The Playwrights Database
PAUL LEEPER
(1955 - )Nationality: USA
email: n/a Website: n/a
Literary Agent: n/a
PaUL LeePeR currently serves on the professional staff at the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. Formerly working for the U.S. government as a Special agent and contracted advisor he traveled worldwide with assignments in North Africa, Central America and the arabian PeninsulA. Leeper is a member of the Dramatist Guild. He is also a member of the Philadelphia Dramatist Center. the Tennessee Stage Company presented his plays SURVeILLaNCe and a CUCKOLD's TaLe in readings at the 2001 and 2002 Knoxville New Play Festival. First Stage in Los Angeles also presented SURVeILLaNCe in a staged reading. Leeper was Northwestern University's Jones Fine & Performing Arts Residential College Playwright-in-Residence for 2002-2003. a CUCKOLD's TaLe was produced there in January 2003 and his play theOLOGY was produced there in 2002. His monologue the YeaR I STOLe CHRISTMaS was featured in American Concert Theatre's Philadelphia Production HOLIDaY TaLeS in 2001 and his short play CHRISTMaS IN SUMMeR was performed by the company in 2002. Leeper's play adaptation of Hawthorne's story RaPPaCCINI's DaUGHTeR was presented in a reading at Hedgerow Theatre in October 2002. His play SHe was produced in May 2003 at Center for Women's Creative expression in Harrisburg. His play SaFe HOUSe premiered at the UT Lab Theatre presented by the Tennessee Stage Company in May 2005. Leeper is a 2006 Edgar award nominee for SaFe HOUSe.
Research: Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)
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below is a list of Paul Leeper's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Christmas In Summer Cuckold's Tale, A Safe House SheChristmas In Summer
Synopsis:
Lovers Mick and Virginia meet to recollect a Christmas past. the pairing seems rather odd, as Virginia is sixteen years old and Mick is fifty.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Community Education Center, Philadelphia
2002
Organisations:
American Concert Theatre and Philadelphia Dramatists Center
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
romance Ten Min
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageCuckold's Tale, A
Synopsis:
a CUCKOLD's TaLe explores the waning hours of two captive diplomats awaiting execution. Hamilton Cokewald, a powerless diplomatic security executive, and eoghan Finn, a spy, are tormented by their inevitable and imminent fate. In Scene One, Cokewald describes his beating at the hands of the captors. Finn presses Cokewald for details of the assault. Cokewald is secretive and unwilling or unable to fully explain the motive of his attacker. Both men begin an encounter with the human fear of death. To describe his feeling of dread, Finn reveals his prior and smaller death in being cuckolded and abandoned by his wife. Cokewald hints at his own anxiety about the possible infidelity of his spouse but refuses to accept the idea. the doomed diplomats share a dubious relationship and each remains wary of the other. the men speculate about possibilities of afterlife, void, resurrection and salvation. they attempt and fail to pray. Finn begins to wonder if they might be dead. Cokewald insists with great vigor that he is still alive. In the final scene of the play, the men allow animosity to be expressed with physical violence. Finn forsakes all else for complete faith in his own person and challenges Cokewald to make a choice. Finn issues an ultimatum and the cornered Cokewald is forced to make a final decision about his own destiny.
Notes:
Leeper was Northwestern University's Jones Fine & Performing Arts Residential College Playwright-in-Residence for 2002-2003. A CUCKOLD's TaLe was produced there in January 2003. "striking, provocative" "a work of thoughtful, involving theatre." Philadelphia theatre Review. A tragicomedy Approx. 70 - 80 minutes
1st Produced:
Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival Venue, Philadelphia
2006
Organisations:
Philadelphia Dramatists Center/Philly Fringe and Liam Castellan
1st Published:
-
Music:
-
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Genre:
Mystery/suspense Mystery
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageSafe House
Synopsis:
SaFe HOUSe peers into the world of four spy handlers. they are nestled in their secret lair, the safe house. It is an old and stately structure of modest dimensions and located about forty miles from the Capitol. the exterior is not different from any number of older country houses that dot the rural landscape in this region. But appearances are often deceptive and like the characters that inhabit the house its true function is not immediately apparent. Woods surround the safe house and marines patrol those woods. the house is equipped with the latest early-detection security devices and communications gear. the cellar holds wine and a small detention area. a SCIF adjoins the formal parlor. SCIF is an acronym for sensitive compartmented information facility and it is a soundproof room that cannot be penetrated by technical listening devices. a SCIF is de rigueur for the digs of an active unit of espionage practitioners. It provides a hermetic haven to discuss the secrets of the state and each secret is shared only on a "need to know" basis. the SCIF is located in a house that is used to conduct clandestine meetings with the agents these four officers manage. the location of the house and its true purpose is a closely guarded secret. the house is filled with secrets. One of these secrets threatens the very existence of the four occupants of the house. the internecine lives of two men and two women unravel as each spins larger and larger lies to find the truth. Sally Mae is the youngest of the quartet. She is a petite beauty and strong enough to drive a tent stake through a man's temple should the need arise. She seems to be in league with Phillip, a handsome young man exuding charm and cynicism. He is a former novice to the Jesuits. Phillip has certain plans with Harriet; plans unknown to the others. Harriet is a hard drinking mature beauty with a wicked figure and a wicked tongue. a fog of cigarette smoke and an aura of intoxicating sensuality usually surround her. Harriet has her heart set on Sally Mae or is her heart set on Harry? Harry is the worldly master-spy of the safe house and on the eve of his retirement from service. He has a new love and the biggest secret of all.
Notes:
2006 edgar nominee for best play. An Amusing intrigue in two Acts. Approx. 80 - 90 minutes
1st Produced:
Clarence Brown Theatre Lab Theatre, Knoxville
2005
Organisations:
Tennessee Stage Company
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:
Mystery/suspense Mystery
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageShe
Synopsis:
What creature with only one voice, has sometimes two feet, sometimes four, or possibly even more feet and is strongest when it has most? This is the riddle of SHe. the tale of creation is revisited in this play by spying on the intimate exchanges of two fallen vaudevillians at the beginning of the last century. This story plays out in a cheap hotel room in altoona, Pennsylvania in the year 1910. the characters are a man and woman, He and She. She, the title character, is a beautiful blind woman. She is unable to know the part of her beauty that is seen, celebrated and exploited by He. She is the centerpiece of the knife-throwing act that comprises the recently uncertain livelihood of He. She is the second wife of He and much of the play is driven by her desire to know the mysterious fate of her predecessor, Lilly. the specter of foul play looms over that matter. She is obsessed with the departure of Lilly and He is equally obsessed with the part She played in the cancellation of the lifetime contract the couple enjoyed at the Garden, that famed and unparalleled vaudeville palace in New York. She promises to reveal a secret to He. She lodges the secret in a riddle. He is frustrated and haunted by the riddle. She assures him that the answer to the riddle is close at hand and the solution contains her secret. She demands her partner's recognition for her contribution to their art, but He is oblivious to her true contribution and her need to open his awareness. She possesses wisdom beyond her husband's modern, western, deductive reason. Her goal is to lead her beloved and sighted partner to a wider vision. She hopes to give him the gift of a feeling eye paired with a seeing hand. His exacting performance with her body, a velvet blindfold, and cold, flying, steel daggers convinces her he has the requisite power to meet her in her own expanded world. Her world is the garden he believes he has lost. Here, in the wicked banter of two determined lovers, is a bouillabaisse of archetypes and ideas, such as: ambition; eros; petty crime; Lilith; sado-masochism; the sphinx; aromatherapy; eve; alchemy; Yahweh; foreplay; Oedipus; calumny; soul; adam; divinity; immortality; jealousy; romance; the Virgin Mary; and the U.S. Navy. Before the final curtain, the riddle is answered.
Notes:
an erotic comedy in two Acts , Approx. 70 - 80 minutes
1st Produced:
Womens' Center For Creative Expression, Harrisburg
2003
Organisations:
Niamate Bouhelal and Womens' Center for Creative expression
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:
Black Comedy Comedy
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
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