Nikki Harmon - Artist & Playwright
ONE-ACTS
THE COLLECTOR AND THE CONTROLLER
Dark Comedy: 2m/1w - Cafe Michelle, on Rue de Dragon, Paris – a summer afternoon – 1983, after the Paris synagogue bombings.
An American garbage collector who’s won a trip to Paris on a game show, is decked out in a Hawaiian shirt, Bermuda shorts, a camera slung around his neck, and with a voice that can cut steel, is sitting at a table next to an elegance gentleman at an outdoor café and much to his chagrin, the American won't stop talking. As he rattles on, the refined one begins to warm to this roughhewn American and begins to talk about why he's in Paris himself. Neither are who or what they tell each other they are.
Production History
Production............Pittsburgh New Works Festival, Pittsburgh, PA
Winner..................Lawrence S. Epstein Playwriting Award
"The Collector And The Controller, a brilliantly disturbing comedy meticulously rendered as high drama."
JEFFREY DEVINCENT, Pittsburgh City Paper
"Harmon's play ranks among the Festival's strongest." Pittsburgh New Works Festival
ED BLANK, Tribune
JUST ANOTHER DAY WITHOUT DUCKS
Drama/Comedy: 3/w - Central Park lake, the day after Christmas - Present Day
Beryl is trying to commit suicide – again – and comes to feed the ducks one last time, but ends up invading a street woman's territory, becoming more interested in what Mattie's hiding than in her own suicide, leaving Mattie no choice but to defend what's hers, and the secret she’s protecting. All the while Calley continues to protect FDR from assassins.
Production History
Production.............Off-Broadway, West Bank Cafe Theatre, NY, NY
Production.............Buckham Alley Theatre, Flint, MI
Production.............Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
Staged Reading.....Metro Stage, Alexandria, VA
Finalist...................West Coast Ensemble Competition, Los Angeles, CA
West Bank Cafe Theatre - NYC
OF DOGS AND CATS AND OTHER THINGS
Comedy: 1m/2/w - on a bench in Central Park - Present Day
A story of opposites and birds of a feather - A tax attorney is in the park walking his dog Max, who has chronomentrophobia [fear of clocks] and lektorophobia [fear of chickens], and, embarrassingly enough, Ailurophobia [fear of cats!]. While watching Max play, Paulie strikes up a conversation with Alexcia, a downtown installation artist, who’s there with her “pet” - which he discovers is a cat! But, when Jennie comes along it’s a whole different story. Not only does she have a dog, but her dog has both lektorophobia and Ailurophobia!.
Production History
Production.............Off-Off Broadway – Love Creek, NY, NY
Semi-Finalist.........Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival, NY, NY
THE ROOM
Dark Comedy: 1m/1w - A New York City Hotel Room. Present Day
George Masters, of Winterset Iowa, has lost his job of 30 years, and comes to New York with his wife for a job interview. As George and Sybil wait in the hotel room they realize there are no windows, the phone only takes incoming calls, and the door won't open, and George panics. Is this the interview, or is George being paranoid? And then come the sounds. The motor. The water. The steam engine. The whistle. Stereophonic hearing tests? New hiring techniques? George cracks and Sybil holds her ground. Finally, George outsmarts them, and they escape . . . while The Room waits.
Production History
Production..............Off Off-Broadway – Love Creek Productions, NY, NY
Production..............Just Off Broadway Theatre, Kansas City, MO
Staged Reading......Mill Mountain Theatre, Roanoke, VA
Semi-Finalist...........Market House Theatre, Paduach, KY
GOOD BUY AGAIN
Comedy: 2w/2w os voices - The living room of Doris' Philadelphia apartment - Present day.
Doris sits in her apartment, wedged in and surrounded by mountains of home shopping club purchases, poised and ready to buy something else, while her daughter Lizie's at her wit's end trying to get her back into the real world with people who don't go away when you change the channel.
Production History
Production...........Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA
Finalist.................The Enchanted Players, Boonton, NJ
Gettysburg College
CONVERSATION WITH A . . .
Dark Comedy: cast of 3 - gender flexible - Dr. Canderfield’s apartment and the OR of a New York hospital - Present day.
A man is injured and rushed to a hospital with a wooden beam stuck in his chest. The beam is removed and the patient is healthy and healed. Is the patient who/what he says he is, and if so, what questions do youy ask a 600 year old Vampire? And when you get your answer, what then?
Production History
Semi-Finalist..................Drury University, Springfield, MO
Honorable Mention........Market House Theatre, Paducah. KY
WHAT THE RUNNING MAN DID AND THE OTHER MAN SAW
Satire/Drama: 2m/2/w - Washington, DC. Offices of the FBI; the intersection of 8th Street and E Street - Present Day.
What we see and what we remember are two different things, when the Government prefers it so. Poor Harry Bolin is standing on the wrong corner at the wrong time. The FBI arrests him, interrogates him, and accuses him, but gives him a way out. Testify to what they want him to remember and they'll let him go. As the interrogation continues we see what Harry saw, played out, over and over, until he gets it right.
Production History
Production..............Main Street Arts, Nyack, NY
Main Street Arts
