OLD SONGS REMEMBERED
By Allen Davis III

Old Songs Remembered is a trilogy of three short plays that take place in a Funeral Director’s office in Northern New Jersey.  The time is the present.

PART I:  EVEN SLACKERS BURY THEIR OWN
Val and Sarah sit in the Funeral Director’s office making funeral arrangements for their mother.  Except they refuse to talk to each other, and will only talk to the Funeral Director, as he leads them through the procedures.  The mother was a late blooming hippie, who joined the traveling commune known as The Hog Farm, and later married.  Deserted by her husband, she raised her two children in a dismal fashion, almost giving up on life, and then moved to New Jersey where she lived in isolation.  When it comes time to pick a casket, the two children finally speak to each other.  Each discovers the other has not been in touch with their mother for a very long time.  Accusing each other of neglect, they decide they must make it up to mother, and order the most expensive coffin and everything else including mourners, and everything else that goes with the service.  At first they appear relieved, but they are not.  There is an emptiness and sadness here.

PART 2:  THE FAMILY GENIUS
Rachel is burying her father, Harry, who built a small clothing firm into a very large and prosperous one.  With Rachel are her Uncle Sam, Harry’s partner, her aunt Henrietta, and Albert, Henrietta and Sam’s son.  Henrietta, who dearly loved her brother, Harry, the family “genius”, seems to control all decisions, though nodding to Rachel.  But we begin to learn Harry would have been much less of a genius without Sam, who handled the finances.  Henrietta has no faith in her son, Albert, while Sam builds Albert up since he will soon take over the business.  Henrietta claims her Harry had never been sick a day in his life – Harry was perfection.  But we learn Harry had gone missing a couple of weeks some years ago because of a “red rash”.  During that time, some crooks were trying to shake down the business; Sam fought them off, working out a deal with a lawyer, a mediator for the mob.  As funeral arrangements are made, Henrietta begins to lose her power and emerges a little more humble than the termagant she seemed to be at the start.  It is Sam who may be the “genius” of the firm.  Rachel signs off on the funeral and gets rid of the fake grass used to gussy up the grave during the ceremony. 

PART 3:  AN OLD FAMILY BIBLE
Jonathan and Rusty sit in the Funeral Director’s office.  They are burying Millie, Jonathan’s mother.  Rusty, Jonathan’s lover, and a wealthy man, is footing the bill; Jonathan is near broke.  But things are going badly, with much sniping between the two men.  Rusty claims that Millie hated him.  He is acting obnoxious, giving everybody a hard time, such as berating Jonathan for being a maitre d’. Finally, Jonathan picks a coffin, and decides to bury Millie in black.  Except, as Rusty argues, pink was her favorite color.  She should be buried in pink!  After the Funeral Director leaves the office, Jonathan presents Rusty with the family Bible.  It is his now.  Millie did not hate him; it seems she realized he was good company for her son.  Rusty is afraid of the Bible, believing that its contents have caused harm to gays.  But finally he accepts the gift, as he accepts Jonathan’s love.  They will read and study the Bible together.  The Good Book belongs to every one.

PLAYWRIGHT

Allen Davis III
Allen Davis III has been Director of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre’s Playwright Unit for over 31 years.  As a playwright, he most recently won The TADA! Youth Theater Award for his play Mrs. Morton Puget Conducts An Interview.  He was also recently presented with a Life Time Achievement Award by The Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA) for his writing and teaching.  Allen’s produced plays include The Butcher Of Palm Beach, Where The Green Bananas Grow, The Rag Doll, The Head Of Hair, among others.  They have been produced in New York, and regionally.  His quartet of plays about Jewish life in Cincinnati, Ohio is entitled The Golden Ghetto.  Allen is a cum laude graduate of Syracuse University and has an MFA in directing from Yale Drama School; he is an alumnus of New Dramatists and a co-founder and first treasurer of The Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.  Allen has had a grant from the NEA, and a CAPS grant (New York State).  He is a co-founder of the theater company, Around the Block.  Allen Davis is a former U.S. Marine, and has held many fellowships at art colonies including Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.  His earlier career includes general manager of theaters and administrator of art centers.  Allen Davis III was born and raised in Cincinnati, and Cleveland, Ohio.  His parents were of German-Jewish descent, his mother part Sephardic.  He attended grade school and high school at Rockdale Avenue Temple in North Avondale.