Theater-centered software developed by William A. Smith
The Playwright’s Desk For playwrights: organize plays, submissions, deadlines, fees, and follow-ups. The Literary Desk For theatres and festivals: manage submissions, readers, evaluations, and decisions. The Drama Desk For theatre programs: support classes, productions, auditions, rehearsal materials, and administration.

Award-winning playwright • actor-driven theatre • Wylie, Texas

Plays about ordinary people who run out of room to avoid the truth.

William A. Smith writes comedy, drama, musical drama, political theatre, Southern Gothic work, and intimate character studies built around sharp dialogue, ethical pressure, humor under strain, and roles actors can truly play.

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Profile

Confined spaces. Sharp reversals. Human pressure.

Smith’s work is built for stages where small rooms become pressure cookers: bus stations, diners, waiting rooms, clinic rooms, public forums, family rooms, and other places where strangers and families finally have to answer for themselves. His background in psychology and law gives the plays a strong sense of motive, consequence, and accountability without losing the humor of people behaving badly under stress.

Primary strengths: actor-centered dialogue, confined-space structure, comedy under pressure, moral reversals, and roles with playable turns.

Production profile: minimal-to-moderate set requirements, strong festival suitability, flexible casting in several works, and a natural fit for intimate black-box and community theatre spaces.

Theater-centered software

Tools built around the work of theatre.

For playwrights

The Playwright’s Desk

A submission and career-management app for playwrights, built to organize scripts, guidelines, deadlines, fees, responses, and follow-ups by play rather than by venue.

For theatres & festivals

The Literary Desk

A submissions and adjudication platform for theatres, festivals, and new-play programs receiving scripts, managing readers, tracking evaluations, and making decisions.

For theatre programs

The Drama Desk

A theatre-education and production-management app for organizing classes, productions, auditions, casting, rehearsal materials, and day-to-day program administration.

Selected work

Current and major plays

Jump to full catalog
Full-length • 110–120 min • Cast: 4

Covenant

A Vatican guesthouse confrontation over climate, faith, responsibility, and spiritual action. Complete; unpublished.

Full-length • 90–120 min • Cast: 4 principal / expandable ensemble

The Divide

A televised debate fractures into a theatrical reckoning over faith, nationalism, power, and mercy.

Musical drama • 120 min • Cast: 5–6 / flexible small ensemble

Some Days The Rains Came

A blues-inflected musical journey through grief, memory, and hard-won grace. John’s monologue selected for Smith & Kraus, The Best Men’s Stage Monologues 2024.

One-act • 30 min • Cast: 6

The Last Table Diner

Five strangers trapped in a storm-bound diner face secrecy, surveillance, and second chances.

One-act • 22 min • Cast: 6

Bench Karma

A bus station comedy about delays, detours, and accidental human connection.

One-act • 60 min • Cast: 4

An Honest Town

A small town famous for honesty is tested by reputation, temptation, and the urge to prove moral superiority.

Short • 16 min • Cast: 3

GURGLE

A reproductive-health clinic waiting room comedy-drama about anxiety, compassion, and small mercies.

Full-length • 90 min • Cast: 4

The Cabinet

A family-room drama built around confinement, memory, and the unspoken cost of survival.

One-act • 60 min • Cast: 2

Lox and Loaded

Published by Next Stage Press; 2023 International Playwriting Competition overall winner; co-written with Andrew R. Looney.

Honors & recognition

Selected awards, finalist placements, and publications

  1. Overall Winner International Playwriting Competition, Carlow, Ireland (2023) Lox and Loaded, co-written with Andrew R. Looney.
  2. Top Five Finalist Meanwhile Park Playwright Prize (2023) That Time We Got Took.
  3. Semi-Finalist Heartland Theatre Company 10-Minute Play Festival (2023) The Why Are You Here People.
  4. Semi-Finalist Stage It! 10-Minute Play Festival (2023) The Elephant Delivery.
  5. Selected Monologue Smith & Kraus, The Best Men’s Stage Monologues 2024 John’s monologue from Some Days The Rains Came.
  6. Selected Monologue Smith & Kraus, The Best Men’s Stage Monologues 2023 Danny’s monologue from Water, Water.

Productions, readings & publications

Stage and publication credits

Lox and Loaded

Published by Next Stage Press (2023). Staged-reading/production credits include MirrorBox Theatre in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Carlow Little Theatre in Carlow, Ireland.

The Why Are You Here People

Produced by Fargo Moorhead Theatre in Fargo, North Dakota; published in SHIFT Literary Journal.

That Time We Got Took

Staged reading at LAB Theater Project in July 2023.

The Elephant Delivery

Semi-finalist, Stage It! 10-Minute Play Festival; performed by multiple U.S. theatres, 2024–2025.

Water, Water

Danny’s monologue selected for The Best Men’s Stage Monologues 2023.

Some Days The Rains Came

John’s monologue selected for The Best Men’s Stage Monologues 2024.

Earlier theatrical work

Original and adapted work developed and/or produced through Haywood House Theater, Bull Durham Playhouse, Academy of Texas Music, and The Nutt House.

Theatre background

Four decades of making theatre from the inside.

  • Alumnus, American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Los Angeles; acting, voice, and stage movement.
  • Studied theatre at the University of Houston under Cecil Pickett and Sidney Berger.
  • Toured the Midwest performing and assisting in new-play development with Robert Patrick and Stephen Nelson.
  • Co-owned and served as Artistic Director of Haywood House Theater in Jefferson, Texas.
  • Owned and directed Bull Durham Playhouse in Jefferson, Texas.

Active catalog as of May 2026

Play catalog

Current play catalog with form, genre, cast size, runtime, and notes.
Title Form Genre Cast Runtime Notes
Covenant Full-length Drama 4 110–120 min A Vatican guesthouse confrontation over climate, faith, responsibility, and spiritual action. Complete; unpublished.
The Divide Full-length Drama, Political 4 principal / expandable ensemble 90–120 min A televised debate fractures into a theatrical reckoning over faith, nationalism, power, and mercy.
The Last Table Diner One-act Drama, Mystery/Thriller 6 30 min Five strangers trapped in a storm-bound diner face secrecy, surveillance, and second chances.
Bench Karma One-act Comedy 6 22 min A bus station comedy about delays, detours, and accidental human connection.
An Honest Town One-act Comedy 4 60 min A small town famous for honesty is tested by reputation, temptation, and the urge to prove moral superiority.
GURGLE Short Dark Comedy 3 16 min A reproductive-health clinic waiting room comedy-drama about anxiety, compassion, and small mercies.
Lox and Loaded One-act Comedy 2 60 min Published by Next Stage Press; 2023 International Playwriting Competition overall winner; co-written with Andrew R. Looney.
Sherlock Holmes: The Diamond Death Full-length Mystery, Drama 6–8 90 min Stage mystery with classic detective structure.
That Time We Got Took Full-length Comedy, Farce, Science Fiction 5 70 min Meanwhile Park Top Five finalist; staged reading at LAB Theater Project.
The Burning Magnolia Full-length Drama, Southern Gothic 7 90 min Southern Gothic drama.
A Small Room Without Windows One-act Drama 4 50 min Intimate dramatic work.
Bagels and Boots One-act Comedy 3–5 60 min Companion piece to Lox and Loaded; co-written.
The Elephant Delivery 10-minute Comedy 3 12 min Stage It! 10-Minute Play Festival semifinalist; performed by multiple U.S. theatres, 2024–2025.
Layover, Layunder, Lie Down and Weep 10-minute Comedy, Dark Comedy, Farce 5 13 min Fast dark farce.
Monster Business 10-minute Comedy 5 10 min Short comedy.
Rooms Like This 10-minute Drama 5 10 min Short drama.
Still Standing 10-minute Comedy 3 10 min Short comedy.
Suspended 10-minute Comedy 2 13 min Two-character comedy.
The Common Room 10-minute Comedy 3 10 min Short comedy.
The Courtroom Circus 10-minute Comedy, Legal Drama 5 10 min Legal/courtroom satire.
The Last Storyteller 10-minute Drama 2 10 min Two-character drama.
The Regulars 10-minute Drama 2 12 min Short drama.
The Why Are You Here People 10-minute Comedy, Dark Comedy, Adventure 2 13 min Produced by Fargo Moorhead Theatre; published in SHIFT Literary Journal; Heartland Theatre Company semifinalist.
Trail Mix Hotel 10-minute Comedy 2 12 min Short comedy.
Water, Water 10-minute Drama 2 11 min Danny’s monologue selected for Smith & Kraus, The Best Men’s Stage Monologues 2023.
Miss Harper Has Had Enough (But Maybe Also Learned Something?) Monologue Comedy/Drama 1 15 min Solo piece with comic and dramatic range.

Submission bio

William A. Smith is an award-winning playwright whose work explores ordinary people in confined spaces who run out of room to avoid each other — driven by character, nuance, and the moments that quietly refuse to be ignored. An alumnus of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts with backgrounds in psychology and law, he brings 40+ years of theatre experience across comedy, drama, Southern Gothic, political allegory, and the blues. Lox and Loaded, co-written with Andrew R. Looney and published by Next Stage Press, won the 2023 International Playwriting Competition in Carlow, Ireland. He lives and writes in Wylie, Texas.

Contact

For scripts, rights inquiries, readings, and production conversations.

bill@thesmithboys.com (903) 407-9654 WilliamASmithPlaywright.com New Play Exchange profile