Bill Bruehl is a member of Actors Equity Association and the Dramatists Guild and the author of
twenty-three plays available for production. He is the recipient of several fellowships and
awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.
He writes stage plays and
videos for industrial purposes and welcomes commissions. In 1994-98 he was Playwright-in-
Residence at the Institute for Medicine in Contemporary Society, University at Stony Brook
Medical School. He is an Emeritus Professor at The University at Stony Brook.
In New York Bill was a longtime member of the playwright’s lab at the Ensemble Studio Theatre
with Brother Jonathan and for eight years was a member of the playwright’s unit at the
T.Schreiber Studio with Patrick Meyers, Nancy Donohue, and Mick Casale. He studied story
structure with Robert McKee and has worked with Curt Dempster of Ensemble Studio Theatre,
with Marsha Norman and Romulus Linney at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, 1999.
SHORT HAIRED GRACE
2 women – 1 man – unit set – 90 minutes.
Second prize winner in the Mill Mountain Theatre of Roanoke, Virginia’s 2001 New Play
Competition. World Premier January 2002 at The Merrimack Repertory Company, Charles
Towers, Artistic Director. “Short Haired Grace” will make you giggle at little, think a lot, and be
grateful once more for great theatre in Lowell.” – The Lowell Sun
For forty years during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Grace O’Malley dominated the seas off the
west coast of Ireland, leading a band of Irish pirates the English were unable to defeat. Finally,
when both were in their sixties, these two powerful women met in London at the Queens’
invitation. That is the history. How they dealt with each other is finally revealed in this play.
The Queen has promised her Captain, Richard Bingham, she’ll send him back to Ireland with
sufficient force to end O’Malley’s piracy, but during their meeting the Queen develops an
affection for the old Irish woman and promises her an end to their war if only…
GIORDANO BRUNO and The Field of Flowers
4 men – 2 women – one unit set – 90 minutes
Explores the last 12 hours of the 16 th Century Martyr before he was taken out naked to be burnt
alive by the Inquisition in February, 1600.
The Vatican, knowing the Church will suffer in the eyes of history had offered Bruno a deal they
thought he couldn’t refuse: abjure heresies, and you will go free.
The play asks, how will this wily and subtle man handle the supposed generosity of the Church?
The play was given a reading in Rome on the anniversary of his death.
DARWIN’S CAPTAIN
3 men – 2 women – unit set
This play is based on one of the most staggeringly ironic stories of modern times. Robert
Fitzroy, a Fundamentalist Christian and Captain of HMS Beagle invited Charles Darwin to be the
Beagle’s Naturalist in 1831 even though the royal Navy had already assigned a Naturalist to the
ship. Fitzroy had a secret agenda. He believed that Darwin, soon to be ordained a priest in the
Anglican Church, was just the man to help him collect scientific evidence to prove the Biblical
creation story and the absolute un-changeableness of all life.
The play introduces us to Fitzroy thirty years after that world changing voyage. We find him
struggling with his conscience for having betrayed God by having chosen Darwin as his
Naturalist; the same Darwin who – ironically again – Fitzroy had come to love.
The play asks if Darwin’s “devilish” ideas caused Fitzroy to doubt his beloved Christian Faith and
the Word of God as found in what he believed is the inerrant Bible which had come to rule his
entire life. What choices are left to a human being confronted by the shadow side of Faith?
DARWIN’S CAPTAIN was featured at the Phoenix Theatre’s New Works Festival 2002 and at the
Warehouse Theatre’s On the Edge New Plays Program in Greenville, SC, in October 2003.
THE GUESTHOUSE OF THE HOLY GHOST
7 men – 6 women – unit set
It’s 1952 during the American Occupation of West Germany when two friends – naïve young
American GI’s, one white, one black – involve themselves with gangsters in a low life bar that
was once a church, the Heilige Geist.
Unable to deal with Army regulations, wild women, and the black marketers they associate with
the two GI’’s soon find themselves in a situation out of control. Stresses their lives have not
prepared them for tear at their friendship and lead to catastrophe.
“Guesthouse of the Holy Ghost” sizzles with shattered dreams, black-marketeering, racism, and
dangerous romances between American GIs and German civilians, set against a backdrop of
heartbreaking desperation, unlikely friendships, and violence in post-World War II Occupied
Germany.” – Angelo Parra, Award-winning Playwright
THE CRUELEST MONTH
4 women – unit set
Brenda, white, sophisticated, successful and the beautiful mother of Karen and Connie, two
lovely young daughters, returns home ten years after mysteriously abandoning them to find
that Karen, the younger, lives with Essie, a Black Lesbian Artist, and Connie, the older who is
involved with a mysterious, possibly criminal life in the city. Only by revisiting the terrible and
painful hidden reason she abandoned them can Brenda restore her relationships with her
daughters.
The Cruelest Month was successful produced as reader’s theatre in 2017 by the Experimental
Company in Greenville, SC.
CELIBATES
3 men – 1 woman – unit set
Martin, a gay Franciscan Brother, is in deep trouble with the Memphis police because of his
unconventional but successful work with homeless boys. Mattie, a black lawyer, volunteers to
take his case, succeeds and bring an utterly unexpected bonus into Brother Martin’s life.
GIBBOUS MOON
4 men – 5 women – unit set
Herman, an obstreperous billionaire developer in New Mexico afflicted with terminal disease
unpleasantly surprises his heirs by tying up thousands of acres of land so it can never be
developed. His decision pits the dying old fighter into a legal struggle with his children. His only
ally in this fight is his adopted daughter, Hanna, a black woman. Their struggle leads them into
hallucinatory adventures with family and the law.
SATAN’S HOUR
7 men- 7 women – unit set
A Roman Catholic Priest and a Protestant Minister run the most successful home for runaways
in the country. Everything falls apart when the minister announces she is a Lesbian. Miwana, a
young black runaway leads the charge to save the home from extremists in the town who want
it destroyed. The local Bishop may or may not act to save the home, or he could punish the
priest.
FIFTEEN SHORT PLAYS:
A Game of Just Pretending: at the moment of death is a secular life as comforting as a religious one?
Burnt Orange, & Blackbelt: two very short plays about unlikely lovers. Produced at EST workshop.
Three Guys Playing Hearts: what happens when physicians forsake empathy for cool detachment?
The Safest Place: A one-page play. A mother protects her nursing babe from gangs. Absolutely.
Buds: A ten-minute play about a smart New York broker and a simple Hawaiian girl who sells grass.
Ain’t Just a River in Egypt: Two women learn how they’ve been emotionally betrayed by their men.
Lost on the Intercoastal: A cinema critic, animal lovers, and military men – values in conflict.
Dogs Growl! Man? He Sing: A clown show and ritual drama about changing values. Chicago, 1991.
Wolf is a Dog Who Won’t Come to the Fire: An experimental dance drama in which a man confronts the animals he would destroy. First Prize, National Video Festival, New Orleans, La
Beachdream: Produced in Annual NY One Act Festival. A fantasy.
But the Whores Danced Barefoot: a fantasy about strong women, produced at T. Schreiber Studio
January Thaw: Mom returns from the sea, produced at T.Schreiber Studio & Ensemble Studio Thr.
You Can’t Repeal the Second Law: A physicist confronts domestic chaos. Staged at Univ. Stony Brook
Lunatics: At a hospital’s request, a judge forces a patient to take chemotherapy
The High Priest: Overtreating in an ICU ward. Staged with Lunatics at Stony Brook Medical School
