Description

---

A collection of 8 plays written between 2008 and 2014 which range from "The shortest play ever written" (2 actors discuss an 8-word plot); to an intense blank-verse rendition of the classic story of Abelard and Heloise (a monologue for a female actor). The true story of Jack Johnson is portrayed in "The Mann Act" which lays out what many believe was the FBI's illegal persecution of the world champion black boxer. A new twist on the classic plot of "Antigone" is presented in "Kreon" the Theban king who behaves in ways similar to some modern statesmen and in "The pleasure of pain" insight into the issues of masochism and love are explored.

About the Author

---

David Abbey, PhD is a semi-retired psychologist who taught both counselling and research methods for many years at the university level. He is now Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto and he has been an approved supervisor in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. When he writes about relationships, families or individual pathology he has several thousand hours of practical experience with clients to draw on. After his formal retirement as a professor in 2010 he began writing screenplays but quickly switched to stage plays after learning that Hollywood produces about 400 scripts out of the estimated 40,000 that are written in any one year. He says, "The odds might be better in getting a play on stage, and it doesn't cost millions of dollars before the cameras start to roll." Currently, David provides technical and moral support to his wife, Susan, who is a marriage and family therapist in Guelph, Ontario. Between them, they have 6 children and 11 grandchildren (ranging in age from 3 to 23) spread from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland. His major 2014/15 writing projects will be a play based on the lives of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir and a script for a musical based on the lyrics of The BeeGees.