Alina Rios

Alina Rios

Alina Rios grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia, and now lives in Seattle. She’s the founder and editor of Bracken magazine and a published poet and fiction writer. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Crosswinds Poetry Journal, Camroc Press Review, Apex Magazine, Interfictions, and other fine places.

She discovered playwriting in 2017 and had her first production in 2018 in London with Founding...
Alina Rios grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia, and now lives in Seattle. She’s the founder and editor of Bracken magazine and a published poet and fiction writer. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Crosswinds Poetry Journal, Camroc Press Review, Apex Magazine, Interfictions, and other fine places.

She discovered playwriting in 2017 and had her first production in 2018 in London with Founding Fall Theatre. Since then, her work has been produced by Nylon Fusion (NYC), Ego Actus (NYC), Slackline Productions (London), Women’s Writes (London), and others. Her monologue We’re People Too, filmed at the Arcola Theatre as part of the Women’s Writes festival January 2021, received an OnComm nomination.

She’s taken writing for theatre workshops with Simon Stephens and Stella Duffy. Alina is very fortunate to be mentored by Kevin Dyer, a British writer, dramaturg, winner of UK Theatre Awards for Best Play for his adaptation of ‘The Hobbit’ for the Dukes Lancaster and many other international awards. She was a semifinalist at Moxie Incubator play development series in NYC with her play Before, I Talked to Shoes.

Plays

  • BEFORE, I TALKED TO SHOES by Alina Rios
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    8–25
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: loneliness, police + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, political
    Keyword: loneliness, police, homelessness, Mental Health, HEARING VOICES, talking to objects, Social anxiety, child loss, coping with grief
    “Look I’m a feminist too, but I always made sure your Grandpa had a bowl of stew and a freshly ironed shirt every day.”

    Rose lives with her partner Danny who rarely speaks. She is too afraid to leave the house, and when she does, she gets arrested. In the cell, Rose meets a woman called Muffy who changes her outlook on the world and gives Rose the first hug she’s had in a very long time. When...
    “Look I’m a feminist too, but I always made sure your Grandpa had a bowl of stew and a freshly ironed shirt every day.”

    Rose lives with her partner Danny who rarely speaks. She is too afraid to leave the house, and when she does, she gets arrested. In the cell, Rose meets a woman called Muffy who changes her outlook on the world and gives Rose the first hug she’s had in a very long time. When Danny picks her up from jail, she realises he’d seen her get arrested and didn’t do anything. While all this goes on, Rose talks to objects around her: shoe, fridge, wall, self-checkout machines, couch, and a lost girl from a poster. And they talk back.

    At the end, it’s just her and the couch in the house. She puts the fridge, plugged in and full of food, outside for all who need it.
  • Soot Darlings by Alina Rios
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: adult relationships, broken marriage + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, fantasy
    Keyword: adult relationships, broken marriage, housewife, unhappy marriage, unhappy housewife
    7-minute monologue. A fed-up wife flies away.
  • WE'RE PEOPLE TOO by Alina Rios
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: single motherhood, motherhood + 5 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: single motherhood, motherhood, breastfeeding, self-care, child abandonment, coffeeshops and baristas, postpartum depression
    20-minute monologue. A new single mum's journey to get a latte.
  • I SPY by Alina Rios
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: single motherhood, voyeurism + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, experimental
    Keyword: single motherhood, voyeurism, Sex, intimacy, desire
    25-minutes one-woman play. A single mother voyeur is about to meet the subject of her obsession.
  • STEF AND ARNO by Alina Rios
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama
    ·
    Keyword: Social anxiety, childhood trauma + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: Social anxiety, childhood trauma, imaginary friend
    15-minute play. STEF is a single woman in her 30s who is suffering from both severe social anxiety and a fear of disappearing. She lives alone. One night when she cannot sleep yet again, she decides to hang out in the closet in hopes of reconnecting with her childhood imaginary friend ARNO. With ARNO’s help, she’s able to move through some of the early childhood trauma that is holding her back from living more...
    15-minute play. STEF is a single woman in her 30s who is suffering from both severe social anxiety and a fear of disappearing. She lives alone. One night when she cannot sleep yet again, she decides to hang out in the closet in hopes of reconnecting with her childhood imaginary friend ARNO. With ARNO’s help, she’s able to move through some of the early childhood trauma that is holding her back from living more fully. Eventually, ARNO lulls her to sleep. When she comes to, she realizes she must’ve sleepwalked to the Hampstead Heath, a place she would’ve normally avoided. A place that suddenly seems less scary.
  • PLAN C by Alina Rios
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: motherhood, Relationships + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, zoom
    Keyword: motherhood, Relationships, first time motherhood, cheating on your partner, paternity
    7-minute play. A mother who is coming back from a business trip during Covid is forced to quarantine in a hotel. During a Facetime call with her partner and the baby, she realises the baby must not be his.
  • WHEN YOU'RE GONE by Alina Rios
    Recommendations: 7
    ·
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: gun control, mass shooting + 2 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: gun control, mass shooting, coping with grief, grief and healing
    10-minute play: Mother's journey to get out of bed after her son and father have become victims of gun violence.
  • SOMETIMES THE SUN SETS TWICE by Alina Rios
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: domestic violence, love and pain and domestic abuse + 3 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: domestic violence, love and pain and domestic abuse, mother and child relationships, southern accent, southern poverty
    2-minute play: A mother's attempt at changing the cycle of domestic abuse.
  • NOW HERE by Alina Rios
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama, holiday + 1 more
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    Keyword: apocalypse, environmental crisis + 4 more
    Genre: drama, holiday, political
    Keyword: apocalypse, environmental crisis, plastic contamination, religious conflict, Jewish, christianity
    2-minute play: It's Christmas Eve in an apocalyptic world where the oceans have turned to plastic dumps. A Jewish couple is hiding in an abandoned hotel, remembering what life was like before, and going over the plans they've made for what happens if they are found.
  • TOUCH ME by Alina Rios
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    2–3
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: new parents, intimacy issues + 4 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: new parents, intimacy issues, Touching, permission, Relationships, female playwright
    20-minute play. Who does a recent mother’s body belong to? Her husband? The baby? Or maybe herself? A play about navigating new parenthood.
  • MAKING DO by Alina Rios
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama, zoom
    ·
    Keyword: Jewish identity, father daughter struggles + 6 more
    Genre: drama, zoom
    Keyword: Jewish identity, father daughter struggles, COVID, coping with death and grief, reconnecting, Jewish tradition, shiva, virtual shiva
    10-minute play. An estranged, non-practicing Jews, father and a daughter try to figure out how to do a funeral and shiva for the mother who passed away due to Covid.
  • FINAL PROOF by Alina Rios
    Cast: 
    4–6
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: abandonment, absent father + 6 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, movement/physical
    Keyword: abandonment, absent father, biological father, Fathers and Daughters, child sexual abuse, virginity, subconscious, baking
    One-act play with physical theater elements:
    A memory play. A woman comes to the park to bury her past only to discover a part of her past waiting their for her to be unraveled. The play explores the influences of early formative male relationships on female sexuality, as well as the quiet fragility of men.