescue her daughter from a jungle of family myths and ancient guilt without losing her mind?

Cast: 3W, 1M

  • Finalist, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference
  • Written and developed during Fellowship from New River Dramatists
  • Readings at Primary Stages and New Jersey Repertory
  • Workshop at Epiphany Theatre Company

Teaching

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