The Would-Be President: An American Farce (Deluxe Edition)

This is the DELUXE updated and expanded 2021 edition. See other listing for the original 2019 edition. This one is perfect bound now instead of stapled. All illustrations COLOR instead of black and white. Includes alusions to events through January 6, 2021. More than 100 end notes explaining all of the subtle and not-so-subtle references to Trump's idiocies.

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“The Would-Be President” is a humorous play that parodies Donald Trump. It is based on a famous comedy by Moliere, from the 1600s, in which a buffoon tries to make himself an aristocrat by marrying off his unwilling daughter to Turkish royalty. In this adaptation we see a “would-be president” who tries to make himself into "the most famous world leader in history, forever” by doing something equally selfish.

The play is a farce which presents dignified people of color in direct opposition to a Trump-style clown and his entitled family. The interactions between these two groups allow for cutting commentary on the influence of personal responsibility on leadership. The humorous hook of the play is this: From whom would the most powerful man on Earth expect to get more power? And what would that power look like? There is a hint on the back cover where a small flying saucer appears in the top left corner.

I live and write in Southern California. My plays, stories, essays and poems have appeared in scores of indepdendent publications, touching virtually all genres. My audio play "The Dropped Call" was produced for a national audience by Shoestring Radio Theatre in San Francisco. The same play was a prize winner in the 2017 Helen Jean Play Contest.

If you include the front and back cover, this zine includes six full-page COLOR collage illustrations. This self-published play is three acts long. 78 pages. In it you will find lines right out of today's headlines mixed with lines right out of King Louis the 14th's court.