Nina Morrison

Nina Morrison is a playwright, director, and teaching artist. Nina is currently working on an episodic podcast, The Well. Her latest play, Profitable Island, was recently given an online reading. Hearts on Fire, a musical developed with composer Jeannie Fry, had a staged reading at The Jungle Theater in Minneapolis. Nina's play The Age of Innocence was nominated for the 2023 Venturous Plays list at The Playwrights' Center. Other current projects include Valu, a feature length screenplay adaptation of her play of the same title. She is a faculty instructor for the IowaLink Program at the University of Iowa. She teaches playwriting for Chicago Dramatists, and she is continuing to teach creative writing at The Summer Writing Residency offered through the Belin-Blank Center, Gifted and...

Nina Morrison is a playwright, director, and teaching artist. Nina is currently working on an episodic podcast, The Well. Her latest play, Profitable Island, was recently given an online reading. Hearts on Fire, a musical developed with composer Jeannie Fry, had a staged reading at The Jungle Theater in Minneapolis. Nina's play The Age of Innocence was nominated for the 2023 Venturous Plays list at The Playwrights' Center. Other current projects include Valu, a feature length screenplay adaptation of her play of the same title. She is a faculty instructor for the IowaLink Program at the University of Iowa. She teaches playwriting for Chicago Dramatists, and she is continuing to teach creative writing at The Summer Writing Residency offered through the Belin-Blank Center, Gifted and Talented Development, at the University of Iowa.

Nina was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Iowa in 2020; she was one of the 2019-2020 University of Iowa Provost's Postgraduate Visiting Writers. She was a 2019 finalist for the Jerome Playwriting Fellowship, and a 2018 and 2019 finalist for New Dramatists. Nina's play, Féminaal, was presented by The Grumble Theater, a Twin Cities company, directed by Alison Ruth. Nina's play Aurora fra Bergen, or, Ibsanity, was presented by Fordham University.

Nina is currently based in Iowa City, and before Iowa she was based in New York City. Select NYC credits: Nina wrote and directed the plays Arrow In and Girl Adventure: Parts 1-4. Both plays were presented by Dixon Place, and selected for The HOT! Festival of Queer Performance and the Little Theatre series. Nina was a Dixon Place Artist-in-Residence, and she was a WORKSPACE Writer-in-Residence, a residency program of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. She holds an MFA in Directing and an MFA in Playwriting both from the University of Iowa.

Scripts

Profitable Island

by Nina Morrison

Synopsis

Profitable Island is about the participants on a Love Island-style reality show set at a resort in Mexico. The participants are desperate to raise their social profiles and become influencers. They vie for camera time, but their efforts are thwarted by a menacing visitor and encroaching violence. They are convinced to help a Coyote get a family across the border. Later, they learn they may have human trafficked...

Profitable Island is about the participants on a Love Island-style reality show set at a resort in Mexico. The participants are desperate to raise their social profiles and become influencers. They vie for camera time, but their efforts are thwarted by a menacing visitor and encroaching violence. They are convinced to help a Coyote get a family across the border. Later, they learn they may have human trafficked the family. It's too late to correct their cooperation. A politician gets involved to save his son who is one of the participants. The rest are left on their own, hoping that the television network will save them.

Pretty Girl Underground, or, The Well

by Nina Morrison

Synopsis

This 6-episode fiction podcast follows a sorority girl and an FBI Agent who collide when their different missions lead them both to a mysterious well of data. The data could ruin many, many powerful men if exposed. Everyone connected to this data well has been threatened and silenced. The unlikely friends follow dark leads searching for the elusive well, and their lives are increasingly endangered.

This 6-episode fiction podcast follows a sorority girl and an FBI Agent who collide when their different missions lead them both to a mysterious well of data. The data could ruin many, many powerful men if exposed. Everyone connected to this data well has been threatened and silenced. The unlikely friends follow dark leads searching for the elusive well, and their lives are increasingly endangered.

Hearts on Fire

by Nina Morrison

Synopsis

Hearts on Fire is a pop musical written by Nina Morrison with music by Jeannie Fry. The boyband Hearts is at the top of the charts in 2019 America. Daniel, an Iowa high school student, is questioning his sexuality. Daniel has become a secret TJ shipper, meaning he ships Tegen and Jesse, two members of Hearts. He has befriended Alex, a non-binary TJ shipper, and they make “proof” videos that they post on social...

Hearts on Fire is a pop musical written by Nina Morrison with music by Jeannie Fry. The boyband Hearts is at the top of the charts in 2019 America. Daniel, an Iowa high school student, is questioning his sexuality. Daniel has become a secret TJ shipper, meaning he ships Tegen and Jesse, two members of Hearts. He has befriended Alex, a non-binary TJ shipper, and they make “proof” videos that they post on social media. The videos are filled with clips culled from Hearts concerts. The footage is of Tegen and Jesse grabbing each other’s asses, whispering, holding hands, sitting in each other’s laps and generally looking more like boyfriends than friends. The shipping somehow helps Daniel and Alex feel more comfortable about their own identities and sexualities. The videos become very popular, and the record label gets concerned.

The Age of Innocence

by Nina Morrison

Synopsis

Inspired by a real-life public breakup announcement between two celebrity writers and by the Edith Wharton novel of the same title, The Age of Innocence is a play about the public announcement of the breakup of two people named Jess and Ellen. In a small museum in Los Angeles surrounded by raging wildfires, Jess and Ellen talk the audience through their romantic and personal obstacles sometimes using period...

Inspired by a real-life public breakup announcement between two celebrity writers and by the Edith Wharton novel of the same title, The Age of Innocence is a play about the public announcement of the breakup of two people named Jess and Ellen. In a small museum in Los Angeles surrounded by raging wildfires, Jess and Ellen talk the audience through their romantic and personal obstacles sometimes using period costumes and role play. The play is a comedic take on identity, gender, love and change at a certain age.

Valu

by Nina Morrison

Synopsis

A queer sci-fi screenplay, Valu takes place in the year 2070. The most devoted aide to the Queen falls desperately in love with the woman leading the rebel army. Eventually she must decide whether to protect the queen who saved her life or to help the woman she loves destroy the corrupt queendom she serves.

A queer sci-fi screenplay, Valu takes place in the year 2070. The most devoted aide to the Queen falls desperately in love with the woman leading the rebel army. Eventually she must decide whether to protect the queen who saved her life or to help the woman she loves destroy the corrupt queendom she serves.

Aurora fra Bergen, or, Ibsanity

by Nina Morrison

Synopsis

Aurora fra Bergen, or, Ibsanity is a modern queer comedic reimagining of Ibsen's Lady from the Sea. Set in Oslo, a woman haunted by a mysterious former lover is visited by her old friend, Aurora, from Bergen.

Aurora fra Bergen, or, Ibsanity is a modern queer comedic reimagining of Ibsen's Lady from the Sea. Set in Oslo, a woman haunted by a mysterious former lover is visited by her old friend, Aurora, from Bergen.

Féminaal

by Nina Morrison

Synopsis

Féminaal, written by Nina Morrison with music by Zoë Woodworth, presents a world that satirizes the misogyny in French New Wave Cinema and the culture at large: set in 1960’s Paris and the Present Day, this work imagines a setting where women are celebrated for their excess and debauchery and never held to a bizarrely high standard of “historical accuracy.” A genre-defying new play with music inspired by the Yé...

Féminaal, written by Nina Morrison with music by Zoë Woodworth, presents a world that satirizes the misogyny in French New Wave Cinema and the culture at large: set in 1960’s Paris and the Present Day, this work imagines a setting where women are celebrated for their excess and debauchery and never held to a bizarrely high standard of “historical accuracy.” A genre-defying new play with music inspired by the Yé-Yé Girls of French Pop, Morrison’s work combines progressive feminist ideals with raucous comedic antics to create a theatrical landscape at once familiar and utterly original.