Jack Gilhooley, Playwright
Theatre at its best
From off-broadway and international stages to regional and university theaters, Jack Gilhooley’s plays are timeless stories of relationships, emotional discoveries, of memorable characters facing unexpected turmoil. Stories that show us how fragile are our connections, and characters that will continue to live in memory long after the curtain closes. Four of Jack’s plays are available here for the first time — with free production licensing making it easier to mount future productions. Additional works will be published soon.
Now Available for license-free production
The Warrior
One-act play — 2w
Tammy is a veteran of the 1991 Persian Gulf War as well as the 2003 war in Iraq. After two tours of duty in the latest conflict, she returns to civilian life with an honorable discharge but a diagnosis of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Tammy insists that she could deal with the combat but couldn’t handle the fact that her husband left her while she was defending the country. What’s more, he has abandoned her for her daughter’s teacher who gained the affection of the child while her mother was away. Because of Tammy’s psychological condition, her spouse has managed to gain custody of their twelve-year-old. Tammy has agreed to appear on-camera for Giselle, a former high school classmate who has become a recognized documentary filmmaker. In a makeshift sound studio, Tammy runs the emotional gamut as she tries to make sense of the war she has just left and the war at home that she’s determined to fight.
The Warrior
One-act play — 2w
Tammy is a veteran of the 1991 Persian Gulf War as well as the 2003 war in Iraq. After two tours of duty in the latest conflict, she returns to civilian life with an honorable discharge but a diagnosis of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Tammy insists that she could deal with the combat but couldn’t handle the fact that her husband left her while she was defending the country. What’s more, he has abandoned her for her daughter’s teacher who gained the affection of the child while her mother was away. Because of Tammy’s psychological condition, her spouse has managed to gain custody of their twelve-year-old. Tammy has agreed to appear on-camera for Giselle, a former high school classmate who has become a recognized documentary filmmaker. In a makeshift sound studio, Tammy runs the emotional gamut as she tries to make sense of the war she has just left and the war at home that she’s determined to fight.
Red Bessie
Full-length play — 1w, 1m
A narrative play in two scenes with songs. It is not a traditional “musical.” It is is loosely based on an American woman of Eastern European descent who was a radical activist in New York City labor/political circles beginning in the 1930s. She was an organizer in the garment trades and therefore a dedicated Communist. Bessie was an unofficial recruiter for the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the renegade American fighting force in the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1938 and she remained fervently committed to social action throughout her life.
The Derry Slope Off
Full-length play — 5w, 1m
Deirdre Lynch moved to America from Derry, Northern Ireland after an early tumultuous life in the notorious Irish Republican Army and two days after a terrorist’s bomb killed seven, including four British soldiers. While the young men who planted the bomb were arrested and convicted, a young woman accomplice was never found. According to the locals she “sloped off” (or disappeared). That was 40 years ago. Deirdre settled into American respectability, married a Derry immigrant and raised a family. While her children were aware of their mother’s anti-British sentiments and youthful IRA sympathies, they viewed her political musings as nostalgic bravado. But her daughter Erin entered the US military after 9/11 and was wounded in Iraq—while her mates were killed—by a terrorist’s hidden bomb. After her discharge Erin took a trip to her parent’s Derry neighborhood, strictly to discover her roots. But old timers who remembered the fearsome Deirdre were convinced that she was the missing killer. Now the family patriarch is dying and the siblings reconnoiter at their parents’ home. With her new-found information, Erin will confront her mother with the shattering facts.
The Machine
Full-length play — 4-6w, 5-6m
The corrupt political machine that influenced almost every facet of political, business and cultural life in Kansas City for decades was created with revenue from saloons, gambling and prostitution. The Machine offered patronage—chiefly jobs and government contracts—to its strongest supporters. The iron-fisted and shadowy government was presided over in the 1920s and 30s by Boss Tom Pendergast. But prosperity often takes an inadvertent toll, often on an innocent party. Beautiful, young and affluent Mary McElroy — daughter of the Pendergast henchman and City Manager, Henry McElroy — was the targeted victim of a kidnapping. The crime was quickly solved, Mary was rescued and the criminals were arrested. But during her brief victimization, Mary fell in love with the handsome leader of the mob, Walter McGee. When he was sentenced to die, Mary sprang to his defense. That meant defying the very machine that afforded her such privilege. First produced as a staged reading by Asolo Theatre Company in Sarasota, Florida, featuring Ed Asner as Boss Tom.
Previously published work
PRODUCTION LICENSE ACCORDING TO PUBLSHER
The Time Trial
Full-length play — 3w, 4m
Rewritten and updated in 2014, THE TIME TRIAL was first published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc in the collection Plays From The New York Shakespeare Festival. This is what Joseph Papp said about the play: "In THE TIME TRIAL, Jack Gilhooley, another exceptional talent, presented us with a cultural experience quite different from that of the average civilized theatergoer. Yet the predicament of a gang of small town outcasts struck me as profoundly human. Speaking in a language as brutal and quick-witted as any New York street person's, they spend the day drinking and watching cars circle a race track. In many ways the play became a powerful account of lives going in circle; of drugs, sex, and 'speech' going nowhere. For these people, small town America has become a raw, bloody place with no way of fitting in or getting out; a kind of destructive maze containing nothing of lasting value. It's a mordant and unsparing work written without apology and, in an odd way, aimed directly at us."
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The Brixton Recovery
Full-length play — 1w, 1m
The prizefighter hero in this play by one of America's most widely produced and prolific playwrights is an indestructible loser. After still another defeat, this time in London, he finds himself in the black section, Brixton, being cared for by a barmaid from Jamaica who goes to night school and dreams about a career in politics. This meeting of apparent opposites turns out to be a union of kinsmen as, over the course of several weeks, each learns to respect and love the other.
Paperback – $10.95
Plays By Jack Gilhooley
This collection includes three full-length plays: MUMMERS, DANCIN' TO CALLIOPE, and SHOOTERS.
Mummers
A dark comedy— 4f, 4m
From her successful-career vantage point in the 21st century, Denise Walker, an African-American media executive looks back on an early reporting assignment with conflicted nostalgia. On the cusp of the bi-centennial, the Catania-O'Rourke family—led by patriarch, Shooter O'Rourke-had been the subject of a newsclip on the week leading up to the Mummer's Day parade in Philadelphia. New to the city and only vaguely aware of this all-white, all-male delirium, Denise had proposed the innocuous assignment with all the good intentions of a new kid at the station.
Since she was in a womens' group with young Angela "Trixie" Catania-great-grand-daughter of Shooter-Denise saw a solid entrée to the semi-secret rituals and lore of the Broad St. marchers. Aside from her naivete, she was unaware of the blood feud between the family's Brotherly Love Mummer's Club and their hated rivals, The New Quakers.
She now assigns her own apprentices to cover the parade but she still carries the experience of a generation ago with a certain begrudging admiration for people who could feel obsession for a tradition.
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Dancin' to Calliope
A dark comedy— 2w, 3m
Winner, Festival of Southern Theatre Playwriting Award, Oxford, MS
Shaunelle is the mermaid in America's last carnival. But it's time to quit and reign in her teenage step-daughter, LuRae, who is the devil-may-care kootchie dancer. Easier said than done since the girl is totally enamored of the profession that magnetizes some bad dudes. Shaunelle is hardly aided by her ex-con life partner, Ricky Ruane, the carnival's disgruntled "Half 'n' Half". So Shaunelle must resort to an extreme degree in her quest to release LuRae — and herself — from carny life.
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Shooters
A dark comedy in two parts
The Sopranos are toast. Goombahs are passé. The Russian mob has created the "new hitman/woman". Inconspicuousness is the standard. The new crime bosses recruit and train unlikely teams of non-threatening Americans who nonetheless have shown an inclination towards brutal efficiency. Lou for example, had been a corporate executive on Wall St. Arlene is a NYC cop. The Boss and his son Vladimer insist only on their employees' anonymity — their unobtrusiveness (for Brooklyn). Of course, it's a given that their teams never blow an assignment — ever.
Play One: Bad Boys
2 men
Play One: Bad Girls
2 women
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