Roberta D'Alois

Roberta D'Alois

I'm a playwright, monologist, and Artistic Director of Jump! Theatre, whose mission is to present theatrical work based on authentic stories of mental illness. I have a B.A. with honors in Theatre Arts from Brandeis University and an M.F.A in Playwriting from San Francisco State, where I also teach.

Short Plays:
• Foot in Both, Spring Has Sprung, and others for the San Francisco One...
I'm a playwright, monologist, and Artistic Director of Jump! Theatre, whose mission is to present theatrical work based on authentic stories of mental illness. I have a B.A. with honors in Theatre Arts from Brandeis University and an M.F.A in Playwriting from San Francisco State, where I also teach.

Short Plays:
• Foot in Both, Spring Has Sprung, and others for the San Francisco One Minute Play Festivals.
• Several 5-minute comedies for Shotz! at Amios West in San Francisco
• Several 10 minute plays for playGround in San Francisco

Full Length:
• One Left Behind: A tech-savvy teenager develops a virtual reality app to reconnect with her sister and heal from sexual abuse.
• If You Do, If You Don’t, a musical, telling the story of a therapist and her deeply disturbed patient who may be a serial killer.
• No Believers, about a young priest whose dreams tell him to go to Afghanistan after the Bamiyan Buddhas are destroyed.
• Athena! The Musical, (music and lyrics; book collaboration with Marilyn Harris Kriegel) a modern-day adaptation of the Athena-Arachne myth. Athena! Took first place in the evening’s reading at the 2012 SF Olympians Festival.
• Arrested Melody, based on a true story of a murder in an animal research lab, which had a reading at Impact Theatre in Berkeley as part of their new plays series.
• Play Dirt, a play about drug use in major league baseball, part of the Magic Theatre reading series as part of my Artist Residency at Z Space.
• Rapture Makes Perfect, a reimagining of the 2008 presidential election, awarded Honorable Mention in Theatre Bay Area’s Playwrights Showcase.

As a solo performer, I've most recently performed monologues about bad hair days, bad boyfriends, and baseball. I am a proud member of the Dramatists’ Guild and The International Centre for Women Playwrights.

Plays

  • One Left Behind by Roberta D'Alois
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    6–12
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: virtual reality, sexual abuse + 2 more
    Genre: adaptation, drama, experimental
    Keyword: virtual reality, sexual abuse, Adolescence, San Francisco
    SYNOPSIS:
    One Left Behind is a loose adaptation of Grimm's fairytale The Six Swans.
    ALICIA, a tech-savvy teenager from San Francisco, lives with her father GARRETT and sister FRANCES. ALICIA is recovering from the death of her mother PATRICIA, and becomes mute after her sister FRANCES drowns. While living with her aunt JODY, PATRICIA's sister and GARRETT’s business partner in their...
    SYNOPSIS:
    One Left Behind is a loose adaptation of Grimm's fairytale The Six Swans.
    ALICIA, a tech-savvy teenager from San Francisco, lives with her father GARRETT and sister FRANCES. ALICIA is recovering from the death of her mother PATRICIA, and becomes mute after her sister FRANCES drowns. While living with her aunt JODY, PATRICIA's sister and GARRETT’s business partner in their virtual reality company, ALICIA is visited by FRANCES, who is now a one-winged spirit who cannot fly. Despite FRANCES' objections, ALICIA creates her own virtual reality app that helps her to uncover and overcome the trauma of sexual abuse she has suffered.
  • No Believers by Roberta D'Alois
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental
    ·
    Keyword: Afghanistan, refugee + 4 more
    Genre: drama, experimental
    Keyword: Afghanistan, refugee, political prisoners, Muslim religion, U.S. politics, dreams
    SYNOPSIS No Believers

    SUZANNE a San Francisco native, is haunted by images of death and destruction, both personal and global, that drive her back to the church she left years before. JACOB, a priest who recognizes Suzanne as his former high school crush, imagines similar tragedies after the Bamiyan Buddha statues are destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. AWESTA, an Afghan immigrant, urges...
    SYNOPSIS No Believers

    SUZANNE a San Francisco native, is haunted by images of death and destruction, both personal and global, that drive her back to the church she left years before. JACOB, a priest who recognizes Suzanne as his former high school crush, imagines similar tragedies after the Bamiyan Buddha statues are destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. AWESTA, an Afghan immigrant, urges SUZANNE and JACOB to take action. When SAYED, an Afghan refugee, arrives at JACOB’s office, he shares the truth about the statues' destruction as events that seemed like dreams unfold into reality.