How Should A Conversation Be?

by Malena Pennycook

Terry and Kati live in Denver. It was love from the moment they met at Very Gay Beans Cafe. The trouble is
Five years have passed
Now ten
Now fifteen
and time just keeps moving faster and faster.
When a tragedy takes place several miles from their home, Terry and Kati are finally forced to slow down to ask each other, how should a conversation be? That is, how can we...

Terry and Kati live in Denver. It was love from the moment they met at Very Gay Beans Cafe. The trouble is
Five years have passed
Now ten
Now fifteen
and time just keeps moving faster and faster.
When a tragedy takes place several miles from their home, Terry and Kati are finally forced to slow down to ask each other, how should a conversation be? That is, how can we establish a profound connection, which feels distinctly available after an act of violence, in our day to day?

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How Should A Conversation Be?

Recommended by

  • Katie Bender: How Should A Conversation Be?

    This play has huge velocity. It is a powerful compacted theatrical piece that takes all the moments of a shared relationship; from the mundane to the extraordinary, and compacts them into a shiny jewel of a play. Pennycook gives so much space for the actors, directors, designers to fill in the details of the world. While giving the audience a sweet, funny, scary, human look at love, trauma, and the very human desire to build connections and a life with loved ones. Produce this play, I'd love to see it onstage.

    This play has huge velocity. It is a powerful compacted theatrical piece that takes all the moments of a shared relationship; from the mundane to the extraordinary, and compacts them into a shiny jewel of a play. Pennycook gives so much space for the actors, directors, designers to fill in the details of the world. While giving the audience a sweet, funny, scary, human look at love, trauma, and the very human desire to build connections and a life with loved ones. Produce this play, I'd love to see it onstage.

  • Sarah Saltwick: How Should A Conversation Be?

    A play that moves quick, specific, and big. These characters feel so alive and finely tuned and it is invigorating to go on the journey of their relationship with them. Each beat is rich and resonate. What an exciting text to bring alive.

    A play that moves quick, specific, and big. These characters feel so alive and finely tuned and it is invigorating to go on the journey of their relationship with them. Each beat is rich and resonate. What an exciting text to bring alive.

  • Jenny Connell Davis: How Should A Conversation Be?

    Pennycook notes that the play should be performed like it's a speeding train and that's what the play feels like...if a speeding train were heart-wrenchingly on-point about relationships and love and the passage of time and the fragility of the body and the beauty of finding your person and making a whole messy, fucked-up, imperfectly wonderful life with them.

    It moves, and it's moving.

    Pennycook notes that the play should be performed like it's a speeding train and that's what the play feels like...if a speeding train were heart-wrenchingly on-point about relationships and love and the passage of time and the fragility of the body and the beauty of finding your person and making a whole messy, fucked-up, imperfectly wonderful life with them.

    It moves, and it's moving.

View all 4 recommendations

Development History

  • Type Workshop, Organization Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series , Year 2024
  • Type Workshop, Organization Playwrights Center Core Apprentice Program , Year 2024
  • Type Reading, Organization University of Texas at Austin , Year 2023

Awards