Playwright & Author
Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, Lew lived for a number of years in Brooklyn, but recently moved to the seaside community of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, where he continues to write and to teach part-time at Coastal Carolina University. His plays -- including Hand Jive, The Rapid Decline of Billy Ray Bouton, Gauguin Painting Paradise, Tomato Sandwich Simple, The Early Miracle, Reese and Babe, and Beer and Hypotheticals, among others -- have appeared on stages in New York and throughout the wider theatre world. His plays have been published by Palmetto Play Service, Dramatics magazine, Southern Theatre magazine, and Playscripts, Inc. His play, Portal, won the SETC 2004 Charles M. Getchell New Play Award. Mr. Holton is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.
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Beer and Hypotheticals: a comedy in one act –January 1, 2002– Sonny and Dack, two life-long friends, sit in a bar in Newark -- or Staten Island, maybe -- and do what they seem to do best: try to solve every problem in the world except the problem of how two guys communicate. They make a hilarious study in the lengths we go to avoid telling those we care about what we really think. Along the way, Sonny and Dack take on academia, art, history, and morality...and then it's time for another beer.
Reese and Babe –January 1, 2002– Reese has buried his wife Babe's classic 1965 Mustang in the back yard. Why? Call it a panic attack. They both thought that Babe was involved last night in a freakish hit-and-run accident, hitting a child on a dark, foggy stretch of road. Now they've just found out that it was not a child, but a chimpanzee. A Wonder Chimp, actually, from the circus. And suddenly there's a clown at the front door, and the police are on the way. This could get ugly. Or just very, very funny.
Hand Jive (A Play) –January 1, 2006– Taylor Armstrong's struggle for identity in the literary world is interrupted by a visit from his recently-deceased novelist father Andy, in whose shadow he has always floundered. Andy arranged two special and mysterious bequests before his death: a generous cash gift to his alma mater, and a briefcase full of secrets for his son. Andy's spirit guides Taylor through the surprises in the briefcase as he learns that in both literature and life, we live on through what we leave behind.
The Community Theatre Actors' Bible: 10 Secrets to Better Acting for Untrained Actors – June 17, 2011
The Season of Preacher Jack –May 13, 2014– During the Summer of 1961, the sports world watches as Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris race to break Babe Ruth's home run record. In the semi-rural South, a boy, "almost twelve"--caught in the middle of his parents' disintegrating marriage--and a disenchanted preacher, who has left the ministry and opened a country store/gas station near the boy's home, begin to follow the home run race and form a bond, and Preacher Jack becomes one of those people who touches a life only briefly, but whose influence lingers for a lifetime.
Actor's Choice: Monologues for Men –April 2008– Discover a monologue book like no other. Actor's Choice: Monologues for Men gives you an extraordinary array of cutting-edge new monologues, from comedic to dramatic and everything in between. Unlike other monologue books, the source of every monologue is easily accessible -- each play is available through one website (www.playscripts.com), where you can read nearly the entire published script online for free. Explore the work of today's most celebrated theatrical voices, including Lew Holton, Naomi Iizuka, Mac Wellman, Tanya Barfield, Jordan Harrison, Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang, and many more!
Portal –September 1, 2004– What do you do when you happen upon the Gate to Paradise…but find it guarded, and entry is apparently not in the cards for you? When Charlie turns down a wrong alley and stubbles upon this portal, he tries a little bit of everything to get past Virgil, the Guardian of the Gate. Not one to take rejection well, Charlie comes back…again and again…in what turns out to be a battle of wits that the two wage over the course of Charlie’s lifetime. Over the course of time, Charlie and Virgil’s relationship evolves from adversaries to friends as they explore and experience the mysteries of life, love, loss, and together craft a key to everlasting connections. Portal is a tour-de-force for two actors with enough laughter and thought-provoking moments to turn an evening of theatre into a timeless escape. Portal was the winner of the SETC 2004 Charles M. Getchell New Play Award.
The Early Miracle –February 25, 2004– A full-length play. A tornado has swept through the Fairview Mobile Home Park in the fictional town of Early, South Carolina, destroying everything in its path...except one trailer, which it not only left undamaged, but on the roof of which it set down a statue of the Virgin Mary. The occupant of the trailer is Janet Sue Atkins, an exotic dancer at a strip bar outside of town. Now the media has descended upon the scene, and America's thirst for the bizarre and the miraculous has found a new watering hole. And Janet Sue Atkins' life is in for some pretty miraculous changes. THE EARLY MIRACLE is a genuine Southern-fried, comedic tour-de-force for three actors--each playing multiple roles (17 roles in all!)--each with his or her own connection to the mystery and the miracle and the whirlwind of laughter. 2-Males; 1-Female (Note: May be cast with up to 17 actors: 9 males and 8 females.)
Ball(s) –October 10, 2015– It is Spring 2001, and Casey Frye, a young, small-town police officer, who is engaged to be married, has just discovered that he has testicular cancer. His doctor, however, thinks he is a perfect candidate for a new experimental procedure--a testicular transplant. The key is the donor--the most likely match being his father. That is, until his mother drops the bomb that the man that Casey and everyone else thought was his dad was not his biological father. There had been a brief, tempestuous affair, and all she can offer Casey is his true father's name. When Casey goes searching for the stranger whom he will try to talk out of one of his testicles, he discovers that he is searching for a man with more secrets than Casey may have time to unravel. From the bikinied beaches of Key West to the lights of Broadway, BALL(s) is a classic tale of self-discovery with both outrageously funny and darkly sinister twists and turns through the backstreets of sex, lies, and crime scene tapes. It is "identity" and "crisis" as the two words have never played together before.
Three Absurdly Easy Pieces: Three Short Plays: Room Service, A Reunion of Strangers, A Simple Death –May 14, 2021– THREE ABSURDLY EASY PIECES--Three Short Plays--MAID SERVICE: Absurdism meets outrageous comedy, and they get a room. Two “identical strangers” find themselves sharing a hotel room and dealing with the room maintenance services of a “maid” whose services re-set the bar for bizarre comedy. Be prepared to be unprepared for what you thought you were preparing yourself for. A REUNION OF STRANGERS: 1979. A seedy bar, complete with strippers, employees, and patrons, all dealing with the unsettling notion that there may be a serial killer prowling the edges of their seediness. A bizarre cocktail consisting of one part dark comedy and two parts who’s who, served with a twist. A SIMPLE DEATH: William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Michael Drayton share drinks and commiserate about the miserable prospects that the future seems to hold for their chosen art form. Is an overly examined and darkly comedic life really worth living? Or is it absurdly comedic to imagine that these three theatrical thinkers ever took the notion of a theatrical future seriously enough to even drink to it, much less to consider dying in its wake?
The Selwyn Arms: A Quadruplex: A Novella in Four-Part Harmony –June 15, 2021– Welcome to The Selwyn Arms, a quadruplex. In Judeo-Christian tradition, there are four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; but there are also four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The human heart consists of four chambers, but then so does a cow’s stomach. In the English language, love is a four-letter word, but so are our favorite and foulest swear words. There are four seasons (summer, fall, winter, spring), four cardinal directions (north, south, east, west), four suits of cards (hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades), four limbs on the human body, and though they were late showing up in the cosmic scheme of things, the Beatles were known as the Fab Four. The number 10 is often thought of and used as a representation of the “perfect” number, but it is merely the sum of the first four whole numbers (1 + 2 + 3 + 4). The number four is hand-written as either a securely closed, spearheaded, sharp figure or an open, vulnerable, almost chalice-like figure. The Selwyn Arms is a quadruplex: four apartments. Oh, the possibilities.
Doctor Doctor, Nobody Cares, (Just Like) Romeo and Juliet...Sorta:. –August 6, 2021– These three plays join Three Absurdly Easy Pieces as the latest additions to his short plays that take young actors to new places they have never been and that challenge both actors and directors to discover that their craft is perhaps best mastered via small victories on stage.
The Best Men's Stage Monologues 2022 –August 24, 2022– by Debbie Lamedman (Author), Lamedman (Editor), Debbie (Editor). Smith & Kraus is the most trusted source for books about theater—from collections of monologues and scenes for use in class or at auditions, to contemporary and classic play collections, to acting technique and career resource titles. For over three decades, S&K has published its “Annual Series”—including Best Men’s Stage Monologues and Best Women’s Stage Monologues for each of those years. Lew Holton is honored to have a monologue from his play The Early Miracle included in the 2022 Best Men’s Stage Monologues, along with monologues from plays from some of the best and most distinguished playwrights in the country.
