category: short
genre: meta-theatre
running time: ten minutes
setting: a blank stage
period: Contemporary

characters:
One, not confused
Two, confused
Three, not confused

story:
Three actors find themselves standing in front of an expectant audience. Two rise to the occasion and become their most theatrical selves; one is unable to, and begins a quest to discover what he wants and who he is.

author’s comments:
This was the first short play I had written in over ten years, and I did it mostly because Jayme Catalano asked me to be a part of the first SHOTZ festival post-pandemic, at a time when San Francisco desperately needed some new life and opportunities in its struggling small theatre scene. I wrote the whole thing in one sitting while camped out in the fourth floor lounge of the SF War Memorial Opera House, on a break between shifts at the ballet, and aside from one or two tweaks made affter the first rehearsal, the piece came out exactly as it ended up on stage a month later. It’s actually a really solid short play, perfect for a festival setting, as it requires very little in way of props or production, and it’s both funny and poignant enough to feel substantial, without collapsing under its own ambition, as many short plays often seem to. The prompt had been Pride and the line we had to use was “We’re back bitches!” but neither specific would prevent some other company from putting it on in some completely different context, as mostly it’s a piece about not knowing what you want to do or be when everyone else seems to have no concerns about that… and when is that not relevant to someone?

Productions:

SHOTZ SF, June 5 & 6 2026, part of SHOTZ SF: PRIDE at the Ecclectic Box, San Francisco, California. Directed by Vince Faso. Stage Managed by Linda Huang. Cast: Henry Halkyard (One), Alan Coyne (Three), Mark Vashro (Two).