Elle Thoni

elle thoni (they/them) is a femmebeast playwright and public artist from Dakota land in Minneapolis. In search of wildness amidst this great unraveling, they write plays about queer shapeshifters, emergent ecologies, and unlikely kinship. A former parade puppeteer who believes in the civic magic of performance, their work - equally at home on stages, in community gardens, and floating on the Cuyahoga River - embraces a fugitive sense of time and place. elle is honored to be a four-time Kennedy Center playwriting awardee and a $25,000 screenwriting grantee from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for TAMARACK, their drama series about critical mineral mining in Minnesota’s Northland. They are an affiliated writer with The Playwrights’ Center and the New Harmony Project, a proud member of the...

elle thoni (they/them) is a femmebeast playwright and public artist from Dakota land in Minneapolis. In search of wildness amidst this great unraveling, they write plays about queer shapeshifters, emergent ecologies, and unlikely kinship. A former parade puppeteer who believes in the civic magic of performance, their work - equally at home on stages, in community gardens, and floating on the Cuyahoga River - embraces a fugitive sense of time and place. elle is honored to be a four-time Kennedy Center playwriting awardee and a $25,000 screenwriting grantee from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for TAMARACK, their drama series about critical mineral mining in Minnesota’s Northland. They are an affiliated writer with The Playwrights’ Center and the New Harmony Project, a proud member of the Dramatists Guild, and an anxious amateur beekeeper. MFA: Carnegie Mellon. ellethoni.com

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Scripts

Spukhaus

by Elle Thoni

Cast Size
5
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
docudrama/historic,
horror,
romantic comedy

It’s 1905 on the prairie. Ingrid returns to her one room cabin after her husband's sudden death, only to discover she’s being haunted – by a queer from 2025. Who is the real ghost, and why can’t they just leave??? A play about yearning and survival in America.

Script available upon request.

It’s 1905 on the prairie. Ingrid returns to her one room cabin after her husband's sudden death, only to discover she’s being haunted – by a queer from 2025. Who is the real ghost, and why can’t they just leave??? A play about yearning and survival in America.

Script available upon request.

From the Ground Up

by Elle Thoni

Cast Size
7
Genre
comedy,
drama,
political

Ms. Vivian hopes to heal the neighborhood and herself by gardening in a reclaimed urban lot. Yet her harvest party becomes an all-night community defense when the Field of Possibilities is threatened with imminent destruction from the city. A defensive fantasy about the struggle to share space and find sanctuary in a world where everyone is both human and plant, weed and medicine.

Script available upon request...

Ms. Vivian hopes to heal the neighborhood and herself by gardening in a reclaimed urban lot. Yet her harvest party becomes an all-night community defense when the Field of Possibilities is threatened with imminent destruction from the city. A defensive fantasy about the struggle to share space and find sanctuary in a world where everyone is both human and plant, weed and medicine.

Script available upon request.

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Monstrous, or A Short Narrative on an Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbits

by Elle Thoni

1
Cast Size
11—20
Genre
dark comedy,
drama,
experimental,
fantasy,
movement/physical,
period,
political,
satire

Mary's present-day search for an abortion provider lands them back in 1720s England, where they pass as Mary Toft - a historical figure notorious for giving birth to rabbits. A queer exploration of rage in the post-Roe era, Monstrous confronts restrictions on reproductive rights with absurdity and magic.

Script available upon request

Mary's present-day search for an abortion provider lands them back in 1720s England, where they pass as Mary Toft - a historical figure notorious for giving birth to rabbits. A queer exploration of rage in the post-Roe era, Monstrous confronts restrictions on reproductive rights with absurdity and magic.

Script available upon request

Queen B: A New Work of Honeybee Futurism

by Elle Thoni

Cast Size
8—12
Genre
adventure,
experimental,
movement/physical,
musical,
political,
science fiction

100 years into the future, cities have sealed themselves under holographic domes to protect themselves from the inhospitable climate. Yet, when the robo-bee population begins to die off like their honeymaking ancestors, the fate of this new society rests upon the fading memories of the last living beekeeper, a (former?) revolutionary who goes by the name Queen B.

Book & libretto by Elle Thoni
Music by Dameun...

100 years into the future, cities have sealed themselves under holographic domes to protect themselves from the inhospitable climate. Yet, when the robo-bee population begins to die off like their honeymaking ancestors, the fate of this new society rests upon the fading memories of the last living beekeeper, a (former?) revolutionary who goes by the name Queen B.

Book & libretto by Elle Thoni
Music by Dameun Strange and Carlisle Evans-Peck

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Bestiary of Rogues

by Elle Thoni

Cast Size
6—8
Genre
docudrama/historic,
drama,
experimental,
fable/folktale

After a fatal fire at communal house in South Minneapolis, a band of urban animals come together to tell the story of what happened - or is it? Part documentary theatre and part punk folklore, Bestiary of Rogues sifts through the wreckage to find the difference between between fact and truth with tremendous heart.

After a fatal fire at communal house in South Minneapolis, a band of urban animals come together to tell the story of what happened - or is it? Part documentary theatre and part punk folklore, Bestiary of Rogues sifts through the wreckage to find the difference between between fact and truth with tremendous heart.

Woolly

by Elle Thoni

Cast Size
6—10
Genre
docudrama/historic,
drama,
experimental,
fantasy,
science fiction

As evolutionary biologist Dr. Robin Slater prepares for her Ted Talk, she and members of her family find themselves disappearing into the so-called "tundra" of their anxious imagination. When - and how - will they be able to find their way back to the present time and moment? Unapologetically weaving together fantasy, science, and documentary, Woolly is a play about the science of de-extinction and the liminal...

As evolutionary biologist Dr. Robin Slater prepares for her Ted Talk, she and members of her family find themselves disappearing into the so-called "tundra" of their anxious imagination. When - and how - will they be able to find their way back to the present time and moment? Unapologetically weaving together fantasy, science, and documentary, Woolly is a play about the science of de-extinction and the liminal space between hope and heartbreak.

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Moon Zoo

by Elle Thoni

3
Cast Size
3
Genre
adventure,
comedy,
dark comedy,
drama,
fantasy,
farce,
political,
satire,
science fiction,
tragedy

Welcome to the first wilderness park on the moon. The first bear is scheduled to arrive on the next shuttle. How will two clueless first-generation "Moonies" make a suitable habitat for her? A sci-fi comedy about so-called "nature."

Welcome to the first wilderness park on the moon. The first bear is scheduled to arrive on the next shuttle. How will two clueless first-generation "Moonies" make a suitable habitat for her? A sci-fi comedy about so-called "nature."

The first whale

by Elle Thoni

3
Cast Size
2
Genre
drama,
experimental

Natural history gets a redux in this queer retelling of the evolution of the whale from a land to sea mammal.

Natural history gets a redux in this queer retelling of the evolution of the whale from a land to sea mammal.