Nancy Lu Hoffman
Stories are a basic need.
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Right alongside water, food, clothing, and shelter. We need to tell ours and hear others'.
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I like to listen, read, watch, dream, and write down the ones I can't let go of.
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Thanks for visiting.
Stage
Screen
Medusa and Her Sisters
Medusa and her sisters are stuck in a time loop in their seaside cave. Every time someone hears her name or learns her story, Perseus comes and cuts off her head. After enduring millennia of this, they capture Perseus, summon Athena and demand justice. Contains descriptions of rape and sexual assault. (45 minutes) 2025.
Round Yon Urging, Other and Wild
Five teenagers pull off a classic Christmas prank: nativity figures stolen from local church display. Then what? Everyone's now in a basement smoking weed, playing Christmas Truth or Dare, and thinking about all the things they haven't yet done in their lives. Is tonight the night to do more? ​(90 minutes) 2020.
Launching
13-year-old Archie sits in the woods with a slingshot, firing small household objects into the night. When big brother Jordan asks what's up, conversation builds about polar ice caps, parents, driving, brothers' duties and more. (10-minutes) Finalist for 42nd Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Short Play Festival. 2013 Boston Theatre Marathon selection.
Hawthorne & Melville: A Play for Two Friends. Or: The Whale
In 2015 I saw my friend Moira. Both of us writers, we found out that I had been reading about Nathaniel Hawthorne and she'd been reading about Herman Melville who had famously dedicated Moby Dick to his friend Hawthorne. Our meeting becomes a boisterous romp through friendship, time, writing, voyages, and whales of all sorts. (20 minutes) ​Developed in residence at The Silverton Theatre Mine in 2018.
Notes from a Sidekick: Episode 3: Wheels. In which I am in my 8th year, learn how to ride a bike, and promptly run over my neighbor.
A comic look at strange family cycles. (30 minutes) PVD Fringe selection, 2015.
Midnight Mass
A typical night at the Irish pub is disrupted when Annie, the town loony plunks the church chalice on the bar and says, "Pint". How crazy is she? What would God say and do? And who is the 50-foot-tall man Bridget the bartender dreams of?​ (90 mins) Winner of 2007 RISCA play/screen writing merit award. Named one of 10 Best Productions of 2007 by Providence Phoenix.
Making Friends with Death
Death is all around us, so why not just make friends with it. The Grim Reaper, he's cool, right?
(12 minutes) Filmed and edited by JL Pictures. 2018. Watch on YouTube
Unflappable
1920s, Newport, RI. A tycoon is murdered at his own party. The party's theme? Dress as a servant. If the butler did it, which butler was it? ​Flapper detective Antonetta Bassani, is hired by Violet Crawford to dig deeper than the cops. Her brother, William, 19, black, was arrested after he fled the scene, but Violet knows he's been framed. ​Antonetta and Violet move through the rocky shoals of race, class, and gender to discover the truth. (100 minutes)
Ohhhhmm Man
Reuben, the graveyard cook at Los Angeles' most revered all-night diner pledges allegiance to the power of grease. Until Emma the yogi inverts his self-demolishing ways with the power of chavasana and ginger tea. Converted, he follows her to an ashram for the summer and throws himself into sprouts and astanga. What happens when a man of appetites binges on yoga? Can you actually over-balance yourself? Maybe Annabelle, the ashram head chef with an anger problem has some insights. (100 minutes)