Novelist, Playwright

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Full-length plays

Gary Corbin is an award-winning playwright with over a dozen productions of his full-length, one-act, and ten-minute plays in the Portland area. Productions include include “Happy Anniversary” at Serendipity Players, “PS, I Love Your Daughter” at North End Players and CoHo Theater in Portland, “Mama vs. The Mob” at Magenta Theater and “Murder at the Barracks” at Ft. Vancouver, WA, as well as Fertile Ground productions of “Family Hardware,” “KleptoFamilia,” and “The Exes,” among others.

In addition to his own scripts, Gary writes, ghost-writes, and edits scripts. He specializes in tight, realistic dialogue involving sharply drawn, interesting characters in complex relationships.

[All plays]       [Short plays]       [One-act plays]       [Full-length plays]       [Dinner Theatre]       [Video]

Full-length plays in Gary’s library include:

Voodoo Snowball

Voodoo Snowball by Gary Corbin

Sometimes, the only way to heal a dysfunctional family is through voodoo.

Philip, a man of ritual, somehow reached his forties without ever committing to anything – at least, nothing that matters to his parents or his almost-fiancée Elise. But then his sister Danielle informs him that Gus, his estranged father, is dying of lung cancer and clings to life only through his wife’s prayers and his own superstition, embodied in Danielle’s gift to him of a Voodoo Snowball. Elise views Philip’s willingness to reconcile with Gus as symbolic of his ability to commit to family and, thus, to their future together. But when Philip’s half-hearted attempts fail to break through the protective shield his mother maintains around morphine-addled Gus, Elise is ready to give up on him. As Gus’s health deteriorates, Philip’s last hope is a showdown that no one – including Philip – thinks he has in him.

Length: Full-length, 90 pages

Cast size: 5 (2 Men, 3 Women, 0 Other/Any)

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Family Hardware

Family Hardware by Gary Corbin

Willy is a man of a certain age, who has largely lost interest in sex. His younger wife Katherine’s appetite is as voracious as ever. When Willy’s doctor, Kyle Warren, informs him that his heart is no longer healthy enough for sex, Katherine convinces him to let her try “outside options.” As they try to defuse their marital crisis with increasingly challenging alternatives, Willy relies on his lifelong friend Monica to run his family hardware business and keep him sane. When Brett, the sex maniac Monica fired, shows up as Katherine’s new “outsourcing” alternative to celibacy, the solution becomes worse than the problem. But that’s just the beginning of Willy’s troubles, as Katherine takes her new-found liberties to the extreme.

“Family Hardware” examines the struggles facing aging sexually active baby boomers whose bodies can’t keep up with their desires to remain sexually active and healthy, and puts the “fun” back into sexual dysfunction.

Length: Full-length, 90 pages

Cast size: 5 (3 Men, 2 Women, 0 Other/Any)

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Kleptofamilia

Kleptofamilia by Gary Corbin

This family will steal your heart – and maybe your wallet.

Cate, a divorced middle-aged woman, is in desperate financial straits – not only from her divorce, but from bailing herself and her daughter out of jail for stealing. Her control-freak boyfriend Edgar wants to take their relationship to the next level, but he’s too risk-averse to make the right moves. When Cate’s daughters propose an innovative art show at Edgar’s gallery, everybody’s buttons get pushed – including the jealousy button of Cate’s ex-husband, Drew.

“KleptoFamilia” takes a fresh and light-hearted look at our assumptions about kleptomania, at the effects of social stigmas on families, and at the age-old question of “What is art?”

Length: Full-length, 100 pages

Cast size: 1 (3 Men, 3 Women, 0 Other/Any)

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Lying in Judgment –A No-Intermission Play

Lying in Judgment –A No-Intermission Play by Gary Corbin

Peter Robertson, serving on the jury of a murder trial, realizes that the murder being tried is the one he committed.

Or was it?

He and five other jurors struggle to reach consensus, but their perspectives on what they heard are as different as their personalities. Alfred, an unemployed recent college grad, spent most of the trial hitting on Christine, a sassy juror who fixates on the defendant’s history of stalking the victim’s girlfriend. Her unabashed romantic interest in Peter leads to heightened conflict with Alfred even as they ally to push for conviction.

As the dysfunctional jury weighs the evidence, the jurors’ biases explode into pitched arguments while Peter reveals information not presented in court, raising suspicions and driving the other jurors toward acquittal. Just as the others reach near-unanimity for an innocent verdict, Peter realizes how just wrong they really are.

Full-length drama. Adapted for the stage from Gary’s novel of the same name.

Length: Full-length, 0 pages

Cast size: 6 (3 Men, 3 Women, 0 Other/Any)

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Dad, I Hardly Know You

Dad, I Hardly Know You by Gary Corbin

Just when never-married, forty-something Victor thinks he may have talked his new girlfriend Andrea, an unemployed erotic yoga instructor, into moving in with him, his estranged father Abe barges back into his life—suitcase in hand.

Abe’s obsession with his own aging body and his take-no-prisoners tendency to say whatever crosses his mind leads to confessions Vic is not ready to hear. Just when Vic thinks he’s had enough, Andrea delivers the ultimatum he fears the most—and only Abe can help him.

“Dad, I Hardly Know You” looks at dysfunctional families and the ways that we can learn to forgive even those who have hurt us the most.

Length: Full-length, 65 pages

Cast size: 3 (2 Men, 1 Women, 0 Other/Any)

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Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary by Gary Corbin

Robert and Beth meet for dinner on the first, fifth, and tenth anniversaries – of their divorce.

Still civil – though just barely – the couple tries to salvage a friendship from the ashes of their ruined marriage. Arguments over the choice of wine, whether to share their food and Robert’s playboy past turn the first dinner into disaster. Nevertheless, Robert persists and the couple repeats the experiment on the fifth and tenth anniversaries of their divorce as well.

Nosy waiter Anton, who serves them all three meals, punctuates their conversation with well-timed interventions guaranteed to elicit the most information he can gather – and outbursts from the frustrated couple.

“Happy Anniversary” is about the ways we cling to fading hopes and romanticized memories from past loves, long after the relationships have failed – and how we can learn from those failures so we can love healthily once again.

Length: Full-length, 75 pages

Cast size: 3 (1 Men, 1 Women, 1 Other/Any)

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