Read a Play!

The theme of this collection of plays by award-winning playwright Milton Matz is clear: every life is a play, and we are all playwrights in search of good endings.

A retired clinical psychologist and Reform rabbi, Matz has thousands of case studies of interpersonal dilemmas crammed into his memory. He decided to explore some of them by writing nine fictional plays, three full plays with controversial endings and six short plays with no endings at all.

Each play focuses on a major personal issue: marital infidelity, end of life choices, family religious conflict, reconciliation of enemies, gay relations, supernatural experience, sexual abuse, race relations, and marriage for seniors.

Matz believes we understand others best when we put ourselves in their shoes. Plays, more than other literary forms, allow readers to do so. We can imagine ourselves, in turn, in each of the key roles and can ask ourselves, "What ending do I want, and why do I want it?"

Sharing our answers with open-minded friends makes for even more powerful experience. No longer right or wrong, social dilemmas become clear questions with reasonable choices for answers.

So! Read a play! And luck with your endings.