Natalie Zutter

Once, two girls disguised themselves as boys to train to become knights. Seven years later, an unconventional knight and a worldly whore fallen on hard times meet at a brothel in the middle of nowhere and embark on an epic quest. Inspired by the works of Tamora Pierce and Jacqueline Carey, Garters is an epic fantasy play about the limited roles available to women and nonbinary folks in quest stories, and what happens when they don’t get to be the hero but don’t want to be the damsel.

Part of Otherworld Theatre Company's Paragon: A Sci-Fi & Fantasy Play Festival in 2018 (in one-act form).

Semi-Finalist, Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2019

A generation from now, men can time travel through genetics, and women have developed implants in order to catch up. Penelope, the perennial time traveler's wife, has just gotten her implant when an active shooter sends the Center for Time Travel Implants into lockdown. Barricaded in an examination room with a nurse and her best friend Dana, Penelope must unravel the timestream of her memories and her relationship with her absent husband Wes--retelling The Odyssey in doing so--in order to escape the encroaching threat, and maybe even change the future.

Play is on its second draft--seeking development opportunities.

"Take us to your leader."
"...About that."

In the days after Hurricane Maria, a rogue park ranger makes first contact at SETI's Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

Five years from now, the gig economy has expanded to include emotional labor: just as you can catch an Uber or outsource your errands to TaskRabbit, you can hire an emotional labor proxy to break up with someone, educate people to be more “woke,” and cut toxic people out of your life. When Jo takes on the proxy gig of cutting off contact between Frank and his estranged daughter, she never imagines that she will see him through anyone else’s eyes, least of all her own. Broadcast as part of dtc radio season 6 (link under Music Samples).

This week on Murder Is My Jam, the only true-crime podcast with serial killers and self-care, Sidney is anxious and Ellen isn’t here. Or, Sidney knows exactly where Ellen is, but first she has to navigate this week’s horror story, about what happens to two female podcasters who dare to talk about murder. But Sidney has a message for the listeners: No matter what you say, she is “Not Your (Final) Girl.” Broadcast as part of dtc radio season 5 (link under Music Samples).

Robert learns that, for a human, Zora is eerily good at compartmentalizing. Part of Caps Lock Theatre's Sex With Robots Festival.

When a larp (live-action role-playing game) and kink convention accidentally book the same campsite for the same weekend, secret identities are exposed, boundaries are blurred, and biases about communities of weirdos are challenged.

(Play is on its second draft--seeking development opportunities.)

In 1759, milliner-turned-courtesan Kitty Fisher approaches painter Joshua Reynolds with a business proposition: help her repair her ruined reputation through a series of paintings, and her fame will elevate his standing. In 1767, Kitty dies at the age of 26, leaving behind a legacy as Reynolds’ muse and the first person famous for being famous. Through six key portraits, Finished For Love traces the less-than-a-decade of Kitty and Reynolds’ professional partnership and close friendship. As their collaborations disseminate Kitty’s image into every newspaper and snuffbox in London, the controversial courtesan begins to wonder if fame and fortune are worth the price of giving up a normal life.

(Play is on its second draft--seeking development opportunities.)

Stinger (a.k.a. Nora Echolls) was everyone's favorite girl-wonder, rooftop-jumping sidekick, until a tragic attack left her partially paralyzed. Slowly and painfully, Eleanor recreated herself as Echo, a brainy superhero support system. But twenty years later, she's being retconned: Stinger is back, shiny and new, and was never paralyzed to begin with! Now, Echo has to use that big brain of hers to keep the canon from changing. Unfortunately, her smartest idea was to kidnap her younger self. (Presented at The Brick's Comic Book Theater Festival 2014.) (Play is currently being expanded into a full-length--seeking development opportunities.)

Written for AmiosWest's Shotz: The Roaring Twenties:
- must relate to the theme "The Roaring Twenties"
- one character must struggle with technology
- include the line "yippee kayee"

Teresa confronts a manspreader and explains why those of us with vaginas need our space, too.

Monologue written for Caps Lock Theatre's Pussyfest III: The Reckoning.

Opal, a video-game sprite who exists solely to provide power-ups to travelers along the way, confronts you, the protagonist of this adventure. And she's had it with chasing after you.

Written for Fresh Ground Pepper's Runway, in which fashion designers provide a sketch as the prompt for a monologue.

Regan, Julie, and Hannah are trying to recreate the sleepovers of their adolescence as twentysomethings, complete with wine and looking at the nude photos of celebrities released by the hack. But Hannah doesn't want to look.

Written for UglyRhino's TinyRhino: A Theatrical Drinking Game: Back to School Edition, incorporating the following rules: someone says the pledge of allegiance | a bell rings | someone bites an apple | someone is peer-pressured | someone uses a classic school supply.

CIA HQ Starbucks, 3 a.m. Barista Lenore and the Agent both work the night shifts, but despite their many late-night chats (and the secret extra shots on the house), Lenore still doesn't know her friend's real name.

Written for The Tank's Rule of 7x7: Summer Edition, incorporating the following rules: each playwright is a character in his/her own play | a prayer on page two | a broken iPhone | 3 a.m. | "You know what your problem is? _______" | spit-take or triple-take | the play must end with the title of a Beatles song.

Inspired by the prompt "a widower, his son, and the meaning of life" and real-life tragedy. In Her Room: Before, Warren packs for his daughter's sleepover; in Her Room: After, Seth packs for her funeral.