In May of 2024, the wonderful folks at Wildsong Productions in Ocean Beach (a San Diego community) requested Milo Shapiro create a one-act version his previously two-act play “Tales from the Crib” in the San Diego Fringe Festival…only about six weeks before the festival! With only 15 days from casting to opening night (and most rehearsals in a hallway because the stage was in use), we really proud of how we pulled this show together.
The premise of the play is at the bottom of this page. The play features two versions of Lucy: One at age 39 (in the scene work) and the other as an older Lucy, in her 60s, looking back on that time in her life, from outside the scene, and somewhat acting as a narrator. The older Lucy (aka “Lucy-Out”) is sometimes off-screen, but you’ll know it’s her talking when the subtitles are green.
The video below is from the closing night, with a house of about 25 patrons.
The footage was edited by Milo to do close-ups and zoom-outs so that it’s easier to see both the full picture and closer on faces.
Please know that this script is a work in progress. Changes continue and, with so little time for memorization, many lines are not quite as scripted. Subtitles are very close to what the actors actually said, except in a few places where seeing the original line makes things clearer.
We hope you’ll see the show’s potential and perhaps want to learn more about the full two-act version, whose staged-reading can be seen here including a very different ending to Act II than in the one-act version, if you’d like to see that in the last few minutes. Still debating that.
NOTE: You might prefer to boost the YouTube to full screen, depending on the size of your screen.
Or if you’d like to watch them on your television app instead of here, right-click the videos to see the URL so you can put that into your TV.
Who was In the Fringe cast (from left to right in image below)?
| Paul Costen | Jack |
| Kelly Pocian | Natalie |
| Caroline Witherspoon | Zoe, Eddie, Hannah, Aunt Bernice, and more |
| Dani Guinn | “Lucy-In” (Lucy at age 39) |
| Linda Levine | “Lucy-Out” (Lucy at approx. age 62) |
| David Lanni | Alfie, Desdemona, Aunt Rita, and more |
| Kara Tuckfield | Anjoli (Lucy’s mother) |
For more information, especially about the rights to produce either this one-act or the original two-act version, write Milo: improv at improventures dot com .
What’s the play about? Ask the main character:
Hi, I’m Lucy! Okay, sure, things haven’t been all-that-great with my husband, Jack, lately. Happily, I have some good news to come home with. Not so happily, when I blurt out I’m pregnant again, in the same breath Jack interjects, “I want a divorce.” Ummm…now what?
Jack, very much wanting to be a fully-invested Dad, suggests we save money by living together and “co-parenting” as friendly roommates. Is he nuts?
I’m 39, still care for Jack, have the grandest, most self-absorbed mother in New York, my best-friend/cousin means well, but overshadows me with her successes, my attempts to write fall flat, I have a crush on someone I’ve never met, and suddenly my whole social life seems to be the other breast feeders from La Leche League!
Can the two of us survive this co-parenting thing as we try to get on with our lives and even…dating? Tune in for the hope, heartaches, and hilarity as yours truly, Jack, and my crazy family try to balance it all.
Copyright 2023, 2024, Milo Shapiro. All rights reserved.