The Violet Sisters

by Gina Femia

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Pam comes home to Brooklyn to attend her father’s funeral. When she arrives, she is greeted by an angry sister, a dilapidated house and a past that she can’t escape. Despite all of her best intentions, the conversation quickly turns tense and the two sisters are forced to deal with all that they have let slip away, all the words that have been left unsaid for years. A two-person...

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Pam comes home to Brooklyn to attend her father’s funeral. When she arrives, she is greeted by an angry sister, a dilapidated house and a past that she can’t escape. Despite all of her best intentions, the conversation quickly turns tense and the two sisters are forced to deal with all that they have let slip away, all the words that have been left unsaid for years. A two-person, one set, real time play, The Violet Sisters is a play about forgiving when you cannot bring yourself to forget.

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The Violet Sisters

Recommended by

  • Heather Helinsky: The Violet Sisters

    I first encountered this play as the guest selector at GPTC in 2016, and this two-character play had deep emotional impact on audiences. I was thrilled to dramaturg it in a virtual reading at New Harmony in 2021, further confirmation of this play's solid storytelling of the complicated way two sisters handle grief differently in the wake of Hurricane Sandy's devastation. There are layers of muddy sediment in the relationship between the sisters, as their traumas resurface. Gina knows this neighborhood and renders it so we don't forget the tough women who survived not just Sandy, but other...

    I first encountered this play as the guest selector at GPTC in 2016, and this two-character play had deep emotional impact on audiences. I was thrilled to dramaturg it in a virtual reading at New Harmony in 2021, further confirmation of this play's solid storytelling of the complicated way two sisters handle grief differently in the wake of Hurricane Sandy's devastation. There are layers of muddy sediment in the relationship between the sisters, as their traumas resurface. Gina knows this neighborhood and renders it so we don't forget the tough women who survived not just Sandy, but other emotional storms.

  • Melissa Schmitz: The Violet Sisters

    THE VIOLET SISTERS by Gina Femia is a play I still think about even though I read it a few years ago. If you want a two-hander with strong female leads, suspense, dynamic characters that actors can really sink their teeth into, realistic dialog, and a play about family, look no further. Highly highly recommend.

    THE VIOLET SISTERS by Gina Femia is a play I still think about even though I read it a few years ago. If you want a two-hander with strong female leads, suspense, dynamic characters that actors can really sink their teeth into, realistic dialog, and a play about family, look no further. Highly highly recommend.

  • Alexa Rowe: The Violet Sisters

    This beautiful play tells a dynamic story of two sisters so powerfully in its deeply rooted realism and intensely thrusts us into such a claustrophobic world of the duo at the heart of the story.

    This beautiful play tells a dynamic story of two sisters so powerfully in its deeply rooted realism and intensely thrusts us into such a claustrophobic world of the duo at the heart of the story.

View all 43 recommendations

Character Information

Sam: Female, mid-30s. A true Brooklynite through and through, she’s lived there and hasn’t left her whole life. Tough and sarcastic, deeply hurt and vulnerable.

Pam: Female, early 30s. Very LA. Professional, efficient, sharp in tone and demeanor. Driven, tough.
  • Sam
    A true Brooklynite through and through, she’s lived there and hasn’t left her whole life. Tough and sarcastic, deeply hurt and vulnerable.
    Character Age
    mid-30s
    Character Race/Ethnic Identity
    Any
    Character Gender Identity
    Female
  • Pam
    Very LA. Professional, efficient, sharp in tone and demeanor. Driven, tough.
    Character Age
    early 30s
    Character Race/Ethnic Identity
    Any
    Character Gender Identity
    Female

Development History

  • Type Workshop, Organization The Playwrights Center, Year 2025
  • Type Workshop, Organization Page 72, Year 2024
  • Type Reading, Organization Cape Cod Theater Project, Year 2022
  • Type Workshop, Organization Playwrights Center, Year 2020
  • Type Reading, Organization Project Y Theatre, Year 2019
  • Type Reading, Organization Women's Theatre Festival of North Carolina, Year 2018
  • Type Reading, Organization Best of Occupy The Space, Women's Festival , Year 2018
  • Type Reading, Organization Urbanite Theatre's Modern Works Festival, Year 2018
  • Type Reading, Organization The Bridge Initiative, Year 2018
  • Type Reading, Organization The Lark, Year 2017
  • Type Reading, Organization Great Plains Theatre Conference, Year 2016
  • Type Reading, Organization Lather, Rinse, Repeat: A Playwright's Collective, Year 2015
  • Type Reading, Organization New York Madness, Year 2015

Production History

  • Type University, Organization Emory College, Year 2019
  • Type University, Organization Middlebury College, Year 2018

Awards

  • Modern Works
    The Urbanite
    Finalist
    2018
  • Artemisia Playwrights Festival
    Finalist
    2018
  • SPACE on Ryder Farm
    Semi-Finalist
    2017
  • Panndora's Box
    Finalist
    2015
  • NEWvember
    Finalist
    2015