Gary Corbin

Gary Corbin

Gary is a writer, actor, and playwright in Vancouver, WA, a suburb of Portland, OR. In addition to assignment work for private sector, government, and not-for-profit clients, his creative and journalistic work has been published in BrainstormNW, the Portland Tribune, The Oregonian, and Global Envision, among others. Gary earned his B.A. in Political Science and Economics at Louisiana State University (Geaux Tigers!) and his Ph.D. at Indiana University (Go Hoosiers!), writing his dissertation on the politics of acid rain (1988). He worked on farms, construction, and in food service jobs to earn his way through, so he knows the meaning of hard work. He interned with Argonne National Laboratory on assignment in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Analysis before joining the consulting firm of Applied Management Sciences in Silver Spring, MD. He moved to Highland Technologies, Inc., specialists in document image management systems, managing projects and developing Oracle database systems before moving to Portland to work for the City of Portland. After twelve years with the City, he founded Gary Corbin Writing. Gary is a member of PDX Playwrights, the Portland Area Theater Alliance, the Willamette Writers Group and the North Bank Writers Workshop, and participates in workshops and conferences in the Portland, Oregon area. A homebrewer as well as a maker of wine, mead, cider, and soft drink, Gary is a member of the Oregon Brew Crew and a BJCP National Beer Judge. He loves to ski, cook, and garden, and hopes someday to train his dogs to obey.

Play write vs. Playwright

Playwright, or play writer? That is the question. For most of us who are engaged in this fascinating, collaborative creative exercise, the answer is the latter. Certainly this is true for me. I write plays. I do not wright plays.…

MacBeth: A Dark Retelling

MacBeth: A Dark Retelling

This “dark retelling” of the Bard’s classic is an uncomfortable look into the Macbeth story with a stark examination of domestic abuse and the culture that supports it. In a world not too unfamiliar with our own, Lady Macbeth strives…

Prefacing

Jane has an unconscious verbal tic that drives her soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend, Mort, over the edge. Way, way over the edge. Length: 7 pages Cast size: 1M, 1W Production History: “Prefacing” was workshopped as part of the PDX Playwrights “Daisy Dukes Shorts…

Building Blocks

Building Blocks

Abe and Maude have broken up, gotten back together, and now aren’t sure where they stand. Over a game of Jenga, they discover a new way forward. Length: 7 pages Cast size: 1M, 1W Production History: “Building Blocks” was workshopped…

Family Hardware

Family Hardware by Gary Corbin at Fertile Ground

Finalist, 2019 New Comedy Festival, B Street Theatre, Sacramento, CA Willy is a man of a certain age, who has largely lost interest in sex. His younger wife Katherine’s appetite is as voracious as ever. When Willy’s doctor, Kyle Warren,…

Let’s make Umpqua the last one.

Heartbreaking. Sickening. Twisted. Sad. Another mass shooting – this one, close to home. A shooter has killed at least seven and wounded another 20 or so at Umpqua Community College in southern Oregon today. No reports yet explain why, or…

Pride goeth before the curtain

Tonight I’m attending a read-thru of my new (draft) play for Fertile Ground. It’s the second time in less than a week, and if this one goes like the first, a talented, experienced group of actors will ready my unfinished…

Welcome to my new site!

Welcome to Gary Corbin Writing! On this site, I’ll post articles, news and updates about my writing endeavors, be they of a technical, stage, narrative or other form. I’ll also post occasional bits about any other creative work I do,…

KleptoFamilia

KleptoFamilia

This family will steal your heart – and maybe your wallet. Cate, a divorced middle-aged woman, is in desperate financial straits – not only from her divorce, but from bailing herself and her daughter out of jail for stealing. Her…

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary - Serendipity Players

Robert and Beth meet for dinner on the first, fifth, and tenth anniversaries – of their divorce. Still civil – though just barely – the couple tries to salvage a friendship from the ashes of their ruined marriage. Arguments over…

Papacino’s

What if family planning clinics were run like coffee shops? When a young woman finds an unusual clinic on the internet, she discovers that counselors act like baristas, her boyfriend is a regular customer, and pregnancy is just another item…

Lady .38

Lady .38

Veronica Dupree (Alyssa Roehrenbeck) is a down on her luck female detective in the 1940s. Will she sink or swim with the help of her long-time beau Eddie (Philip De Lorenzo), and friends, Dutch (John Branch), and the lovely Angela…

The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa

Shrunken Head of Panch Villa

An immigrant family struggles with assimilation and cultural identity in a California border town. “Gary Corbin’s cameo as a police officer makes the humor in this 45-year-old play seem fresh.” – Allison Hallet, Portland Mercury Role: La Jura (The Policeman)…