I love comedy and I love drama but, mostly, I love mashing them together until they resemble something like life.
“…an unqualified pleasure…Staples script is full of subtlety and laugh-out-loud lines.”
Quinton Skinner, City Pages
“We cringe at his honesty, and yet we lap it up.”
Shannon Prather, Pioneer Press
Selected plays
VIGORISH
After a traumatic incident at a Las Vegas sportsbook, bookmaker Ben begins to question his life. He starts studying Judaism with Rabbi Sim and considers leaving for Israel to become a rabbi. But leaving would mean walking away from Casey, his old-school mentor and father figure, and Zoe, a sharp-tongued cocktail waitress with whom he shares a complicated relationship.
IN CAMERA
A law student secretly arranges a hotel-room encounter with a married congressman, convinced she can expose him and derail his political career. But when the evening refuses to unfold as planned, what begins as a sting operation becomes something far more complicated: an intimate battle over power, desire, ambition, truth, and who gets to control the story. In Camera is a darkly funny drama about politics, loneliness, and the dangerous thrill of being truly seen.
WHY ACTORS CAN’T LOVE
Three years after a painful breakup, Patrick, a fledgling writer, finds himself face-to-face with Chloe, the actress who inspired his most recent essay. Spoiler alert: it's not a flattering portrayal, and she's pissed. But what begins as a confrontation becomes a funny and unexpectedly tender reckoning about love, ambition, and having to finally say goodbye.