Marcia Kash’s first play, the highly successful Who’s Under Where? written with Douglas E. Hughes, has been translated into 10 languages and received over 150 productions around the world. Together with Mr. Hughes, she has also penned the whodunnit A Party To Murder, an hilarious period comedy Too Many Cooks, a seniors’ caper Jack of Diamonds, and an award winning political farce, Something Fishy. Most recently their whodunnit Deadline premiered in the US to rave reviews.
They are now working on a psychological drama entitled Succour. For more information about these plays contact Concordtheatricals.com
Working solo, Marcia’s credits include the highly popular Discovering Elvis, and her family drama For This Moment Alone.
Together with collaborator Mary Colin Chisholm, Ms. Kash wrote the screenplay, A Belly Full, which received two development awards from Telefilm Canada. Adapted into a stage play it received its world premiere at The Mill at Sonning in the UK in 2019 and its Canadian premiere at Theatre Aquarius. The screenplay is now in development.
The Plays
A Belly Full
written by Mary Colin Chisholm and Marcia Kash
2 Acts, 7F/2M, 110 minutes
A “coming of middle-age” comedy with great roles for women with a range of ages, ethnicities and body types, A Belly Full premiered in the UK at The Mill at Sonning in May, 2019, and at Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton, ON, in spring 2020.
SYNOPSIS: The self-effacing Jane and her over-achieving best friend Marnie show up at the wrong church basement, and find themselves joining a belly dancing class, where they meet an oddball group of women. Under the guidance of their exotic teacher, the colourful Shalimar, the women begin to overcome their body-image hang-ups while forming a close bond. But as they learn to jiggle, they must also juggle their relationships with one another, their families and their classmates, tasks complicated by Jane’s agoraphobic husband and Marnie’s growing bespoke baking business.
When infidelity strains their loyalties, they are pushed to re-evaluate and redefine themselves, finally trusting their guts to lead them through the unpredictable dance that is life.
What the critics say…
“Mary Colin Chisholm and Marcia Kash explore many and various human situations in this sweet, funny play..” The Slotkin Letter“…exactly the sort of material to delight audiences… a fusion of two popular genres with its heart ever in the right place.” —Christopher Gray, Oxford Times
“I’ve seen a lot of productions at The Mill at Sonning over the years, and I’m delighted to say this world premiere has shimmied its way to the top of my list of favourites. This is a hip-wiggling hit!” —Tim Masters, The Man in the Grand Circle
“…the vibrant story of how seven women plucked from different paths of life are brought together by the art of belly dancing… A Belly Full is empowering, poignant and undeniably heroic. —Taz Usher, Wokingham Today
“…a bit Calendar Girls-y, a bit Stepping Out-y, in that it’s all about how going to a bellydance class brings friendship, personal growth and empowerment to a group of women from all walks of life… very true to our own experiences of learning and teaching bellydance… warm-hearted and positive and represented a real cross-section of the kind of students we often see in our classes.” —Beatrice Curtis, Egyptian Dance Teacher
A BELLY FULL IS ALSO A SCREENPLAY
DEVELOPED WITH ASSISTANCE FROM TELEFILM CANADA
A Party to Murder
An Agatha Christie-style whodunnit
By Marcia Kash and Doug Hughes
6 characters (3F/3M) 1 set
It’s Hallowe’en and six people have come to play a murder-mystery game hosted by mystery writer Charles Prince on an island in the famous Cassandra lakes. They appear to be set for a weekend of fun, but when ghosts from the past begin to haunt them, it becomes clear that all is not as it seems. The game takes on a sinister dimension as guests start to turn up dead and the players realize that they may in fact be playing for their lives. As the tension rises, secret passages, hidden bodies and a twenty-five year old mystery all twist and turn together – leading to an unexpected and terrifying ending.
A Party to Murder’ received its premiere in 1996 , and has since been produced dozens of times in Canada, the United States and the U.K–where it toured in 2006. It is also a popular piece in Shanghai, presented frequently around Halloween- in Chinese of course!
What the critics say:
“A Party to Murder thrills, Christie fashion”
Kentucky Recorder (U.S.)
” …enough to turn Dame Agatha green with envy.”
Oxford Press (Ohio)
“I have rarely sat in a theatre with a feeling almost akin to the hairs rising on the back of my neck, but Act 1 of Marcia Kash’s and Douglas Hughes’ thriller had that effect on me and, I suspect, much of the audience.” The Stage (U.K)
“Intriguing red herrings and tantalizing twists and turns provided a clever and original plot for this unusual thriller”
Reading Chronicle (U.K,)
“Playwrights Marcia Kash and Douglas E. Hughes have embraced the mystery formula with cheeky charm and skillfully crafted an enjoyable trip through safe and cozy mayhem.”
London Free Press
“Brilliant–even better than Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians…well-planned and full of surprises.”
The Free Press (Saskatoon)
“The late Dame Agatha. . . is probably nodding with approval from her picture over the fireplace…the tension folds and unfolds like an accordion, revealing hidden passageways, supernatural events, and a bevy of bodies building to a superb climax.”
The Kentucky Recorder
DEADLINE
A comedy thriller
By Marcia Kash and Douglas E. Hughes
6 actors- 3 m/3f
When a famous playwright dies unexpectedly, leaving behind his highly-anticipated but unfinished play, writers Don and Mara are hired to complete it in time for an imminent Broadway opening. With the clock ticking, they attempt to get into his mind but instead find themselves trapped in the world he has created. When people start turning up dead , the writers realize that solving this whodunnit has literally become a matter of life and death.
Deadline recently premiered at The Human Race Theatre Company in the U.S. to great critical and box office success. Its’s been likened to Clue, Knives Out and Agatha Christie, but Deadline also works on a meta level. It’s an homage to the writing process itself.
“Human Race’s ‘DEADLINE’ a Masterful New Mystery” (and) “Deadline offers a new twist on a very old (and treasured) idea (Cincinnati League of Theatres)
Discovering Elvis
by Marcia Kash
3 men, 3 women
One set, plus mylar curtain or revolve
Taped musical accompaniments or live band
A snow storm can’t stop die-hard Elvis impersonators from showing up to compete in the first round of a competition that could take them to their ultimate goal: headlining in Las Vegas!
In their very unusual world, these erstatz Elvii have to face ridicule from the outside, and fierce competition from the inside, but as we come to know them, we understand a little more about why they want to be Elvis and how important it is for each of them to win.
When the actions of a crazy fan seriously jeopardize their chances at competing, they abandon their one-up-man-ship and come together to make sure that the show goes on. And on it most definitely goes!
Which Elvis wins the competition? The audience gets to be the judge.
Click here to read Discovering Elvis Reviews
All Rights Reserved
For A Good Time Call…
A comedy in two acts
By Ian D. Clark and Marcia Kash
One set, 7 characters– 4 M, 3 FT
Henry and his wife Charlotte are leaving in two days for their long-postponed honeymoon to Paris. All the plans are made, their house is rented, the promise of unbridled passion is building. The only trouble is, unbeknownst to Charlotte, Henry lost his job six months ago, spent all their savings and can’t even pay for the plane tickets. As Henry enters the final stages of panic, his neighbour and friend, the perennially unemployed actor Tristan, comes to Henry’s rescue by unwittingly introducing him to his own “part time job’—phone sex.
As Henry begins to learn the tricks of the trade, coached by Easy, the owner of For a Good Time Call…, Charlotte jumps to the wrong conclusions and is out for blood, only to be thwarted by the ambitious store-detective, Bloggins, who has followed her home from a shopping spree in order to arrest her for shoplifting. The situation becomes ever more hilarious and complicated as the characters desperately try to untangle themselves from the classic farcical web of deceits they have spun.
For A Good Time Call… premiered in Warsaw, Poland in October 2018 followed by a national tour
For This Moment Alone
A Play in Two Acts
By Marcia Kash
4 M, 2F
Based on a true story.
All Rights Reserved 2011
Set in Toronto in 1948, a Jewish family, struggling to recover from the horrors of the war in Europe, finally has cause to rejoice. Ruth is about to be reunited with the only surviving member of her immediate family–her brother Freddie. But when she goes to Union Station to meet him she is faced with the most devastating shock of her young life: the brother she was expecting turns out to be a stranger; an imposter holding her brother’s papers. Suddenly she and the family with whom she lives are forced into a situation that is almost impossible to resolve: if they abandon this displaced person they condemn him to more pain, more suffering and risk the possibility of his being deported. For Joe, the patriarch of the family, there is no choice: to save one life is to save the world. He takes this enigmatic “Freddie” into his home, and calls upon himself and the other members of the household to embark on finding some way of living with their suspicions, their anger and their guilt. At what point do you stop helping your fellow man? Should there be a line between “blood” and “water”?
Where does responsibility end? The play follows the paths of Ruthie, Joe and the rest of the family as they come to terms with what it means to accept, to forgive and to survive.
The title is a Talmudic reference to the hope that exists for humanity. When a person does a good deed that (s)he doesn’t need to do, God looks down and says “for this moment alone it was worth creating the world”.
Premiere Production: Theatre Aquarius, Hamilton, Ontario March 2011
Click here to read Hamilton Spectator Review
TOM MACKAN, View Magazine
March 31 – April 6, 2011
There’s a whole lot of play in Marcia Kash’s For This Moment Alone and I recommend you get to your seats and settle back for a memorable evening. Detail is the operative in both the play and the production. You shouldn’t miss any of it. As in all really good stories you have to be drawn in from the opening lines, to be taken up and carried along, you have to know when you are in the hands of a story–teller with a story to tell who won’t let you down. In this Aquarius production you will know from the moment you see the pre–set of Patrick Clark’s 1948 Toronto upstairs flat, so evocative of its time, so complete in the minutiae of lives and living, that you’re in for an evening of rich, traditional, theatre. Directed with confident assurance by Sarah Garton Stanley, assisted by Leora Morris, and with her eye on the pace and rhythm of the text, she guides her cast of seven gifted actors expertly. Superbly served by her set and costume designer Clark, Renee Brode’s warm and natural lighting, the effective sound and effects by Anna Maria Steger, the whole in the masterful hands of Stage Manager Rob Middleton and ASM Sarah Miller, Ms. Stanley has done Marsha Kash proud.
Tension and mystery mix with laughter and family warmth. Loyalty and betrayal, love and rejection, hope and despair, these are the elements that carry the power of the tale. Canada was coming into its maturity in the fragile ‘40s. Kash taps into our struggle as a nation emerging from the terrible and unspeakable atrocities of the war just ended, forcing innocent eyes to confront experiences from the belly of the beast. How can life go on with any sense of purpose or resolve in the knowledge of the horror that brought us to this place, we ask. “Us” are the straggling remnants of the Goldfarbs, refugees from the Europe of the ‘30s. Joe has gathered his sister Bertha, his teen son Norman, and his young adult niece by marriage, Ruth, to make a family of sorts of what is left of them. He runs a grocery shop in Toronto and they all share the upstairs flat. Their neighbours and friends Sol and Ada, round out this tiny community. Spending his spare financial resources in his continuing search for possible family survivors in the displaced persons camps of Europe, he finds his nephew Freddie, Ruth’s older brother, and the story opens with his expected arrival at Union Station to join them. Ruth is ecstatic in her anticipation of this reunion. And thus does this true and moving story move into a whole new gear. Let there not be a spoiler here, and let us say only that happiness is deferred as mystery and suspense arise, perceptions are challenged, and outcomes become maddeningly uncertain. As I said, story–telling at its best.
Hardee T. Lineham in his Aquarius debut as Joe takes charge of the family with stunning clarity of voice and delicately measured emotion. It is a compassionate and wholly convincing performance. As Aunt Bertha, Tanja Jacobs brings a treasure chest of skill and experience, creating the strength that binds them all together, a compelling and real presence, with poise and pace, everything timed and delivered impeccably. They are well–supported in the roles of Sol (fully realized by Neil Foster) and Ada (played with comedic excellence by Maria Vacratsis). Tal Gottfried plays Ruth, the soul most tortured by the events given to disarm her sweet expectations, and in the disarming, is most convincing. A gifted actor, she had me wondering how controlling the strength of her emotions from hysteria downward into more depth in the process might be worth exploring. Similarly, and in his scenes with her, actor Aaron Stern as her confused and angry cousin Norman, had to risk those limits, where he was otherwise touching and effective in his adolescent charm. Ian Lake transfixed us with his performance as Freddie, deeply focused and in the end, giving us “this moment alone” in a moving finale of heart wrenching exposition. Altogether an evening of excellent theatre.
Production History
Scripts Written and Produced
Deadline (Written with Douglas E. Hughes)
- Human Race Theatre, Dayton Oh, USA
- (World Premiere 2022)
A Belly Full (Written with Mary Colin Chisholm)
- The Mill At Sonning, Berkshire, Uk (World Premiere 2019);
- Theatre Aquarius, 2020; Also a screenplay developed with two awards from Telefilm Canada, currently in development
Something Fishy (Written with Douglas E. Hughes) *
- Lighthouse Festival, Port Dover;
- Kultury Teatr, Warsaw, Poland;
- Published by Samuel French (2018). Now translated into Polish
Jack Of Diamonds (Written with Douglas E. Hughes) **
- More Than 30 Productions in North America
- Theatre Aquarius, Hamilton
- Published By Samuel French (2016)
- Adapted Into a Screenplay 2021
For This Moment Alone (A Drama)
- Numerous Productions in The US/Canada
- Premiered at Theatre Aquarius, March 2011
- Developed with help from Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre, Playwrights Workshop Montreal, Neptune Theatre and with a grant from The Canada Council For The Arts and The Alberta Foundation For The Arts.
- Originally Commissioned by CBC Radio Drama–One Hour Drama (Sunday Showcase) under the title Thicker Than Water
- Published by Dramatists Play Service, (2012)
Discovering Elvis (Commission) ***
- Theatre Des Cascades, Pointe-Des-Cascades, Quebec (French Translation)
- 2019 Theatre Beaumont St-Michel, Quebec City (French Translation) 2011
- Theatre De Rougemont, Pq (French Translation) Tour Of Quebec (12 Cities) Theatre De L’ile, Hull, Pq (French Translation)
- Lighthouse Festival, Port Dover
- Victoria Playhouse, Petrolia
- Circa 21 Dinner Playhouse, Rock Island Il, Usa,
- Port Hope Festival, Port Hope,
- On Persephone Theatre, Saskatoon,
- Mayfield Theatre, Edmonton
- Lunchbox Theatre, Calgary
- Available In French
Who’s Under Where? (Written with Douglas E. Hughes)
- More than 150 productions around the world including: Poland, Pakistan, Greece, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, England, U.S. And Canada.
- Now available in 10 languages
- Published 1994 by Samuel French Inc. NY
A Party To Murder (Written with Douglas E. Hughes)
- Over 50 productions worldwide including: Shanghai Modern Theatre, China (2007-2021) Shenzhen Theatre, Shenzhen, China (2018)
- Provincial #1 Tour of UK (2006)
- Hedgerow Theatre, Philadelphia, USA,
- The Mill At Sonning, Reading, UK
- Persephone Theatre, SK,
- Ensemble Theatre, Cincinnati, OH, USA,
- Workshop West New Play Festival ’96,
- Now Available In Mandarin
- Published 1999, by Samuel French, Inc
Too Many Cooks (Written with Douglas E. Hughes)
- Over 50 productions worldwide including: Komedia Teatr, Warsaw
- Drayton Entertainment, ON
- Upper Canada Playhouse, ON
- Petrolia Summer Theatre, Petrolia, ON,
- Lighthouse Festival, Port Dover, ON
- Shaw Festival Workshop
- Now Available In French, Polish
- Published 2012, by Samuel French, Inc. NY
For A Good Time Call… (Written with Ian D. Clark)
- Teatr Fabryka Marzen, Poland
- 3-Year Tour
Poodle Skirts To Platform Shoes (Full-Length Rock And Roll Review)
- Theatre Aquarius, Mayfield Dinner Theatre
Top Of The Pops -The British Rock Invasion, A Rock And Roll Review
- Mayfield Dinner Theatre
* Winner Of The 2014 Tom Hendry Award For Best New Comedy
** Runner Up Tom Hendry Award For Best New Comedy 2013
***Best New Play Nomination-Les Masques, Quebec
Works In Development
Catch A Falling Star A Tv Series
A Belly Full (Screenplay)
The Girls – a musical (with Leslie Arden)
Training
Drama Centre London, Acting Graduate, 3 Years
Screenwriting TFI Josh Miller, 10 Weeks
Screenwriting Workshop, Robert Mckee
Writing For Series Tv, TFI At Banff, Frank Borg, 12-Day Intensive