About the Play:

A Dead Man's Apartment is a hilarious farce about an adulterous couple enjoying their afternoon affair, until a message on the answering machine changes everything. Lonnie, a married but lonely truck driver, and Nickie, his mistress, a married but lonely hardware store clerk, meet twice a week in an apartment to talk and kiss. They have chosen a day to tell their spouses they are leaving them, but when the day comes, there is a message on Lonnie's answering machine: "You're a dead man." Lonnie wants to put off telling their spouses until he finds out who is after him, but when Nickie's brother, Al, reveals that Lonnie left his own message on the machine, Lonnie admits to being too scared to make the big move. Lonnie loses his secret life, but he realizes he loves his wife and that all this is for the best anyway. First Performed at the EST Marathon in 1995. (Cast: 2 female, 2 male)

What people say:

"Edward Allan Baker's A Dead Man's Apartment is a hilarious farce about a Providence couple having a noontime affair. They seem dimwitted and crude but in fact both have rather shrewd instincts, which Baker delineates with great storytelling skill." — New York Daily News

"A Dead Man's Apartment by Edward Allan Baker suggests a contemporary, blue-collar equivalent of boulevard farce...has an infectiously high adrenaline quotient, some inspired moments of salty absurdism...." — New York Times

Rosemary With Ginger takes a snapshot into the lives of two sisters that wrestle with generational hardships, lackluster relationships and alcoholism. Two sisters meet up at a quaint diner filled with childhood memories to make plans to take care of their mother, but slowly reveal the problems they have had in the past and the difficulties they are facing now: Flamboyantly-sleazy, boozy Rosemary is about to lose custody of her children, the pain of which leads her to drink more and to tolerate an abusive relationship with her boyfriend; worn-out, tense Ginger finds herself in a loveless marriage, but more important, she needs to explain to Rosemary why she divulged Rosemary's alcoholism to her ex-husband, thus creating the custody battle. The sisters wrangle, accuse and attack in between cheery reminiscences of younger, happier time, but mostly discover that, without each other, they have nothing. In the end, some hope is evident as the sisters rediscover their common bonds. First Performed at the EST Marathon in 1994. (Cast: 2 female)

What people say:

"The best is Rosemary with Ginger, a spicy domestic blood bath that plays like a gender-reversed retread of Sam Shepard's True West." — Los Angeles Times

Face Divided spends a night in the emergency room with a young married couple Debbie and Freddie whose three-year-old daughter has fallen down a flight of steps. That, at least, is what she tells the nurses, and this is the story she's sticking to. When Freddie arrives, he angrily confronts Debbie about the telltale signs of child abuse that mark their daughter. Debbie refuses to admit the truth and desperately talks about their simple life together before they were married and how she wants things back the way they were. Freddie warns Debbie that they'll lose their daughter, but Debbie won't cooperate. In the end, Freddie goes along with her story, all the while knowing that the state will do what it has to do and that Debbie will go on living in a dream world. Face Divided explores the aspects of children trying to be adults and the reality of the life they are in. Confronting the loss of their own childhood and falling into the cycle of their past. First Performed at the EST Marathon in 1990. (Cast: 2 female, 1 male)

What people say:

"Edward Allan Baker's Face Divided is the most interesting of one-acts. It is another street-smart study by this chronicler of the stresses in working class relationships." — New York Times

"Working class characters have become a rare species on the American stage, and [in Face Divided] Baker captures their rhythms with attention and compassion." — San Francisco Fringe Festival

About the Playwright:

Edward Allan Baker (1950-2021) was a frequently produced New York City Playwright with over 30 plays to his credit, most notable One Acts (produced all over the US, Canada, and Europe). He wrote for HBO and Showtime, and was awarded The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Award for Theatrical Excellence by The Ensemble Studio Theatre. He taught playwriting at Sarah Lawrence College for twelve years before joining the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University faculty in 2006.