The following is a list of plays available for production. Those with three asterisks are of particular Jewish interest. Interested parties should contact Mr. Wolpe through the contact page on this website.
IN ADDITION TO THE LIST BELOW, HAVE DAN WOLPE COME TO YOUR COMMUNITY OR THEATER TO PERFORM "FOREVER INTERTWINED", HIS SERIO-COMIC LOOK INTO HOW HOLLYWOOD PORTRAYS JEWS IN WHICH HE PLAYS SIX DIFFERENT CHARACTERS! OR, INVITE DAN WOLPE TO YOUR COMMUNITY AS A SCHOLAR-IN-RESIDENCE TO TALK ABOUT JEWISH THEATER. JUST E-MAIL HIM THROUGH THE CONTACT PAGE!
***Abrasions On The Animal: Based on the Chayim Nachman Bialik poem, "Al Hashchita," this fifteen minute play is about the aftermath of Kishinev pogrom.Characters: Narrator, any age or sex; Mordechai, thirties, beard and mustache; Chana, early twenties; Esther, mid-twenties; Reuven, a man in his fifties; Avraham, a man in his thirties, and Joseph, a teenager. This show is a single set and has had a series of productions at various synagogues in Florida and Michigan.
A Funeral For Jaime: This one act play examines the Vietnam War through the eyes of a senator whose nephew is about to be shipped to Vietnam in 1968.
And Her Unborn Child: This three minute monologue is a woman's reflection on her time at the 9/11 memorial.
***The Assimilation Of Yaakov Bok: An Orthodox rabbi, and a self-hating Jewish attorney, put God on trial for child abuse.
***As Make The Angels Weep: This two act murder mystery takes place in a rabbinical school when one of the students--a controversial man who is both adored and hated--is murdered. As the police investigate the crime, one detective must come to terms with his own past, as another rabbinical student must prove his innocence. Characters: Rabbi Baruch Fogel, a man in his late fifties/early sixties; Detective Orren Wagner, a man the same age as Fogel; Detective Joe Montoya, mid-thirties; Eli Berman, Stan Fox, Rachel Benjamin, Miriam Gold and David Gerber, all in their mid-twenties.
***Closet Space: A young man who has applied to rabbinical school must ask one of the rabbis on the selection committee to hide his secret--he's gay.Characters: Devorah Wattstein, a woman in her mid-twenties; Johnathon Bieber, a young man in his late twenties; Todd Fisher, same age as Johnathon and a little overweight; Rabbi Louis Felderman, a man in his mid-seventies; Rabbi Diane Goldstein, mid-thirties; Rabbi Ron Alpert, mid-forties; and Tovah Singer, early twenties.
Dear Jeremy: A one-man show about two brothers--Timothy Blake, a famous actor with an infamous temper, and his younger brother Jeremy, an actor/director who is much more placid--and twenty years in their lives. This show has only been performed by Mr. Wolpe, but he would be open to seeing other actors take on the roles of the two brothers.
***Heir To My Estate: The Afterlife Of My Father, Rabbi Gerald I. Wolpe: What happens when an 81 year old man dies and is reunited with his 46 year old father in the afterlife? This play is based on the life of the author's father and grandfather, and they are the two characters: Jerry, an 81 year old man and Ben, his 46 year old father.
***I Am A Slave: A one act play about an American family that takes in their teenage cousins from Israel after the cousins' parents are killed in a terrorist attack.
I Am The Vulture: A one act play about a man who is watching the woman he loves die of an incurable disease. Characters: Anne Square, mid-twenties and Isaac Baskin, also mid-twenties.
Morning: A young girl discovers that her family and friends treat her differently after she is the victim of a rape.
***Nechama The Dollmaker: A one-act comedy-drama about a rabbi who goes to a doll shop to buy a birthday for her niece and discovers much more than she bargains for. Characters: Nechama Dean, late twenties, short; Rick Thatcher, seventeeen; Cary Hawke mid-forties, large man; Rabbi Sarah Berger, thirties, quite tall.
***Pray For This Desert Place: A play about the aftermath of the Rabin assassination. The play takes place at Masada, where an American woman is visiting her best friend, an Israeli woman who is trying to make the best of life after the horrific incident. Characters: Newsman, a voice over character, any sex; Chava, mid-twenties; Anna, mid-twenties; Boaz, late teens; Moshe, one-arm, late twenties.
***Rebecca's Song: A teenager rediscovers her Judaism when she sees it through the eyes of her first boyfriend at sleepaway camp.
Scribes: A two act play about a writer and his mentor. The play follows five years in their lives, as the mentor teaches the student about writing, and the student teaches the author about life. Characters: Young Harry, a 12 year old boy; Ronald Becker, late forties; Harold Franklin Horn, 24; Cora, Harry's girlfriend, 23.
***Separate Temples: This two-act comedy is about two rabbis who are married to each other and the merging of their synagogues. The only problem: His synagogue does not want her and her synagogue does not want him! Characters: Rabbi Rafe Brenner, late twenties, early thirties; Buddy Schwartz, balding, overweight, middle-aged; Laura Ogden, thin woman in her mid-forties; Rabbi Melissa Brenner, late twenties, early thirties; Cantor Naomi Kolatch, mid-twenties; Renee Ogden, 15; Rita Keller, early thirties.
Thicker Than Water: A ten minute comedy about a vampire on a first date. Characters: Alyson, early twenties; Stefan, appears to be in early thirties, but is actually several hundred years old.
***Turning Off The Lights: A ten minute piece about a young rabbi, his fiancee and the tragedy that changes their lives. Characters: Shira Green, early twenties; Robert Shenker, 28 years old.
Unrelated Women: This full-length play follows the relationship of two women. When Laura goes to her lover's funeral, the last person she expects to meet is her lover's wife--whom she didn't know existed! The two women develop an unusual relationship after they agree to meet regularly.
Words Of A Feather: A Ten minute comedic piece about a man and woman who are on a date, but each line uttered by each character consists of only one word each. Characters: Bob, a man in his twenties; Ruth, a woman in her twenties.
Writer's Impulse: A one-act play about a writer in a bar whose writings come alive. Characters: Steve, mid-twenties, African-American; David, mid-twenties; Wanda Spitz, mid-twenties; Paul, late twenties; a variety of smaller roles that can be doubled and played by all types.
