Cover art by Jonathan Buehrer.
You may read Issue 5 below on our website. All scripts are for the reading public only, and downloads are prohibited.
If you are interested in producing any of these scripts, you can find the writer’s contact information in the “Contributor Bios” section, or some scripts staff is happy to connect you with said writer.
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Contributor and Staff Bios
Jessie Bowman (reading team) is a member of the Issue 5 reading team and previously a reading team member for Issues 1-3.
Jacqueline Brown (reading team) is an Irish-American studying at the University of Pennsylvania and a former theatre kid to boot. As a writer herself, her work has appeared in numerous places, and her debut poetry pamphlet Flight Patterns of September, October, June is forthcoming at Alien Buddha Press.
Jonathan Buehrer (cover art and others) is an artist from Des Moines, Iowa.
Playwright Rachael Carnes (“Healthy New Habits”) received a 2020 Oregon Literary Fellowship, a 2020 Oregon Arts Commission Career Opportunity Grant, a 2021 Lighthouse Writers Workshop Advanced Dramatic Writing Fellowship, and has had productions of her work across the U.S., U.K., the Middle East, Canada and Asia, with invitations to develop work at the Inge Theatre Festival, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Playwriting Intensive, the Midwestern Dramatists Center Conference, the Mid-America Theater Conference, the American Association for Theatre in Higher Education New Play Development Series, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Lighthouse Writer’s Workshop, the Great Plains Theatre Conference and the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival. Rachael is the founder of #CodeRedPlaywrights, an artistic collective dedicated to writing plays in response to gun violence. Her work is seen in many literary journals, and has been nominated for a 2020 Pushcart Prize. Rachael and her family live in Oregon. www.rachaelcarnes.com
Alyssa Cokinis (editor-in-chief) is an LGBTQ+ theatre artist/writer from Iowa, currently residing in the Pacific Northwest. MA: Intercultural Communication Studies (Shanghai Theatre Academy). BA: Theatre Arts & English (University of Iowa). Previous publications include work featured in Beatdom, The Minison Project, Chaotic Merge Magazine, Queerlings, Essay Daily, and others. Alyssa’s plays have been produced or read at Atlanta Fringe Audio 2021, Oregon Fringe Festival, Pride Plays’ “Pride Pieces,” SURGE at YUZ Museum, New Plays from the Heartland Festival, MadLab Theatre, and the University of Iowa. Alyssa is the founder/EIC of some scripts literary magazine, an online publication dedicated to the dramatic form, and also a review editor at the winnow. Find more at abyssoflyss.carrd.co
Lisa Elis (art) lives in Canada and loves stories, art, and things that grow her wanderlust. Though mostly hermitting at home, she also spends time connecting with literary communities online. Find her headquarters at lisaelis.com
Mikki Gillette (“I Wouldn’t Put It That Way”) is a trans woman playwright, whose work depicts the trans experience in all its juicy, dramatic richness. Her play The Queers was produced by Fuse Theatre Ensemble in January 2022. Her show Mimetic Desire is scheduled for production by the Pittsburgh Classic Players in fall 2022. Mikki’s work has been produced or developed at Artists Rep Theatre, Transformation Theatre, the OUTwright Theatre Festival, Profile Theatre and Post5 Theatre. Her short work has been published in Rushing Thru the Dark, Barely Seen and Fleas on the Dog. Learn more at: mikkigillette.com
Sarah Groustra (reading team) (she/her) is a writer from Brookline, MA and a recent graduate from Kenyon College. Her writing has previously appeared in or is forthcoming in Funicular Magazine, HIKA, Lilith Magazine, Boats Against the Current, Moon Cola Zine, and Spires Literary Magazine, and her plays have been workshopped or produced by Playdate Theatre, the Parsnip Ship, and Playwright’s Workshop at Kenyon (PWAK). She is the 2021 recipient of the James E. Michael Playwriting Prize. You can find her on Twitter @ladypoachedegg and at sarahgroustra.com
Judy Klass (“A Different Kind of Strong”): Eight of Judy’s full-length plays have been produced onstage. One, Cell was nominated for an Edgar and is published by Samuel French/Concord. Another, Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One won the Dorothy Silver Award. Country Fried Murder won the SOPS competition and was produced at the Shawnee Playhouse in Pennsylvania, and then was produced virtually by Quarantine Players, which released their production as a podcast and a Zoom recording on YouTube. In all, two of Judy’s full-length plays and six of her one-acts have been produced as podcasts, and 37 of her one-act plays have been produced onstage, many with multiple productions all over the US. A few have been produced in the UK and Ireland. Two have won the William Faulkner Literary Competition. Three of Judy’s short plays are published, each as a stand-alone script, by Brooklyn Publishers. Others have appeared in the Rockhurst Review, Ponder Review, Seven Hills Review and anthologies like Contemporary One Act Plays, Volume One, The Best New Ten-Minute Plays 2021 and The Art of the One-Act. Judy has other plays and screenplays that need good homes and a film project in the works that needs investors that she’d love to tell you about. There’s more at www.judyklass.com.
Jill Korn (“Sound Effects”): I live in a village surrounded by fields of (mostly) cows, not far from Glasgow, a few miles from Ayrshire’s beautiful coastline. From the top of the hill, we can see the Isle of Arran in all its moods – except when the clouds are low and it disappears like Brigadoon. My writing focuses mainly on audio drama; I write and organise the production of short plays, aiming for the standard of performance set by BBC radio drama. As a child, I was thrilled by Christmas pantomimes at the Birmingham Rep; I loved to make up conversations in my head between imagined, magical characters. Nothing really changes. In 2017, I studied creative writing in Glasgow (another pantomime city!) and began to realise my imaginary conversations as audio dramas. To date, I have podcast five plays, and am working on a trilogy based on the history and culture of my adopted county of Ayrshire. ‘Sound Effects’ is a tribute to my father who loved radio drama, who died in 2011, and whom I miss more than I ever thought I would. Website: www.jillkorn.com/sound-escape-theatre
David Lipschutz (“Birthright” and “G’Oy Vey!”) (he/him) is a Chicago-based artist and an ensemble member of Hell in a Handbag Productions, Chicago’s premier camp drag theatre company. With Handbag, he co-wrote The Golden Girls: The Lost Episodes, Vol. 3 (which has been performed with LAFF Shows/IndyFringe as well) and had a reading of FriGAY the 13th! The Musical. He has also written works produced throughout the country and has his first play being produced internationally next year.
Zephin Livingston (reading team) is a writer and editor from Alabama. They’ve been part of the some scripts team since the first issue as both staff and contributor. When not knee-deep in research for a new story, they can usually be found playing board games, hiking, or talking entirely too much about professional wrestling.
Clement Tyler Obropta (We Used to Hunt Tigers) studies film at the University of St Andrews in Scotland after having graduated from Ithaca College. He writes film criticism for Film Inquiry and MAYDAY magazine, where he also serves as culture editor. He edits photography for Wanderlust Journal. One of his scripts was published in The Abstract Elephant. Poetry, prose and photography published elsewhere.
@TylerObropta on Twitter & Instagram
Jennifer O’Grady (“Egypt”) Jennifer O’Grady (she/her) is a playwright and poet whose plays are produced across the U.S. and internationally. Her full-length plays include Fertile Ground (2022 O’Neill Semifinalist); Charlotte’s Letters (Rising Artist and Henley Rose Awards; O’Neill Semifinalist; other honors); Paranormal Love (MTWorks Newborn Award; NEWvember Finalist; Pandora’s Box Honorable Mention; other honors); Ellery (Bechdel Group selection) and others. Her short plays have won awards and are published in multiple editions of the annual Best Ten-Minute Plays (Smith and Kraus) and Best New Ten-Minute Plays (Applause) including the 2021 volumes of each. Her plays are also included in multiple editions of the annual Best Women’s Stage Monologues, as well as Best Contemporary Monologues for Women 18-35, Stage It! 3, The COVID Monologues, The Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival 2022: The Short Plays and other anthologies. Also an award-winning poet and the author of two poetry books, she holds an MFA in poetry from Columbia University and a BA from Vassar. She and her family live near New York City. Jennifer’s monologue “Closet Cat” appears in some scripts literary magazine Issue 4. (www.jenniferogrady.net)
Helena Pantsis (“Mourning Fog”) (she/they) is a writer and artist from Naarm, Australia. A full-time student of creative writing, they have a fond appreciation for the gritty, the dark, and the experimental. Her works are published in Overland, Island, Going Down Swinging, and Meanjin. More can be found at hlnpnts.com
Dakota Pariset (“A Hopeful Transmission”) (he/him) is a proud Chicago actor, playwright, and producer originally from Nebraska. He currently serves as artistic director of BYOT Productions, where he is a company member, and is founding artistic director of The Lightbulb Factory. Playwriting credits include numerous short plays for BYOT’s near-monthly 24 hour shows(End of the World Party, Go For the Head) and Love Songs(EP), which ran virtually in early 2021, serving as TLF’s 2nd Cycle. It received a subsequent reading as a part of The Berger Park Reading Series(Chicago Park District). His small (but steadily growing) collection of work can be found on New Play Exchange. “I am a man, little do I last and the night is enormous. But I look up…” -Octavio Paz
K.G. Ricci (Art: Numbered Not Named No. 716 and No. 157), a self-taught New York City artist, made a collage on a file cabinet in 2015. The creative possibilities of the medium immediately inspired him. Fifty cut and paste panels followed, visual improvisations on 20” x 40” or 2’ X 4’ hardboard. Next, Ricci completed another series on 8” X 24” hardboard with implied literary reflections or narrative lines. He categorized hundreds of his panels in groups with names like “Femma Dilemma”, “Hotel Kafka” and “3:43 A.M.” Recently, Ricci sustained his implied narrative focus in “Numbered-Not Named”, a series of original pieces, 6” x 9” on black stock. His current project: “Random Thoughts in the Waiting Room”, is a visual flash fiction series of books with a single word or a fragment of text in each collage composition. K.G. Ricci has exhibited in 27 galleries including solo shows and many more online galleries. His collages have been published in poetry and literary magazines nationally and internationally online and in print.
Melody Rose Serra (Art: With the Moon on Their Wings, untitled sketch of couple dancing, untitled drawing of bicycle and flowers): Melody’spassion is teaching and empowering others by sharing what she has learned. She helped launch an arts and crafts program at a children’s hospital and also taught at San Quentin State Prison. Melody hopes to inspire youth to explore and expand their creativity through web development, writing, and art.
A writer and an artist, Ankita Sharma (Art: Discobulus, Earth) resides in India. She has authored five titles. Her poems and stories have been published in various anthologies and lit mags including 3moonmag, BRAG, Versification, Green Ink Poetry, Sunnyg (radio show) and others. Her artworks have appeared on the cover pages of a few Indian and international books. Her latest book is ‘One Day in the life of Javed Khan’, published by Ukiyoto Publishing, Canada, was released in Nov 2021.
Instagram: ankita.s.26
Twitter: AnkitaSharma_26
Anna Tjeltveit (“Alone in a Watchtower at the End of the World”) (CHELT-vate) is a Pennsylvania-based author, poet, and playwright currently studying German Studies and English at Wesleyan University. Her work seeks to reconcile connection and distance, cynicism and belief, the environment and humankind. It has appeared in print through The Lavender and The Wesleyan Argus as well as onstage through Second Stage Productions and the MonoLogOn. She was the 2019 winner of the Hamilton Prize, a full-tuition scholarship awarded by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Cal Walker (That Thing in the Bathroom) is a Chicago-based writer-director-enthusiast. Collaborations include work with RedTwist Theater, NoMads Arts Collective and Nothing Without a Company. That Thing in The Bathroom was born from Cal’s distaste for authority. Their solo show about mental illness, The Anxiety Variety Show, enjoyed a run at Rhinofest 2020 and is set to return sometime in the next year. In their spare time, Cal enjoys hiking, folk music, and watching really, really bad TV. For past and upcoming projects visit cal-walker.net
Allison Whittenberg (“The Bard of Frogtown” and “Choice”) is a Philadelphia native who has a global perspective. If she wasn’t an author, she’d be a private detective or a jazz singer. She loves reading about history and true crime. Her other novels include Sweet Thang, Hollywood and Maine, Life is Fine, Tutored and The Sane Asylum.
Born in Minnesota, abs wilson (I Crave the Heat) is a grad student at NYU Tisch’s MFA Musical Theatre Writing program, dabbling in playwriting, game-design, screenwriting, and poetry. She got her English/theater BA at St. Olaf College and her passion for theater writing at the National Theater Institute’s 2020 Summer Intensive program. abs is currently based in New York and on the lookout for some collaborative magic.
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