Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “New Plays”
“After my daughter’s birth, I couldn’t take care of the house right any more. My husband told me a maid would be better than me, that I was crazy. He took me to the hospital for ‘observation.’” ~Carmen, quoted in Women and Madness by P. Chester, PhD. “My husband told me to get shock therapy, that my multiple sclerosis symptoms …
… opens March 19! Get tickets. You can read about it here. In 2019, Central Works premiered the Victorian Ladies Detective Collective–three determined “lady” sleuths fight crime and prejudice in Victorian London. Now they’re back at it! A famous female explorer has been committed to Belfry, a notorious asylum for the mentally ill. Has her unscrupulous husband had her falsely …
During the Victorian Age (1837-1901) most women carried a bottle of smelling salts in their handbag: they were inclined to swoon when their emotions were aroused. It was believed that, as postulated by Hipocrates, the woman’s wandering womb disliked the pungent odor, so would return to its proper place in the body, allowing the woman to recover her consciousness. In …
Here is a key concept behind my new play “Escape from the Asylum,” in a nutshell: “Even if a woman has a well-thought-out reason for being upset, a guy might say, ‘You’re just being emotional.’ It’s a way to discredit her instead of having to listen; the words ‘you’re acting crazy’ really mean ‘I don’t have to pay attention to …
In “Escape from the Asylum,” Victorian detectives Katie and Loveday practice self-defence skills using umbrellas. Women used hatpins to defend themselves, until the hatpins became so deadly the longer ones were banned. So it was brolleys to the rescue! Here’s a video demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYUxTHoOfok
Subscriptions for Central Works 2022 Season are now available, as are individual tickets for my world premiere madcap mystery, Escape from the Asylum. Get tickets here. Buy Season subscriptions here.
I’ve created a dramaturgy site for my play, “Escape from the Asylum,” with research resources. The concept behind the play is that unconventional women are still dismissed as “crazy” and “hysterical” in present day, just as they were in Victorian times. While we are no longer burned at the stake or beheaded, a woman’s pushing boundaries is an invitation to …
A new tool available online links email addresses to Facebook accounts in bulk, according to a video shared with researchers and Motherboard. Video shows churning through emails, finding the associated account. The news presents another significant privacy issue for Facebook, which is continuing to face a series of data leaks around phone numbers and other data. Source. Facebook is such …
After a truly humiliating reading on Saturday, I spent 48 hours renouncing playwriting. The draft is really, really bad. Now, I knew I was writing a bad draft. I acknowledged it openly. But THIS bad? Jesus wept. So, after the career renunciation phase (what happened to denial?), I moved to “Okay, what did I learn?” Because at this advanced age, …
One of the most disturbing pieces of information I discovered while researching my play, “The Engine of Our Destruction” is the link between child drownings and parents glued to cell phones. A Texas mother was charged after a witness reportedly claimed she was using her phone while three of her children drowned in an apartment complex pool in 2015. Drowning rates are highest …