Shannon Chinn

Shannon Chinn is a Nebraska based theatre artist with a B.F.A in Directing from Nebraska Wesleyan University. Her ten minute play Ronnie, Rosie, and the Feminine Mystique has received staged readings as part of 2025 William Inge Theatre Festival's New Play Lab and the inaugural 2023 NOW (New Omaha Works) Lab at the Omaha Community Playhouse. Her full-length play "To Thine Own Self Be True" was selected for the 2023 Sharing Our Stories Program at The Rose Theater in Omaha, NE, in which the script received a year long workshop process that culminated in a public staged reading. Other plays, including "Two Steps Back", "The Fall of Lafontaine Manor", "The Tempest's Tale or, Caught Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" have been performed on Nebraska university and high school stages...

Shannon Chinn is a Nebraska based theatre artist with a B.F.A in Directing from Nebraska Wesleyan University. Her ten minute play Ronnie, Rosie, and the Feminine Mystique has received staged readings as part of 2025 William Inge Theatre Festival's New Play Lab and the inaugural 2023 NOW (New Omaha Works) Lab at the Omaha Community Playhouse. Her full-length play "To Thine Own Self Be True" was selected for the 2023 Sharing Our Stories Program at The Rose Theater in Omaha, NE, in which the script received a year long workshop process that culminated in a public staged reading. Other plays, including "Two Steps Back", "The Fall of Lafontaine Manor", "The Tempest's Tale or, Caught Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" have been performed on Nebraska university and high school stages. Shannon has also helped create several immersive adaptations of classical works such as "In Sorrow's Guise: An Immersive Medea" (included in the 2021-2022 Nebraska Wesleyan University mainstage season) and "Lest Faith Turn: An Immersive Romeo and Juliet". Shannon currently acts as a Board Member at Large for Lincoln, NE theatre organization Blixt Arts Lab and works as one of the theatre program directors for Raymond Central High School in Raymond, NE.

Scripts

Saprophyte

by Shannon Chinn

Synopsis

After burying a deer in her mother’s garden, a withdrawn young woman conjures a shadowy figure who forces her to confront a loss she cannot name—and tempts her to join the silence beneath the soil

After burying a deer in her mother’s garden, a withdrawn young woman conjures a shadowy figure who forces her to confront a loss she cannot name—and tempts her to join the silence beneath the soil

BURY YOUR GAYS (and they will rise up again)

by Shannon Chinn

Synopsis

When a softball bat-swinging lesbian attempts to survive the zombie apocalypse, she learns the real threat isn’t the undead—it’s the straight men trying to repopulate the planet. Enter Grace: a flirty, foul-mouthed, and mysteriously self-aware zombie who wants to recruit her into a queer undead uprising.

​​Campy, gory, and gloriously inappropriate, this one-act is a battle cry for all the queers who’ve died in...

When a softball bat-swinging lesbian attempts to survive the zombie apocalypse, she learns the real threat isn’t the undead—it’s the straight men trying to repopulate the planet. Enter Grace: a flirty, foul-mouthed, and mysteriously self-aware zombie who wants to recruit her into a queer undead uprising.

​​Campy, gory, and gloriously inappropriate, this one-act is a battle cry for all the queers who’ve died in media—and a love letter to the ones who lived long enough to bite back.

MUSE: A Tale of Love and Sonnets

by Shannon Chinn

Synopsis

The dedication of William Shakespeare’s sonnets remains an unsolved mystery, sparking endless debate over the identity of the enigmatic "W.H." MUSE: A Tale of Love and Sonnets explores one captivating possibility: that "W.H." was Willie Hughes, a young actor in Shakespeare’s company, with whom the playwright formed a deeply intimate bond. Set against the vibrant and cutthroat world of Elizabethan theatre, the...

The dedication of William Shakespeare’s sonnets remains an unsolved mystery, sparking endless debate over the identity of the enigmatic "W.H." MUSE: A Tale of Love and Sonnets explores one captivating possibility: that "W.H." was Willie Hughes, a young actor in Shakespeare’s company, with whom the playwright formed a deeply intimate bond. Set against the vibrant and cutthroat world of Elizabethan theatre, the story imagines how Shakespeare’s love for Hughes inspired his most passionate verses. As their connection deepens, Shakespeare and Hughes wrestle with societal pressures, secrecy, and the intense emotions that threaten to unravel the fragile relationship between them. While their love is forced into the shadows, it lives on in the immortal sonnets that veil their bond in poetry. MUSE is a tale of passion, art, and the cost of keeping a love for the ages hidden from the world.

To Thine Own Self Be True

by Shannon Chinn

Synopsis

After the recent death of his father, Henry Fletcher’s plans for a perfect senior year are foiled as his life begins to strangely resemble that of Shakespeare’s famous Prince of Denmark. Now, with a little help from the Bard’s greatest work and some friends from beyond the grave, Henry finds himself on a hero’s journey of his own as he attempts to understand who he is and how to cope.

After the recent death of his father, Henry Fletcher’s plans for a perfect senior year are foiled as his life begins to strangely resemble that of Shakespeare’s famous Prince of Denmark. Now, with a little help from the Bard’s greatest work and some friends from beyond the grave, Henry finds himself on a hero’s journey of his own as he attempts to understand who he is and how to cope.

Ronnie, Rosie, and the Feminine Mystique

by Shannon Chinn

Synopsis

Attempting to salvage a disastrous prom night, best friends Ronnie and Rosie hide out in a seedy motel room and try to find solace in each other, but tensions rise when unspoken feelings and hidden emotions threaten to form a wedge between the two. Questions of sexuality and identity bubble to the surface as Ronnie and Rosie try to save their friendship before it’s too late.

Attempting to salvage a disastrous prom night, best friends Ronnie and Rosie hide out in a seedy motel room and try to find solace in each other, but tensions rise when unspoken feelings and hidden emotions threaten to form a wedge between the two. Questions of sexuality and identity bubble to the surface as Ronnie and Rosie try to save their friendship before it’s too late.

The Fall of Lafontaine Manor

by Shannon Chinn

Synopsis

In October of 1873, journalist Edwina Porter uncovers secrets and horrors hidden underneath the floorboards of her childhood friend’s home, Lafontaine Manor. Inspired by the classic short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe, this southern gothic tale explores the grief and loneliness of a family haunted by mistakes from the past.

In October of 1873, journalist Edwina Porter uncovers secrets and horrors hidden underneath the floorboards of her childhood friend’s home, Lafontaine Manor. Inspired by the classic short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe, this southern gothic tale explores the grief and loneliness of a family haunted by mistakes from the past.

The Tempest's Tale or, Caught Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

by Shannon Chinn

Synopsis

When a father’s bedtime story to his young daughter comes to life around them, the two must navigate a world of shipwrecks, sea monsters, and scurvy knaves, all while finding their way back to each other. This fantastically wacky re-imagining of Shakespeare’s "The Tempest" explores the power of family through
storytelling, childlike imagination, and even a sea shanty or two.

When a father’s bedtime story to his young daughter comes to life around them, the two must navigate a world of shipwrecks, sea monsters, and scurvy knaves, all while finding their way back to each other. This fantastically wacky re-imagining of Shakespeare’s "The Tempest" explores the power of family through
storytelling, childlike imagination, and even a sea shanty or two.

Two Steps Back

by Shannon Chinn

Synopsis

Sam Keene can't remember where they are or how they got here, but when they find themselves in the midst of an interrogation about their missing daughter, things start to feel all too familiar. As Sam begins to search through their memories in hopes of finding her, they start to question what is and isn't real. The only problem? Sam Keene can't remember where they are or how they got here, but when they find...

Sam Keene can't remember where they are or how they got here, but when they find themselves in the midst of an interrogation about their missing daughter, things start to feel all too familiar. As Sam begins to search through their memories in hopes of finding her, they start to question what is and isn't real. The only problem? Sam Keene can't remember where they are or how they got here, but when they find themselves in the midst of an interrogation about their missing daughter, things start to feel all too familiar...