House, Divided
 La Tempestad
 The Ballad of John Wesley Reed
 Girl Science
 The Allure of Oriental Wisdom
 Memorial Day (formerly Varia)
 Pride of the Lion
 The Dostoyevsky Man


 Monica for Chanukah
 Angie and Arnie Sanguine
 Edward and Ellie Supine
 The Lion Eats His Lunch
 The Lion in His Lair
 The Lion Leaves His Mark
 Prayers


 But Who's Counting?
 Emma Goldman Imagines the Millenium


 Just Before the War Between the Plates
 I Can Handle That


 Talking  with Lee Blessing

...with Tom Coash
...with Mary Fengar Gail
...with Richard Kalinowsky
...with Jamie Pachino
...with David Rambo
...with Jason Sherman
...with Naomi Wallace
...with Tom Gibbons
...with Dick Goldberg

Prayers is a single-set, two character play.

Synopsis:

On a Park Service tour boat traveling up Glacier Bay, two men strike up a relationship. One is an Alaskan native taking in the scenery on his day off. The other is a middle aged tourist from the lower forty-eight who has arranged to be dropped-off on one of the glaciers the park boat passes, for 24 hours of rugged wilderness camping. Is he going to try to prove himself against the elements, or does he have something more self-destructive in mind?

Characters:

Sam -- a middle-aged man wearing top-of-the-line REI hiking gear and carrying a good 35 mm

camera and binoculars.

Reed -- a slightly younger man, wearing a raincoat with a hood, a knit watch cap. He also has

binoculars.

Setting:

The top deck of the day cruiser "Spirit of Adventure" sailing up Glacier Bay, Alaska.

Time:

This past summer.

Playing time:

Approximately 25 minutes.

Productions:

Prayers premiered on January 20, 1993 at the Annenberg Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia as part of Theater Ariel's first Ten by Ten Festival, and ran through January 34, with six additional performances by the same cast in other three locations between January 30th and February 14th.

The Theater Ariel production of Prayers starred Daryll Heysham and Bruce Katlin, both members of Actors Equity Association, and was directed by Harold Ellison.

The festival was reviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Exponent, the Chestnut Hill Local.

Prayers was also performed at the Nat Horn Theater in New York in an Equity showcase as part of the 5th Annual Love Creek One Act Festival. It played February 5th through 7th, and received an additional performance as a finalist in the festival on February 13th. Prayers was a festival winner, and was subsequently submitted by Love Creek to the Samuel French New Play Competition.

The cast for the Love Creek production of Prayers starred Mark Lancaster and Christopher Cuddihy, and was directed by Geoffrey Dawe.

SAMPLE SCENE: PRAYERS

If all goes well, I'll be waiting on the beach for tomorrow's pick up.

What if it doesn't?

If it doesn't, I won't.

You mean you'll stay out there?

I mean I'll be dead.

Now wait a minute. You're not planning some sort of Indian exit drama, are you? Wandering off on an ice floe, something like that? Because if you are, I'm going to have to ruin it. Do you have any idea what it costs us frontier taxpayers every time one of you lower 48 types goes out into the park and does something terminal? I'll have to tell the captain, Sam. He won't let you off.

You've got me all wrong, Reed. That's not what I meant. I'm just a guy heading for a night in the wilderness. I have all my gear. I've signed the waivers. I'm not planning anything 'dramatic'. I was just talking about survival.

Sometimes-you-eat-the-bear, sometimes-the-bear-eats-you survival?

It could happen. The bear eats me part, anyway. Not the other way around. They've got laws against people eating bears in this park.

For more detailed information about my professional history, or for writing-related inquiries, please contact me directly at Larry@Loebell.com.