The Good Fight
Click here to purchase a copy. 11 F, 4 M. 90 minutes. In 1913, women’s suffrage activists in England are being arrested and tortured. Their leader, Emmeline Pankhurst, is wanted by the police. Determined to shield her, some of her followers make a surprising choice: they learn jujitsu. Based on historical events. Includes fighting roles […]
Spring Break with Rainey
1 F. 30 minutes. High school sophomore Stefi is determined to get her rich friend to invite her to spring break in Florida, no matter what it takes. But that freak Mia McCullum – who actually speaks up in Biology class, OMG – threatens to ruin the whole thing.
Let’s Be Real
4 F, 2 M. 90 minutes. Why would a woman feign a love interest? For that matter, why would a clam put a fake fish on its rear end? Within the corporate wilderness of MegaCo, IT technician Chelly Waller sets a lure for copy room manager – and volunteer environmentalist – Pete Moss. A sharp […]
The Donner Gold
2 M. 75 minutes. Two men head for the Great Salt Desert of Utah in search of the lost gold of the Donner Party, the 1840s California pioneers who famously ate their dead. A fable about the American search for the Promised Land, then and now. “Reed’s Site” monologue published in The Playwrights Center Monologues […]
Back Up
2 F. 15 minutes. Three weeks after a spectacular fall, it’s time for Faye to get back on the ladder. Moira, her partner in We Do Windows, anxiously cheers her on. But before Faye can take that first step, both partners must overcome envy, insecurity, twists of fate, and the disastrous affair of Mrs. Fangboner’s […]
Murderess
7 F. 90 minutes. Seven famous murderesses from American history – including Laura Fair, Belle Gunness, and Lizzie Borden – reveal their secrets in a suite of hair-raising monologues. Click here to purchase a copy.
Sherry’s Basement
3 F, 1 M. 70 minutes. “You’ve been in Afghanistan, I perceive,” are the first words spoken to war veteran Jo by Sherry, a brilliant coffee barista with a turn for observation and deduction. The unlikely pair team up against an adversary with a thousand faces – but can they overcome the unspeakable forces that […]
It’s All Good
1 M. 25 minutes. Between flights at O’Hare, downsizing analyst Greg Tollefson confronts the consequences of the worst mistake of his life and wishes he had thought to grab an air-sickness bag. Presented at the Last Frontier Theatre Conference (Valdez, AK).
The Particular Delight of Trigonometry
2 F, 3 M. 80 minutes. Asha comes to an elite boarding school determined that she will one day work on SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. As she rides out the cycles of the school year, she finds she must take on a mission as daunting as any search for aliens: learning to communicate […]
Grasping
3 F. 20 minutes. In a house where every item is freighted with family stories, a visitor angles for the gift of a hundred-year-old teacup from Moscow, Pennsylvania. Her attempts to get the teacup open a rift between two sisters, the last surviving members of the family, and force them to see what it is […]
Homesickness
4 F, 2 M. 90 minutes. It’s official: civil war in Hawaii…Rogue engineer seizes phone lines in Dubuque…Society disintegrates (details on the hour), and the only hope rests with Mooti, a roving jack-of-all-trades, and her granddaughter, Kid, raised by a Mom and Dad who don’t speak the same language. A comedy about connection and communication, […]
lovehateforgive
3 F. 40 minutes. Valerie invites her high-school best friend Bernie to meet her college best friend Karen, and all three are compelled to re-enact the moments when their relationships changed forever. Winner of the Northwestern University Agnes Nixon Playwriting Award.
St. Luke’s
9 F, 2 M. 90 minutes. A story of a Chicago nursing school in the 1930s, and the extraordinary women who trained and taught there. Commissioned by Studio Z as part of their Playwright in Electronic Residence program. Winner of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing Regional Media Award. “Dot’s Valedictory” monologue […]
Dog Tag
(with Matthew A. Everett) 3 people. 10 minutes. Ed is out walking his dog Percy, when he runs into ex-lover Paul. Percy may prove an effective go-between for a reconciliation, or the two men may still end up going home alone. A play of second chances, some taken, some not.
Chicks in Space
(with Amy Ballestad and Theatre Unbound) 5 F. 45 minutes. A valiant womanoid space-team blasts off in search of brave new worlds.
Frankenstein Incarnate: the Passions of Mary Shelley
4 F, 4 M. 105 minutes. Where do monsters come from? The life of novelist Mary Shelley overlaps and intertwines with the story that made her famous, illuminating the creator and creature within us all.
Women! Live On Stage!
(with Jeannine Coulombe and Lindsay Hockaday). 7 F. 60 minutes. A brief, irreverent history of women in theatre. Music! Dance! Corsets! Places, please!
Liability
2 F, 1 M. 45 minutes. Two temporary clerks work among a maze of document boxes for a product liability lawsuit. As their relationship develops, they discover disturbing facts about the botulism outbreak that gave rise to the case. LIABILITY asks, what are the effects of long-term storage on pickled mushrooms, hasty e-mails, and lifelong […]
Empire Builder
(with composer George Maurer) 3F, 5M. 100 minutes. Three travelers, each on the cusp of a painful decision, meet on the Empire Builder train westbound from Chicago. The train becomes a time machine, taking them to major junctions in the past and transforming what they believe, what they remember, and what they are willing to […]
White-Collar Death in the Pink-Collar Ghetto
3 F, 3 M, 1 M or F. 90 minutes. Who killed Mel Stacks (Ph.D., Industrial Aesthetology)? And what’s that clogging up the pencil sharpener? A comedy about blackmail, treachery, murder and office supplies.
Within
(with Heather C. Brady) 6 people. 12 minutes. A traveler arrives at a dangerous resting place. Wordless.
The Last Game
(13 F, 50 min) Two dedicated bench-warmers of the Darwin Prep field hockey team witness what ought to be an easy victory over Peace Valley Friends Academy while confronting the imminent end of their own relationship. A little Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, a little every-high-school-sports-thing-you-have-ever-seen (only backwards), “The Last Game” poses the question: what’s the point […]
The Fundamentals, with Mother Antonia McHugh
1 F. 30 minutes. The first president of the College of St. Catherine tests your understanding of what it takes to help other women shine.
That Pankhurst Woman
10-13 F, 3-8 M. 40 min. England, 1913. Leaders of the militant suffragettes are being arrested and tortured. Young activist Grace Roe must decide whether to maintain the movement’s commitment to nonviolence, or whether to fight back against the police. A one-act adaptation of The Good Fight, suitable for high-school and socially distanced production.
Cold War Dinner Party
3 F, 3 M. 60 minutes. In Los Alamos in 1980, a nuclear scientist and his wife convene a dinner party to influence the fate of the free world. In the present day, with all its unprecedented crises, an economist discovers the limitations of rummaging through the past for helpful hints. A tale of surviving […]