Time Examines Society and History

A second identifiable reason to use alternative time structures is to examine society and history. These scripts often use the device to explore patterns or commonalities between generations and play them off each other in the hopes of having audience members learn from history. This group of plays address bigger philosophical questions regarding death, life, existence, awareness, history and identity. Pultizer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks wrote “Why linear narrative at all? Why choose that shape? If a playwright chooses to tell a dramatic story, and realizes that there are essential elements of that story which lead the writing outside the realm of ‘linear narrative,’ then the play naturally assumes a new shape” (p. 8, Parks, Suzan-Lori. “An Excerpt from Elements of Style.” The America Play and Other Works. Theatre Communications Group, 1995). For Parks, her plays use alternate time structure to explore the missing African American narrative within history. Her script, The America Play, lists the place in which the play takes place as “A great hole. In the middle of nowhere. The hole is an exact replica of the Great Hole of History” (p. 158, The America Play and Other Works. Theatre Communications Group, 1995.) Nearly all of her plays would fall into the category of examination of society and history.

In his play, Our Town (1938), Thornton Wilder uses flashbacks to explore the town’s relationships with one another through the generations. The stage manager is the omniscient narrator. He has the ability to change the time in which the narrative is taking place to serve the story that he is trying to tell.

The stage manager addresses the broader concept of time in this play. In Act II, the stage manager acknowledges the three act structure that is the spine of time for the play, “The First Act was called the Daily Life. This act is called Love and Marriage. There’s another act coming after this: I reckon you can guess what that’s about” (48). This structure of the play mirrors the life cycle of humanity. Though Wilder addresses the life cycle as a structural theme bluntly in the second act, he introduces it more subtly in the first act.

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Protagonists with Disabilities

Historically, it was rare for protagonists to have a disability. If there was a character in a play with a disability, they were often the butt of jokes or small roles. When there were characters with disabilities, they were not played by actors with disabilities.

While many cite Shakespeare’s “King Lear” as an early work inclusive of a protagonist with mental illness, one of the early works in the 20th century that has become well-known is Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” (1944). Williams was a playwright with disabilities and his protagonist, Laura, has mental illness. However, she was originally played by an able-bodied actress, Julie Haydon.

William Gibson’s “Miracle Worker” (1959) centered Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan, her teacher. Arguably, Annie Sullivan is the protagonist but Helen Keller was a very large role and it was handed to able-bodied actress, Patty Duke.

British playwright, Peter Nichols, wrote “A Day in the Death of Joe Egg” (1967), based on his experience as a parent of child with a disability. His characters were parents dealing with a non-verbal child in a wheelchair and what the experience has done to their marriage. Even in this very touching instance, the protagonists are the parents. Disability is what disrupts their “normal” lives.

As times shifted, the Disability Rights Movement occurred in the 1970’s. Judy Heumann, a lawyer with a physical disability and a disability advocate, was known as “The Mother of the Disability Movement”. People with disabilities protested for their rights in Berkeley while Heumann negotiated in the courtroom. People with all different kinds of disabilities coordinated to make sure they could take care of themselves. When communication was cut off to the building they were in, the Deaf community used ASL to communicate with friends outside the sit-in. A 2020 documentary film about this experience called “Crip Camp” is an excellent window into this period of time for people with disabilities in society.

The Disability Movement changed what was coming to the stage. Also playing into playwrights’ awareness was the end of the Vietnam War. Lanford Wilson wrote his play “The Fifth of July” (1978) about a gay double amputee returning from the war. William Hurt played the male lead role but he did not have a disability.

In 1979, Mark Medoff wrote “Children of a Lesser God” expressly for Deaf actress, Phyllis Frelich, and her husband, Robert Steinberg, about a relationship between a student and her former teacher. It was produced at Mark Taper Forum, which has been friendly and supportive of artists with disabilities for a long time. I will talk more about their work later on. When the script was adapted for the screen, Deaf actress, Marlee Matlin, played the role opposite William Hurt, earning her the first Oscar for a person who is Deaf.

When AIDS arrived, it was written about by multiple playwrights, though not always by playwrights who had experienced it personally. Those that were included Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart” (1985) and Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” (1991) which received the 1993 Pulitzer Prize. Both centered people with AIDS as their protagonists, written by playwrights with AIDS or HIV.

Many playwrights started writing about their personal experiences with loved ones who had disabilities. Still, the playwrights were primarily not people with disabilities and the actors being given the roles were not people with disabilities.

In 1996, Irish playwright, Martin McDonagh’s “A Cripple of Inishmaan” opened at the Royal Court Theatre. Inspired by an Irish myth about the Aran Islands, McDonagh’s play centers a disabled orphan living with his aunts on a remote island. The part was given to able-bodied actor, Rúaidhrí Conroy, and it became his breakout role for his career.

In 1999, Margaret Edson’s “Wit” about a woman with cancer received the Pulitzer Prize. Edson never had cancer and said that the play was not about doctors or cancer.

In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed and a greater awareness of people with disabilities in the United States as whole beings came into play. We will now turn to playwrights with disabilities who frequently had protagonists with disabilities as well.

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Playwrights With Disabilities

I’d like to talk about why it’s important to include playwrights with disabilities on the stage. It might seem obvious: having diverse voices is important; speaking from an authentic experience is educational. Yes. That is true. The one thing about having a disability is that ANYONE can have a disability at any time in their life. No matter the race, ethnicity, religion, gender, political, class or country affiliation, ANYONE can have a disability at any time in their life. And, yet, the culture around disability has had and associated shame for longer and has frequently made it harder in theater. While it is common to think that physical disability is what defines disability, hidden disabilities are very common also (I speak from personal experience).

Therefore, it is with great pride that I introduce you to a group of playwrights who identify as people with disabilities.

John Belluso (1969 – 2006)

An American playwright with physical disabilities, Belluso was well-known for his one-act plays about people with disabilities. He was a pioneer for physically disabled playwrights. He was produced at Magic Theater, Mark Taper Forum, Humana Festival of New Plays, Victoria Gardens Theater, Trinity Repertory Company and Keen Company. At the time of his death, he was holding simultaneous residencies with the Public Theater and New Dramatists. As a leader in the field, he also created a writing program, Other Voices Project, at Mark Taper Forum, for people with disabilities. Selected works include: Body of Bourne, Eyolf, Gretty Good Time, Traveling Skin, A Nervous Smile, Pyretown, and The Rules of Charity.

Mike Ervin (1956-Living)

A Chicago based playwright, journalist and disability activist with a physical disability, Ervin’s work has been produced nationwide. Throughout all of his creative, journalistic, blog, and books, he primarily writes about disabilities. He was the director for the Access Project from 1992-2019 to help make live theater more accessible for people with disabilities. A huge advocate for people with disabilities, he is proud that he has been arrested many times in his efforts to raise his voice for what he believes in. His most well-known play which was about disability is The History of Bowling (Victory Gardens Theater, the Know Theater Tribe, Mixed Blood Theatre, and Circle Theatre).

Elana Gartner (1976-Living)

A Brooklyn based playwright with medical and physical disabilities, Gartner has been a disability advocate much of her adult life. Gartner’s work has been produced at the Workshop Theater, Little Howick Theater (NZ), and Fabrefaction Theatre. She was a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Conference and the Jewish Plays Project. She participated in the Great Plains Conference, the Kennedy Center Playwriting Initiative and the Midwest Dramatists Conference. Her plays about disabilities include: Jagged Journey, Pilar’s Brother, Outside and Tornado.

Emma Goldman-Sherman (1965-Living)

Goldman-Sherman (they/them) has an invisible disability. They are a Queer, non-binary playwright, teacher and dramaturg. They are an advocate for women and non-binary people. They teach at the Dramatists Guild Institute and has been a dramaturg at the Great Plains Theater Conference and the 29th Street Playwrights Collective. Some of Goldman-Sherman’s work includes: Abraham’s Daughters (Parsnip Ship), Man&Wife, a neuro queer oddity (developed with Clutch Productions) and FUKT.

Ryan J. Haddad (1992-Living)

A New York based playwright and actor with physical disabilities, Haddad is a huge advocate for people with disabilities in theater. His written work are all about his personal journeys. Along the way, he has also worked with theaters to make them more aware of how to have accessible productions, providing live captioning, space for autistic individuals and touch the set prior to shows for low vision and blind individuals. His playwriting credits include: Hold Me in the Water (Playwrights Horizons, Drama League and Drama Desk nominations), Dark Disabled Stories (Bushwick Starr/Public Theater, Obie Award for Best New American Play), and Hi, Are You Single? (Woolly Mammoth/IAMA, Helen Hayes nomination)

Anita Hollander (1955-Living)

Hollander is a New York based playwright, lyricist, composer, actress, singer, director, and producer who is a two time cancer survivor with one leg. She has been an advocate for disability awareness and employment for people with disabilities in theater. Among her playwriting credits are: her one-woman show, “Still Standing: A Musical Survival Guide for Life's Catastrophes” (Kennedy Center, United Solo Festival Off-Broadway), “Lebensunwerten Leben: Life Unworthy of Life” (Roundabout Theatre’s Reverb Festival), “Spectacular Falls” (Off-Broadway and national tour), “Walking to Canada” (Estrogenius 2003) and “Pieces of a Pandemic” (recently cited on 50 Plays by Women Over 50).

Chisa Hutchinson (1980-Living)

Chisa Hutchinson is a New Jersey based playwright and TV writer with a medical disability who advocates for playwrights and screenwriters of color. She was a Lark fellow, a Dramatists Guild fellow and later, worked with the Dramatists Guild to get funding for a fellowship that she founded called the Signpost Fellowship for people of color. Some of her work includes “Amerikin” (59E59, Primary Stages), “Dead and Breathing” (Lark Development Center, National Black Theater) , “Surely Goodness and Mercy” (New Jersey Performing Arts Center), and Proof of Love (Minetta Lane Theater).

Larry Kramer (1935-2020)

Larry Kramer was a playwright, TV writer, gay rights activist and healthcare activist. He was HIV positive. He was a co-founder for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) which supported men during the AIDS crisis and became the largest organization to do so. He then founded ACT Up (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), a protest organization to directly address the apathy towards gay men and the AIDS crisis. Starting as a successful screenwriter, he also wrote a novel before moving over to plays. Much of his work was gay-themed. Some of his work included: “Sissies Scrapbook, aka Four Friends” (Playwrights Horizons), “The Normal Heart” (The Public Theater), and “The Destiny of Me” (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Obie award winner.

Tim J. Lord (Living)

Lord is a Midwest playwright with a physical disability and he is a disability activist. He was the inaugural recipient of the Apothetae Lark Fellowship (a program run specifically for people for disabilities), a Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights Center and a Reg E. Cathey Writer in Residence at the Orchard Project. Some of his works include: “We Declare You A Terrorist”, “The Hard Price”, and “On Every Link a Heart Does Dangle; or Owed” (a part of an adaptation of the Oedipus trilogy he has written).

Lynn Manning (1955-2015)

Manning was a playwright, a para-Olympian, a poet and an actor. He competed twice in the Olympic sport of Blind Judo and took Silver for the United States. He competed in Blind Judo throughout the world, receiving medals and awards. Originally a visual artist, he was shot in the face at the age of 23 at a Hollywood bar and lost his eyesight. His poetry explored the intersectionality of his race and disability. He was a member of the Mark Taper Forum’s Mentor Playwrights Program and the Other Voices Project, along with John Belluso. His play “Weights” (2001, 3 NAACP awards) was a semi-autobiographical play about his experience as a Black and blind athlete and man. His final play was “Up From the Downs” (Los Angeles Design Center).

Charles Mee (1938-Living)

Mee is a New York based playwright, librettist, professor, historian and author with a physical disability. Mee oscillated between playwriting and novel writing. He first began working with the off-off Broadway community in the 1960’s (LaMama, Caffe Cino, Theatre Genesis, Ontological Theater) and then moved to publishing, writing articles and novels, particularly as it related to politics and the Vietnam War. Twenty years after he left playwriting, Mee returned to it. Much of Mee’s work was site specific. Over the years, he has collaborated with his daughter, Erin Mee, as a director. Here is some of his work: The Imperialists at the Club Cave Canem (The Public Theatre), Orestes (Saratoga International Theater Institute), First Love (New York Theatre Workshop), and Fire Island. All of Mee’s work is available on his website.

Azure D. Osborne-Lee (1984-Living)

Osborne-Lee (he/they) is a trans playwright, professor, and screenwriter with physical disabilities. An advocate for people with disabilities and trans people in theater, Osborne-Lee is from the South, is a professor in New York but is currently studying in London. He was the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow (2025) and the GLAAD Black Queer Creative Summit Fellow (2025). They were also the Disability Belongs Virtual Entertainment Lab Fellow (2025). Their plays include: Crooked Parts (Obsidian Theatre Festival) and Mirrors (New York Theatre Workshop).

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983)

Williams was a playwright and screenwriter with multiple physical and invisible disabilities. Originally from a Southern family, Williams’ work, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” is a semi-autobiographical play, including themes of addiction. As mentioned above, Williams’ breakthrough play, “The Glass Menagerie” featured a protagonist with mental illness. Williams is known for being one of the great American playwrights of the 20th century. His works include: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Pulitzer Prize), A Streetcar Named Desire (Pulitzer Prize) and Night of the Iguana.

Garrett Zuercher (1979-Living)

Zuercher is a profoundly Deaf playwright, screenwriter, director, producer, actor and teacher. An advocate the Deaf and disabled community, he is the founder of Deaf Broadway, an organization that performs musical theater at Lincoln Center every summer with a completely Deaf production team. Zuercher’s work frequently includes multiple languages, including English, American Sign Language, and occasionally languages from other cultures. He has received awards from the Kennedy Center and the Zarkower Award. His work includes: Hard Places (Roundabout Reverb Theatre Festival), Philoctetes, a new Deaf culture adaptation (Adaptation Lab at the Orchard Project, IRT), Privilege (IRT) and Quid Pro Quo (Kennedy Center).

But Wait! There’s More!

I couldn’t possibly include all the playwrights with disabilities that exist in the world. Here’s a link from Howlround of a piece that Deaf playwright, Aditi Kapil, wrote in 2015. (I highly recommend her play “Orange”)

Also, please check out the comments to see other suggestions from people as they find this article and remind us who else is out there.

Pride

The disability community in theater takes great pride in the fact that we are able to express ourselves through our art, when given the chance. Whether we have visible or invisible disabilities, we want to make our voices heard. Below, please find some resources to help the able-bodied members of the theater community be more inclusive of the disabled or differently abled or Deaf members of the theater community.

Finding Actors With Disabilities

If you’re on Facebook, there is a group for trained actors with disabilities.

If you’re located in the Philadelphia area, Acting Without Boundaries is a great organization for people with disabilities to act in. (it’s also a great resource if you need actors in that area. Shout out to Will Thomas who I used from that organization!)

Disability Consultant

Christine Bruno is an actress with a physical disability, a disability advocate and a disability consultant. She can also help with casting.

Consultability provides consulting on how to make auditions, productions and audience experience accessible.

ASL Interpretation

Hands On provides ASL interpretation throughout New York City.

Grants for Accessibility and Artists With Disabilities

The Theater Development Fund has a full page on accessibility, including information that leads to the NYSCA grants which will open in fall 2027. Grants from TDF will support autism friendly performances, ASL signage or captioning for live events. No matter where your theater is, this will give you a good idea of what you can do to make your theater more accessible for artists and patrons.

IndieSpace provides a Mental Health Grant (as well as other grants) and makes rehearsal space affordable in NYC through a community. Check to see if the space they are providing is ADA accessible.

The National Endowment for the Arts, though it is still having to fight to keep their lights on, is providing support for specific goals for 2028 that are inclusive of topics around people with disabilities. Read details on their website.

SouthArts has previously had grants for organizations to make their theaters more accessible. You can get on their listserv to be notified when this opportunity (or other grants that they make) open again.

Organizations Dedicated to Artists With Disabilities

Wanna know where to find artists with disabilities?

Apothetae (at the Public)

Founded by actor Gregg Mozgala (who also has a physical disability), The Apothetae was first homed at the Lark before the Lark shut down. Now housed within the Public Theater, it provides an ongoing dialogue between disabled and non-disabled artists to create honest conversation and understanding while creating art for the stage.

Phamaly Theater Company

Located in Colorado, Phamaly Theater Company is a theater dedicated to artists and audiences with disabilities. Their work tells stories of people with disabilities, their actors have disabilities and their space is accessible.

Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB)

TBTB works with theater makers of all disabilities and abilities but puts people with disabilities at the center. They are the only off-Broadway house operating deliberately to support people with disabilities.

More Articles

Online articles for people within the theater industry, HowlRound provides a special and extensive focus on people with disabilities and accessibility.

And, in 2015, American Theater Magazine did a story on people with disabilities in theater on the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

More…

Thanks for reading this article! If you are interested in TV shows and screenplays and a longer list of plays with protagonists, drop me a line. I hope you have enjoyed it and learned something! If you’re not a reader, I hope you’ll subscribe. If you are, I hope you will re-stack it or share it with a friend who might be interested.

Linear Time Structure

Chronological or traditional storytelling was particularly encouraged in literature by the first theater philosopher, Aristotle. In Aristotle’s Poetics, he says “…Tragedy endeavors, as far as possible, to confine itself to a single revolution of the sun…” (60) meaning that the entirety of a script should take place in a single day. He criticizes the idea that the plot could be out of chronological order: “… the structural union of the parts being such that, if any one of them is displaced or removed, the whole will be disjointed and disturbed” (67). Aristotle’s prescriptions on how theater should be written with his principle of the three unities (time, place and action) were used for centuries.

Events in a linear time structure may occur hours, days or weeks apart but they are going forward in linear chronological time, ABCDE.

Who Broke The Mold?

In 1843, Charles Dickens published the novella, A Christmas Carol. He began to act it out for crowds and it was performed by a theater troupe six weeks after its publication. It was not officially adapted into script format. Dickens used devices called flashbacks, which showcase a time in the past, and flashforwards, which showcase a time in the future. Because of the commercial success of A Christmas Carol, other writers started using non-traditional time structures in their writing, including nineteenth century mystery writers.

In the early 20th century, Thornton Wilder wrote Our Town, a play frequently credited as being one of the first to break the traditional time structure, though it may be simply when it became more popular and widely accepted. While majority of the script is linear, the third act involves flashbacks as seen through the eyes of a character that has passed away. She watches her younger self and characters from her life (much in the way that Scrooge does in A Christmas Carol) before she is returned to her current time.

The Playwright’s Strategy

Many authors and playwrights use mystery as a driving force when considering alternate time structures. Mystery remains one of the most effective ways to engage an audience. As the audience watches the characters portraying stories in alternate time structures, information is revealed and withheld strategically to create mystery.

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I warn him early in our working together that I am going to have trust issues. And why? Because EVERYONE SAYS THEY HAVE THE THING FOR MY SCIATICA AND WHERE AM I NOW??? So. Trust is hard to come by and there’s no magic bean for my sciatica.

Mr. Magic comes by his name honestly, even if he would hate the name. He constantly reminds me that life happens and I can plan for life happening with my exercises. “So, you already know that you’re going to be busy for this whole month? So you have to plan the two minute, five minute, ten minute and twenty minute exercise routines and do what you can when you are able to. And don’t get mad at yourself.” So I write those on the side of my logs.

He decides to start giving me stickers for my successes. I am elated! I have no idea why stickers are such an awesome treat for a woman my age. You’d think I was in nursery school, having a sticker chart for learning to go to the potty! He informs me that they were $11 and they are clearly meant for teachers to give students. They say things like “Way to Go!” and “Keep Up the Good Work!” with adorable little cartoon animals. Anytime I go to PT and he is only giving me one sticker, I badger him about why I deserve more. On the weeks that I don’t go, my daughter starts giving me stickers from her collection or drawing me a picture. Mr. Magic is so impressed with them that he sometimes even gives her stickers. I name the notebook the Magic Book.

I develop a habit of doing my nighttime exercises while watching some sitcom that is approximately the length of the time I need. Appropriately so, I get through the first season of “Midcentury Modern” and start rewatching the revived version of “Will & Grace”. Independently, I decide to start recording my steps. I mean, I have a Fitbit; if I’m not going to pay attention to it, what is it there for? It becomes quickly evident that the days that I am off to doctor’s appointments at Central Hospital or even to PT are long walk days. If I am going to see a show, that also might be a long walk day. But a lot of the time, I am just sitting at my computer in the house and not getting steps.

I spend January and February dodging and weaving through enormous emotional stress as our family navigates through the death of a loved one. This is the “life happens” stuff that Mr. Magic was talking about. We are in touch throughout and he coaches me on how to handle things so that I can avoid flare-ups.

As we get into spring, I start talking with Mr. Magic about the idea of starting to work with a trainer who has a background in PT. It’s not a new idea for me but it’s not one that I have been ready to embrace. I know it will mean ending my time with Mr. Magic but I think my body is ready for the next steps in the process. Mr. Magic is not a particularly emotional person but I can tell that he is moved when I make the request, knowing that I feel confident.

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He has a few ideas but doesn’t send them to me for a while. I start looking up options on my own, knowing that, if I don’t start doing the research, I will lose my nerve to actually move in the direction of strength training. Suddenly, it is somehow the middle of summer. Time has inexplicably passed and I still don’t have recommendations from Mr. Magic, despite my pestering. My schedule and his schedule have been so off from one another that we have had five weeks since the last time we have seen each other.

When I finally come in, he tells me that it was good that I have come in that day since the following week is going to be his last day. As our plan had been for me to roll off of PT in September, I see no reason to switch to a new PT. We develop a plan, inclusive of a trainer with a background in PT that he recommends and knows. And I finally ring the bell to graduate from PT after almost two years.

It is a strange feeling, getting my T-shirt, hugging all the techs, the admins and staff goodbye. They have been supportive of me. We have been silly together. They are used to me coming in and having long deep conversations about music education or theater. While I will never miss doing exercises that I hate with the techs, I will miss the techs. Some of them I have known since my first day there.

And then I am out in the world with a phone number for a trainer, a phone number for Mr. Magic who plans to check up on me and my magic log book to keep me going. Mr. Magic will deny this statement: he empowered me. He will say I empowered me.

Something that has been commented on and that I want to articulate louder: in previous posts, there were a lot of white men with a very minor handful of white women. As time progressed and society shifted, there were more women and people of color whose Queer themed plays made it to the stage. LGBTQ+ playwrights didn’t always write about being Queer. Lorraine Hansberrry, who was Queer, never wrote on the subject. In part, this was because women and people of color had to first work with their identities as women and people of color before addressing their LGBTQ+ identities in their work. At the end of this post will be links to lists of the many additional LGBTQ+ playwrights who may not have written with Queer themes.

And now, the final installation for Pride 2026.

Stop Kiss by Diana Son (1998)

The first play by an openly Queer Asian American female playwright to feature LGBTQ+ themes on a big stage, “Stop Kiss” demonstrated a public lesbian kiss. The storyline shows the aftermath of that kiss, resulting in a hate crime. It originally played off-Broadway at the Public Theatre but was so successful that it extended three times. It has since played everywhere and received the GLAAD Award for the New York performance. I have read this script and it is magnificent.

After Callie meets Sara, the two unexpectedly fall in love. Their first kiss provokes a violent attack that transforms their lives in a way they could never anticipate. An angry bystander attacks Sara in a hate-crime after which she falls into a coma. This heartfelt story is told out of chronological order as we watch the relationship between Callie and Sara both before and after this horrific act.

Boston Marriage by David Mamet (1999)

Mamet’s play “Boston Marriage” focuses on a relationship between women at the turn of the 20th century who live together and have emotional and physical intimacy but cannot be married. In the Queer community, the term “Boston marriage” was adopted as part of the language to identify these types of relationships that were discovered in the hidden Queer history as a result of this play. “Boston Marriage” was first performed in Massachusetts, then moved to London in 2001. It later moved to Australia for a debut and, eventually, went to an off-Broadway run in 2002. Mamet was one of the few heterosexual playwrights who centered a lesbian relationship. That said, Mamet has, unfortunately, fallen out of favor with the LGBTQ+ community as he has turned towards more homophobic tendencies and rhetoric.

Anna and Claire are two bantering, scheming “women of fashion” who have long lived together on the fringes of upper-class society. Anna has just become the mistress of a wealthy man, from whom she has received an enormous emerald and an income to match. Claire, meanwhile, is infatuated with a respectable young lady and wants to enlist the jealous Anna's help for an assignation. As the two women exchange barbs and take turns taunting Anna's hapless Scottish parlor maid, Claire's young inamorata suddenly appears, setting off a crisis that puts both the valuable emerald and the women's futures at risk. To this wickedly funny comedy, Mamet brings his trademark tart dialogue and impeccable plotting, spiced with Wildean wit.

The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman and Tectonic Theatre (2000)

This docu-drama chronicles the real life hate crime that ended gay student Matthew Shephard’s life in 1998 at the University of Wyoming. Kaufman and members of Tectonic Theatre collaborated to interview many people and created their play out of a rising structure called “verbatim theater” (utilizing words from interviews to create the script). Performing first in Denver, CO, then in New York City, both in 2000, it finally made its debut in Laramie, Wyoming in 2002. “The Laramie Project” has been produced throughout the world and used as a teaching tool about homophobia in schools. Ten years after the initial interviews, Kaufman and Tectonic Theatre returned to their interviewees and did a second round of interviews. They, subsequently, wrote “The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later”. This was presented in 2009, both in person and streaming, on the 11th anniversary of Shepard’s murder.

The Laramie Project presents a deeply complex portrait of a community’s response to the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man living in Laramie, Wyoming. In October 1998 a 21-year-old student at the University of Wyoming was kidnapped, severely beaten and left to die and tied to a fence in the middle of the prairie outside Laramie, Wyoming. His bloody, bruised and battered body was not discovered until the next day, and he died several days later in an area hospital. His name was Matthew Shepard, and he was the victim of this assault because he was gay.

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Take Me Out by Richard Greenberg (2002)

This was the first play to confront homophobia in sports. A big sports fan himself, Greenberg set this play in the locker room of a baseball team as one of the players tries to come out of the closet publicly, thinking he will be all right, given his popularity. It is set in 2025 when no one has yet self-identified as gay in the world of baseball. The script started in London and moved off-Broadway to the Public Theatre in 2002. After moving to Broadway in 2003, it received the Tony Award for Best New Play as well as several additional awards. It was revived in 2022 and received additional accolades.

Darren Lemming, the star center fielder of the world champion New York Empires, is young, rich, famous, talented, handsome and so convinced of his popularity that when he casually announces he’s gay, he assumes the news will be readily accepted by everyone. It isn’t. Friends, fans and teammates react with ambivalence, and when the slipping Empires call up the young phenom Shane Mungitt to close their games, the ambivalence turns to violence. Angry, lonely, guilt-ridden and confused, Darren finds some unlikely solace in the form of friendship with his new business manager, Mason Marzac – a brilliant but repressed guy, who, as everyone around him copes with disenchantment, blooms in the ecstatic discovery of baseball.

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (The Musical) by Stephan Elliott and Allan Scott (2006)

The musical of “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” was based on the film by the same name (also by Stephan Elliott) which came out in 1994 and was a cult phenomenon. Centering two drag queens and a trans woman who are traveling to an Australian drag show, the script addresses homophobia, friendship, along with fun jukebox songs. “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” had its stage world premiere in Sydney, followed by a run in Melbourne and Auckland, NZ. It, eventually, made its way to the West End in London and, in 2011, to Broadway. It has now played worldwide.

“Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” is a heartwarming and fabulously fun musical based on the hit Australian film, following the adventurous journey of three friends—Tick, Bernadette, and Adam—a glamorous Sydney-based performing trio who agree to take their drag show to the middle of the Australian outback. They hop aboard a battered old bus (nicknamed Priscilla) searching for love, acceptance, and friendship, only to discover far more than they ever imagined.

Featuring iconic dance hits like “It’s Raining Men,” “I Will Survive,” “Hot Stuff,” “Boogie Wonderland,” “Go West,” “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” and “I Love the Nightlife,” along with jaw-dropping, Olivier and Tony Award®-winning costumes, PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT is a sparkling visual spectacle, as well as a celebration of individuality, friendship, and a journey to the heart of FABULOUS!

Wig Out! by Tarrell Alvin McCraney (2008)

McCraney is a Queer Black playwright who wrote “Wig Out!” about the drag culture, the chosen family of gay and trans people and the gay Black experience. It went to off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theater in 2008, received many awards including a GLAAD award for it. It also had a production at the Royal Court Theatre in London.

In this gossamer-laced reality there is never a moment to be without your face, to not be together. One false move and you'll get chopped. One night can leave you legendary or a subsidiary.Enter the House of Light, a hyper-glamorous, uber-competitive drag queen refuge where a daughter who was once a son can find a family. While the House are primping and preening for a catwalk showdown, drag queen Nina is wooing the delectable Eric as Wilson. How can Nina/Wilson strut the thorny divide between opposite genders and differing worlds?

Choir Boy by Tarrell Alvin McCraney (2012)

I have been trying not to do too many repeat playwrights but, when you’re hot, you’re hot. McCraney kept breaking glass ceilings. “Choir Boy” centered young Black Queer students as they navigated homophobia, religion and the different identities of being both Black and Queer. It opened in London in 2012 and then moved to the off-Broadway house of Manhattan Theater Club in 2013. It opened on Broadway in 2018, receiving nominations and some awards. It has continued to perform worldwide and just completed a run in London.

The Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys is dedicated to the creation of strong, ethical black men. Pharus wants nothing more than to take his rightful place as leader of the school’s legendary gospel choir. Can he find his way inside the hallowed halls of this institution if he sings in his own key?

Fun Home by Lisa Kron, music by Jeanine Tesori (2013)

I had the great fortune of seeing this play on Broadway and it was incredible. Lisa Kron was one of the original members of the Five Lesbian Brothers. She and Jeanine Tesori went on to adapt Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir (same title) into the musical of “Fun Home”. Centering Bechdel as the main character as she discovers her lesbian sexuality as well as her closeted homosexual father, this play opened off-Broadway in 2013 at the Public Theatre to a positive response and was extended several times. It arrived on Broadway in 2015. In addition to the many awards it received, including the Tony Award for Best Musical (2015), it was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize. Its cast album received a 2016 Grammy Award.

When her father dies unexpectedly, graphic novelist Alison dives deep into her past to tell the story of the volatile, brilliant, one-of-a-kind man whose temperament and secrets defined her family and her life. Moving between past and present, Alison relives her unique childhood playing at the family’s Bechdel Funeral Home, her growing understanding of her own sexuality, and the looming, unanswerable questions about her father’s hidden desires. Fun Home is a refreshingly honest, wholly original musical about seeing your parents through grown-up eyes.

Indecent by Paula Vogel (2015)

I previously wrote about “God of Vengeance” by Sholem Asch (1907). This script inspired Queer playwright, Paula Vogel, to reveal the true circumstances of the 1923 production of the play during which the producer and cast got arrested and convicted for obscenity. It was an off-Broadway production between Yale Repertory Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse. Despite Vogel’s long accomplished career, “Indecent” was her first Broadway production, opening in 2017. Addressing homophobia, anti-Semitism and censorship, “Indecent” exposed to the world how LGBTQ+ stories had been suppressed and gave permission for them to be told.

Indecent, by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, is a deeply moving play inspired by the true events surrounding the controversial 1923 Broadway debut of Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance – a play seen by some as a seminal work of Jewish culture, and by others as an act of traitorous libel. Indecent charts the history of an incendiary drama and the path of the artists who risked their careers and lives to perform it.

The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez (2018)

Inspired by EM Forster’s novel “Howard’s End” (1910), Lopez wrote “The Inheritance”. Forster, a closeted gay man, wrote about class issues. Lopez substituted many of those characters with different generations of gay men. Set ten years into the AIDS crisis, “The Inheritance” deftly builds and recognizes the gay ancestors in ways that no other script has previously. “The Inheritance” was first produced in London’s Off-West End in 2018 and moved to the West End later that year. It ran on Broadway from 2019-2020 and only closed due to the pandemic. The script has now been translated into multiple languages and has had productions worldwide.

You have to wonder why there isn't a word in the English language for the fireworks that go off in your brain when you finally kiss someone you've wanted for years. Or for the intimacy and tenderness you feel as you hold the hand of a suffering friend. A generation after the height of the AIDS crisis, what is it like to be a young gay man in New York? How many words are there now for the different kinds of pain, the different kinds of love?

A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson (2019)

I was an early attendee at this play, seeing it at Playwrights Horizons off-Broadway in 2019. Jackson shattered the glass ceiling when “A Strange Loop” made it to Broadway in 2022 and centered a male Black Queer character. Jackson played the main role of Usher. In 2020, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and, in 2022, he was award the Tony Award for Best New Musical. It also received a Grammy Award in 2023 for the cast album. It was well-received by audiences for its honesty and emotional connection. Everything about this musical is Queer and it doesn’t pretend to be anything else.

Meet Usher: a Black, queer writer writing a musical about a Black, queer writer writing a musical about a Black, queer writer.

“A Strange Loop” is a blisteringly funny masterwork exposing the heart and soul of a young artist grappling with desires, identity and instincts he both loves and loathes. Hell-bent on breaking free of his own self-perception, Usher wrestles with the thoughts in his head, brought to life on stage by a hilarious, straight-shooting ensemble. Bold and heartfelt in its truth-telling, A Strange Loop is the big, Black and queer-ass Great American Musical for all!

The Hot Wing King by Katori Hall (2020)

Hall sets this play in Memphis, Tennessee and explores Queer Black masculine love. I was lucky enough to see this play off-Broadway at Signature Theatre in New York during its world premiere before it got shut down for the pandemic. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 2021. The unique thing about this play demonstrated male characters who were in touch with their emotions and being strong as a result of it. I believe that this is also notable because this is the first play written by a Black woman about Queer love to get recognition.

Ready, set, fry! It’s time for the annual “Hot Wang Festival” in Memphis, Tennessee, and Cordell Crutchfield knows he has the wings that’ll make him king. Supported by his beau Dwayne and their culinary clique, The New Wing Order, Cordell is marinating and firing up his frying pan in a bid to reclaim the crispy crown. When Dwayne takes in his troubled nephew however, it becomes a recipe for disaster. Suddenly, a first place trophy isn’t the only thing Cordell risks losing.

Fat Ham by James Ijames (2021)

Even during the pandemic, Queer themed plays were breaking ceilings. The script is a modern day adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” but addressing issues of queerness and the cycles of violence and trauma in a Black family. Ijames, a Black Queer playwright, had his first production of “Fat Ham” filmed from a home in Virginia. It was streamed for a month. I was fortunate to see its off-Broadway debut in 2022 at the Public Theatre and came away feeling very upbeat. It transferred to Broadway in 2023. It received the 2022 Pulitzer Prize and was nominated for many Tony Awards. This play presents the answer to the long asked question “How can we address our intergenerational trauma of homophobia and violence?” directly.

Juicy is a queer, Southern college kid, already grappling with some serious questions of identity, when the ghost of his father shows up in their backyard, demanding that Juicy avenge his murder. It feels like a familiar story to Juicy, well-versed in Hamlet’s woes. What’s different is Juicy himself, a sensitive and self-aware young Black man trying to break the cycles of trauma and violence in service of his own liberation. From an uproarious family barbecue emerges a compelling examination of love and loss, pain and joy.

I will stop here. Are there more that I could add? Sure. But I want to leave space to give you the tools to do your own research, too. I know that I didn’t cover everyone; I couldn’t possibly. I’m going to give you the opportunity to drop the ones that you think I’ve missed in the comments.

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Links for More Queer Playwrights

Lesbian Playwrights. The reason I didn’t include more off of this list is because I wanted to be able to link to a current script and many of these did not have current scripts available. Additional lesbian themed plays.

Notable LGBTQ Playwrights. It’s a long list and it is international. They didn’t all write Queer themed plays but if you are looking to expand your reading list, this is where to begin.

Queer POC Playwrights. This is someone’s blog post that I stumbled on but it’s pretty decent and it has a good list of Queer POC Playwrights.

In context. This timeline will lead you to see where plays and musicals were coming out in context with social and political changes.

HAPPY PRIDE!

“Rocky Horror Show” by Richard O’Brien (1973)

I can’t forget this iconic piece of LGBTQ+ culture so I have to rewind into the 70’s for a moment. “Rocky Horror Show” first began as a humorous musical for the stage, complete with gender bending, gender fluidity, a transvestite mad scientist, and a very lost couple. Originally produced in London, it won the Standard Best Musical and moved to the United States, including a Broadway run. In 1975, the highly memorable film version was created. Richard O’Brien was in the cast. The film became a cult following. When the movie is shown, audience members come dressed as characters. They have lines to say in response to the film. They get up and dance with the characters on the screen. Individual songs from the musical and the film like “Time Warp” have become embedded pieces of our mainstream culture. It would not be an overstatement to say that “Rocky Horror Show” became an influencer in the LGBTQ+ world and the sexual revolution that was occurring at the time. It is currently being celebrated (still) for its 50 years anniversary with a revival on Broadway.

A humorous tribute to various B movies associated with the science fiction and horror genres from the 1930s to the early 1960s, the musical tells the story of a newly engaged couple getting caught in a storm and coming to the home of a mad transvestite scientist, Dr Frank-N-Furter, unveiling his new creation, Rocky, a sort of Frankenstein-style monster in the form of an artificially made, fully grown, physically perfect muscle man.

“Risin’ to the Love We Need” by Assotto Saint (1980)

Assotto Saint was a Black, Haitian-born, gay playwright, dancer, fiction writer and poet. He and his lover, Jan Homgren, a Swedish-born composer. founded Metamorphosis Theatre, which focused on the Black gay experience. They also collaborated on several pieces together. “Risin’ to the Love We Need” received the second Jane Chambers Award for Gay and Lesbian Playwriting in 1980. He and Homgren were diagnosed as HIV positive and Saint was the first Black gay playwright to come out about his diagnosis. He leaned into his activism on AIDS and became a well-known activist. He mentored numerous Black writers that became confident in writing Black gay literature. Homgren passed away in 1993 and Saint in 1994. They were laid to rest next to one another. Saint’s dying wish was that an American flag be burned and have the ashes of it scattered over his grave.

In “Risin’ to the Love We Need, the main character is an aging black drag queen who claims that the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s is as important to her as the gay liberation movement of the 1970s.

Torch Song Trilogy by Harvey Fierstein (1981)

In the last post, the very last script/adapted musical was also by Harvey Fierstein but it was adapted from a 1973 script that was being cited. “Torch Song Trilogy” was written as three plays: “International Stud” (1978), “A Fugue in the Nursery” (1979) and “Widow and Children First!” (1979). All received world premieres at LaMama Theater where Fierstein was an actor. Ellen Stewart, the artistic director, was a champion of Fierstein’s work. An organization called the Glines, dedicated to gay theater, financially backed Fierstein to rework the scripts into one play. It opened, running four hours, in 1981 at Richard Allen Center. After it transferred to Broadway in 1982, it was the first play to center a gay character and receive the Tony award for Best New Play for it (as well as Best Actor). The play has received numerous productions worldwide. In 2017, Fierstein cut down the play and retitled it “Torch Song” for a run at Second Stage which went on to be revived on Broadway, followed by a tour. This script introduced the concept of gay parents adopting a child on a big stage.

Torch Song Trilogy is constructed of three moving plays told over three acts: International Stud, Fugue in a Nursery, and Widows and Children First! The life of Arnold Beckoff, a torch song-singing, Jewish drag queen living in New York City is dramatized over the span of the late 1970s and 1980s, through Stonewall, the AIDS crisis, and other ground-breaking milestones for the LGBT community. Told with a likable, human voice, Arnold struggles through love, disease, and the challenges of child-rearing.

The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer (1985)

The 1980’s saw the gay community deep in the throes of the AIDS crisis. Larry Kramer’s mostly autobiographical play, “The Normal Heart”, addressed the early years of this crisis. It had a successful run at the Public Theatre in NYC in 1985 and had other productions throughout the world. It was published in 1986. It returned to New York, first off-Broadway in 2004 and then, finally, made its Broadway debut in 2011.

The play centers on Ned Weeks, a gay activist enraged at the indifference of public officials and the gay community. While trying to save the world from itself, Ned confronts the personal toll of AIDS when his lover dies of the disease.

Giving Up the Ghost by Cherríe Moraga (1986)

Moraga was one of the first Chicana playwrights to explore and examine the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, religion and class. Though she wrote short stories, essays, opinion pieces, she was also a playwright. “Giving Up the Ghost”, the first of many plays, was published in 1986.

“Giving Up the Ghost” centers a Chicana woman on a personal journey to accept her lesbianism.

Voyage to Lesbos by The Five Lesbian Brothers (Maureen Angelos, Lisa Kron, Babs Davy, Dominique Dibbell, Peg Healey (1990)

The Five Lesbian Brothers was formed in 1989 by Maureen Angelos, Lisa Kron, Babs Davy, Dominique Dibbell and Peg Healey to focus on lesbian and feminist plays and literature. In 1990, they wrote “Voyage to Lesbos” together. It was performed at the WOW Cafe that the Five Lesbian Brothers regularly worked in. This was their first piece together to showcase lesbian and homophobic themes. Their most successful play together was “Secretaries” and had excellent reviews.

Voyage to Lesbos takes a darkly humorous look at the warping effects of internalized homophobia and phallo-centrism on the lesbian psyche. The action takes place in Lesbos, Illinois, in a vaguely defined pre-Stonewall, post-Freudian period of American culture. The occasion is Bonnie's wedding day. Five inextricably intertwined women ostensibly prepare for the happy event, while their every action serves to sabotage it. Highlights include several rousing musical numbers and a jerk-off session between the cousins, Bonnie and Connie, involving banal heterosexual fantasy and a vacuum cleaner. Ever treading on thin ice, Voyage to Lesbos laughs so that it does not cry.

Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes by Tony Kushner (1991)

In 1991, Tony Kushner shattered many glass ceilings with his two-part play “Angels in America” (First part: “Millenium Approaches”, Second part “Perestroika”). It won the Pulitzer Prize, the Tony Award for Best New Play, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play and brought the conversation about the AIDS epidemic and the gay community to the forefront of society in a beautiful and complex way. It is considered to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century and a magnificent commentary on the AIDS crisis in the 1980’s. Even in revivals, it still wins awards and acclaims. It was adapted into a televsion mini-series in 2003. Kushner has continued to make edits to the script, even for the 20th anniversary of the script.

Synopsis for Millenium Approaches

Set in 1980s New York City, Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece follows a gay man abandoned by his lover when he contracts the AIDS virus and a closeted Mormon lawyer’s stalling marriage to his pill-popping wife. Other characters include the infamous McCarthy-ite lawyer Roy Cohn, Ethel Rosenberg, a former drag queen-turned-nurse and an angel.

Synopsis for Perestroika

1980s America. An Angel of the Apocalypse crashes through a ceiling and hovers over the bed of Prior Walter, a gay New Yorker with AIDS. This collision sets in motion the reintroduction of characters from part one of Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning two-part epic as their lives intersect during the Reagan era. Tragic and hilarious, Perestroika explores personal responsibility, the future of mankind, and the nature of God.

Falsettos book by William Finn and James Lapine (1992)

Finn and Lapine’s work that led to the well-known musical “Falsettos” started with Finn’s early one-act musical “In Trousers” (1979), centering a character questioning his sexual identity. It was produced twice and received unfavorably. Despite this disappointment, Finn worked with Lapine on “March of the Falsettos” (1981) and “Falsettoland” (1990). “Falsettos” incorporates “March of the Falsettos” and “Falsettoland” into the script. It ran on Broadway and received seven Tony awards and has been revived since to further acclaim.

The story centers on Marvin, who has left his wife to be with a male lover, Whizzer, and struggles to keep his family together. Much of the first act explores the impact his relationship with Whizzer has had on his family. The second act explores family dynamics that evolve as he and his ex-wife plan his son's bar mitzvah, which is complicated as Whizzer comes down with an early case of AIDS. Central to the musical are the themes of Jewish identity, gender roles, and gay life in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Love! Valour! Compassion! by Terrence McNally (1994)

There are many plays by Terrence McNally that broke barriers. I lifted up “The Ritz” in my last post and now “Love! Valour! Compassion!”. A full cast cast of eight gay men during the AIDS crisis in the 1990’s, this script normalized the queer relationships and worlds of the characters in a way that had never been seen on the stage before. It started off-Broadway in 1994, transferred to Broadway in 1995, receiving Tony Awards for Best New Play and Best Actor. It also played in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and in London.

At a beautiful Dutchess County farmhouse, eight men hash out their passions, resentments, and fears over the course of three summer weekends. There's Perry and Arthur, a professional couple of long standing, whose relationship, while strained, always manages to settle into the loving routine of a couple grown too familiar with one another, but happily so. The owner of the summer house, Gregory, is an aging choreographer who dotes on his younger lover, Bobby, who is blind. Their relationship seems solid, until an irresistible dancer, Ramon, callously flaunts his sex appeal and manages to seduce Bobby on the first night in the house. Trying to keep Ramon to himself is John Jeckyll, a soured ex-patriot Brit with a taste for melodrama—and cruelty. John rankles everyone around him, speaking the unspeakable in haughty nonchalance while probing the weaknesses of the others. The painful truth about his ire eventually becomes clear when he has to take care of his terminally ill twin brother, James. Unlike John, James inspires nothing but affection in those around him, and here lies both the crux of John's complaint and the source of one of the play's most blistering and revealing of monologues about the related questions of gay identity and self-esteem. Finally, there is Buzz, a maniacal lover of the musical theater. Like James, Buzz suffers from AIDS, and he has resigned himself to a life of humorous anecdotes and comforting trivia. Strange things can happen, though, and against all odds, Buzz finds himself falling in love for what may be one last summer.

Rent by Jonathan Larson (1996)

Originally inspired by the 1896 opera La bohème by Giacomo Puccini, Luigi Illica, and Giuseppe Giacosa, playwright Billy Aronson wanted to write a new play set in modern day East Village. Composer Jonathan Larson started working with him but then had big ambitions and ideas. Larson asked Aronson if he could re-title the project and make it his own. They came to an agreement about it. Tragically, Larson passed away suddenly before it opened at a very young age. It moved to Broadway and was an enormous success, winning the Pulitzer Prize and four Tony awards. Larson worked with the themes of chosen family, bohemian living, AIDS and gender bending queerness.

Based on Puccini’s beloved opera La Bohème, Rent follows the ups and downs of a year in the life of a group of impoverished, artistic friends living in Manhattan’s East Village. Mark, an aspiring filmmaker, struggles to find his place in the world; his roommate Roger, an HIV-positive musician, wonders how he will leave his mark before he dies. Mimi and Angel look for true love as they face the harsh reality of life as HIV-positive young people, while the businesslike Joanne seeks fidelity from her wild-child performance artist girlfriend Maureen. The group’s dreams, losses, and love stories weave through the musical’s narration to paint a stunningly raw and emotional portrait of the gritty bohemian world of New York City in the late 1980s, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch music and lyrics by Stephen Trask and a book by John Cameron Mitchell (1998)

Now, in the late 1990’s, theatrical discussion of sex-changes came to the stage with “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” but in rock style musical form. Set in Germany, it centers a genderqueer rockstar, Hedwig, who has a botched sex-change operation. There is a lot of inspiration that was taken from Cameron Mitchell’s personal life, including a character who was a sex worker who used to baby-sit for him, and, as he revealed much later in life, the fact that he was non-binary. The script was well-received in its off-Broadway debut in 1998 and received Obie Awards. It moved to the West End in 2000. It has been revived many times and, in 2025, it was announced that it would be revived again.

In a powerhouse one-night-only concert, “internationally ignored song stylist” Hedwig Schmidt takes to the stage to smash the fourth wall and rock the house. Hedwig, an East German rock ’n’ roll goddess, happens to be the victim of a botched sex-change operation, which has left her with an “angry inch.” Hedwig (née Hansel) explains her story in the form of a rock gig/stand-up comedy routine, backed by a hard-rocking band called “The Angry Inch.” Through songs and monologues, Hedwig tells her story, which began in the former East Berlin, where she met Luther, an American GI who promised to take her to the States on the condition that she change her genitalia. After the bungled operation, Luther abandons Hedwig in a Kansas trailer park, where she turns to music and meets geeky Tommy Speck, whom she mentors and deeply loves. Tommy steals her songs and achieves rock star fame, casting Hedwig aside. Demanding redress, she has stalked Tommy’s world tour, performing in the shabby venue next to his stadium show. Through head-banging anthems and heartfelt rock ballads, Hedwig describes her life’s search for “The Origin of Love” and a reunion with her other half. It’s a rocking ride – funny, touching, and ultimately inspiring to anyone who feels life gave them an inch when they deserved a mile.

There are still so many more to come when we get into the 2000’s next week, including women and playwrights of color (FINALLY!)! Continue to celebrate Pride with me!

The Drag by Mae West (under the pseudonym Jane Mast) (1927)

I missed this one for the first installation. Inspired by the success of “The Captive”, centering two women in a relationship, West wanted to create a play centering gay men, based on her experiences with her friends who were gay. The play opened in 1927 and was slated for Broadway but had it shut down. This script was the first to discuss conversion therapy openly and connect the gay culture to the drag culture.

In "The Drag, " West argued that, like sexuality in a woman, homosexuality had no class identification. In this play West used the theatricality of the drag "queens" who had become her friends and "sisters."

Lady in the Dark Music and lyrics by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin. Book by Moss Hart. (1941)

Musicals starting coding Queer messages in their lyrics in the 1940’s and 1950’s. “Lady in the Dark” was a groundbreaking musical, featuring a flamboyant, gay photographer and a gender bending protagonist. The photographer role launched the career of actor, Danny Kaye, who went on to play many similar flamboyant roles. A film was made of it in 1944. It received a live television special in 1954 and, eventually, it was performed in the United Kingdom in 1981.

Liza Elliott finds herself constantly plagued by indecision in her professional and personal life. She is courted by two men, the already-married publisher Kendall Nesbitt who is trying to divorce his wife for Liza, and the film star Randy Curtis, and cannot decide whom to choose. When she begins seeing a psychologist, she delves into her dreams and memories of her unhappy childhood, and is haunted by the melody of a song she cannot recall. In one dream, she believes she is being put on trial for her indecision in a circus setting, with her marketing manager Charley Johnson acting as prosecutor, Kendall as chief witness, and Randy as her defense attorney, in which she defends her refusal to make up her mind ("The Saga of Jenny"). She eventually comes to realize that the root of her trauma is having been repeatedly rejected in her youth due to her plain appearance; as she makes this breakthrough, she remembers the mysterious song ("My Ship"). She realizes that Kendall and Randy both relate to her only on a superficial level, and finds true partnership with Charley, who sees her as an equal.

I Am A Camera by John van Druten (1951)

This is a play I stage managed in high school and studied in college. Originally a short story by gay writer, Christopher Isherwood, published in 1939 as “The Berlin Stories”, John van Druten then adapted it into the play, “I Am A Camera”, in 1951. It inspired the now well-known musical by Joe Masteroff, “Cabaret”, written in 1966. The music was by John Kander and the lyrics by Fred Ebb. The evolution of this continued into a film in 1972. Its most recent production on Broadway completed in 2025. The main character of both “I Am A Camera” and “Cabaret” is named Christopher, based on van Druten’s friend, Isherwood, the original writer. His sexual preferences are never clear, though he has a long-standing affair with underground nightclub singer, Sally Bowles. Many productions of both the play and the musical explore gender bending, queer themes and anti-Semitism, as it is set in Nazi Germany.

In the words of the Herald-Tribune, the play ”looks at life in a tawdry Berlin rooming house of 1930 with a stringently photographic eye. For the most part, it concerns itself with the mercurial and irresponsible moods of a girl called Sally Bowles. When we first meet her, she is a creature of extravagant attitudes, given to parading her vices, enormously confident that she is going to take life in her stride. She is fond of describing herself as an 'extraordinary interesting person,' and she is vaguely disturbing. As we get to know her, as we watch her make frightened arrangements for an illegal operation, seize at the tinseled escape offered by a rich and worthless American playboy, attempt to rehabilitate herself and fail ludicrously, we are more and more moved, more and more caught up in the complete and almost unbearable reality of this girl. [The author has] placed a character named Mr. Isherwood on the stage…He serves both as narrator and as principal confidant to Sally Bowles. He is the camera eye of the title, attracted to Sally, yet dispassionate about her.” Though Sally is the chief point of interest, the plight of the Jew in Germany in the early thirties is brought within focus in a few touching scenes.

The Baptism by LeRoi Jones (later known as Imamu Amiri Baraka) (1964)

Originally named LeRoi Jones and later called Imamu Amiri Baraka, this playwright wrote a religion based play that incorporated sexual and homosexual themes into “The Baptism”, one of his earliest works. It was produced in 1964 at the Writers’ Stage in New York City. It was published in 1967, along with his play “The Toilet”. Baraka became a well-known Black playwright. He never identified as gay though scholars have mused whether he was bisexual. This is the first script by a Black playwright that had homosexual themes (that I can find. If you know of others, drop them in the comments).

The Baptism is a one-act satirical play offering a viciously comic critique of religious, social, and sexual hypocrisies in contemporary American life. The play unfolds in a single scene inside a Baptist church, where a teenage boy arrives seeking baptism and confesses to sins, only for the action to spiral into chaotic confrontations among a pompous minister, a cynical homosexual observer, an accusatory old woman, and a chorus of young women who alternate between gospel singing and provocative accusations. The boy is hailed as a potential divine figure before being denounced as a fraud, leading to escalating debates over sin, salvation, and identity that blend theological rhetoric with street language, physical comedy, and sudden violence.

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The Boys in the Band by Mart Crowley (1968)

Mart Crowley was an openly gay American playwright. “The Boys in the Band” was historic for being the first successful play to truly center gay characters in a script in a positive light. (It should be noted that Terrence McNally had a play that centered gay men on Broadway in 1964, And Things That Go Bump in the Night, but it was considered a flop) “The Boys in the Band” premiered off-Broadway in 1968, a year before the Stonewall riots. It was turned into a film in 1970 and was revived on Broadway fifty years after its world premiere, in 2018.

In his Upper East Side apartment, Michael is throwing a birthday party for Harold, a self-avowed “thirty-two-year-old, pockmarked, Jew fairy,” complete with surprise gift: “Cowboy,” a street hustler. As the evening wears on – fueled by drugs and alcohol – bitter, unresolved resentments among the guests come to light when a game of “Truth” goes terribly wrong.

The Ritz by Terrence McNally (1975)

Terrence McNally was an openly gay American playwright, writing many plays with gay themes. He was well-known for gay themed plays throughout his career. An early notable play for him was “The Ritz”. At the time, the United States was fully in the gay and lesbian rights revolution, following Stonewall. It ran on Broadway, starring Rita Moreno, who won a Tony award for her performance in it. It was adapted for a film with the same cast in 1976, directed by Richard Lester.

The farce is set in a gay bathhouse in Manhattan, where unsuspecting heterosexual Cleveland businessman Gaetano Proclo has taken refuge from his homicidal mobster brother-in-law, Carmine Vespucci. There Gaetano stumbles across an assortment of oddball characters, including a rabid chubby chaser, go-go boys, a squeaky-voiced detective, and Googie Gomez, a third-rate Puerto Rican entertainer with visions of Broadway glory who mistakes him for a famous producer and whom he mistakes for a man in drag. Further complications arise when Gaetano’s wife Vivian tracks him down and jumps to all the wrong conclusions about his sexual preferences.

Fefu and Her Friends by María Irene Fornés (1977)

Queer Cuban playwright María Irene Fornés wrote many plays with Queer themes. Her most famous and notable play with this theme is “Fefu and Her Friends”. Fornés immigrated to the United States, mentored hundreds of artists and influenced a generation of writing. Her work is primarily experimental in style. A fully female cast, “Fefu and Her Friends” was considered to be a feminist play. Fornés won one of her nine Obies for this play.

On a spring day in 1935, eight women gather at Fefu’s New England home. A gracious host, Fefu organizes a weekend of camaraderie as well as work: The friends are rehearsing a charity presentation for a local school. But this gathering lays bare past heartaches and secrets among the women, from heartbreak, to emotional and physical exhaustion, to devastating illness. At the center of this group is Fefu, a woman who is both powerful yet broken, belittling women as she cares for and nurtures her friends. Fefu finds herself forced into a reckoning with Julia--her dear friend who was mysteriously psychologically injured when a hunter shot a deer. Fefu is desperate to let her mind rest, and knows that Julia holds the secret to that peace, a revelation that comes through a tragic final confrontation.

Fefu and Her Friends is a feminist exploration of women’s roles and relationships--how they support each other, how they injure each other, and how they can create a community together. Notable for its experimental staging in which the audience moves through the theatre building to view different scenes, Fefu and Her Friends is a dynamic story of women, friendship, and the secrets that bind them together.

Bent by Martin Sherman (1979)

Playwright Martin Sherman is openly gay and Jewish, born in the United States, living in London. He wrote about the Nazi oppression of homosexuals before and during World War II in his play “Bent” (a slur word for homosexuals). The groundbreaking play increased awareness and demanded research into the possibility that these activities took place. Originally starring Ian McKellen, this play opened at the Royal Court Theatre before transferring to the West End. The script has been produced internationally, including on Broadway. As a result of this play, pink triangles became a symbol of gay activism during the 1980’s AIDS crisis. The script was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Max is a promiscuous gay man in 1930’s Berlin. He is at odds with his wealthy family over his homosexuality. One evening, much to the resentment of his boyfriend Rudolph Hennings (Rudy), he brings home a handsome Sturmabteilung man, Wolfgang Granz (Wolf). Unfortunately, it is the night that Hitler orders the assassination of the upper echelon of the Sturmabteilung corps, to consolidate his power. Wolf is discovered the next morning and killed by SS men in Max and Rudy's apartment, and the two have to flee their home. “Bent” revolves around the persecution of gay people in Nazi Germany, taking place during and after the Night of the Long Knives.

My Blue Heaven by Jane Chambers (1981)

Jane Chambers was an out lesbian playwright. Many of her scripts contained lesbian themes. “My Blue Heaven” was one of the first plays to show a same-sex married couple on stage. Chambers had a script slotted to go to Broadway but, because of a brain tumor, she was unable to complete the work. She would have been the first lesbian playwright on Broadway. Her first lesbian-themed play “A Late Snow” was part of the First Gay American Arts Festival in 1980. The play was written ten years earlier and she had had difficulties finding a home for it. “My Blue Heaven” was commissioned for the Second Gay American Arts Festival. After she passed away, an annual award for lesbian and Queer plays for future playwrights was established in her name.

This two-act comedy follows two women who leave Manhattan for country life in upstate New York after Molly, a writer, loses her job for writing an openly gay book. Hilarity ensures when her weekly column about country living, written under a pseudonym, attracts the interest of a Christian publishing firm.

La Cage aux Folles by Jean Poiret (1973), adapted to a musical by Harvey Fierstein (1983)

Originally written as a drama by French playwright, Jean Poiret, “La Cage aux Folles” ran successfully in Europe and was adapted into a film in 1978 with two sequels. In 1983, gay playwright Harvey Fierstein adapted it into a musical with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman. When “La Cage aux Folles” opened on Broadway in 1983, it became the first musical to center a gay relationship. The song “I Am What I Am” became known as a gay anthem. Good news! This musical is opening for Pride Month June 17-28, 2026 at NY City Center with Billy Porter and Wayne Brady. It is directed by Robert O’Hara.

The show tells the story of a gay couple, Georges, the manager of a Saint-Tropez nightclub featuring drag entertainment, and Albin, his romantic partner and star attraction; farcical adventures ensue when household dynamics intersect with an ultra-conservative politician.

I hope you have been enjoying this Pride Reading Series. If you have, please feel free to buy me a coffee!

Buy Me a Pride Coffee!

Stayed tuned for more Queer themed plays in history!

Bess Wohl, the playwright of “Liberation”, won for Best New Play. She is the first American woman playwright in thirty seven years to win in this category, which she pointed out in her acceptance speech. The last one was Wendy Wasserstein. I am proud to say that Bess was in my playwriting class when I was growing up so, in addition to the feminist pride that I feel, I also take this one personally. I have been touting this play since I saw it at Roundabout off-Broadway. It has now won the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best New Play. You can see Bess’ acceptance speech here.

Qween Jean, the costume designer for “Cats: The Jellicle Ball”, was the first openly transgender person to win a Tony award for Costume for a Musical. She was also nominated for her costume design for “Liberation” for a play. You can see Qween’s acceptance speech here.

John Lithgow, who won for Best Actor in a Play, and has played the lead role in “Giant” about Roald Dahl, became the oldest male actor to win a Tony Award. In his acceptance speech, he noted that his first Tony Award was fifty three years earlier. You can see John’s acceptance speech here.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees! Congratulations also to Pink who hosted the Tony Awards in magnificent style! Go see some wonderful theater!

I will state, for the record, that, though I celebrate all of these months as they come along, I do feel that every month should Pride Month, every month should be Black History Month, every month should be Women’s History Month, every day should be Disability Recognition Month, every day should Hispanic Heritage Month, every month should be AAPI Month, every month should be Jewish Heritage Month and on and on for all of the demographics that feel minimized. We should all be celebrated EVERY MONTH!

However given that it is Pride Month and the summer is coming up here, I thought it was a good time to bust out some reading lists. I anticipate, at least, three but possibly four. So look out for them this month!

A Reading List of Queer Themed Plays in History, Part 1 (1594-1934)

In college, I was enormously fortunate to take a Queer History class (those didn’t exist everywhere in the 1990’s and a shout out to Oberlin College for paving the way, once again!). Queer History is incredibly important to understanding how we came to this time in our lives where we are constantly fighting for freedoms, once again, facing injustices, transphobia, homophobia and dangers just to be who we are.

As is always the case, we must not forget our past. Playwrights are storytellers; we tell the stories so history is not forgotten. Here are some breakthrough Queer themed plays from our history.

Edward II by Christopher Marlowe (1594)

Christopher Marlowe was a closeted English Queer playwright who had many plays with Queer themes. “Edward II” is identified as the most recognizable for addressing Queer brotherhood, homoerotic themes and homophobia. It was also one of the earliest English plays to focus on history. Though it was not published in his lifetime, “Edward II” was published five weeks posthumously.

King Edward recalls his lover, Gaveston, from banishment and sets in motion a chain of events that will culminate in some of the most shocking scenes in all of early modern theatre.

Threatened by the preferment shown to the ‘upstart’ Gaveston, and exasperated by Edward’s neglect of matters of state, the king’s nobles join forces with Queen Isabella and the clergy to plot the downfall of Edward’s circle of flatterers, and ultimately of the king himself.

Valor, agravio y mujer (Courage, Betrayal, and a Woman Scorned) by Ana Caro de Mallén (approx. 1640)

Spanish playwright Ana Caro de Mallén was one of the first female playwrights to become known. Her play, “Valor, agravio y mujer” was a critique of society and the heterosexual traditions. While it is unclear if it was produced in her lifetime, it has been subsequently produced throughout the world.

In this comedy of honor, Ana Caro criticizes the customs of her era and the position of women in the social order while ridiculing through parody the erotic myth of Don Juan.

The protagonist, Leonor, seeks to recover her lost honor against Don Juan who made a false promise of marriage while seducing her. To revenge herself, Leonor dresses in male attire (a common technique in Spanish Golden Age Theatre), calls herself Leonardo, and pretends to be a rival suitor for her hand. Don Juan has already moved to seduce the Duchess Estela, who in turn falls in love with “Leonardo.” After a series of deceits and much ado, Leonor denounces Don Juan and regains her honor by forcing him into marriage with her. Although a typical finale for a 17th century Spanish play, the unconventional aspect is that a woman has solved her own misfortune without the help of a man.

The Feign’d Curtizans by Aphra Behn (1679)

Aphra Behn is known widely as the first professional female playwright in Europe. An English citizen, she was also bisexual and had some Queer themes throughout her plays. “The Feign’d Curtizans” was written in response to the political-religious uprisings of anti-Catholic sentiment of the time.

The play centers around the character of Lucinda, a young woman who pretends to be a prostitute in order to gain access to the home of her former lover, Colonel Brisket. Once inside, she discovers that he is planning to marry her rival, Flavia, and must use her wits to outmaneuver both Brisket and Flavia. Along the way, she enlists the help of her friend, Florinda, who is also pretending to be a courtesan. The play is a comedy of manners, full of witty dialogue and social satire. It explores themes of gender roles, deception, and the power dynamics of relationships.

Qiao Ying (Image in Disguise) by Wu Zao (1824)

Chinese writer, Wu Zao, was primarily known for her poetry. However, she wrote the play, “Qiao Ying (Image in Disguise)”, in her early twenties. It is unclear whether she was Queer by modern standards. She was married to a man but did not write about him and defined her relationships by her closeness to the women in her life. “Qiao Ying” explores the concept of wanting to be a man, in dress and activities. The script was performed in Shanghai in 1825.

A Qing dynasty lyric drama, this script depicts the female protagonist Xie Xucai, who, though deeply focused on her books, wished to be "playing swords in a yellow robe." However, because of her gender and being confined to her boudoir, she lamented being "an ailing crane in a closed bird cage" and regretted that she could not freely put her ambitions and talents to good use as men did. One day she went to her study and painted a self-portrait in male attire. Facing the painting she drank wine while reading "Li sao" by Qu Yuan, whose sorrow she compared to her own.

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Salomé by Oscar Wilde (1892)

Oscar Wilde was a Queer Irish playwright who was married but had affairs with men. He was famously imprisoned for gross indecency for his affair with Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas. This part of his life and the ensuing court case inspired many additional famous writings. Oscar Wilde’s work had many Queer themes and commentary on society. His one act tragedy play, “Salomé” was written in French, accompanied by illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley that were sexually charged. The script was translated into English by Lord Douglas. It was published in French in 1893. Wilde never saw “Salomé” in production because its first production went up while he was in jail in 1896. It was wildly popular in Germany and was later turned into an opera by the German composer, Richard Strauss, in 1905. Despite the fact that England originally banned it, the ban was lifted in 1931.

Salomé presents a concentrated study of desire, power, and fatal consequence within a stylised biblical setting. The drama centres on the court of Herod, where Salome’s fixation on John the Baptist sets in motion a sequence of events governed by obsession and irrevocable demand.

Written in a heightened, symbolic mode, the play departs from Wilde’s comic theatre and instead adopts a measured, incantatory style that emphasises repetition, image, and atmosphere. Its structure is controlled and deliberate, with dialogue that advances both psychological tension and thematic clarity.

God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch (1906)

Though Polish playwright, Sholem Asch, was not Queer, “God of Vengeance” was a breakthrough play for the Queer community, staging the first lesbian kiss on an American stage. The play was originally written in Yiddish, translated into English and played all around Europe but was extremely controversial.

A new translation [by Donald Margulies] of the classic Yiddish drama by Sholem Asch about a Jewish brothel owner who tries to become respectable by commissioning a torah scroll to be written. Meanwhile, his daughter has a lesbian affair with one of his prostitutes downstairs.

The Captive by Édouard Bourdet (1926)

A French playwright, Édouard Bourdet, was not known to be Queer. He wrote “The Captive” which was among the first plays on Broadway to center lesbian relationships. It ran for 160 performances before being shut down and prompted a New York state law dealing with obscenity. Despite this, many welcomed the play and it was seen as a success. It had originally opened in Paris.

Irène is a lesbian tortured by her love for Madame d'Aiguines, but pretending engagement to Jacques. Though Irène attempts to leave Mme. d'Aiguines and marry Jacques, she returns to the relationship, saying that it is "a prison to which I must return captive, despite myself". Mme. d'Aiguines is not seen in the play, but leaves behind nosegays of violets for Irène, as a symbol of her love.

Design for Living by Noël Coward (1932)

Noël Coward was an openly gay English playwright and actor. Coward confronted Queer themes and sex in his scripts, often getting them banned in some countries. He often featured love triangles. In “Design for Living”, Coward took it to the next level and explored a three way relationship between two men and a woman. It went to Broadway and did well but they avoided a London premiere, for fear of a ban, until 1939. It was adapted into a film in 1933 by Ernst Lubitsch.

A wickedly witty dark romantic comedy, this provocative play portrays three amoral, glib and stylish characters and their hopelessly inescapable, if also unconventional, emotional entanglement.

From 1930s bohemian Paris to the dizzying heights of Manhattan society, a tempestuous love triangle unravels between a vivacious interior designer, Gilda, playwright Leo and artist Otto - three people unashamedly and passionately in love with each other. They are trapped in what Coward called ‘a three-sided erotic hodge podge.’

With Coward’s trademark piquant style, this lively, funny but also atypical play looks at dazzling, egotistical creatures and their self-destructive dependence on each other. Exploring themes of bisexuality, celebrity, success and self-obsession, Design for Living is a stylish and scandalous comedy.

The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman (1934)

American playwright Lillian Hellman does not appear to have been Queer. However, she is well-known in the Queer literature community for her play, “The Children’s Hour” which examined themes around homophobia. It became a national sensation and was banned in many parts of the world. Despite this, it went to Broadway, considered for a Pulitzer Prize and was turned into a film starring Audrey Hepburn.

This serious play about two women who run a school for girls highlights the real-life consequences of a lie told by a disgruntled student. After the malicious youngster starts a rumor about the two women, it soon turns to scandal. As the young girl comes to understand the power she wields, she sticks by her story, which precipitates tragedy for both women. It is later discovered that the gossip was pure invention, but it is too late. Irreparable damage has been done.

More Queer themed plays from history coming soon…

Now…for this installation…

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My PT, who is still too new to have a nickname but I’ll think of one, tells me that last week was the most informative week we’ve had so far and he wants me to write about it to capture it.

It is a weirdly timed week. It starts with my leg wanting to seize right out of the gate. You’d think it’d be embarrassing for me to tell you that it I am sitting on the toilet when this happens but, at this point, I’m so far beyond being embarrassed about shit like this; I just have to find some level of humor in it. So I’m sitting on the throne on a Monday morning, trying to wake up and my leg threatens to seize. And when I say threatens, it’s like the muscles are tightening and I can tell it’s going to that place. So I try to reach it to massage it or something but I can’t because, you know, I’m on the throne. So then I just stand up to see if I can make it stop. Weirdly, this works but now I’m in pain. It’s in my thigh, it’s in my calf, it’s in my back. It’s the aftermath of a seize without the whole seize.

A lot of people ask me what it feels like when my leg has a sciatic seize. Doctors frequently ask me what that term means. It’s the term I use…maybe I use it because it’s similar to what I know happens what I have epileptic seizures. The muscles harden, maybe they twitch, but it’s more localized. It’s not the whole body, blessedly. I don’t lose consciousness.

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When I go to PT that day, the PT, let’s try Mr. Alternate Method as his name, scales back my exercises and has me put heat on my back. I tell him that I also put heat on my back before I left home.

Tuesday is a little better. I go to see Dr. Substitute, a doctor I am seeing instead of Dr. August, for acupuncture. It is a scheduling thing. Dr. Substitute is nice. He wants to push things a little more but, given the state of my being, I choose to stay the course and not get too explorative. That night, my leg seizes hard. I had been trying to breathe through the recent seizes (I had had one two weeks earlier and had breathed through it and didn’t even wake up my husband). This is so painful that I start screaming. I know, I know. I’m not supposed to do that. I’m supposed to reframe the pain, become one with it, learn from it and all that gooey stuff. And believe me, I would have loved it if I could have. But, when you’re in the moment, it’s just painful. My husband, however, finds the thing that he can finally do to be helpful. “Breathe. Breathe.” So I hold my leg and breathe into it and listen to him. I feel the pain move to the other side of my leg and both sides of my calf lock up at the same time.

When it finally lets go, I need assistance to stand. I’m not sure I can make it back to the Throne by myself. I inevitably have to go to the bathroom after one of these seizes wakes me in the middle of the night. Because, you know, I’m screaming and also…perimenopause. I can tell it’s gonna be one of those moments where I need to stretch it before going back to sleep even though all I want to do is get into bed and pass out. My body isn’t going to let me do that. And so I head to the study. My husband follows me this time, which he doesn’t usually do but he seems more concerned than usual. After a few moments of my walking about, he gives up and goes back to bed. I take out a yoga mat to do my exercises on the floor and my body immediately starts to seize again and I start screaming, a little more quietly, but still my husband comes running and decides not to leave my side. Both of us are absolutely exhausted as I try to work through the pain enough to get back in bed.

More than anything, as I am working through all of this, I am already looking ahead at the weekend. It is chock full of things that could aggravate this further. A wonderful musical on Friday night with friends (that is three hours), a flight to upstate New York for a 50^th birthday, including additional car trips on either end that are up to an hour and a half. I have to pull my body into working order as fast as possible. Seizes can take, in my experience, between a couple of days and a full week to recover from. I needed the fast track version.

Wednesday rolls around and I can’t even wake up to have breakfast with my kids. I manage to shovel myself across the street at the right time to see my massage therapist who goes to work right away on the leg. It’s still recovering from the seize but she removes layers of lock-up. I have to go into Manhattan that night and I’m still in so much pain that I’m not even sure I’m going to make it. Sitting hurts, standing hurts, walking hurts. Everything hurts. But I feel like I have to try. It will be movement. It will be good for my spirit. It will be walking which has always been my friend. I keep an eye on the weekend and go to Manhattan. I am careful about how I am sitting in the meeting I am in, choosing the right chair and remaining firm that I’m not moving to something that will not support me appropriately. I get home that night and manage to do just a few of my exercises. I’m in so much pain still that I actually complain to my husband, in desperation. There are a couple of reasons not to do this, usually. One, it doesn’t accomplish anything other than to let out my anguish which, admittedly, I definitely needed, by that point. Two, he goes into problem solving mode. This is out of love (and is something that I have long understood about him).

About ten minutes later, he is suggesting that there are properties of Gray Pill that might be reducing some needed things in my body. If so, a simple electrolyte drink might be the secret sauce to no more sciatic seizes and make everything better. It’s such a dreamy concept that I contact Dr. Awesome right away with loads of links. I’m still really worried that the leg will seize during the night but I know that if it doesn’t, I’m probably on the road to recovery.

I make it through the night without incident. I even sleep (and so does my husband). Thursday is the big push day. I HAVE to get better. I have a plan. I’m going to make up reasons to go out…grocery store, pharmacy, whatever. I have to leave the house. There will be walking and exercising, I’m going to do all of my exercises and a hot shower at the end of the night. Like really, really, really hot. The kind I used to take when the sciatica first set in. I spend the whole day setting timers for myself to get up and move around. In the middle of the day, my husband and I walk to the grocery store to pick up a bunch of things. Walking still doesn’t feel good but I try to think it into reality. I do my exercises that night. All of them, even though it’s hard. I take the scalding hot shower and use a dry brush that my massage therapist had recommended. I use it a lot, trying to get the blood flowing. As I am getting ready for bed, a thought occurs to me. When I broke my toe last fall, I never had a leg seize, even though I definitely was set up to do just that. What did I do then? And then I remembered: I took off the boot every night and I massaged my foot. So. Applied methods…I massage my leg and my foot. If the game is to keep the blood flowing so that it doesn’t stall out and freak out, I’m all about it.

By Friday, I can tell that I had done a great job on Thursday. While I’m definitely not better, I am experiencing easier mobility. My calf still aches a lot but in the way that I know that it will fade. I had set up an emergency second massage with my massage therapist after the seize for Friday and she immediately comments on how much looser it feels than Wednesday. Friday is the first day that I’m worried about with regards to the weekend. As excited as I am about the show I am seeing, I’m really worried about the length of it and what it will do to my body. I don’t need to backslide.

I spend the day packing and getting ready for my flight the next morning as I won’t have any time to do it later. This does enable me to go up and down the stairs a lot. I manage to do my exercises before I leave for Manhattan. This time I’m less anxious about going. My body is really at 70% when I’m moving around. The last massage helped so much. But the biggest trick is the scalding shower the night before.

I’ve set up a coffee with a friend who is visiting from out of town and my coffee is wisely located about seven to eight blocks away from where I am having dinner with my theater friends. This is just enough space to get my body moving and a little extra exercise before a whole night of sitting.

The performance is incredible. At intermission, I’m immediately up on my feet and doing partial lunges in the walkway. If you’re a New Yorker and you’ve been to enough theater, this really isn’t going to be a surprise. New Yorkers do what they have to in order to enjoy theater. But it would be nice if the theaters could get some renovations to help us sometime.

My theory about taking a car home at 11:15 at night to make it faster is an epic fail, though I do have more leg room than I would have on the subway and a far more pleasant conversation with my friend whom I am splitting the car with. I kindly massage my leg and foot again before going to bed and setting my alarm for the challenge of the week: Saturday.

I’m so excited and nervous when I wake up that I’m through my breakfast with my bags all ready and I still have half an hour. So I decide to do a few of my exercises that require weights and leave the others to possibly do when I’m upstate.

The trip goes incredibly smoothly. My college friend picks me up on the other side and we drive to our AirBnB. I am mindful of how I am standing and sitting throughout the whole weekend. I’m so tired after the party that I don’t even do exercises or massage my leg. I just fall into bed. Exactly as it should be.

By Sunday, I have very little irritation left in my leg and I’m nearly completely unconcerned about it. I finish my trip joyously and travel back home, again without incident. I do my entire course of exercises, massage my leg and foot and go to sleep.

When I go to see Mr. Alternative Method on Monday, he says he got goosebumps when I described how I had busted my ass trying to fix it all for the weekend and had taken the reins on my pain. I mean…I guess. Aside from the massaging of my own leg and toe regularly…none of it was new. It was just doing it in combination that made it so effective.

You will start to notice a trend that I did not intend with my scheduling.

What Happened Was… By Tom Noonan

I might not have noticed this particular play except that my college friend, Corey Stoll, was one of the two actors in it. In true New York fashion, my friend and I knew other people in the audience.

“What Happened Was…” is a bizarre first date of work colleagues who have clearly done better with their work flirting than by themselves out of the office. They discover a lot more about each other during this experience than they originally bargained for. Very enjoyable and satisfying play. This is a strong two hander. Playing at Minetta Lane Audible Theatre through June 14th.

Rhiannon Giddens: The Hidden Soundtrack of America

On Friday night, I went to see Rhiannon Giddens, a wonderful singer, who has defined her own genre (bluesgrass/folk/soul/North Carolinian)…if you haven’t heard her, you should absolutely look her up. She’s also on Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter” album. In her own right, she has won the Pulitzer Prize for her opera “Omar” which she wrote with Michael Abels.

Continuing with the week’s theme, Rhiannon was also a friend of mine from college. I went with another college friend to see her concert for his birthday. She played for two and a half hours and covered 250 years of hidden music in America. She had about ten or eleven additional talented musicians with her on stage, including her sister and her nephew. It was truly healing and amazing to watch her.

The Balusters by David Lindsay Abaire

This is a playwright who has frequently knocked me on my butt by how good he is. I knew nothing about this play before I walked in except that my parents had recognized one of the actors as someone whom I had gone to high school with, Michael Esper.

A community board tries to rule a quiet neighborhood and clashes about safety, old vs. new, race, class, privilege…no one is safe in this play. Brilliant play. It received Tony nominations early last week, deservedly so. It is absolutely hilarious and irreverent. Currently playing at Manhattan Theatre Club through June 7.

My Writing and Other Work

I’m deep in revisions right now and hoping to do a bunch of script submissions soon. I’m also working as a reader again for two opportunities.

If you haven’t yet bought my script “Because of Beth”, now is a great time to do so! It’s my understanding that it is available at the Drama Book Shop (I’m going to stop by and sign them!) and through the publisher. Great monologues for young women for the end of school projects, theater competitions or auditions.

Congratulations to…

Congratulations to Bess Wohl for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play “Liberation”! I saw this script up a year and a half ago before it hit Broadway and I thought it was amazing then! She also received Tony nominations for the same play the next day.

See all the Tony nominees here and decide who you are going to go see before they are announced on June 7!

Congratulations to Maya Rudolph for her Broadway debut in “Oh, Mary!”! I hear she’s killing it and she’s already extended for two more weeks until July 5th!

At the beginning of the month, I said this about my goals for #EndofPlay:

• I am going to turn my attention to some script revisions that maybe I just need to fight through. I have revised the first scene and I’ve started working on the second scene but I don’t love it. My goal is to revise the next 50 pages after the first scene of this script

• I am also serving as a reader for a writing competition and the deadline for my reading is May 1st.

How Did I Do?

Well, I did get through some pretty messy, though very unsatisfying revisions of the script I was referring to. I successfully removed a character that needed removing but the script is still a mess so I still need to work on it.

I finished all of my reading and I signed up for reading for a second contest that I always work on.

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When Life Gets in the Way of Goals

In March, I was working very hard on a script and I was really excited about it. I was due to bring revisions of the script to my playwriting group one night. And then I found out that my friend was going into hospice. The play was about a shiva. I couldn’t face the play when this was going on. It was too close.

Our family and friends went through the agony of our friend being in hospice and passing away. I couldn’t work. I couldn’t write. I could hardly breathe.

When I was finally able to work, I couldn’t do anything creative. Having the goals in April for #EndofPlay forced me to refocus. I read other people’s scripts; it was a goal. I did other research work that I needed to do; it was paid work.

I tried working on revising the script that I had committed to starting about mid-April. I did a lot of work but my muddled brain and emotions were unlikely candidates for making the script better.

Then I got an email that was a call for the script that I had been excited about in March. I fought myself. I didn’t want to go back to it if I wasn’t emotionally ready. I printed out the script and left it there for several days. The other day, I picked it up. I read it all the way through, taking a red pen to things that needed work. I implemented the changes and took it to my playwriting group that night. It had a new ending. As I was talking to the other playwrights, I realized that I had made a good choice working with this script; my friend would have wanted me to continue working on it.

Getting through this highly emotional moment to return to my creative work was definitely the thing that I needed to do the most during #EndofPlay. Everything else was a way to get there.

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

There were two instances that reassured me that I was going in the correct direction, both having to do with friends who are also playwrights.

The first one sent me the kindest email out of the blue, telling me how much she admired all the work that I am doing as she is reading all these emails that I’m sending out. (we have several overlapping groups) It was so supportive at just the right time. (PS If you think this about someone else, you might send them an email. They might actually be a mess and need to hear that you think they’re awesome.)

The second one was a friend asking for advice. Among the many things we discussed were the complicated ways that we have to balance our writing and our lives and when is the right time to choose which. Though she came to me for advice, I actually think the conversation helped me enormously, too. It was very healing and helped me articulate some of the fears I had been having.

How Did You Do With #EndofPlay?

Let me know how you did with your goals with #EndofPlay! And, if life got in the way, find a way to forgive yourself and reset for May…because that starts tomorrow.

The beginning of this year didn’t allow me to attend theater for a variety reasons, most of them health related. This was incredibly frustrating. But, in short order, I have tried to make up for it.

Antigone (or That Play I Read in High School) by Anna Ziegler

I’ve been toting this one for a few months, partly because I know Anna and her work, and I was super excited that she was going to be at the Public. This was a really well done production, with an intimate audience, clever sets, and an excellent use of alternate time structure. It examined the hot topic of abortion from two points of view: women who want to have an abortion and women who don’t. It is not often that it is “okay” for women to not want to have a child; this exposes that thoroughly. This play has since closed.

Bigfoot! A New Musical by Amber Ruffin

This entirely tongue and cheek musical had me laughing hysterically the whole time. It was entirely adorable, self-aware in its ridiculousness, had incredibly talented actors and was, of course, delivering a political message somewhere in the middle of it all. As a playwright, there was just one thing at the end where I leaned over to my friend and said “That’s the playwright’s voice.” but, other than that, it was pretty smooth sailing. I would absolutely watch this again. This is open through April 26, 2026 at Manhattan Theatre Club.

Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo

This is a super complicated drama. None of the characters were likeable but I was still rooting for some of them which is truly hard to do (well done, Gina!). After writing an analysis for some other friends who were at the play, I realized that I had the script in my own library and looked up the playwright’s words. She said that audiences frequently look to blame a character and it usually falls on one of two characters. She also said that (given that the topic of the play is failed date) she would set any of these characters up on a date but with caveats. I don’t know that I would date any of them but I would still root for certain matches. Currently playing at 2nd Stage.

Ragtime, Book by Terrence McNally, Music by Stephen Flaherty, Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens

This was a revival musical that I knew that I wanted to see. People were seeing it more than once. Everyone said that it spoke to our moment in socio-political history. Maybe it was because of these highly spoken of things that I was disappointed. The music was great. I recognized many songs. In my head, I started editing out characters. Why did we need this character? She has two songs and this could cut down the run time and she serves no other purpose other than world-building. She doesn’t move the plot. She doesn’t have a B plot or C plot. There were, at least two characters like this. In general, I found the production enjoyable. I will say that. However, I did find the script to have some problems in that it didn’t age well. My friend and I immediately looked up when it had been written. The novel it was based on was from the 1970’s and the script was written in the 1990’s. The white saviorship in the second act stood out to me. This was what was disappointing. This is currently running on Broadway.

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) by Jim Barne and Kit Buchan

This amazing, sweet, romantic comedy musical is a two hander held up by two fantastic actors who work very hard to win the hearts of both the audience and each other. This is a great show to see if you just need to relax and smile. The set is unbelievable and I’m going to shout to the Tony Awards now that they should be nominated and win best set! It is very clever! Kudos also to the costume designer for a phenomenal on stage reveal. This musical was absolutely delightful, lots of inside jokes about New York City and plot twists you don’t see coming. Currently running on Broadway.

#EndofPlay Month

I have finished my work as a reader this week, which was my goal. Unfortunately, I have been very stuck with my writing so I may need to take a page out of one of my own suggestions and just write something new, in the hopes that I can uncork the writer’s block that I’m having.

I have heard from someone that they did the circus and accountant prompt and came back with some wild scenes.

Today’s prompts:

1. Collect some of your favorite famous people (any era) at a gathering. Why are they together? Where are they? What happens? Someone is taking care of the laundry. Who is it?

2. Put the ten following words into a hat. Pick out three. Write a scene that somehow includes, is inspired by or indicates them:

   1. Muscle

   2. Petunia

   3. Scarf

   4. Headphones

   5. Marmalade

   6. Jazz

   7. Itchy

   8. Moist

   9. Tiger

   10. Knife

3. Write a scene that takes place on a cruise. Who is on the cruise? What are they doing? What shenanigans take place? Do they get off the boat?

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If you haven’t, don’t worry. There’s still time left in April and we’re here to support you.

I’ve read through about 4 of the 10 or so items that I need to do as a reader. I plan to focus more on this this week. BUT! Excitingly, I did a lot more writing this week. My goal is to try to push past the sticky point that I am now at and try to write new parts of this script. I have successfully extracted one character which is a big deal for this script.

To see prompts for this week, become a paid subscriber or do your trial subscription.

I want to see the prompts!

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What Can You See From the Balcony?

Balconies or mezzanines have historically been where people who can’t afford the more expensive orchestra seats have sat. It’s where tourists often get tickets. Box seats are a separate conversation.

As a playwright, being in the balcony means that I am stepping back and watching the whole stage: the sets, the lighting, the musicians…sometimes I can even see peeks of the conductor on the TV screen provided for the actors or crew members mostly hidden doing spotlights. I might see the booth calling the show. This particular show had exits and entrances into the audience throughout the entire show which was really fascinating. I could see them much better from the balcony than anyone in the orchestra. The stage had a turntable and also an entire portion of the stage that sank down behind the orchestra pit. As a former stage manager, I kinda like seeing these parts of the theater hanging out a little. I like knowing where things are for my fellow theater makers. It doesn’t take away the theater magic for me; in fact, it gives it more power because I know where the magic is coming from. Maybe it’s because it gives me more ideas about what can be done.

I remember that I once won tickets to see “Frozen” on Broadway and I took my highly smitten child. Front row of the mezzanine, center. Perfect. I could see the show; I could see the audience; I could see the effects…the beautiful snow that came down. My child was even able to catch a few snowflakes.

When “Phantom of the Opera” announced that it was going to close, this same child begged to go. I knew we had to have tickets in the balcony to see the chandelier in all its glory. I had watched it many years ago and I remember being in the orchestra and not realizing what was happening until the chandelier was nearly on the stage.

One show where it being in the front of the balcony or being in the orchestra is very important is “The Lion King”. The opening sequence is so powerful with animals coming down the aisles of the orchestra but you have to be able to see them to feel the power.

Many years ago, I saw the play “Puffs” four different times, all in different spots in the theater. My first spot, for what reason I can’t recall, gave me a seat in the very first row. A full parody of “Harry Potter” and its seven books, I was littered with tissues and chocolate at various points during the performance, very much a part of it. But it was harder for me to see where some of the strange entrances for actors were happening (up in a box, in the balcony, in the back of the orchestra). I spotted those better when I changed seating at other performances.

But the other thing I see is the audience. The other night, I found myself watching the audience as I was having my own reactions. Some of them were being super annoying and whispering as is likely to happen. A young man across the aisle from me kept eagerly checking his program in the lights of the aisle to see the name of the songs that were being sung which, while slightly annoying, was kind of sweet. I felt like it meant that he was really into it. There was a showstopper number and audience members leapt to their feet. (I was so grateful for an excuse to stand up at that point in the performance that I joined them) The audience is such a huge part of attending theater that my watching them during a performance seems normal. One of my friends always asks me why I look at her when we are attending theater. Part of it is just to have the camaraderie but, part of it is to also see how different things are landing.

Occupational Hazards at Theater

I have learned that I have some occupational hazards when I attend theater. For example, I know I should have been listening to some of the dialogue at a show the other night but, instead, my mind was noticing that all the characters’ costumes and the set were in black/white/gray palettes except one who came in wearing the most ostentatious coloring. And then I began something in the back of my mind trying to analyze what that meant while I returned to the dialogue.

A friend asked me what I thought of a show that I saw. I gave her a full breakdown of my thought process: I felt that it was a character study piece. I was thinking a little more about the structure and the title of the show and trying to puzzle through that. I was trying to understand what and if the playwright had a message. But, ultimately, as I do with most plays, I felt that if the audience was able to identify with a character, it was successful. This one had many flawed characters that were fascinating. None of them fell into the “likeable” character category yet I felt myself rooting for some of them and I was curious how the playwright had managed to do that so deftly.

After another show, I started chomping at the bit to go analyze the play as soon as we were getting out, despite the late hour. We analyzed the script for today’s sociopolitical climate and tried to decide if it had aged well, something that many modern playwrights struggle with. We always looked up when it was originally written, all its derivations and took into the account the world in which the script was set, a far different one than our current times.

My old stage managerial mind started noticing an actor start to clear certain things off the stage at intermission when I attended another show. For me, it was the signal that the second act would start but I also wondered why the director chose to have the actor take care of these tasks rather than a crew member.

#EndofPlay Update

I have been doing the reading that I need to do for my May 1 deadline. I did a bunch of writing last week but then I was going back and rewriting scenes that I thought I was done with. Mostly, I am still trying to figure out how to extract this one character from the play, if that’s even possible, or just minimize her role.

How are you doing with your goals for #EndofPlay?

Here are a couple more ideas to help with scenes:

1. Foods are such an integral part of our cultures. What are some foods that your characters identify positively and negatively? Do they cook? If not, why not? Can they smell food from their bedrooms and know what’s being made?

2. Women are often expected to be mothers. But there are some that have no interest in it or don’t get the chance. Write a scene about the relationship to motherhood (it can have men in it).

3. Write a very silly scene. It should not take itself seriously the entire time. The characters can be children or that can be fun-loving adults. It can be completely absurd. Include spaghetti.

Drop a note to let me know how your progress is going with your goals!

As a reminder!

If you’re looking for something to read, please remember that my script “Because of Beth” is available for sale on NextStage Press along with many other fabulous scripts of my contemporaries! FLASH OPPORTUNITY! If you buy the script between and now April 30, I will send you a bonus gift. Email me the receipt and I’ll send you the gift!

Join the Elana bandwagon!

This will be especially important for #EndofPlay participants (remember I said I was going to work on tools for this? Welcome to my catching up on my promise)

This is a conversation space exclusively for subscribers—kind of like a group chat or live hangout. I’ll post questions and updates that come my way, and you can jump into the discussion.

Join chat

How to get started

1. Get the Substack app by clicking this link or the button below. New chat threads won’t be sent sent via email, so turn on push notifications so you don’t miss conversation as it happens. You can also access chat on the web.

Get app

2. Open the app and tap the Chat icon. It looks like two bubbles in the bottom bar, and you’ll see a row for my chat inside.

3. That’s it! Jump into my thread to say hi, and if you have any issues, check out Substack’s FAQ.

A Pomodoro method is something that I have worked with to get the gunk out when I am starting to return to writing intensely after a while away. I write for 25 minutes straight, then I take a five minute break. (also helps with my sciatica to be able to get up and walk around during those five minutes) If I return to it and hate, no worries, I can always save it to a junk pile (yes, save it) and start anew for the next Pomodoro round. But if there’s even one line that works, I start with that.

How’s your #EndofPlay month going? Drop me a note in the chat.

If you want to see some suggestions for prompts, please become a paid subscriber.

#EndofPlay Paid Subscriber!

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What is #EndofPlay?

#EndofPlay was originally a wonderful challenge that the Dramatists Guild started to challenge playwrights nationwide to write towards a goal in the month of April, in community. May would then be a time to read some of these completed works or pieces of work over Zoom. Though the Dramatists Guild does not continue this program, many playwrights do. I did it last year with a small group of people and found it enormously helpful for a revision and a new script.

Is #EndofPlay like NaNoWriMo?

Yes. NaNoWritMo takes place in November and is intended to be a writing challenge for novelists to write in community. I and other playwrights I know have similarly borrowed the month alongside our novelist friends to do the writing challenge together. Anything that gets the job done.

How is it going to work on this Substack?

At the beginning, anyone who wants to participate can drop a goal for themselves at the bottom of this, stating their goals for the month. I will offer some prompts that can be interpreted in any storytelling method. If you are not a writer, you can still participate. We can find accountability for our work even if we’re not in the same industries.

Over the month (but not every day as we did in March, I will send out some more check-ins to those paid subscribers and we will continue the conversation through notes (I’ll confess, I may be working some of the technology of this on the fly as I am still figuring it all out).

At the end of each day, when you’re done writing (or working), you can report into the community what you accomplished. It doesn’t have to be every day. This gives us an opportunity for the rest of to celebrate your accomplishments and express our own.

First Prompts for April

1. Write a scene in which two people have different perceptions of the same relationship. What happens?

2. Start a scene at a circus. Add an accountant. What does that equal?

3. There is a secret box in someone’s room. Where is it? What’s in the box? Who’s hiding it? Who knows about it? What does the box look like? What happens if the wrong person finds it?

Setting Goals

Setting goals should be realistic. Take into account what’s going on in your life, how much time you have to devote to the goals so that you can really hit your mark and feel like you’ve accomplished what you set out to do.

Since I am asking all of you to figure this out, I will also tell you my goals.

I know that I have a lot of time towards the beginning of this month that is going to be a little iffy. So I’m thinking about how to manage things but still get it done, even if it means relying more heavily on the bottom half of April.

I am going to turn my attention to some script revisions that maybe I just need to fight through. I have revised the first scene and I’ve started working on the second scene but I don’t love it. My goal is to revise the next 50 pages after the first scene of this script by April 30. I am also serving as a reader for a writing competition and the deadline for my reading is May 1st. That is also part of my goal for this month.

I look forward to writing with you!

As I have been saying all month, tomorrow will start our #EndofPlay challenge which is open to any writer (not just playwrights) looking to challenge themselves in the month of April to complete a project. It can be new or a revision or an act or a chapter or a poem.

Over the course of the month, we will report in to help with our accountability.

For now, here’s the final installation of Script Submission Month.

Sapphest NYC (NYC, US)

• Open to playwrights who identify as Sapphic, above the age of 18, live anywhere in the world. (*In our context, we use “Sapphic” as an inclusive term for those who identify as women, nonbinary, trans, two-spirit, genderqueer, or agender and who experience love or attraction for others within these communities. Sapphics may identify as queer, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, aromantic, lesbian, or use another term that resonates.)

• 8-10 minute plays inspired by a Sapphic song ((think Good Luck, Babe, Honey, Lunch, Slumber Party, Where Does the Good Go, Her Body is Bible, Lipstick Lover, Fast Car, etc.)

• The audience will guess which song inspired each play. Please note: the play should not be a direct retelling of the song, but rather inspired by the title or lyrics. Each playwright/writing team may submit one play per submission cycle. Plays that have been submitted in previous cycles may not be resubmitted unless they have undergone substantial revision.

• Plays will be selected by a committee of queer judges. All plays will be read blind.

• Sapphest NYC takes place June-July, 2026

• Playwrights receive a $100 stipend.

• Deadline: April 4, 2026

Rainy Day Artistic Collective (Virtual)

• Open to playwrights who identify as Queer in any way

• 8-15 minute plays for performance for Queer One-Act Festival virtually in June, 2026. 2-3 speaking characters. No monologues.

• Although queer stories, characters, and themes are encouraged, they are not absolutely mandatory. If you want to submit a piece but do not wish to out yourself publicly, and your piece is chosen, authorship can be made anonymous throughout the entire process - only the Script Selection Committee would know your identity in this case.

• We ask that playwrights refrain from submitting scripts that are above a “PG-13” in rating (i.e. no nudity, excessive violence, or sexually explicit material).

• Since our festival will be performed 100% virtually, plays that are specifically written for virtual performance, though not required, are a plus. Pieces that do not translate effectively from stage to screen may not be selected. Not required but helpful: if your piece is written originally for a “traditional stage,” you may include suggestions with your submission on how it might translate.

• The festival will have one or two “Blocks”:

  • Block A will perform: June 26th at 6:30pm PST and June 27th at 2pm PST.

  • Block B will perform: June 27th at 6:30pm PST and June 28th at 2pm PST.

• TO BE CONSIDERED: Please email a BLIND COPY (no identifying information whatsoever in the document) to us at rainydayrevue@gmail.com by no later than 11:59pm on April 25th, 2026. To keep submissions fair, we cannot consider any plays that are not submitted as a blind copy.

• Limit of one play submission per playwright. Joint authorship counts as submission for all authors. If more than one script is submitted by a playwright, we will select randomly between them. For this festival, please do not submit excerpts from longer works.

Join for April #EndofPlay !

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Festival of New Musicals (NYC, US)

• Open to all lyricists, composers and playwrights for musical theater

• Manhattan Theatre Mission is seeking full length musicals for Staged Readings in the Festival. Several awards will be distributed, and first place will be fully produced in the following season

• Deadline: May 1, 2026

Theatre of NOTE (CA, US)

• Open to everyone worldwide. Particularly interested in playwrights who have been historically underrepresented on the stage.

• We are actively looking for full length plays to produce for our next mainstage season that speak to these things:

  • URGENCY – Why this play, why today? We’ve been through so much these past few years – and are still going through so much – how does the play grapple with these times? Inequality, Climate Change, Technology, Capitalism, Identity, Division, Media – whatever it is, we want pieces that wrestle with – and illuminate – the hardest questions of our time.

  • DIVERSITY/INCLUSION – We want to build mindful seasons that allow us to lift underrepresented artists and voices and stories – AND/OR that allow us to practice inclusive casting. Whether you yourself identify as such, your story centers such stories, OR if casting allows for (or demands) such inclusion – we want plays that help us represent the real world in a conscious way. Considering race and ethnicity, and also disability, gender, socio-economic status, sexuality, immigration status, age, and more.

  • BRAVERY/SUBVERSION – NOTE prides itself on a track record of producing plays and playwrights that push boundaries. Whether it’s style, content, production or the writing itself, we’re looking for plays that are daring, off-kilter, zany, provocative, uncomfortable or whimsical in some distinct way.

  • BRILLIANCE, AND VOICE – We’re looking for writers with their own unique point of views, perspectives, and a distinct, mature voice.

• In addition, for possible mainstage productions, NOTE is ideally looking for:

  • LARGER CASTS – Ideally 6 and up, so we can make more space for more actors!

  • A CERTAIN SENSE OF HOPE – We’re totally down with dark and intense (bring it on! We love it!!!) but this upcoming season we’re also looking to illuminate those shadows, at least a little bit.

• Ongoing

See more script submissions!

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