Ramona Rotten

Ramona Rotten is multidisciplinary artist and writer based in Chicago, IL where she is the artistic director of the Meat Machine Ensemble Theatre. Her interest in avant-garde performance began at an early age, but crystallized while she was a student at the University of New Mexico. Fascinated by all that is obscure, obscene and strange , Rotten's work confronts our preconceived notions about respectability, history and good taste. She is an advocate against censorship, and she is currently staging plays that have been banned or censored from around the world.

Ramona Rotten is multidisciplinary artist and writer based in Chicago, IL where she is the artistic director of the Meat Machine Ensemble Theatre. Her interest in avant-garde performance began at an early age, but crystallized while she was a student at the University of New Mexico. Fascinated by all that is obscure, obscene and strange , Rotten's work confronts our preconceived notions about respectability, history and good taste. She is an advocate against censorship, and she is currently staging plays that have been banned or censored from around the world.

Scripts

THE CHTHONIC MYSTERIES

by Ramona Rotten

Cast Size
2
Genre
experimental,
fable/folktale

A surreal flirtation. A short exploration of the Pandora and Prometheus myth.

A surreal flirtation. A short exploration of the Pandora and Prometheus myth.

MECHANICAL MESSIAH

by Ramona Rotten

Cast Size
2
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
docudrama/historic,
drama,
experimental,
farce

Cowritten with Denver Hoffman

The Mechanical Messiah tells the story of John Murray Spear, a 19th-century radical, who attempted to usher in a Utopian future using the powers of the spirit world and modern technology.

In this existential farce, a pair of clairsentient eccentrics struggle against the vagaries of ushering in Utopia. Created by Ramona Rotten and Denver Hoffman, this new and exciting work examines...

Cowritten with Denver Hoffman

The Mechanical Messiah tells the story of John Murray Spear, a 19th-century radical, who attempted to usher in a Utopian future using the powers of the spirit world and modern technology.

In this existential farce, a pair of clairsentient eccentrics struggle against the vagaries of ushering in Utopia. Created by Ramona Rotten and Denver Hoffman, this new and exciting work examines “the trials borne in the secret chambers of the soul” through physicality, comedy and tenderness.

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CREAM

by Ramona Rotten

Cast Size
5
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
farce,
horror,
satire

A short play exploring the horror of beauty through the aesthetic torture of the contemporary med-spa.

A short play exploring the horror of beauty through the aesthetic torture of the contemporary med-spa.

RARE DELICACIES

by Ramona Rotten

Cast Size
2
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy

The absurd story of a goofy outlaw out to make it big and a sardonic shark that could be diagnosed with clinical depression (if sharks could be diagnosed with such a thing).

The absurd story of a goofy outlaw out to make it big and a sardonic shark that could be diagnosed with clinical depression (if sharks could be diagnosed with such a thing).

YELLOW

by Ramona Rotten

Cast Size
2
Genre
adaptation,
drama,
horror,
tragedy

"Its as if it knows how insidious it is. The way it lolls like a broken neck with two bulbous eyes that stare at you upside down. The everlastingness of its gaze is impossible to bear. Up and down. Sideways it crawls. Those absurd, unblinking eyes are everywhere..."

A near-monodrama interpretation of The Yellow Wall Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Utlizies much of the original text, adapted for the stage.

"Its as if it knows how insidious it is. The way it lolls like a broken neck with two bulbous eyes that stare at you upside down. The everlastingness of its gaze is impossible to bear. Up and down. Sideways it crawls. Those absurd, unblinking eyes are everywhere..."

A near-monodrama interpretation of The Yellow Wall Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Utlizies much of the original text, adapted for the stage.