PLAYS
Published Plays
go to www.bigdogplays.com
The Track Home: The Orphan Train
It’s 1910, and in an effort to clean the streets of abandoned children in New York City, agents with the Children’s Aid Society transport children on the Orphan Train with the hope that they will be adopted by Christian families in the West. With a limited amount of milk and only jam sandwiches and apples to eat, 11 children and two agents board a train for the 4-day journey from New York City to Missouri. Agents confiscate all things that remind the children of their former homes like the addresses of their birth parents or family photos. When the Orphan Train reaches Rolla, MO, the children disembark and are paraded through town, hoping to meet their future parents and families. Strong boys are adopted by families who need help with farm work while older girls go to families who need help with household chores and rearing children. Families are broken up as siblings are adopted into different homes. Characters are composites taken from real Orphan Train survivors and their descendants and reflect the history, heartache, and hope of these children.
Received 9th Place in 2008 for the national playwriting contest for the Writer’s Digest.
(Published by Big Dog Plays / Norman Maine Publishing, July 2012)
This heartwarming sequel to The Track Home tells the story of three runaway orphans, Andalusia, Casey, and Bit, as they struggle to uphold their dying mother’s wish…to stay together as a family. Not wanting to be separated, the siblings have escaped from the Orphan Train, which transports orphans from New York City to be adopted by families in the West. Headed for New Orleans, the children get caught in a thunderstorm and arrive drenched and hungry on the doorstep of Sue and Jason Coley. Afraid they will be sent back to the Orphan Train, the children tell the Coleys that they live in a neighboring county and are on their way to town to sell some family possessions. The kindhearted Coleys, who are still grieving the death of their daughter, feed the children soup and bread, give them dry clothing, and allow them to stay the night. To help fund their travels, Casey steals a silver picture frame, which contains the only picture of the Coley’s dead daughter. The next day as the children are getting ready to leave, their plans begin to unravel when the sheriff and an agent for the Children’s Aid Society arrive. .
2009 Honorable Mention, Jackie White National Playwriting Contest for Children.
(Published by Big Dog Plays / Norman Maine Publishing, July 2012)
For millennia, it has been the job of the Sparkle Miser to make stars and place them into the night sky. But making stars is both tedious and time consuming and the Sparkle Miser finds he doesn’t have the strength to make stars anymore. Instead, the Sparkle Miser and his assistant, Bumblenoid, have resorted to stealing the sparkles from the eyes of children and placing them into the sky. One night, a cosmic security guard lands in Julie and Stacy’s bedroom and discovers that the Sparkle Miser has stolen the sparkles from Julie’s eyes. To retrieve Julie’s sparkles, the trio must first visit Shabonna, the keeper of the Cosmic Code, before they can fly to the Sparkle Miser’s floating mansion in outer space. Cosmic chaos and comical characters abound in this delightful show, which is suitable for all ages.
(Published by Big Dog Plays and Norman Maine Publishing, July 2012)
This collection of three short plays that definitely fills the holiday cheer. In “A Tree in the House,” an older dog explains to a puppy why his owners have brought a tree into the house and decorated it with chew toys. In “The Christmas Pickle Tradition,” zoo animals vote on whether the Prairie Chicken’s unusual Christmas ornament should be displayed on the Christmas tree. And in “Muletide Season,” a merry mule who calls himself the “Muletide King” tries to spread some muletide cheer by singing muletide carols and delivering a muletide log. These plays are easy to stage and are sure to charm audiences of all ages with their holiday cheer!
(Published by Big Dog Plays and Norman Maine Publishing, July 2016)
UNPUBLISHED PLAYS AND SCREENPLAYS BELOW- Contact Kari Catton for perusal at kari@ampka.com
The One Born With A Veil – ten-minute play
2002 Winner, Alabama Short Play Writing Contest
Born With a Veil (stage play)
1930’s remote hills in South Carolina near the Catawba River. Cal & Ferris are twins, it’s their 13th birthday and their mother, Selena, watches over them closely. She knows the signs of the ‘one born with the veil’; psychic abilities run strong in her family. Psychic abilities are dangerous as well. Selena struggles to protect and guide her children who are showing signs.
25 Years Later (stage play)
1977 in Kansas City, MO. Tillie, a 40 year old university English professor, is dealing with her mother's funeral when her sister, who left home 25 years earlier, returns. Old emotions and family feelings emerge to change them again, forever. This is loosely based on William Inge's PICNIC.
Placed in the top 20% of the Austin Film Festival, 2019, Stage Play Category.
LVI (screenplay)
1904. Near the Pinewood Indian Reservation, South Dakota. Hope's daughter is molested by an unknown assailant. The Lakota women on the reservation share that many of them have been attacked by the same assailment who had left his scar on their skin as well as on their emotions. The scars are Roman numerals and Hope's daughter is the 56th victim. With the help of a woman suffragette and the Lakota women, Hope is set on a journey to help stop the violence against the women and her daughter at a time when there were no rights for women.
Trail (screenplay)
1881. An older brother accidentally leaves his 15 year-old Cheyenne/Latino younger sister in a town in northern Texas as he embarks on a cattle drive. The girl, nicknamed Bug, must stay with the crabby old woman who provides dairy products to the local bed and breakfast in town. Through some hard work and exercises to listen and learn from one another, a mutual respect develops and a future of where to stay comes in to question.
2016 StoryPros Quarterfinalists