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Smith & Kraus Best 10 Min Plays '22
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Synopsis
Lost in Place interweaves six sharply observed, darkly comic playlets set in a nearly abandoned American town buckling under a relentless pandemic. A former mob wife is recruited by a wary detective to entrap a grandmother plotting to kill her pregnant daughter-in-law; a conspiracy-minded husband drives away his family while a well-meaning neighbor makes a fateful choice; martinis, stolen rutabagas, and buried resentments culminate in a shocking mercy; a prickly recluse and her abrasive visitor reveal unexpected tenderness; two widowed neighbors memorialize love with lawn chairs and gallows humor; and a displaced mother seeks refuge from an ex-cop guarding more than just her property. By turns absurd, profane, and poignant, the anthology explores isolation, moral compromise, and the uneasy intimacy of those left behind when the world falls apart.
Inspiration Set
Playwright Note
Lost in Place Anthology was written during the pandemic and is set within one, though it is not, at its core, a pandemic play. Across six intersecting pieces, the virus functions as a pressure cooker that isolates, accelerates, and exposes, stripping away distraction and leaving characters alone with themselves and one another. Each playlet unfolds on an intimate scale, from porches and lawn chairs to police stations and kitchen windows, where a grandmother plots murder in a sexual wellness aisle, a husband mistakes conspiracy for conviction, a mother weighs mercy against endurance, and neighbors barter vegetables as the world quietly empties out. Rather than debating disease, these characters grapple with fear, pride, loneliness, ego, love, resentment, and the stories they tell themselves to survive. The pandemic serves as a credible backdrop for societal breakdown, but the true collapse is moral, relational, and spiritual, revealing a world teetering not simply because of contagion, but because of long-standing greed, denial, and selfishness. As institutions falter and responsibility is deferred, the plays ask what we do in our small corners of a failing world: hoard or share, lie or confess, protect or retreat, love better or cling to illusion, and ultimately whether the collapse was ever sudden at all, with the virus as circumstance and humanity as the cause.
Production History
THE CORPSE FLOWER (formerly Lost In Place: Rhonda & Danielle) received an online presentation on Fri, Jun 25th and Sat, Jun 26th, 2021, as part of Rainy Day Artistic Collective’s First Annual Queer Voices Festival. The piece was directed by Craig Houk and featured Gillian C. Kelleher as Rhonda and Kim Saunders as Danielle.
THE CORPSE FLOWER (formerly Lost In Place: Rhonda & Danielle) received an online presentation on Tue, Jul 27th, 2021, as part of Prince William Little Theatre's Original Works Festival. The piece was directed by Ward Kay and featured featured Stacy Crickmer as Rhonda and Larissa Norris as Danielle.
Development History
LOST IN PLACE ANTHOLOGY was actively developed over several months as part of a monthly group of established playwrights, monitored/led by Eric Webb, Dramaturg and Director of Creative Development at The TheaterMakers Studio.
Awards/Recognition
2023 Dominion Stage Playwrighting Competition One-Act Honorable Mention.
Reviews/Recommendations
None to date.
Enter "N/A" if not applicable.
REMINDER: No presentation or production of LOST IN PLACE ANTHOLOGY, in whole or in part, is allowed unless permission is granted by the playwright or his designated agents.