R.B. Ripley

rbripley@fellswoop.net

bio

A playwright and screenwriter, R.B. Ripley is a two-time Nicholls Fellowship quarter-finalist, a Chesterfield Writer's Program semi-finalist; He is a 2003 recipient of the Family Friendly Programming Forum Award and a 2004 recipient of the Alfred and Trafford Klots Artist Residency in Rochefort-en-Terre, France. His plays have been seen in the U.S. and in Germany. He holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama and a BFA in Music from the Moore's School of Music at the University of Houston. He blogs at www.rippedblog.blogspot.com

work

Plays [skip to Screenplays]

Hollow

Full-length play
Drama
2W/3M

In the mountains of rural, central Pennsylvania, a brother and sister struggle with a terrible secret, an impoverished town eagerly awaits the arrival of fortune and the apocalypse is about to begin.

The Game
Full length play
Drama
1W/3M

Mickey is a failed comic and Dean is a high-profile major league baseball player. When an aspiring young singer crosses their path, all three are forced to make decisions that will change not only their own lives, but America as well. The Game follows one couple’s struggle to overcome infidelity against the backdrop of today’s media, the mythology of America’s pastime and what we as a culture choose to pass along to the next generation.

Among Cannibals
Full length play
Comedy
2W/3M

Tim has a small memory problem. In fact, he can’t seem to remember much of anything because he suffers from the memory disorder Korsakoff’s Syndrome that is rooted in a severe B12 deficiency. Fortunately, his mother Katherine has made it her life’s work to help him remember through telling him stories about his own life. The only problem is that she also suffers from the disease. Using strong theatricality, sharp dialogue and generous doubling, Among Cannibals is the story of one man’s quest to regain his memory that leads him on an absurd romp through his family’s history as he deciphers what is real, what is family mythology and what it is he truly needs.

Reveries, Passion
Full length play
Drama
2M/3W

Symphonie Fantastique is considered to be composer Hector Berlioz’ crowning artistic achievement. It was also his most dangerous, sending him into the depths of madness over a beautiful young actress named Harriet Smithson. Set against the backdrop of the French revolution, Reveries, Passion recounts the tale of madness and obsession surrounding composer Hector Berlioz’ tumultuous writing of Symphonie Fantastique

Atonement
Ten-minute play
1W/1M; minimal set
Drama

On Christmas Eve, two personal histories collide when one woman finally tracks down the man who took something very important from their boss years ago.

Reciprocity
Ten-minute play
Comedy

One couple. One long engagement. One request. Bill and Sarah are in their mid-30’s. They’re both successful professionals. Sarah’s clock is ticking so loud her “skin has begun to vibrate.” Questioning Bill’s true feelings, Sarah surprises him with the demand that they invite a young man into their bed for a threesome “to fulfill her lifelong fantasy.” The results investigate manipulation and disconnect in contemporary relationships.

Simulcast
Ten-minute play
Drama

It’s the year 2029 in St. Louis, the capital of Free America. An accused eighteen year-old presents trial lawyer Melanie Stevens the most difficult case of her life. This short play investigates serious questions about the rapidly blurring line between media and the judicial system in the U.S. and provides a frightening possibility as to where it may be headed.

Surviving the Fittest
One-act play
Drama
2W/2M

In the distant future, a woman discovers the last three inhabitants of an underground civilization previously believed to have been eradicated in the nuclear holocaust. Ultimately, she must choose to return to her world leaving the three survivors and an entire culture to certain extinction or stay and continue the species. This short play’s intention is to be told primarily through movement and mask work.

Screenplays [back to Plays]

Royally Mistaken
Feature film screenplay
Romantic Comedy/Fairy Tale

Magic flowers, evil villains, great acts of heroism, plastic surgery, private jets, postmodern feminism and even a Welsh sea monster named Darnall tell this hilarious modern fairy tale set in contemporary times. The story uses a variation on the classically entertaining ‘switched identities’ premise while investigating an assortment of truths, particularly those regarding the mercurial relationship between the sexes. Satirical, whimsical, and full of heart, this contemporary twist on the fairy tale mingles The Princess Bride with Big Fish by way of When Harry Met Sally.

The Consequence of Truth
Feature film screenplay
Drama

Ten years ago, a massive biological terrorist attack on the U.S. fresh water supply left the nation and world in stunned turmoil. Now in the year 2017, the federally-run water industry is about to deregulate . A middle management employee at a major water supply company that company executives have created a quiet and complex alignment with the Federal Water Agency and that leaders of both are poised to reap massive profits from the upcoming deregulation. As he follows the trail, implicating more and higher global leaders, he discovers a highly sophisticated ploy for profit and that those responsible will stop of at nothing to keep the truth hidden. Paralleling both the recent U.S. energy scandal and the 1929 stock market crash, this drama plays out on a global scale, exploring a harrowing possibility for the next cycle of corporate greed.

Flow
Feature film screenplay
Drama

One man returns to his small hometown when his mother commits suicide in a peculiar manner revealing a dark secret that threatens to destroy his family. In the spirit of The Good Girl, or The Royal Tenenbaums, Flow presents a refreshingly funny and poignant tale in which truthful, complex and offbeat characters struggle with lost dreams, rediscovering love and learning to accept the beauty of human imperfection.

Change Up
Feeature film screenplay
Romantic Comedy

What happens when major league baseball’s most successful pitcher loses his fastball? In this funny and fresh romantic comedy adapted from the novel by Steve Kluger, an aging ballplayer must finally learns the real meaning of teamwork and helps his hapless club rise from the depths of despair to win the hearts of America.

Returning, Texas
Feature film screenplay
Drama

Tom Keller seems to have everything – a beautiful young wife, a historic baseball career with the Red Sox that has him headed for the Hall of Fame and now he’s making a seamless transition from professional athlete to local politician. When he discovers that his campaign is being funded by dirty money and a heart attack threatens his life, Tom realizes that the only path to the future runs through his small, Texas hometown and the past he’s avoided for nearly twenty years.
An ensemble cast of memorable characters struggles against the decline of American small town culture as a family is given one last chance to overcome its past while an ‘American hero’ struggles to go on.
site design by octopus opus