Ellen Margolis

Ellen Margolis lives and works in Portland, Oregon. Her plays include Pericles Wet (commissioned and produced by Portland Shakespeare Project); That Smell (commissioned and produced by Shaking-the-Tree Theatre); Prime, a full-length verse comedy (commissioned by Teen West and published by YouthPlays); Licking Batteries (produced by Playwrights West); Splasher (commissioned and produced by Shaking-the-Tree Theatre; Portland Civic Theatre Guild Award for Best Original Script); A Little Chatter (commissioned by Mile Square Theatre, and published by Playscripts, Inc.); and How to Draw Mystical Creatures (produced by ToyBox Theatre; NY International Fringe Festival Award for Excellence in Playwriting). When not writing plays, Ellen enjoys cooking, hiking, and tap dancing.

Ellen Margolis lives and works in Portland, Oregon. Her plays include Pericles Wet (commissioned and produced by Portland Shakespeare Project); That Smell (commissioned and produced by Shaking-the-Tree Theatre); Prime, a full-length verse comedy (commissioned by Teen West and published by YouthPlays); Licking Batteries (produced by Playwrights West); Splasher (commissioned and produced by Shaking-the-Tree Theatre; Portland Civic Theatre Guild Award for Best Original Script); A Little Chatter (commissioned by Mile Square Theatre, and published by Playscripts, Inc.); and How to Draw Mystical Creatures (produced by ToyBox Theatre; NY International Fringe Festival Award for Excellence in Playwriting). When not writing plays, Ellen enjoys cooking, hiking, and tap dancing.

Scripts

What We Thought

by Ellen Margolis

Synopsis

Ginny and Arun are falling from a great height.

Ginny and Arun are falling from a great height.

Frontage Road

by Ellen Margolis

Synopsis

Max has no sense of direction. Without Jeanie to draw him little maps, he'd be . . . right where he ends up today: at the corner of Fog and Nothing.

Max has no sense of direction. Without Jeanie to draw him little maps, he'd be . . . right where he ends up today: at the corner of Fog and Nothing.

Signing the Papers

by Ellen Margolis

Synopsis

Doug and Kathleen. Friends. Artsy, attractive people starting to take hold of their lives. What comes up on the day Doug's divorce is finalized comes form an old, deep place.

Doug and Kathleen. Friends. Artsy, attractive people starting to take hold of their lives. What comes up on the day Doug's divorce is finalized comes form an old, deep place.

Prime

by Ellen Margolis

Synopsis

The prince and princess of neighboring kingdoms are destined for each other through an arranged marriage. On the eve of their planned wedding, however, they decide to run away and forge their own separate futures. Escaping to a nearby valley, they cross paths with disoriented lovers, hot-headed party animals, desperate draft-dodgers, and a number-obsessed hermit. Identities are investigated, resources stretched...

The prince and princess of neighboring kingdoms are destined for each other through an arranged marriage. On the eve of their planned wedding, however, they decide to run away and forge their own separate futures. Escaping to a nearby valley, they cross paths with disoriented lovers, hot-headed party animals, desperate draft-dodgers, and a number-obsessed hermit. Identities are investigated, resources stretched, and every kind of love put to the test in this verse comedy.

Trying Not to Stare

by Ellen Margolis

Synopsis

A play about the desperation and occasional cruelty of well-meaning people who can't quite hack all that’s expected of them. A play about how we look.

3m, 4f; unit set. A mid-size U.S. city. The present.

Mitra, a hard-working designer and mother of two, finds herself spread far too thin. Her husband, Dr. Rob, tries to keep up with the demands of a young family, but doesn't really get it. As a kind of...

A play about the desperation and occasional cruelty of well-meaning people who can't quite hack all that’s expected of them. A play about how we look.

3m, 4f; unit set. A mid-size U.S. city. The present.

Mitra, a hard-working designer and mother of two, finds herself spread far too thin. Her husband, Dr. Rob, tries to keep up with the demands of a young family, but doesn't really get it. As a kind of hail-Mary pass, Mitra kicks Rob out of the house, thinking it will make life simpler, only to find that he will do anything to keep his family together. After a late-night show-down with a passive-aggressive, weirdly omniscient check-out clerk, Mitra lights upon a preposterous plan for checking herself out for a while.

Shana, a young woman badly scarred from a fire in her childhood, volunteers at the same hospital where Rob works and Mitra recuperates. Shana finds herself the unexpected object of attention from drop-dead-gorgeous cafeteria worker Derek. Although she knows he is out of her league and suspects he just wants to convince himself he's a decent guy by spending time with her, Shana begins to fall for Derek. When she asks him to kiss her, their most volatile insecurities drive them apart.

Rob, lonely and baffled at Mitra's abandonment, finds himself taking advice over the intercom from Mitra's unseen secretary. His cynical colleague Casey, who's got her hands full with kids, a job, and the complications of keeping Mitra's secrets, finds herself taking hefty doses of stimulants just to keep up--at least until she finds herself a low-stress job waiting tables in the afterlife.

As the threads converge, everyone tries not to scream, not to scare each other, not to stare--always weighing the benefits of the struggle against the possibility of surrender.

A Little Chatter

by Ellen Margolis

Synopsis

Hoboken, New Jersey. Little League coach Rusty's got a lot on his plate, including a parent on the sidelines who couldn't care less about baseball.

Hoboken, New Jersey. Little League coach Rusty's got a lot on his plate, including a parent on the sidelines who couldn't care less about baseball.

American Soil

by Ellen Margolis

Synopsis

After a momentous election, a mother turns to activism, a father to the trees.

After a momentous election, a mother turns to activism, a father to the trees.

Calumnies

by Ellen Margolis

Synopsis

Inspired by a sensational love-triangle that captivated the American public in the 1820s, Calumnies tells the story of a desperate woman struggling to survive on the Kentucky frontier, a story of race, sex, and politics that occurs at the intersection of public and private life.

Inspired by a sensational love-triangle that captivated the American public in the 1820s, Calumnies tells the story of a desperate woman struggling to survive on the Kentucky frontier, a story of race, sex, and politics that occurs at the intersection of public and private life.

Cartwright's Bank

by Ellen Margolis

Synopsis

Now, I think this is a good time to tell you that the Cartwright interests have just begun building a new bank in Grover’s Corners—had to go to Vermont for the marble, sorry to say. And they’ve asked a friend of mine what they should put in the cornerstone for people to dig up a thousand years from now.
--Thornton Wilder, Our Town

Now, I think this is a good time to tell you that the Cartwright interests have just begun building a new bank in Grover’s Corners—had to go to Vermont for the marble, sorry to say. And they’ve asked a friend of mine what they should put in the cornerstone for people to dig up a thousand years from now.
--Thornton Wilder, Our Town

Harry in Wisconsin

by Ellen Margolis

Synopsis

Harry, a young British knockabout, reenacts a memorable evening in his travels and shares some insights into the nature of the afterlife.

Harry, a young British knockabout, reenacts a memorable evening in his travels and shares some insights into the nature of the afterlife.

Licking Batteries

by Ellen Margolis

Synopsis

Lucy is having electrical problems. Her mother has changed, and it seems to have something to do with electricity. As Lucy grows, her relationships are hampered by her obsessive need to understand the link between her own loss and the mysterious force that moves through everything from household appliances to thunderstorms.

Lucy is having electrical problems. Her mother has changed, and it seems to have something to do with electricity. As Lucy grows, her relationships are hampered by her obsessive need to understand the link between her own loss and the mysterious force that moves through everything from household appliances to thunderstorms.