Playwriting Commons^™

You Into Bad Girls?, Mara A. Swanson

LMU Theatre Arts Annual New Works Festival

A short play about a confident sister pretends to be her shy sister at a bar, but her attempt to impress the bartender her sister likes backfires when she leans too far into a fake “bad girl” persona.

A Dupe Death, Bradley M. Ash

LMU Theatre Arts Annual New Works Festival

'A Dupe Death' is a 10-minute play written by Bradley Ash for LMU's 2026 New Works Festival. The comedy follows a young man who lies to his boss about his mom's death--he is then forced to keep his secret from the two after his boss arrives unannounced to express his heartbreak. The play is inspired by many classic sitcoms, as well as lots of modern Gen-Z-like humor; sorry in advance.

Pouring Grease Down The Sink, Mateo Tomas Hercules Gonzalez

LMU Theatre Arts Annual New Works Festival

Meet two half-siblings named Scab and Trash! One is the embodiment of pain and stress, and the other is the embodiment of disorder and loneliness! Follow them as they come to terms with how they feel about being half-siblings while a certain vistor is present! Fun for the whole family...!

This Play Is About Bugs, Zachary Scrima

LMU Theatre Arts Annual New Works Festival

A dung beetle attempts to talk a mosquito out of entering a human home. A ten-minute play that reimagines the ancient fable 'The Ant and the Grasshopper' in a contemporary context, exploring the nature of lateral violence within a marginalized community.

Horse Boy, Madeline Dennis-Yates

Theses and Dissertations

Have you seen the new boy at the barn? Why does he get to ride Gemini? More importantly, why don’t Sarah and Ava get to? A bittersweet comedy about gender, class, and who’s jumping highest that asks: Who will love the horse girls if they lose each other?

A Very Important Nato Meeting, Elizabeth Johnson

LMU Theatre Arts Annual New Works Festival

A Very Important NATO Meeting is a slapstick farce about the futility of war. Fed up with the United States’ insatiable addiction to proxy conflicts, the rest of NATO calls an intervention to (hopefully) bring about world peace. Spoiler alert: it doesn't work.

Film Study, Zachary T. Scrima

LMU Theatre Arts Annual New Works Festival

What appears to be a normal film study class is a deep delve into the 2000's song Stacy's Mom. From there, things appear less and less like what they seem. A play that observes the cyclical nature of social politics within a classroom structure.

Red Curtain Rivalry, Amy Lytle

Playwriting (MFA) Theses

Two community theaters in the same city are accidentally putting on the same musical at the same time due to a publishing company's error. The members of the dueling troupes have to untangle the mess--the show must go on, of course! Between big misunderstandings, a few shenanigans (or hijinks, as some may say), and a lot of lessons learned, watch as each company battles to win the Red Curtain Rivalry and prove themselves the best production of "A Doll's House: The Musical!" that the community theatre community has ever seen.

Mothers And Daughters, Sean Mccord

Playwriting (MFA) Theses

Mothers & Daughters is my thesis play written after five years of coursework in the Hollins Playwrights Lab, from 2015 to 2019, and two years of writing over the course of four years, 2019 to 2023, due to some medical setbacks explained herein.

My first draft of the accompanying narrative essay was a (comparatively) compact 2000 words outlining the lessons I had learned about playwriting at Hollins and my process for writing this play. Todd Ristau, the Director of the Hollins Playwrights Lab and my first reader, wanted more and gave me both permission and motivation to do exactly what …

A Gentleman's Guide To Love And Murder, Otterbein Theatre And Dance Department

2021-2022 Season Production

Join us as we celebrate a return to live theater with a very special staged concert version of the show that was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020. While we are unable to fully realize the elaborate design of this hilarious knock-em-dead musical romp, the script will be performed in full with much of the original cast, and you will not leave without having a hearty laugh. Poor, low-born Monty Navarro is desperate to inherit the dukedom by surpassing no fewer than eight members of the well-to-do D’Ysquith family in line before him. Just wait until …

Homesick, Or Sacred Heterosexual Spaces, Ryan A. Drake

Theses and Dissertations

A dark satire about a young queer man who comes home under mysterious circumstances to find that he's been replaced by someone who looks just like him. He starts having dreams that his family is trying to kill him...but are they dreams?

Cut Song Cabaret: Performing The Replaced, Rewritten, And Recycled Songs Of Musical Theatre, Claire Wilson

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In musical theatre, “cut songs” are the pieces of music that are removed from a show, whether the cut occur in the early creative stages, a pre-Broadway run, minutes before opening night, or even for a major revival years after its initial debut. These songs easily go unnoticed, as some are never made public while some are sneakily recycled for other musicals. Cut songs, though greatly varying in quality, are still works of art that at one time fulfilled their sacred duty of entertaining an audience and required just as much artistic effort to produce as the songs that survived …

Much Ado About Nothing

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University's performance of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

Performed November 15-17 & 22-24, 2019 at the Mitchell Theatre.

Much Ado About Nothing is a comedic play that revolves around the romantic entanglements and misunderstandings of two couples. The witty and sharp-tongued Beatrice and Benedick engage in a "merry war" of words, while the young lovers Hero and Claudio face obstacles due to deceit and false accusations. The play is set in Messina and features themes of love, honor, and the consequences of deception. Through clever dialogue and humorous situations, William Shakespeare explores the complexities …

Metamorphoses

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s performance of Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman.

Performed February 22-24 and March 1-3, 2018 at the Mitchell Theatre.

Called by Time the “theater event of the year,” Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses brings Ovid’s tales to stunning visual life. Set in and around a large pool of water, Metamorphoses juxtaposes the ancient and the contemporary in both language and image to reflect the variety and persistence of narrative in the face of inevitable change. Nominated for three 2002 Tony Awards, including “Best Play,” Metamorphoses earned Zimmerman a Tony for “Best Direction of a Play.”

Direction Of The Imaginary Invalid By Molière Translated By Charles Heron Wall Adapted By Kimberly Dorman, Kimberly S. Dorman

All Graduate Projects

This project comprises of the selection, research, casting, adaptation, production and post-production process of The Imaginary Invalid. Documentation and research include adaptation, analysis of the play as a production vehicle for our program, research, script analysis, outcome goals, a record of the production period, and a postproduction evaluation.

#Parlezvousfemme - A One-Woman Show, Victoria G. Lindbergh

Oglethorpe Journal of Undergraduate Research

#parlezvousfemme is a one-woman show set in 2018 that reimagines the lives of several infamous French women. Each character approaches modern life differently based on her given circumstances and reveals several universal truths about being a woman in today’s society. The famous military leader Joan of Arc is a 19-year-old youtuber criticizing the far-right for using her as their symbol, while revolutionary Olympe de Gouges is a modern-day women’s rights activist. Marie Antoinette is a housewife being interviewed by Vogue and scientist Marie Curie hosts a PBS telethon and addresses the lack of women in science. Designer Coco Chanel is …

Creating A Happy Ending For Socially Relevant Television, John Thomas Cunha

Senior Honors Projects

Television is accessible to millions from the comfort of their own homes and shapes the way we view the world. It has the power to bring people together, but often presents diversity with a strong emphasis on labels. Characters are defined by the one trait that, to the majority of viewers, is unrelatable. This maintains the separation of “us” and “them,” isolating those in the minority. Representation is essential for progress, but it’s more than just including diversity. Instead of dwelling on differences and indulging in stereotypes, characters should all treat each other equally.

The focal TV show of this …

Clybourne Park

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s performance of Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris.

Performed September 28-30, October 1, 2017 at the Mitchell Theatre.

Winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Play, Clybourne Park is a razor-sharp satire about the politics of race. In 1959, Russ and Bev are moving to the suburbs after the tragic death of their son. Inadvertently, they’ve sold their house to the neighborhood’s first black family. Fifty years later, the roles are reversed when a young white couple buys the lot. In both instances a community showdown takes place, pitting race against …

The Matchmaker

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s performance of The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder.

Performed April 28-30 and May 5-7, 2017 at the Mitchell Theatre.

Before the world fell in love with "Hello, Dolly!", Thornton Wilder’s uproarious play "The Matchmaker" introduced Ms. Dolly Gallagher Levi: a cunning, crafty, and thoroughly modern woman who knows a good catch when she sees one. When the wealthy Horace Vandergelder hires matchmaker Ms. Levi to find him a wife, Dolly doesn't need to look far to find his perfect mate. While Dolly is “arranging things” for Mr. Vandergelder, the young, hopeless romantics of Yonkers reap the …

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Taylor Theatre Playbills

Taylor Theatre presents William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Performed April 29-30 and May 6-7, 2016 at the Mitchell Theatre. Mischief meets merriment in this fresh re-imagining of Shakespeare's most popular romantic comedy.

In just one night, four magical stories are cleverly woven together: the marriage of the Athenian duke to the Amazon queen; the battle of the king and queen of the fairies; the follies of four lovers in a forest; and the hilarious antics of amateur actors staging a play. Enter a vibrant world where fairies fly overhead, a donkey bursts into song, and love potion makes your …

Rabbit Hole

Taylor Theatre Playbills

Taylor Theatre presents Rabbit Hole by David-Lindsay-Abaire.

Performed February 19-21, 26-28, 2016 at the Mitchell Theatre.

As improbably funny as it is heartbreaking, this story of a family in crisis won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Becca and Howie had the perfect life—a great marriage, a beautiful house, and a lovely son. But after a tragic accident, the couple faces the challenges of surviving great loss and making a life with the family that remains.

The Marriage Of Figaro

Taylor Theatre Playbills

Taylor Theatre presents an original translation of Mozart's comic-opera, "The Marriage of Figaro."

Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" whisks us through the events of one crazy day as Figaro, the Lord's valet, tries to wed Susanna, the Lady's maid, before their philandering master can get to her first. Filled with Mozart's glorious music, The Marriage of Figaro is widely regarded to be one of the greatest comic operas ever written. Our production will see its plot of intrigue, mistaken identities, and unexpected revelations unravel in early 20th Century England in which the servants who live downstairs are perfectly capable of …

Tartuffe

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 2014 performance of Tartuffe by Molière.

Taylor University's Theatre department proudly presents, "Tartuffe", a pinnacle of classical comedy. Written by renowned French playwright Molière in 1664, "Tartuffe" follows a hypocrite's attempts to sabotage the domestic happiness of an unsuspecting family.

The Servant Of Two Masters

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 2014 performance of The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni, translated by Jeffry Hatcher and Paolo Emilio Landi.

The Servant of Two Masters is a comedy by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni written in 1746. It follows the story of Beatrice and her comical servant, Truffaldino. Beatrice goes disguised as her dead brother to find her lover, Florindo, plotting to acquire money from her brother’s betrothed to help her run away with her lover. Meanwhile Truffaldino secretly takes on an additional service to Florindo, and must do his best to serve his two …

The Cherry Orchard

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 2014 performance of The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov.

The play follows an aristocratic Russian landowner who returns to her family estate (which includes a large and well-known cherry orchard) just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage.

The Curious Savage

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 2013 performance of The Curious Savage by John Patrick.

The Curious Savage is the story of Ethel P. Savage, an elderly lady whose husband has died and left her approximately ten million dollars. When she sets up a memorial fund for average people to pursue their dreams, her three stepchildren commit her to a sanatorium and try to discover where she has hidden the fortune. As the search for the fortune plays out the question becomes who is really crazy, the residents of the sanatorium or Ethel’s stepchildren.

Noises Off

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 2012 performance of Noises Off by Michael Frayn.

Noises Off is a farce involving the small cast of a play and how their offstage drama impacts their onstage drama.

The Development And Debut Of Adam Esquenazi Douglas' Play "Murder And The English Gentleman", Adam Esquenazi Douglas

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the development process of the creation of a new playscript, "Murder and the English Gentleman", an adaptation of the short story "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime" by Oscar Wilde. The play is a wild, comedy-of-manners presented in classic Wildean 19th century drawing room style. The document details the process of getting this script from short story to script to stage. Also included are some of the play's most significant drafts, the original short story by Wilde, production and rehearsal journals, and production photos. The play was presented by the University of Arkansas' Boar's …

The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged)

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 2011 performance of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) by Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) is a parody in which all of Shakespeare’s plays are performed in merged and/or condensed form by three actors. The actors use their real names, interact with the audience, and at times improvise as they go through the plays.

Crimes Of The Heart

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 2010 performance of Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley.

Crimes of the Heart tells the story of the three Magrath sisters, Meg, Babe, and Lenny, who reunite at their grand father’s home in Mississippi after Babe shoots her abusive husband.