The Playwrights Database
MIKE SMITH
(1950 - )Nationality: USA
email: Click here to contact Website: n/a
Literary Agent: n/a
Mike F. Smith was born and raised in America's heartland, Muncie, IndianA. After schooling in Iowa and Indiana, and spending two years as a Catholic Worker, Mike and his wife, Ann, settled in Bloomington to raise five daughters, now ages 15-25. Mike has been writing creatively for over twenty years. He has been writing plays for the last ten years. He writes daily in his renovated garage and also works several jobs "on the side," managing somehow to put 3 children (as of this writing) through college.
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below is a list of Mike Smith's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Christmas Eve at the Flannigans Julie D Not Beckett Seven Sided Dice, The Symphony in ThreeChristmas Eve at the Flannigans
Synopsis:
This is a present day play about a family, the Flannigans, its secrets and pain. the setting is the kitchen and living room of a Wisconsin farmhouse. the play takes place on Christmas Eve.Twenty years after killing his Father and disappearing, the second son, Mick, returns under the guise of George Smith, an unusual stranger with a walking stick and mysterious air. Mick's brother, Pat and sister, Angela, recognize him, but pretend not to so as to protect their mother and younger sister, Sharon. the mother speaks and sees her dead husband and another daughter, Molly, whose suicide is at the heart of the murder twenty years earlier. Mick's gentle manor and quiet wisdom charm his mother and sister, but they still do not recognize him. Mick wants to turn himself into the police, to heal the wounds of their past. But Pat and Angela strongly resist as it would disrupt the fragile harmony they have maintained for these twenty years and reveal the secrets they have kept from their mother, Sharon and the community. the play ends tragically and now the mother sees another dead loved one.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Bloomington, Indiana 2003
Organisations:
Wolf & Turtle Productions
1st Published:
- -
Music:
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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:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageJulie D
Synopsis:
Julie D. is a contemporary Drama in two acts. It is a play about a female writer, 42 years old, writing a play. the writer is an alcoholic who, after being sober fifteen years, starts drinking again. the central theme of the play is alcoholism and the creative process.the play within a play is acted out on one side of the stage with minimal props. the writer's real life provides characters and material for the play within the play. It is a creative reflection of her life.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
New York City 2004
Organisations:
Love Creek; Bloomington Area Arts Council
1st Published:
the cast consists of 4 males and 3 females. Four of the actors have dual parts. these actors play a person in the writer's real life and a character in her play., -
Music:
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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:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageNot Beckett
Synopsis:
Not Beckett is a two act, five character play. Approximate running time is 90 minutes. the set is simple: A sign post with arrows pointing in all directions. Props are minimal: A suitcase, a lawn chair, a broom. Custom changes are few. there are no unusual visual or audio effects. Lights are up/down. the inspiration for Not Beckett is Beckett's Waiting for Godot. It is a response, an answer?, to the Beckett, but does not require a prior knowledge of Godot. Not Beckett is intended to entertain, educate and edify as a stand alone work of contemporary Drama. It is not for everyone. Few things are. the plays opens as Balthazar muses on the question: Why? Individual and universal. Jocko, comic relief to Balthazar's verbose intellectualism, enters. Having determined that Jocko is in fact Jocko, the conversation moves on to the question: Where are we? And then: Which way are we to go? Not Beckett consult the sign post to no avail. Caesar talking on his cell phone enters the theater and sits in audience. Balthazar announces that he must think. Vega, tutu and leotards, enters dancing. Caesar stands in audience and criticizes the play. Pretentious minimalism and second rate acting. Vega reenters as a poet. the audience discovers that Jocko is not what he would seem. He is more and less. At which point Mary Joseph, possessing mystical wisdom, enters sweeping. Following her advice and despite Balthazar's dire warnings, Jocko prays for guidance as to the direction they should proceed. the first act ends as Caesar climbs onto the stage and becomes part of the play. Act Two continues to discuss the questions raised in Act One with the difference that Jocko, not Balthazar, is the central protagonist. Vega and Mary Joseph enter and exit. Caesar enters dragging a table. He suggests a play about lawyers with Jocko, Balthazar and Vega as a mutual love interest. Mary Joseph enters the theatre and sits in the audience. Jocko exits with Caesar and Vega in search of fame and fortune. Balthazar, alone, confesses skepticism as he awaits spiritual awareness. Jocko reenters. Again it is established that Jocko is in fact Jocko. the question is again asked: Which way are we to go? the play ends as the decision is made.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Bloomington, Indiana 2001
Organisations:
Wolf & Turtle Productions
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:
Absurdist Drama Absurd
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSeven Sided Dice, The
Synopsis:
Four children discover a pair of odd-shaped dice that have magical properties.they find themselves transported to the strange Land of Lady Fortune, where the games of Snakes and Ladders, Space Invaders, Monopoly, Cluedo and Chess are played for real . . .
Notes:
written by Mike Smith, Robin Hayes And Wilf Tudor
1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
Published, -
Music:
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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:
Children's Play with music Youth Audience
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSymphony in Three
Synopsis:
Symphony in Three is a two-act, full length work. the three characters are Robert and Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms. Loosely based on the real lives of these three musicians, the play is set in the late 1960s and early 1970s. the location is a University town in the Mid-West. Robert is an unrecognized, unperformed composer. Clara is a writer. Johannes is a rock star. the play examines the relationships between these three very talented people within the context of the social and political change of the time. Symphony in Three is a play about love. the love each character has for the other two and for "their" child. And how love transforms them. It is a play about creativity and mental illness. About whom then we were and who we hoped to be.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
- -
Music:
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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:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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