Flexible staging
Designed to work in intimate and adaptable performance spaces.
A new one-act American play
Some secrets don’t stay buried.
They shape the life built above them.
A successful advertising executive enters therapy as his marriage and family begin to fracture—forcing him to confront the past he has spent decades trying to outrun.
One actApproximately 90 minutes7 actorsUnproduced
The play
The truth waits.
Until it can’t.
Haunted by a past he has spent decades trying to bury, a successful advertising executive enters therapy as his marriage and family begin to fracture.
As memories of his college years and a life-changing friendship with a gifted basketball player resurface, he must confront the secrets, choices, and guilt that have shaped his life—and decide whether facing the truth can finally set him free.
“GUILT asks what silence costs—not only the survivor, but everyone who loves him.”
The production case
Maximum emotional impact.
Minimal production footprint.
GUILT is an actor-driven play whose power comes from performance, language, memory, and human connection—not elaborate scenery or technical spectacle.
Its focused design needs give theatres the freedom to create a gripping, professional production without a large physical build. The play can live fully in an intimate black-box setting while remaining emotionally expansive for an audience.
Story-first design
Theatrical tension is carried by the actors and the unfolding truth.
Lean physical needs
Minimal scenic demands help keep the production practical and focused.
Multiple formats
Well suited to readings, festivals, black-box theatres, and full productions.
A manageable production. A story audiences will carry home.
At Its Heart
Memory
The past does not return in a straight line.
Friendship
Connection can save us—and complicate everything.
Silence
What remains unspoken still shapes a family.
Healing
Truth is not an ending. It is a beginning.
Why this play, now
A survivor story rarely centered onstage.
Men who survive childhood sexual abuse often carry the experience in isolation—sometimes for decades.
GUILT places that silence at the center of an intimate family drama. Without reducing its characters to trauma, the play explores how secrecy moves through friendship, marriage, ambition, fatherhood, and memory.
It is a serious story, but not a hopeless one. GUILT creates room for recognition, empathy, and the possibility that telling the truth can become an act of courage.
October programming
Turn awareness
into conversation.
For organizations observing Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivor Awareness Month, GUILT can anchor an October event that moves beyond statistics and makes the long reach of trauma deeply human.
Staged reading
A focused presentation of the play for theatres, campuses, foundations, and community audiences.
Reading + dialogue
Pair the play with a moderated conversation featuring survivor advocates or trauma-informed professionals.
Mission partnership
Create an awareness or fundraising event with a survivor-serving organization in your community.
A note for readers & audiences
Care is part of the conversation.
GUILT contains references to childhood sexual abuse by a trusted authority figure, trauma, suicide, grief, and the long-term psychological effects of abuse. These subjects are handled with seriousness and without graphic staging.
If this subject touches your life, Voices Beyond Assault offers survivor-centered care, healing programs, community support, and confidential care navigation.
Find support through Voices Beyond AssaultVoices Beyond Assault is not a crisis line. For immediate confidential support, contact RAINN at 800.656.HOPE (4673).
Development · Production · Partnership
Let’s begin the conversation.
The complete script is available upon request for artistic directors, literary managers, producers, presenters, survivor-serving organizations, and potential partners.
Contact Craig Heiting heiting.craig@gmail.com