Marisa Carr

Marisa Carr is playwright from Milwaukee, now living in Chicago after a decade in the Twin Cities. Her work has been presented and/or produced by institutions including: Milwaukee Rep, The Guthrie, Pillsbury House + Theater, the Playwrights’ Center, Montana Repertory Theater, Intermedia Arts, and University of Iowa MFA Program. Selected recent awards and honors include: Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble (2021-20214), Oregon Shakespeare Festival Native Writers Collaborative (2021), Montana Repertory Theater Warren Miller Commission (2021), Goodman Playwrights Unit (2020-2021), Scratchpad at the Playwrights' Realm (2019-2020), P73 Finalist (2019-20), American Blues Theater Blue Ink Award Finalist (2020), Bay Area Playwrights’ Festival Finalist (2019), McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting...

Marisa Carr is playwright from Milwaukee, now living in Chicago after a decade in the Twin Cities. Her work has been presented and/or produced by institutions including: Milwaukee Rep, The Guthrie, Pillsbury House + Theater, the Playwrights’ Center, Montana Repertory Theater, Intermedia Arts, and University of Iowa MFA Program. Selected recent awards and honors include: Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble (2021-20214), Oregon Shakespeare Festival Native Writers Collaborative (2021), Montana Repertory Theater Warren Miller Commission (2021), Goodman Playwrights Unit (2020-2021), Scratchpad at the Playwrights' Realm (2019-2020), P73 Finalist (2019-20), American Blues Theater Blue Ink Award Finalist (2020), Bay Area Playwrights’ Festival Finalist (2019), McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting Finalist (2019), Jerome Artist Fellowship Finalist (2019), Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep (2018), Forward Flux Three New American Plays Commission (2018), Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant (2017), Playwrights’ Center Many Voices Fellowship (2016-17), Pillsbury House + Theater Naked Stages Fellowship(2015), and “Best New Political Playwright” (Lavender Magazine, 2014). Marisa is also Co-Founder/former Artistic Director of the Turtle Theater Collective, a Twin Cities-based company committed to producing high-quality, contemporary work that explores Native experiences and subverts expectations about how and when Native artists can create theater, and has taught playwriting for theaters including the Guthrie and Jungle Theatre. She is Turtle Mountain Ojibwe from the Turtle clan.

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Scripts

Powwow Summer

by Marisa Carr

Cast Size
3
Genre
comedy

Molly just lost funding for her graduate research on panda bear mating. Sissy's marriage is falling apart. So, these two best friends do the only thing they can think of, and hit the powwow trail to recreate the best summer of their lives -- but a lot has changed since college. Does growing up mean growing out of yourself?

Molly just lost funding for her graduate research on panda bear mating. Sissy's marriage is falling apart. So, these two best friends do the only thing they can think of, and hit the powwow trail to recreate the best summer of their lives -- but a lot has changed since college. Does growing up mean growing out of yourself?

Punk Rock Mix Tape Play

by Marisa Carr

2
Cast Size
8
Genre
dark comedy,
drama,
period,
political

Being a teenage girl is hard, and being a teenage brown girl is harder – but being a teenage brown girl in the punk scene during the post-9/11 Bush administration? That’s something else entirely. This coming-of-age play, loosely structured as a mix tape, sits at the intersection of race, gender, and youth, and explores the cost of finding your place in a world shifting rapidly in ways you barely understand.

Being a teenage girl is hard, and being a teenage brown girl is harder – but being a teenage brown girl in the punk scene during the post-9/11 Bush administration? That’s something else entirely. This coming-of-age play, loosely structured as a mix tape, sits at the intersection of race, gender, and youth, and explores the cost of finding your place in a world shifting rapidly in ways you barely understand.

Sturgeon Play

by Marisa Carr

1
Cast Size
2
Genre
drama

Love, fish, and colonialism.

Love, fish, and colonialism.

Reconciliation

by Marisa Carr

Cast Size
3
Genre
drama,
political

In a dystopian future, the United States government has initiated a “Truth and Reconciliation” process with Indigenous peoples – and lack of compliance is a federal crime. One woman with nothing left to lose challenges the charge of “Failure to Reconcile” and fights for her life. Is reconciliation possible? And if so, at what cost?

In a dystopian future, the United States government has initiated a “Truth and Reconciliation” process with Indigenous peoples – and lack of compliance is a federal crime. One woman with nothing left to lose challenges the charge of “Failure to Reconcile” and fights for her life. Is reconciliation possible? And if so, at what cost?

Static

by Marisa Carr

Cast Size
1
Genre
holiday,
political,
tragedy

On a cold December evening six strangers’ lives intersect around a single act of desperation, with tragic consequences. Intertwining narratives intersect to explore the impact of law enforcement in marginalized communities.

On a cold December evening six strangers’ lives intersect around a single act of desperation, with tragic consequences. Intertwining narratives intersect to explore the impact of law enforcement in marginalized communities.

Molly

by Marisa Carr

Cast Size
1
Genre
biography

Molly Spotted Elk was a Penobscot dancer, actor and writer from the 1920s. This one-woman show illustrates the life of an incredible woman, delves into the little-known history of Native people on-stage, and explores issues of representation and identity that still resonate today.

Molly Spotted Elk was a Penobscot dancer, actor and writer from the 1920s. This one-woman show illustrates the life of an incredible woman, delves into the little-known history of Native people on-stage, and explores issues of representation and identity that still resonate today.