Plays I want to write, but got no business writing…
“If you have an idea you’re excited about and you don’t bring it to life, it’s not uncommon for the idea to find its voice through another maker. This isn’t because the other artist stole your idea, but because the idea’s time has come.”
― Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being
Just keep scrolling.
Take what you like.
Let me know when you finish.
I’ll come see your play.
Write a play set just after emancipation. Three woman that married the same enslaved man on three different plantations seek to find him.
Write a play about…Chairman Mao and DuBois- Tea with Mao. 1959 W.E.B. Dubois visited Communist China to meet with Chairman Mao. In 1955 Marilyn Monroe lobbied to get Ella Fitzgerald booked to sing at the Mocambo Club. Both pairs became really good friends. What if I wrote a play that takes place in 1959…that explores both of these relationships. sort of having them exist in the same narrative. mirroring each other. Thoughts?
Write a play about Digital Sharecropping. Want a mortgage? Can’t afford the down payment? We’ll give you the money…catch is…for the next few years one of the rooms in your house will be an Airbnb that we totally control.
Write a play about the time Lillian Gish, Satchel Paige and Salvador Dali were on the same episode of the Dick Cavett Show.
Write a play about a person who is an expat in an imaginary foreign country. Like Paris but not Paris. You know? All of the language our hero can’t understand is represented by the repetition of the word WATERMELON, unvoiced. I would love to see that! Whole scenes of silent interaction and confusion that suddenly come to life as the hero begins to understand.
Write a play about a zombie family, minding their business, doing zombie stuff when some non zombies show up and cause some trouble.
“Shrubs are drag for capitalism”
Write a play that takes place in a traffic jam during Freaknik in the 90’s.
Write a play that’s a kind of “Ocean’s Eleven type heist but instead of robbing a casino to get rich they are getting reparations for Black People and Indigenous People!
What’s a family tree look like without, patriarchy? Without rape? Without limited access to healthcare? Without job insecurities and red lining and...what does a family tree look like without oppression?
Write a play about this trailblazer in queer and trans liberation.
Write a play that has:
A character who believes the flight of fantasy of another character to maintain that person’s well being.
A character who must check in on a large animal or creature.
A character who is flooded with invitations and prizes from all over the world but it does not help the hole in their life.
A couple who leads a disorderly life and the family accepts it begrudgingly.
A land that is supposed to bear fruit becomes a jungle. consuming and choking.
A person who is made small over a meal.
What she doing…?
Painting by Jonathan Wateridge