Sylvia Reed

SYLVIA REED comes to playwriting with a background in journalism, and many of her plays have been inspired by stories in the news. She is a two-time recipient of a Florida Individual Artist Grant for playwriting. Her plays have won awards, including first prize in the Eudora Welty New Play Series and Boston TheatreWorks BTW Unbound competition. She was awarded a three-week residency in London at the Donmar Warehouse after participating in the 2008 Summer Play Festival in New York City.

SYLVIA REED comes to playwriting with a background in journalism, and many of her plays have been inspired by stories in the news. She is a two-time recipient of a Florida Individual Artist Grant for playwriting. Her plays have won awards, including first prize in the Eudora Welty New Play Series and Boston TheatreWorks BTW Unbound competition. She was awarded a three-week residency in London at the Donmar Warehouse after participating in the 2008 Summer Play Festival in New York City.

Scripts

Solastalgia

by Sylvia Reed

1
Cast Size
2
Genre
drama,
political,
radio drama,
zoom

A husband tries to cure his wife's depression and despair over climate change.

A husband tries to cure his wife's depression and despair over climate change.

Monologue

by Sylvia Reed

Cast Size
1
Genre
drama

She's an actress. She's also an alcoholic, so the acting comes in handy.

She's an actress. She's also an alcoholic, so the acting comes in handy.

The Ones That Flutter

by Sylvia Reed

4
Cast Size
5
Genre
drama,
political

Roddy learned early in life he could do things others wouldn’t do. On dove shoots with his father, he was the son who finished off the birds that were wounded, but not dead, by spinning them and breaking their necks. Later, as warden of Death Row at the Huntsville Unit in Texas, he oversaw dozens of executions until the final one of his career – the execution of Death Row poet Samuel Hunter. Depressed and beaten...

Roddy learned early in life he could do things others wouldn’t do. On dove shoots with his father, he was the son who finished off the birds that were wounded, but not dead, by spinning them and breaking their necks. Later, as warden of Death Row at the Huntsville Unit in Texas, he oversaw dozens of executions until the final one of his career – the execution of Death Row poet Samuel Hunter. Depressed and beaten down by his life’s work, Roddy flees and hides out at his family home in Florida. But developers come calling, and Roddy is forced to reckon with his estranged daughter Julie Ray and face the ghosts of his past.

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The Mentor

by Sylvia Reed

1
Cast Size
5
Genre
drama,
political

A Florida lawyer with an alcohol problem becomes a mentor to an at-risk but promising student in a high school program where college scholarships are awarded upon graduation. She becomes overly attached to the student, and when the girl experiences a crisis, the mentor's actions lead to her dismissal from the program, severing her ties to the girl and derailing her already-precarious life.

A Florida lawyer with an alcohol problem becomes a mentor to an at-risk but promising student in a high school program where college scholarships are awarded upon graduation. She becomes overly attached to the student, and when the girl experiences a crisis, the mentor's actions lead to her dismissal from the program, severing her ties to the girl and derailing her already-precarious life.

River City

by Sylvia Reed

Cast Size
5
Genre
drama,
political

RIVER CITY, inspired by real events, braids the stories of three individuals: a woman with scleroderma who has become obsessed with an endangered whale, an NOAA employee whose son is deployed in Iraq, and a city code enforcement worker whose sister has been missing for 15 years.

RIVER CITY, inspired by real events, braids the stories of three individuals: a woman with scleroderma who has become obsessed with an endangered whale, an NOAA employee whose son is deployed in Iraq, and a city code enforcement worker whose sister has been missing for 15 years.

Alligators

by Sylvia Reed

1
Cast Size
4
Genre
comedy,
drama

This memory play, set in a small town in Florida, follows the lives of Lucy and Marlene as they bounce from place place. Lucy wants to know who her father is, but Marlene tells her daughter she simply "fell into this world like rain." In their final home together, Lucy forges an unexpected bond with her neighbor, Miss Lila, who lost an arm to an alligator. Lucy begins to put together the puzzle of her identity...

This memory play, set in a small town in Florida, follows the lives of Lucy and Marlene as they bounce from place place. Lucy wants to know who her father is, but Marlene tells her daughter she simply "fell into this world like rain." In their final home together, Lucy forges an unexpected bond with her neighbor, Miss Lila, who lost an arm to an alligator. Lucy begins to put together the puzzle of her identity when she encounters an "alligator" of her own.

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Hands

by Sylvia Reed

1
Cast Size
2
Genre
drama,
political

10-minute play. It's Friday, December 14, 2012. Sophie won't come out from under her desk. And her hands won't stop shaking.

10-minute play. It's Friday, December 14, 2012. Sophie won't come out from under her desk. And her hands won't stop shaking.

SmartBra

by Sylvia Reed

1
Cast Size
2
Genre
comedy

10-minute play. Jane and John are on a blind date. There's something else at the table though -- Jane's bra.

10-minute play. Jane and John are on a blind date. There's something else at the table though -- Jane's bra.

Works in Progress

by Sylvia Reed

1
Cast Size
3
Genre
comedy,
drama

10-minute play. Three women. Three stages of life. Continually changing.

10-minute play. Three women. Three stages of life. Continually changing.

American Flag

by Sylvia Reed

2
Cast Size
2
Genre
drama,
opera,
political,
tragedy

10-minute play -- It's March 2003. The US has just launched the invasion of Iraq. And a groom-to-be has just slept with a stripper after his bachelor party. Pottery Barn rules.

This play was adapted in 2016 for Opera Bites with the Boston Opera Collaborative.

10-minute play -- It's March 2003. The US has just launched the invasion of Iraq. And a groom-to-be has just slept with a stripper after his bachelor party. Pottery Barn rules.

This play was adapted in 2016 for Opera Bites with the Boston Opera Collaborative.