Allan Baker's Plays

Full length plays

Dex and Abby
Though Sean and Jim are enjoying the beginning of a relationship and their new home, their dogs, Abby and Dex, are not. Abby, Sean’s young dog, must learn to deal with Dex, who has been Jim’s companion and protector for thirteen years. Over a period of two years, we watch the development of these two relationships and see how the dogs both resolve their conflicts and aid Sean and Jim in the resolution of theirs. Fortunately, all four characters are able to communicate in lovely and very unexpected ways. A funny, sweet and very moving tribute to the importance of the companions with whom we share our lives.

Eskandar
Inspired by Bizet’s Carmen and the Shahnameh of the 10th century Persian poet Firdowsi, this play tells the story of the consequences of a clash of politics, economic interest, military strategy, cultural heritage and differing gender roles in today’s Afghanistan. Joe, a gay Afghan-American who has returned to Afghanistan as part of a covert military operation, meets Eskandar, the passionate and wild “kept boy” of an Afghan warlord. They develop a relationship which leads to tragedy.

This play was given a reading by Austin Scriptworks at the State Theatre in Austin, Texas in 2007.

All the Saints:An Opera in Three Acts
Written in 2004, this play is a full-length, modern re-telling of Dumas’ Lady of the Camellias and Verdi’s La Traviata, with gay characters. Alex, a very successful gay model/escort/circuit party boy and AJ, a gay US Navy pilot stationed in San Diego, fall in love. For the sake of his beloved, Alex renounces this love and leaves AJ. With scenes set in San Diego, at the White Party in Miami, in Baja and San Francisco. A timeless love story, faithfully translated from 19th century Paris into a modern, gay setting.

This play received a very well-received staged reading at the Zach Scott Theatre Center in Austin, Texas in January 2008.

Five Minutes
Three short scenes set in the World Trade Center on 9/11, reminding us that sometimes five minutes can be a lifetime...and sometimes love can take us to a safe place with nothing else can. This play was named “Best of the Fest” for the FronteraFest short fringe at the Hyde Park Theatre in Austin in February 2006. It was selected for the Emerging Artists Theatre’s Fall Festival of Short Plays and ran for three weeks in New York City in November 2006 and, in June 2007, was part of the Samuel French, Inc. Festival of Off Off-Broadway One Act Plays in New York City. 

This play was one of the four plays in “Connect: Four Short Plays” produced at the Off Center theatre in Austin from April 1st to 17th, 2010 and encored at the Rollins Theatre of the Long Center on June 5th, 2010 for Austin Pride 2010.

Voices
A conversation across four generations, among five members of a family, all residents of a cemetery in rural Texas. Taking Our Town in a new direction, Voices focuses on Martha, the tyrannical ninety-seven year old matriarch of a Texas family, born in the 1860’s, and how she deals with the two most recently-arrived residents of the family cemetery: Cole, a relatively young, gay victim of AIDS and Peggy, her seventy-five year old bohemian granddaughter. Voices was produced as part of the FronteraFest short fringe at Hyde Park Theatre in Austin in February, 2007. It was a finalist for New York City’s Emerging Artists Theatre’s Spring 2009 Festival of Short Plays.

This play was one of the four plays in “Connect: Four Short Plays” produced at the Off Center theatre in Austin from April 1st to 17th, 2010 and encored at the Rollins Theatre of the Long Center on June 5th, 2010 for Austin Pride 2010.

Click
It's Saturday night and two gay guys are online trying to hook up, each for a somewhat different reason. Jason sees easy sex as a way to avoid intimacy. Michael sees it as a way to get to intimacy more quickly. Click was produced in 2008 as part of the FronteraFest short fringe festival at the Hyde Park Theatre, in Austin, Texas.

This play was one of the four plays in “Connect: Four Short Plays” produced at the Off Center theatre in Austin from April 1st to 17th, 2010 and encored at the Rollins Theatre of the Long Center on June 5th, 2010 for Austin Pride 2010.

In September 2011 this play was produced by Uptown Players as part of their Dallas Pride Performing Arts Festival at the Kalita Humphreys Theater in Dallas.

A Midsummer Night’s Conversation

It’s four months into the relationship and a gay couple must face a critical moment. It’s a time for honesty, intimacy and total self-exposure. And one of the two is an actor...a very good actor. This play was one of the four plays in “Connect: Four Short Plays” produced at the Off Center theatre in Austin from April 1st to 17th, 2010 and encored at the Rollins Theatre of the Long Center on June 5th, 2010 for Austin Pride 2010.

In September 2011 this play was produced by Uptown Players as part of their Dallas Pride Performing Arts Festival at the Kalita Humphreys Theater in Dallas.

A Midwinter Night’s Conversation

It’s seven years into the relationship and a gay couple must face a critical moment. It’s a time for honesty, intimacy and total self-exposure. And one of the two is an actor...a very good actor.

Ten minute plays

...last and always
Based on the powerful final scene of Allan’s play, Five Minutes. A gay couple must say goodbye. Sometimes love takes us to a safe place when nothing else can. In 2008 this play was a finalist for the San Luis Obispo Little Theatre’s Fall Festival of Ten-Minute Plays. This play was produced by NativeAliens Theatre Collective in June, 2009 as part of their tenth annual “Short Stories” program for New York City’s Pride Celebration. It was also produced by Turtle Shell Productions of New York City as part of their “8 Minute Madness Playwright’s Festival 2011” from January 21st to February 6th, 2011. 

Beauty

A great work of art changes hands and a story of beauty is told...by the Dealer, the Collector and the Buyer.  This play will be produced in February 2012 by the Valley Repertory Company of Enfield, Connecticut as part of their third annual “LabWorks 15 Minute Play Contest”.