NORMA AND ZOE by
Norma has to home school her daughter while sheltering in place. Zoe’s math assignment gets set aside for dark lessons in life from a woman barely “hanging in there” herself.
Catherine Haigney
Catherine Haigney
Faculty, St. John's College (1989-2016). Ph.D. (English) University of Virginia. Fourteen scripts posted on New Play Exchange: “Miranda,” “Transdroid,” “Weather Report” and “On the Menu” are winners of three-minute play contests sponsored by the International Centre for Women Playwrights.
Plays
GAME-CHANGER (a ten-minute play) by Catherine Haigney
·Cast:2Genre: dark comedy, satire + 1 more·Keyword: future dystopia, sci-fi + 1 moreGenre: dark comedy, satire, science fictionKeyword: future dystopia, sci-fi, feminist spin on ShakespeareA new conversation “game” transforms two players: one all-too human, the other an Artificially Intelligent machine.ECHO TALKS BACK (One-Act comedy, 30 pages. First play in the ECHO trilogy) by Catherine Haigney
Recommendations: 1··Cast:4Genre: comedy, movement/physical + 2 more·Keyword: classical mythology, elements of magical realism + 5 moreGenre: comedy, movement/physical, parody/spoof, satireKeyword: classical mythology, elements of magical realism, absurdist, satire, roles for women, female playwright, misogynySetting: Small urban park.
Time: Midsummer 2018
Scene one: The vagabond nymph ECHO recruits a tree spirit to be her Dryad Chorus. They launch their new “tragedy” involving the latest reincarnation of NARCISSUS.
Scene two: PYGMALION arrives with an ancient artifact and tells its strange story. He pitches NARCISSUS a new venture selling ideal love objects.
Scene three: Mentor...Setting: Small urban park.
Time: Midsummer 2018
Scene one: The vagabond nymph ECHO recruits a tree spirit to be her Dryad Chorus. They launch their new “tragedy” involving the latest reincarnation of NARCISSUS.
Scene two: PYGMALION arrives with an ancient artifact and tells its strange story. He pitches NARCISSUS a new venture selling ideal love objects.
Scene three: Mentor and protegé separate with big plans, leaving ECHO and AILANTHUS to the consolation of prophecy.
SOPHIA DELTA (Three acts, 62 pages. Second play in the ECHO trilogy) by Catherine Haigney
Recommendations: 1··Cast:8–9Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 3 more·Keyword: future dystopia, magical realism + 4 moreGenre: comedy, dark comedy, political, satire, science fictionKeyword: future dystopia, magical realism, androids, Ovid, female playwright, misogynyTime and Setting: The near future at a corporation planning a city for survivalists.
Cast: Four women, four men. (One hour playing time)
Act One begins with Ali, head aesthetician at Citibot, trying to orient her strange new colleague for their project remodeling “Sophia Gamma,” an android prototype. Citibot’s CEO introduces a consultant to coach Sophia Gamma and make...Time and Setting: The near future at a corporation planning a city for survivalists.
Cast: Four women, four men. (One hour playing time)
Act One begins with Ali, head aesthetician at Citibot, trying to orient her strange new colleague for their project remodeling “Sophia Gamma,” an android prototype. Citibot’s CEO introduces a consultant to coach Sophia Gamma and make her more ideally “human,” but a free-spirited custodian inadvertently gives Sophia curious ideas, making trouble ahead. The “brainstorming” sessions of Act Two reveal an "Ultimate Android” plan for the “Ultimate City," Citibot’s survivalist project now entirely owned and directed by a young prodigy named Davos. After Ali is persuaded to allow an upload of her brain data to Sophia, Act Three involves the unsettling effects of Sophia’s evolving “conversation.” Davos, ignoring protest, interviews this transitional Sophia for a role in realizing the dream of “Eutopia.” When model “Delta” appears in the Epilogue’s vision of our future, Davos confronts her with a revelation.
NARCISSUS IN LOVE (Three Acts, 40 pages. Third play in the ECHO trilogy) by Catherine Haigney
·Cast:5Genre: dark comedy, political + 2 more·Keyword: misogyny, climate change + 4 moreGenre: dark comedy, political, satire, science fictionKeyword: misogyny, climate change, AI, science fiction, feminist satire, DystopiaMia finds Ian in Crisis Rehab, both of them trapped underground in the survivalist city of ”Eutopia.” Sophia, android in charge of everything, refuses to upload Ian and gratify his dream of transhuman immortality. Instead she offers Mia and Ian a return to Earth’s Surface, now ravaged by climate change. They set up camp on the sweltering Siberian Bog and discover a “Relic” of humanity remains.MIRANDA(‘s SECRET) — a three-minute play by Catherine Haigney
Recommendations: 2··Cast:3Genre: comedy, movement/physical·Keyword: Shakespeare, The Tempest + 6 moreGenre: comedy, movement/physicalKeyword: Shakespeare, The Tempest, Miranda, Caliban, Ariel, magical realism, woman playwright, feminist revisionWhat if Miranda doesn't want to leave the island? Ariel and Caliban are free now: what about her?
In three pages of script, she reveals a secret to transform the ending of Shakespeare's "The Tempest."WEATHER REPORT (a three-minute play) by Catherine Haigney
Recommendations: 2··Cast:3Genre: dark comedy, parody/spoof + 2 more·Keyword: climate change, POLITICAL SATIRE SHORTGenre: dark comedy, parody/spoof, political, satireKeyword: climate change, POLITICAL SATIRE SHORTCOXX News interviews Senator Morescrip about extreme weather measures.TRANSDROID (a three-minute play) by Catherine Haigney
Recommendations: 2··Cast:3Genre: dark comedy, satire + 1 more·Keyword: Dystopia, transhumanism + 1 moreGenre: dark comedy, satire, science fictionKeyword: Dystopia, transhumanism, climate changeA model android designed to be perfect discovers discontent.ON THE MENU (a three-minute play) by Catherine Haigney
Recommendations: 1··Cast:2Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more·Keyword: computer technology, mystery writer + 2 moreGenre: comedy, dark comedy, mystery/thriller, satireKeyword: computer technology, mystery writer, kitchen comedy, all-female castDaria makes a late breakfast for her sister, a writer so absorbed by her new GoggleBox she doesn’t realize how hungry she is, or what Goggle might be up to.HER SINGULARITY (15 pages) by Catherine Haigney
Recommendations: 2··Cast:4Genre: dark comedy, satire + 1 more·Keyword: climate change, future dystopia + 4 moreGenre: dark comedy, satire, science fictionKeyword: climate change, future dystopia, AI, androids, dark comedy, woman playwrightCast: 2 women, 2 men.
Setting: A survivalist city
Time: Our future in a hot mess
Women are defecting from the last underground city and making their way back to an overheated surface bog in Siberia, leaving men in Eutopia to figure out what to do without them. They develop a new bespoke-model AI android that sounds like it’s really listening. Is it also thinking on its own and for itself?DAUGHTERS OF EVE (a ten-minute play) by Catherine Haigney
Recommendations: 1··Cast:6Genre: comedy, satire·Keyword: Eve, Book of GenesisGenre: comedy, satireKeyword: Eve, Book of GenesisEve gathers her family and presides over a scanty dinner while Cain, Abel, and their sisters vie for attention. Eve's three Daughters go by numbers because they have never been named: their very existence is a matter of reading into the Biblical text that never mentions them. By the end, all three have found voices in pushing back against nonentity.SOCRATIC MOMS (a ten-minute play) by Catherine Haigney
Recommendations: 1··Cast:3–5Genre: parody/spoof·Keyword: Socrates, Plato + 7 moreGenre: parody/spoofKeyword: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, dark comedy, philosophy, Xanthippe, Phaenarete, Great Books, woman playwrightWho has time for philosophy? Seizing their ten minutes of play time, the mother and wife of Socrates hold forth.GENEVIEVE AND JOAN (12 pages) by Catherine Haigney
Recommendations: 1··Cast:4Genre: dark comedy, satire·Keyword: dark comedy, satire + 6 moreGenre: dark comedy, satireKeyword: dark comedy, satire, misogyny, St. Genevieve of Paris, St. Joan of Arc, St. Paul, St. Jerome, Martin LutherTwo medieval saints confront assorted mansplainers.THE GREAT DEBATE (One-Act, 30 pages) by Catherine Haigney
·Cast:5Genre: satire·Keyword: Great Books, misogyny + 4 moreGenre: satireKeyword: Great Books, misogyny, satire, The Bible, philosophy, NietzscheBad girls in the Great Books are revived by an unlikely cast of stragglers in Central Park.