Stage Whispers
Plays in One Act
by
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From An Apology of Sorts
(Setting: Two women sitting at a table in an elegant restaurant.)
JOAN: As you can well imagine, I’m not the least bit thrilled about any of this.
MARIE: I knew at some point you’d discover the truth and confront me about it.
JOAN: Confront—to meet with hostility. An interesting word choice. Let’s see how this progresses.
MARIE: I also knew you’d accept the invitation.
JOAN: So I have. I’m here.
MARIE: I thought about what you said over the phone.
JOAN: Thought. You thought. Good. It’s a start.
MARIE: I cried afterwards.
JOAN: Tears? I’m sure they were a little rough around the edges, slashing your cheeks on the way down.
MARIE: Just so you know, I’ve now reached the fifth stage of publishing.
JOAN: An accomplishment?
MARIE: A clearance shelf.
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About the Book
Stage Whispers, Paul M. Kelly’s artfully crafted collection of one-act plays, takes aim at contemporary culture with an eye for the absurd, the allegorical, and the autobiographical. His rapier wit slashes open our sensibilities and exposes relationships through dialogue that exudes both pleasure and pain. The actions of his characters run the gamut from harmless to threatening, unsure to determined, adversely affected to calculating and controlling.
Kelly’s work, although written for the theatre, brings an immediate and perceptible presence to the page. Readers are instantly transported to visual and emotional realms where they are ushered to a front-row performance of the mind.
About the Author
Paul M. Kelly received his doctorate in education from Fordham University. A member of the Village Playwrights, founding member of the Queens Theatre in the Park Playwriting Group, and member of the Dramatists Guild of America, he has had numerous staged readings and full productions of his work. In his twenty-second year on the administrative staff at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Dr. Kelly divides his time between a home on Skaneateles Lake and co-op living in New York City.