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H M Killinger

H M KILLINGER

  (1941 - )
Nationality:    American/Canadian
email:    Click here to contact     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    Dramatists Guild of America

HM Killinger was born in Corbin, Kentucky, and grew up in appalachia and the southern United States, graduated from the University of Alabama with a B.A. degree in Theatre, moved to New York City and became a professional actor working on Broadway (Via Galactica), Off-Broadway (Dear Janet Rosenberg produced by Harold Prince), regional Theaters (Hartford Stage, Goodspeed Opera House, Charles Playhouse), and Network Television (Law and Order, lead, guest star, episode: Volunteers), before receiving an M.A. degree in Cinema Studies at New York University, became a playwright in 1991, has had one play fully produced (Back to BogalUSA at Southern Rep in New Orleans, and also at the Village Gate, Manhattan) as well as staged readings of several new plays on Theatre Row in Manhattan (including the Benefit and Borders at the John Houseman Theatre) and is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and actors equity association (New York). Now living in Nova Scotia in an old farmhouse by the seA.

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below is a list of H M Killinger's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Back To BogalUSA         Borders         Hitler's Skull         How To Make A Cup Of Tea         Hubris Holler         Kilroy Is Here         Lemon Squeeze         Maggots         On All Fours         Pc My Ass         President Buck Birch         Sundown Town

Back To BogalUSA

Synopsis:
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Notes:
http://www.southernrep.com/aBOUTUS/pastproductions.php

1st Produced:
Southern Rep Theater in New Orleans    1992

Organisations:
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1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Borders

Synopsis:
FRaNCIS, a lowly government scientist falls in love with eBONY, a Greek woman half his age, conceives a child with her, then marries her in order "to do the right thing" and fill the empty void of his personal life in his waning years and, most importantly, to imbue his soul upon his only child, a boy nearing school-age as the play begins; however, since the marriage and registration of the child as an American citizen, Francis begins to suspect that his wife's professed love for him is less than genuine, but that her desire to reap the benefits of a country economically superior to her own could be, unfortunately, quite authentic. Feeling trapped and desperate to confirm with absolute certainty whether ebony loves him (and whether albert is his actual child) or is using him to acquire what America has to offer, he seeks counsel with her ministerial brother, aNSeL - also from Greece - who has come over on "an extended visit" to see their traditional Greek step-mother who moved in with the newlyweds the day after they were married in America. Finding little consolation in his wife's brother, Francis' suspicions are heightened further when a local psychiatrist, a Greek-American, is also invited by his wife to spend his holiday with the cloistered family at a rural retreat near Poughkeepsie, New York. Finally, suspicion turns to conviction as the psychiatrist's increasingly pointed questions make it evident to Francis that ebony has brought him there to "evaluate" her husband's sanity (i.e. get rid of him by having him committed so ebony and Dr. alexander can be together), and find a solution to his increasing bouts of depression and rage fueled by his growing certainty that he, as an older, lonely bachelor who always had trouble getting along with women anyway, is being deceived and used so his wife and her extended immigrant family can take everything he has, including his life and all he has left to live for - his only child who is finally revealed as the son of Ned, the proprietor where they are staying who slept with ebony (in exchange for access to Francis. Is this entrapment, or has he, too, crossed a border - a border of the mind.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
unproduced    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
a full length tragi-comedy

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Hitler's Skull

Synopsis:
Breaking into the art world can cost you more than your soul. It can cost you your life.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
unproduced    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
a Drama in 10 scenes

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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How To Make A Cup Of Tea

Synopsis:
a practical consideration of nuclear annihilation.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
unproduced    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
10 minute satirical comedy

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Hubris Holler

Synopsis:
In this dark, magical comedy conceived as a modern morality play, a Wall Street wheeler-dealer finds his comeuppance in an unlikely pair: a scandalized former member of the clergy making his living now as an illegal tow-truck driver, and his mercurial wife Carma who offer the tycoon a bonus he can't refuse. the humor is dry - and deep - as we watch the bloated billionaire fall irrevocably into a deal that unwittingly sacrifices his only child's future.

Notes:
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1st Produced:
Platform reading only, John Housman Theater, Theater Row, New York City    1993

Organisations:
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1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Dark Magical Comedy

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Kilroy Is Here

Synopsis:
KILROY, the Son of God clad in snake skins and revolutionary head band, returns to earth and is immediately recognized by the SISTeRS OF the NIGHT who deliriously and devoutly worship their long awaited Savior. SONNY GORGe, imperialist president of the nation, is determined to capture, torture and kill this "terrorist disguised as a snake-oil salesman", but not before he finds out how he managed to bamboozle all the women-folk into adoring him. But capturing the Son of God is easier said than done, as the tables turn on SONNY when KILROY mysteriously transforms the haughty imperialist into a Peeping Tom in maiden's clothing obsessed with spying on the SISTeRS OF the NIGHT in their private chambers. SONNY's surveillance of the SISTeRS is soon detected by his mother, BaRBI GORGe, a recent convert of the female clan. BaRBI, euphorically high on psychedelic mushrooms, wine and the redeeming love of KILROY, unwittingly rips her snooping son to pieces, and shares the blood and gore with her SISTeRS who consume most of the president's body, but leave the head in tact; BaRBI mindlessly sticks it onto the sharp end of her wand and proudly bears it back to the Capital to show off her grizzly prize to the citizenry. But HeeTeR GORGe, her husband and predecessor to their son's high office, coaxes his delirious wife down from her euphoria to show her the grim reality of what she has done. KILROY, vindicated and adored, expels the aging, unprotected couple, HeeTeR and BaRBI, into a world of danger and misery they have created for all but themselves. This play is a contemporary version of euripides' the Bacchae.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
unproduced    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Dark Satirical Comedy

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  8            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Lemon Squeeze

Synopsis:
When a West Virginia boy tells his parents he loves an emotionally damaged returning war veteran better than his own father, the revelation spins two mining families out of control, catapulting the boy into a world he is unprepared to handle.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Platform Reading, Theatre Row, New York City    1995

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
a play in 17 scenes

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Maggots

Synopsis:
When a loner on the top floor of a tenement house in Manhattan dies inside his locked apartment, maggot flies from the decaying body begin to infest the building, threatening all the tenants with infection from a potentially deadly disease. Due to strictly enforced rent-control laws, the landlord cannot legally break down the door until a next-of-kin is located. Doris, an aspiring actress from Mississippi, arrives with avowals of kinship to the corpse and the possibility of producing a key to the locked door if Matt, a tenant, agrees to let her live with him rent free while she pursues her life-long ambition of playing Joan of arc "in the big time". Doris achieves her goal, but in a way she could never have imagined.

Notes:
Maggots was Also produced in 1998 At "theater-Studio Inc." in New York City

1st Produced:
Staged reading at New Jersey Rep    1998

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
a dark comedy

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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On All Fours

Synopsis:
an unusual slant on the human species.

Notes:
It is A "regular" play except All the Actors stay on All fours, haunching down occasionally, like dogs or Apes, instead of sitting As humans usually sit; however, All other behavior is thoroughly human And "normal" (i.e., no dog or Ape imitations). All Are dressed "normally"- the HUSBaND in A suit And tie, the WIFe in A dress And Apron.

1st Produced:
-    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
10 minute satirical comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Pc My Ass

Synopsis:
a somewhat kinky version of Molier's "the Misanthrope"

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
unproduced    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Satirical Comedy

Parts:
Male:  8            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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President Buck Birch

Synopsis:
the real President Birch emerges when he smashes the Independent News cameras at his Texas Ranch and tells the hostile crowd assembled at his front steps what is really on his mind. He gets more than he bargained for though when he learns from their response more than he had remembered about his past, his real family and what, in fact, he really is. This revelation, and the sight of his wife, hanging naked from a chandelier in the foyer, drive him to dig out his own eyes with a fire-poker before he is impeached and driven onto the streets of an America teeming with the poor and homeless. wenty years later (2026 a.D.) with his faithful daughter, Wendy, they return to Washington, D.C. and rest in a federal cemetery near the White House before locating an empty grave for Buck to die and receive the burial he feels he deserves, in spite of, and because of what he has been through in the past twenty years and what he has learned through suffering with the teeming masses, about life. Unbeknownst to him, however, Wendy has arranged with her sister, Babs, to meet them at the cemetery to persuade Buck to run for President again with his illegitimate African/American son, Viril Perkins running with him as Vice-President. (This currently unlawful candidacy has become legal by 2026 a.D. since the Constitution by this time has been throughly watered down by a Supreme Court and Congress in the hip-pocket of whoever happens to be President). Viril is a returning war hero with half the nation behind him to win back America from the "almighty One-Percent" who have added so many "notches to their belts" that the bottom ninety-nine percent (with a four percent "middle class") are left to wander the streets of what by now has become a wasteland of homelessness, constant surveillance, drought, radiation sickness, and early death. Instead of accepting the proposal to run with his son, the thought of being "Mr. President" again goes straight to Buck's head, nullifying the so-called wisdom he has gained living with the multitudes. When confronted with Viril's offer, he resorts to his old dirty-tricks learned at the hand of his former mentor and master trickster, Shady Grove, who now occupies the Presidency. Buck gives Viril a thrashing- down he will not soon forget. Short-lived, however, is Buck's secret dream of renewed power, when Viril's old war commander, Colonel Warwick finds out the way his Sergeant with three Purple Hearts and the Medal of Honor has been treated. Viril Perkins is left alone to win back America for the working man and woman.

Notes:
This play is A contemporary version of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, And Oedipus At Colonus. And is written in the spirit of MacBird, the political satire of the Johnson/Kennedy Administrations during the Viet Nam war that had An extended run At the Village Gate in New York City in the mid-1960's.

1st Produced:
unproduced    -

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
a dark satirical comedy

Parts:
Male:  11            Female:  4            Other:  various desperate citizens

Further Reference:
-

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Sundown Town

Synopsis:
When the unemployed John Dill returns to his ancestral home in appalachia with his Jewish wife, Lisa, the couple finds more than a free place to live. Skeletons from the family closet emerge to challenge Lisa's identity in the Middle east and her relationship with her husband and the cloistered town of Cross Tie.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Platform Reading, Theater Row, New York City    1996

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Full length Drama in 9 scenes

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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