TOMMCCORMACKPLAYS.COM

An introduction by George Weinberg

[Office note: George Weinberg, PhD, is a polymathic scholar and the author of a dozen books, including two on Shakespeare.] 
 
If I can persuade you to look at one of Tom McCormack's plays, the encounter may change your year.

My first sentence to catch your attention, could be this:

Of the hundreds of new Off Broadway plays in the last decade, Tom McCormack's ENDPAPERS was among the three or four most popular in terms of total audience; in fact, it may have had the most viewers -- and it was a first play.

But I may need to use outright superlatives. Superlatives can be antagonizing, I concede. However, they might move you to want to see what could possibly deserve praise like this, so I'll use them -- and ask you please to hold the following judgments against me and not against the work:
  
His latest script, INCOMPLETENESS, is a sexual, violent, and cerebral compound with as much to engage a thoughtful viewer's mind and glands as any American play I've ever read.

RAVISHING THE MUSE is the best farce since NOISES OFF.

Besides being a soul-wrenching father-daughter play, in a coup of theatricality PROBLEM PLAY provides the best explanation ever of the most celebrated puzzle in entertainment history.

ENDPAPERS reviewers agreed on McCormack's high promise:

NEW YORK MAGAZINE - John Simon: "…If all his work turns out as good as this, his first play, we can only wish McCormack long life and hold our breath."

THEATER WORLD RADIO/TV - Mike Schwartz: "…Finally, most certainly, you will be exposed to the wittiest, most talented playwriting available anywhere… true genius… unlikely to be duplicated in any contemporary drama now playing. Thomas McCormack does it all."

THE NEW YORK OBSERVER - John Heilpern: "Thomas McCormack's first full-length play, 'Endpapers', recently opened to a number of sparkling reviews, and let's hope he agrees with them. His play rings true from the confident opening moments… Welcome to the theater, Mr. McCormack!"

Since ENDPAPERS, Tom has written, put aside, rewritten, put aside, and rewritten yet again those three new full length plays. But by the time he was ready to show the scripts, his agent and producer had both died.
  
Tom's survival-strategy has been to place the new scripts on a website, attach play-descriptions that were as facts-only as a police blotter, and politely back out of the room. His excuse? "A writer's view of his own work is useless because he's gazing at what he had in mind, which is always far more than what's on the page."

But a talent this strong and plays this worthy deserve more than his former site supplied. So I'll briefly use my voice and be Tom's advocate for a while as Guest Editor of his website.

In the ABOUT THE PLAYS folder on your left I'll appeal to several appetites:

I'll try to give producers and agents reasons for believing Tom's plays can generate a robust and continuing return on their investment of time and money.

And I address the taste of directors and actors who exult in work that's everything we hope for in theater: His works are inventive, moving, funny, and ultra-smart. They're fiery, with multiple surprises and quotable high-carat lines uttered by original, unforgettable characters. They vibrate with profound and novel themes. They're quintessentially theatrical in a way that shows why, though film, tv, and the web thrive, live theater will always be with us.
  
A warning –- and a promise  -- Tom's scripts are animated by formidably brainy and articulate folk -- albeit folk made earthy by lust, wit, rage and violence. Paradoxically, despite its sensuality and physical fury, INCOMPLETENESS is the best theatrical portrait I've seen of a philosopher-at-work.

The website reflects his faith in smarts on stage and in the audience, the same faith that has led to prosperity for producers in Britain (and for British playwrights: Tom Stoppard, Michael Frayn, Alan Bennett et al). The nearest recent work by an American is David Auburn's PROOF, which the Manhattan Theater Club found to be a cash fountain -- eleven years ago.

Hollywood also shows a daring conviction that gifted heads at work can be fascinating. Consider: GOOD WILL HUNTING, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, A BEAUTIFUL MIND, SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER, LITTLE MAN TATE, and more.

Those are movies but they tell us the American audience is there -- for stage as well as film.

I hope you'll give INCOMPLETENESS an hour. Its character Elga justifies putting time into a similar intriguing possibility by saying, "I'm awake a hundred-twenty hours a week." I feel sure that one day someone of a certain vision will read this play and realize it can win not only audiences but prizes, stagings on five continents, and a place in the permanent American canon.

Or, if you'd like surprises and complete reversals of audience surety about a teasing puzzle, in a moving, emotional play with bad guys who get what they deserve, but good guys who get, let's call it, more than they deserve, try PROBLEM PLAY.

Finally, if you prefer funny, begin with RAVISHING THE MUSE. For me, it's an inspired work of unflagging comic ingenuity.  It's my personal favorite of the three.

My goal is to see his work embraced and carried forward by one of those -- an able producer, agent, director or actor who feels its power and sees its promise.

George Weinberg

Office@tommccormackplays.com

Queries sent to that address will be promptly answered.