Sam Collier

Sam Collier is a playwright, poet, and theater artist. She is a PhD student in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she studies interspecies collaboration and plays about climate change.

Her play DAISY VIOLET THE BITCH BEAST KING was the Winner of the 2019 Modern Works Festival at Urbanite Theatre in Sarasota, Florida. Her work has also been developed and presented by New College of Florida, Theatre Nova, the North Carolina Women's Theatre Festival, the UC Davis Ground & Field Theatre Festival, the Last Frontier Theater Conference, PTP/NYC, the Chicago Theatre Marathon, the Make Ready, Horse & Cart, New Ground Theater, Theater Nyx, and the Iowa New Play Festival.

She has held residencies and fellowships with the National Writers Series, the...

Sam Collier is a playwright, poet, and theater artist. She is a PhD student in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she studies interspecies collaboration and plays about climate change.

Her play DAISY VIOLET THE BITCH BEAST KING was the Winner of the 2019 Modern Works Festival at Urbanite Theatre in Sarasota, Florida. Her work has also been developed and presented by New College of Florida, Theatre Nova, the North Carolina Women's Theatre Festival, the UC Davis Ground & Field Theatre Festival, the Last Frontier Theater Conference, PTP/NYC, the Chicago Theatre Marathon, the Make Ready, Horse & Cart, New Ground Theater, Theater Nyx, and the Iowa New Play Festival.

She has held residencies and fellowships with the National Writers Series, the Goodman Playwrights Unit, the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and NTI Theatermakers.

She has taught writing with Unity College, Interlochen Arts Camp, Front Street Writers, Cornell College, the Iowa Young Writers Project, Indiana Repertory Theater, Young Playwrights Theater, the University of Iowa, Imagination Stage, and public schools in Iowa City, D.C., Boston, and northern Michigan.

Sam's poems have been published in Claw & Blossom, What Rough Beast, Iron Horse Literary Review, Sixfold, Mortar Magazine, The Puritan, Guernica, and elsewhere.

Along with Sarah Cho, she is the co-host of the playwriting podcast Beckett's Babies. You can catch their latest episode, or settle in for an entire evening of good conversations, at beckettsbabies.com.

MFA: University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop.

Photo credit: Ben Hale

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Scripts

The Light That's Left

by Sam Collier

Cast Size
3
Genre
drama,
fantasy

Lena is hiking to a glacier that she visited with her mother many years ago, when she meets a mysterious stranger in the woods. A play about grief, hope, and climate change.

Lena is hiking to a glacier that she visited with her mother many years ago, when she meets a mysterious stranger in the woods. A play about grief, hope, and climate change.

Daisy Violet the Bitch Beast King

by Sam Collier

14
Cast Size
4
Genre
dark comedy,
experimental,
fantasy,
horror,
immersive

Up in their attic, sisters Josephine and Henrietta create a new sister for their family; she's monstrous and violent and embodies everything they've dreamed of: the rage of children, the fury of girls.

Up in their attic, sisters Josephine and Henrietta create a new sister for their family; she's monstrous and violent and embodies everything they've dreamed of: the rage of children, the fury of girls.

A Hundred Circling Camps

by Sam Collier

Cast Size
9—16
Genre
drama,
period,
political

During the summer of 1932, over 20,000 people hopped trains to Washington D.C. and camped out to demand fair pay for veterans of the World War. The legacy of the Bonus Army is written into our laws and culture, but the march has been largely forgotten. As America protests and forgets and protests and forgets, what is carried forward?

Developed through a commission from the 2017-2018 Goodman Playwrights Unit and...

During the summer of 1932, over 20,000 people hopped trains to Washington D.C. and camped out to demand fair pay for veterans of the World War. The legacy of the Bonus Army is written into our laws and culture, but the march has been largely forgotten. As America protests and forgets and protests and forgets, what is carried forward?

Developed through a commission from the 2017-2018 Goodman Playwrights Unit and the 2023 Dogteam Theatre Project Building Summer.

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thing with feathers

by Sam Collier

3
Cast Size
3—100
Genre
adventure,
drama,
fantasy,
science fiction

Ruby, Jade, and Cove fall in and out of love with each other as their world crumbles. Plus Ruby and Cove can turn into birds. Plus there's a midnight conversation with an owl. Part myth, part apocalyptic fairy tale, part love story, this is a play about survival, transformation, and hope.

Ruby, Jade, and Cove fall in and out of love with each other as their world crumbles. Plus Ruby and Cove can turn into birds. Plus there's a midnight conversation with an owl. Part myth, part apocalyptic fairy tale, part love story, this is a play about survival, transformation, and hope.

Silo Tree

by Sam Collier

Cast Size
6—9
Genre
drama,
fantasy

Lailah guides souls through her house to the world of the dead. Lou and Wiley meet up again after ten years. The coywolves run in the night. Silo Tree is a pause on the bridge, a collection of lives in liminal space, and a memory that rolls forward as its surface is blown backward by the wind.

Lailah guides souls through her house to the world of the dead. Lou and Wiley meet up again after ten years. The coywolves run in the night. Silo Tree is a pause on the bridge, a collection of lives in liminal space, and a memory that rolls forward as its surface is blown backward by the wind.

The Last Tooth (3 minute monologue)

by Sam Collier

6
Cast Size
1
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy

A comedic monologue about doing whatever it takes to get into dentist school.

A comedic monologue about doing whatever it takes to get into dentist school.

Time Mechanics (25 mins)

by Sam Collier

2
Cast Size
3
Genre
comedy,
science fiction

Stevie and May are time-machine mechanics, just trying to run a respectable shop. But when Bill shows up with a suspicious machine, they have some tough choices to make.

Stevie and May are time-machine mechanics, just trying to run a respectable shop. But when Bill shows up with a suspicious machine, they have some tough choices to make.

In My Mother's Tongue Like Winter (10 minutes)

by Sam Collier

Cast Size
3
Genre
comedy,
fantasy

Summer. A Christmas tree farm. A runaway teen crosses paths with a grolar bear, who has just escaped from a zoo.

Summer. A Christmas tree farm. A runaway teen crosses paths with a grolar bear, who has just escaped from a zoo.

Quiet, Witches

by Sam Collier

Cast Size
13
Genre
drama

Four DC teenagers trespass onto the abandoned grounds of St. Elizabeth's Hospital. When Zadie tries to contact the ghost of her great-aunt, she accidentally summons a chorus of muses aching to be set free. Zadie, Max, Daniela, and Amina find themselves grappling not only with their own prejudices and suspicions, but with the complicated and unique history of their shared city.

Four DC teenagers trespass onto the abandoned grounds of St. Elizabeth's Hospital. When Zadie tries to contact the ghost of her great-aunt, she accidentally summons a chorus of muses aching to be set free. Zadie, Max, Daniela, and Amina find themselves grappling not only with their own prejudices and suspicions, but with the complicated and unique history of their shared city.

Residue (10 Minutes)

by Sam Collier

Cast Size
3
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy

Gretchen is measuring her wrinkles. Her husband, Josh, is all out of soup. Meanwhile, their ten year old daughter, Lucy, is dyeing. Just a regular day in the life of an ordinary American family.

Gretchen is measuring her wrinkles. Her husband, Josh, is all out of soup. Meanwhile, their ten year old daughter, Lucy, is dyeing. Just a regular day in the life of an ordinary American family.

Ravel

by Sam Collier

Cast Size
3
Genre
adventure,
drama

For thousands of years, the Fates have spun, measured, and cut human lives. But now something is wrong: the golden sheep are sick, the scissors refuse to cut. The Fates come to Earth. Meanwhile, an expert frog biologist has gone missing in the desert, and her daughter sets out to find her.

For thousands of years, the Fates have spun, measured, and cut human lives. But now something is wrong: the golden sheep are sick, the scissors refuse to cut. The Fates come to Earth. Meanwhile, an expert frog biologist has gone missing in the desert, and her daughter sets out to find her.