nada, the short opera I wrote with composer Tze Yeung Ho for the Strange Trace Opera Company’s Stencils Opera Festival, premiered November 2022. Check out the trailer here.

nada is inspired by Bluma Zeigarnik’s theory of “Task Interruption, but it’s definitely moved beyond that simple idea.

Lithuanian psychologist, Bluma Zeigarnik’s (1900-1988) most famous insight: people remember the details of tasks if they are disrupted or the task is incomplete, much better than they recall the details of tasks that they finish without interruption.

The Zeigarnik Effect, also known as “Task Interruption” or the “Cliffhanger Effect” is charismatic in our world of distraction, multi-tasking, and shortening attention-spans. (By the way, if, while you’re reading this, you need to stop for a moment and grab a cup of coffee or dash off a text, go for it.)

The COVID-19 Pandemic is a great example of a collective interruption.

The Zeigarnik Effect is oft-cited these days when opinion-makers agonize over whether juggling a variety of undertakings, communications, and connections is inspiring and/or overwhelming us.

Out of the blue we’re confronted with the latest tweet, a long lost lover online, a job offer on Linked In, a podcast that vows to transform our lives, a neurosurgeon who tells us everything we know about our mind is wrong, technologists, teachers, and philosophers who all exhort us to look at our world in different ways.

Even our lust for long-form series TV and serial podcasts underscores our desire for interruption: we want the whole story — we just don’t want it all at once.

The new opera is modular, goofy, interrupted, and moving — a wild disruptive ride.

(The images of the Virgin Mary on this page are from Tze Yeung Ho.

A ten-minute play

The story: At a family vigil for his dying wife, Dave is stifled by his children's dreams of the perfect death. He meets a young woman, makes calls about a local election and suffers through the election loss. When he returns to his wife's death bed, his kids are furious he left their mother's side and frantic that something may have happened to him. Dave, however, had a great election night.

PERFECT ENDINGS — Production History

Millibo Art Theatre in Colorado Springs, CO is producing Perfect Endings for 7 performances as part of their VOTE! New Play Festival October 20-29, 2022.

Ann Thomas directed Perfect Endings at The Pacifica Table Readers in San Francisco, CA in 2007.

Pegasus Theater Company produced Perfect Endings in Guerneville, CA in 2006, directed by Lois Pearlman.

Perfect Endings was developed for Monday Night PlayGround in where it was presented as a staged reading on January 18, 2004, directed by Jim Kleinmann, Artistic Director.

Nuclear family members, Katie, Hal, and their daughter, Jenny, reveal the feelings they can't share with each other in this ten-minute musical.   

Casting:  2W, 1M

Production:  Best of PlayGround Festival, 2010,  Dir. Barbara Oliver.  Music by Joshua Brody.

Staged Reading:  Monday Night PlayGround, 2010,  Dir.  Ryan Rilette.  Music by Joshua Brody. 

Publication:  Best of PlayGround, 2010

Award:  People’s Choice Award Winner, PlayGround

Photo:  Courtesy of PlayGround.  Back To Earth with Stacy Ross, Brian Herndon, & Elena Wright. 

Video:  Courtesy of PlayGround.  Back to Earth directed by Barbara Oliver.  Brian Herndon as Hal, Stacy Ross as Katie. 

Cleaning out their dead mother's bedroom, two sisters live out their old rivalry when  they discover a forgotten weapon. 

Casting:  2W  

Length:  10 minutes             

Productions:  Tapas Festival, Pegasus Theatre Co., Monte Rio, CA, 2009, directed by Darlene Kersnar

SFSU Brown Bag Theatre, 2007, directed by  Terry Beswick                

Pacifica Table Readers, 2007, directed by Ann Thomas & Ian Fink 

Offstage Theatre Co., Charlottesville, VA, 2007, directed by Elizabeth Whittemore 

Staged Reading:  Monday Night PlayGround, 2004, directed by Tom Ross        

Awards: 6th Street Playhouse, New Works Festival, Honorable Mention, 2005

Quickies Festival, Actors Theatre of Santa Rosa, Honorable Mention, 2005

Read Me:  You can read Cleaning Out on the New Play Exchange.  

Photo Credit:  Elizabeth Simmons    

Synopsis:  When Melanie's husband returns from a tour of duty in Iraq, she doesn't recognize him. 

Casting:  3W, 2M

Production:                  Best of PlayGround Festival, 2005, Dir. Jonathan Moscone

Staged Reading:       Monday Night PlayGround, 2005, Dir. Jonathan Moscone

Publication:             Best of PlayGround, 2005

Read the play, BACK.

Synopsis:  Queen Isabella uses an arsenal of tactics to convince King Ferdinand to use his venture capital to fund Christopher Columbus. 

Casting:  1W, 1M

Length:  10 minutes

Production History:    

Theatre Ariel, Readings & Discussion, November, 2016

Theatre Ariel, "Stranger in Our Midst" Festival, 2011. 

Best of PlayGround Festival, 2007.   Directed by Elizabeth Williamson.      

Staged Reading:   Monday Night PlayGround, 2006.   Directed by Bill Selig.

Podcast:             KQED Writer’s Block Podcast, 2008, Directed by Jim Kleinmann

Publication:          Best of PlayGround, 2007

The first motion picture electrifies The Society of Free Love and Universal Enlightenment, leading to horror, amazement, and, God forbid, marriage. 

Casting:  2W, 4M

Length:  Ten Minutes

Productions:  FN Productions, New York, NY, 2007, directed by  Halina Ujda

San Francisco State University,  One-Act Fringe, 2007, directed by Roy Conboy    

Staged Reading: No Nude Men Benefit, 2007, directed by Stuart Bousel

Publication:  Stage This, Too, 2007

As Daphne and Gary make love, they spar over the power of mind vs. body, thought vs. feeling, cat vs. mouse. 

". . .wittily blends aesthetics with sexual tease. A scantily clad beauty ruminates on John Berger's theories on nudes while pointedly ignoring her naked lover . When he responds in song, she turns the tables in a comically devastating twist." -- Robert Hurwitt, 

". . . intimate and nuanced as they deal with the complications of love, vulnerability and loneliness."  -- Sonia Fernandez

Casting:  1W, 1M                                             

Production:   Best of PlayGround Festival, 2009, directed by Amy Mueller

Staged Reading:   Monday Night PlayGround, 2009, directed by Delia McDougall

Publication:  Best of PlayGround 2009

Photo:  Courtesy of PlayGround.  Michael Phillis as Gary, Danielle Levin as Daphne. 

Video:  Courtesy of PlayGround.  Directed by Amy Mueller. Michael Phillis as Gary, Danielle Levin as Daphne. 

"In this gritty, unsentimental, and strangely magical piece, two street-dwelling down-and-outers clash over conflicting versions of the future."  -- Laura Brueckner

“. . . Takes a familiar scenario – two homeless buddies drinking and arguing – and makes it lyrical and poignant. Nicky (Jomar Tagatac), the younger guy, is a heavy drinker, but all the alcohol can’t quite obscure his hope for a better, more meaningful life. Sammy (David Cramer) has been on the streets too long. His hope doesn’t extend much beyond looking at the rain from the inside of a warm room for a change. Nicky’s latest burst of enthusiasm concerns a quote – he thinks it’s by Jack Kerouac, but it’s really by Eugene O’Neill – and if he cuts up the words of the quote and draws them randomly from a bag, the words create poetry and visions of the future. As directed by Raelle Myrick-Hodges, Pine’s piece is gritty and beautiful.” — Chad Jones, Theater Dogs

Casting:  2 actors, any gender, any age, any background

Productions:  Double XX Festival, Seattle, WA, 2012 Dir. Katie Haster

Best of PlayGround Festival, 2011, Dir. Raelle Myrick-Hodges                                

Staged Reading:  Monday Night PlayGround, 2010  Dir. Molly Noble

Publication:   Best of PlayGround, 2011

Award:   People’s Choice Award Winner, PlayGround

"A new legend is created in Evelyn Jean Pine's Simple and Elegant.  With the style and feel of a favorite childhood storybook, Evy tells us a story of two sisters who live in a magical world where fish possess the power of speech.   Though resembling the shape and sound of a fairy tale, Evy's play provokes further thought with an unconventional happily-ever-after." -- Celine Delcayre

Casting:  2W, 1M

Length:  10 minutes

Production:  PlayGround Festival of New Works, 2013, Dir. Tracy Ward.

Staged reading:  Monday Night PlayGround, Berkeley Rep, 2012, Dir. Nancy Carlin.

Publication:  Best of PlayGround, 2013, Cass Brayton, Editor. 

Read me:  Read Simple & Elegant here at the New Play Exchange. 

Coeus and Creos, old, infirm, and forgotten, can agree on only one thing: old age is hell, but it does endow one with that most potent of all superpowers — invisibility. Can the twins collaborate to use their superpower to outsmart the magnificent Hades and destroy the god of the underworld? And if they succeed in this impossible scheme, will any of their brethren recognize them, remember them, and join with them to bring down the Olympic Empire?

Casting: 3W, 6M

Length:  One Act

Staged reading :  San Francisco Olympians Festival, Exit Theatre, 2012, Dir. Karen Offereins. 

Award:  People’s Choice Award Winner, S.F. Olympians Festival, 2012

The beautiful poster for the play is by David Van Patten.  You can see more of his work here.