LITTLE SOLDIERS

(In development with BMI Librettists Workshop)

Book by Jennie Redling
Music by TBA

Lyrics by  TBA

  
LITTLE SOLDIERS is a gritty urban musical about Rose Coleman, a tenacious New York City police detective who joined the same force as her father, but unlike him, restrained her emotions the job can provoke while he often raged and drank. When this conduct causes fights with his wife that bring on a fatal heart attack, he takes off out of guilt, leaving Rose the sole caretaker of her fourteen-year-old sister, Zoe. Rose channels her fury at her father into progressing on the job, winning promotion a a Vice detective. Her investigation is a possible multi-state sex trafficking operation. Rose's shock at how young the victims are and her fervent need to compensate for her father's shame brings an obsession with catching the exploiters. She is so focused that she criticizes and limits Zoe's desire to socialize, blind to how ripe Zoe becomes for the false romantic flattering of a pimp who coerces her into the trafficking ring. Denying rage at herself and blaming her father's abandonment, Rose launches a personal and deadly war against the traffickers.​

​​​​​​MY HEART IS THE DRUM

Book by Jennie Redling
Music by Phillip Palmer and Lyrics by Stacey Luftig

10-15 Minute Plays

ZONE ONE

with Mark V. Olsen

Rachel (“Rick”) and Jake grew up in a Midwestern home where the sexual abuse by their father was never discovered. As adults, though fiercely devoted, they never mention this past to each other and each finds their own way to bury memories.  Jake is married and a successful partner in a law firm, firmly rooted in his community. Rick is his opposite, working as an Associated Press stringer, a life of airports and faraway lands.   When she found herself pregnant, things changed and she managed to combine single motherhood with constant travel, prevailing upon Jake and his wife for childcare. It all worked until Rick fell in love. Not with a person, but with the country where she had been reporting. Guatemala.  One day, after being there a year, she uncovers a mystery. Unaware of what motivates her, Rick has embraced a collection of less than innocent waifs or street boys who live in a deplorable section of the capital city: Zone One.  Frank, another expat and the first man Rick has allowed to get close to her, joins her in investigating why the boys are becoming sick and dying. When she discovers that they are being poisoned, Rick begins to track down what she is convinced is a conspiracy involving the national police, oblivious of the danger to herself of threatening foreign officials. When Rick’s teenage daughter, Dee escapes from Jake’s home and surprises Rick, things become more precarious.  Rick is forced to confront her emotional distancing of Dee, and far worse, as her investigation of the Zone One boys uncovers the sale of tainted narcotics, Dee is kidnapped, bringing Jake to Guatemala. As Rick’s frantic search for Dee escalates, it becomes clear that corrupt officials, some of whom report to agents in the American Embassy, are involved.  Driven to see justice prevail for the innocent, dark childhood memories of her own victimhood surface which threaten not only Rick’s own life, but her brother’s and daughter’s as well.

BROKEN MOON

Lila, a diffident, middle aged woman, finds herself in a waiting room. Pauline, young, with a defensive arrogance, enters.  As the two women reluctantly connect, the purpose of their visit is revealed: to end their pregnancies. Pauline is at first impatient with Lila’s bewildered and emotional state and rapidly becomes outright annoyed.   She is therefore startled when Lila erupts in a sudden rage at one of Pauline’s flippant comments.  Soon Lila is disclosing that the child she carries is not her husbands but belongs to a stranger.  Her confession and the plea for forgiveness which follows breaks through Pauline’s armor and the truth for both of them is revealed.
Cast: 2 women
Running time: Approximately 10 minutes

​​Raven O’Mally was a fanciful child with a deep understanding of nature, the earth and what has come before. In contrast, Raven’s mother, Grace, is steeped in Roman Catholic ritual. Then, five years ago, at age fifteen, Raven was abducted. Grace's sanity depends on clutching to the conviction that her daughter is alive and more improbable, that tomorrow, Raven’s twentieth birthday, the Virgin Mary will answer her prayers and Raven will return. But to Grace’s surprise, Abbie Harjo, a twenty-year-old Lakota girl, disconnected from the community and culture in which she was raised, wanders into town, boasting of a talent for finding what has been lost. Grace instantly hires Abbie who has survived by conning tourists out of money with fake “Indian ceremonies,” rationalizing it as payback for the trauma inflicted by colonization upon her predecessors, the pain still thriving in her family. But soon the affection of Raven's disabled brother, Winston, weakens her need for revenge. Grace only sees that time is running out and no Raven so she invents a reason for their Sheriff to arrest the girl. But Abbie runs off, causing Winston, who has been held captive at home since Raven’s disappearance, to join her. Torn between welcoming her daughter or joining a search party for the boy, Grace chooses home. When Raven fails to appear, Grace releases pent-up fury, so fierce as to summon a storm with unearthly forces that produce Abbie. But this Abbie is altered, aware of her purpose, with courage to face a fearsome but transcendent destiny, one which Grace, for all her dreams and prayers, could never have imagined. ​

Musicals

Publications

​​AGAINST THE TIDE

It is 2016 and, at the orders of the Trump Administration, science is being censored, encompassing all areas from medical research to the environment.  Cat Cleary is a fighter. As the sole woman in her U.K.  school to achieve A-levels allowing advanced education, she worked for a year to afford university, then to find a way to study in America. Drawn to geology and science, Cat toured natural parks, enthralled with the flourishing of beautiful natural wonders, a vivid contrast to the graffiti-walled area of London where she was raised. Cat makes up her mind that she belongs here. But to succeed in her scientific field, the tenacious, gutsy fighter Cat was on the rough streets where she grew up would not do. With effort, she overcomes her Cockney accent and transforms her persona into the gracious Dr. Katherine Cleary, thrilled to be hired as a researcher at the National Park Service. Though anxiety reigns in her office after the election, Katherine is unprepared when orders come from Trump's EPA threatening to block her career-changing, grant-awarded report on rising sea levels unless she removes all references to human influence on climate. Refusing the censor, she suffers the administration's unlawful retribution. Now, in order to hold onto the life she fought for, Katherine needs to recover the once undaunted self she willingly sacrificed while her fears are telling her that this is one fight she may not win.  

​

Based on the real-life experience of Climate Change scientist Dr. Maria Caffrey, who was forced out of her job at the NATIONAL PARK SERVICE in February, 2019 and compelled to file a whistleblower complaint against the Trump administration and testify before an oversight hearing by the Natural Resources Committee entitled "When Science Gets Trumped."  

NINEVEH

On the evening of July 4th, a middle-aged beauty salon operator, Clemmentine Jenkins, stops at a seedy bar she has never before stepped foot in on her way out of Bartow Florida, her hometown. Clemmie has summoned all her savings and courage to leave home for a more elegant lifestyle in Palm Beach but can’t help herself from making the last stop at Madge’s Bar, a place she has seen frequented by a migrant worker who calls himself Tom. Clemmie observed Tom that afternoon in town taken into custody by police when he harassed a young woman marching in the Independence Day parade. Nevertheless, Tom does show up at Madge’s and Clemmie finds herself half attracted and half repelled as he questions her reasons for leaving and suggests that perhaps her fate lies elsewhere. As her responses to Tom’s advances change with each revelation he unfolds, Clemmie faces her own guilt over surviving the fire that killed her parents and struggles over what to do with the freedom to escape she now holds in her hands.
Cast: 1 man, 1 woman
Running time: Approximately 1 hour, no intermission

Screenplays

A RAPE IN GLORIOUS

(Winner – 2000 Arlene R. and William P. Lewis Playwriting Award for Women)
In the 1930s, the Depression has curtailed finances at Thomas Mallory College in Glorious, Pennsylvania.  Joan, a young art student, is working on a sculpture of Joan of Arc when she learns that she has lost her tuition funding and will have to return to her Orthodox Jewish home where her father severely limits her artistic freedom.  Desperate to remain, she applies for a scholarship overseen by her English professor.  Attracted to her, he grants it.  When it is discovered that the professor has raped her, the College Board of Directors holds an inquiry. Joan faces the prospect of incriminating her professor, the only faculty member who, like her, is Jewish.  With her confidence and integrity shattered by the assault, she soon finds herself mistaking Joan of Arc’s trial with the ordeal in which she is embroiled. Confused about her own morality and motives, Joan is torn between betraying a fellow Jew or her own personal honor.
Cast: 5 men, 3 women (with role doubling) or 5 men, 5 women
Running time: Approximately 2 hours with intermission​

lAVINIA SPEAKS

Lavinia Lewis, an African American actress, supports her dream with two jobs, each of which strains the amiable facade she has struggled to maintain. She is alternately at the mercy of an attorney who hasn’t a clue that she, his part-time secretary, is human, and a brood of precocious children learning from Lavinia how to "act" for TV commercials. In the midst of this her father is hospitalized and doesn’t seem to want to live. As his anger is directed at Lavinia, she discovers her own wrath which appears to have a life of its own, placing her jobs, relationships, and dreams at stake.
Cast: 1 woman
Running time: Approximately 1 hour, no intermission

One Act Plays

rIDE THE DARK CARS

Nicky, convinced that her violent husband Joe might kill her, appeals to Suzanne, a New York police officer, who is interested in Nicky romantically.   The two women hatch a plan to threaten Joe by provoking him into attacking Suzanne’s partner and being shot and injured as a result.  The ruse of a social evening they arrange is all going according to plan when a few drinks unleash Joe’s racist and anti-Semitic views.  Silently steaming, Suzanne, who is Jewish, makes it clear that the plan has changed.  Not long after Suzanne’s partner arrives to taunt Joe, Nicky realizes that they are going to kill her husband.  She tries to communicate secretly that she wants to cancel their scheme, but it is too late. Joe’s behavior has fanned Suzanne’s violent mission into a deadly personal flame.
Cast: 2 men, 2 women
Running time: Approximately 1 hour, 45 minutes with intermission

A STREAM IN THE WASTELAND

In Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, in the 1930’s, Katherine, a young Roman Catholic novice, discovers her younger sister, Annie, is pregnant.  The discovery forces her to confront an unspoken shame the two share. It is an acknowledgment that will force a choice between the depth of Katherine’s love for Annie, or the need to transform herself into a pristine example of womanhood.
Cast: 2 women, 1 adult, 1 teen
Running time: Approximately 10 minutes

MISCAST (Premiere, Soho Rep, NYC)

Meg Riley won the part of Masha in an Off-Broadway production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters,” but believes in her heart she should have been cast as Irina. Meg ardently identifies with Irina who insists that work is the only thing that matters. Meg’s own work, however, is hardly to Irina’s taste. To tide her over between acting jobs, Meg receives calls from phone sex customers whom she does her best to satisfy. At present they are annoying interruptions to her preparation of an argument that will prove to the play’s director that he made a grave casting error. Everything changes when a caller whose voice sounds familiar to Meg describes her Brooklyn apartment from his window where he apparently has a perfect view. Meg thinks she recognizes the young man’s voice – connecting it with something unspeakable that happened the year before which brought on a mental breakdown, causing her to drop out of college. The proximity of the caller can mean only one thing – whatever the ordeal – it isn’t over.
Cast: 3 women, 3 men play 14 roles
Running time: Approximately 1 hour, no intermission​

​​With Dr. Maria Caffery, in Development.

​GONE ASTRAY, the MUSICAL , In Development

Book:  Jennie Staniloff-Redling​


Music:  Stephen A. Weiner

dESPERATE TERRITORY

Georgia’s inability to stop drinking is destroying her marriage. She feels culpable for driving her brother Benjamin away when he forced her to choose between her husband, Michael, and himself.  Georgia has all but blocked the night Benjamin left from memory when a package containing his property, sent from a hospice across the country, arrives at her doorstep. Georgia is terrified to call the hospice and discover that Benjamin may be dead. Instead, desperate for a clue that will exonerate her, she searches through Ben’s belongings. One by one, she draws forth memories: her need and worship of Benjamin when she was young, her failed attempts to separate, her role as her brother’s protector against a father’s brutal indictment of his gay son.  When the present, and Michael, intrude, Georgia does all she can to force her husband to make the decision to leave her. By the time the memory of the night she chose Michael and rejected Benjamin plays out before her, it may be too late to save her marriage. To do that, Georgia must fight her own fear of loving and face the one member of her family she never sought to rescue: herself.
Cast: 2 men, 2 women
Running time: Approximately, 2 hours with intermission​

​​Full Length Plays

LISTEN:

TEACH ONE WOMAN 

Phillip Palmer, Music

Stacey Luftig, Lyrics

hOUSE OF ANGELS

In the winter of 1914, the home of widow Amelia Vane is a stir with plans for the approaching wedding of her youngest daughter, Helen.   Helen’s older sister Autumn, like their late father, appears to suffer from what has yet to be classified as an illness – manic depression.   Mr. Vane’s death by his own hand has left the women in a precarious social position at a time and place where social standing is imperative.  Helen’s engagement to a wealthy businessman, James Paxton, son of their late father’s employer, will secure all their futures.  When James introduces an artist, roguish Henry Lafont, into their midst to paint Helen’s wedding portrait, the charming facade of propriety Amelia has created begins to crumble.  The senses of all three women are kindled by Henry’s presence, especially Autumn’s which brings out erratic behavior. When Autumn discovers her father’s correspondence with European doctors about his illness, raising questions about herself, the threat she poses to Amelia and Helen can no longer be concealed.  Her relentless search for the truth not only endangers her family’s future, but may ultimately cost Autumn her sanity.
Cast: 2 men, 4 women
Running time: Approximately 1 hour, 50 minutes with intermission​

UNDERTOW With Barbara Bellman and Dr. Maria Caffrey

​In development. The true story of a scientist under attack by the Trump administration.  When Trump officials appointed in 2016 began censoring warnings about climate change, enacting changes of facts which regulators need when choosing between industry and the public good, it resulted in resignation of a state department aide. This came after the White House denied his submitting testimony to lawmakers about "possible catastrophic" climate crisis harm. Dr. Maria Caffrey at the National Park Service (NPS) was one of many scientists also attacked. She completed an exhaustively researched, years-long report financed by a grant she'd been awarded to project how the coastal parks of NPS were in danger from storm surge. Dr. Caffrey, born and raised in a rough side of London had formed a brazen demeanor which she'd worked to censor so as to earn respect as a compliant professional scientist. She becomes determined to live in America, having fallen in love with its natural beauty when touring parks, a vivid contrast to her urban home. Now Federal officials took aim, threatening her that if she did not remove all references to humans causing climate change, they would prevent publication of her report, valuable to a scientist's career, not to mention the country's future. The true story of Dr. Caffrey's battle not only for the courage to risk all to protect nature, but to free her former bold and intrepid voice. 

​Based on award-winning play GONE ASTRAY

Book: Jennie Staniloff-​Redling

Music/Lyrics: Ed Koban and TBA

THE SIX CANDLES

Clare’s Hayes’ parents survived concentration camps but her father’s dark memories and distrust of life haunted Clare’s childhood, ultimately driving her away from their Brooklyn home after graduating from medical school. Now, her father dead, and nearly estranged from her mother, Clare has established a new life as a non-Jew in a Midwest suburb. She is enjoying her successful plastic surgery practice, her husband Jerry and daughter Jo, when antisemitism intrudes on her comfortable community.

A local synagogue has hired an architect to design a Holocaust memorial composed of six lofty candles. Their sober meaning and especially their size are interpreted as a disturbing specter looming over the middle school across the street from the Temple, and the students’ parents form a protest group which Clare is invited to join. At the same time, Ethan Baker, a newcomer to the community, opens a training center for fashion models aimed at high school clientele, and his somewhat anti-Semitic views and charismatic influence on Clare’s daughter Jo and her friends inflames the already unsettled feelings in the town. When Jo discovers that her mother has been hiding the fact that she is Jewish and revolts, Clare finds herself siding with the pro-memorial supporters against her daughter and her husband’s family. After a violent fight, Jo moves out of Clare and Jerry’s home to live with Jerry’s parents and join the beautiful group of young people in Ethan’s entourage. Soon Clare’s own buried memories of her father’s suicide surface and she contacts her mother, bringing her to live with her and Jerry. Clare’s need to accept her identity and her longing to reunite her family are aided when Jo’s younger best friend, Charlie, a computer nerd, rejected by Jo for her glamorous new crowd, discovers something suspicious about Ethan’s fashion modeling business. Soon Clare, Jerry and Charlie are faced with a prospect that means danger not only for Clare’s family, but for Jewish families throughout America.

AUDITION ARSENAL FOR WOMEN IN THEIR 20’S

LAVINIA SPEAKS (Monologue)

Lavinia Lewis, 20-40, African American, hiding behind smiles and a fragile self-control. Lavinia Lewis is a struggling actress. Among her several part-time jobs, she works for an attorney. Meanwhile, her father is ill and Lavinia is convinced he might live, but he seems to be giving up. Watching him, Lavinia sees her own lifelong inability to fight for herself, and her buried anger surfaces. Here, she reaches the end of her patience with the attorney’s disregard for her feelings.​

SCENES FROM A DIVERSE WORLD

GONE ASTRAY

CAST: Warren O’Mally: Irish American, 40-50
Winston O’Mally: Warren’s son, deaf, mentally handicapped, obese, 22
Abbie Firewing: Lakota Sioux
AT RISE:  Winston sits before a battered upright piano wearing a set of earphones unconnected to anything. Having just single-handedly transported the piano from an upstairs room, Warren is staring with wonder at his biceps. Abbie has just returned from searching for clues in an effort to find Warren’s daughter, Raven, who has been missing for nine years.​

a FAIR WIND FOR YARROW

In the summer and fall of 1955, the country seems focused on the World Series, none more so than Brooklyn Dodger fan, Russell, awaiting not only the outcome of the Series but his sixteenth birthday.  Russell was only three when his glamorous mother Irene divorced his father and moved in with her own mother, Millie.  When Irene died, Russell’s father allowed Millie to raise his son.  When Russell uncovers a journal his grandmother has hidden of Irene’s writing, he becomes fascinated with the mother he scarcely remembers.  Enthralled by Irene’s accounts of studying dance in Manhattan, Russell finds himself wanting to be a dancer himself.  When his father shows a sudden interest in drawing closer to Russell and taking over his care, father and son clash over Russell’s fierce adoration of Irene.  Their conflict forces all concerned to confront their unsettled grief and love.
Cast: 2 men, (1 adult, 1 teen), 4 women
Running time: Approximately 1 hour, 50 minutes with intermission

gONE ASTRAY

(Recipient, Stanley Drama Award)
Kerryn O’Malley has insisted for nine years that her abducted child is still alive. Since her daughter’s disappearance, she has frozen herself, her husband and their mentally handicapped son in a changeless state.  With the missing girl’s twentieth birthday approaching, a young woman of the Lakota nation arrives at their doorstep and is persuaded to recover the lost child.  A battle of wills ensues when the hopes of Kerryn, a white woman steeped in Roman Catholic ritual, clash with the doubts of a Native American who has wandered adrift of her ancestors’ beliefs.
Cast: 3 men, 2 women
Running time: Approximately 1 hour, 45 minutes with intermission.

INTERJACTIONS; MONOLOGUES AT THE HEART OF HUMAN NATURE, VOL. II

NINEVEH (Monologue)

Clemmentine Jenkins, 40’s, guileless, wary, with a trace of desperation. Clementine (“Clemmie”) Jenkins stops at a seedy bar she has never before stepped foot in on her way out of her home town and tells the bartender about her first betrayal by a boy.​