Karli Jean Lonnquist

Karli Jean Lonnquist, she/her/hers, is a multidisciplinary theatre artist from Portland, Oregon currently based in Orange, California. Her playwriting primarily focuses on amplifying the voices and struggles of young people through surrealist and absurdist storytelling methods. Karli's work has been produced onstage in both Oregon and California at venues including Jesuit High School Portland, the Young Professionals Company at Oregon Children’s Theatre, Lakewood Theatre Company and Cross the Line at Chapman University. Karli is passionate about amplifying the voices of people with disabilities in the arts and strives to provide interdisciplinary theatrical training and performance opportunities for this community. Currently, she attends Chapman University and is double majoring in...

Karli Jean Lonnquist, she/her/hers, is a multidisciplinary theatre artist from Portland, Oregon currently based in Orange, California. Her playwriting primarily focuses on amplifying the voices and struggles of young people through surrealist and absurdist storytelling methods. Karli's work has been produced onstage in both Oregon and California at venues including Jesuit High School Portland, the Young Professionals Company at Oregon Children’s Theatre, Lakewood Theatre Company and Cross the Line at Chapman University. Karli is passionate about amplifying the voices of people with disabilities in the arts and strives to provide interdisciplinary theatrical training and performance opportunities for this community. Currently, she attends Chapman University and is double majoring in Theatre Studies with an area of Study in Dramaturgy, Playwriting and Literary Management and Peace Studies with an area of study in Interfaith Relations. She will graduate in 2026. When not writing or studying, you can find Karli performing onstage, baking cakes for customers of her cake business, KJ's Cakery, listening to The Magnus Archives, and/or actively consuming ramen!

[Instagram: @karlilonn]

Scripts

Archer, Archer

by Karli Jean Lonnquist

Synopsis

[15 minute] It's 1981 in Centralia, Pennsylvania, and Vic, Thom, Stuart and Ro are discovering that their safe, ordinary world isn't exactly as stable as it seems. When the ground beneath their feet collapses during their weekly chess game, the players fall through the floor, and find themselves in a cavern buried deep within the Earth. Everything real has been swallowed by the darkness encroaching on all...

[15 minute] It's 1981 in Centralia, Pennsylvania, and Vic, Thom, Stuart and Ro are discovering that their safe, ordinary world isn't exactly as stable as it seems. When the ground beneath their feet collapses during their weekly chess game, the players fall through the floor, and find themselves in a cavern buried deep within the Earth. Everything real has been swallowed by the darkness encroaching on all sides. Everything, that is, except for the chess board and chess pieces, which remain in pristine condition. As emotional destruction accumulates alongside the ruination of the physical world, relationships begin to crumble and the lines of difference between each person begin to blur, the friends' innocent game of chess becomes their unfortunate reality.

Archer, Archer is a claustrophobic exploration of teenage relationships and what happens when everything that informs our individual identities begins to show cracks...

Gloaming

by Karli Jean Lonnquist

Synopsis

[10 minute] As the gloaming hour encroaches upon a cartoonish dreamscape, June and Niko are falling in love. Or, at least, one of them is. While Niko is smitten with June, June finds herself testing the line between obsession and adoration. As more secrets about Niko come to light, June's infatuation becomes her impetus for monstrous action, and their distorted reality slowly contorts from childlike and...

[10 minute] As the gloaming hour encroaches upon a cartoonish dreamscape, June and Niko are falling in love. Or, at least, one of them is. While Niko is smitten with June, June finds herself testing the line between obsession and adoration. As more secrets about Niko come to light, June's infatuation becomes her impetus for monstrous action, and their distorted reality slowly contorts from childlike and dreamy, to nightmarish, to disturbingly realistic. Gloaming asks an audience to struggle with what makes a monster and what makes a man, and what exactly causes someone to desire control so utterly and completely.

Hunter / Hunted

by Karli Jean Lonnquist

Synopsis

[10 minute] After her gruesome death in a school shooting, a young girl recounts her extensive history with guns--a history that extends right up until the moment she is brutally murdered.

[10 minute] After her gruesome death in a school shooting, a young girl recounts her extensive history with guns--a history that extends right up until the moment she is brutally murdered.

if all the baths ran red...

by Karli Jean Lonnquist

Synopsis

[15 minute] Loosely based on the story of Andrea Yates and her struggle with postnatal mental illness, if all the baths ran red... starts with a woman, her child and a bathtub, and ends with a woman, alone.

[15 minute] Loosely based on the story of Andrea Yates and her struggle with postnatal mental illness, if all the baths ran red... starts with a woman, her child and a bathtub, and ends with a woman, alone.

lemongrass, honey, whiskey.

by Karli Jean Lonnquist

Synopsis

[10 minute] Jane Doe wakes up in a basement. She has no memory of who she is or why she is there. The only evidence she has of her past is a broken handheld mirror and the blood streaming down her face, oozing from her feet and smeared across the concrete floor. As she attempts to recall what happened, Janey, a subconscious being from inside of Jane Doe's mind, surfaces to help her put the pieces back...

[10 minute] Jane Doe wakes up in a basement. She has no memory of who she is or why she is there. The only evidence she has of her past is a broken handheld mirror and the blood streaming down her face, oozing from her feet and smeared across the concrete floor. As she attempts to recall what happened, Janey, a subconscious being from inside of Jane Doe's mind, surfaces to help her put the pieces back together. However, as more memories resurface, Jane Doe realizes that she may not want to remember what happened to her after all, and that perhaps she was better off in the dark...

lemongrass, honey, whiskey. is a young woman's exploration of longing, loss, grief and reconciliation.