"Unchecked Baggage" arrives
In early 2025, I saw a competition for 10-minute plays that took place anywhere within an airport. I assumed most people would naturally gravitate to scenarios around the most obvious settings – TSA lines, airport gates and baggage claims. So it seemed one way to stand out was to set my script in none of those. Instead, I’d feature a family of four as they arrived at the airport with their bags. No interactions with airport personnel – just an all-out comedy about their inter-family conflicts, triggered by the stresses of traveling together. I thought of it as writing a scene for the cast of a family sitcom – All in the Family in particular, not that I was trying to use their characters. But like that show, and other well-crafted sitcoms, I wanted every cast member to have a distinctive relationship to each of the other characters, that would guide their responses. In fact, I (sloppily) diagrammed out how each of my family members would relat...