The Susan B. Anthony College of Motherhood Arts and Sciences, or Maybelline

by Sam Heyman

ONE ACT, HOUR-LONG: Maybelline Applegate is the coolest girl in school. At least, that's what her best friends Colleen and Patricia think. Her not-quite-fellow classmates find her insufferable, if occasionally intriguing, her professors don't quite know what to do with her, and her school's headmistress, Wilhelmina Crotchkey, seems intent on keeping her from attracting too much attention to the school, lest the...

ONE ACT, HOUR-LONG: Maybelline Applegate is the coolest girl in school. At least, that's what her best friends Colleen and Patricia think. Her not-quite-fellow classmates find her insufferable, if occasionally intriguing, her professors don't quite know what to do with her, and her school's headmistress, Wilhelmina Crotchkey, seems intent on keeping her from attracting too much attention to the school, lest the institution garner a less than savory reputation.

The Susan B. Anthony College of Motherhood Arts and Sciences is an all girls school designed for the training and rearing of child-rearers, child-bearers, midwives and caretakers of all kinds. It's no place for a budding intellectual like Maybelline, who was raised to love the forbidden fruits of literature--but then, neither, too, is the world at large, which looms menacingly just beyond the school's walls.

A brief glimpse into an imagined alternate reality where the gender binary is not only strictly policed but institutionally reinforced, "Maybelline" tells the story of a young, radical Midwifery major and her efforts to carve out a place for women's minds in a world that devalues and denigrates them at every turn. It is an as-yet unfinished play, either needing another act or another storytelling medium to explore its world fully.

DRAFT UNDER CONSTRUCTION AS OF 12/08/22 - Contact me if you're interested in reading the new draft!

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The Susan B. Anthony College of Motherhood Arts and Sciences, or Maybelline

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  • Jacquelyn Floyd-Priskorn: The Susan B. Anthony College of Motherhood Arts and Sciences, or Maybelline by Sam Heyman
    “

    This is an epic world, created by Heyman. A world that we fear we are hurtling toward, definitely don't want to live in, but I am dying to learn more about. This feels like a great hook of a pilot episode, for those of us who are fans of The Handmaid's Tale. But this is almost scarier, because the misogyny is disguised in what women crave, education. Getting degrees in Motherhood, classes on Bedtime Negotiations. It's hilarious from an audience perspective. But soon we see the horrors from the characters perspective. This is a brilliant piece. I want more!

    This is an epic world, created by Heyman. A world that we fear we are hurtling toward, definitely don't want to live in, but I am dying to learn more about. This feels like a great hook of a pilot episode, for those of us who are fans of The Handmaid's Tale. But this is almost scarier, because the misogyny is disguised in what women crave, education. Getting degrees in Motherhood, classes on Bedtime Negotiations. It's hilarious from an audience perspective. But soon we see the horrors from the characters perspective. This is a brilliant piece. I want more!

    ”
  • Brian Dang: The Susan B. Anthony College of Motherhood Arts and Sciences, or Maybelline by Sam Heyman
    “

    AU where gender's slimy hands tightened their grip on the world. A speculative horror chock full of fun teenage angst, cause for screaming in rage, and secret stapled manuscripts of Virginia Woolf and José Esteban Muñoz. Looking forward to seeing how this piece builds from this glimpse.

    AU where gender's slimy hands tightened their grip on the world. A speculative horror chock full of fun teenage angst, cause for screaming in rage, and secret stapled manuscripts of Virginia Woolf and José Esteban Muñoz. Looking forward to seeing how this piece builds from this glimpse.

    ”
Race and gender are greatly at play in this story, and the dystopian world in which the play is set strongly emphasizes prejudice based on race among its denizens, even while attempting to scrub out the markers of difference in characters names. Casting should be sensitive to the character information shared below, but not necessarily beholden to every specific detail. Where possible, recruit actors who fit these descriptions.

MAYBELLINE APPLEGATE, SBA Sophomore - AFAB nonbinary, indigenous descent (18-21)

WILHELMINA CROTCHKEY, SBA Headmistress - white, cis woman (50s-60s)

DR. EVANGELINE CARTER, SBA Professor of Bedroom Dynamics - white, cis woman (30s)

COLLEEN GLYNNDALE, SBA Sophomore - white, cis woman Irish descent, Catholic (18-21)

PATRICIA PLUMFARB, SBA Junior - African-American, genderqueer, Jewish (18-21)

AUGUSTA BANTERBEE, SBA Sophomore - Italian-American, cis woman (18-21)

SANDRA SUMPLEMAN, SBA Junior - Latin American, cis woman (18-21)

CORA LEVIN, SBA First Year - Japanese, bilingual, cis woman (18-21)

LESLIE CARTER-LINCOLN, RWE Headmaster - white, cis man (30s)

Masked Women and Veiled Women can be doubled among actors not on stage during scenes in which they appear; these roles can be divided up at the director's discretion.