theater + musicals
full length plays
Behold Her: Five thousand years of Jewish women and beauty
An all-women vaudeville with live music. Streamlined, road-tested and ready for travel.
What does it mean to be described as a real “Jewish beauty?” This 80-minute love letter to Jewish women from Eve through Instagram — those whose stories we’ve heard, and many we’ve never heard of (but should have) — answers this surprisingly profound question in the words and voices of Jewish women themselves (and about time.) Set in the infamous communal dressing room of Loehmann’s Discount Designer Clothing store (of blessed memory), the show features two remarkably versatile actors, one gifted musician, and a cranky wardrobe attendant who redefine the meaning of Jewish beauty in a series of songs, monologues and short plays that runs the gamut from hilarious to gut punch. Co-conceived with Michaela Shuchman for the 2018 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, currently under development as a touring production. For synopsis and reviews, go to www.BeholdHerThePlay.com
Daddy’s Girl
“A woman’s self-esteem starts with the right foundation.” So says America’s first and best-known sexy lingerie tycoon, Louis of Beverly Hills (usually at the most inappropriate moment conceivable). When Lou’s estranged daughter, a middle-aged Women’s Studies professor, returns home for the first time in two decades for his funeral, she struggles to write a flattering eulogy or sum up Lou’s politically incorrect life’s work and legacy for attendees — especially, the on-call feminist Rabbi who will officiate. Was Papa a charming liberator of American sexuality and champion of women (as he prefers to be known), or the ultimate, incorrigible male chauvinist? With her college now challenging her cred as a feminist leader based on her newly revealed ties to Lou, Tracey re-assesses her own definition of feminism, and the intimate connection between new school cancel culture and old-fashioned judgment. Cast size; 8 (includes doubling)
School Play
Five actors playing over thirty characters bring to life the true stories of people like your neighbors and family in an hour-long show that makes the dire budget crisis in Pennsylvania’s public education system relatable to more citizens — and inspires voters to demand a viable, sustainable method of funding our schools. A live, documentary theatre collaboration conceived by Arden and co-created with theatre artists Seth Bauer and Edward Sobel, School Play harnesses the emotional power of theatre to dramatize the long-term societal cost of deconstructing a system that both embodies and empowers American democracy.
Appetite
A full length drama that follows three generations of women who reconnect across time, via the mystical powers of family, memory, culture and cake. It’s 1973. Hana Becker, a brilliant, driven professor of architecture, is shocked when — with no explanation — a cookbook scrawled by her mother while she was starving to death in Terezin Concentration Camp during World War II, arrives at her Manhattan apartment. Unleashing buried questions, wartime memories and fantasies Hana has struggled for decades to repress, the book, which Hana cannot open, ultimately opens up Hana.
Knowing Bliss
Just before her 30th birthday, African American anthropologist Bliss, finds herself at a paralyzing personal crossroads. Her adoptive Caucasian mother Laura, a second tier musical theatre actress, continues to insist that she knows nothing about Bliss’s birth or background, leaving Bliss ironically ignorant of any anthropological data about her own history. Having learned that she has some Native American DNA, Bliss summons Laura to join her on a vision quest to a sacred ceremonial site high atop a cliff, to bond with her ancestors. But when Bliss’s DNA results turn out to be wrong, the belief systems by which we define race, culture and identity suddenly seem less reliable.
Monsters I Have Eaten & Other Tales
A newly updated suite of monologues about disparate women’s lives threaded together by a blistering — and ultimately cataclysmic — plea from a desperate female revolutionary. These 15-20 minute diatribes, some funny, some physical, all memorably disturbing, have been performed singly and in cabaret-length groupings of three; but have now evolved into an evening-length work for 3-4 actors. While the original work was created in the 1990s, sadly, the portraits and the conflicts they address are still all too relevant.
Mektoub
An operatic drama set in the desert of North Africa, in the early 1900s, as Swiss journalist/novelist/explorer Isabelle Eberhardt pursues her unlikely quest to become a female Sufi mystic. Dressing, riding and living as a man as her anarchist priest father had taught her to do, Isabelle battles substance abuse, sexual addiction, malaria, dysfunctional relationships, misogyny, religious taboos and political conflicts — not to mention an assassination attempt, imprisonment and artistic despair — in a brief, epic life that ends, appropriately, with a flurry of unfinished manuscript pages filling the theatre (and a male editor adding his name to them). Also in development as a film script.
musicals
New York Letters
An original rock musical with live music
Concept & lyrics by Mare Rozzelle
Music by Glenn Prangnell
Book and additional lyrics by Arden Kass
Inspired by an original song cycle, NEW YORK LETTERS is a fictional portrait of John Lennon’s years in New York City between 1971 and 1980. At its heart is a series of imagined letters (embodied as songs) the prolific Lennon might have written to key people in his life. The one person he has never written to, but with whom he maintains an ongoing dialogue throughout the show, is his long-deceased and much-missed mother, Julia. She’s never far from his heart, his imagination (or the stage) as he re-defines his post-Beatles artistic identity, immerses himself in political activism, battles political persecution as an “undesirable immigrant” and struggles to defend his right to a peaceful, productive future in the city he views as his true artistic and creative home. Cast; 7-10 (includes flexible doubling by band members.) Selected for MusicCoLab Spotlight series developmental showcase, August 2026
The Mother Tree Cantata
A choral celebration of trees in live, original music
Music & Lyrics by Heath Allen
Additional songs, lyrics, dialogue and dramaturgy by Arden Kass
An hour-long original musical experience composed by Heath Allen, The Mother Tree Cantata was commissioned (of Heath) by Philadelphia community choir the Parkinsingers to celebrate the Jewish holiday Tu B’Shevat (the Birthday of the Trees). The Cantata debuted at Philadelphia’s historic Temple Rodeph Shalom in February 2025. It was performed by 50 singers from three choirs (including a children’s choir), a solo classical celloist and a jazz quartet led by pianist/music director Heath Allen. The show featured renowned theater maker and Bearded Ladies’ founding artistic director Rose (formerly John) Jarboe as a magnificent spruce tree, chopped down in the prime of life to be transformed into a prized cello. Playful, moving, musically eclectic and informative, the Cantata inspired an immediate shift to a zero-waste policy in the synagogue’s sustainability practices.
The Mother Tree Cantata is available for production by schools, synagogues or choirs and serves as an inspirational central component of a public Earth Day celebration. Casting requirements are adaptable: it can be produced with a flexible number of performers of various ages.
Listen to a sample of music.
Read more about The Mother Tree Cantata here.
For inquiries about production or musical requirements, contact composer Heath Allen.
Miss Kilman Takes Her Tea
A short opera with live original music
Concept, book & lyrics by Arden Kass, music by Heath Allen. A modern opera inspired by ten pages of Virgina Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway. Miss Doris Kilman works and lives in the Dalloway household as governess to Mrs. Dalloway’s ingenue daughter, Elizabeth. Dowdy, disgruntled and resentful at being replaced at University by the soldiers returning from World War I, she mourns her dream of becoming a solicitor and escaping the constraints of her working-class background. Now, Miss Kilman is determined to mold Elizabeth into a more self-sufficient, intellectually-curious woman than her stylish, privileged mother — often to Elizabeth’s deep, and public, discomfort. Cast: two W, one additional performer, two cellists, one pianist.Showcased at MusicCoLaboratory, 2025
Titillation
Based on a play by Arden Kass
Libretto and co-lyricist, Arden Kass
Linda Dowdell, co-lyricist
(score in process)
“A woman’s self-esteem starts with the right foundation.” So says America’s first and best-known sexy lingerie tycoon, Louis of Beverly Hills (usually at the most inappropriate moment possible). When Lou’s estranged daughter, a middle-aged Women’s Studies professor, returns home for the first time in two decades for his funeral, she struggles to compose a flattering eulogy or sum up Lou’s politically incorrect life and legacy for the attendees — especially the on-call feminist Rabbi who will officiate. Was Papa a dashing liberator of American sexuality and champion of women as he claims to be, or the ultimate male chauvinist? With her college now challenging her cred as a feminist leader based on her newly revealed ties to Lou, and Lou’s long-time associate pressuring her to decide whether to fire all 962 female employees or remodel the business as a feminist enterprise, Tracey re-assesses her own definition of feminism, and the intimate connection between new school cancel culture and old-fashioned judgment. Cast size; 8 principals plus 5+ doubling chorus members. Act I Developmental Showcase, Seattle 2023. Showcased at MusicCoLaboratory 2025
short works
Because
A modern riff on the myth of Penelope, in which a despairing woman, awaiting her husband’s return from the Gulf War, considers a proposal from his best friend. 1 M, 1 W. Finalist in Red Bull Theatre Festival of Short Plays, 2016.
Beauford Delaney Paints Marian Anderson
The haunting contralto voice of African American singer and civil rights icon Marian Anderson eclipses all others in the mind of schizophrenic, gay, black, ex-patriot artist Beauford Delaney, whose celebrated portrait of his muse inspired this play. 4 W (3 AA), 3 M (2AA)
Vapors
An evening of irreproducible chemistry; ironically ideal for Valentines Day. Four vaguely-related plays explore the unpredictable reactions that can occur between human beings in a state of need, when sufficient societal pressure is applied at a precise moment in time. The lonely victim of a Tinder no-show goes home with a probably psychotic grammar freak. A lonely, elderly woman with a small kleptomania problem takes temporary shelter with a philosophical street vendor. Lesbian lovers face surreal sabotage by a previous love interest. And a pair (or several) of misfit, schizophrenic barflies meet their ideal mate(s).
Wingspan
Trio of interdisciplinary dance theatre pieces based on works of art with flight imagery, each featuring a long poem/monologue. Approximately one hour of performance time. A fourth piece is envisioned.
PICTURES OF THE GODDESS: WingSpan, Part I; after losing her arm to a hay-baling accident, a farm woman is comforted by a visit from the Victory of Samothrace. Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Wrote, directed, produced. Recorded score by Rob Redei is available; Sept. 2000; re-staged Philadelphia Women’s Theatre Festival, July 2015
wednesday: WingSpan, Part II; an office drone is saved from drowning in boredom and booze when a homely sparrow alights on his front porch. Presented by New Dance Alliance Performance Mix Series at Dixon Place Theater, NYC. Wrote, directed, produced. Nov. 2001
FLOWN: WingSpan, Part III; A 19th c. sculptress is astonished when a beloved work of art she is forbidden to sell for profit takes flight overnight, from its pedestal; site-specific outdoor performance with live original music and dance, Sept. 2003. Wrote and produced, Philadelphia, July 2002