Summer. 1863. 
The country is at war with itself.               
In a lighthouse on Chesapeake Bay, a lone keeper prefers to avoid the conflict.  

Until a Confederate deserter washes up on his island . . .

          WINNER: MAXIM MAZUMDAR NEW PLAYS AWARD
SUSPENSION was also performed at City Theatre in Miami with Eric Fabregat and Bechir Silvain.                                      
 A "moody, realistic fable."
                                        -- South Florida Times
The Alleyway Theatre has struck gold with the world premier of The Seabirds. This is the first truly profound play I've seen in quite a while. 
                                                                                  -- Night-Life


The play -- a sometimes surreal journey -- is a huge undertaking on an intimate scale. It is entrancing.​ Of all the rewards that a play can offer, this continued thought provocation is one of the finest.                                                    
                                                                                  -- Buffalo News


An existential dialogue . . . the play reminds us of other barren landscapes in the work of Beckett or Camus, without ever slipping into cliche.​ I strongly encourage those who enjoy taking a theatrical risk with something challenging to take a look.   

                                                                                  -- Art Voice


Great central characters, winning snatches of dialogue and nuanced touches of historical accuracy help immerse the audience into a time when the nation was tearing itself in two.                                                                     
                                                                                 -- NE Theatre Geek


All in all, I cannot recommend The Seabirds strongly enough. 

                                                                                -- MyEntertainmentWorld.com

Ray Boucher and David Hayes in Alleyway Theatre's 2007 production of THE SEABIRDS
SYNOPSIS          

              SAMPLE

PRODUCE           

            REVIEWS
TROFIMOV, A STUDENT: An English teacher receives an office visit from a disgruntled student carrying a gun.                




TROFIMOV was performed by Image Theatre. 
It was also performed by North Park Vaudeville in San Fransisco.


John Fojtik and James Cota in TROFIMOV, A STUDENT (North Park Vaudeville)
Brian Hutchinson and Roger Clark do a staged reading of THE SEABIRDS at Urban Stages in Manhattan, 2009
_____________________________________ TEN-MINUTE PLAYS:
ONTOLOGICAL: Two college seniors are cramming for a theology final when they stumble across a threatening solution to a religious puzzle. 

Nominated for the Heideman Award.                                 




Trent England and Jake O'Hara in ONTOLOGICAL​ 
(Turtle Lane Playhouse)
SUSPENSION: Two teenagers survive their abusive home lives with a secret: one of them can become the rain. 

Nominated for the Heideman Award.     





 Nicholas Combs and Bing Putney in SUSPENSION
 ​(Actors Theatre of Louisville)                           




CABMAN: Anton Chekhov's short story "Misery" revisited as a lonely taxi driver taking fares across Capitol Hill. 
 





                              
​CABMAN was performed by the Gurnet Theatre Project.  


AND CLOUDS MADE OF BONES: The wife of a high-priced lawyer in Washington, DC, suspects her husband has begun cutting himself.

AND CLOUDS . . . was a finalist at the FUSION THEATRE COMPANY Short Works Festival, 2010. It was also produced at 
BTM XII.






Jeney Richards and Dan Krstyen in AND CLOUDS MADE OF BONES (Firehouse Center for the Arts)

THE ACCIDENTS OF BREAD: At her first communion, a young mathematician realizes she must decide between transubstantiation and the Law of Identity . . . with her own identity in the balance.

Nominated for the Heideman Award.




Libby Schap and Gary LaParl in THE ACCIDENTS OF BREAD (Salem Theatre Company)




 






From Goldstar Reviews:


“This play is so worth going to . . . we talked about it all the way home, and then after we got home. You don't have that kind of experience very often.”


“Seabirds was amazing. Brilliantly acted. Powerful message. A stunning performance.”


"Seabirds is a wonderfully written play . . . full of history and rich dialogue / language; it is captivating."


"This is a very intense play."
It should become a theater classic, 
in repertory everywhere.               

Night-Life Magazine
Some of William Orem's ten-minute plays are available in the following places:
David Lutheran in 
Argos Productions' 2013 staging of THE SEABIRDS
In the play itself, [Orem's] language leaps from the technical to the lyric, expansive to terse. Against such verbal orchestration, every action and prop stands out with Chekhovian purpose. There are moments from The Seabirds that could be great paintings by Turner—a naked man hauled from a violent ocean, two loners gazing out to sea from a mist-shrouded tower, a noose silhouetted against a vast ocean sky.    
 

 --ArtsEditor
                                                             

Arcadia Repertory Theatre produces THE SEABIRDS in 2014

Esme Allen and Derek Fraser in THE ACCIDENTS OF BREAD (Commonwealth Shakespeare)
Cory Flood in TROFIMOV, A STUDENT at Mass College of Liberal Arts
THE RAGS: A woman must persuade her doctor not to cut her from his list of patients as he transitions to "concierge medicine."








Chris Clark and Sarah Carlin in THE RAGS (Marblehead Little Theatre)

CLOUDS . . . appears at Furious Gazelle
TROFIMOV at Venable 8
BONDSERVANT: A woman using a dating service for the first time wonders why her handsome date seems to want her to ask about his tattoo.


BONDSERVANT won both the Critics' Choice Award and the Audience Favorite Award for 2017 at the Durango Play Fest.


​Jennifer Rasmussen, Charlie Gilliam and Ingrid Kenney in Gorilla Theater's production of BONDSERVANT.

TROFIMOV at Mutiny Theatre, Chicago
VIRGIN: A young woman's mystical visions prevent her from living the life she actually wants 
(Short & Sweet Festival, Canberra, Australia)

Best Script Runner-Up, 2019
Miles Largent and Rebecca Gilbert in
BONDSERVANT at Durango Arts Center.
HERE SHE COMES NOW: A journalism professor at an Ivy League university meets a prospective parent who was his own first love.
Jennifer Drummond and Quinton Kapell in HERE SHE COMES NOW (Centastage; directed by Joe Antoun)
HERE SHE COMES NOW at the St. Botolph Club (Staged reading, with Tracey Cannistraro and Justin Yurasits; directed by Ty Ruwe.)