Alayna Jacqueline

Alayna Jacqueline

Alayna Jacqueline is a Minneapolis-based playwright, born and raised in Buckeye Nation (Columbus, Ohio). She’s an instigator for new plays with the Twin Cities Playwright Cabal and the Membership and Development Coordinator at the Playwrights’ Center. In her absurd experimental writing, she loves to turn figurative into the literal, finding new ways to bend, reshape, and deconstruct stories for the stage....
Alayna Jacqueline is a Minneapolis-based playwright, born and raised in Buckeye Nation (Columbus, Ohio). She’s an instigator for new plays with the Twin Cities Playwright Cabal and the Membership and Development Coordinator at the Playwrights’ Center. In her absurd experimental writing, she loves to turn figurative into the literal, finding new ways to bend, reshape, and deconstruct stories for the stage. Alayna’s plays include The Amethyst, Drapetomania, Get Broken Like Me, Persephone’s Spring, and It’s Too Cold for You Here. Her work has been performed and/or developed at Phoenix Theater (MN), Market Garden Theatre (MN), Rennasaince Theaterworks (WI), Playwrights’ Center (MN), MadLab Theater (OH), Lincoln Theater (OH), Pythian Theater (OH), and Haybarn Theater (VT). Her 10-minute play All of the Everything was recently produced at the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival. In fall of 2019, she completed writing residency at the William Inge Center. She earned her BA in theater from Otterbein University and her MFA in creative writing from Goddard College.

Plays

  • It's Too Cold for You Here by Alayna Jacqueline
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    4–10
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    Genre: drama, experimental + 5 more
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    Keyword: black lives matter, police brutality + 6 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, immersive, movement/physical, mystery/thriller, political, tragedy
    Keyword: black lives matter, police brutality, Depression, grief, movement, Police Brutality and Black Resilience, Black relationships, black mental health
    FULL-LENGTH. Seeking development and production opportunities.
    After the tragic murder of her husband, a grieving woman finds herself split from her shadow. The more her shadow tries to reconnect, the harder the woman pushes away, falling deeper and deeper into denial, where she creates a world where she can grow old with the husband she lost. However, the longer she is separated from her shadow, the...
    FULL-LENGTH. Seeking development and production opportunities.
    After the tragic murder of her husband, a grieving woman finds herself split from her shadow. The more her shadow tries to reconnect, the harder the woman pushes away, falling deeper and deeper into denial, where she creates a world where she can grow old with the husband she lost. However, the longer she is separated from her shadow, the more unstable her world becomes. As she moves back and forth through her stages of grief, she struggles to keep track of time and space and risks losing herself. IT’S TOO COLD FOR YOU HERE is an experimental piece that moves through the abstract journey of a woman living in the grey area between her memories and desires for a future she can never have.
  • All of the Everything by Alayna Jacqueline
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    2–10
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 6 more
    ·
    Keyword: black lives matter, police brutality
    Genre: drama, experimental, fantasy, horror, movement/physical, mystery/thriller, political, tragedy
    Keyword: black lives matter, police brutality
    10-MINUTE. Production Ready.
    While a couple is out for a drive, the woman must manipulate time to share the details of their entire future together before they reach their destination, where her life will change forever.
  • You Know I'd Never (Even If I Did) by Alayna Jacqueline
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    3–4
    ·
    Genre: drama, fantasy + 1 more
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    Keyword: Bipolar (African American), black mental health + 7 more
    Genre: drama, fantasy, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: Bipolar (African American), black mental health, Black Church, foster parenting, lesbian relationship, magical realism, dark fantasy, religious hurt, bi-racial relationship
    FULL-LENGTH. Seeking development and production opportunities.
    Corinne has finally received the proper treatment for her bipolar. However, when she finds herself overwhelmed with preparations to become a foster parent, a heavy workload, and keeping a relationship with her wife and friends afloat, she decides to go off her meds, thinking she's found a cheat code to her bipolar diagnosis. At first,...
    FULL-LENGTH. Seeking development and production opportunities.
    Corinne has finally received the proper treatment for her bipolar. However, when she finds herself overwhelmed with preparations to become a foster parent, a heavy workload, and keeping a relationship with her wife and friends afloat, she decides to go off her meds, thinking she's found a cheat code to her bipolar diagnosis. At first, Corinne is in control, but after multiple nights without sleep, she causes an "incident," forcing her to leave. Three months later, Corinne returns home to find a new child, a distant partner, and a best friend taking over her role as mother and wife. In this magical realism play that bends time, Corinne struggles with the question, when life moves on without you, do you forever lose your place?
  • Feel Nothing at All Costs by Alayna Jacqueline
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    4–15
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental + 4 more
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    Keyword: ubu roi, Paula Vogel Inspired + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental, fantasy, horror, political, satire
    Keyword: ubu roi, Paula Vogel Inspired, alfred jarry, President's day, absurdism
    5-MINUTE. Production ready.
    This 5-minute absurd, dark comedy full of stapled on faces and flying feces is a result of a Paula Vogel Ubu Roi Bake-Off challenge.
  • Get Broken Like Me by Alayna Jacqueline
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: drama, fantasy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: Mental Health, writer's block + 3 more
    Genre: drama, fantasy, horror, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: Mental Health, writer's block, Sarah Kane, thriller, horror
    FULL-LENGTH. Seeking development opportunities.
    After becoming the youngest writer to receive the Wren Lauer Award, Leigh has struggled to complete another piece with the same honest spirit. Now in grad school, her professor assigns her a haunting untitled novella written by an anonymous author. When Leigh finishes the last page, a dark, possessive entity escapes and peels apart Leigh’s sanity. Nights...
    FULL-LENGTH. Seeking development opportunities.
    After becoming the youngest writer to receive the Wren Lauer Award, Leigh has struggled to complete another piece with the same honest spirit. Now in grad school, her professor assigns her a haunting untitled novella written by an anonymous author. When Leigh finishes the last page, a dark, possessive entity escapes and peels apart Leigh’s sanity. Nights are filled with psychosis, and days are losing hours. Leigh investigates the anonymous writer, but soon discovers she has only re-awakened a darkness that has been following her. GET BROKEN LIKE ME explores what it is to be vulnerable in your art and the dangers of losing yourself in it.
  • Drapetomania by Alayna Jacqueline
    Cast: 
    4–20
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 5 more
    ·
    Keyword: Dystopia, stage combat + 2 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, horror, movement/physical, mystery/thriller, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Dystopia, stage combat, shadow play, dance
    FULL-LENGTH. Seeking development opportunities.
    Cassandra, a low-ranked soldier hiding in a safe house in neutral territory, is only days away from her extraction date. But when two soldiers from her former unit request sanctuary, Cassandra is confronted with the possibility of losing her only way out. In a world where the shade of your uniform outranks your experience and skill, DRAPETOMANIA questions...
    FULL-LENGTH. Seeking development opportunities.
    Cassandra, a low-ranked soldier hiding in a safe house in neutral territory, is only days away from her extraction date. But when two soldiers from her former unit request sanctuary, Cassandra is confronted with the possibility of losing her only way out. In a world where the shade of your uniform outranks your experience and skill, DRAPETOMANIA questions allyship, privilege, and security as all of the soldiers are confronted with the decision to fight or die.
  • The Amethyst by Alayna Jacqueline
    Cast: 
    7–8
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 4 more
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    Keyword: folklore, Mental Health + 6 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, fable/folktale, fantasy, horror, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: folklore, Mental Health, postpartum depression, daughters motherhood, fantasy and reality, shadow puppetry, puppetry, horror
    FULL-LENGTH. Seeking development opportunities.
    Inspired by the folklore of changelings, this piece explores the experience of Denise, a first-time mother with postpartum depression. As she navigates through motherhood and the changes it brings, she begins to notice subtle differences in the people in her life. The story travels between Denise’s mind and the outside world. Using found sound music from...
    FULL-LENGTH. Seeking development opportunities.
    Inspired by the folklore of changelings, this piece explores the experience of Denise, a first-time mother with postpartum depression. As she navigates through motherhood and the changes it brings, she begins to notice subtle differences in the people in her life. The story travels between Denise’s mind and the outside world. Using found sound music from three insidious creatures, we follow the intent behind Denise’s family’s actions and words, but also discover how that intent is lost or manipulated into something dark and harmful.
  • Persephone's Spring by Alayna Jacqueline
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: drama, fable/folktale + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: betrayal, broken relationship + 3 more
    Genre: drama, fable/folktale, fantasy, horror, mystery/thriller, tragedy
    Keyword: betrayal, broken relationship, allegory, Greek mythology, Persephone and Hades
    FULL-LENGTH. Seeking development opportunities.
    Kora and Des are preparing for their baby announcement party while trying to suppress the dark omens seeping into their home. However, when Thana—also known as Death—enters the party, there is no escape from all the secrets they've hidden from each other. PERSEPHONE'S SPRING is a play that lives in the figurative world, exploring love, betrayal,...
    FULL-LENGTH. Seeking development opportunities.
    Kora and Des are preparing for their baby announcement party while trying to suppress the dark omens seeping into their home. However, when Thana—also known as Death—enters the party, there is no escape from all the secrets they've hidden from each other. PERSEPHONE'S SPRING is a play that lives in the figurative world, exploring love, betrayal, and forgiveness in the death of a relationship.