Lisa Kenner Grissom

Lisa Kenner Grissom

Lisa Kenner Grissom is an LA-based playwright/screenwriter whose work explores complex social truths through intimate relationships. Her award-winning short film Tattoo You is based on her award-winning one-act, Tattoo You (Winner, Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival) and has been screened at over 15 film festivals nationally and internationally. Full-length plays include Here Comes The Night, Four Chambers...
Lisa Kenner Grissom is an LA-based playwright/screenwriter whose work explores complex social truths through intimate relationships. Her award-winning short film Tattoo You is based on her award-winning one-act, Tattoo You (Winner, Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival) and has been screened at over 15 film festivals nationally and internationally. Full-length plays include Here Comes The Night, Four Chambers (Winner, Jean Kennedy Smith Award), Motherland (Finalist, Jewish Plays Project), Building The Perfect Chair (Finalist: TruVoices) and Shelter (Semi-Finalist: PlayPenn). She has been a finalist for the Ashland New Play Festival, O’Neill National Playwright Conference, The Lark, Playwrights' Center, Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship and Heideman Award. Short plays are published by Smith & Kraus. Lisa twice attended the O'Neill Playwrights Conference as a Kennedy Center Fellow. Her work has been presented/developed at The Kennedy Center, Antaeus Company, Barrow Group, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Chalk Rep, Clurman Theater, Garage Theatre Ensemble, Inkwell Theater, Jewish Plays Project, Moving Arts, Manhattan Theatre Source and The Road Theatre Company. Originally from Boston, Lisa is an adjunct professor at Lesley University and a member of the Dramatist Guild, Playwrights Union, and Honor Roll. www.lisakennergrissom.com

*None of the plays posted on this page may be performed, produced, reproduced, published, displayed, or copied without written permission of the author.*

Plays

  • Here Comes The Night by Lisa Kenner Grissom
    Recommendations: 17
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: abortion, body autonomy + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: abortion, body autonomy, female friendship, feminism, millennials, Influencer, GenX, social media, climate activist, features great roles for women
    When Olivia, a musician’s wife and climate science advocate, invites Maggie, an old friend turned social media influencer, to spend the weekend while she has an at-home medication abortion, she doesn’t realize that Maggie, although well-intended, is about to throw Olivia off course. And actually, these women of different generations are about to change each other’s lives - all because of a woman’s right to...
    When Olivia, a musician’s wife and climate science advocate, invites Maggie, an old friend turned social media influencer, to spend the weekend while she has an at-home medication abortion, she doesn’t realize that Maggie, although well-intended, is about to throw Olivia off course. And actually, these women of different generations are about to change each other’s lives - all because of a woman’s right to choose. As both struggle with their decisions, they ultimately help each other in ways they hadn’t expected, or imagined. What happens when a woman’s right to choose becomes a litmus test for all of her life choices?
  • INVISIBLE - A WORK IN PROGRESS by Lisa Kenner Grissom
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    5–7
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: invisible illness, disability + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, musical
    Keyword: invisible illness, disability, Invisible Disability, Disability Justice
    A theatrical fantasia about a woman grappling with her ever-changing identity after being diagnosed with an invisible chronic illness.
  • Motherland by Lisa Kenner Grissom
    Recommendations: 12
    ·
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    ·
    Keyword: family, multi-generational + 5 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: family, multi-generational, Immigrants, mother and daughter, Jewish, Russian pogroms, mental illness
    2020 Finalist, Jewish Plays Project National Tour

    MOTHERLAND is a generational family drama that follows Lizzie, who, after being away for several years following her father's death, returns home to recoup from a nervous breakdown. Lizzie believes she will be getting some R&R, but instead her aging Russian grandmother is anxious to share memories and asks Lizzie to help her “remember.”...
    2020 Finalist, Jewish Plays Project National Tour

    MOTHERLAND is a generational family drama that follows Lizzie, who, after being away for several years following her father's death, returns home to recoup from a nervous breakdown. Lizzie believes she will be getting some R&R, but instead her aging Russian grandmother is anxious to share memories and asks Lizzie to help her “remember.” Meanwhile, her mother has struck up a friendship with Lizzie's former high school boyfriend, who moved back home as he deals with a divorce. Caught between her family's past and her uncertain future, Lizzie discovers secrets about her mother and grandmother, which force her to turn the mirror on herself.
  • Four Chambers by Lisa Kenner Grissom
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: drama, fantasy
    ·
    Keyword: death and grief, domestic terrorism
    Genre: drama, fantasy
    Keyword: death and grief, domestic terrorism
    Finalist, The O'Neill National Playwright Conference
    Finalist, The Lark Play Development Center
    Finalist, WordBRIDGE
    Semi-Finalist, Ashland New Play Festival
    Semi-Finalist, PlayPenn

    There’s no one way to grieve and Mari is determined to carve her own path. After her husband Daniel dies in a domestic terrorist incident, Mari plays cards with Daniel’s ghost, smokes...
    Finalist, The O'Neill National Playwright Conference
    Finalist, The Lark Play Development Center
    Finalist, WordBRIDGE
    Semi-Finalist, Ashland New Play Festival
    Semi-Finalist, PlayPenn

    There’s no one way to grieve and Mari is determined to carve her own path. After her husband Daniel dies in a domestic terrorist incident, Mari plays cards with Daniel’s ghost, smokes pot, and shocks her fellow support groupies whenever possible. Mari refuses to let go of Daniel but her compartmentalized life starts to fray at the edges. What is the cost of holding on? Of letting go?
  • Building The Perfect Chair by Lisa Kenner Grissom
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    ·
    Keyword: creative partners, art vs. commerce + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: creative partners, art vs. commerce, charles and ray eames, chair design
    Finalist, TruVoices Reading Series

    Creative and romantic partners Connie and Theo are trying to start a design revolution and follow in the footsteps of their artistic muses, Charles and Ray Eames. When they move to New York after winning an award, they want to hit the ground running. But when old romantic entanglements and newly surfaced artistic differences get in the way, they will have to...
    Finalist, TruVoices Reading Series

    Creative and romantic partners Connie and Theo are trying to start a design revolution and follow in the footsteps of their artistic muses, Charles and Ray Eames. When they move to New York after winning an award, they want to hit the ground running. But when old romantic entanglements and newly surfaced artistic differences get in the way, they will have to confront what it means to build a perfect chair—or relationship. What sacrifices must they make to make either or both possible?
  • Tattoo You by Lisa Kenner Grissom
    Recommendations: 6
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: bullying, high school + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, young audiences
    Keyword: bullying, high school, high school reunion
    2013 Winner of the National Ten Minute Play Award, KCACTF
    2013 Winner of the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival.
    Published by Samuel French.

    When two women meet in the bathroom at their 20th high school reunion, their troubled past breaks the cool veneer of the present. Some scars don’t fade away.
  • Penelope's Roses by Lisa Kenner Grissom
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller + 1 more
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller, young audiences
    Finalist, Heideman Award, Actors Theatre of Louisville, 2015

    When an ill-fated young couple hits the road to escape the dim prospects of their present life, their tenuous relationship grows frayed. Can they escape the dirt of the past?​ Is there hope for their future?
  • The Magic Car by Lisa Kenner Grissom
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: fathers and sons
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: fathers and sons
    A baseball game gone awry sets the stage for an elderly father and middle-aged son who must contend with shifting roles. Produced at Segerstrom Arts Center as part of The Car Plays by Moving Arts Theatre, Los Angeles.
  • Patch of Blue by Lisa Kenner Grissom
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama, political
    ·
    Keyword: black lives matter, Race
    Genre: drama, political
    Keyword: black lives matter, Race
    Monologue published by Smith & Kraus

    When a man visits a church not to pray, but to look at a beautiful stained glass window, the church sexton threatens his presence--and his access to the one place where he can find peace in a dangerous world.
  • Home Is A Four-Letter Word by Lisa Kenner Grissom
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: gentrification, latina
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: gentrification, latina
    Two women from very different worlds collide on a lonely night in a changing city...can they find a way to connect?
  • Missed Connections by Lisa Kenner Grissom
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: unrequited love, missed connections
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: unrequited love, missed connections
    When former college “friends with benefits” reunite years later at an airport bar, the past melts into the present like ice cubes in a cocktail glass.