Heidi Kraay

Heidi Kraay

Playwright Heidi Kraay examines the connection between brain and body, seeking empathy with fractured characters. Writing across disciplines and training in diverse theater vocabularies gives her tools to live better making art. Plays include How To Hide Your Monster, New Eden, DIRT (co-devised), Me and My Shadow and Kilgore, as well as several one-acts and short plays. Her work has been presented in Boise,...
Playwright Heidi Kraay examines the connection between brain and body, seeking empathy with fractured characters. Writing across disciplines and training in diverse theater vocabularies gives her tools to live better making art. Plays include How To Hide Your Monster, New Eden, DIRT (co-devised), Me and My Shadow and Kilgore, as well as several one-acts and short plays. Her work has been presented in Boise, Idaho where she is currently based, as well as regionally and in NYC, most recently through Campfire Theatre Festival, 8 in 48 Idaho, Boise Contemporary Theater, id Theater, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, the National Winter Playwrights Retreat, California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and HomeGrown Theatre. Heidi is a founding artistic associate for Migration Theory, a physical art company in Boise, for which she co-devised SuperSecretSiteSpecificSomething in 2015 and is working on their 2018 production of small matters. She teaches for the Theatre Arts Department at Boise State University and for The Cabin, a literary center in Boise. Heidi holds an MFA in Creative Inquiry, Interdisciplinary Arts from CIIS and is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. www.heidikraay.com

Plays

  • How to Hide Your Monster by Heidi Kraay
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 6 more
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    Keyword: family, secrets + 5 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, fantasy, horror, movement/physical, mystery/thriller, science fiction
    Keyword: family, secrets, Alzheimer's Disease, monster, love, memory, mental illness
    Savannah answers a cry for help from her sister, who just met her grandfather and is taking care of him at his home, and travels to support her. When their mom joins them, Savannah discovers that the hidden secrets between all of them are growing a storm in this space between her, her sister and her mom that will blow up out of the monster she’s been pushing down inside herself. They have to decide if the truth...
    Savannah answers a cry for help from her sister, who just met her grandfather and is taking care of him at his home, and travels to support her. When their mom joins them, Savannah discovers that the hidden secrets between all of them are growing a storm in this space between her, her sister and her mom that will blow up out of the monster she’s been pushing down inside herself. They have to decide if the truth they uncover will connect or fracture them forever.
  • New Eden by Heidi Kraay
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller + 1 more
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller, political
    Lost in a blizzard, Brian stumbles upon Michael’s warm and welcoming cabin. Lost and longing to please God, Michael's chance for salvation stumbles in from the cold. One disciple is a good beginning...but Michael has his eye on disciple number two. With Brian's help, she’ll join them soon--the key to the New World, she can save us all.
  • DIRT by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    9–14
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 6 more
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    Keyword: co-devised, eternal life + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, immersive, movement/physical, mystery/thriller, political, science fiction
    Keyword: co-devised, eternal life, death, corporate takeover, death industry
    Holistic Growth Team's long life serum can put Boise on the map and make the Treasure Valley a bubble of prosperity. But when a mother driven by loss and instinct uncovers the key to this corporation’s success, the consequences of perfect health may be unbearable.
  • Me and My Shadow by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: drama, experimental + 4 more
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    Keyword: mental illness, Schizophrenia + 3 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, fable/folktale, fantasy, movement/physical, romantic comedy
    Keyword: mental illness, Schizophrenia, romance, Russian literature, art as healing
    When Marianne’s father dies, she finds comfort in childhood imaginary friends. Absorbed in an invented reality, she cuts herself off from daily life to a catatonic degree. Forced into hospitalization, she expresses her mind through art and ends up saving herself by her own terms.
  • Kilgore by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: Texas, scandal + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, romantic comedy
    Keyword: Texas, scandal, suicide, pharmaceuticals, campus assault
    Greg was raised by his grandfather Tate. Or maybe it's the other way around. On the run from yet another one of Tate's disastrous relationship choices, the two find themselves in small-town Texas...that is until Greg falls for Katie, his dedication is pushed to its limit and all three are forced to face their past.
  • Rajpurr: Tale of a Tiger by Heidi Kraay
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: animals, India + 3 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, drama, movement/physical, young audiences
    Keyword: animals, India, grief, friendship, transformation
    When a tiger cub's mom dies, she heads out with her bunny friend and a tag-a-long caterpillar to find her father so he can teach her how to hunt. When her dad's no help, she has to figure out how to survive on her own with her new family. This play about friendship, adventure and transformation asks how we talk to our children about grief.

  • Slap! A Beaver Tale by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: environment, wetlands + 4 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, drama, political, young audiences
    Keyword: environment, wetlands, family, displacement, Beavers, animals
    When a construction company starts building on her family's pond, young beaver Thistle rallies her marshland friends to help her protest -- peacefully. But when everything gets out of paw and Thistle gets trapped, her family has to make waves together to find her and protect all the wetland creatures from disaster caused by progress.
  • Polar Opposites: An Impossible Tale by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 4 more
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    Keyword: climate change, global warming + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, drama, fantasy, movement/physical, young audiences
    Keyword: climate change, global warming, animals, children
    About ice. And melting. And drowning. And saving. A play featuring animals of the Arctic and Antarctic trying to save their homes and two children much closer to the equator who help them – who are brave enough to try. If we all work together, do we have a chance at making it through?
  • CloudMelt by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    3–4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: grief, ghosts + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, fantasy
    Keyword: grief, ghosts, suicide, transformation, dementia, love, play with music
    When Agnes starts to forget herself, she returns to her honeymoon spot for one last breath before finding her husband in the life after this one. But out of a storm comes a teenage stranger to interrupt her plans…a girl who feels strangely familiar. This play about last goodbyes asks how love and other supernatural cloudbursts can connect us across difference, across cosmos, across lifetimes and forgetting.
  • Hoarse by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Genre: comedy, drama
    When Janet loses her voice, it's the last straw that breaks her, but it's the first time she's listened in years.
  • The Toxic Edge and the Precipice of Memory by Heidi Kraay
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 5 more
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    Keyword: Sisters, water + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, fantasy, horror, mystery/thriller, science fiction, tragedy
    Keyword: Sisters, water, poison, landscape, monster, motherhood
    A woman tries to get her memory back in order to get her life back but ends up losing all her memory in order to save her sister’s life.
  • The Good Life by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: drama, fantasy + 1 more
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    Keyword: Puppet Horror
    Genre: drama, fantasy, horror
    Keyword: Puppet Horror
    A loving family moves into the perfect house, but when the house demands a sacrifice, the cost of perfection is monstrous.
  • The Pond Out Back by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: fantasy, horror + 1 more
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    Keyword: Puppet Horror
    Genre: fantasy, horror, young audiences
    Keyword: Puppet Horror
    New at school, Greta faces bullies, and unwittingly summons three monsters from her dreams. At first they terrify her, but they want to help. Their solution may be worse than the problem.
  • Cut Here by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    3–5
    ·
    Genre: drama, horror
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    Keyword: teen angst, Cat Love + 3 more
    Genre: drama, horror
    Keyword: teen angst, Cat Love, cutting, Haunted Space, Survival
    Corey goes to the basement to retrieve her cat, stays for alone time, and gets ensnared by a voice in a little hole in the wall. Catching her attention, the house sucks her inside its structure. To get out, she has to lose something of herself.
  • lift by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    2–10
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 6 more
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    Keyword: birds, flight + 3 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, dark comedy, drama, fable/folktale, fantasy, movement/physical, tragedy
    Keyword: birds, flight, cancer, death, accepting death
    A woman with terminal cancer takes a last balloon ride up to the troposphere and meets a young albatross who helps her die the way she wants, a gift that will help him earn a mate.
  • The Way Up by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: suicide, grief + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, movement/physical, tragedy
    Keyword: suicide, grief, friendship, summer, gender identity, sexual identity
    Three high school friends cope with the loss of their friend by climbing to the top of the same construction site where she jumped to her death.
  • Ways Not To Drown by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: adventure, drama + 3 more
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    Keyword: Apocalyptic Love Story
    Genre: adventure, drama, fable/folktale, fantasy, tragedy
    Keyword: Apocalyptic Love Story
    Kern and Fan love each other more than life. But when the end of their lives (and the world as we know it) approach fast from the worst flood ever, parting might be their path to survival.
  • Somewhere on the Pacific by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 4 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, drama, fable/folktale, fantasy, romantic comedy
    A strange, beautiful woman tries to save two honeymooners stranded at sea after a plane crash, but their mixed trust of her sincere kindness brings out her violent, ancient sea monster inside.
  • Drown by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    4–7
    ·
    Genre: experimental, fantasy + 1 more
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    Keyword: transformation, ocean + 3 more
    Genre: experimental, fantasy, movement/physical
    Keyword: transformation, ocean, puppets, animals, drowning
    Mesmerized with the ocean, a swimmer gets pulled down to the world below and drowns. Before she dies, underwater creatures transform her into a fish. She gets eaten and coughed out of a much larger animal, given another chance at life -- as a fish.
  • Late Night Snack by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    5–8
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental + 2 more
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    Keyword: demons, children + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental, fantasy, horror
    Keyword: demons, children, Donald Trump, Taking over the world, puppets
    When a demon turned Horrific Puppet Affair host is accused of no longer being scary, he tries to prove himself by eating all the children in the world, only to discover that the best plan taking over is to get Donald Trump elected President of the United States.
  • Drastic Dragon Station by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    2–3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, experimental + 5 more
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    Keyword: mental illness, drowning + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, experimental, fable/folktale, fantasy, horror, science fiction, young audiences
    Keyword: mental illness, drowning, the brain, writing as a way of healing
    A monster kept as a prisoner of war in a woman's brain is tortured as her constant creating drowns him with ink, but this overworking ends up turning the tables.
  • Dog Gambit by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: dog domination, dogs
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, fantasy, farce
    Keyword: dog domination, dogs
    A couple hit a dog and try to revive it, only to discover that they are now under the dog's control.
  • Deer You by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 6 more
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    Keyword: winter, mountains + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, dark comedy, fable/folktale, fantasy, farce, movement/physical, tragedy
    Keyword: winter, mountains, deer, road trip gone wrong
    A woman tries to push a deer out from the middle of the road but is turned into roadkill in the process.
  • Keep Her Dancing by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 6 more
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    Keyword: dancing, infomercial + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, fantasy, farce, movement/physical, parody/spoof, satire, science fiction
    Keyword: dancing, infomercial, clubbing, thwarting male advances, women empowerment
    A woman uses a toxic spray to keep men away from her at the club.
  • Carny Veil by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: adventure, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: monologue, con artist + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, drama, experimental, movement/physical
    Keyword: monologue, con artist, abuse, carnival
    After a year of romantic misadventures, disasters and loss with a ragtag carnival crew, coming close to death is the only thing that saves Amy. Now it's her turn to save her daughter's life by sharing this secret.
  • Survivors by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: adventure, drama + 4 more
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    Keyword: monologue, bugs + 1 more
    Genre: adventure, drama, experimental, horror, political, science fiction
    Keyword: monologue, bugs, Survival
    Dani finds a shelter when the earth and all its animals, plants and elements fight back to regain balance lost when humans were in control. After reinforcing her safe location, her refuge becomes her cell as she waits out the destruction above ground.
  • CloudMelt (radio play) by Heidi Kraay
    Cast: 
    3–5
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 5 more
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    Keyword: grief, ghosts + 5 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, dark comedy, drama, fantasy, radio drama, romantic comedy
    Keyword: grief, ghosts, suicide, transformation, dementia, love, play with music
    When Agnes starts to forget herself, she returns to her honeymoon spot for one last breath before finding her husband in the life after this one. But then the storm and the cold and in comes this teenage stranger to interrupt her plans…a girl who feels strangely familiar. The girl is looking for her birth family, but once she sees Agnes, someone else inside her needs to hold onto this woman who she’s loved for...
    When Agnes starts to forget herself, she returns to her honeymoon spot for one last breath before finding her husband in the life after this one. But then the storm and the cold and in comes this teenage stranger to interrupt her plans…a girl who feels strangely familiar. The girl is looking for her birth family, but once she sees Agnes, someone else inside her needs to hold onto this woman who she’s loved for longer than she’s been alive, and to keep her alive too. This play about last goodbyes asks how love and other supernatural cloudbursts can connect us across difference, across cosmos, across lifetimes and forgetting.