Charlene A. Donaghy LLC
"With plays that are intoxicating and mysterious, Donaghy has a gift for finding the truth that lurks below our eccentricities"
Doug Wright, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award Winning Playwright
Doug Wright, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award Winning Playwright
4 a.m. Friends
“Through laughter and tears, companionship and strife,
these friends navigate life. 4 a.m. friends is a poignant portrait of resilience, friendship, and the enduring bonds that stand the test of time, and Donaghy creates three characters that I want to call at 4am or any time.”
Catherine M. O’Neill, Playwright, Theatre Maker
“Filled with genuine warmth and humor, Donaghy’s look at female friendships - told over six decades - reminds us that there is no greater power on earth than the love of a family we find
and choose for ourselves.”
Ellen O’Brien, Playwright, Journalist
“4 a.m. Friends hits the sweet spot of today’s ticket-buying audience! A delightful, poignant, laugh-out-loud
funny play. Bring tissues!”
Michele Clarke, Co-founder Playwrights ETC, co-founder Playwrights at Sisson Road, past trustee
Cape Cod Theatre Company
***
Upcoming Rolling World Premiere Productions:
Brownville Village Theatre-2025, Omaha, NE
Confidence Theatrics-2026, Washington, DC
Rolling World Premiere First Production-2025: Cone Man Running Productions. Houston, TX.
Debra Schultz, Director. Starring: Mary Mink as Becca, Angela Aguirre as Kim, Debra Schultz as Tammy
Workshop Production-2025: Goshen Players, Goshen, CT. Sharon W. Houk, Director.
Starring: Martha Irving as Becca, Lauren Jacob as Kim, Lyn Nagel as Tammy
Workshop Production-2025: UNO Theatre, New Ways, New Works. Omaha, NE Alice Baker, Director. Starring:
Emile Rothanzl, Katelyn O'Neill as Becca; Erin Weidenhamer, Kenya Leon as Kim; E. Dona-Muniz, Lily Pope as Tammy
Staged Reading-2025: Gracewell Productions, Waterbury, CT. Sharon W. Houk, Director
Starring: Christine Mitchell-Robinson as Becca, Lauren Jacob as Kim, Lyn Nagel as Tammy
Staged Reading-2025: Shelterbelt Theatre, Omaha, NE. Scott Glasser, Director
Starring: Delaney Jackson as Becca, Lena Cigleris as Kim, Rachel Curtiss as Tammy, Christine Burright as Christine
Staged Reading-2024: Truro Playwright Collective, Truro, MA.
Starring: Jen Cabral as Becca, Darlene Van Alstyne as Kim, Braunwyn Jacket as Tammy
“Through laughter and tears, companionship and strife,
these friends navigate life. 4 a.m. friends is a poignant portrait of resilience, friendship, and the enduring bonds that stand the test of time, and Donaghy creates three characters that I want to call at 4am or any time.”
Catherine M. O’Neill, Playwright, Theatre Maker
“Filled with genuine warmth and humor, Donaghy’s look at female friendships - told over six decades - reminds us that there is no greater power on earth than the love of a family we find
and choose for ourselves.”
Ellen O’Brien, Playwright, Journalist
“4 a.m. Friends hits the sweet spot of today’s ticket-buying audience! A delightful, poignant, laugh-out-loud
funny play. Bring tissues!”
Michele Clarke, Co-founder Playwrights ETC, co-founder Playwrights at Sisson Road, past trustee
Cape Cod Theatre Company
***
Upcoming Rolling World Premiere Productions:
Brownville Village Theatre-2025, Omaha, NE
Confidence Theatrics-2026, Washington, DC
Rolling World Premiere First Production-2025: Cone Man Running Productions. Houston, TX.
Debra Schultz, Director. Starring: Mary Mink as Becca, Angela Aguirre as Kim, Debra Schultz as Tammy
Workshop Production-2025: Goshen Players, Goshen, CT. Sharon W. Houk, Director.
Starring: Martha Irving as Becca, Lauren Jacob as Kim, Lyn Nagel as Tammy
Workshop Production-2025: UNO Theatre, New Ways, New Works. Omaha, NE Alice Baker, Director. Starring:
Emile Rothanzl, Katelyn O'Neill as Becca; Erin Weidenhamer, Kenya Leon as Kim; E. Dona-Muniz, Lily Pope as Tammy
Staged Reading-2025: Gracewell Productions, Waterbury, CT. Sharon W. Houk, Director
Starring: Christine Mitchell-Robinson as Becca, Lauren Jacob as Kim, Lyn Nagel as Tammy
Staged Reading-2025: Shelterbelt Theatre, Omaha, NE. Scott Glasser, Director
Starring: Delaney Jackson as Becca, Lena Cigleris as Kim, Rachel Curtiss as Tammy, Christine Burright as Christine
Staged Reading-2024: Truro Playwright Collective, Truro, MA.
Starring: Jen Cabral as Becca, Darlene Van Alstyne as Kim, Braunwyn Jacket as Tammy
PublicationShe Persisted
100 Monologues from Women over Forty FEATURING: Clarice's Monologue from The Quadroon and the Dove Excerpt: Destiny? I've been hearing that from you all my life. But there must be a way to change what is already written. I have to believe that even if no one else does...I will take my secrets to my grave. I will never give up on what I want and if that means changing what you think is already written, so be it. "These women are in their forties and fifties and sixties, and they have been writing a long time, and they are at the height of their craft. These are tight, complex, nuanced pieces of writing, which no one has seen because for too long they weren't looking. These are important writers, and important plays." —Theresa Rebeck, rom the introduction |
AwardUniversity of Nebraska Omaha
2025 Part-Time Faculty of the Year Award Charlene A. Donaghy In recognition of your service and outstanding contributions to the UNO College of Communica-tion, Fine Arts and Media
Click On Any Text In Blue To Link To The Website For That Text |
Recent Production
Tomato Going It Alone at Invisible Theatre Tucson, AZ How do you say good-bye to someone you love? In New Orleans Sammie has to decide to honor her "Tomato's" wishes of a New Orleans tradition, one she would never have known about if not for her one true love who lured her in a way that Sammie never wants to end ------------------- 
PodcastThank You Five
Strawdog Theatre Company Chicago, IL Bringing Theatre Artists from around the globe into a conversation about live theatre and digital storytelling with a spirit of gratitude and innovation. CLICK HERE FOR PODCAST |
Bones of Home and Other Plays*
Hansen Publishing Group I explore characters submerged in challenges ranging from a bad economy, to crime, loss of loved ones, and displacement. Miriam, the protagonist of the title piece, Bones of Home,has lost her long-time partner. As she contemplates a bottle of wine and sleeping pills, onto her dilapidated porch sneaks Dillon, hoping to steal away back to New Orleans to “…at least be close so I can talk to [my parents] and they hear me in the oaks and along the river and in a drafty old Treme cottage where maybe I can hide out as long as I need to feel them.” Across age and race, where the fear of loneliness is deeper than the fear of death, Dillon pushes Miriam with “You live, you keep this house alive, keep Jessie alive.” As she hears Dillon drive away in her 1969 truck, the audience is left to ponder Miriam’s choice as the lights fade on her and her decision. |
4 a.m. Friends
Charlene A. Donaghy Marlene Dietrich is quoted as saying, It's the friends you can call at 4 a.m. that matter. 4 a.m. Friends are the ones you can call anytime, day or night, and you know they will pick up the phone. They will listen and support you, whether you have happy or sad news. They will have midnight dance parties until you all fall on the floor from laughter. They will hold you through life's challenges in health, relationships, family, career, love. They are your forever eat chocolate, share truths, skinny-dip friends, just like Becca, Tammy and Kim. 4 a.m. Friends will break your heart with the truth, break out the champagne for celebrations, or break you out of jail. Becca, Tammy, and Kim are those kinds of 4 a.m. Friends with humor and heart the ties that bind. A myriad of iconic moments, people, and fashion from the 1970s to present day propel these friends as they fight, argue, support, and love through some of life’s most challenging hurdles, growing from their teens to their sixties. |
*Please click on image to visit websites
HEADER: Photographs courtesy of Josh Andrus Photography and Planet Photo. Production photos (l to r): Gift of an Orange with Dayenne C. Byron Walters & Richard Caines; Permanent Ink with Swann Gruen; Another August with Jason Walsh, Qiana Watsun, Foster Daniels, Jr; Who You Got to Believe with Sheilagh Weymouth & L.B. Williams. Photos with Director/Producer/Actor Jackie Davis as well as Dramatists Gary Garrison and Mary Conroy.