One Time
by Richard Lyons Conlon
Sometimes it takes a lifetime of stories to tell the story of a lifetime.
Sonia and Mason meet weekly to share stories from their individual lives. They tell each other just about everything – tales of unrequited love, an accidental shooting, posing in the nude, an abusive marriage, religious epiphanies, and nuns miniaturizing first-graders. Among many others. Tension mounts as each story reveals more about these two appealing individuals and the unexpected circumstances that led to their separation three decades before . . . and as Sonia begins missing their meetings without explanation. “One Time” uses humor to explore how social and religious constraints impact our most personal decisions . . . and how those decisions affect the lives of others and of ourselves.
- Cast Size: 1M 1F
- Running Time: 90+ minutes
- Royalty Rate: $75 per performance
Order Digital Download (Will NOT download to phones)
About the Playwright
Richard Lyons Conlon is a Resident Playwright Alumnus at Chicago Dramatists and proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Richard was a 2020 Kennedy Center Selected Playwright. He has written over forty-five plays (11 produced, 5+ published, 25+ awards), including: 7 MINUTES TO LIVE (Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist), ONE TIME (record-breaking production: Next Act Theatre; Winner: Best Comedy at the 2022 Legacy Play Festival, Gold Prize Winner: the Beverly Hills Stage Play Competition), DESCANSO (Winner: WordWave One-Act Play Competition), and COVID COHAB (Selection: 2020 American Blues Theatre Ripped Festival; 2022 Flowersong Press Short Play Anthology). INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY was chosen for the SMITH & KRAUS anthology, Best Women’s Monologues 2021; it was also a Finalist for the 2017 HRC Showcase Theatre New Play Contest in New York. And MEMORY, SPEAK was Finalist for Sky Blue Theatre’s 2021 British Theatre Challenge.
His multi-award-winning play about artificial intelligence and literature — THE VOLITIVE EFFECT OF ORAL LITERARY INUNDATION ON THE LSTM RECURRENT NEURAL NETWORK — was a featured presentation at the 2022 TEDx Conference.
The plot starts in media res and the frank, abrupt jump into the characters propels the tension of the play until the conclusion when all becomes clear. Until then, we’re on a back and forth sharing of personal, private and dramatic stories (“One time I…”) of two people getting to really know -and re-know- each other. Easy to stage, natural dialogue. Bravo, playwright.
Review One Time.