CAVERS

by Mark Rigney

In this subterranean comedy, cantankerous Gertie Stovall discovers an extensive cave system beneath her collapsing backwater farm, and she quickly realizes that if she plays her cards right, the cave could become a cash cow, her personal slice of the American Dream. She enlists the aid of half-brother George Gruder (the driving force behind the area’s new wastewater treatment plant) and gone-to-grad-school caving “expert,” Charlie Tuggle. Enter Dr. Polly Edelweiss, world-class cave biologist, who shows up uninvited, claiming that the sub-surface rights belong to the Blue Sky Energy Consortium. Faced with the prospect of losing control of “her” cave (not to mention a highly unlikely and ever-evolving “cave ape”), Gertie convinces George to turn on the treatment plant’s pumps, thereby flooding the pristine cavern with polluted water and foiling everyone’s plans––her own included.

• Cast Size: 2M 3W
• Running Time: 90+ minutes
• Royalty Rate: $75 per performance

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About the Playwright

Mark Rigney’s stage plays have been produced in twenty-three U.S. states (including off-Broadway) plus Australia, Austria, Hong Kong, Nepal, and Canada. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and a past winner of the John Gassner Playwriting Award, the Maxim Mazumdar New Play Prize, and the Panowski Playwriting Award (twice). Additional published work is available from Playscripts, Inc., ArtAge, Heartland, Applause, and multiple editions of Smith & Kraus’s The Best Ten-Minute Plays. Over fifty of his short stories have found print, in venues ranging from literary (Witness, The Best of the Bellevue Literary Review) to fantasy and horror (Lightspeed, Cemetery Dance). His website is www.markrigney.net, and, when not adding to his extensive collection of antique brewery items, he maintains a lively outpost at the New Play Exchange.

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