David Sard
OVERVIEW: I started writing plays after many years as a psychologist in NYC and NJ. I have been very fortunate to be able to work and study with Lorca Peress (Strasberg Institute, NYU, and MultiStages); Don Lavenhall, Brooke Berman, Francine Volpe, Stefanie Zadravec, Kara Corthron, Michelle Bossy, Rogelio Martinez, and Dan O’Brien (Primary Stages, aka ESPA); MarkAnthony Spina (The Theater Project); and John Pietrowski (Playwright’s Theater of NJ).
PRODUCTION HISTORY:
“The Private Life of Jesus Christ” (comedy – 40 min. One-Act): produced in Vancouver, B.C., Dec. 9–13, 2010, by Theatre in the Raw, at the Little Mountain Gallery. Won Honorable Mention in the FirstStageLA One-Act Play Contest for 2006; and second prize in the Theatre In The Raw One-Act Playwriting Contest for 2007. A whimsical look at the yearning for connection between God and humankind, in one act. Jesus is imagined as a rebellious adolescent, trying to persuade his over-protective parents (Mr. and Mrs. God) to let him try his hand at saving a tiny, faraway planet. (They think he’s too young.)
“The Ballad of Eddie and Jo”, (drama) won the First International One-Act Play Contest sponsored by The Lee Strasberg Theater Institute in 2004. A full-length AEA showcase was produced in NYC, Sept., 2006, at the Hudson Guild Theater (dramaturgy, production guidance, staging, direction, and production guidance by Lorca Peress). Set in our time, it is a reimagining of the Oedipus - Jocasta story, in which we hear the mother’s side of the story. “Eddie”, now an old, blind derelict, narrates his life as it is enacted. “Eddie” was a foster child in search of his real parents. “Jo” was forced to give up her baby as a teenage mother twenty years earlier. Jo’s interaction with her lost son becomes the matrix of this take on the old story.
“Shadows” (drama): Semi-finalist, O’Neill Conference, 2006. Selected for staged readings at The Theater Project (Union County Coll., Cranford, N.J., 1/19/08) and in NYC at MultiStages Script Development Series (2/21/09, 2/6/10). A doomed romance takes place between a White man and a Black woman in old Virginia on the eve of the Civil War: The play is rooted in the entangled relationships of the slave masters and their “shadow families” – their unacknowledged slave relatives. The mothers of the two lovers learn to acknowledge their sisterhood, at a terrible price.
“Projections” (comedy): staged readings at The Theater Project, Cranford, NJ, Jan. 16, 2010, and April 16, 2011. A ghost comes for psychological help, and the inner life of the therapist explodes into a madcap journey of hallucinatory self-exploration. When all the ghosts are finished with him, he is a humbler, wiser man.
“Katrina Dreams” (tragicomedy; full-length): staged reading at the Theatre Project, Union County College, Cranford, N.J., Nov. 8, 2008. A tragicomic fantasy about what might have been if Geo. W. Bush had had to live as a homeless person in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
TEN-MINUTE PLAYS:
“Projections” (a 10 minute comedy): Performed at the Kaleidoscope Kabaret, The Theater Project, Cranford, N.J., Nov. 19, 20, 21, 2009. A ghost comes for psychotherapy (the starting point for the full-length play described above). Fund-raiser.
“How To Get Published” (comedy): staged reading at The Theater Project, Cranford, N.J., Oct.16, 2010. A send-up of publishing, mafia movies, and the poetry business. Hon. Mention, 2013 TheatreintheRaw One-Act play contest. IN DEVELOPMENT: “Little Angels” (1996) – A one-act play for a middle-school audience and actors. A group of children discover and try to care for a homeless boy.
“The Bimbos Revolt”: a comedy about strippers who try to take over their strip club.
“SwanSong”: short story/screenplay. Two aging gunslingers swear an oath to shoot each other if they become demented. When the time comes, it’s harder than they thought.
“The Ward”, a pilot for a projected TV series about an in-patient psychiatry ward.
‘The Secret”, a love - letter to New Orleans: When Minnie Ferguson realizes she’s getting too old to keep her magical little restaurant going, she needs to find a protegee with the right spirit. Every shady character and crook in New Orleans tries to get their hands on the restaurant, but she outwits them all, and finds the right person in the most unlikely place.
AWARDS:
“The Ballad of Eddie and Jo”, Winner, Lee Strasberg Theater Inst., NYC, First International One-Act Playwriting Competition, 2004.
“Shadows”. Semi-Finalist, The O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, 2006
“The Private Life of Jesus Christ”, Hon. Mention, FirstStage LA, One-Act Play Contest, 2006
“The Private Life of Jesus Christ”. Second Prize, TheaterintheRaw, One-Act Playwriting Competition, 2007 (Vancouver, British Columbia – produced there in Dec. 2010).
“How to Get Published,” Hon. Mention, TheatreintheRaw, Vancouver, B.C., One-Act Play Contest, 2013
PRODUCTION HISTORY:
“The Private Life of Jesus Christ” (comedy – 40 min. One-Act): produced in Vancouver, B.C., Dec. 9–13, 2010, by Theatre in the Raw, at the Little Mountain Gallery. Won Honorable Mention in the FirstStageLA One-Act Play Contest for 2006; and second prize in the Theatre In The Raw One-Act Playwriting Contest for 2007. A whimsical look at the yearning for connection between God and humankind, in one act. Jesus is imagined as a rebellious adolescent, trying to persuade his over-protective parents (Mr. and Mrs. God) to let him try his hand at saving a tiny, faraway planet. (They think he’s too young.)
“The Ballad of Eddie and Jo”, (drama) won the First International One-Act Play Contest sponsored by The Lee Strasberg Theater Institute in 2004. A full-length AEA showcase was produced in NYC, Sept., 2006, at the Hudson Guild Theater (dramaturgy, production guidance, staging, direction, and production guidance by Lorca Peress). Set in our time, it is a reimagining of the Oedipus - Jocasta story, in which we hear the mother’s side of the story. “Eddie”, now an old, blind derelict, narrates his life as it is enacted. “Eddie” was a foster child in search of his real parents. “Jo” was forced to give up her baby as a teenage mother twenty years earlier. Jo’s interaction with her lost son becomes the matrix of this take on the old story.
“Shadows” (drama): Semi-finalist, O’Neill Conference, 2006. Selected for staged readings at The Theater Project (Union County Coll., Cranford, N.J., 1/19/08) and in NYC at MultiStages Script Development Series (2/21/09, 2/6/10). A doomed romance takes place between a White man and a Black woman in old Virginia on the eve of the Civil War: The play is rooted in the entangled relationships of the slave masters and their “shadow families” – their unacknowledged slave relatives. The mothers of the two lovers learn to acknowledge their sisterhood, at a terrible price.
“Projections” (comedy): staged readings at The Theater Project, Cranford, NJ, Jan. 16, 2010, and April 16, 2011. A ghost comes for psychological help, and the inner life of the therapist explodes into a madcap journey of hallucinatory self-exploration. When all the ghosts are finished with him, he is a humbler, wiser man.
“Katrina Dreams” (tragicomedy; full-length): staged reading at the Theatre Project, Union County College, Cranford, N.J., Nov. 8, 2008. A tragicomic fantasy about what might have been if Geo. W. Bush had had to live as a homeless person in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
TEN-MINUTE PLAYS:
“Projections” (a 10 minute comedy): Performed at the Kaleidoscope Kabaret, The Theater Project, Cranford, N.J., Nov. 19, 20, 21, 2009. A ghost comes for psychotherapy (the starting point for the full-length play described above). Fund-raiser.
“How To Get Published” (comedy): staged reading at The Theater Project, Cranford, N.J., Oct.16, 2010. A send-up of publishing, mafia movies, and the poetry business. Hon. Mention, 2013 TheatreintheRaw One-Act play contest. IN DEVELOPMENT: “Little Angels” (1996) – A one-act play for a middle-school audience and actors. A group of children discover and try to care for a homeless boy.
“The Bimbos Revolt”: a comedy about strippers who try to take over their strip club.
“SwanSong”: short story/screenplay. Two aging gunslingers swear an oath to shoot each other if they become demented. When the time comes, it’s harder than they thought.
“The Ward”, a pilot for a projected TV series about an in-patient psychiatry ward.
‘The Secret”, a love - letter to New Orleans: When Minnie Ferguson realizes she’s getting too old to keep her magical little restaurant going, she needs to find a protegee with the right spirit. Every shady character and crook in New Orleans tries to get their hands on the restaurant, but she outwits them all, and finds the right person in the most unlikely place.
AWARDS:
“The Ballad of Eddie and Jo”, Winner, Lee Strasberg Theater Inst., NYC, First International One-Act Playwriting Competition, 2004.
“Shadows”. Semi-Finalist, The O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, 2006
“The Private Life of Jesus Christ”, Hon. Mention, FirstStage LA, One-Act Play Contest, 2006
“The Private Life of Jesus Christ”. Second Prize, TheaterintheRaw, One-Act Playwriting Competition, 2007 (Vancouver, British Columbia – produced there in Dec. 2010).
“How to Get Published,” Hon. Mention, TheatreintheRaw, Vancouver, B.C., One-Act Play Contest, 2013
