Playwriting Commons^™

Should Tomorrow Mark The Start Of Forever?, Rodrigo Zoratto Assis

LMU Theatre Arts Annual New Works Festival

Should Tomorrow Mark the Start of Forever? is a play about family, memory, love, and the strange performance of becoming yourself. The work follows characters who are trying to tell the truth, even when truth becomes painful, theatrical, funny, or impossible. At its center, the show explores how children inherit stories from their parents, and how those stories shape faith, identity, desire, and belonging. The piece moves between humor and emotional intensity, using performance itself as a way to reveal what people cannot say directly. Brazilian culture, love, spirituality, and the fear of disappointing the people we love all live …

Rainbows And Shades Of Gray, Lillian I. Savage

Playwriting (MFA) Theses

Rainbows and Shades of Gray is an original musical that explores the complexities of addiction, memory, and grief through a nonlinear, liminal narrative structure. The story follows Aaron, a deceased veteran, father, and musician forced to confront moments from his life as he grapples with the impact of his addiction on his relationships with his wife, Danielle, and daughter, Natalia. Through a series of fragmented scenes spanning past and present, the musical examines the emotional aftermath of trauma and the ways in which love persists despite harm.

Blending dialogue and original music, the piece uses song as a narrative device …

Dear Vincent, James H. Stone Iv

Playwriting (MFA) Theses

Dear Vincent is a play written for J. Harvey Stone’s MFA in Playwriting from Hollins University. The play is inspired by the life of Vincent van Gogh and his letters with his brother Theodore. The artist Vincent van Gogh was an avid writer to his brother Theodore. This play is inspired by, but not dictated by, the letters Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother. Connected by hymns in Act I and by the news of the 1980s in Act II, this Vincent lives through his letters as well but ultimately has to make a decision regarding this life in …

Edges, Brandon Bogle

Theses and Dissertations

Edges is an adaptation of Three Sisters set at the twilight of the Harlem Renaissance, a once-influential black family faces the looming shadow of the Great Depression, throwing into question all of their dreams. With inspiration from Purpose by Branden Jacob-Jenkins and Is God Is by Aleshea Harris, this play explores family, desire and the depths to which people struggle to define themselves and survive.

This House Is For Laughing, Sam Walsh

Theses and Dissertations

Kendra has the perfect all-American family. She’s made sure of it. But when her brother Ben proves uncontrollable, she’s forced to confront her concept of family and how we choose to show up for one another.

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?

When The Rain Stops Falling

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s performance of When the Rain Stops Falling by Thornton Andrew Bovell.

Performed February 24-26, March 3-5, 2017.

It’s 2039. A fish falls from the sky and lands at Gabriel’s feet. Where did it come from? Gabriel’s estranged son decides to visit for dinner. What does he want? To know about his past? Gabriel barely knows his own past. From 1959 to 2039, from London to Australia, When the Rain Stops Falling follows the fragmented history and mystery of Gabriel’s family and the falling fish.

Prodigal, Jonathan R. White

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Following a similar pattern of the classic Biblical story of “The Prodigal Son”, the play allows for a modernization of the characters and setting. Set in 1968, the playwright takes a look at what happened after the “Prodigal Son” returned home as well as the effect the return had upon the Son that stayed as well as the Father. How can family relationships survive in the midst of lies and turmoil of a time of great change in America’s history.

The Royal Family

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 2002 performance of The Royal Family by _George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber

Marvin’S Room

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Spring 2000 performance of Marvin’s Room by Scott McPherson.

Stefanie Hero

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1996 performance of Stefanie Hero by Mark Medoff.

Stefanie Hero is the story of a princess who is suddenly forced to take charge of her kingdom and family and battle the evil facing her.

I Remember Mama

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1990 performance of I Remember Mama by John van Druten.

I Remember Mama is the story of an immigrated Norwegian family living in San Francisco at the turn of the 20th century as told by one of the family’s daughters, Katrin.

You Can't Take It With You

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1982 performance of You Can’t Take It with You by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.

You Can’t Take It with You follows the story of the only normal daughter in an eccentric family, and the chaos and mishaps which happen when she brings her fiancé home to meet her family.

The Potting Shed

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1967 performance of The Potting Shed by Graham Greene.

The Potting Shed tells the story of a man who returns home to his estranged family as his father is dying. Unsure why he was estranged from his family, he pursues answers his family will not provide. He realizes the answer is found in his blank memory about an event in a potting shed when he was fourteen.

You Can't Take It With You

Taylor Theatre Playbills

The playbill for Taylor University’s Fall 1959 performance of You Can’t Take It with You by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.

You Can’t Take It with You follows the story of the only normal daughter in an eccentric family, and the chaos and mishaps which happen when she brings her fiancé home to meet her family.