maguire wilder

15 years ago, things stopped growing. ana and alice danced by the river until alice's sister, abi, fell in.
today, ana and her daughter, ava, are trying to survive. ava dreams of growing something in the field when a girl walks out of the river. the two of them begin to grow together.
when the girl from the river turns out to be abi, ana is forced to confront both her past and her daughter for the first time.

"i don’t know how to tell them that i miss them
i don’t know how to tell them that it will be okay
i don’t know how to tell them that even though the air feels different and the sun feels cold that it will all be so, so fine
and we will all be so, so fine
because we have to be, right?"

4 girls, all first names starting with e, gather in an alley each night in honor of the King. a man in the window watches them and tells us what he saw: a story that is wildly different from what we're actually seeing.

“i know that not all of us can see him, but the king is real. he is so so real. he is all around us. he is watching us. he is thinking about us. he is in our dreams and we are in his. he asks things of us and we are not allowed to ask back.”

rats love to fuck. the MTA loves to kill (and sterilize) them. Rat Princess (our protagonist) and Tabby Cat the Sewer Rat (her new friend) are on a trip to Brooklyn when they get stuck in a trap. Will they get out? Or will they die in there? and will the MTA ever stop sterilizing animals?

"throw it back, little rat, throw it back"

15 year old Rosie is obsessed with Janet Guthrie, the first woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. she dreams of racing cars. her father won't allow it. oscillating between Rosie's reality and her dreams, we understand what it means to want for something + the power a legacy can hold.

"I've never had sex before but I think if I did it would feel like this."

a list play. 3 siblings mourn the loss of their mother before she is past and attempt to remember her for who she was, while all she can do is forget.

"you only love animals that are cows. is that enough for me?"

a three part poem. A relieves moments of joy with the women in her family, women who died in fires. Lucy and Lily find two jars of ashes in their attic. A confronts her daughters. What's left when all that remains is a pile of ashes and a lit match?

"each time I set someone on fire, I stop to burn a little piece of myself."

every stormy day, 2 girls visit a treehouse. life happens outside. they come here to digest it. the storm gets stronger. girls become girls become girls become women. how do we grow up, how do we cope with coping, how on earth do they eat all of that cake, and what happens when the storm that's always been there knocks on their door?

"anything can happen here. it's a treehouse. it's magic. it's safe. it's a storm. we're hit by lightning but we don't die, look how invincible we are. anything can happen, but look what has."