HEART ATTACK by R. W. Burda

D'Artagan (Dart) Hardiman, a stand up comedian appeared on a nationally televised comedian contest in Las Vegas. He stepped on stage and collapsed with a slight heart attack. He went back home to his dismal New York apartment, a bitter loser. Ta-Da! Eight women and posters of Marilyn Monroe come to his rescue. They manage to pick up the broken pieces of his heart and put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Dart discovers a new calling and we discover that an unfunny comedian does some very funny things.

November 3 to December 30, 2005

GOING TO ST.IVES by Lee Blessing

The mother of a dictator in an unnamed country in sub-Saharan Africa questions the very nature of her motherhood while on a medical visit to the U.K. The visit triggers a profound moral dilemma and a chain of events with great personal and political aftershocks. What would you do if your son was a monster; a dictator of an "empire" who murdered hundreds of thousands of his countrymen? May N'Kame has glaucoma and has gone to St. Ives to have laser surgery performed by Dr. Cora Gage, a preeminent practitioner in the field. On the day of her surgery Dr. Gage makes a plea to Mme. N'Kame to persuade her son to commute the death sentences of four prominent physicians who refuse to carry out the son's orders. Mme. N'Kame is willing to grant this favor -- if the doctor will grant a genuinely uncommon one in return.

YEMAYA'S BELLY by Quiara Alegrias Hudes

"Yemaya" is the maternal oceanic goddess of Latin American/Afro-Cuban religion, Santeria. Yemaya's Belly is about the coming-of-age journey of a young boy that starts on the rural mountain farm of a Caribbean island and ends on the turbulent ocean sailing towards the new world. Young Jesus, in his travels to the sea, encounters the sting of ice-cold coke for the first time, sleeps on the floor and helps Lila run her grocery store expecting to get rich. He wants his name on a neon sign; he wants to stay in the fanciest hotel and meet America's President. He never stops dreaming of the land where, as his young port-rat friend, Maya, tells him, there are "1000 different kinds of coke." A poetic epic about immigration, dangers and dreams.

JOHN, JOHN, THE MILLER'S SON by John Ficca

John Miller, a "druggee" practically all his life and a habitual criminal with a police record as long as his habit is back in prison again for "arson with intent to do bodily harm" to his girl friend, a crime he barely remembers, high as he was at the time. What are John Miller's chances for rehabilitation? Does he have enough left inside to beat the odds? Unlikely, right? John Ficca's play, without sentimentality, uncovers the monumental struggle John Miller faces. Doubt accompanies every step he takes and every direction he turns. Will he win; will he lose? The outcome leaves us in suspense all the way to the surprising end.