Cassie Strickland Is Not Under the Bed by Vince Gatton

[SHORT] Bed-bound Clay calls a friend for help.

*****This is one of a set of related plays, varying in length, genre, style, and setting but all connected in some way to a central, singular event. These plays each stand alone, so there’s no need to have read one to understand the others; but if you’re so inclined, the short pieces can be read together in the anthology The Thing That Happened,...
[SHORT] Bed-bound Clay calls a friend for help.

*****This is one of a set of related plays, varying in length, genre, style, and setting but all connected in some way to a central, singular event. These plays each stand alone, so there’s no need to have read one to understand the others; but if you’re so inclined, the short pieces can be read together in the anthology The Thing That Happened, along with the companion full-length You Have Earned Bonus Stars.

• JAM [One Act]
• Status Update [Short]
• Cassie Strickland Is Not Under the Bed [Short]
• Things Are Looking Up [Short]
• She’s Blown Away [Short]
• Janmadin [One Act]

• You Have Earned Bonus Stars [Full Length]
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Cassie Strickland Is Not Under the Bed

Recommended by

  • Jillian Blevins:
    29 Oct. 2023
    “ Someone used Clay’s gun to do a bad thing. Now he needs the gun to protect himself from the forces that want him to pay (both human and decidedly not). CASSIE STRICKLAND… is part of Gatton’s broader storyline about gun violence and its impacts; the depth of the world-building, character backstory, and blanks left to be filled in makes this parable about guilt and responsibility stand on its own, and stand out from similar ten-minute plays. ”
  • Michael C. O'Day:
    28 Oct. 2023
    “ The problem with recommending this play, and saying that it's got one of the all-time great jump scares, is that it's selling the piece short. CASSIE STRICKLAND is also a masterful depiction of American masculinity, gun culture, small-town dynamics, and survivor guilt, and to say one more word about Gatton's accomplishment is to rob it of its sinister power. (But yeah, it's got one of the all-time great jump scares.) ”
  • Jacquelyn Floyd-Priskorn:
    17 Oct. 2023
    “ I was so drawn in to this story. I needed to know WHY Clay was stuck in bed. I needed to know IF there was something under the bed. And I needed to know how to truly feel as the back story was slowly revealed. Eerie and tragic. ”
View all 22 recommendations

***Casting Requirements contain spoilers***
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The two main characters can be played by adult men of any ethnicity. Ideally CLAY would be played by a man of larger build.

And now the SPOILER: There is also a small non-speaking role at the very end, to be played by a girl roughly 4 - 9 years old.

Production History

  • Professional
    ,
    New Ambassadors Theater Company, NYC
    ,
    2023

Awards

Winner
,
Two-Hander Slam
,
Craig Houk
,
2021