Secret Hour
Play Description
Thirty-five-year-old Kate is a professor of Ethics, with only one rule for her students — do not lie to her. She asks her students to answer the question, “Is your greatest ethical responsibility to yourself, or others?” However, as Kate and her husband struggle to have a baby, she finds herself unable to answer it as she faces an ethical dilemma of her own. SECRET HOUR explores womanhood, motherhood, and the space between right and wrong.
Production Info
Cast: 3 total (1 female, 2 male)Full Length Drama (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
Press Quotes
“SECRET HOUR is a masterly, thoroughly involving theatrework; rich in humor and compassion for characters who ring with the authenticity of life.” —The Berkshire Eagle
“Stafford’s dialogue is fiery and incredibly smart, peppered with genuine humor, humanity and honest emotion. Funny, smart and engaging. Highly recommended. A gem.” —The Daily Gazette
“SECRET HOUR is quick, funny and smart in an engaging way.” —Trans Union
“Stafford’s play is a story of true love and its cost through human nature … a delectable comedy.” —The Berkshire Edge
“The show invites you in, to watch the cracks and lies in their lives burst through their veneers. It is performed with great humor, strong delivery, and a large serving of sadness and deceit. It is engaging, fun, sad, and emotional … SECRET HOUR is a very satisfying time spent at the theatre.” —Nippertown Review
“A wise, perceptive work. It is an enjoyable parable about the search for the authentic life about which Kate teaches. As all parables, the plot is simple, until examined. The success of the play is in the balance playwright Stafford finds in the story. Thankfully, Stafford leavens what could be a dreary work about truth, right and wrong, and authenticity by adding a lot of humor. Though it cannot be called a comedy, you will laugh more than at most plays that do call themselves comedies. SECRET HOUR might not change your life … but it could.” —Troy Record
Author(s)
Jenny StaffordJenny Stafford is an award-winning bookwriter, lyricist, playwright, and essayist whose works have been heard on Broadway, regionally, and internationally. Broadway: Cirque du Soleil's PARAMOUR. Regional: SECRET HOUR (Capital Repertory Theatre world premiere), THE HOMEFRONT (with Sam Salmond and Malika Oyetemin, Village Theatre, NAMT and Kleban finalist), THE ARTIST AND THE SCIENTIST (with Brandon Anderson, CAP21), EXTENDED STAY (with Scotty Arnold, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, upcoming production at WOW Theatre), PRODIGY (CCU, NYU, Two Rivers Theatre Company, and Indiana University), TO HAVE AND TO HOLD (Prospect Theatre Company, Barrington Stage), CINDERELLA (commissioned/produced by the Spotlight Youth Theatre), TWO BUGS ARE BETTER THAN ONE (commissioned/produced Off-Broadway by the New York City Children's Theatre, all with Willem Oosthuysen), THE STAR CHILD (with Sarah Underwood and Josh Freilich, produced at French Woods), AWAKENING (with Joel B. New and J. Oconer Navarro), BEATING A DEAD HORSE (winner of the 2017 Reva Shiner Comedy Award, Bloomington Playwrights Project), COLOR INSIDE THE LINES (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Denver Fringe Festival — winner of the "Best Solo Show" award), ELEANOR AND DOLLY (upcoming world premiere at Vintage Theatre) and SKITTLES (Woolly Mammoth). International: SOME KIND OF WEASLE (2020 Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Cirque du Soleil's PARAMOUR (Hamburg, Germany), ALIVE (The Space UK, Edinburgh, published through Pioneer Drama), COLOR INSIDE THE LINES (2021/2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Her work has been featured at the Lincoln Center Songbook Series (The Lyrics of Jennifer Stafford), Prospect Theatre Company, The National Alliance for Musical Theatre Songwriter Salon, the New York Musical Theatre Festival, 54 Below, Ars Nova, Joe's Pub, and numerous other NYC venues, including multiple inclusions in William Finn's Ridiculously Talented concert series. Awards: Capital Rep New Works Award, 2017 Reva Shiner Comedy Award, 2021 and 2022 ASCAP Plus Award, Denver Fringe Best Solo Show (COLOR INSIDE THE LINES), the Paulette Goddard Award. Nominations for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Spirit of the Online Fringe Award and the Fringe Review Hidden Gem Award in Edinburgh. Finalist status for the Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre (2018 and 2021), the Yale Institute for Music Theatre, the Eugene O'Neill Musical Theatre Conference, the National Alliance for Musical Theatre Conference, the McKnight Fellowship, the PEN Fellowship, and the Ronald M. Ruble New Play Competition. Artist in Residence: Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Village Theatre, Johnny Mercer Writers Colony, Catwalk Institute, Hypatia in the Woods, Goodspeed Musicals, CAP 21, the Ross Ragland Theatre, the Berkshire Playwrights Theatre. She is also an essayist, with essays published in the Colorado Sun, the Santa Ana Review, and the Ponder Review. Dramatists Guild member. MFA, Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Jenny is the head of playwriting and musical theatre bookwriting at Temple University.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 5/17/2023 |
| Pages | 68 |
| ISBN | 9780881459722 |
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
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