Will Brumley

Will Brumley

Will Brumley is a 2021-2022 Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow where he developed his play Pulling Leather: A Queer Rodeo Fantasia, which was also a 2018 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Finalist and part of the 2021 Play Lab at the Valdez Last Frontier Theatre Conference. The Clinic (2019 O’Neill Semi-Finalist) was performed in 17 benefit readings across the United States throughout 2019-2020,...
Will Brumley is a 2021-2022 Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow where he developed his play Pulling Leather: A Queer Rodeo Fantasia, which was also a 2018 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Finalist and part of the 2021 Play Lab at the Valdez Last Frontier Theatre Conference. The Clinic (2019 O’Neill Semi-Finalist) was performed in 17 benefit readings across the United States throughout 2019-2020, raising over $11,500 for reproductive rights organizations and featured in American Theatre Magazine. Other work includes Dollar Store Jesus (2020 O’Neill Semi-Finalist) and the musical Williamsburg! The Musical, written with musicians Brooke Fox and Kurt Gellersted, which was a 2007 NYC Fringe Overall Excellence Award winner and called “an absolute hit” (WFUV). Will’s work has been developed in masterclasses and through writing groups at Bushwick Starr, Primary Stages’ ESPA, and The Vineyard Theatre in the US and Theatre 503, Soho Theatre, and Squint Theatre in London.

Plays

  • Pulling Leather: A Queer Rodeo Fantasia by Will Brumley
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 5 more
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    Keyword: gay, Rodeo + 8 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, drama, experimental, fantasy, movement/physical, musical
    Keyword: gay, Rodeo, queer, cowboys, LGBTQ, coming of age, homosexuality, coming out, midwest, American West
    2021-2022 Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow
    2021 Play Lab at the Valdez Last Frontier Theatre Conference
    2018 Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference Finalist

    After failing to make it in New York, Glen moves back home to Kansas, but he feels even further away from his family than before—until he discovers that his Uncle Darby was the 1990 International Gay Rodeo Champion...
    2021-2022 Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow
    2021 Play Lab at the Valdez Last Frontier Theatre Conference
    2018 Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference Finalist

    After failing to make it in New York, Glen moves back home to Kansas, but he feels even further away from his family than before—until he discovers that his Uncle Darby was the 1990 International Gay Rodeo Champion. Hopeful that a blood relative could also be a kindred spirit, Glen heads to Oklahoma to learn the art of six seconds and becomes an unexpected part of his uncle’s late-in-life family return. A kaleidoscopic desert road trip about the myths of masculinity and cowboys, Pulling Leather is etched in the iconography of the American West.
  • The Clinic by Will Brumley
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    11–15
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: abortion, women's bodies + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: abortion, women's bodies, Women's choices, ensemble, Reproductive Rights, Women's reproductive health, reproductive freedom, women's reproductive rights
    2019 Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist
    Featured in American Theatre Magazine: https://www.americantheatre.org/2019/09/18/a-is-for-art-about-abortion-access/

    The Clinic is an ensemble piece depicting abortion providers' lives over the course of nine months in Wichita, Kansas. Lorrie Daniels, a meticulous transient abortionist, flies in each Saturday to...
    2019 Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist
    Featured in American Theatre Magazine: https://www.americantheatre.org/2019/09/18/a-is-for-art-about-abortion-access/

    The Clinic is an ensemble piece depicting abortion providers' lives over the course of nine months in Wichita, Kansas. Lorrie Daniels, a meticulous transient abortionist, flies in each Saturday to Wichita Women’s Health, one of the last clinics in the state and a battleground for reproductive freedom since the notorious 1991 Summer of Mercy protests. Recently nominated for an Ethical Humanist Award, Lorrie’s perfect career as provider and medical researcher is at its height. She has learned, along with the clinic’s multi-generational staff, to contend with the escalating conflict from outside forces, including hostile protesters, state legislature/TRAP laws, and even respite from the local authorities. However, seemingly stupid pranks escalate as a Crisis Pregnancy Center sets up shop across the street. When Lorrie’s identity becomes public knowledge, the threats grow more personal until the entire staff’s lives are turned upside down one day and they are faced with providing services under impossible conditions.
  • Dollar Store Jesus by Will Brumley
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, faith-based + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, faith-based, horror, political, tragedy
    2020 Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist

    The battle between good and evil is sparked when the employees of a dollar store in Topeka, Kansas believe the face of Jesus has appeared on a mirror for sale in the store.