PLAYS AND MUSICALS

Plays - Dramas

BRING YOUR OWN - Stage play about a young mother and her two teenage daughters dealing with their severely-depressed husband/father. A mix of monologues and scenes.

SAVAGE WORLD  – In post-Watergate America, a young reporter tries to prove that an outspoken black athlete has been framed for double-murder; 30 years later he re-counts these events to try to save his bi-racial son. “Critic’s Pick: Stephen Fife has created an epic American play.”(Backstage West)  Published by Samuel French – then revamped for an 8-actor ensemble and greater dramatic clarity and re-published.

THE 13th BOY – An adaptation for the stage of my memoir. In his junior year at an elite all-boys prep school, a lost young man is hailed for his poetry and pronounced a “genius” by the school’s writing guru, Mr. Skinner. Suddenly he is popular.. But Mr. Skinner has an agenda, and demands that the young man is not prepared to fulfill.

BLUE KISS  – 2 character full-length. A fateful encounter between a high school English teacher and a girl from a different school whom he’s agreed to tutor for her upcoming SAT exam. Workshop production, 2013 Hollywood Fringe. “I recommend the play.  It is incredibly written…. Brilliant.” The Examiner.com. “How can we ever know the whole truth?  Even though I saw and heard the entire play, I’m still not sure…  Words are only words, and if, like in Doubt, the audience was polled, what would the verdict be?  Fife delivers a sly and brilliant conundrum. I loved it.” (theatrespokenhere.blogspot.com)  Revived for the 2019 Hollywood Fringe. “Great twists and turns, keeps you on the edge of your seat. The ending packs a powerful punch.” – Hollywood Revealed

FOUR FULL-LENGTH PLAYS ABOUT VINCENT VAN GOGH:

– BREAK OF DAY – Vincent van Gogh at 27 fails as a preacher, decides to be an artist, moves back with his family and falls in love with his widowed cousin, thus enraging his minister father, leading to their final confrontation. Published by Samuel French.

 – SCATTERED BLOSSOMS – In the south of France, 1888, Vincent van Gogh teams up with Paul Gauguin to create their “Studio of Ugly Paintings.” This is viewed through the lens of a Japanese Bunraku “Chanter” who is obsessed with Jack the Ripper. Master playwright John Guare has called it “a gorgeous work in a diction i was completely unprepared for - a piece of music - a world you've made you're own.”

– VINCENT IN THE ASYLUM – After having cut off his ear, Vincent is committed to the asylum at St. Remy, where his freedom to paint is taken away from him. How will he fend off his madness? While being haunted by memories and mocked by other patients, he is befriended by a young asylum attendant.

– VAN GOGH’S ZOMBIE MOVIE – A speculative fiction based on the real events that led to the very real assassination of filmmaker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam in 2004.

GOD OF VENGEANCE (1992) – My adaptation of the Sholem Asch play about a brothelkeeper who tries to make a bargain with God. Regional Theater Co-Production by 7 Stages & Jewish Theater of the South, Atlanta.  Ran for 20 perfs, Oct.-Nov. 1998.  (Directed by Joseph Chaikin.)   LOA production by Jewish Repertory Theater, NYC.  Ran for 24 perfs, Oct.-Nov. 1992, at Playhouse 91.   17 Rave reviews, including:  “Vivid human beings whose hopes and schemes and self-delusions seem chillingly familiar… one can feel a chill run up the back of the neck.”  (New York Times)   “The present English adaptation by Stephen Fife effectively mixes the persuasively colloquial with the ritualistically formal.” (Clive Barnes, New York Post)  “Retains its uncompromising power.” (Variety)  “Strong pace and economy.  There isn’t a spare word of talk in “God of Vengeance”—or a false note, for that matter, in Fife’s updated translation.”  (Jewish Week)   Revived several times in community centers, university theatres, etc,.

THE AMERICAN WIFE (co-written with Ralph Pezzullo) – Political Thriller.American housewife (35) seeks the truth about her husband, arrested as an enemy combatant. Championed by a veteran war correspondent, she travels to Afghanistan and Egypt and learns more than she could have imagined. Workshop reading for HB Studios in their 2014 Festival.Produced Sept. 2016 by The Park Theatre, London. Reworked in 2018, reading at the Sierra Madre Playhouse. “A snappy political potboiler.” (The Stage) “Engrossing, forceful… I utterly failed to predict the final outcome.” (London Theatre 1)