The Marginals by Kate Brennan

In a world of superhuman strength, flying and time travel, it’s hard not to feel inadequate when all you can do is make grass grow 5% faster. The School for the Marginally Magical helps the…less amazing students reach their potential, whatever it may be. When a new student immigrates to school bringing more art than practical magic, the world turns inside out. Will the students’ marginal abilities be enough to...
In a world of superhuman strength, flying and time travel, it’s hard not to feel inadequate when all you can do is make grass grow 5% faster. The School for the Marginally Magical helps the…less amazing students reach their potential, whatever it may be. When a new student immigrates to school bringing more art than practical magic, the world turns inside out. Will the students’ marginal abilities be enough to save their classmates from a horticultural nightmare, or has this stranger exposed them to a deeper shade of magic that is part of their very nature?

SAVED BY THE BELL meets THE OWL HOUSE in this offbeat genderless take on how growing up in the margins doesn’t mean you can’t become something extraordinary.
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The Marginals

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Character Information

All characters are genderless. There are 12 named characters and the possibility of an ensemble of 4 to 12 more with musical, dance, movement, puppetry, acrobatics, or some other special skill.

Characters and the actors who play them can be any race/identity/gender/orientation. Ze, Zer, Zers are the pronouns of the play. All characters appear between the ages of 16-21. When characters are first introduced in the text, it is poetic, not literal.

Laney does Art Abandonment (abbreviated as AA) throughout the play. Art Abandonment is a real art experiment in which people from around the world create art of all kinds and abandon it with kind notes for strangers to find.

  • LANEY
    teens,
    Any
    ,
    Any
    new to school, expressive, can make people sneeze
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      Teens, 20s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Any gender
  • D'NAY
    teens,
    Any
    ,
    Any
    student body president, used to dance, can move time forward or backward 3 seconds
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      Teens, 20s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Any gender
  • HALE
    teens,
    Any
    ,
    Any
    62 year old professor, erudite, good-humored, perpetually looks 17
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      Teens, 20s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Any gender
  • VEN
    teens,
    Any
    ,
    Any
    has a heart of gold, looks like a different person every day
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      Teens, 20s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Any gender
  • VEN2
    teens,
    Any
    ,
    Any
    Ven on another day
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      Teens, 20s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Any gender
  • VEN3
    teens,
    Any
    ,
    Any
    Ven on another day
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      Teens, 20s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Any gender
  • CRUX
    teens,
    Any
    ,
    Any
    a good friend, but distant, from a family of fly-ers, claims to hover 5 millimeters
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      Teens, 20s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Any gender
  • FITZROW
    teens,
    Any
    ,
    Any
    goes with the flow, can zoom from one destination to another, but can never choose where
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      Teens, 20s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Any gender
  • TRUNE
    teens,
    Any
    ,
    Any
    straightforward, D’Nay’s second in command, can make people forget what they are about to say
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      Teens, 20s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Any gender
  • GRAYNE
    teens,
    Any
    ,
    Any
    woke enough to need a nap, can smell big emotions
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      Teens, 20s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Any gender
  • KELTON
    teens,
    Any
    ,
    Any
    has the other half of Grayne’s friendship necklace, loves a good idiom, can make people 20% sleepier
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      Teens, 20s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Any gender
  • CHARTREUSE
    teens,
    Any
    ,
    Any
    a jaded unicorn, inherently artistic, can make everything…chartreuse
    Can be played by:
    • Age: 
      Teens, 20s
    • Race/Ethnicity: 
      Any race/ethnicity
    • Gender: 
      Any gender

Development History

  • Reading
    ,
    York College
    ,
    2023
  • Reading
    ,
    Ignition Arts
    ,
    2022

Awards

Finalist
,
Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival
,
2023