THE RIPPLE EFFECT
a full-length comedy
by
Arianna Rose
SYNOPSIS: THE RIPPLE EFFECT, A full-length comedy set in 1995 NYC, eavesdrops on Upper West Side apartment dwellers Amy and Jeff, and their middle-aged neighbor Mrs. Ida Teitelbaum. Amy and Jeff attempt unorthodox rituals to get pregnant and take it to term; Ida deals with the aftermath of her husband’s stroke. The fabric of marriage is pulled, torn, and repaired as each character navigates their new normal. Science and spirituality go toe-to-toe when Wiccans enter the picture, in this comical and empathetic story of the ripple effect we create with each decision.
Publication: The Jeff and Amy Monologues from The Ripple Effect are being published in the 2025 editions of Smith & Kraus Best Stage Monologues (male and female editions).
CHARACTERS
JEFF, male, mid-to-late 30s, Catholic, married to Amy. Analytical, freaks out when stressed.
AMY, female, mid-to-late 30s, Jewish, married to Jeff, creative, impulsive, slightly neurotic.
MRS. TEITELBAUM, female, 50s+, typical New Yorker, nosy, has a secret.
DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
The Ripple Effect began as a ten-minute, 2-character play, based on a scene I wrote in graduate school for a musical that was ultimately abandoned. The ten-minute version has received several productions, including being selected for Midnight Sun Theatre’s “Serial Bowl” in Anchorage, Alaska in 2024. Each time it got voted onto the next round in the “Bowl”, it had to be expanded, so The Ripple Effect became a 20 minute play, still the 2 characters of Jeff and Amy, and then a 50 minute play, now 3 characters with the addition of Mrs. Teitelbaum. That workshop version won the “Serial Bowl”. This one-act version also won an Honorable Mention Award, one of four winners, from Drury University’s One-Act Playwriting Competition 2025 in Springfield, MO.
I then expanded the play to a full-length version, which had a reading in 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as part of the Spirit Arts Festival Readers Theatre produced by Solar Wind Media Group.
Two months later, in July 2024, it had a community theatre production of seven performances at Sullivan County Dramatic Workshop @Rivoli Theatre in S. Fallsburg, NY.
I followed this production with an online reading in Fall 2024, then made revisions, adding several scenes and re-ordering others.
This new script was a finalist for the 2025 Waterworks Live Arts Festival in Virginia, and is a current finalist in the ATC Studios Playwright Project, Clifton NJ.
The Depot in Hampton CT will present the latest draft of THE RIPPLE EFFECT in their online Winter Reading Series in 2026.
The current script has not yet had a production.
Coming around full circle to its roots, I’ve now adapted The Ripple Effect into a full-length musical called Skipping a Stone, with composer Caitlin Thomas, with a cast of eight.
A perusal copy of the current draft of the script is available for New Play Exchange members or by request. Click on this link below for New Play Exchange:
The Ripple Effect perusal script