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PLAYS
All in the Faculty
A Play In Two Acts by William Fowkes
Available for performance or publication.
For an excerpt, click here.
Description: Brilliant professors can be rank amateurs in the field of self-knowledge.
Short Synopsis:
Bucolic Humbert College in the Finger Lakes District of upstate New York provides the setting for a tale of ambition, professional jealousy, thwarted love, unrealized goals—and the meaning of one man’s life. Ned Jenkins, a peripatetic junior philosophy professor hoping finally to settle into a tenured position, arrives at Humbert intrigued and amused by the colorful characters populating the faculty. Soon enough, he winds up in romantic entanglements and professional quagmires, including a bitter tenure struggle that divides the whole campus. Through it all, he discovers that he may be an expert in philosophy and aesthetics, but he’s a rank amateur when it comes to self-knowledge.
Longer Synopsis:
Ned Jenkins arrives at yet another college campus hoping his latest teaching assignment will finally result in a tenured faculty position. The son of a distinguished comparative literature scholar at Yale, Ned is frustrated that his own career—in philosophy and aesthetics—has not mirrored the success of his father’s. At picture-perfect Humbert College in small-town, upstate New York, he finds the faculty filled with many bizarre and colorful members—from the overqualified to the under-qualified, the nurturing to the vengeful. Pursued by Marlene Bernstein, a French professor and one of the only single women on the faculty, he quickly becomes involved with her but soon runs into problems balancing the relationship with all his academic responsibilities as well as the interpersonal demands of other faculty members and their spouses.
Two older members of the faculty take him under their wing—William Duke, an ornery, heavy-drinking English professor still mourning the death of his male partner of many years, and historian Mary Margaret Dougherty, a self-described spinster as well as the most accomplished professor at Humbert. Soon enough, he needs their help when his tenure review turns ugly, arousing the wrath of academic and romantic rivals as well as that of a spurned faculty wife and dividing the whole campus into antagonistic camps in the process. The unexpected death of his father only temporarily distracts him from the drama of his tenure fight, but when a colleague in his department is exposed for committing a brazen act of literary fraud and violently attacks another faculty member, Ned is suddenly offered everything he has spent his whole life working toward. In the end, however, he concludes that a boy can be more than just his father’s child and turns down the offer. Despite the urgings of several colleagues to stay—if only to make their lives more endurable—he sets off to do something he’s never taken the time to do before—figure out who he really is.
Cast: This play calls for a cast of 9 actors
Characters (Major Roles):
Professor Ned Jenkins. Age: 30. Articulate and likeable. Son of Norbert Jenkins, distinguished professor of Comparative Literature at Yale. Studied philosophy at Wesleyan; PhD from Wisconsin. Taught at several colleges before coming to Humbert, where he hopes to get tenure. If he fails, his academic career will be over.
Professor Marlene Bernstein. Age: 33. Funny, yet sensitive. Long black hair. Always dressed in black, with a rose pendant pinned on her dress over her heart. Tenured member of the French Department. BA from Swarthmore College. Doctorate: Tufts University. Doctoral thesis: “Passion in the Plays of Jean Giraudoux.” Never misses a new faculty reception—for good reason.
Professor Jock Richardson. Age: 34. Imperious, preppy, and sarcastic. Ned’s rival. His full name is Charles Standish Richardson. “Jock” is an ironic nickname inherited from his form mates at Hotchkiss. A young George Sanders could play this role.
Professor Alfred Giulliano. Age: 50. Jocular. Bearded. Everyone loves him—a teddy bear of a man, but a lion when roused. Undergraduate degree: Penn State. Doctorate: The University of Pittsburgh. Doctoral thesis: “Cartesian Rationalism and the Rise of Doubt.” Twice married. Works overtime to keep his second wife happy.
Sarah Carter Giulliano. Age: 35. Cool and sexy. An experimental painter. Alfred’s second wife. They met in Greece one summer and were married by Labor Day. Always looking for something to keep her occupied in Olmstead.
Professor William (“The Duke”) Duke. Age: 60. Clever, opinionated, and intimidating. Chair of the English Department. BA: Harvard. MA & PhD: Chicago. Doctoral thesis: “The Bloom of Youth: Erotic Motifs in the World of Oscar Wilde.” A firebrand when riled up, but has been keeping a low profile since the death of his lover of many years, Coach Chad Palmieri. Likes to drink. Likes you to drink, too.
Professor Mary Margaret Dougherty. Age: 62. A self-described spinster. Sports a bun and glasses. History Department. BA: Eton College. Doctorate: Notre Dame. Thesis: “Courtship and the Roman Catholic Church in Medieval Europe.” One of the most accomplished scholars at Humbert College. The milk of human kindness flows through her veins.
Setting: Humbert College, a small liberal arts college overlooking Seneca Lake in Olmstead, NY.
The Time: The late 1990s.
For an excerpt, click here.
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