Joyce Van Dyke

THE WOMEN WHO MAPPED THE STARS introduces five extraordinary women who changed the way we see the universe -- and women scientists. They made discoveries that helped shape the science of astrophysics -- most prominently, Cecilia Payne, who discovered what the stars are made of. This time-bending play dramatizes their struggle to do their work as they feed each other’s dreams, exult in the thrill of discovery, fight for recognition, and open the doors for those who come after them.

In 2020, the University of Southern Maine commissioned an adaptation of the original full-length play into a 50-minute version that has been touring schools in Maine. For information about the touring version, contact Sara Valentine, sara.valentine@maine.edu.

Do women's lives matter? As Julia Ward Howe points out, we're not in the Declaration of Independence, and we're not in the Constitution. And the law of the land declares that when a woman marries, she ceases to exist -- she is no longer a person with legal rights. The author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic and a charismatic human rights activist, Julia is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. Prophetically, she foresees our national crisis today, when she she says (as the real-life Julia said) that we will lose our democracy if this remains an America for some of us, and not an America for all of us.

In this time-shifting, dream-like play, two women use theatricality, storytelling and humor to remake the world of their fractured past. DAYBREAK is a lyrical story of two friends, survivors of the 1915 Armenian genocide, who are transported with their families into the 21st century future. Inspired by the true stories of my Armenian grandparents, DAYBREAK is an intimate emotional story with epic political and cultural reverberations.

Amy, a 47-year-old petroleum geologist, fights to maintain a love triangle with two men - Rex, an actor and her longtime partner, and Aleksi, a young translator who works for her oil company. Her actions are challenged by both men, while Amy insists on her exploration of life and self. As the three of them fight for power, the conflict deepens psychologically and politically, and their personal struggle plays out against the climate crisis. The upheaval forces Amy and both men to confront the coming end of oil, love, time. What do we do when – as Amy says – “we’ve fallen in love with something we can’t have”?

A New York model goes home to a civil war of ethnic cleansing, after her brother is killed in Karabakh, an Armenian region in the Caucasus Mountains.

A Russian hotel maid in New York discovers a diamond earring on the floor while vacuuming a room. She calls her son downstairs to say she wants to give it to him, but while they're on the phone the earring's owner and her boyfriend walk into the room in search of it. Luckily, there are language barriers.

AMERICAN OTHELLO is inspired by the 1940s wartime production of OTHELLO starring Paul Robeson, José Ferrer, Uta Hagen (then married to Ferrer), and Margaret Webster who also directed the show and co-produced it along with Robeson. The first major production of the play in America with a multiracial cast, it changed theatre history, and upended the lives of all four actors. Now, a surprise reunion years later fans new flames.