Lisa Kenner Grissom

Lisa Kenner Grissom is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and musical book writer whose work explores dynamic social issues, often through a female lens. She’s known for creating multi-layered characters, exploring the complexity of human emotions, and finding levity in discomfort. Selected full-length plays include: HERE COMES THE NIGHT (Winner: Stage Raw Award for Best Two Character play; Semi-Finalist: The O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, BAPF, Princess Grace, American Blues Theater); FOUR CHAMBERS (Winner: Jean Kennedy Smith Award); MOTHERLAND (Finalist: Jewish Plays Project). She has been named a finalist for the Ashland New Play Festival, The O’Neill, The Lark, Playwrights’ Center, Princess Grace Fellowship, and The Heideman Award. A two-time O’Neill Kennedy Center...

Lisa Kenner Grissom is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and musical book writer whose work explores dynamic social issues, often through a female lens. She’s known for creating multi-layered characters, exploring the complexity of human emotions, and finding levity in discomfort. Selected full-length plays include: HERE COMES THE NIGHT (Winner: Stage Raw Award for Best Two Character play; Semi-Finalist: The O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, BAPF, Princess Grace, American Blues Theater); FOUR CHAMBERS (Winner: Jean Kennedy Smith Award); MOTHERLAND (Finalist: Jewish Plays Project). She has been named a finalist for the Ashland New Play Festival, The O’Neill, The Lark, Playwrights’ Center, Princess Grace Fellowship, and The Heideman Award. A two-time O’Neill Kennedy Center Fellow, Lisa’s work has been developed/ produced across the country. In addition to the Dramatist Guild and Playwrights Union, Lisa is a proud member of Maestra. Lisa is a graduate of Wesleyan University. lisakennergrissom.com

*None of the plays posted on this page may be performed, produced, reproduced, published, displayed, or copied without written permission of the author.*

Scripts

Here Comes The Night

by Lisa Kenner Grissom

Synopsis

Winner: Stage Raw Award for Best Two-Character Play; SheLA Award for Excellence in Writing
Semi-Finalist: O'Neill National Playwright Conference, American Blues Theatre, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Princess Grace Fellowship, Geffen Writer's Room.

Here Comes The Night is a 90-minute comedic drama about reproductive freedom, influencer culture, and female friendship in the digital age. When Olivia, a musician...

Winner: Stage Raw Award for Best Two-Character Play; SheLA Award for Excellence in Writing
Semi-Finalist: O'Neill National Playwright Conference, American Blues Theatre, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Princess Grace Fellowship, Geffen Writer's Room.

Here Comes The Night is a 90-minute comedic drama about reproductive freedom, influencer culture, and female friendship in the digital age. When Olivia, a musician’s wife and climate science advocate, invites Maggie, an aspiring social media influencer, to spend the weekend with her while she has an at-home medication abortion, she doesn’t realize that her old friend is going to throw her wildly off course. These women of different generations are about to alter each other’s lives in ways they hadn’t expected or imagined. What happens when a woman’s right to choose becomes a litmus test for all of her life choices?

INVISIBLE - A WORK IN PROGRESS

by Lisa Kenner Grissom

Synopsis

A theatrical fantasia about a woman grappling with her ever-changing identity after being diagnosed with an invisible chronic illness.

A theatrical fantasia about a woman grappling with her ever-changing identity after being diagnosed with an invisible chronic illness.

Motherland

by Lisa Kenner Grissom

Synopsis

2020 Finalist, Jewish Plays Project National Tour

MOTHERLAND is a generational family drama that follows Lizzie, who, after being away for several years following her father's death, returns home to recoup from a nervous breakdown. Lizzie believes she will be getting some R&R, but instead her aging Russian grandmother is anxious to share memories and asks Lizzie to help her “remember.” Meanwhile, her mother has...

2020 Finalist, Jewish Plays Project National Tour

MOTHERLAND is a generational family drama that follows Lizzie, who, after being away for several years following her father's death, returns home to recoup from a nervous breakdown. Lizzie believes she will be getting some R&R, but instead her aging Russian grandmother is anxious to share memories and asks Lizzie to help her “remember.” Meanwhile, her mother has struck up a friendship with Lizzie's former high school boyfriend, who moved back home as he deals with a divorce. Caught between her family's past and her uncertain future, Lizzie discovers secrets about her mother and grandmother, which force her to turn the mirror on herself.

Four Chambers

by Lisa Kenner Grissom

Synopsis

Finalist, The O'Neill National Playwright Conference
Finalist, The Lark Play Development Center
Finalist, WordBRIDGE
Semi-Finalist, Ashland New Play Festival
Semi-Finalist, PlayPenn

There’s no one way to grieve and Mari is determined to carve her own path. After her husband Daniel dies in a domestic terrorist incident, Mari plays cards with Daniel’s ghost, smokes pot, and shocks her fellow support groupies...

Finalist, The O'Neill National Playwright Conference
Finalist, The Lark Play Development Center
Finalist, WordBRIDGE
Semi-Finalist, Ashland New Play Festival
Semi-Finalist, PlayPenn

There’s no one way to grieve and Mari is determined to carve her own path. After her husband Daniel dies in a domestic terrorist incident, Mari plays cards with Daniel’s ghost, smokes pot, and shocks her fellow support groupies whenever possible. Mari refuses to let go of Daniel but her compartmentalized life starts to fray at the edges. What is the cost of holding on? Of letting go?

Building The Perfect Chair

by Lisa Kenner Grissom

Synopsis

Finalist, TruVoices Reading Series

Creative and romantic partners Connie and Theo are trying to start a design revolution and follow in the footsteps of their artistic muses, Charles and Ray Eames. When they move to New York after winning an award, they want to hit the ground running. But when old romantic entanglements and newly surfaced artistic differences get in the way, they will have to confront what it...

Finalist, TruVoices Reading Series

Creative and romantic partners Connie and Theo are trying to start a design revolution and follow in the footsteps of their artistic muses, Charles and Ray Eames. When they move to New York after winning an award, they want to hit the ground running. But when old romantic entanglements and newly surfaced artistic differences get in the way, they will have to confront what it means to build a perfect chair—or relationship. What sacrifices must they make to make either or both possible?

Tattoo You

by Lisa Kenner Grissom

Synopsis

2013 Winner of the National Ten Minute Play Award, KCACTF
2013 Winner of the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival.
Published by Samuel French.

When two women meet in the bathroom at their 20th high school reunion, their troubled past breaks the cool veneer of the present. Some scars don’t fade away.

2013 Winner of the National Ten Minute Play Award, KCACTF
2013 Winner of the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival.
Published by Samuel French.

When two women meet in the bathroom at their 20th high school reunion, their troubled past breaks the cool veneer of the present. Some scars don’t fade away.

Penelope's Roses

by Lisa Kenner Grissom

Synopsis

Finalist, Heideman Award, Actors Theatre of Louisville, 2015

When an ill-fated young couple hits the road to escape the dim prospects of their present life, their tenuous relationship grows frayed. Can they escape the dirt of the past?​ Is there hope for their future?

Finalist, Heideman Award, Actors Theatre of Louisville, 2015

When an ill-fated young couple hits the road to escape the dim prospects of their present life, their tenuous relationship grows frayed. Can they escape the dirt of the past?​ Is there hope for their future?

The Magic Car

by Lisa Kenner Grissom

Synopsis

A baseball game gone awry sets the stage for an elderly father and middle-aged son who must contend with shifting roles. Produced at Segerstrom Arts Center as part of The Car Plays by Moving Arts Theatre, Los Angeles.

A baseball game gone awry sets the stage for an elderly father and middle-aged son who must contend with shifting roles. Produced at Segerstrom Arts Center as part of The Car Plays by Moving Arts Theatre, Los Angeles.

Patch of Blue

by Lisa Kenner Grissom

Synopsis

Monologue published by Smith & Kraus

When a man visits a church not to pray, but to look at a beautiful stained glass window, the church sexton threatens his presence--and his access to the one place where he can find peace in a dangerous world.

Monologue published by Smith & Kraus

When a man visits a church not to pray, but to look at a beautiful stained glass window, the church sexton threatens his presence--and his access to the one place where he can find peace in a dangerous world.

Home Is A Four-Letter Word

by Lisa Kenner Grissom

Synopsis

Two women from very different worlds collide on a lonely night in a changing city...can they find a way to connect?

Two women from very different worlds collide on a lonely night in a changing city...can they find a way to connect?

Missed Connections

by Lisa Kenner Grissom

Synopsis

When former college “friends with benefits” reunite years later at an airport bar, the past melts into the present like ice cubes in a cocktail glass.

When former college “friends with benefits” reunite years later at an airport bar, the past melts into the present like ice cubes in a cocktail glass.