plays
things i've written
Birthday in the Bronx
(2M, 2W)) 70min
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Synopsis:
Rocky is a Latina from the Bronx. She’s hella good at field hockey. Good enough to leave 8th grade in the Bronx and go to a fancy white people high school where presidents are made. She attends. But why was she asked? Her ethnicity? Her talent? (that great leveler) Her intelligence?
The white girls on the team seem dirty. Seem angry. Angrier with every goal she scores. They have it in for her. What will they do?
Meanwhile, two white, straight, male sports radio hosts have been following Rocky’s career this whole time. You know how schools get about their sports. Is the world these two white men envision for Rocky the one she wants to end up in?
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One of these radio hosts is made sicker and sicker by the world. The other is made stronger and stronger. Until he creates his own little world. Where only white people can live.
How does Rocky fit in? Are the girls going to kill her?
Help.
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"Straddling the personal, social, and meta and outward, and never going next quite where one expects, Birthday in the Bronx gives audiences a lot to unwrap."
- John R. Ziegler and Leah Richards
thinkingtheaternyc.com
"...for fans of experimental theater with a sociopolitical edge, (Birthday in the Bronx) could be just the ticket."
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- Mark Dundas Wood, theatrescene.net
Manufacturing Mischief
conceived by: Pedro Reyes
directed by: Meghan Finn
Run time 1 HR
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Watch the full performance on youtube:
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"(Manufacturing Mischief)) crams an extraordinary amount of commentary into a brief show–sometimes it whizzes by too fast to catch–but when it works, it’s bracing, thought-provoking, and sometimes hilarious. (How can you not laugh at a puppet tango between Steve Jobs and Ayn Rand?)"
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-- Lorna Novak, exeuntnyc.com
"(Manufacturing Mischief) feel(s) something like an exceptionally nerdy and historically knowledgeable episode of South Park. Its ending suggests that even the most progressive among us are not immune to the lures of the narcissistic American cultural stew of capitalism, technology, and celebrity culture, and it pairs that suggestion with a blunt reminder that on this November 6, we can still affect where our nation is headed."
-- Leah Richards & John Ziegler culcturecatch.com
"Paul Hufker’s writing contributions are sophisticated commentaries on morality, technology and politics that are always buoyantly expressed without ever talking down to the audience."
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- Joel Benjamin, theaterscene.net
"(Manufacturing Mischief) is also a brilliant commentary on the ethics of technological advances, as well as an in-depth exploration on how thoughts can be weaponized as propaganda, and knowledge can be a double-edged sword...Writer Paul Hufker does not hold back in this keenly relevant script."
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-- Ran Xia, Theatre is Easy
Democracy, NYC, 2016
Conceived of by: Pedro Reyes
Directed by: Meghan Finn
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Watch a video from The New Yorker here:
"The actors will have to repeat their parts, written by the playwright Paul Hufker — some of them highly emotional and physically demanding — 40 times over the course of a night." -- Randy Kennedy, NY Times
"Paul Hufker’s script, with contributions by Nato Thompson, Creative Time’s artistic director, sounded, on a one-time hearing, sharp, up-to-date and wide-ranging in its talking points." -- Holland Cotter, NY Times
"Nearly 50 actors guide participants through the experience, using a script written by playwright Paul Hufker, which is performed approximately 40 times a night. “Doomocracy” succeeds in bewildering and entertaining those who dare to walk through its winding path, with sets that viscerally stimulate and actors who exceptionally engage the viewers ― shout-out to the Oxycodone-addled addict in the doctor’s office who shed real tears in her monologue. The maze invites viewers, however temporarily, to embrace the terror that plagues their daily existence ― to encounter school shootings, climate change, and systemic racism with a sick and giddy thrill."
-- Priscilla Frank, Huffington Post
script samples
MEWS (A play with songs about why we love our Pets)
2M, 2W, 1.5 Hrs
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synopsis:
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An emotionally broken writer in modern-day NYC desperately searches for his identity as his life falls apart. He is aided by his cats, who try and teach him the value of building an anxiety-free self. Craziness ensues in this cute-but-dramatic (and hopefully profound?) play with songs, where humans and cats learn to find themselves and each other.
Missouri (or My People Call it Maize)​
A Tragicomic Romp
4M, 2W 120MIN
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synopsis:
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Missouri: a suburb near Ferguson. Paul SR and Diane are a happy, white couple, living a happy white life. Suddenly, they decide to demolish their existing, modest, ranch-style home, and in the same plot, build their ultra-modern, eco-dream home. Ballsy, in this small town. But their 12 year-old son, Paul is extremely happy about this progressive leap into the future. The adults agree that, hey, it’s the right time – the economy is stronger and the neighborhood may become more…ethnic…but by god, we won’t be pushed out – we’ve been here since NAFTA! They wonder if they should hang around, stay close to home. Should they cancel their summer, all-Missouri vacation plans during the construction? Nah, nothing bad happens to white people, so off they go! But the rains keep coming. There’s a virus spreading. Protests are forming. The site is flooding. Not even the black or Mexican workers will continue to build. Protests are getting closer. So is the virus. Billy’s dad is sick? The architect died?What will happen to Paul SR and Diane’s all-white dream home and their all-white future? What will happen to their only son?
Modern Houses in the Lush Green Savannah that Lies in the Shadow of the Volcano
2M, 2W 100MIN
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synopsis:
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The edge of everything. Four western 20-somethings have come to this wild, unfettered place to “live life as it was meant to be lived.” They’d like to open a yoga studio for the women of the village. But there’s a chained elephant that desperately needs its own help, and are we sure the villagers are peaceful? Suddenly the earth is very dry, their money has run out, the baby is missing. They are forced to hunt. Things here have quickly become dark and desperate.
Can humans outrun themselves?
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The Wet Woods
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2M 110MIN
synopsis:
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Paul and Anthony have been friends since birth. Paul said his first word in Anthony’s kitchen. But screw Missouri. Screw high school. Screw freshman year. They wanna live in this really cool patch of woods Paul found. Girls are coming! With f-ing beer! This is going to be a very good night. Paul is eager to touch the goodies. He’s seen a lot of stuff. Porn. Starting at age eight? Yikes. Where the hell are the girls? What’s keeping them? Anthony’s room is always clean. Paul’s tired of a filthy home. He’ll have Anthony use the rake and get the leaves up and keep the dirt in straight lines like Paul wants. Paul will hunt the food. Anthony is pretty f-ing nervous. What happens when the girls actually get here? Paul says, Anthony if we’re friends you’ll agree to do to the girls what they do in the Hustler I brought. It involves lots of things. Fingers. Fists. Anthony cries. He likes animals. He’d rather talk about the rabbit he keeps in his mom’s garden. Paul is having serious troubles with his digestive tract. There’s blood when he wipes. It won’t stop. Will their older friend Rob show? He’s great with girls. Will he bring his dad’s gun? Paul’s seen him shoot it.
Suddenly, the sounds of the woods are electronic. Suddenly they are older. They’re coming back here. What has life done to each of them? Rob has been wounded in Iraq. His wife took the kids. PTSD, they think. Works the night shift at the Mobil on Lindbergh. Anthony’s wife is having their second child. He’s an activist? Who would have thought? He was such a docile kid. Vegetarian? Yea, we saw that one coming. Paul? What of Paul? He says he’s got a nice set up somewhere with a friend, but. Does he? And. There’s still blood. Only much more this time.
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“Anthony? Help. Please.”
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Will he?
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*NOTE -- This play is published by Next Stage Press. Link here:
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HUNTSVILLE
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2W, 3M
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1hr, 20min
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synopsis:
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A prison chef has made 217 last meals for death row inmates. But his 218th wants to eat dirt. Warden won't allow it. If he can't have his dirt, he will haunt the prison. But they found footage of him on the other side of town during the murders. Is he innocent? He *wants* to die anyway. Can he be saved? Can anyone on death row be saved? Based on real events, Huntsville examines how food and prisons collide in this intense, thought-provoking, and moving piece, which asks: what is the value of a last meal when everyone gets "Texacuted" anyway?
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Snowed In: An Imagining
90 Min
1M, 1W, 3Any
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synopsis:
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This play revolves around notorious American information leaker
Edward Snowden, taking place mainly during a small portion of
the two weeks he was trapped at Sheremetyevo airport in Russia.
Snowden was fleeing America, and though his asylum was
ultimately rejected by every country he applied to, he was
unaware of that during his initial time in the airport. Russia -
- always eager for a chance to piss off the US - agreed to allow
him to stay in the airport until the ordeal was settled. Snowden
is still in Russia today.
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*The Holographic Principle (a central concept to the play) is very new science. It essentially asserts that our entire universe maintains a dualistic
connection between an entirely two-dimensional flat plane (the
universe itself) and the light source illuminating that flat
plane (scientists have no idea what that light source may be).
But ultimately, the science says that there are in fact
potentially infinite universes layered upon potentially infinite
universes. I wrote the play because – if this
dualistic/multiverse theory is true – I wondered how on earth we
could judge Snowden or indeed anyone who took actions similar to
his if the entire fundamental nature of our universe is now up for heated debate. Do the same rules that applied before this new science still apply?
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ten minute plays
TV
pilot
written by me,
Caroline Hewitt,
Christy Escobar
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synopsis: 1883. The lives of three young, wealthy, real-life, white sisters, intertwine with Etta, an (18 year-old African American woman with drawing talent,)Prudence (a female reporter), and Li, (an elegant seamstress and 26 year-old Chinese immigrant)as they each fight against racism and patriarchy in the shadow of Gilded-Age New York City’s first free, open-to-all, practical, museum.
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sample episode script for HBO's Barry
Synopsis:
Barry and his theatre class study French farce, while Sally finds out she is pregnant. Goran mistakenly believes it is his mistress who Barry has impregnated, and Barry must go to farcical lengths to save his own life, put on his best performance for his class, and hide his violent profession from the future mother of his child.
