Works by
Tom W. Kelly
(Playwright)

Plays

• Friends Are Forever (2008)
  Follows three gay couples as they explore friendship, love, fidelity, and infidelity as well as the occasionally awkward repercussions. Friendships between the couples are humorously tested when indiscretions and secrets are unexpectedly exposed. James, Steve, and Mike are long-term friends. Their new partners, George, Bill, and Roger, respectively, try to fit in (awkwardly sometimes). James and George stumble as their relationship begins. Steve and Bill happily play the field privately and professionally. And Mike and Roger tentatively try monogamy. Given the unpredictable nature of anonymous encounters, they discover that sometimes it's only one degree of separation.

• Head in the Clouds (2008)
  Heaven or hell? Depends on your cosmic and/or comic pov as Binky and a hypocritical preacher learn when they both pass through those Pearly Gates. Part of compilation evening titled Men In Uniform. created, compiled and dramaturged by TWKelly.

• Life Is Short (2007)
  Hurled from their car at a very high mountain lookout point, two male lovers spend their last ten minutes flying through the air, settling old scores, and reconnecting on a new (albeit short-lived) more solid basis.

• Significant Others (2005)
  Despite the impossible ideals of youth, the wandering eye, and the irascibility of later years, love triumphs in this enchanted evening of five one-acts. Long separated, two elderly men reconnect one evening on a cruise boat. Two country men walk along an isolated road and disclose some extra-marital activities. Three gay men sip their lattes and discuss their erratic love lives. Intermission. Two men, both already partnered, meet at lover's leap and try to find a fair way to continue loving each other. And finally, two teenage boys sneak into the janitor's closet outside of their prom where they enjoy their first sip of wine, dance, and kiss.

• The Virgin Tango (2004)
  Young love boldly goes where brave hearts fear to tread. Two gay teens celebrate a romantic night at the senior prom in a storeroom just off the dance floor. By candlelight they flirt, kiss, and exchange vows of love to the romantic melodies from outside. With courage born of passion, they conclude that their dusty haven is not good enough and they valiantly resolve to join the dance, facing an unpredictable world.

• Hotel Bethlehem (2001)
  Inspired by the violent and sexual texts of the Old Testament; an irreverent, full-length Bible farce chronicling the divine retribution imposed on the Inn that turned away Mary and Joseph on that not-so-silent night of the Nativity. The Inn was overflowing with greed and hypocrisy as a greedy innkeeper joins forces with religious con man to deceive a coin-counting tax collector. Complicating matters are a muscle-bound centurion bodyguard, two irrepressible she-twins, and a near-sighted angel.

• Points of View (2001)
  A comic, inward look at the theatre experience, slyly giving voice to all participants during the performance of an oddball play-with-the-play. Humorously and lovingly verbalizes the tensions between actors, director, critic, and audience members.

• Love in Ruins (1999)
  Two staged readings in SF; not produced.

• Temporarily Yours (1995)
  Intermixing elements of light and darker comedies. Joey, a feisty PWA with six months to live, acquires a book of white magic. When his ex’s religious and unbelieving mother reads aloud a spell, her personality, as well as those of Joey and a healthy young gay visitor, all switch bodies. While attempting to reverse the spell, the multiple identity crises of these three disparate, and desperate, characters give way to more compassionate perspectives.

• Hotel Europa (1988)
  This comedy pits husband against wife, and declares war on religion, politics, and human foibles. In the decaying Hotel Europa, capitalistic opportunist Reginald LeGrand and his staid yet ruthless wife, Britannia Gallsbreath, use and abuse all in their path as each contrives to end their mutually miserable marriage. As Britannia plots divorce from Reginald, he leisurely arranges her murder at the hands of a dim-witted American “killing machine.” Reginald juggles infidelity with business transactions while Britannia enlists the aid of various “have-nots” including a tabloid reporter, a young bellboy, and Reginald’s unwitting secretary. Also joining the fray is the overly ambitious, fund-seeking Brother Angelo. Everything spirals into a happy, albeit darkly askew, ending.

• Last Call For Murder (1987)
  A comic murder mystery. Artie and Tony’s anniversary celebration is interrupted by a midnight call from frightened, ex-lover Corey. When Corey turns up dead, Artie resolves to find out “who done it.” Was it the Reverend Darke at the church, Smith at the office, Lou at the leather bar, Michael at the park, or the Jehovah’s Witnesses on a house call?

• Paradise Divided (1986)
  A light-hearted romp, exploring romance, survival, and identity through diversity. Two shipwrecked men: one gay and the other straight. Self-made barriers prove hard to break, as the latter is shocked and somewhat intimidated when the former confides seductively, “I’m horny.” Flirtation is met with anger.

• Love In Ruins (Date?)
  A lyric comedy that is tempered by truths about the vagaries of love in a dramatization of the Zeus-Ganymede myth. Ganymede, Medea, Jason, Oedipus, and Jocasta converge at the Hotel Pompeii, run by a frantically lonely innkeeper. Thanks to overflowing grails of Dionysian wine, passionate people battle and ultimately learn far too much about themselves and each other. Though Love dubiously prevails — in all its chaotic power — only Zeus clearly triumphs as he departs with a willing new cup bearer.

• Without a Prayer (Date?)
  Confusion at heaven’s gate! Homophobic Preacher Bob is poised at the brink of his eternal pay-off, but heaven is not what he expected. What a nice surprise when Saint Peter offers him the chance to torture a gay man — it is heaven! But, doesn’t it seem a bit hot? Here, the self-righteous get exactly what they deserve!