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An elderly, grieving widower, with the help of a friend, searches for an image of his late wife in The Cloud so he can sing his beloved a Heavenly Merry Christmas greeting.

Bernadette Armstrong directs a cast that includes Christine Uhebe as Sandra and Daamen Krall as Harry.

S.J. Roth is the playwright. Based in Santa Monica, he received an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University. His previous plays include Sutton, Ben and Augie, Hell and Back, Losin’ It, Blind Kisses, Venice Love, Bonnie’s Wanted Man, and more.

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Founded by playwright and filmmaker Bernadette Armstrong, Open-Door Playhouse is a Theater Podcast- like the radio dramas of the 1940s and 1950s. The Playhouse launched on September 15, 2020. At the time, Open-Door Playhouse provided Playwrights, Actors and Directors a creative outlet during the shutdown. Since its inception. Open-Door Playhouse has presented Short and One-Act plays from Playwrights across the country and internationally. In 2021 Open-Door Playhouse received a Communicator Award for Content for the Play Custody and in 2023 the play What’s Prison Like was nominated for a Webby Award in the Crime & Justice Category.

Plays are produced by Bernadette Armstrong, Sound Engineer is David Peters, sound effects are provided by Audio Jungle, and music from Karaoke Version. All plays are recorded at The Oak House Studio in Altadena, CA.

There’s no paywall at the Open-Door Playhouse site, so you could listen to everything for free. Open-Door Playhouse is a 501c3 non-profit organization, and if you would like to support performances of works by new and emerging playwrights, your donation will be gratefully accepted. Your tax-deductible donations help keep our plays on the Podcast Stage. We strive to bring our listeners thoughtful and surprising one-act plays and ten-minute shorts that showcase insightful and new perspectives of the world we share with others. To listen or to donate (or both), go to https://opend...

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Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it. After Jack rescues an Old Man in distress, Jack finds he now has the ability to instantly manifest anything he wishes. Sounds great? Well, it’s not so simple.

Gary B. Lamb directs a cast that includes Michael Fletcher as Jack, Caitlin Bell as Laura, Annette Homewood as Sally, and Dennis Gersten as the Old Man.

Gary B. Lamb is the playwright. He trained at L.A. City College Theatre Academy, University of California at Irvine, and Carnegie Mellon University. He wrote the book and lyrics for a musical version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the book for the musical Fion the Fair, the lyrics for Chicago Christmas Carol, and an adaptation of I’m Just Wild About Harry. He has acted in and directed many plays for Open-Door Playhouse.

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Founded by playwright and filmmaker Bernadette Armstrong, Open-Door Playhouse is a Theater Podcast- like the radio dramas of the 1940s and 1950s. The Playhouse launched on September 15, 2020. At the time, Open-Door Playhouse provided Playwrights, Actors and Directors a creative outlet during the shutdown. Since its inception. Open-Door Playhouse has presented Short and One-Act plays from Playwrights across the country and internationally. In 2021 Open-Door Playhouse received a Communicator Award for Content for the Play Custody and in 2023 the play What’s Prison Like was nominated for a Webby Award in the Crime & Justice Category.

Plays are produced by Bernadette Armstrong, Sound Engineer is David Peters, sound effects are provided by Audio Jungle, and music from Karaoke Version. All plays are recorded at The Oak House Studio in Altadena, CA.

There’s no paywall at the Open-Door Playhouse site, so you could listen to everything for free. Open-Door Playhouse is a 501c3 non-profit organization, and if you would like to support performances of works by new and emerging playwrights, your donation will be gratefully accepted. Your tax-deductible donations help keep our plays on the Podcast Stage. We strive to bring our listeners thoughtful and surprising one-act plays and ten-minute shorts that showcase insightful and new perspectives of the world we share with others. To listen or to donate (or both), go to https://opend...

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Theater #183: Poetry on the Menu Poetry on the Menu

​​​ In January 1967, writer/participatory journalist George Plimpton dreamed up a publicity stunt for heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali. He arranged for him to meet Marianne Moore, decorated American poetess – a showman who creates doggerel rhymes, together with one of the finest true poets in the history of the English language. The pair couldn’t be more opposite – He a gigantic, athletic man of color, at his physicalpeak, age 25, not formally educated, a Muslim, loud, charismatic, a showman with the burgeoning edge for social causes and advocacy; She, elderly, age 80, pasty white, doggedly Presbyterian, incredibly well educated, shy, frail and a kind of dowager spinster. Ali’s poems, so called, which predicted his fights, were little more than expanded limericks. Moore’s balletic verses and images won her the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal in Literature and almost the Nobel Prize. Theirhost that day, Toots Shor, was a rough New York man of Jewish descent, who rubbed elbows, hosted, drank with, and incurred the wrath of entertainment giants of the first two-thirds of the 20th Century: Frank Sinatra, Charlie Chaplin, Ernest Hemingway, Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn Monroe, etc. The meeting only lasted a few minutes and produced a short poem, “On the annihilation of Ernie Terrell,” Ali’s next title foe. The playwright has expanded the meeting in a deeper way, as a one-act play, using snippets of

Moore’s poetry to frame the time, Ali’s immediate and lasting appeal through his pithy quotes uttered over two decades, and foreshadowing his thoughtful future self.

Bernadette Armstrong directs a cast that includes Omari Williams as Muhammad Ali, Anne Cooper as Marianne Moore, Gary Lamb as Toots Shor, and Justice Davis as Kandu.

James Anthony Merolla is the playwright. A journalist with a career spanning four decades, he is also a director. His most recent play is Jane Austen Ruptured My Spleen!

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Founded by playwright and filmmaker Bernadette Armstrong, Open-Door Playhouse is a Theater Podcast- like the radio dramas of the 1940s and 1950s. The Playhouse launched on September 15, 2020. At the time, Open-Door Playhouse provided Playwrights, Actors and Directors a creative outlet during the shutdown. Since its inception. Open-Door Playhouse has presented Short and One-Act plays from Playwrights across the country and internationally. In 2021 Open-Door Playhouse received a Communicator Award for Content for the Play Custody and in 2023 the play What’s Prison Like was nominated for a Webby Award in the Crime & Justice Category.

Plays are produced by Bernadette Armstrong, Sound Engineer is David Peters, sound effects are provided by Audio Jungle, and music from Karaoke Version. All plays are recorded at The Oak House Studio in Altadena, CA.

There’s no paywall at the Open-Door Playhouse site, so you could listen to everything for free. Open-Door Playhouse is a 501c3 non-profit organization, and if you would like to support performances of works by new and emerging playwrights, your donation will be gratefully accepted. Your tax-deductible donations help keep our plays on the Podcast Stage. We strive to bring our listeners thoughtful and surprising one-act plays and ten-minute shorts that showcase insightful and new perspectives of the world we share with others. To listen or to donate (or both), go to https://opend...

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A mysterious witch arrives at a suburban Halloween party with cupcakes and a purpose: collecting human fears. As guests fall under her spell, two friends must uncover her secret and stop her.

Bernadette Armstrong directs a cast that includes Camille Ameen as Cyber Witch, Jon Paul Burkhart as Jax, and Goreti da Silva as Lana.

Jessica Gale is the playwright.

Jessica Gale (pen name) is a web content creator and writer based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She graduated from Fordham University in New York City.

Jessica has written over a dozen ten-minute plays, several of which have been produced at festivals across the country, as well as a screenplay. Her work blends humor, suspense, and sharp insights into how people adapt to emerging technologies.

Support the show

Founded by playwright and filmmaker Bernadette Armstrong, Open-Door Playhouse is a Theater Podcast- like the radio dramas of the 1940s and 1950s. The Playhouse launched on September 15, 2020. At the time, Open-Door Playhouse provided Playwrights, Actors and Directors a creative outlet during the shutdown. Since its inception. Open-Door Playhouse has presented Short and One-Act plays from Playwrights across the country and internationally. In 2021 Open-Door Playhouse received a Communicator Award for Content for the Play Custody and in 2023 the play What’s Prison Like was nominated for a Webby Award in the Crime & Justice Category.

Plays are produced by Bernadette Armstrong, Sound Engineer is David Peters, sound effects are provided by Audio Jungle, and music from Karaoke Version. All plays are recorded at The Oak House Studio in Altadena, CA.

There’s no paywall at the Open-Door Playhouse site, so you could listen to everything for free. Open-Door Playhouse is a 501c3 non-profit organization, and if you would like to support performances of works by new and emerging playwrights, your donation will be gratefully accepted. Your tax-deductible donations help keep our plays on the Podcast Stage. We strive to bring our listeners thoughtful and surprising one-act plays and ten-minute shorts that showcase insightful and new perspectives of the world we share with others. To listen or to donate (or both), go to https://opend...

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The play centers on a Times Square tarot and palm reading storefront run by a married pair of grifters. Everything changes when a wealthy and mysterious new client appears.

Bernadette Armstrong directs a cast that includes Camille Ameen as Mary, Matt Foyer as Dave and as a flyer distributor, Noelle Evangelista as The Mark, and Allen Wasserman as Happ.

Cameron Scott is a Connecticut-based playwright who was educated at NYU. A previous play, That Day Is Coming, Every Day Is Coming, was produced by Open-Door Playhouse. His play Uphill was a winning play at ESTAFest (Eastern States Theatre Association). He has also served in administrative capacities on numerous Broadway shows.

Support the show

Founded by playwright and filmmaker Bernadette Armstrong, Open-Door Playhouse is a Theater Podcast- like the radio dramas of the 1940s and 1950s. The Playhouse launched on September 15, 2020. At the time, Open-Door Playhouse provided Playwrights, Actors and Directors a creative outlet during the shutdown. Since its inception. Open-Door Playhouse has presented Short and One-Act plays from Playwrights across the country and internationally. In 2021 Open-Door Playhouse received a Communicator Award for Content for the Play Custody and in 2023 the play What’s Prison Like was nominated for a Webby Award in the Crime & Justice Category.

Plays are produced by Bernadette Armstrong, Sound Engineer is David Peters, sound effects are provided by Audio Jungle, and music from Karaoke Version. All plays are recorded at The Oak House Studio in Altadena, CA.

There’s no paywall at the Open-Door Playhouse site, so you could listen to everything for free. Open-Door Playhouse is a 501c3 non-profit organization, and if you would like to support performances of works by new and emerging playwrights, your donation will be gratefully accepted. Your tax-deductible donations help keep our plays on the Podcast Stage. We strive to bring our listeners thoughtful and surprising one-act plays and ten-minute shorts that showcase insightful and new perspectives of the world we share with others. To listen or to donate (or both), go to https://opend...

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Pat and Robin meet at a dance and then head to Pat’s basement apartment. They start watching a televised broadcast of the classic film Dracula. One of them is terrified by the film. The other counsels, “There’s no such thing as vampires.” That’s right…..Isn’t it?

Kim Hlavac directs Ann Noble and Rob Nagle.

John Cimics, a writer based in Midland, Texas, is the playwright.

Support the show

Founded by playwright and filmmaker Bernadette Armstrong, Open-Door Playhouse is a Theater Podcast- like the radio dramas of the 1940s and 1950s. The Playhouse launched on September 15, 2020. At the time, Open-Door Playhouse provided Playwrights, Actors and Directors a creative outlet during the shutdown. Since its inception. Open-Door Playhouse has presented Short and One-Act plays from Playwrights across the country and internationally. In 2021 Open-Door Playhouse received a Communicator Award for Content for the Play Custody and in 2023 the play What’s Prison Like was nominated for a Webby Award in the Crime & Justice Category.

Plays are produced by Bernadette Armstrong, Sound Engineer is David Peters, sound effects are provided by Audio Jungle, and music from Karaoke Version. All plays are recorded at The Oak House Studio in Altadena, CA.

There’s no paywall at the Open-Door Playhouse site, so you could listen to everything for free. Open-Door Playhouse is a 501c3 non-profit organization, and if you would like to support performances of works by new and emerging playwrights, your donation will be gratefully accepted. Your tax-deductible donations help keep our plays on the Podcast Stage. We strive to bring our listeners thoughtful and surprising one-act plays and ten-minute shorts that showcase insightful and new perspectives of the world we share with others. To listen or to donate (or both), go to https://opend...

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For reasons he can't explain, Stephen feels compelled to enter a sketchy-looking tattoo parlor that any reasonable person would avoid altogether. Once inside, he encounters a peculiar old woman, who Stephen enlists to become the artist of his baptismal ink job. At the first prick of the needle, Stephen decides to make a move for the door, but the old woman bars his way with a terrifying
plan in store.

Miranda Stewart directs a cast that includes Kevin Carr as Stephen/Storyteller, Anne Cooper as the Parlor Owner, Paul Sohm as the Doctor, and Ashley Law as Mrs. Dudley.

Greg Burdick is the playwright. A graduate of Slippery Rock University, his previous plays include Accommodation, Insert Token, Secret’s Out, Sign Here for All That Remains, Monessen Falls, and I’ll Love You ‘Til the Cows Come Home. Also a director, he’s helmed nearly one hundred productions.

Support the show

Founded by playwright and filmmaker Bernadette Armstrong, Open-Door Playhouse is a Theater Podcast- like the radio dramas of the 1940s and 1950s. The Playhouse launched on September 15, 2020. At the time, Open-Door Playhouse provided Playwrights, Actors and Directors a creative outlet during the shutdown. Since its inception. Open-Door Playhouse has presented Short and One-Act plays from Playwrights across the country and internationally. In 2021 Open-Door Playhouse received a Communicator Award for Content for the Play Custody and in 2023 the play What’s Prison Like was nominated for a Webby Award in the Crime & Justice Category.

Plays are produced by Bernadette Armstrong, Sound Engineer is David Peters, sound effects are provided by Audio Jungle, and music from Karaoke Version. All plays are recorded at The Oak House Studio in Altadena, CA.

There’s no paywall at the Open-Door Playhouse site, so you could listen to everything for free. Open-Door Playhouse is a 501c3 non-profit organization, and if you would like to support performances of works by new and emerging playwrights, your donation will be gratefully accepted. Your tax-deductible donations help keep our plays on the Podcast Stage. We strive to bring our listeners thoughtful and surprising one-act plays and ten-minute shorts that showcase insightful and new perspectives of the world we share with others. To listen or to donate (or both), go to https://opend...

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​​​Do citizens have the right to judge elected leaders on personal morals? An idealistic voter lost faith in a political candidate and is demanding that he return the contribution she made to his campaign. A man with ties to the candidate appears at her door, offering her money if she will "back off." Can her values stand up to the test?

Bernadette Armstrong directs a cast that includes Rosemary Thomas as Agnes and Gilbert Glenn Brown as Evan.

Rosemary FrisinoToohey is the playwright. A married mother of four, she resides in Baltimore. Her plays have received over 440 productions, domestically and internationally. Her full-length plays include Gladys in Wonderland, Crazy Quilt Blues, A Very Fowl Thanksgiving, Smoke in the Canyon, The Garbageman, Cornered, and more.

Support the show

Founded by playwright and filmmaker Bernadette Armstrong, Open-Door Playhouse is a Theater Podcast- like the radio dramas of the 1940s and 1950s. The Playhouse launched on September 15, 2020. At the time, Open-Door Playhouse provided Playwrights, Actors and Directors a creative outlet during the shutdown. Since its inception. Open-Door Playhouse has presented Short and One-Act plays from Playwrights across the country and internationally. In 2021 Open-Door Playhouse received a Communicator Award for Content for the Play Custody and in 2023 the play What’s Prison Like was nominated for a Webby Award in the Crime & Justice Category.

Plays are produced by Bernadette Armstrong, Sound Engineer is David Peters, sound effects are provided by Audio Jungle, and music from Karaoke Version. All plays are recorded at The Oak House Studio in Altadena, CA.

There’s no paywall at the Open-Door Playhouse site, so you could listen to everything for free. Open-Door Playhouse is a 501c3 non-profit organization, and if you would like to support performances of works by new and emerging playwrights, your donation will be gratefully accepted. Your tax-deductible donations help keep our plays on the Podcast Stage. We strive to bring our listeners thoughtful and surprising one-act plays and ten-minute shorts that showcase insightful and new perspectives of the world we share with others. To listen or to donate (or both), go to https://opend...