An Instant Message by
~10 MIN PLAY~ In the age of dial-up, a New Jersey teen saves up lunch money to buy a phone card to call her boyfriend in Kansas. Their first conversation might've gone like this. Or so she remembers.
Allyson Dwyer
Allyson Dwyer
I'm an NJ/NYC playwright who is interested in cycles, technology, navigating the world as a woman, and how being a woman and technology intersect. Sometimes I write about these things together, sometimes separate. Recent plays include The Hub (Semi-Finalist, Princess Grace), Nothing Remained But Voice And Bones (Clubbed Thumb Reading Series, Semi-Finalist New American Voices and NAP at Normal Ave), Arrow...
I'm an NJ/NYC playwright who is interested in cycles, technology, navigating the world as a woman, and how being a woman and technology intersect. Sometimes I write about these things together, sometimes separate. Recent plays include The Hub (Semi-Finalist, Princess Grace), Nothing Remained But Voice And Bones (Clubbed Thumb Reading Series, Semi-Finalist New American Voices and NAP at Normal Ave), Arrow of Time (The Brick 2022). My short play, An Instant Message, was a top twelve Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Festival finalist. Most recently I was in the Final Shortlist for the Alpine Fellowship Theatre Prize, a semi-finalist for Pipeline Theatre's PlayLab and had a monologue published in a book by Theatre Unbound. I'm currently working on an audio play as part of the inaugural SoundLab at The Brick, and was a 2020-2021 member of Clubbed Thumb's Early Career Writer's Group where I received the Constitution Commission.
I received my BFA from Eugene Lang, The New School for Liberal Arts, in 2012, with a concentration in Writing, and my Playwriting MFA at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, MN, in 2018.
I received my BFA from Eugene Lang, The New School for Liberal Arts, in 2012, with a concentration in Writing, and my Playwriting MFA at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, MN, in 2018.
Recommended by Allyson Dwyer
- Even Flowers Bloom in Hell, Sometimes by12 Aug. 2021“ You will feel this play, and feel it again, and again later, when you remember moments, or characters, or phrases. Franky has such a command of theatricality, the play begins to feel almost cinematic in its grasp of the characters and the soft, subtle windows into their worlds and the way he isn't afraid to break from patterns or form. His writing is deeply emotional, visceral, pulpy and pulsing with life, to the point that you feel as trapped and confined as Prisoner. I cannot recommend this play enough. ”
- 1900s Women Bonding by9 Aug. 2021“ Catherine is dangerously good at writing plays that put us in the headspace of its characters. In the same way these two housewives are never quite sure of their reality, we are left to question the reality of the play and the reality of these womens lives and how their interactions echo into modern day. It also has one of the funniest last lines I've ever read. A terrifying but hilarious read. ”
- Light Switch by8 Mar. 2021“ A vulnerable time-spanning story that treats the personal as a delicate epic, much like the Victorian romance novels that Henry reads. These stories are so inherent to who he is that in sharing them he gives a piece of himself each time. This play is no different - a fearless sharing that demands its audience weigh each word, each interaction, as we come to experience the world through Henry's eyes. Very beautifully crafted and moving. ”
- This is How you Got Me Naked or My Sexy Fairytale by7 Oct. 2020“ A modernly funny play, but also incredibly theatrical, and wondrous, and full of surprises. Catherine does an incredible job of ruminating not just on how painful it is for young women to navigate their sexuality, but also how absurd, especially with the added complicated layer of detached, millennial irony that seems to now permeate all of our communications. It's hard not to shiver at how real some of this is, but that makes it that much more powerful! ”