A bipolar drama teacher, further maddened by unrequited love, sinks into a deep depression when he becomes a target for dismissal for not casting a school board member's daughter as the lead in a play he does not want to direct.

SYNOPSIS:

Crazy S.O.B. is a dark, surrealistic dramedy, kind of like what Charlie Kaufman has written. I am not comparing myself to him; I'm just saying the style is not ordinary.

Manfred Smith suffers from bipolar disorder which makes his life chaotic enough, but when the school play is dumped in his lap, his anxiety and depression increase, driving him to drinking and behaving in ways that are inappropriate for a school teacher.

He refuses to give the lead to a girl who has always been the star of the show, mainly because she's annoying, but also because he finds a freshman who is better.

Unfortunately, the girl's mother is a school board member who begins a concerted effort to get Smith fired. An acrimonious breakup and a serious case of unrequited love drive him into despair and increase his dependency on alcohol.

Smith has the delusion that he will escape the drudgery of teaching with his great poetry and playwriting-- which really aren't that great. When he shows up drunk at one of his play performances, punches a friend who dares to be with the girl he wants but who doesn't want him, and steals some fantastic poetry from a one-night stand, he loses his job and tries to commit suicide.

The ending is ambiguous. Does the girl whom he rejected, but still stands by his side, help him to recover fully and celebrate with him as he finally writes a successful, critically acclaimed play, or are these wishes simply the delusions of a dying man?

The decision is left to the audience, but there are signs.

According to the feedback I have received, the script's greatest strengths are characterization and dialogue. There are also the extremely weird, and humorous delusions Manfred Smith experiences that creep up from his troubled mind.

To summarize, Smith is the mostly crazy Willy Loman of high school drama and English teachers.

CRAZY S.O.B.