AUSTIN’S HOME
It’s been 28 months since Austin left his childhood home in the wake of a tragic accident without saying good-bye. Now he’s come back to celebrate Christmas, and, hopefully, reconcile with his estranged parents — if he can tell them he’s not their daughter anymore, of course. Welcome home, Austin.
Cast: 3 actors | Run Time: 2 hours
Development History:
Reading, Great Plains Theatre Commons
Semi-Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights Festival
Reading, Jackalope Theatre Company
Developed with the Jackalope Theatre’s Playwrights Lab.
CHILD PROTECTION
Martin Davis thinks he’s attending a parent-teacher conference with the third-grade teacher of his daughter Mia. But the meeting isn’t a conference — it’s an ambush. And it’s not with his daughter’s teacher, but rather an investigator with Child Protective Services. Caught off guard, Martin must navigate a barrage of probing questions about his life, his demons, and the validity of his daughter’s transgender identity.
Commissioned for Jackalope Theatre’s Living Newspaper Festival
THE CHAIN
Isabelle is a pretty ordinary transgender girl: she aspires to be a dancer, she suffers from depression and body issues, and she has a family who just doesn’t “get” her. Oh, and for as long as she can remember, she’s lived her life completely naked, connected from her pelvis to the living room wall by a long metal chain. You know, classic trans problems. This allegory for gender dysphoria and anti-trans violence is an absurdist twist on the classic American living room drama. Fair warning — The Chain is not for the faint of heart.
Cast: 5 actors | Run Time: 80 minutes
Development History:
Workshop, University of Evansville
GRAVES GROW NO GREEN
The fear of heights isn’t the fear of falling, it’s the fear of jumping. On the night of the 2016 election, on the roof of her friend Ava’s apartment building, Taylor feels like jumping. Her friends are there to talk her down, but in the days and weeks and months that follow, Taylor learns the hard way that rejecting the call of the void once doesn’t just make it go away. The question then remains: how do you live with it?
Cast: 6 actors | Run Time: 3 hours
Development History:
Developed with Jackalope Theatre’s Playwrights Lab
SQUATTERS
A college couple between leases decides to spend a week living in a recently abandoned house with their two best friends. Naturally, the couple decides to attempt a three-way. The only problem? They never actually specified which friend they wanted to invite to join them. Squatters is a farcical romp about sexually confused frat boys.
Cast: 4 actors | Run Time: 10-15 minutes
Development History:
Production, University of Evansville 24 Hour Plays
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
The passage of the First Amendment Defense Act granted all American adults the legal right to debate any other American adult, with or without their consent. The late night TV game show Survival of the Fittest makes the most of this new law, pitting popular left- and right-wing political thinkers against one other (often against their will) to debate the hottest and most controversial subjects in the public eye. Tonight’s topic: “transgenderism.”
Cast: 3 actors | Run Time: 10 minutes
Development History:
None (yet!)
VISITATION
When it comes to siblings, love isn’t always unconditional. Natalie is visiting her brother Danny, who’s in jail for the possession of heroin. It’s Danny’s birthday, and it’s his first time seeing Natalie since his most recent relapse. Hopefully it’s not his last.
Visitation is a play created for the virtual world, designed to make use of its Zoom staging rather than work against it.
Cast: 2 actors | Run Time: 10-15 minutes
Development History:
None (yet!)