A Poison Squad of Whispering Women

Finalist - BAPF Playwrights Foundation

FULL LENGTH 100 pgs - When a professor withdraws to a small-town boarding house to finish her manuscript on the ‘model American town,’ she becomes involved in her student’s soured romance with an abusive politician. Finding herself aligned with the ‘poison squad’, she helps launch a whisper campaign to end the future congressman’s harassment and ultimately his career. But...

Finalist - BAPF Playwrights Foundation

FULL LENGTH 100 pgs - When a professor withdraws to a small-town boarding house to finish her manuscript on the ‘model American town,’ she becomes involved in her student’s soured romance with an abusive politician. Finding herself aligned with the ‘poison squad’, she helps launch a whisper campaign to end the future congressman’s harassment and ultimately his career. But she underestimates how far the corrupt politician will go to protect his empire, and learns how far she will be pushed to save herself.

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A Poison Squad of Whispering Women

Recommended by

  • Donald E. Baker: A Poison Squad of Whispering Women

    Klan dominance of Indiana in the 1920s lends itself to drama. (I've written two plays on the subject myself.) McBurnette-Andronicos has taken recognizable personalities and events from that era and completely reworked them into a brand-new story centering on the Klan affiliations (or not) of five fictional women in a small-town boarding house. The play is dramatic and emotional and the tension keeps ratcheting up to an explosive conclusion. The Indiana local color is spot on and the youngest woman's flapper slang is hilarious. Great work with juicy roles for women of all ages. (Caution: don't...

    Klan dominance of Indiana in the 1920s lends itself to drama. (I've written two plays on the subject myself.) McBurnette-Andronicos has taken recognizable personalities and events from that era and completely reworked them into a brand-new story centering on the Klan affiliations (or not) of five fictional women in a small-town boarding house. The play is dramatic and emotional and the tension keeps ratcheting up to an explosive conclusion. The Indiana local color is spot on and the youngest woman's flapper slang is hilarious. Great work with juicy roles for women of all ages. (Caution: don't eat the pie.)

  • Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend: A Poison Squad of Whispering Women

    This full length play about a group of women who take on the Grand Dragon is great! The women are complex and surprising, and I loved watching the story unfold.

    This full length play about a group of women who take on the Grand Dragon is great! The women are complex and surprising, and I loved watching the story unfold.

  • Ky Weeks: A Poison Squad of Whispering Women

    Exceptionally well-written, plunged in secrets, twists, and the inescapable gravity of its historical reality. The dialogue demands close attention, in the layers of its plot, in the depth and complexities of each character, and in the sheer skill of the writing. And that attention is rewarded with an exhilarating ending.

    Exceptionally well-written, plunged in secrets, twists, and the inescapable gravity of its historical reality. The dialogue demands close attention, in the layers of its plot, in the depth and complexities of each character, and in the sheer skill of the writing. And that attention is rewarded with an exhilarating ending.

View all 15 recommendations

Character Information

  • SYLVIA OTIS
    Professor, researcher and recent divorcee from Chicago. Focused and stoic, she is driven to complete her non-fiction book on the model American town. She probably drinks and smokes too much.
    Character Age
    30s
    Character Race/Ethnic Identity
    White
    Character Gender Identity
    Female
  • OPAL HIGHTOWER
    College student and flapper. Educated, flirtatious, and high-spirited, she prefers to be called ‘Liberty.’ Both affectionate and mocking with her aunt.
    Character Age
    20s
    Character Race/Ethnic Identity
    White
    Character Gender Identity
    Female
  • PEARLENE HIGHTOWER
    Opal’s verbose aunt, owner of the boarding house, and a still politically active former Suffragette. She walks with a noticeable limp.
    Character Age
    50s, 60s
    Character Race/Ethnic Identity
    White
    Character Gender Identity
    Female
  • DELL GUFFEY
    Live-in housekeeper and low-level civic official. She is Midwestern friendly but also hard, rustic, ambitious, and entitled by her religion.
    Character Age
    40s
    Character Race/Ethnic Identity
    White
    Character Gender Identity
    Female
  • EULA ROMAN
    A mole masquerading as a transitory stranger. She speaks with an indiscernible Eastern European accent.
    Character Age
    20s
    Character Gender Identity
    Female
  • ADOLPHUS BECK
    Charismatic, suave, and attractive congressional candidate with a penchant for women and an obsession for ‘Liberty’ Hightower.
    Character Age
    40s
    Character Race/Ethnic Identity
    White
    Character Gender Identity
    Male

Development History

  • Type Reading, Organization Something Something Theatre Company, Year 2019
  • Type Reading, Organization Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette, Year 2017

Production History

  • Type Workshop, Organization Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette, Year 2020

Awards

  • Local Lab 14
    Local Theatre Company
    Semi-Finalist
    2025
  • Individual Artists Grant
    Indiana Arts Commission
    2020
  • 2020 Plays in Progress
    Athena Project
    Semi-Finalist
    2019
  • World Premiere Staged Reading of a New Play
    Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette
    Winner
    2017