Light Switch
Play Description
Henry Sullivan, 27, single, gay, and autistic, lives his life vicariously through the heroes and heroines of the 19th-century British novels he devours. But no marriage plot has prepared him for dating as a contemporary gay man. When he meets a potential match in Joseph, every romantic notion of his will finally come true — or will it? Hilarious and heartbreaking, LIGHT SWITCH tells the story of one remarkable young man's journey toward love and acceptance over the span of twenty years.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (1 female, 4 male, doubling)Full Length Comedy (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
- Productions
Press Quotes
“LIGHT SWITCH is a vital and important theatrical piece. Dave Osmundsen, a gay, autistic playwright, weaves his personal experiences as both child and an adult into a passionate tapestry of loving relationships and insights into the autistic mind. LIGHT SWITCH will have you on the edge of your seat with riveting humor as well as deeply felt emotional moments, portrayed in a manner that is engaging, entertaining and educational. Its messages go well beyond the world of autism and LGBTQ relationships, and will be meaningful for those whose lives are touched by autism as well as those whose lives are not (or not yet).” —Barry M Prizant, author of Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism
“With LIGHT SWITCH, Osmundsen has created one of the great central characters of contemporary theater in a beautifully written story existing at the intersection of neurodiversity and queerness. The play is a classic example of the specific being universal. What defines us as individuals differs in the details, yet we are all after the same things in life. Just like the main character Henry, we all seek love. I highly recommend this play for theaters with young ensembles and for people interested in sitting down to read a fantastic play that will entertain and move them.” —Brian James Polak, playwright and host of The Subtext podcast
“Its intersectional importance aside, LIGHT SWITCH is simply a magnificent, skillfully-written play. It tells the story of a challenged, often challenging, but always endearing young man who is learning how to love.” —Michael John Carley, Founder, GRASP, Director, the Connections Program for New York University’s global Autistic Students, Author, The Book of Happy, Positive, and Confident Sex for Adults on the Autism Spectrum … and Beyond!
“With LIGHT SWITCH, Dave Osmundsen has deftly written a beautifully poignant play of first love and self-acceptance through an Autistic lens. The relationships in the play are painfully complicated and fully realized by the playwright’s keen observations of young people colliding in a world of love, sex, intimacy and intellectualism. It’s a world I didn’t know, but a world that I’m grateful Dave gave me a tender glimpse of.” —Gary Garrison, playwright, and author of Perfect 10: Writing and Producing the 10-Minute Play
Author(s)
Dave OsmundsenDave Osmundsen (He/Him/His) is an Autistic playwright and dramaturg whose work explores the intersections of queerness and neurodiversity. His work has been seen and developed at KCACTF Region 8, the Kennedy Center/NNPN MFA Playwrights Workshop, B Street Theatre, the William Inge Theatre Festival, the Midwest Dramatists Conference, Phoenix Theatre Company, Clamour Theatre Company, Premiere Stages, and more. He was one of two recipients of the Blank Theatre and Ucross Foundation's inaugural Future of Playwriting Prize. His play LIGHT SWITCH received its world premiere with Spectrum Theatre Ensemble in April 2022. LIGHT SWITCH was also the 2021 Distinguished Achievement recipient of the Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, an Honorable Mention finalist for BAPF 2021, longlisted for the Theatre503 International Playwriting Award, a finalist for the 2020 Carlo Annoni Playwriting Prize, and a semi-finalist for the 2020 National Playwrights Conference. His one-act, A FIREWORK UNEXPLODED, was a semi-finalist for the NYC Audio Theatre Writing Contest and was produced by Pint-Sized in London. His plays have been published by or are forthcoming in The Dionysian, Canyon Voices, Exposition Review and Broadway Play Publishing. MFA: Arizona State University.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 5/25/2022 |
| Pages | 86 |
| ISBN | 9780881459333 |
Special Notes
If original stage producers credits appear in bold below, all licensees are required to include them in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:
In addition, the following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com
Upcoming and Recent Productions
Nonprofessional
Related Plays
$15.00
Play Description
David Drake's smash hit one-man show, here reconceived for an ensemble of twelve, tells the story of his call to gay pride and activism through a series of vignettes exploring thoughts and emotions shared by a whole generation of gay men and women.
Production Info
Cast: 12 total (12 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
A satirical piece which turns its sharp eye on political correctness, office politics, sexual harassment, religious persuasions, and societal and cultural norms. The actors don’t know which role they’ll play until the audience decides for them at each performance. The actors forge their own unique interpretations in any one of the 40,320 possible casting combinations that could confront them, creating a unique and hilarious interpretation of the show every night.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (4 female, 4 male, Flexible Casting)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
Play Description
Dog and Buck, former lovers, run into each other at a bar. Both now have AIDS. Buck’s disease is in the advanced stages, and Dog refuses to recognize and acknowledge their shared past and, inevitably, their shared future.
Production Info
Cast: 2 total (2 male)Short Drama (about 30 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
SOMEWHERE IN THE PACIFIC takes place on a troop ship at the end of World War II. The ship's captain is haunted by the death of his son in battle, and the young marines under his command are terrified and restless as they are stalked by an invisible enemy.
Production Info
Cast: 9 total (9 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
An action-adventure about a mission behind enemy lines during the Gulf War.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (1 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00
Play Description
In JERKER, alternatively titled “The Helping Hand, A Pornographic Elegy with Redeeming Social Value and A Hymn to the Queer Men of San Francisco in Twenty Telephone Calls, Many of them Dirty,” J.R. and Bert’s anonymous telephone-sex relationship continues to evolve into something deeper until Bert’s health begins to fail.
Production Info
Cast: 2 total (2 male)Full Length Drama (about 70 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$12.95–$15.00
Play Description
FORTY-DEUCE explores the homosexual prostitution scene around 42nd Street in the 1980s, where a toxic mix of drugs, sex, and money make survival a brutal struggle.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (7 male)Full Length Drama (about 110 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$12.95–$15.00
Play Description
Trapped in horrendous and cramped living conditions with his father and grandfather, Rosario Cortez battles to break his family's cycle of poverty and remove his son from the violence and squalor of the urban ghetto.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (1 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
BIG BILL captures tennis player William Tilden’s turbulent life in a series of scenes that shift back and forth in time. Performed on a set that resembles a tennis arena, the play illuminates the sportsman’s distinguished career, extravagant style, personal travails, and, ultimately, his calamitous downfall. A fascinating look at the glory of sport, the power of fame, and the anguish of being an outcast.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (1 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Single Set
Contemporary Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
The true story of two actors who hired themselves out to the Long Beach Police Department in 1914 to entrap “social vagrants” in public restrooms. Thirty-one men were arrested, and the ensuing scandal led to an ordinance against “oral sodomy” in California.
Production Info
Cast: 2 total (2 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
Play Description
A trilogy of interconnected one-act plays, whose subject matter is the AIDS epidemic. In (WILD) PERSON, TENSE (DOG) Dog and Buck, former lovers, run into each other at a bar. Both now have AIDS. Buck’s disease is in the advanced stages, and Dog refuses to recognize and acknowledge their shared past and, inevitably, their shared future. In THE DEPLORATION OF ROVER Fido is angry that Rover, in spite of being sick, continues to act on his desires. And in HOLD Dog reminisces with Lad, his lover, as he undresses him, but Lad, who has died of AIDS, exists now only in Dog’s imagination.
Production Info
Cast: 5 total (5 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes