THE PRINCESS AND THE PINUP

by Brent Alles

(Full length play, two acts.) It's 1944 in Brooklyn, and while World War II rages overseas, back on the homefront, aspiring artist May Macy wants to break into the comic strip business. Her sister Ellen has a husband who's fighting in Europe. Ellen has a precocious 12-year-old son, Billy, who serves as May's latest inspiration. May's hoping her reporter friend Johnny Foster will be able to convince his boss Mr...

(Full length play, two acts.) It's 1944 in Brooklyn, and while World War II rages overseas, back on the homefront, aspiring artist May Macy wants to break into the comic strip business. Her sister Ellen has a husband who's fighting in Europe. Ellen has a precocious 12-year-old son, Billy, who serves as May's latest inspiration. May's hoping her reporter friend Johnny Foster will be able to convince his boss Mr. Patson to give her comic strip a chance in his paper, the New York Daily Post. Then, one fateful day, aspiring pinup Betty Bump storms into May's life and changes everything.

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THE PRINCESS AND THE PINUP

Recommended by

  • Aly Kantor: THE PRINCESS AND THE PINUP by Brent Alles
    “

    This script is subtly seeped in history, creating a vibrant theatrical world full of picture shows and bazooka bubble gum... and the action all takes place in one room! Stunningly intimate yet brazenly theatrical, this almost-love story is full of colorful, (mostly) lovable characters grounded in their time period. Both progressive but realistic given the climate, I still found myself rooting for these lovers and hoping for a better ending! Funny, tense at the right moments, and lots of fun!

    This script is subtly seeped in history, creating a vibrant theatrical world full of picture shows and bazooka bubble gum... and the action all takes place in one room! Stunningly intimate yet brazenly theatrical, this almost-love story is full of colorful, (mostly) lovable characters grounded in their time period. Both progressive but realistic given the climate, I still found myself rooting for these lovers and hoping for a better ending! Funny, tense at the right moments, and lots of fun!

    ”
  • Wendy Vogel: THE PRINCESS AND THE PINUP by Brent Alles
    “

    What a great show! Perfectly set in the middle of WWII, there's nostalgia for those early days of comic strips. There's love here, and loss, and fury and unfairness, and in the end, some hope for a future we know probably won't happen for two of our characters, but maybe the glimmer is enough. This would show well on almost any stage, from a good quality community theater to professional level. So much to love here.

    What a great show! Perfectly set in the middle of WWII, there's nostalgia for those early days of comic strips. There's love here, and loss, and fury and unfairness, and in the end, some hope for a future we know probably won't happen for two of our characters, but maybe the glimmer is enough. This would show well on almost any stage, from a good quality community theater to professional level. So much to love here.

    ”

Character Information

  • ELIZABETH "BETTY" BUMP (also MISS TYQUE)
    26-year-old woman who has come to the big city to be an actress but has not had much success so far. Her figure has led to her doing “artistic” work like she does for May. She is down to earth and rather libertine. She serves as the inspiration for “MISS TYQUE” and becomes her in the dream world of the comic strips that is depicted on stage.
    20's (written as 26 in the play)
    (assigned female at birth - plot relevant) Female
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      20s
    • Actor Gender Identity
      Female
  • MAY (TANQUE) MACY (also PRINCESS MAYSIE)
    26-year-old woman living on her own in NYC. She attended the prestigious Kirby Art Institute in Brooklyn, NY, working as a model to help pay her way through school as both her parents are deceased. She is now trying to break into the art world, and her latest foray is trying to make a successful newspaper comic strip. She is feisty and independent and yet sometimes unsure of what she really wants. In the “dream world” of the comic strips she draws (that is portrayed on stage from time to time), she is PRINCESS MAYSIE, a beautiful, kind, and surprisingly tough ruler of a fictional small European country named “Maysieland.”
    20's (written as 26 in the play)
    Any Race/Ethnicity
    (assigned female at birth - plot relevant) Female
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      20s
    • Actor Gender Identity
      Female
  • ELLEN (MACY) BARAVE (also EVIL ELLENA)
    May’s 34-year-old sister who is raising a young boy, Billy, while his father is away in the war. She is more conservative than May and worries about May living on her own. She also takes on the part of “EVIL ELLENA,” a haughty Eastern European villainess, in the “dream world” of the comic strips.
    30's (written as 34 in the play)
    (assigned female at birth - plot relevant) Female
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      30s
    • Actor Gender Identity
      Female
  • BILLY BARAVE (also BILLY THE BOY WONDER)
    12-year-old son of Ellen and nephew of May. He provides inspiration to May to create a comic strip of “Billy the Wonder Boy” that she hopes will sell. He becomes that “BOY WONDER” in the “dream world” of the comic strips.
    12
    (assigned male at birth - plot relevant)
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      Child,
      Teens
    • Actor Gender Identity
      Male
  • JOHNNY FOSTER (also JOHANN KRAMER)
    32-year-old man who works in NYC as a reporter for the New York Daily Post. He tried to join the Army after Pearl Harbor but was ruled “4-F,” physically unfit for service. This eats at him and makes him feel like “less a man,” for which he tries to compensate by putting on a “manly” act all the time. He is perhaps slender but still wiry and muscular. He is friends with May but wants to be more than friends. He also takes on the role of the evil German “JOHANN KRAMER” in the dream world of the comic strips.
    30's (written as 32 in the play)
    (assigned male at birth - plot relevant)
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      30s
    • Actor Gender Identity
      Male
  • ROBERT PATSON (also THE IRON CLAW)
    Gruff 63-year-old publisher of the New York Daily Post, a tabloid newspaper. He becomes the villainous “IRON CLAW” in the dream world of the comic strips.
    60's (written as 63 in the play)
    (assigned male at birth - plot relevant)
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      60s
    • Actor Gender Identity
      Male

Development History

  • Reading, States of Play, 2024