They Don’t Take Long: Ten Short Plays

This book contains ten plays. Each play takes ten to fifteen minutes to perform. Each can be presented with minimal costumes and props and without theatrical scenery or lighting.

“Out of Time”—A customer attempts to purchase a used watch. But the store’s proprietor is reluctant to sell a watch to someone who does not understand what time is.

“Widgets”—In 1908, a newspaper reporter interviews the recently named Employee of the Year at the World Wide Widget Works.

“A Fond Farewell”—Charlie Burns is dead. His wife and ex-wife do not agree about how Charlie’s fond farewell should proceed. Then Mr. Barber arrives.

“Do You Care Enough?”—Three diverse greeting card executives have a mandate from their boss to devise a new imperative for consumers to purchase cards.

“Move the Car”—A couple married for over thirty-five years hires an auto shop to refurbish a twenty-eight-year-old car and move it into their bedroom.

“Tee-shirt History”—A novice entrepreneur sells souvenirs near Atlanta’s Piedmont Park as an event celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday begins.

“The Great Xmas Race”—It’s reality television. It’s the second coming. Each contestant’s last name is King. Fame and fortune await the first three Kings to arrive in Bethlehem and present their gifts. The Kings prepare to board a flight at the world’s busiest airport.

“Silver Tongue”—A political hopeful learns the secret to the father’s success while endeavoring to win the office held by the father for decades.

“Kin Ship”—The Global Union of Nations is sending all the black people to its lunar colony. The Racial Identity Determination Bureau decides who goes and who stays. Twin sisters have appealed the bureau’s decision. The twin ordered to go wants to stay, and the one ordered to stay wants to go.

“Our Dreams (Last Supper)” — A Memphis café staff prepares supper for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the eve of the historic march in support of sanitation workers.

Barbara and Carlton Molette, Dramatists Guild members since 1971, began playwrighting collaborations with ROSALEE PRITCHETT, premiered in 1970 by Atlanta’s Morehouse-Spelman Players and produced in New York by the Negro Ensemble Company in 1971 and in 2017 for their 50^th anniversary season and also produced by the Free Southern Theatre, several university theatres and published by Dramatists Play Service and in the anthology Black Writers of America. They received the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism’s Playwright’s Award for PRUDENCE in 2005, the Black Theatre Network’s Lifetime Membership Award in 2012, the National Black Theatre Festival’s Living Legend Award and the Ethel Woolson Award for LEGACY in 2013 and the Atlanta Black Theatre Festival’s Legend Award in 2016. They co-authored two non-fiction books, Afrocentric Theatre and Black Theatre: Premise and Presentation. They have also authored numerous articles individually and collaboratively.

DR. B. S. BLACK, a musical in collaboration with Charles Mann was produced in 1976 by Theatre of the Stars and Just Us Theatre at Atlanta’s Peachtree Playhouse with Samuel L. Jackson in the title role with additional productions in Washington, D. C., Houston, and Memphis. Atlanta’s Morehouse-Spelman Players premiered NOAH'S ARK (published in the anthology Center Stage) and BOOJI. New York’s Frank Silvera Writers’ Workshop premiered FORTUNES OF THE MOOR with additional productions by Ghana’s National Theatre Company, Chicago’s ETA Creative Arts, and Brown, Ohio State, Western Michigan, Louisville, Pittsburgh and Connecticut universities. Miami’s M Ensemble premiered OUR SHORT STAY. The Connecticut Repertory Theatre premiered PRUDENCE. PRESIDENTIAL TIMBER premiered at Houston’s De Luxe Theater after readings at the National Black Theatre Festival, New York’s New Federal Theatre, Bowie State University at the Kennedy Center and New Life Productions in Columbia, SC. Atlanta’s New African Grove Theatre premiered LEGACY.

Premieres of their ten minute plays include OUT OF TIME at New York’s Turtle Productions, MOVE THE CAR at North Carolina’s Warehouse Performing Arts Center, TEE SHIRT HISTORY at Atlanta’s Essential Theatre, A FOND FAREWELL at West Virginia’s Greenbrier Valley Theatre, LAST SUPPER and KIN SHIP at Houston’s Fade to Black Festival.

Barbara J. Molette (B.A., Florida A. & M. U.; M.F.A., Florida State U.; Ph.D., U. of Missouri), Professor Emerita and former English Department Chair, Eastern Connecticut State U.; Director of Arts-in-Education Programs, City of Baltimore; Administrative Fellow, Mid-Missouri Associated Colleges and Universities and faculty at Spelman College, Texas Southern U. and Baltimore City Community College where she was also Director of Writing Across the Curriculum.

Carlton W. Molette (B.A., Morehouse College; M.A., U. of Iowa; Ph.D., Florida State U.) Professor Emeritus of Dramatic Arts and Africana Studies, U. of Connecticut; faculty at Spelman College, Florida A.&M., Howard, Atlanta and Texas Southern Universities; Division of Fine Arts Chair, Spelman; School of Communications Dean, Texas Southern; Dean of Arts and Sciences, Lincoln (MO) and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Coppin State.