Pauline David-Sax

MONOLOGUE. Clara Lemlich Shavelson, best known as the young woman whose words inspired The Uprising of 20,000 (the massive 1909 strike of New York City’s garment workers) is now 65 years old, widowed, and wanted for questioning by the U.S. Senate. What does it mean to be accused of "un-American" activity when you have spent your life working on behalf of ALL Americans?

FULL LENGTH, approx. 110 minutes. 2020-21 Henley Rose finalist. Selected for the Women Playwright Series at Centenary Stage Co. (2021) and Women's Theatre Festival's Occupy the Stage (2020). A would-be children’s book author arrives in the forest looking for inspiration; a young rabbit seizes the chance to tell her tale. But what really happened in the carrot patch that day? Join Cottontail on her quest to tell her story even as it pits her against the triple threat of Peter, Miss Potter and the patriarchy.

FULL LENGTH, approx. 75 min. Winner of the 2020 Jane Chambers Prize for Excellence in Feminist Playwriting and named a finalist in the 2020 Players Club of Swarthmore New Play Festival and the 2019 HRC Showcase Theatre national playwriting contest. Inspired by the playwright’s grandmother’s self-published memoir with the same name, How We Survived is an exploration of how we choose to make sense of, and remember, our lives. An elderly grandmother, a German Jew who escaped to the United States in the 1930s, moves into a nursing home as her adult daughter takes charge of cleaning out her apartment. The grandfather’s suicide forty years earlier haunts them both, and as questions are answered and secrets unearthed it leads both mother and daughter to consider what it means, and what it takes, to be a survivor.

FULL LENGTH, approx. 75 min. Selected for the 2021 Women's Voices Festival (Mad Cow Theatre). When Eric’s twin sister Ava dies unexpectedly, he uses his skills in robotics to create a replica based on the data Ava has left behind. As Ava-22’s machine learning progresses, Eric is at first comforted by having his sister back in his life, then dismayed as he discovers that the artificially intelligent version of Ava has no need for him. Goldfish Have No Memory asks whether technology can mitigate grief and what it means to truly know someone.

(Currently in revision) FULL LENGTH, approx. 120 min. After the death of a famous white magician in early 1900s New York, three people vie for control of his legacy: his widow, his African-American assistant, and his illegitimate son. But there can be only one Gellar the Great.

FULL LENGTH, approx. 90 min. Finalist for the Todd McNerney Playwriting Award (2018). In the early 1920s two women struggle to define themselves. Georgia gained notoriety as the subject of husband Alfred’s photographs and now fights to be taken seriously as a painter in her own right. Beck endures an uninspiring job while waiting for her husband, aspiring photographer Paul, to achieve the financial success necessary to support a family. After Beck suffers a miscarriage, Alfred and Georgia invite her and Paul up to their lake house for a visit, setting off an unanticipated chain of events. Paul sees the trip as a chance to show his latest work to Alfred, now a successful gallery owner, in the hopes that he can convince Alfred to include it in an important upcoming show. Georgia, creatively blocked after reading recent reviews, finds Paul’s work inspiring, but Alfred is more interested in having Beck model for him. Beck agrees, both flattered by Alfred’s attention and hopeful that it will give her influence to advocate for Paul. When Beck’s attempted interferences threaten to undermine Georgia’s career, loyalties are tested and secrets exposed. (Note: this play is loosely inspired, but not based on, the lives of Georgia O'Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand and Beck Strand.)

10 MIN PLAY. In classical mythology, Cassandra is cursed to speak the truth about the future without ever being believed. In this modern homage, Cassandra is the director of a school that has recently experienced a tragic building collapse. Her attempts to use a TV interview as a platform for warning others of future calamity is threatened by the news of an apparent miracle: a rescue worker claims to have heard the voice of a child who has survived the accident.

MONOLOGUE. A trip to a department store to buy a blender for her son and his girlfriend brings back memories for Joyce.