Original Full-Length Work
Sex with Strangers
How far will you go to get what you want? Will you be the same person if you finally do? When star sex blogger and memoirist Ethan tracks down his idol, the gifted but obscure novelist Olivia, he finds they both crave what the other possesses. As attraction turns to sex, and they inch closer to getting what they want, both must confront the dark side of ambition and the near impossibility of reinventing oneself when the past is only a click away.
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Cast: 1W, 1M
World Premiere: Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, 2011 Subsequent Productions: In 2014, it performed off-Broadway at Second Stage Theater in New York. With over 100 productions since, the play has been one of the most produced in the United States, and Laura one of America's most produced playwrights. Sex with Strangers has also been performed across the globe, including the Sydney Theatre in Australia; translated into Spanish in Buenos Aires, Argentina; a sold-out run at Hampstead Theatre in London; and translated into Portuguese at Teatro das Artes in Rio, Brazil. Published By Dramatists Play Service |
The Undeniable Sound of Right Now
Chicago, 1992: Hank is struggling to keep his legendary rock club going amid changing times and changing tastes. But when his beloved daughter, Lena, starts dating a rising star DJ, Hank must contend with the destructive power of the Next Big Thing.
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Cast: 2W, 4M
Featured: The Kilroys' List, 2015 Workshop: Rising Phoenix Rep in New York, 2011 World Premiere: Rattlestick and WP Theater Co-Production in New York, 2015 Subsequent Productions: It was produced by the Keegan Theater in Washington, DC in 2018, and the Raven Theater in Chicago in 2019. It has since gone on to be produced throughout the United States. Published By Dramatists Play Service |
Reviews
- "For fans of both live rock music and live theater, Keegan Theatre’s production of The Undeniable Sound of Right Now is a terrific twofer. It’s got a heart that beats like a drum kit, and it packs a wallop like a subwoofer." -- John Stoltenberg, D.C. Metro Theatre Arts
Remarkable Invisible
Peter Solverson is an aging academic who cannot let go of his work and his dreams of making a scientific breakthrough. When his grown up children return home to help their parents downsize, their final hours in the family home bring long buried tensions to the surface and accusations, secrets, and bitter truths spill out.
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Cast: 2W, 2M
Commissioned By Ambassador Theatre Group World Premiere: Theatre by the Lake in Cumbria, UK, 2017 |
Reviews
- "This rich and compelling new play from award-winning writer Laura Eason is a resonant American family drama exploring this complex joy, love, and disappointments anyone with a family will recognize." - Theatre by the Lake
40 Days
Set during a flood in an unnamed American town, 40 Days explores crises - small and large, personal and public, natural and man-made - in lives lived outside the big city; a highly visual and physical ensemble piece that lives in the shadow of Our Town.
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Cast: 3W, 4M (Flexible Ensemble)
Grants:
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Rewind
Starting in 1998 and told backwards, Rewind follows the life of a would-be rock musician from a drug overdose in his early thirties to his decision at fifteen to spend his life as a musician. Through his relationship with his bandmates, who become his best friend and his girlfriend, Rewind exposes the harsh realities of struggling in the independent music scene of the '80s and '90s while it explores dependency, faith, loyalty, genius and the meaning of success.
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Cast: 1W, 3M
World Premiere: Side Project in Chicago, 2009 Published By Out of Time & Place: An Anthology of Plays by Members of the WP Playwrights Lab, Volume 1 |
Reviews
- “A rock band's rise through the [90s] indie scene gets a warm and witty premiere.” - Melissa Albert, Timeout Chicago
- “Sharply directed,...wonderfully acted And very exciting ... go see it!" - Kelly Klieman, WBEZ Chicago Public Radio
- “[A] moving time capsule, providing a look at chances in life that are both lost and tossed away.” - Keri Reid, Chicago Reader
Days Like Today (Musical)
With soaring melodies and lyrics that are by turns witty, wry and heartbreakingly poignant, Days Like Today is a new musical that explores what it takes to sustain a relationship in a world where love sometimes seems impossible—and how the first step in finding happiness might be getting out of your own way
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Cast: 2W, 3M
Music and Lyrics By Alan Schmuckler Book By Laura Eason Inspired by The Plays of Charles L. Mee Commissioned By & World Premiere: Writers Theatre in Chicago, 2014 |
Reviews
- “Tuneful and harmonically fresh. See it now [and] say you were present at the creation!” – The Wall Street Journal
- “Truly superb. It is nearly impossible to hear [the] score without becoming a fan of Schmuckler. Hip and contemporary but also lush and romantic and deeply sincere.” – Chicago Tribune
- “Gorgeous! [Filled with] lyrical music and sophisticated, Sondheim-esque lyrics.” – Chicago Sun-Times
- “An utter delight! Days Like Today [has] rejuvenated my faith in the future of the American musical.” – Daily Herald
- “Days Like Today may become the standard-bearing musical of these times! [Alan Schmuckler is] the next-Jason Robert Brown.” – Make It Better
- “Breathtaking. Find a way to fit this into your busy schedule!” – Around the Town Chicago
- “Days Like Today immediately moves to the top of the Chicagoland theater pyramid.” – Chicagoland Theater Reviews
Area of Rescue
Set in a dystopian future, in a culture of fear, where the trees are being stripped and burned and ashes rain from the sky, a family deals with the aftermath of a woman being swallowed by the sea. With the proper ID card, safety is right next door. But if not in this life, then in the next.
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Cast: 5W, 2M
World Premiere: Andhow Theatre in New York, 2007 Published By Broadway Play Publishing Inc. & Best Stage Scenes of 2008 (Smith and Kraus) |
The Vast In-Between
The revelation that her neighbor is living a secret, double life shakes married, settled Cate out of a long emotional slumber and sets her on her own journey through temptation and deception. The Vast In-Between considers marriage's long and sometimes difficult middle stretch exploring how fragile love can be.
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Commissioned By & Workshop: Denver Center Theater
Further Development: Vineyard Theater in New York Featured: Kilroys' List (Honorable Mention), 2015 |
They All Fall Down: The Richard Nickel Story
A story of passion, protest and preservation illustrating one man’s obsession to save the buildings and philosophy of Louis Sullivan. Using Nickel’s own photographs, this production challenges the audience “to see with the eyes of a poet.”
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Cast: 3W, 5M
Adapted From Richard Cahan's book of the same name Co-Adapted By Jessica Thebus World Premiere: Lookingglass Theatre Company, 2001 |
Plays in Development / Commissions
Sweetie: a comedy about bitterness
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Commissioned By Second Stage Theatre in New York
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Every Reason to Hope and Believe
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Commissioned By Repertory Theater of St. Louis
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Plainfield Ace
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Developed With:
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