THE PLAYS*

July 14, 2026
CONDUCT UNBECOMING by Stuart Brown

Five faculty members from a college’s student conduct board arrive at a secluded island retreat for a routine workshop, led by a newly hired administrator with a shadowy past. When one member dies under mysterious circumstances, secrets start to be  revealed, and the lives of the other remaining participants become suddenly endangered. Who shall survive?

Stuart Brown is an award-winning Connecticut playwright whose 10-Minute works have been staged in his home state as well as California, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Texas, West Virginia, and via the British podcast, Theatrical Shenanigans.   He has also written six full one-act plays that have received staged readings in Connecticut. 
Brown is a member of The Dramatist Guild, the Outer Critics Circle and is the current President of the Connecticut Critics Circle.  He is the owner, program director and host of the 24/7 online Broadway music radio station “Sounds of Broadway” (soundsofBrodway.com). 

August 4, 2026
TAMING THE LION by Jack Rushen

TAMING THE LION is the true story of the contentious relationship between film mogel Louis B. Mayer and William Haines, the first openly gay actor in the studio system in the early 30's.

Jack recently won second place at the Las Vegas Little Theater for his comedy Haven’t Met You Yet (formerly Spring Chickens). He is a two-time semifinalist at the Eugene O’Neill Conference and won first place in the Julie Harris Playwriting Competition, sponsored by the Beverly Hills Theatre Guild, for Image, selected from more than 500 submissions. Image has been produced in Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, New York City, and Connecticut. Other full-length plays include Mitsvah, Taming the Lion, Chappy in Paradise, and What It Takes.
An actor, director, and playwright with more than 30 years of experience in theatre, television, and film, Jack began his professional acting career in Michael Moriarty’s production of Richard III at the Kennedy Center. He is a member of Emerging Artists Theatre, the Writers Guild, Actors’ Equity Association, and SAG-AFTRA. His additional writing honors include first place in the East/West Theatre Festival and finalist recognition from the Arts and Letters Prize, Boston Theatre Festival, and Princeton Theatre Group.

August 11, 2026
36 by Kate Katcher

It is summer, 1984. Reagan is in the White house, the cellphone has yet to be invented, and the Weiss Family is operating like a well-oiled, three-ring circus. In the middle of that circus is Maxine, a middle-aged woman masterfully juggling the needs of everyone around her. Her mother, Bubby, (that’s ‘Grandma’ in Yiddish) has moved into the guest bedroom.  Her husband Gerry needs new knees. Her handicapped daughter Shira needs constant watching. Maxine is also the advisor to a roster of friends who all turn to her via the telephone, which tethers her to the house with extremely long, umbilical-like cords. Maxine is a juggler, keeping all the plates spinning, confident that her eldest daughter, Shellie Weiss Lindstrom, will be there to help her if she ever drops a plate. But Shellie arrives with a mission of her own: to break the news that she is moving to California with her tech-savvy, Gentile husband Peter. The news does not go over well. 
All of this is wrapped around a belief that there are 36 people upon whom the survival of mankind depends – the Talmudic legend of the Lamed Vav.
Shellie struggles to break free of her perceived obligations while Maxine learns to let go and Shira rises above her limitations to assume the role she was destined to play. 

Kate Katcher’s first novel, 36, was released on July 7th  by Vines Leaves Press, based on her Dorothy Silver Award winning play by the same name.  Other full-lengths include A Fox in the Henhouse,FutureFest Finalist (2022), International Theatre Script Finalist (2024), and the 2027 season opener at TheatreWorks in New Milford in February. Another play, Judith Keith, based on Bertolt Brecht’s short play, The Jewish Wife, is under option while her latest play, Serendipity, has moved on to the second tier at the AACT Awards. Margot, read at the Actors Studio Playwright/Directors Unit where she is a member, is a romantic comedy in the same vein as Fox, about seniors who are sick and tired of being depicted as sick and tired. Published plays include Scarsdale, in Smith & Kraus in the Best Ten-Minute Plays-2021, Bread, also by Smith and Kraus in Laughter is the Best Medicine, Blue Sky with Approaching Storm, by ArtAge Senior Resource Center. Other short plays include Inclination and Layover at Reagan National, produced at the Chain Theatre, Aftershock at multiple festivals, Missus Dobbs, American, featured at the Rogue Theater Festival and finalist, in its Covid-necessitated taped version, in Film Festivals in San Francisco and New Jersey, Bassinette, produced at the Ridgefield Theatre Barn. Filmed versions of A Nice Drive and Planning Ahead,  a series of comic shorts about husbands and wives, may be seen on YouTube. Kate is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Connecticut Theatre Women Network, the Actors Studio/PDU, Theatre Artists Workshop. Website: katekatcher.com

*All plays, dates, and times are subject to change.