Robert Moulthrop Playwright

PLAYS

THE OTHER DAUGHTER ... a social comedy set on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. What's it like to be the sister of the famous Sissy Humboldt (Page Six, Oprah, Vanity Fair, TMZ), especially when Sissy’s life is coming apart because she’s been accused of plagiarism? As the family rallies round in sister Meg’s small box of an apartment (Dad’s a lawyer; Mom’s on the board at the Met), how will the dynamics play out in the midst of Meg, her (off-stage) toddler son and English professor husband? Especially if Mom and Dad seem to be having troubles of their own.

Half Life (2m, 3w) 2005 NY Fringe Award Best Playwriting, "Best written and acted show at the Fringe," New York Magazine. "He's coming home after serving his time for touching that girl; I just want everything to be the same."

Who Cares (2m, 1w) The comedy about love, friendship, sexual identity, and what to do with your best friend's ashes kicked off URBAN STAGES 06 "First Look" season with a highly successful reading. . . Whatever happened to those close friends from college, the ones you spent almost every moment with, in class, in the dining hall, partying, drinking, getting high, lives entwined, discovering them, discovering yourself?? . . . Wasn’t all that really important?? . . . Forty-somethings Philip, Brian, and Sarah explore the humerous and devastating effects of old friendships on the present, l ook at how unfinished business from the past needs completion, how trust and lust, envy and pride, closeness and anger, sex and sexual identity can all exist within the bonds of friendship.

JUST DECEITS [with Michael Schein] (large cast, doubling). Based on the true story. In 1792 Virginia Thomas Jefferson's cousins--22-year-old Richard Randolph and his 18-year-old sister-in-law Nancy--are accused via gossip and rumor of adultry and infanticide. Richard publicly says "Prove it in court." And the two are jailed and set for trial, with John Marshall (later Supreme Courft Justice) slated for the defense. At the last minute Richard's family reaches out to Patrick Henry, who agrees to come out of retirement for this, his last trial. From the novel of the same name by Michael Schein, a historical legal thriller with courtroom flourishes, twists and turns, set against a story of young love.

JACK, THE PRINCE OF IRELAND (3 m, 2 w: doubling). Commissioned by Manhattan Children's Theatre for their 2008 Little Tales series (for pre-K and K), the show "was equipped with enough dragons and leprechauns to pre-occupy even the antsiest little ones." (Tribeca Tribune, 0408). The show played from February through April.

PLANNING & DESIGN (3 m, 2 w) A comedic thriller that asks the usual thriller questions in a new way: Who is really plotting to kill whom? Or are they? Remodelling a house can really take it out of you.

T. L. C. Evelyn is terrified for her son and will, literally, do anything to keep him. Margaret Daly , in her New York debut, won the Outstanding Actress Award from the 2006 New York Fringe Festival for her knockout 75-minute solo performance as Evelyn Coleman. ... "If you love high-quality, suspense filled live theatre . . . watch Evelyn . . . a darker play about a very disturbed woman . . . It's wonderful . . . Bravo!" nytheatre.com "Is this some newly discovered Sophoclean epic? No, it's Robert Moulthrop's T.L.C. . . . and Moulthrop doesn't miss a single, terrifying trick." Off Broadway.

LECTURE, WITH CELLO ...A tantalizing puzzle of a play...a remarkable feast for the intellect, brimming with ideas that help us look at what we take for granted in art in new and compelling ways....I reveled in the piece's rich meditations on where [art] is to be found." nytheatre.com. Why is the Professor late? Where is his cello? And who is the man in the back of the lecture room? A one-man solo drama, this 60-minute journey through history, discord, humor, mystery delves into sex, love, and the relationship of Renaissance brigand-artist-murderer Benvenuto Cellini to the instrument that closely resembles his name.

One Acts Sometimes the only way to get at the truth of the matter is with a short statement.

BLOG

. . . On writing, reading and living. "King Lear on a Leash," "After The Ball," "Qwertyuiop", "Quoth The Raven."

NOVELS

Safety Zones

Postponing the crack-up, one moment at a time. Jim Truman, married New York tax lawyer, goes to his Dad’s funeral in South Carolina, picking up a woman on the way to pass off as his wife. It doesn’t work. And back at the office, life has begun to unravel at warp speed: the Caracas problem has surfaced again; a partner’s suicide triggers a closer look at the Mishi deal; and at the funeral, the widow wants to see Jim – alone; the porn, the cocaine, and the hookers can’t stop reality; oh, and Jim’s wife is finally pregnant. 93,000 words.

Edgemere Close

The development at the edge of nature. Four suburban couples, each with their own lives, their own secrets. But the coyote at the swimming pool, the deer in the garden, are signals of greater forces at work. What’s really going on at the bio-tech corn plant on the edge of town? Is there a link with someone’s new diagnosis? Does a past suicide hold the key to a teenager’s future? 97,000 words.

29 Palms

What really happened on the Fifth Avenue bus? At the truck stop? At the motel? Are the incidents linked? Is the narrator a serial killer? How does it all add up? A disturbing narrative designed to intrigue and upset. 70,000 words.

The Man Who Froze Bees

A comedy of manners. Easton to Wall Street. At what age do the fires of love begin to turn to ashes?

Dinkey Biederman and the Jars of St. Claire's

A novel for Young Adults. What happens in the New Jersey development when the new Black family moves in next door?

SHORT STORIES

Thirty-plus short stories, some published or forthcoming in Yankee, Old Hickory Review, San Jose Studies, The Griffin, The Brooklyn Free Press, The MacGuffin, Pikeville Review, and on-line at Common Ties.