maguire wilder

maguire wilder is a playwright, screenwriter, and game designer from Atlanta, Georgia. Her work interrogates the thin line between femininity and masculinity and often draws from real events or phenomena. Her plays have been seen at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Kings Head Theatre, Spark Theatre Festival, Bernie Grant Arts Center, the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, Playwrights Horizons Downtown, Theaterlab NYC, and digitally at LimeArts Theatre and Little & Fierce Theatre Company. She’s received support from the Sewanee Writers Conference, Fresh Ground Pepper, and The Bechdel Project. Her plays have been a finalist for the Papatango Prize, Pipeline’s PlayLab, and the Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series. Her screenplay Breaking Ball was a second-round finalist at the Austin Film Festival...

maguire wilder is a playwright, screenwriter, and game designer from Atlanta, Georgia. Her work interrogates the thin line between femininity and masculinity and often draws from real events or phenomena. Her plays have been seen at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Kings Head Theatre, Spark Theatre Festival, Bernie Grant Arts Center, the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, Playwrights Horizons Downtown, Theaterlab NYC, and digitally at LimeArts Theatre and Little & Fierce Theatre Company. She’s received support from the Sewanee Writers Conference, Fresh Ground Pepper, and The Bechdel Project. Her plays have been a finalist for the Papatango Prize, Pipeline’s PlayLab, and the Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series. Her screenplay Breaking Ball was a second-round finalist at the Austin Film Festival 2025.

Her play 4 girls the first letter e won the FringeBiscuit Trends Award at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival received 4 stars in The Scotsman and was described by critics as “dark, elusive, and powerful” (Lexical Lunacy), “masterfully nuanced” (Fringe Biscuit), and “a revelation” (Binge Fringe).

maguire holds a BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch and an MSt in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is currently an MFA Dramatic Writing candidate at Carnegie Mellon University. maguirewilder.com / missingribcollective.com

Scripts

The Gettysburg Test

by maguire wilder

Synopsis

It’s the night before the Gettysburg test, the 3-hour test required to become a Licensed Gettysburg Battlefield Guide, the 3-hour test that 90% of takers will fail. When five hopefuls gather in the basement of a local community center to cram, tensions build as they grapple with the minutia of the Civil War, the complexity of history, and how to love and hate something at the same time.

It’s the night before the Gettysburg test, the 3-hour test required to become a Licensed Gettysburg Battlefield Guide, the 3-hour test that 90% of takers will fail. When five hopefuls gather in the basement of a local community center to cram, tensions build as they grapple with the minutia of the Civil War, the complexity of history, and how to love and hate something at the same time.

involuntary celibate

by maguire wilder

Synopsis

It’s 2014 and Ellie, Wyatt, Micah, Benjamin, and Gabriel are virgins. When the five connect on a virtual chatroom, they rely on each other to get their relationship questions answered. How many times is too many times to text someone in a row? What do girls prefer you call their boobs? What even is attraction? Inspired by the real origin of the word ‘incel,’ involuntary celibate looks at the complexity of desire...

It’s 2014 and Ellie, Wyatt, Micah, Benjamin, and Gabriel are virgins. When the five connect on a virtual chatroom, they rely on each other to get their relationship questions answered. How many times is too many times to text someone in a row? What do girls prefer you call their boobs? What even is attraction? Inspired by the real origin of the word ‘incel,’ involuntary celibate looks at the complexity of desire, sex, and connection and asks: how do we save ourselves in the face of hatred?

barnburner. (ONE ACT)

by maguire wilder

Synopsis

The doctors told Anna 'Slip' Greede that she should never box again.
Well, that just simply won't do.
When Anna gathers her friends together for one final night in the ring, she - and her community - grapple with how to handle their ever changing bodies.

The doctors told Anna 'Slip' Greede that she should never box again.
Well, that just simply won't do.
When Anna gathers her friends together for one final night in the ring, she - and her community - grapple with how to handle their ever changing bodies.

4 girls the first letter e

by maguire wilder

Synopsis

It starts in an alley. It starts with four girls and a video game. 

It ends with three girls and a video game and a blood-stained cobblestone. 

Evie and her friends are obsessed with the video-game world of The King, a frighteningly tall, spider-like man. They play every night over the course of one summer, gathering to play the game and spend time without the watchful eyes of parents or guardians, or so they...

It starts in an alley. It starts with four girls and a video game. 

It ends with three girls and a video game and a blood-stained cobblestone. 

Evie and her friends are obsessed with the video-game world of The King, a frighteningly tall, spider-like man. They play every night over the course of one summer, gathering to play the game and spend time without the watchful eyes of parents or guardians, or so they think. We watch the girls play, and it becomes clear that, for Evie, the line between gameplay and reality has started to blur. When it turns out they haven’t been alone after all, a story that begins with standard tween-girl hijinks quickly devolves into something sinister, as the girls learn the truth about the darkness behind winning the game and the reality of the world around them. 

Anatomy of a Racecar

by maguire wilder

Synopsis

Rosie wants to race, but her father won’t let her drive. He sits on the couch all day, watching her mother race, while Rosie secretly builds a car with the help of her trusty pit crew, the Spice Girls. An experimental play/ballet about grief, girlhood, and finding your own way.

Rosie wants to race, but her father won’t let her drive. He sits on the couch all day, watching her mother race, while Rosie secretly builds a car with the help of her trusty pit crew, the Spice Girls. An experimental play/ballet about grief, girlhood, and finding your own way.

this is how a fire spreads

by maguire wilder

Synopsis

a three part poem. A relieves moments of joy with the women in her family, women who died in fires. Lucy and Lily find two jars of ashes in their attic. A confronts her daughters. What's left when all that remains is a pile of ashes and a lit match?

a three part poem. A relieves moments of joy with the women in her family, women who died in fires. Lucy and Lily find two jars of ashes in their attic. A confronts her daughters. What's left when all that remains is a pile of ashes and a lit match?

The Things We Pull Up (out of the ground) or at night by the river in the daytime

by maguire wilder

Synopsis

15 years ago, things stopped growing. ana and alice danced by the river until alice's sister, abi, fell in.

today, ana and her daughter, ava, are trying to survive. ava dreams of growing something in the field when a girl walks out of the river. the two of them begin to grow together.

when the girl from the river turns out to be abi, ana is forced to confront both her past and her daughter for the first time...

15 years ago, things stopped growing. ana and alice danced by the river until alice's sister, abi, fell in.

today, ana and her daughter, ava, are trying to survive. ava dreams of growing something in the field when a girl walks out of the river. the two of them begin to grow together.

when the girl from the river turns out to be abi, ana is forced to confront both her past and her daughter for the first time.

RaTs:SubwaySongsandStories

by maguire wilder

Synopsis

Rats love to fuck. the MTA loves to kill (and sterilize) them. When Rat Princess and Tabby Cat the Sewer Rat get stuck in a trap on their way to Brooklyn, they must find their way out, or die in there.

Rats love to fuck. the MTA loves to kill (and sterilize) them. When Rat Princess and Tabby Cat the Sewer Rat get stuck in a trap on their way to Brooklyn, they must find their way out, or die in there.

The Birthday Cake Play, or How to Grow Up, or How to Digest

by maguire wilder

Synopsis

every stormy day, 2 girls visit a treehouse. life happens outside. they come here to digest it. the storm gets stronger. girls become girls become girls become women. how do we grow up, how do we cope with coping, how on earth do they eat all of that cake, and what happens when the storm that's always been there knocks on their door?

every stormy day, 2 girls visit a treehouse. life happens outside. they come here to digest it. the storm gets stronger. girls become girls become girls become women. how do we grow up, how do we cope with coping, how on earth do they eat all of that cake, and what happens when the storm that's always been there knocks on their door?