In HOWIE'S LAST WORDS, Howie comes home after a fire stunt. He's late - and he had a close call: the valve on the air tank jammed, and he started hallucinating from the lack of oxygen. His wife, already worried out of her mind, demands that he quit, but Howie's unwavering even if it kills him... again.
Why this play?
This was my very first play. I had been writing short stories, and I saw a call for submissions to the Miami Summer Shorts Festival for ten minute plays. I'd never even considered writing a play. I saw the notice and thought "Ten minutes? I could write a ten minute play." Luckily, I had the good sense to pick something I knew (stuntwork), choose the most dramatic moment of my life as a basis - the fire stunt that goes wrong in the play is absolutely true to my experience, including the hallucinations that resulted. Luckily, it was accepted from over 850 submissions, or perhaps I might never have written another. A couple of months later, I was watching my first ever play on stage in front of an audience of 300, sandwiched in between Paul Rudnick's Pride & Joy and Colin Mitchell's The Leap. Feeling the audience response all around me clarified what I wanted to do in my writing and in my life... and any time I think I might like to go back and do more fire stunts, I read this play. You should too!
Sample Dialogue...
