Philip’s Plays
The Risk of Earthquakes
Drama
Neil is the son of a loving family in America. His parents are concentration camp survivors and the family is surrounded by friends and other survivors, twenty years after the end of World War II. When his friend’s life is imperiled, Neil is driven to find out what happened and why. He discovers that some survivors are struggling to adapt to their new surroundings, stricken with sorrow and guilt. The drama addresses issues such as intergenerational trauma and asks if one was not sent to the camps, can they still be considered a Holocaust survivor?
Little Daisy
Drama
René, a gallery owner representing many artists of the School of Paris, recalls life with his sister, Marguerite, in Paris at the end of the 1930s. Was life safe in the years leading up to the war, and in the first years of the occupation? The play shines a spotlight on the fragility of one’s memory decades later, especially when you are left without even one photograph of loved ones who were lost.
No Secrets at The Shore
Comedy/Drama
Tomasz, a famous author, seeks refuge in a small Jersey Shore town following a messy divorce. He soon finds his life complicated not only by rekindling a relationship with an old love, but also by succumbing to the advances of the town’s librarian. There are no secrets in this town on the Shore, and his life is upended by revelations of secrets from his childhood.
Because of Chagall
Drama
(In development) Julian is an art history professor, and one day his typical day is shattered in this play about love, hate, sacrifice, and betrayal.
The Price for Love
Jukebox Musical
Laurence, a former architect, is a wheelchair-bound resident of a nursing home, and one day a stranger pays him a visit in the home’s garden. As a friendship develops between the two, this jukebox musical, featuring songs of the 50s and 60s, examines themes of love, loss, and regret, and the question of what you would sacrifice for love.
The Last Schvitz
Comedy
Four friends are regulars at the schvitz (the Yiddish word for steam bath). They gossip, discuss sex, politics, and business, as well as deal with personal issues. This quartet is puzzled when someone new is in the schvitz: a 50-year-old Israeli professor of Middle Eastern history. As the friends wonder why he is there, the world around them is changing, challenging their biases and long-held outlooks on politics and life.
The Choir
Musical
When a choir is invited to a prestigious commemoration of the anniversary of the death of famed Yiddish songwriter, Mordechai Gebirtig, the musical director, Maestro Lazlo, decides the voices of its senior members must be augmented by new choir members.