These are Spenser’s full-length plays that have received World Premiere productions.
A section highlighting his other plays available for production is forthcoming.
PLAINCLOTHES
When a violent encounter with a shoplifter leaves half of their team fired or in the hospital, the security guards of a downtown Chicago retail store find themselves under corporate investigation. Short-staffed, ill prepared, and faced with accusations that threaten to dismantle the crew, they’re forced to decide: do we give the higher-ups exactly what they want, or do we try to do what’s right – even if it means risking everything? PLAINCLOTHES is a story of tribalism and taking a stand set against the bright, boisterous backdrop of the holiday shopping season.
Winner, M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award from ATCA
Winner, Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Ensemble
Finalist, Harold & Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award
World Premiere: Broken Nose Theatre, Chicago, October - November 2018
THE SPIN
Politics are at a boiling point, COVID is rampant and Zoom calls are still the absolute worst. When the Public Works Director of a major city confesses to a horrible crime, a team of spin doctors are brought in at the last possible second to pull off a tough assignment: prepare the Mayor’s top aide for a crucial news interview, distance City Hall from the controversy and point the public’s attention elsewhere. And do it entirely over video-conferencing. At a time when live theatre is at a standstill, THE SPIN is a brand-new dark comedy written and produced for the virtual medium.
Winner, B. Iden Payne Award for Best Digital Production
Winner, B. Iden Payne Award for Best Director (Spenser Davis)
World Premiere & Commissioned by Interrobang Theatre Project, Chicago, Fall 2020.
Regional Premiere: Street Corner Arts, Austin, TX, Winter 2021.
MERGE
In 1976, Atari was the fastest growing company in the history of the United States, an arcade manufacturer with a workplace fueled by pot smoking, jacuzzi parties and nobody wearing socks. When they're forced to sell themselves to Warner Bros. to stay afloat, they quickly realize that corporate cash comes with baggage. Exhibit A? They have to start wearing socks. Based on kind-of true story, MERGE follows a small band of programmers who stand up and fight back against the very company that saved them from bankruptcy, in a battle that might just to crash an entire industry.
World Premiere: The New Colony, Chicago, October - November 2016
Here are a few of Spenser's short plays (10 minutes, 5 minutes, 1 minute) written over the years...
GIVE ME SPACE
During a one-way trip to Mars, the first gay couple in space goes through the first gay breakup, totally ruining the astronaut-food guacamole they just made. 10 Minutes. Dark Comedy.
SICK
Tonya shoves her fingers down her throat. Sara walks in on her. Tonya hides in the basement art studio. Sara holds a painting hostage. Thanksgiving for these sisters just jumped up a notch. A darkly comedic glimpse at the endless cycle between shame and eating disorders, SICK is a two-person play about sisters fighting with (and for) each other. 10 Minutes. Dark Comedy.
GRABASS
Finalist for the 2017 Heideman Award. A star executive at a Chicago-based technology firm finds himself in the hot-seat after a cocktail waitress accuses him online of groping her inappropriately. Freaking fast and ferociously funny, GRABASS is about an Internet accusation with a 24-hour turnaround time, and the way in which the world has lost patience with boys behaving badly. 10 Minutes. Dark Comedy.
MINIMALISTIC MEN
Two roommates discover that they’re characters in a ten-minute play. Which wouldn’t be horrible, except they’re pretty sure when the play ends, they die. The first ten-minute play Spenser wrote (and the first one to be published), MINIMALISTIC MEN asks: If everything you’re doing and saying is preordained, then what’s even the frickin’ point? 10 Minutes. Dark Comedy. Published in “Best Ten Minute Plays” anthology from Smith & Kraus New York. Produced 50+ at theatres and colleges across the country.