Val Dunn

Val Dunn

Val Dunn is a writer/deviser who creates plays, performance art, and rituals. Her work possesses a strong sense of place and tackles issues of feminism and queerness while pushing against the limitations of form. Val’s writing has been presented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Philly Theatre Week, Philly SoLow Fest, and You Can’t Fail @ Tattooed Mom. She is a member...
Val Dunn is a writer/deviser who creates plays, performance art, and rituals. Her work possesses a strong sense of place and tackles issues of feminism and queerness while pushing against the limitations of form. Val’s writing has been presented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Philly Theatre Week, Philly SoLow Fest, and You Can’t Fail @ Tattooed Mom. She is a member playwright of InterAct Theatre Company's Core Playwrights, Azuka Theatre’s New Pages, Writers on the Rocks, and an alumna of the Foundry @ Play Penn. Val’s work has been supported by Play Penn, the Orchard Project, Azuka Theatre, Signal Fire, Centrum Arts, the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, SANDBOX, and Washington College. Val holds a B.A. with honors in drama and English from Washington College where she received the Stewart Award for Drama, The Mary Martin Prize, The Jude & Miriam Pfister Poetry Prize, The William W. Warner Prize for Writing on the Environment, The Literary House Genre Fiction Prize, and was a finalist for the Sophie Kerr prize in Literature. Val currently splits her time between Philadelphia, PA and Bristol, UK .

Additional projects include Now More Than Ever, Johnny Depp: a Retrospective on Late-Stage Capitalism, [home.body], Space|Place|Nonplace, I Know the Wind for the Things It Touches, and The Beauteous Majesty of Denmark.

Plays

  • Carroll County Fix by Val Dunn
    Recommendations: 9
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: coming of age, rural + 4 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: coming of age, rural, small town America, opioid crisis, college admissions, LGBTQ
    This summer, Tess has a plan: make a boundary-pushing documentary in the local Walmart parking lot, get a full-ride to fancy film school, and say goodbye to Carroll County for good. With her best friend Rach home from college, now’s the time to make it happen. But as they try to tell their town’s story, they find themselves asking: do they still agree on what that story is? Amid a chorus of croaking frogs,...
    This summer, Tess has a plan: make a boundary-pushing documentary in the local Walmart parking lot, get a full-ride to fancy film school, and say goodbye to Carroll County for good. With her best friend Rach home from college, now’s the time to make it happen. But as they try to tell their town’s story, they find themselves asking: do they still agree on what that story is? Amid a chorus of croaking frogs, rattling pill bottles, wry humor and heartfelt humanity, CARROLL COUNTY FIX pushes past small-town clichés to explore the deep currents of change wracking rural communities.
  • Down in the Holler by Val Dunn
    Recommendations: 7
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: LGBTQ, ghosts + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: LGBTQ, ghosts, love triangle, Lesbian, class
    Deep in a holler of the Shenandoah Valley, Juniper prepares to spend a perfect life in a perfect cabin with her perfect partner, Blake. Until Maeve appears. Telling tall tales and crooning high lonesomes, Maeve beguiles Juniper return to Gin - a past self who once lived and loved in this here house. As Juniper attempts to exorcise her pursuit of passion and maintain the stable life she's created with Blake...
    Deep in a holler of the Shenandoah Valley, Juniper prepares to spend a perfect life in a perfect cabin with her perfect partner, Blake. Until Maeve appears. Telling tall tales and crooning high lonesomes, Maeve beguiles Juniper return to Gin - a past self who once lived and loved in this here house. As Juniper attempts to exorcise her pursuit of passion and maintain the stable life she's created with Blake, Down in the Holler witnesses a collision of class and queerness, ultimately asking how we reconcile who we were and who we thought we would become.
  • O, Possum! by Val Dunn
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    5–13
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    Genre: dark comedy
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    Keyword: climate change, Lesbian + 5 more
    Genre: dark comedy
    Keyword: climate change, Lesbian, anti-bullying, activism, migration, punk, punk ballads sung by a tumbleweed
    The climate is in crisis, and so is the Mammalian Exhibit at Jumping Cholla Community Park — where a Park Ranger ‘deals’ with her feelings of inadequacy by biting off more than she can chew, looking longingly at her mate-me-be-me hero Thorn, and munching peyote with her best friend — the titular Opossum. But a bake sale gone awry turns out to be the last [single-use plastic] straw for our under-appreciated Park...
    The climate is in crisis, and so is the Mammalian Exhibit at Jumping Cholla Community Park — where a Park Ranger ‘deals’ with her feelings of inadequacy by biting off more than she can chew, looking longingly at her mate-me-be-me hero Thorn, and munching peyote with her best friend — the titular Opossum. But a bake sale gone awry turns out to be the last [single-use plastic] straw for our under-appreciated Park Ranger… who promptly punks out. At a park without a Park Ranger, things get wild: Opossum proposes eating our young, gluten-free = anarchy, and everyone remains cognizant always that the great hurtle toward death continues. How will the community of Jumping Cholla Community Park ever survive if they don’t work together as a community?!… seriously, how?… a balladeering Tumbleweed wants to know.) O, Possum! A (bleak) comedy about climate change, friendship, and dealing with the consequences of our inactions.
  • A Shock of Wheat by Val Dunn
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: LGBTQ, teenage girls + 4 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: LGBTQ, teenage girls, small town, Lesbian, coming out, coming of age
    Harper and Charlie create elaborate rituals to explore the darkest parts of their friendship. Even hidden within their small town's wheat fields, these teenage girls live and die by the rule that it isn't gay if their lips don't touch. They make games of praying mantis sex and intimate violence. They dance with the dangers of the unsaid. When one witching hour’s ritual goes too far, Harper and...
    Harper and Charlie create elaborate rituals to explore the darkest parts of their friendship. Even hidden within their small town's wheat fields, these teenage girls live and die by the rule that it isn't gay if their lips don't touch. They make games of praying mantis sex and intimate violence. They dance with the dangers of the unsaid. When one witching hour’s ritual goes too far, Harper and Charlie must confront what’s revealed as their wheat field haven burns to the ground.
  • kitchen couch by Val Dunn
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, mystery/thriller, satire
    When Tank investigates the murder of a man who has yet to be murdered, she uncovers secrets that will change her technology-free house collective forever. With equal parts humor and darkness, Kitchen Couch subverts the tropes of a whodunnit to interrogate the limitations of engagement, community, and cancel culture.