KJ Moran Velz

KJ Moran Velz is a New England-grown playwright, librettist, critic, and educator now based in Alexandria, Virginia. Primarily a writer, her work has been performed at the Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Imagination Stage, Flying V, Rorschach Theatre, Adventure Theatre MTC, and Theater Alliance. In Summer 2023, she was chosen to be a Librettist in Alliance for New Music Theatre’s Composer-Librettist Studio. Moran Velz studied Spanish and Theater and Performance Studies at Georgetown University, where she first fell in love with playwriting and her wife, director Aria Velz. When not in a theatre or classroom, she enjoys spending time at home with her wife, dog, and two silly cats.

KJ Moran Velz is a New England-grown playwright, librettist, critic, and educator now based in Alexandria, Virginia. Primarily a writer, her work has been performed at the Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Imagination Stage, Flying V, Rorschach Theatre, Adventure Theatre MTC, and Theater Alliance. In Summer 2023, she was chosen to be a Librettist in Alliance for New Music Theatre’s Composer-Librettist Studio. Moran Velz studied Spanish and Theater and Performance Studies at Georgetown University, where she first fell in love with playwriting and her wife, director Aria Velz. When not in a theatre or classroom, she enjoys spending time at home with her wife, dog, and two silly cats.

Scripts

Mother Mary

by KJ Moran Velz

Cast Size
2
Genre
comedy,
docudrama/historic,
drama,
romantic comedy

1968 Boston. Jo Cruz - a butch lesbian taxi driver from Puerto Rico - finds herself smitten with Mary O’Sullivan, a school teacher with a boyfriend and an overbearing Irish mother. Connected through a sense of loneliness and a shared lineage of islands under Catholic and colonial rule, Jo and Mary fall into deep friendship before taking a road trip that will change both their lives. It will become a pilgrimage...

1968 Boston. Jo Cruz - a butch lesbian taxi driver from Puerto Rico - finds herself smitten with Mary O’Sullivan, a school teacher with a boyfriend and an overbearing Irish mother. Connected through a sense of loneliness and a shared lineage of islands under Catholic and colonial rule, Jo and Mary fall into deep friendship before taking a road trip that will change both their lives. It will become a pilgrimage to get Mary the lifesaving healthcare she needs with dedicated Jo taking her for the ride.

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Maple

by KJ Moran Velz

Cast Size
4
Genre
fable/folktale,
young audiences

Two families -- one human, one moose -- struggle to collect enough maple after a warm winter. A TYA ode to Vermont, maple trees, and moose.

Two families -- one human, one moose -- struggle to collect enough maple after a warm winter. A TYA ode to Vermont, maple trees, and moose.

A Chrismukkong Carol

by KJ Moran Velz

Cast Size
5—8
Genre
faith-based,
holiday,
young audiences

Esther feels pretty different growing up in a Thai-Jewish family. She doesn't understand why her family doesn't celebrate Christmas in the same way as everyone else until one fateful night when her grandmothers and great-grandmothers take her on a journey through time, Thailand, and Germany.

Esther feels pretty different growing up in a Thai-Jewish family. She doesn't understand why her family doesn't celebrate Christmas in the same way as everyone else until one fateful night when her grandmothers and great-grandmothers take her on a journey through time, Thailand, and Germany.

Unfinished Album of Lazarus Lovesong

by KJ Moran Velz

Cast Size
7
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
drama,
romantic comedy

As described by DC Metro Theater Arts: "A hilariously original and powerfully brave play with music about a college-age woman named Lou who was raped a year ago by her then-boyfriend, Eli. It has been a year since and the trauma is still with her—theatricalized as an actor representing Eli, invisible to all the other characters, who won’t leave Lou alone. Lou has hooked up with Ric, a respectful sweetheart of a...

As described by DC Metro Theater Arts: "A hilariously original and powerfully brave play with music about a college-age woman named Lou who was raped a year ago by her then-boyfriend, Eli. It has been a year since and the trauma is still with her—theatricalized as an actor representing Eli, invisible to all the other characters, who won’t leave Lou alone. Lou has hooked up with Ric, a respectful sweetheart of a guy, but abruptly stops mid-foreplay because she can’t get Eli out of her head. How Lou deals with that past pain and ultimately feels ready to make love again makes for an of-the-moment narrative pulsing with humor and heartache—and honest and brilliant playwrighting. (Sample one-liner: 'Sylvia Plath was punk as fuck.')"

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ASSailants

by KJ Moran Velz

Cast Size
4
Genre
dark comedy,
drama,
political

Cassidy Barnes runs the “ASSailants” Instagram account for survivors at her university. Every day, her DMs are flooded with stories from fellow students just trying to survive school with their assailants. Hesitant to share her own story, it’s not until an election for President of the Student Assembly that she must decide if the merits of anonymity are worth her assailant’s name.

Cassidy Barnes runs the “ASSailants” Instagram account for survivors at her university. Every day, her DMs are flooded with stories from fellow students just trying to survive school with their assailants. Hesitant to share her own story, it’s not until an election for President of the Student Assembly that she must decide if the merits of anonymity are worth her assailant’s name.

Tulla Notch

by KJ Moran Velz

Cast Size
2
Genre
docudrama/historic,
romantic comedy

Two lesbian love stories juxtaposed a century apart in rural Vermont.

Two lesbian love stories juxtaposed a century apart in rural Vermont.

Annie's Book Club

by KJ Moran Velz

1
Cast Size
2
Genre
dark comedy

Maddy is quarantined in Amsterdam amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. She's all alone, or so she thinks, until a teenage ghost reveals how annoying it is to have Maddy disturbing her schedule.

Maddy is quarantined in Amsterdam amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. She's all alone, or so she thinks, until a teenage ghost reveals how annoying it is to have Maddy disturbing her schedule.