Georgette Kelly

(5W, 2M: including 1 trans woman and 1 trans man) What does it mean to love someone in a moment of great transition? Zoe dreams of flying—of escaping to new heights—while her wife, Grace, dreams of standing in a pulpit before a religious community that accepts her recent transition from male to female. 16-year-old Savannah dreams only of her first love, Xavier, who is coping with becoming a man. Meanwhile Xavier is haunted by the nightmares he sees staring back at him from the mirror. Ballast tells the story of two relationships between transgender and cisgender partners, exploring not only the way gender influences our relationships, but also how gender seeps into our spirituality, our dreams, and even our ability to take flight.

(4W, 2M) Phoebe is a young poet, forever living in the shadow of her estranged mother’s literary acclaim. When her mother unexpectedly dies, however, Phoebe is left with two complicated legacies: donating her mother’s organs and reading her mother’s unpublished confessional journal. Meanwhile, Tess and her partner Lydia receive a late night phone call, informing them that a donor heart is available for Tess – good news, but news that has come far sooner than they were prepared for. As these two families form an unlikely connection, they struggle to understand the politics and poetics of organ donation—and they dare to hope that pieces of us can live on after great tragedy.

Summer in the north woods of Minnesota. The days are long. The stars are bright. But when it gets dark, it gets really dark—like when someone opens fire at camp. NORTH STAR is a new play that centers around an all-female group of campers and counselors coping with violence that leaves them utterly vulnerable. At the crux of this play is the question: what happens when social contracts are broken, when gun violence breaks through places that should feel safe, and when young people lose trust in the adults in their lives? Their stories are entwined with the French Canadian myth of La Chasse-Galerie, in which a group of voyageurs made a deal with the devil to journey home in a flying canoe in order to see their lost loved ones.

(2W, 1M) France, 2005: Zenab is an aspiring French-Moroccan artist, stuck giving tours of the room where Vincent Van Gogh died. When Vincent’s ghost begins to speak to her, she finds herself torn between her art and Avery, the American woman she’s fallen in love with. Meanwhile, race riots explode near Paris after two youths of color are killed in a police chase. Zenab joins the riots, easel in hand, to paint her own version of France—one that digs deeper than the postcard-perfect veneer sold to tourists. Based on the true story of Bouna Traoré, 15 and Zyed Benna, 17, whose deaths inspired weeks of sustained rioting across France, this play asks the question: what does it mean when your own country sees you as an outsider? [For perusal script, please contact author].

At a time when women were largely excluded from the art world, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun rose to fame by painting Queen Marie-Antoinette—and crafting her image for public consumption. But as the French Revolution begins, Vigée Le Brun is forced into exile with her daughter, on a 13-year artistic odyssey across Europe and Russia. In a poetic riff on women’s bodies against the backdrop of a bloody revolution, this play follows a mother and daughter on their journey from fame to infamy. (Commission: Goodman Theatre Playwrights Unit. Currently in development.)

(3W, 2M) Astrid is a sculptor. Domino is a hoarder. Jona is a writer. Calliope is a parrot. They all live together—separately—in a Manhattan studio apartment building. When it begins to rain…and rain…and rain…they pile into one of Astrid’s sculptures and float out to sea. The adventure that ensues tests their endurance, as they lose one world and create another in the belly of a whale. This new take on the biblical story of Jonah asks the question: What does it mean to be swallowed, by a great fish? By a city? By yourself?

Bethany is the only daughter of a charismatic creationist preacher who has founded The Museum of God’s Creation in rural Kentucky. When Bethany returns home from her first year in a liberal arts college, she finds herself working retail in the museum’s gift shop as her father preps for a televised debate with Rita Anning, a famed evolution scientist. The morning before the debate, Bethany’s atheist boyfriend shows up and they must juggle two worlds and a big secret. Meanwhile, Bethany discovers a six-year-old girl who has been living in the museum and who promises to deliver a miracle. {Script currently in process--for a perusal copy please get in touch via contact info!}

(Flexible Casting or 2W, 2M, and 3W/M) Webster is 11, and he has a lot of questions: Why are the grown-ups building a new subway tunnel along Second Avenue? Why won’t his sister Rory stop stuttering? Why have all the words disappeared from his copy of Bulfinch’s Greek and Roman Mythology? And most importantly: is it still possible to visit the King of the Underworld to rescue a lost thing, for example, a father? Webster, Rory, and their friend Madison try to answer these questions when they sneak into the new subway tunnel on a quest to find their lost words and their lost father. On the way, they meet a strange cast of characters (and rats!) who live under the streets of Manhattan.

(4W, TYA) In spring 2018, Halley visits the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab and meets the Opportunity Mars rover. The two have something in common: a curious spirit and a shortened life-expectancy. Halley and the NASA scientist in charge of the Mars mission find themselves transformed by an unlikely friendship—with each other, and with a rolling robot millions of miles away. With poetic language and magical realism, Farewell Opportunity explores the question “How do you keep on roving when you—or someone you love—faces a dust storm that threatens to block out the sun?”

(Flexible Cast Size or 4W, 4M) Adapted from the novel by Jeanette Winterson. Silver, a young woman twice flung from home, learns to tell herself like a story, piecing together the disparate events that make up her life and connect her with those who came before her. While examining the structures we use to interpret our experiences, this epic journey of love, longing, and light explores the gambles and gifts of choosing change from one life to the next.

10-minute play: (2W) A grandmother and granddaughter who have never met grapple with dreams, jealousy, and what it means to live in the future. This play was written in response to the 2016 election for the Chicago Future is Female festival.

10-minute play: (3M, 1W) On the brink of Germany's surrender in May 1945, an elderly Chicago immigrant couple celebrate their golden wedding anniversary. An ocean away, 2 journalists hope to leave a legacy that will bridge the gap between continents.

10-minute Play: (2W, 1M) A monster, a whirlpool, and a hero with too many notches on his belt. An epic love triangle retold from a queer perspective, this 10-minute play asks the question: how do we become hideous in love?

10-minute play: (2W, 1 gender neutral, 1 non-binary) A magical meditation on queer generations. Local kids are hired to help clear out the house after a beloved older gay man has passed. Dust rains down, and love bubbles up.

10-minute play: (flexible 1-2M, 1-2W) If you had one big story to tell—say, the story of how you lost your leg—how would you tell it to your granddaughter? Or to your drinking buddy? Or to God? Triptych centers around John, a Vietnam vet who tells his big story over, and over, and over...until he is left alone at the kitchen table, trapped inside his own history.