ONE ACTS
A Dance Card
cast size: 1-2 women, 1-4 any gender
run time: 10 minutes
The Woman finds herself in a beautiful hotel bar and dance floor. A dreamlike version of the 1930s that has never existed. The Depression is nowhere to be found. This is Idyll. A place to escape. A place to...find love?
A Dance Card is a new verse play in which the verse changes with each and every one of The Woman's strange and singular dance partners.
break up with me
written for Monologue Monday at The Shelter
cast size: 1 (standalone monologue)
run time: 1-2 minutes
"...Break up with me by a lake,
Or just outside of a charming little town you can hike to by way of rambling country road --
Break up with me somewhere beautiful,
Standing in tall grass,
Sun setting behind your head,
Your face so back-lit I can’t see your eyes..."
Previous Production(s):
Performed by Cait Cortelyou for The Shelter
Video here.
Dispatches From the Grey
cast size: 4, any gender
run time: 10-15 minutes
"I woke to find myself in a place without air, without breath, without sound
and the silence
pulsed
and I realized I had been holding my breath
so I --
(exhales)
and I blinked
and the world was grey
but then suddenly
or maybe after a very long time
there was life in it
mine
and yours."
DISPATCHES FROM THE GREY is a short magical realism/sci fi play that can be performed digitally (i.e. on Zoom), or in a live theatrical space.
Previous Production(s):
Developmental Workshop, Match: Lit (Screen:Lit), 2020
Frenzy and Fury
cast size: 2 women, 1 man
run time: 10-15 minutes
Penthea's just moved to a new apartment. All she wants is to start over. Forget the past. Maybe order a pizza.
So what will she do when Dionysus shows up at her door?
Loosely inspired by THE BACCHAE, FRENZY AND FURY examines the toll that repressed trauma and unreleased anger can take -- what form it might take as it manifests in our bodies, in our lives.
Green Glass Dreams
cast size: 1 woman, 1 man
run time: 30 minutes
All the Man knows is he is an ever-changing character in The Woman's dreams.
All the Woman knows is she's got something in her chest that wants Out. And that the Man could be the key to setting it free.
Can either find answers before they lose each other to the morning?
Previous Production(s):
Workshop, Spit and Vigor, 2021
Happy Hour
written for Rule of 7x7: PrideFest (The Tank)
cast size: 3 TGNC actors
run time: 10 minutes
It's Marian and Greer's first date -- and Marian's first date since they came out of the closet. Where better to meet than a Doctor Who Bar?
7x7 reading directed by Phoebe Brooks
7x7 cast: Le Alfieri, Claire Alexander, Theo McKenna
Abby Wilde, Jianzi Colón-Soto
Jianzi Colón-Soto
Jianzi Colón-Soto
Abby Wilde, Jianzi Colón-Soto
into the beyond
cast size: 5 women
run time: 30 minutes
Previous production(s):
commissioned for Beyond the Ingenue, Turn to Flesh Productions (2019)
fully-staged reading directed by Kelsie Jepsen
featuring: LisaLaGrande, Maura Lefevre, Becca Musser, Jianzi Colón-Soto & Abby Wilde (photos by Maragaret Lee)
proposal
written for Samantha Turlington as part of Monologue Monday at The Shelter
cast size: 1 (standalone monologue)
run time: 1-2 minutes
"...When Forever With The Person I Love transformed from an idea, a beautiful hypothetical, into Right Here, Right Now --
All I wanted to do was disappear..."
Previous Production(s):
Performed by Samantha Turlington for The Shelter
Video here.
Radio Hour
cast size: 2 women, 1 any gender
run time: 10-15 minutes
Leila’s beloved Frankie is gone. Good thing magic is real. And the weird old person who sold Leila a portal to The Other Side wasn’t full of it.
Starfall
cast size: 3 women, 1 any gender
run time: 10-15 minutes
Three friends made a pact that on the night before they all left for college, they'd meet on the beach after dark to say goodbye. But a lot has changed since freshman year.
Six Autumns on the Hudson
cast size: 2 women
run time: 10-15 minutes
AWARDS:
FINALIST - Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival Bake Off, 2020
FINALIST - Full Circle Players New Play Festival, 2021
Susie M. Barstow and Edith Wilkinson Cook, two very different painters of the Hudson school -- and fast friends -- take a canoe trip to Pollopel (soon to be Bannerman) Island every Autumn from 1858 to 1902.* What will they discover about themselves -- and about each other -- over long years of friendship, art, and paddling through rough water towards the reward of the elusive island?
Previous Production(s):
Reading, Infinite Variety Productions, 2021
Reading, Full Circle Players
Marmalade the Once-Cat Finds a New Name
cast size: 4-7
run time: 15 minutes
A surreal fairytale about identity and the power of naming what, and who, you are.
Previous Production(s):
Workshopped at Poetic Theatre Productions' Poetic Open Sessions, 2020
The Mouth of the Cave
cast size: 3 any gender
run time: 10 minutes
Bronwyn wakes up on top of something very high.
Aisling must save Bronwyn. If they can stop sweating.
The Dragon put this whole thing together. No Refunds.
The Audience -- that's you -- should be careful not to speak.
This narrative is in flux. Anything could happen.
tree play
cast size: 5 any gender
run time: 20-30 minutes
Exactly What it Says on the Tin.
We're learning that trees can communicate with each other. If we could understand them, if we could hear them -- what might they say to each other?
Previous Production(s):
Workshopped at Poetic Theatre Productions' Poetic Open Sessions, 2021
What Comes After
cast size: 4 women
run time: 10-15 minutes
2220, What Used to be the Hollywood Hills.
Wynne is a Descendant. Her ancestor, Aurora, fought for justice on Earth long ago. Wynne and her partner, Aubrey, take a government-sponsored "birthright" trip to Earth, to the site of her ancestor's sacrifice -- and to the monument that stands in tribute to those long-ago capital-R Revolutionaries.
Zoe Carroll at Diane Mitchell's Retirement Party, 2019
cast size: 6-9
run time: 30-45 minutes
Z (she/they) has repressed a lot about her turbulent college experience. There's nothing like a pseudo-reunion (and seeing a particularly toxic teacher again) to bring it all back up.
FULL LENGTH PLAYS
[ladypub]
cast size: 8-12+ (8 principals, all women; w/option to add ensemble/musicians)
run time: 2 hours
[ladypub] is the story of a group of very different friends from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and livelihoods in Edwardian London who meet at a so-called "Pub for Women" (inspired by a real trend of the time). Through poetry, pain and perseverence, they fall in love for the first time; acquire self-knowledge and actualization; challenge and change each other. [ladypub] examines privilege and patriarchy through exploring the wonders (and limits) of a safe space for women and queer people to be themselves -- an ephemeral, magical, joyful Pub.
Tam Lin
a new play
cast size: 9+
run time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
SIX AUTUMNS... was adapted into a chamber opera that had its Philadelphia premiere in Autumn 2023. Listen to excerpts here.
TAM LIN received a developmental workshop production with Barefoot Shakespeare in October of 2022 and is seeking a home for its next step. Interested parties should reach out to laurelplaywright@gmail.com for more information.
TAM LIN, a new play, loosely inspired by the Scottish folktake of the same name, is an epic fantasy-romance in the spirit of 80s adventure movies. Edinburugh, Fall 1987. It’s Halloween Night. Janet is a young woman waitressing in a pub to help settle her missing father’s debts when her friend and coworker, Maura, is spirited away to Faeryland. To save her, Janet must navigate a strange and dangerous new world, face all manner of creatures, and -- ultimately -- choose love over fear. TAM LIN uses its fantasy setting to examine how change, fear, and love can shape our choices -- and how we imagine ourselves and each other.