Katie May

KATIE MAY’s full length plays include Abominable (PlayGround/Symmetry Theatre Company, San Francisco; The Lark Playwrights Week, NYC), Manic Pixie Dream Girl (fringeNYC, A.C.T. Costume Shop, San Francisco, commissioned by SF PlayGround), Black Sheep Gospel (Great Plains Theater Conference), A History of Freaks (Finalist David Mark Cohen Award in Playwriting), and Secrets of Gardenias (Piper Center New Play Development Fellowship). Her short play Rapunzel’s Etymology of Zero (Best of Playground Festival, Short + Sweet Sydney) was published in the Best of PlayGround Anthology, 2011, and was subsequently made into an animated short film that screened in festivals both nationally and interntationally. May has been a member of the San Francisco PlayGround Writers Pool since 2008, and a...

KATIE MAY’s full length plays include Abominable (PlayGround/Symmetry Theatre Company, San Francisco; The Lark Playwrights Week, NYC), Manic Pixie Dream Girl (fringeNYC, A.C.T. Costume Shop, San Francisco, commissioned by SF PlayGround), Black Sheep Gospel (Great Plains Theater Conference), A History of Freaks (Finalist David Mark Cohen Award in Playwriting), and Secrets of Gardenias (Piper Center New Play Development Fellowship). Her short play Rapunzel’s Etymology of Zero (Best of Playground Festival, Short + Sweet Sydney) was published in the Best of PlayGround Anthology, 2011, and was subsequently made into an animated short film that screened in festivals both nationally and interntationally. May has been a member of the San Francisco PlayGround Writers Pool since 2008, and a PlayGround Playwright in Residence since 2014. Her work has received productions in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Arizona, Idaho, and Sydney, Australia. May is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Virginia Piper Writing Center, National University of Singapore, Women in Film LA, and a two-time SF PlayGround E-merging Writers Award winner. She holds an MFA from Arizona State University.

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Scripts

Abominable (or The Misappropriation of Beverly Onion by Forces Beyond Her Control)

by Katie May

2
Cast Size
6
Genre
adventure,
comedy,
dark comedy,
drama,
fantasy

When Luck and Fate make a wager to finally prove who is the more powerful force in the universe, the life of Beverly Onion, the world’s loneliest mortician’s assistant, becomes the medium for their contest. From speed dating, to a penthouse apartment, to trekking across Nepal, Beverly is sent on a journey to discover her destiny (and an unlikely soulmate), in a play that explores the power of loneliness and the...

When Luck and Fate make a wager to finally prove who is the more powerful force in the universe, the life of Beverly Onion, the world’s loneliest mortician’s assistant, becomes the medium for their contest. From speed dating, to a penthouse apartment, to trekking across Nepal, Beverly is sent on a journey to discover her destiny (and an unlikely soulmate), in a play that explores the power of loneliness and the inevitability of fate (with plenty of references to Star Wars along the way).

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Manic Pixie Dream Girl: A graphic novel play

by Katie May

1
Cast Size
5—7
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
drama,
romantic comedy

Manic Pixie Dream Girl is a darkly comic story about a struggling graphic novelist who falls in love with a mysteriously silent manic pixie dream girl, and what happens when she becomes more than just a character type. Told in the style of a comic book. More Judd Apatow than William Shakespeare, more High Fidelity than Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Just don't expect capes (there aren't any capes).

Manic Pixie Dream Girl is a darkly comic story about a struggling graphic novelist who falls in love with a mysteriously silent manic pixie dream girl, and what happens when she becomes more than just a character type. Told in the style of a comic book. More Judd Apatow than William Shakespeare, more High Fidelity than Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Just don't expect capes (there aren't any capes).

A History of Freaks

by Katie May

1
Cast Size
6
Genre
comedy,
commedia dell'arte,
dark comedy,
drama,
experimental,
fantasy,
movement/physical

Stromboli brothers traveling circus and sideshow, the last vestige of the golden age of traveling shows, is trying to survive in a modern era where screens have replaced live entertainment, and the photo-shopped freak is more appealing than the real thing.  Things aren’t working out very well.

Stromboli brothers traveling circus and sideshow, the last vestige of the golden age of traveling shows, is trying to survive in a modern era where screens have replaced live entertainment, and the photo-shopped freak is more appealing than the real thing.  Things aren’t working out very well.

Secrets of Gardenias

by Katie May

1
Cast Size
4
Genre
drama

When Sarah’s mother is diagnosed with the genetic disease Huntington’s Chorea— a terrifying degenerative illness for which there is known cure—she must face the difficult decision of whether or not to be tested for the illness, and ultimately the question: when it comes to fate is it better to know or not to know? Sarah’s world truly begins to unravel as her family secrets are finally exposed.

When Sarah’s mother is diagnosed with the genetic disease Huntington’s Chorea— a terrifying degenerative illness for which there is known cure—she must face the difficult decision of whether or not to be tested for the illness, and ultimately the question: when it comes to fate is it better to know or not to know? Sarah’s world truly begins to unravel as her family secrets are finally exposed.