Elle Thoni

Elle Thoni (they/them) is a queer playwright and public artist from Dakota land in Minneapolis, MN. In search of wildness amidst this Great Unraveling, they write plays about shapeshifters, emergent ecologies, and unlikely kinship. Drawing from a divergent background in ensemble-devised performance, large-scale puppetry, and documentary theater, Elle creates pieces that are as lush and dynamic as the living systems they are inspired by. They are the 2024 recipient of the Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, second place Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and Mark Twain Comic Playwriting Award, and a Planet Earth Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center, and were recently announced as the $25,000 winner of the CMU-Alfred P. Sloan Script Competition for their small town dramady pilot about critical...

Elle Thoni (they/them) is a queer playwright and public artist from Dakota land in Minneapolis, MN. In search of wildness amidst this Great Unraveling, they write plays about shapeshifters, emergent ecologies, and unlikely kinship. Drawing from a divergent background in ensemble-devised performance, large-scale puppetry, and documentary theater, Elle creates pieces that are as lush and dynamic as the living systems they are inspired by. They are the 2024 recipient of the Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, second place Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and Mark Twain Comic Playwriting Award, and a Planet Earth Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center, and were recently announced as the $25,000 winner of the CMU-Alfred P. Sloan Script Competition for their small town dramady pilot about critical mineral mining in Minnesota's Northland. Their work has been supported by the New Harmony Project, the Mid-America Theater Conference, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (Minneapolis-St. Paul), Everwood Farmstead Foundation, and the Network of Ensemble Theaters, among others. Commissions include In the Heart of the Beast Puppet & Mask Theatre, Walking Shadow Theater Company, and Northern Lights.mn. Elle holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University and is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild. They keep bees, and vice versa.

Scripts

From the Ground Up

by Elle Thoni

Cast Size

7

Genre

comedy,

drama,

political

Ms. Vivian hopes to heal the neighborhood and herself by gardening in a reclaimed urban lot. Yet her harvest party becomes an all-night community defense when the Field of Possibilities is threatened with imminent destruction from the city. A defensive fantasy about the struggle to share space and find sanctuary in a world where everyone is both human and plant, weed and medicine.

Script available upon request...

Ms. Vivian hopes to heal the neighborhood and herself by gardening in a reclaimed urban lot. Yet her harvest party becomes an all-night community defense when the Field of Possibilities is threatened with imminent destruction from the city. A defensive fantasy about the struggle to share space and find sanctuary in a world where everyone is both human and plant, weed and medicine.

Script available upon request.

Monstrous, or A Short Narrative on an Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbits

by Elle Thoni

1

Cast Size

11—20

Genre

dark comedy,

drama,

experimental,

fantasy,

movement/physical,

period,

political,

satire

Mary's present-day search for an abortion provider lands them back in 1720s England, where they pass as Mary Toft - a historical figure notorious for giving birth to rabbits. A queer exploration of rage in the post-Roe era, Monstrous confronts restrictions on reproductive rights with absurdity and magic.

Script available upon request

Mary's present-day search for an abortion provider lands them back in 1720s England, where they pass as Mary Toft - a historical figure notorious for giving birth to rabbits. A queer exploration of rage in the post-Roe era, Monstrous confronts restrictions on reproductive rights with absurdity and magic.

Script available upon request

Queen B: A New Work of Honeybee Futurism

by Elle Thoni

Cast Size

8—12

Genre

adventure,

experimental,

movement/physical,

musical,

political,

science fiction

100 years into the future, cities have sealed themselves under holographic domes to protect themselves from the inhospitable climate. Yet, when the robo-bee population begins to die off like their honeymaking ancestors, the fate of this new society rests upon the fading memories of the last living beekeeper, a (former?) revolutionary who goes by the name Queen B.

Book & libretto by Elle Thoni
Music by Dameun...

100 years into the future, cities have sealed themselves under holographic domes to protect themselves from the inhospitable climate. Yet, when the robo-bee population begins to die off like their honeymaking ancestors, the fate of this new society rests upon the fading memories of the last living beekeeper, a (former?) revolutionary who goes by the name Queen B.

Book & libretto by Elle Thoni
Music by Dameun Strange and Carlisle Evans-Peck

Bestiary of Rogues

by Elle Thoni

Cast Size

6—8

Genre

docudrama/historic,

drama,

experimental,

fable/folktale

After a fatal fire at communal house in South Minneapolis, a band of urban animals come together to tell the story of what happened - or is it? Part documentary theatre and part punk folklore, Bestiary of Rogues sifts through the wreckage to find the difference between between fact and truth with tremendous heart.

Woolly

by Elle Thoni

Cast Size

6—10

Genre

docudrama/historic,

drama,

experimental,

fantasy,

science fiction

As evolutionary biologist Dr. Robin Slater prepares for her Ted Talk, she and members of her family find themselves disappearing into the so-called "tundra" of their anxious imagination. When - and how - will they be able to find their way back to the present time and moment? Unapologetically weaving together fantasy, science, and documentary, Woolly is a play about the science of de-extinction and the liminal...

As evolutionary biologist Dr. Robin Slater prepares for her Ted Talk, she and members of her family find themselves disappearing into the so-called "tundra" of their anxious imagination. When - and how - will they be able to find their way back to the present time and moment? Unapologetically weaving together fantasy, science, and documentary, Woolly is a play about the science of de-extinction and the liminal space between hope and heartbreak.

Moon Zoo

by Elle Thoni

3

Cast Size

3

Genre

adventure,

comedy,

dark comedy,

drama,

fantasy,

farce,

political,

satire,

science fiction,

tragedy

Welcome to the first wilderness park on the moon. The first bear is scheduled to arrive on the next shuttle. How will two clueless first-generation "Moonies" make a suitable habitat for her? A sci-fi comedy about so-called "nature."

The first whale

by Elle Thoni

3

Cast Size

2

Genre

drama,

experimental

Natural history gets a redux in this queer retelling of the evolution of the whale from a land to sea mammal.