Bayla Travis

Bayla Travis

Bayla Travis is an internationally produced queer playwright who began writing and directing at NYC's famed WOW Cafe Theatre. Her work has been seen at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney, the Drill Hall Theatre in London and cities across the U.S. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and loves teaching writing of all genres. Bayla serves on the executive committee of Honor Roll! an advocacy group for women+...
Bayla Travis is an internationally produced queer playwright who began writing and directing at NYC's famed WOW Cafe Theatre. Her work has been seen at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney, the Drill Hall Theatre in London and cities across the U.S. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and loves teaching writing of all genres. Bayla serves on the executive committee of Honor Roll! an advocacy group for women+ playwrights over 40 whose goal is inclusion in theater. She makes her home in Oakland, CA.

Plays

  • Babeland
    Babeland is a newly formed, all-female rock band. The style of the show is cinema verite; fast paced, chaotic. The play follows the four band members in their pursuit of artistic expression, romance and family. Like The Monkeys, The Partridge Family and classic Beatles films, there is a sense of fun and adventure. Unlike those shows, however, Babeland has an equally dark component, as the characters struggle...
    Babeland is a newly formed, all-female rock band. The style of the show is cinema verite; fast paced, chaotic. The play follows the four band members in their pursuit of artistic expression, romance and family. Like The Monkeys, The Partridge Family and classic Beatles films, there is a sense of fun and adventure. Unlike those shows, however, Babeland has an equally dark component, as the characters struggle against the obstacles to fame, fortune and living happily ever after.
  • Parlor Games
    What happens when two of Freud's (fictional) female patients find themselves in a cloistered romantic relationship in Vienna? Creating an imaginal world by play acting their fantasies, dark themes threaten to get out of control as the pain of their seclusion looms.
  • Safe Sane Consensual
    ‘Safe Sane Consensual’ is a drama about an accidental death during an SM scene. Len, a working class butch, unintentionally causes the death of her lover, Amanda, a femme from a well-to-do background. The crisis of her lover’s death at her own hands pushes the boundaries of Len’s sanity as well as the stability of her community. Once you’ve lost your place on the page, how can you find it again? And if the...
    ‘Safe Sane Consensual’ is a drama about an accidental death during an SM scene. Len, a working class butch, unintentionally causes the death of her lover, Amanda, a femme from a well-to-do background. The crisis of her lover’s death at her own hands pushes the boundaries of Len’s sanity as well as the stability of her community. Once you’ve lost your place on the page, how can you find it again? And if the story is too unpleasant, why bother?

    This play addresses the following questions: What does ‘power’ really mean? What is an underground communities’ role in a mainstream crisis? What does ‘freedom’ mean? What does ‘sexual freedom’ mean? What are the responsibilities of love?

    Through the intersectional prism of class and radical sexual identity, this play examines the meaning of mental health, class privilege, community unity and sexual freedom. Vivid and startling visual and auditory effects are layered onto the dramatic narrative to create a sensually theatrical experience of the issues at hand.
  • Raising Grace
    Two generations of lesbian activists, mother Vivian and daughter Grace try to find common ground across generations among the shifting sexual and political landscape of San Francisco. Famous feminist mom Vivian, grapples with falling behind the times and lesbian bed death while having a front row seat to daughter Grace's experiments with BDSM, polyamory, and anarchy.
  • The Dyke & The Porn Star
    San Francisco dyke-about-town Chance gets to meet her favorite porn star, Tara Gold. Will Chance's fantasies come true, or will they find themselves on a collision course with Tara's own most personal unfulfilled erotic yearnings? This dark, sexy comedy is as complex as it is hot.