Hold Steady

by Tira Palmquist

It's the weekend of a high school ten-year reunion, and a group of friends gathers. But it's hard to feel like there's much to celebrate when they're saddled with debt, concerned about their current choices, worried about their future. Seeing their friends reminds them who they thought they'd be, and how far they have to go to get there.

It's the weekend of a high school ten-year reunion, and a group of friends gathers. But it's hard to feel like there's much to celebrate when they're saddled with debt, concerned about their current choices, worried about their future. Seeing their friends reminds them who they thought they'd be, and how far they have to go to get there.

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Hold Steady

Recommended by

  • Cheryl Bear: Hold Steady by Tira Palmquist
    “

    A relatable play that captures the fears and growing concerns of a group of millennials. The economic insecurity, the goals and the trajectory to get there. Well done.

    A relatable play that captures the fears and growing concerns of a group of millennials. The economic insecurity, the goals and the trajectory to get there. Well done.

    ”
  • Nick Malakhow: Hold Steady by Tira Palmquist
    “

    HOLD STEADY captures the fears and realities--economic and personal--of millennials with an astutely drawn collection of diverse characters. The room for gender flexibility among the characters is also very well done! Many plays marked as "identity neutral" are still coded as cis-het-white. In this play, however, Palmquist has created genuinely flexible characters whose interactions and relationships would take on believable, fascinating, and nuanced layers depending on casting. The easy to read dialogue is also funny and human.

    HOLD STEADY captures the fears and realities--economic and personal--of millennials with an astutely drawn collection of diverse characters. The room for gender flexibility among the characters is also very well done! Many plays marked as "identity neutral" are still coded as cis-het-white. In this play, however, Palmquist has created genuinely flexible characters whose interactions and relationships would take on believable, fascinating, and nuanced layers depending on casting. The easy to read dialogue is also funny and human.

    ”
  • David Hansen: Hold Steady by Tira Palmquist
    “

    I love this play. Palmquist has created a Millennial friend group that is a modern, diverse collection of sympathetic characters … well, except for Quinn (what is it with people whose names begin with Q?) It's a fascinating and vivid weekend gathering, ripe with real world dialogue and situations reminiscent of my twenty-something colleagues. This should be produced everywhere.

    I love this play. Palmquist has created a Millennial friend group that is a modern, diverse collection of sympathetic characters … well, except for Quinn (what is it with people whose names begin with Q?) It's a fascinating and vivid weekend gathering, ripe with real world dialogue and situations reminiscent of my twenty-something colleagues. This should be produced everywhere.

    ”
This play was originally written for a group of eight MFA actors -- four men, four women -- but all character names were chosen deliberately to be gender neutral to accommodate a number of casting options. The script uses he/him/his and she/her/hers pronouns to reflect the original cast, but you should substitute the pronouns that reflect your show's casting, including non-binary gender and gender fluid casting and the pronouns those actors use.

Development History

  • Workshop, UC Irvine, Faculty-directed workshop (dir: Eli Simon), 2019

Awards