A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

ODD

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  2w, 2m

Anna Marie has raised her surly, contentious son Micah alone. Though
Micah has long been pharmaceutically treated for his O.D.D. —
Oppositional Defiance Disorder — she's desperate to introduce a paternal
influence. Anna Marie hires Joe Eskin, an itinerant waiter with a vague
past and take-no-prisoners tutoring style. Over one critical autumn Joe
brings focus and structure to Micah's daily life. But as he opens
incurious Micah's eyes to a world outside his sleepy New Jersey suburb,
Joe ingratiates himself into the family.

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 2m
  • Duration
    Duration
    120 minutes (2 hours)
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Not Applicable
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult

Details

Summary

Anna Marie has raised her surly, contentious son Micah alone. Though Micah has long been pharmaceutically treated for his O.D.D. — Oppositional Defiance Disorder — she's desperate to introduce a paternal influence. Anna Marie hires Joe Eskin, an itinerant waiter with a vague past and take-no-prisoners tutoring style. Over one critical autumn Joe brings focus and structure to Micah's daily life. But as he opens incurious Micah's eyes to a world outside his sleepy New Jersey suburb, Joe ingratiates himself into the family and inadvertently stirs in Anna Marie dormant romantic longing. In a revelatory battle royal, Micah realizes that equally combative Joe is a kindred spirit — likely "O.D.D." himself. When Micah attracts the brilliant but volatile Ilona, Joe's Cyrano-like coaching to help Micah romance the older girl segues into near obsession. Though smitten Anna Marie remains oblivious, Ilona slowly realizes that Joe's emotional investment in Micah is invasive and threatening. During a Halloween trip into rain-drenched New York City, Ilona ends Joe's control by confronting him in front of Micah, with life-altering results. Exploring the challenges of teen isolation, single parenting, and our dependence on drug therapy as a panacea, ODD illuminates the terror and heartbreak that bind a unique quartet.

History

Premiere Stages, September 2007, in a joint production with Kean University, Union, NJ; with Malachy Orozco, Joseph Adams, Toby Poser and Illana Seagull; directed by Producting Artistic Director John Wooten.

Cast Attributes
MICAH - 15; wounded and raging, cynical and untrusting; yet with lucid glimmers of vulnerability and on rare occasions, even a sense of wonder
JOE - 40's; an enigmatic loner, not without charisma; straightforward and compassionate but at times impatient, intermittently inaccessible, and prone to flashes of hostility
ANNA MARIE - 38, Micah's mother; wan, palpably beleaguered, and classically battle-fatigued from the parenting wars; defensively edgy but aching for a gentler existence
ILONA - 17, Micah's peer tutor, aggressively ambitious and self-possessed; though both sharp and sharp-tongued, genuinely responsive to tenderness
  • Time Period Contemporary
  • Setting A unit set, in and around Mt. Morris, NJ.
  • Features Contemporary Costumes / Street Clothes
  • Additional Features Not Applicable
  • Duration 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Cautions
    • Alcohol
    • Drugs
    • Intense Adult Themes

Media

"The transformation of the fringe player to someone possibly acceptable by mainstream or even upper-class society, the man who breezes into town and energizes the young man with a disability, the man with troubles of his own who solves a family's troubles: These are classic human stories and ODD melds them well while bringing them to 2007...ODD asks who is broken — the people whose disorders are gaping, bleeding wounds, or the people weighed down by their life challenges...The winner of Premiere Stages' Play Festival, ODD is an important work at a time when befuddled parents want to fix their kids with a pill: better living through chemistry." - Gannett/Home News Tribune

Music

  • Musical Style N/A (Not a musical)
  • Vocal DemandsN/A (Not a musical)
  • Chorus Size No Chorus

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $120 per performance

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Authors

Hal Corley

Hal Corley’s plays have been widely performed in the U.S. (Seattle Rep, Syracuse Stage, Walnut Street, NYC’s Westbeth, SF’s New Conservatory Theatre Center, and in Atlanta, LA, Boston and Charlotte). Recent: Pas d’Action, Theatre Artists Studio, Scottsdale, AZ (March 2019); B ...
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