In present day New York City, Inna Perovski, a funeral director, is in town for a conference from a small town in Missouri. On an unexpected afternoon walk she meets a mysterious stranger, Mr. Greer, in an electrifying but also intimidating encounter. Little do these two know, their accidental bump in will change their lives forever as they experience a provoking and unexpected connection. The play is littered with colorful New Yorker’s along the way that thwart their discovery of both unanswered life questions and personal uncovered secrets, all while their curiosity, disdain, and fascination with one another unfold as they walk and talk their way through Central Park.
This show is currently available for license, hire, or a Broadway option! This show was produced on Off Broadway at the American Theater of Actors in New York City Nov 7th – 12th, 2023.
Written and directed by: Elise Maurine Milner
Co-director: Robert Mark
Assistant director/stage manager: Victoria Kraese
Lighting and sound tech: Christopher Berlino
Cast: Lela Smith, Caitlyn Geiler, Matthew McLaughlin, Sharon Zaslaw, Carey Fox, Danielle Rossi, Allison Masulis, Ty Norris, Constance Christie, Marie Zaccagnino, Gary Vargas, and Matthew Digeratu.
Lack of fulfillment, angst, and life’s pressures have stifled four, unique, main characters facing the meaning of their lives and fears of their mortality through different circumstances. The idea that inevitably leaving this world one day, and every ONE and every THING in it, is both emotionally crippling and disconcerting for “Meredith” (a retired figure skater turned coach), “Dr. Daniel Lancaster” (a physician), “Flower” (a social media influencer), and “Adrien” (a disgruntled writer). As their life paths unfold at a crossroads, they are forced to deal with the consequences of their choices and their fears head on. Presented in four, thought provoking and coherent vignettes, our characters struggle to find their worthiness and self-discovery, and in doing so, it may just change and awaken everyone forever, or will it?
This show is currently available for license, hire, or a Broadway option! This show was performed on Off Broadway in New York City at the American Theater of Actors, November 4th – 10th, 2019.
Written by: Elise Maurine Milner
Directed by: Dahlia Barakat
Assistant director/stage manager: Dahlia Barakat Lights/Sound: Juanda Hall
Cast: Robert Mark, Courtney Lattrice, Bill McAndrews, Matthew Cabillos, Linda Holston, Joshua Pyne, Glen Kinnaird, Elise Maurine Milner, and Lee Rubin
“THE SIXTH SESSION” is a provocative play that explores the secrets that we all keep from each other, and ourselves. An intense, emotional, sometimes humorous, raw, edgy, moving play, about self discovery and new (and old) horizons. Feisty and ambitious New Yorker Ami, and easy going, unmotivated, “New Jersian” Ben are about to start planning their wedding, and #62 on their “to do list” is to stop in for some pre-marital counseling “for the fun of it.” They meet with the warm, delightful, charismatic, and intelligent Dr. Judith Polaski to help Ben and Ami through their “non issues,” and instead shocking secrets, self discoveries, and soul searching test every character to the brink of who they think they really are, which leads to the unraveling of all three characters over the course of their “treatment.”
This show is currently available for license, hire, or a Broadway option! This show was performed on Off Broadway in New York City at the Producer’s Club May 13th – 18th, 2014.
Written and directed by: Elise Maurine Milner
Cast: Nicole Schalmo, Sarah Grace Sanders, and Robert Mark
Rainey Grander has just received news of a life changing event, and when old friendships and new relationships collide in the present day, the course of everyone’s fate lies in the hands of confronting their hopes, their fears, their dreams, their secrets, and their ways of coping with their own mortality. This is a beautiful and inspiring story about unique relationships and people navigating their lives after they have all experienced a profound loss, which is also their gain. The play tackles every human emotion, LOVE, RESENTMENT, FORGIVENESS, PASSION, HAPPINESS, AMBITION, and SORROW. This dramatic and sometimes humorous play centers around 6 colorful and well developed characters (Rainey, Lill, Barry, Nana Maize, Shaina, and Samantha) and their lives before and after the incident and how each is adversely effected in different ways while reflecting on their own choices, and how in the end, learning the most important “answer” to their lives of all…
Answers received critical acclaim from Broadway and Tony Award winning Producer, Hugh Hayes…
“This play resembles Beth Henley’s extraordinary work in its style and story telling, this playwright is the REAL DEAL.”
This show is currently available for license, hire, or a Broadway option! This show was performed on Off Broadway in New York City at the American Theater for Actors August 3rd – 9th, 2015, April 23rd – 29th, 2018, and April 16th – 21st. 2024.
Written and directed by: Elise Maurine Milner & Tori Kraese
Stage manager/assistant director: Dahlia Barakat, Tori Kraese
Lighting/sound tech: Sean Tate, Rebecca Balin, Jorge Olivo, and Christopher Berlino
Cast: (2024) Caitlyn Geiler, Renee Beaumont, Carla Seet, Peter Konsevitch, Sharon Zaslaw, and Lela Smith. (2018) Emilie Gubler, Ita Korenzecher, Davide Ferrari, Kathleen Ferman, Olivia Vessel, Sydney Tucker, (2015) Haley Sullivan, Natali De Assis, Tom Mezger, Kelly Kirby, Kate Vander Velden, and Kathryn Pace
Betrayal. It’s complicated. It’s life changing. For better or for worse.
When the bond of love has been severely disrupted, a myriad of emotions present intense considerations for these characters faced with such disloyalty. Will they stay? Will they go? Will they ever be the same?
Four couples at different stages of life and types of infidelity, are faced with exploring the consequences of their choices, and their fates as individuals and as a couple in this eye opening, erotic, relevant, edgy, honest, and resonant, new dramatic play.
Presented not only as a slice of life narrative, but surprises along the way reveal how our characters and their circumstances are also interwoven. Their poignant situations navigate us through the discovery of themselves and their partners, while revealing their vulnerabilities, fears, secrets, resentments, and ultimately, perhaps even forgiveness… OR NOT? These characters’ decisions will inevitably leave the audience asking questions about their own strengths and weaknesses and ponder why we humans DO the things we do to those we LOVE; and despite societal approval or rejection, the risks we are willing to take for one experience over another, regardless of who gets hurt in the process.
This show is currently available for license, hire, or a Broadway option! This show was performed on Off Broadway in New York City at the American Theater for Actors October 8th – 14th, 2018 AND April 18th-23rd, 2023.
Written and directed by: Elise Maurine Milner
Co-directed by: Robert Mark (2023)
Stage manager/assistant director: Dahlia Barakat (2018) and Suzanne Lynn & Victoria Kraese (2023)
Light/sound tech: Juanda Hall (2018) and Christopher Berlino (2023)
Cast: (2018) Constance Quinn, Steve Schroko, Hailey Helen Rutledge, Drew Lowther, Matthew Dalton Lynch, Jenny Rader, Ben Van Berkum, & Marino Isolani (2023) Ty Norris, Daniel Coelho, Elise Maurine, Robert Mark, Elise Wilkes, Elijah Moloney, Gary Vargas, and Morgan Mitchell.
This new titillating and edgy play that takes its audience to a new emotional depth using an unlikely location, where characters contemplate the truth of their lives, who they think they are, and who they think they can or can’t be in every day life. When the play explores what happens when you expose the deepest truths and desires of oneself… is the grass really greener? Or is the feeling of bliss something we simply chase as an illusion?
When the pressure and dissatisfaction of normal, day to day life becomes too monotonous and unsatisfying, a curiosity and a desire for self discovery becomes too intense to resist. Our characters of all professions, ages, and walks of life are in search of an escape for different reasons; to find bliss, connection with others, or perhaps most of all, to desperately find their true self, which is seemingly missing in their lives… Our characters stumble upon a world where they may have found a KEY to a truly secret and coveted place to be anyone they want to be, and without judgment, but will they open more than Pandora’s box, or unlock a part of themselves that they never knew they could or wanted to? Sometimes the key to our authentic self is more powerful than any other “place” or “idea.” Where will their sense of adventure take them? On a journey of self sabotage? Regret? Or will they finally find the bliss they seek at this not so typical place they call, “Ascension Underground.”
This show is currently available for license, hire, or a Broadway option! This show was ABOUT to be performed on Off Broadway in New York City at the American Theater for Actors March 30th – April 5th, 2020 but the pandemic shut it down before we could open.
Written by: Elise Maurine Milner
Directed by: Dahlia Barakat
Cast: Ted Phillips, Kelly Francis Erickson, Shabbi Sharifi, Aaron Watkins, Elise Maurine Milner, Evan McFarland, Adriana Stan, Mia Luna, Lydia Dekok, Dana D’Ascoli, Robert Maisonette, Thomas Garcia, Clarence Williams, Autumn Levy, Frankie Wang, and Eloise Gordon
Mabel Kane, a spunky, adventurous, woman of mystery, and notorious community leader of a very small town in Nevada, has just died, leaving her three, grown, estranged and dysfunctional children to sift through Mabel’s wishes AND demands for her lucrative estate. Hoping to cash in and run, her children, Marigold (a married therapist), Jadge (a drifter) and Thelma (A DMV teller) are shocked to learn the REAL truth about their mother and her life and the fate which beholds Mabel’s estate for all. When the complexity of Mabel’s entanglements within her businesses and the community are revealed, no one will ever be the same. Will her children come together and use their grief AND motivation to finally learn to get along and grow up themselves? As they all consider abrupt new life changes within the terms of Mabel’s conditional inheritance, what will happen when a family that struggles to find anything in common emotionally or otherwise, have to work together on a HILARIOUS, but DRASTIC new life path that will change them ALL forever?
This show is currently available for license, hire, or a Broadway option!
This show was performed on Off Broadway in Virginia City, NV at Piper’s Opera House July 15-17, 2022 AND in New York City at the American Theater for Actors April 22nd – 28th, 2019
Written by: Elise Maurine Milner
Directed by: Kyrie Ellison (NYC) and Elise Maurine Milner & Suzanne Lynn (NV)
Stage manager/assistant director: Dahlia Barakat (NYC) and Panda Joy (NV)
Light/sound tech: Juanda Hall (NYC)
NYC Cast (2019): Robert Mark, Candice Carr, Wendy Lazarus, Joshua R. Pyne, Madison Warren, Brianna Cala, Chris Zen, Kristin Smith, Adrew D’anneo, Heather Craig, Robert Mark, Richard Brundage, & Sydney Lockhart
NV Cast (2022): Robert Mark, Emily Muns, Brandy Dickson, Anthony Passalacqua, Larry Prater, Dominique DeVilbiss, Robyn Mazy, Rhea Brunson, Suzanne Lynn, Elise Maurine Milner, Andra Woolman, & Cindy Pardini
Click HERE for the NV cast bio page!
The 5 time HIT play “Angels Among Us” returns to the Off Broadway stage in 2024, performing December 3rd-8th!!
‘Angels Among Us’ highlights the emotional journey of nine characters, five of which are living through the worst days of their lives, and five whom inadvertently step in to help whether by accident or fate, leaving audiences to ponder, is life a series of choices to simply be accountable for OR does everything happen for ‘a reason?’ As our characters search for any hope in their moments of complete hopelessness, one thing is for certain, we aren’t all alone in this world.
Presented in a series of four coherent and connected vignettes, will our characters learn that absolute devastation is merely a transition to eventual happiness? Will they overcome their fears and shame for their choices and let go and accept what they can’t control in hopes for a better future?
This play explores the complicated nature of the human experience and the struggles we all face through having to feel our pain, joy, growth, fear, and surrender, while hopefully desiring to evolve and eventually face our mortality with peace and understanding…
Kristin Hardwick, theater reviewer for HI! Drama, gave Angels Among Us a “Happy Face PLUS” rating and said THIS about the show… “Inspirational remnants of hope shine through the broken lives of anguished characters in ANGELS AMONG US. Elise Maurine Milner’s (Playwright and Director) distinct selection of her characters’ words and actions that make this production special. Concurrently, her cast of talented actors successfully creates the wide range of emotions of these most endearing characters. Whether it be a look of disappointment, an exclamation of fear, a touch of reassurance, a dance of joy, or a trail of tears, it works. It not only works, it is wonderful.”
This show is currently available for license, hire, or a Broadway option!
This show was performed on Off Broadway in New York City at the American Theater for Actors for three separate runs May 8-14th, 2017, December 4-10th, 2017, December 10-16th, 2018, and it performed at the Yorktown stage in Westchester County NY October 6th-9th, 2022!
Written and directed by: Elise Maurine Milner
Stage manager/assistant director: Dahlia Barakat, Suzanne Lynn, Robert Mark
Light/sound tech: Juanda Hall, Jorge Olivo, Rebecca Balin, Christopher Berlino, Melanie Leff
All cast members: Ali Nassar, Madeline Lee, James Santora, Kyrie Ellison, Tiffany Iris, Jacob Henry, Davide Ferrari, Phoebe Wright, Kaitlyn Brown, Janine Brady, Janel Koloski, Katryna Wiliams, Victor Hazan, Amy D’Aulerio, Matthew Hayes, Sally Meehan, Sam Banigan, Dorea Slagle, Colin White, Robert Mark, Lily Speiser, Nicole Arcieri, Samantha Mileski, Brian O’Neill, Humza Asim Mian, Morgan Mitchell, Gary Vargas, Carlos Caparelli, Toni Watterson, and Rebecca Ross Bailey.
Told from two perspectives and distinct narratives from each point of view, (presented at times through scenes of their fantasies and other scenes as their reality) newly engaged couple Nathaniel and Gemini who though have an intense love for each other, also have an underlying, stirring nervousness for nuptials in their own unique ways. On the eve of Nate’s 30th birthday, an especially contemplative time for him, a dinner party with friends ensues, and a complicated secret is eventually revealed. Not only must Gemini and Nate navigate through their hopes, fears, and insecurities throughout the play, but also must their beloved friends who are closest to them. Everyone is forced to take an honest and raw look at what they really want and who they really are, ultimately revealing that perception is completely subjective, ever changing, and unique for each individual. They learn that the complicated journey of ALL relationships, not just the one between them, can cause dire consequences for everyone else in their lives if expectations precede personal truth, and the illusion of it. Will, what they already HAVE in front of them withstand newly revealed discoveries, or will their desire for their “alleged” need for rigorous honesty get the best of them, their relationship, and their friendships? Both comedic at times as much as it is provocative and heart wrenching, sensual, and dramatic, this play takes a solid look at the gamut of human relationships and tackles the many facets of life and its challenges and rewards.
This show is currently available for license, hire, or a Broadway option! This show was produced on Off Broadway at the American Theater of Actors in New York City May 9th – 15th, 2016.
Written and directed by: Elise Maurine Milner
Assistant director: Dahlia Barakat
Stage manager: Dahlia Barakat
Lighting and sound tech: Rebecca Balin
Cast: Chelsea Blaney, Kristin Pilgreen, Danielle Barret, Alex Dabertin, Denis Ooi, and Denzel Lloyd Williams
