William Borden

SOMETHING LIGHTER

A separated couple meet to finalize the divorce in the wife's refurnished house. They see each other with new eyes. 1m, 1f. 10 min. Finalist, 1995 Actors Theatre of Louisville Ten-Minute Play Contest.

Attic Theatre, Los Angeles, CA; Festival of New Plays, Dallas, TX; Boca Raton Theatre Guild Festival, Boca Raton, FL; Theatre of the Invisible Guests, Fargo, ND; Playwrights Studio Theater, Milwaukee, WI.

From the beginning...

(A living room, with tastefully minimalist furnishings and light colors: a feeling of renewal, and lightness. A bag of golf clubs in one corner. A door to the outside. LEONORA has just opened the door. MAURICE stands in the doorway. Both are in their 50's but might look younger. LEONORA is dressed casually and tastefully to match the living room. MAURICE wears a rumpled suit; he's probably just come from work.)

LEONORA
You're early.
(MAURICE looks at his watch.)
When did you start wearing a watch?

MAURICE
Time -

LEONORA
-never meant anything to you.

MAURICE
It does now.

LEONORA
Well, come in.
(He does. She shuts the door.)

MAURICE
New furniture.

LEONORA
I wanted to feel light.

MAURICE
Have you lost weight?

LEONORA
The furniture makes me feel light.

MAURICE
You look lighter.

LEONORA
I highlighted my hair.

(He looks around, not sure where to sit.)
Sit. Anywhere.
(He sits tentatively. She pours a martini.)
How have you been?

MAURICE
Not well.
(She looks at him, inviting elaboration.)
Pain.

LEONORA
(She hands him the martini.)
Where?

MAURICE
Aren't you drinking?

LEONORA
No.

MAURICE
In my heart.

LEONORA
What did the doctor say?

MAURICE
It's emotional.

LEONORA
The doctor said it was stress?

MAURICE
I miss you!

LEONORA
(She'll have none of that.)
Maurice.

MAURICE
The pain of your leaving is breaking my heart!

LEONORA
I don't feel guilty.

MAURICE
You are guilty!
(She pours herself a martini.)

Selected Works

FULL-LENGTH PLAYS

DON'T DANCE ME OUTSIDE
Butch, a novelist, and Ardis, an architect, begin an affair. They reveal their pasts, fantasize their future, call their spouses, fight, risk, and love.

MANY WORLDS
Maggie has to tell Axel that she has terminal cancer, as Axel explains the "Many Worlds" theory of quantum physics, and from time to time "other worlds" open up, some involving Maggie's husband.

TAP DANCING ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
A college professor who wants to run away from home gets his chance when he and his wife are visited by a would-be shaman, a runaway mother, and a hippy.

MEET AGAIN
A romantic comedy that takes a playful, sexy look at reincarnation. "Insightful and delightfully wacky," Jason Fogelson, New York Shakespeare Festival.

GOURMET LOVE
How long can Sally and Arnie keep their affair from their spouses, who are having an affair of their own?

BLUEST REASON
Lewis and Clark air their conflicts and hire a pregnant guide.

TEN-MINUTE PLAYS

GUNNING FOR LIFE
An old man's lust for life confronts his terminal cancer in an unusual comedy with a poignant ending.

DUET FOR VIRTUAL PARTICLES
A man wonders if he's an alien. A woman wonders if she's too tall.

DIRTY LAUNDRY
A woman wearing only a raincoat gives a would-be writer something to write about.

QUARKS
A man and a woman meet at a singles bar. His "Take off your panties," gets unexpected results.

SOMETHING LIGHTER
A couple finalize their divorce. Or do they?

THE BLUES STREET JAZZ CLUB REHEARSES
The loves of five would-be musicians intertwine like strands of music, improvised and unpredictable.

LUNCH
Should Bob and Bella tell their spouses they know their spouses are having an affair?

RECOGNITION
Two high school sweethearts, with their spouses, meet for lunch after 25 years.

HANGMAN
A condemned man must build his own gallows. He helps his executioner write a poem.

ONE EVENING IN PRAGUE
Albert Einstein, an up-and-coming physicist, meets Franz Kafka, a little-known author, .

FALLING
The thoughts of a Jew and a Muslim who fell from the World Trade Center the morning of September 11, 2001.

MUSE
Cal, plagued by writer's block, calls for a muse. He gets Ron.

THAT GUY FROM THE BERGMAN FILM
It may be Cassy's last day, but she hasn't lost her sense of humor as her family gathers around.

THE ALIEN HYPOTHESIS
If Larry is an alien, as he suspects, why haven't the aliens told him?

JUMPING
A man and a woman rejected by love fall in love before one jumps into the ice-covered Mississippi and the other jumps into the praxis of politics.

LEDGE
Mary could jump and end it all if Tom, who also wants to jump, would get out of her way.

ONE-ACT PLAYS

GARAGE SALE
Warren's starting over. He's selling everything.

PATRIOTS
Two men talking--terrorists or undercover agents?

I WANT TO BE AN INDIAN
A white liberal who wants to be an Indian gets his chance.

APPLES
A deconstructed Garden of Eden where Adam finds Lilith, and Eve and Satan reach an understanding.

COCKTAILS, DINNER
Should Sally and Arnie tell their spouses about their affair? Or will it spoil dinner?

IT'S SO WOWOO
Larry wonders if he's an alien. If he is an alien, why haven't the other aliens told him?

HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW
A teenager wonders if a homeless man is really Jesus.

AFFAIRS OF RECKLESS HONOR
Six women re-enact the duels of an earlier age

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