Ten Minute Play – No Set – 2 Women
Photos courtesy of Augsburg College Theatre. Director and Designer, Mawrgyn Roper. Actors Kalena Johnson, Del Logeais, and Chloe Tarnowski.
Photos courtesy of St. Thomas University Theatre, Houston, Texas. Egg was produced as part of the 2015 Ampersand Short Play Festival.
Description: Two women fight over a lone egg they find in the wilderness.
Synopsis: Bertha and Louise are wandering in an empty wasteland, when they both spot an egg at the same time. Bertha wants to turn the egg into an omelet; Louise wants to paint the egg for Easter. They each try to convince the other to give up dibs on the egg. The debate turns more and more violent, and eventually the egg breaks. Bertha and Louise become very sad… Until they spot a walnut. Just sitting out there in the wilderness, all by itself.
Why It Was Written: One of my mentors, Davey Marlin-Jones, really liked “mad” plays – plays that were cut loose from reality that shouldn’t work onstage, but somehow do. Egg started as a three-page play in his class, and then I expanded the piece into a ten-minute version. One of the students staged it for a director’s showcase.
A few years later, I turned the ten-minute version into a one act, and Crystal Productions produced it in Los Angeles. All the producer needed for the set was an egg. But I don’t think the longer version works as well, so I prefer the ten-minute script. You have to be careful how long you cook an egg.
Read the First 5 Pages: Script Sample
