Stephanie Alison Walker

Stephanie Alison Walker

Stephanie is an award-winning playwright committed to radical truth-telling in her work. Her plays are known for mining humor in darkness, the personalization of the political, the complexity of human emotions and the exploration and dramatization of the strength of women. Her full-length plays include The Madres (Winner of the 2019 Francesca Primus Prize, O'Neill Finalist, NNPN Rolling World Premiere 2018...
Stephanie is an award-winning playwright committed to radical truth-telling in her work. Her plays are known for mining humor in darkness, the personalization of the political, the complexity of human emotions and the exploration and dramatization of the strength of women. Her full-length plays include The Madres (Winner of the 2019 Francesca Primus Prize, O'Neill Finalist, NNPN Rolling World Premiere 2018,) The Abuelas (Antaues Theatre Company - Los Angeles and Teatro Vista- Chicago Tribune Critic's pick 2019,) Friends With Guns (O'Neill Finalist, Shared World Premiere - Chapel Theatre Collective/The Road Theatre/Uprising Theatre 2019,) The Art of Disappearing (Primus Prize Finalist, 16th Street Theater 2015,) American Home (Little Candle Productions 2017,) The Sister House, The Box Jumper and The Ordeal of Water. Stephanie’s work has been produced and/or developed at Teatro Vista, New York Theatre Workshop, Inkwell Theater, Chicago Dramatists, 16th Street Theater, Moving Arts, Antaeus Theatre Company, The Road Theatre, Skylight Theatre, Little Candle Productions, San Diego Rep, Boulder Ensemble Theater Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville and more. Honors include: Winner of the American Theatre Critics Association's 2019 Francesca Primus Prize, Two-time Winner of the Ashland New Plays Festival, 2016 NNPN Showcase, 2018 NNPN Showcase finalist, Winner of Chicago's American Blues Theater's Blue Ink Award, winner of the 2016 Generations Prize, winner of Valley Theatre Awards Best Play of the Year for Friends With Guns, finalist for the 2016 Saroyan/Paul Playwriting Prize for Human Rights, Jane Chambers Award Runner-Up, two-time finalist for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, finalist for the CTG/Humanitas Playwriting Prize, finalist for the 2016 Primus Prize Award, Four-time Finalist for the prestigious Heideman Award. Stephanie’s short plays are anthologized by Smith & Kraus and have been produced all over the world. Stephanie is also the author of the book and blog, LOVE IN THE TIME OF FORECLOSURE which has been called “A heartbreaking work of staggering acceptance” and was featured by the Los Angeles Times, NPR, Business Week Magazine, Chicago Magazine, Huffington Post Live and ABC World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer. Stephanie is a proud member of the Playwrights Union, the Dramatists Guild and the Antaeus Playwrights Lab and HONOR ROLL! -- an action and advocacy group of women+ playwrights over forty whose aim is to significantly increase our inclusion and representation on stage and in the theatrical canon. She is a mom to two spirited humans - Malcolm (12) and Graham (8) - and is privileged to be raising them with her brilliant husband Bob.

Plays

  • SOPHIA HAYDEN DESERVES BETTER by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 11
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    Cast: 
    8
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    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 3 more
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    Keyword: women's history, Architecture + 4 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama, period, tragedy
    Keyword: women's history, Architecture, Chicago history, woman's building, White City, Melancholia
    In 1891 a brilliant 23-year-old woman won an architecture contest to design the Woman’s Building for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. What should have been the start to a flourishing career in architecture became career-ending. Throughout the two-year process of building The Woman’s Building, the architect quietly endured bullying, micromanaging and undermining until she finally spoke up. In a time...
    In 1891 a brilliant 23-year-old woman won an architecture contest to design the Woman’s Building for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. What should have been the start to a flourishing career in architecture became career-ending. Throughout the two-year process of building The Woman’s Building, the architect quietly endured bullying, micromanaging and undermining until she finally spoke up. In a time when women were defined as physically and intellectually weaker than men, her concerns were not only not heard, but she was sent to a sanitarium. Diagnosed with melancholia due to overexertion. Silenced. After the fair, her building was destroyed and she never built another building again. Her name was Sophia Hayden and she deserves better.
  • The Ordeal of Water by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 12
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: drama, fable/folktale
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    Keyword: longshoremen, women + 6 more
    Genre: drama, fable/folktale
    Keyword: longshoremen, women, waterfront, feminism, sexism, true story, oppression, female friendship
    1978. The first two female longshoremen at the Port of Los Angeles are trapped by their male co-workers in the cargo hold of a container ship just as it is heading to Shanghai. As they struggle to survive, they are visited by witches, who both help them and test them.

    This play is inspired by the first women to work at the Port of Los Angeles as Longshoremen. The play is a work of fiction. The...
    1978. The first two female longshoremen at the Port of Los Angeles are trapped by their male co-workers in the cargo hold of a container ship just as it is heading to Shanghai. As they struggle to survive, they are visited by witches, who both help them and test them.

    This play is inspired by the first women to work at the Port of Los Angeles as Longshoremen. The play is a work of fiction. The characters and story are a product of the playwright's imagination.
  • FRIENDS WITH GUNS by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 30
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: guns, liberal + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: guns, liberal, marriage, parenthood, feminism, women and guns, Los Angeles, NRA, dark comedy, guns in America
    You think you know your friends, your neighbors, your spouse, but what happens when you suddenly find out they have a garage full of guns? This new dark comedy explores the complicated issue of gun proliferation when two young liberal couples are forced to confront their assumptions about who should own a gun and why. The time of easy answers regarding this issue is long gone. In the wake of current events, we...
    You think you know your friends, your neighbors, your spouse, but what happens when you suddenly find out they have a garage full of guns? This new dark comedy explores the complicated issue of gun proliferation when two young liberal couples are forced to confront their assumptions about who should own a gun and why. The time of easy answers regarding this issue is long gone. In the wake of current events, we are all forced to reexamine our strongly held beliefs about gun ownership. Friends With Guns explores the question of what we can compartmentalize…and what we can’t. It examines what happens when guns enter the conversation. It pulls the curtain back on liberals with guns. It asks what happens when suddenly one person in a marriage does a 180 on the gun issue. And it does all of this through a female lens.
  • THE MADRES by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 19
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 3 more
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    Keyword: argentina, mother + 7 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, period, political, tragedy
    Keyword: argentina, mother, dirty war, disappearance, military dictatorship, fascism, women, protest, motherhood
    Received a NNPN Rolling World Premiere

    It's 1978 in Buenos Aires, Argentina where people are disappearing right off the street but no one is talking about it. Carolina and her mother Josefina are searching for their pregnant daughter/granddaughter, Belén, who has been missing for twelve weeks. When they receive a surprise visit first from a former neighborhood priest who is now stationed at...
    Received a NNPN Rolling World Premiere

    It's 1978 in Buenos Aires, Argentina where people are disappearing right off the street but no one is talking about it. Carolina and her mother Josefina are searching for their pregnant daughter/granddaughter, Belén, who has been missing for twelve weeks. When they receive a surprise visit first from a former neighborhood priest who is now stationed at the ESMA (the Navy Mechanics school turned clandestine prison in the middle of the city,) they come up with a plan to try to see Belén one last time. Will it work? Will they be able to save her baby? Will they be able to save themselves?

    *Finalist for the 2016 Saroyan/Paul Playwriting Prize for Human Rights
    *Winner 2016 Ashland New Plays Festival
    *Runner-Up Jane Chambers Playwriting Award
    *Finalist for Kitchen Dog Theater's 2016 New Works Festival
    *Finalist for the 2016 O'Neill Playwrights Conference
    *Winner of Boulder Ensemble Theater Company's Generations Contest
    *Finalist for the CTG/Humanitas Playwriting Prize
    *Finalist for the 2016 Source Festival

  • THE ABUELAS by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 14
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: drama, political
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    Keyword: disappearance, identity + 6 more
    Genre: drama, political
    Keyword: disappearance, identity, family, argentina, Child kidnapping, dictatorship, marriage, love
    Gabriela is an Argentine concert cellist living in Chicago with her American husband and adjusting to life as a new mom. Life is good - normal life worries - but good, until a visit from two strangers upends everything. This play, about the long and devastating repercussions of Argentina’s military dictatorship from 1976-1983, asks how one goes on after discovering their life is a lie? Does the restoration of...
    Gabriela is an Argentine concert cellist living in Chicago with her American husband and adjusting to life as a new mom. Life is good - normal life worries - but good, until a visit from two strangers upends everything. This play, about the long and devastating repercussions of Argentina’s military dictatorship from 1976-1983, asks how one goes on after discovering their life is a lie? Does the restoration of truth bring freedom or suffering? Is it possible to integrate two identities into one life? The Abuelas explores these questions as well as the heart’s capacity for forgiveness even in the face of the harshest betrayal.

    Written as a companion play to THE MADRES.
  • The Art of Disappearing by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: family, Chicago + 5 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: family, Chicago, Art and Artists, Alzheimer's Disease, dementia, mothers and daughters, identity
    Primus Prize 2016 Finalist
    O'Neill Playwrights Conference 2013 Semi-Finalist
    Princess Grace Award 2008 Finalist

    When Melissa receives a mysterious invitation to brunch from her mother after a two-year estrangement, she returns to a home where nothing is as it seems. Fathers lie, friends leave and she herself is failing in the artist’s world she covets- as her mother practices...
    Primus Prize 2016 Finalist
    O'Neill Playwrights Conference 2013 Semi-Finalist
    Princess Grace Award 2008 Finalist

    When Melissa receives a mysterious invitation to brunch from her mother after a two-year estrangement, she returns to a home where nothing is as it seems. Fathers lie, friends leave and she herself is failing in the artist’s world she covets- as her mother practices the art of disappearing before her very eyes. The devastating truth she discovers in her parents’ house threatens to tear all of them apart for good. Will Melissa stay and fight for her family? Or will she disappear too?
  • American Home by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 5
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    Cast: 
    9
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: foreclosure, American Dream + 4 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: foreclosure, American Dream, housing crisis, real estate, marriage, suicide
    Winner of the 2011 Blue Ink Award by Chicago's American Blues Theater
    Semi-Finalist for the 2010 Princess Grace Award

    One out of every 54 homes in America received a foreclosure notice in 2008. Award winning playwright and author of "Love in the Time of Foreclosure," Stephanie Alison Walker, takes audiences on a deeply personal journey through recent history as she shines a...
    Winner of the 2011 Blue Ink Award by Chicago's American Blues Theater
    Semi-Finalist for the 2010 Princess Grace Award

    One out of every 54 homes in America received a foreclosure notice in 2008. Award winning playwright and author of "Love in the Time of Foreclosure," Stephanie Alison Walker, takes audiences on a deeply personal journey through recent history as she shines a light on three out of the millions of stories of loss. A young couple faces eviction from the dream house they stretched to buy; an elderly widow falls prey to a reverse mortgage scheme, and a minister of the prosperity gospel must face the flock shes led astray. American Home takes an unflinching look at the impossible choices people make when faced with losing everything, and, ultimately, celebrates the powerful resilience of community and the human spirit.
  • The Sister House by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 7
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: mother and daughter, grief + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, fantasy, romantic comedy
    Keyword: mother and daughter, grief, anger, vampire, shopping addiction, teenagers
    A vampire comedy about grief.

    When Ramona decides to rent out her deceased husband's office to a mysterious stranger, her daughter Ryan rebels. Three women and one imaginary vampire collide in a historic Victorian home with a past of its own, in this play about immortal love, mothers and daughters, and new beginnings.

    *This play began as a Heideman Award finalist ten-minute...
    A vampire comedy about grief.

    When Ramona decides to rent out her deceased husband's office to a mysterious stranger, her daughter Ryan rebels. Three women and one imaginary vampire collide in a historic Victorian home with a past of its own, in this play about immortal love, mothers and daughters, and new beginnings.

    *This play began as a Heideman Award finalist ten-minute play titled, "Edward Cullen Ruined My Mother's Love Life."
  • The Chocolate Affair by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy
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    Keyword: halloween, eating disorders + 6 more
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: halloween, eating disorders, women, Body image, motherhood, candy, anthropomorphism, chocolate
    Beverly checks herself into a seedy motel room to be alone with a plastic pumpkin filled with Halloween candy in this ten-minute comedy about body image, motherhood and one woman trying desperately to "have it all."
  • MELT by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 8
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: climate change, glacier + 5 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: climate change, glacier, science, global warming, glaciologist, magical realism, Seniors
    A glaciologist brings his granddaughter (a climate change denier) on an expedition to measure the ice on earth's last remaining glacier. Will she see the truth before it's too late? Or will they both melt with the glacier?
  • HOMER by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 9
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: dark comedy
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    Keyword: urban, revolution + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy
    Keyword: urban, revolution, class
    Abe and Charlie have found the perfect place of their own, until an injured stranger arrives and threatens to ruin it.

  • AN AVERAGE MAN by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: heroism, carjacking + 1 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: heroism, carjacking, good Samaritan
    On a Starbucks run for his co-workers, an average man is presented with the opportunity to be a hero. Will he leave the task to someone else as always, or will he confront his fear, save the day and in a moment re-define his entire life? It all happens in a moment and this moment is his.
  • It's Not About the Car by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: comedy, romantic comedy
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    Keyword: cars, divorce + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, romantic comedy
    Keyword: cars, divorce, marriage, comedy, love, hate, birthday
    All Marla wants for her birthday is a divorce. Instead of a divorce, Vic gives her a new car. Marla is not happy.

    *written for Moving Arts' The Car Plays
  • THE BIG RIDE by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 5
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama, romantic comedy
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    Keyword: love, Bikes + 1 more
    Genre: drama, romantic comedy
    Keyword: love, Bikes, journey
    Two people meet on a 500-mile bike ride for charity. It’s a love story on bikes… in reverse.
  • THE BIGNESS OF IT ALL by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama, tragedy
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    Keyword: metoo, longshoremen + 1 more
    Genre: drama, tragedy
    Keyword: metoo, longshoremen, women
    A young female longshoreman at the Port of Los Angeles discovers just how disappointing and dangerous it can be to be a woman in a man’s world.
  • ANGELINA JOLIE IS STALKING ME by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 9
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
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    Keyword: Stalking, infertility + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    Keyword: Stalking, infertility, celebrity, perception, Fantasy, marriage
    Angelina Jolie is frankly tired of being stalked and turns the tables on a young married couple struggling with infertility issues in this dark comedy about marriage, fantasy, perception and the nature of fidelity.
  • EDWARD CULLEN RUINED MY MOTHER'S LOVE LIFE by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: motherhood, mother and daughter + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: motherhood, mother and daughter, teenagers, vampire, love, twilight, grief, acceptance
    Ramona, a fifty-year-old vampire-lusting widow has a sixteen-year-old pragmatic, classic literature-loving daughter who refuses to learn to drive. Mother and daughter struggle to turn fiction into reality while constantly being haunted by the past in this play about death, immortal love and driving.
  • Zoom Mediation in Pandemic Times by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    5–6
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    Genre: comedy, zoom
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    Keyword: zoom, pandemic + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, zoom
    Keyword: zoom, pandemic, social media, Quarantine, home schooling, Covid-19, baby boomers, millennial, technology
    An attorney suddenly homeschooling two kids at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic mediates between her Baby Boomer mother and Millennial cousin over a social media dispute.
  • REBEL by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: Covid-19, Quarantine + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, zoom
    Keyword: Covid-19, Quarantine, missing, coronavirus, shelter-in-place, marriage, love, parenthood, FaceTime
    Quarantined from each other in their own home, a husband and wife try to stay level-headed while facing their worst nightmare.

    A FaceTime play in ten-minutes.
  • HOLLYWOOD HILLS by Stephanie Alison Walker
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
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    Keyword: dark comedy, Hollywood
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    Keyword: dark comedy, Hollywood
    Missy, a Hollywood starlet in the making, and D, a stand-in for an A-list star, are drunk, high and lost on their way to an after-party in the Hollywood Hills. Will Missy ever get a satisfying answer to the question, "Am I hot?" Will D ever get to smoke her cigarette? Was that speed bump really just a speed bump? Called "Intense!" and "Morbid" by Reviewplays.com and "Hilariously dark" by LA Weekly.