Leigh Marshall

Leigh Marshall

Leigh M. Marshall is a multidisciplinary writer/performer. Her work has been selected for and presented at the Ground Floor Residency at Berkeley Rep, the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, the Prague Quadrennial, Live Design International, the International Writing Program/Prairie Lights Reading Series, and the Examined Life Conference at Carver College of Medicine. She is a two-time Finalist for the...
Leigh M. Marshall is a multidisciplinary writer/performer. Her work has been selected for and presented at the Ground Floor Residency at Berkeley Rep, the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, the Prague Quadrennial, Live Design International, the International Writing Program/Prairie Lights Reading Series, and the Examined Life Conference at Carver College of Medicine. She is a two-time Finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, NewFest at Emerson Stage, the Curatorial Fellowship at On the Boards; and a two-time Semifinalist for the National Playwrights Conference at the O'Neill, the Many Voices/Jerome Fellowship, the June Bingham Commission, and Juilliard. BA: Stanford University (Mellon Mays Fellow, honors & distinction). Certificate: American Conservatory Theater. MFA: Iowa Playwrights Workshop (Iowa Arts Fellow).

Plays

  • Fame Heaux by Leigh Marshall
    Cast: 
    7–15
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, mystery/thriller
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    Keyword: Fake news, celebrity gossip + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: Fake news, celebrity gossip, causes of violence, festival play, award winner
    Online avatars gather in their virtual forest—a gossip forum called Alice’s Evidence—to spill the tea. On the forum, they are able to create their own rules, theories, and even court of law as they attempt to discover one true thing in a world of fake news. Each woman’s behind-the-avatar life begins to bleed into their virtual space when a newcomer challenges the group when they begin to explore a new theory...
    Online avatars gather in their virtual forest—a gossip forum called Alice’s Evidence—to spill the tea. On the forum, they are able to create their own rules, theories, and even court of law as they attempt to discover one true thing in a world of fake news. Each woman’s behind-the-avatar life begins to bleed into their virtual space when a newcomer challenges the group when they begin to explore a new theory about a rising star celebrity. As they focus on the conflicts and kinships in their Technicolor internet rumor mill, the real world around them shifts toward the oppressive, violent, and unknown.
  • Marat's Dead by Leigh Marshall
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller + 1 more
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    Keyword: 18th century history, mass media + 2 more
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller, political
    Keyword: 18th century history, mass media, totalitarianism, gender relations
    MARAT’S DEAD imagines an American future based upon the Reign of Terror period of the French Revolution. Johnny Marat is a charismatic disseminator of violently misogynist invective who has been sanctioned by the American government to run the media; Char Corday, his former beloved friend, believes that the violent acts inspired by Johnny’s invective will die when the mouthpiece dies, and thus she has come to...
    MARAT’S DEAD imagines an American future based upon the Reign of Terror period of the French Revolution. Johnny Marat is a charismatic disseminator of violently misogynist invective who has been sanctioned by the American government to run the media; Char Corday, his former beloved friend, believes that the violent acts inspired by Johnny’s invective will die when the mouthpiece dies, and thus she has come to kill him. They have loved each other, but on this night – a night that has occurred many times over the course of human history – they are dangerous to each other.
  • The Hunters & All the Haunted by Leigh Marshall
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: drama, fantasy + 2 more
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    Keyword: climate catastrophe, ghost encounters + 3 more
    Genre: drama, fantasy, mystery/thriller, verse
    Keyword: climate catastrophe, ghost encounters, retrofuturism, bad romance, surveillance state
    In the climate-wrecked wilderness of our country, The Medicine Seller is on an endless mission to better human life the only way she can: by handling cases nobody believes to be real, cases where traumas mutate into ghosts. When she and her maybe-mythical assistant take the case of a revolutionary who will be executed early in the morning, past injustices come forward to challenge time-defying loves. Secrets...
    In the climate-wrecked wilderness of our country, The Medicine Seller is on an endless mission to better human life the only way she can: by handling cases nobody believes to be real, cases where traumas mutate into ghosts. When she and her maybe-mythical assistant take the case of a revolutionary who will be executed early in the morning, past injustices come forward to challenge time-defying loves. Secrets that haunt the Medicine Seller’s own history are dragged out into the scorching dawn and disrupt the course of the future.
  • Spells for Going Forth by Daylight by Leigh Marshall
    Cast: 
    11–13
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, docudrama/historic + 2 more
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    Keyword: Egyptian mythology, retrofuturism + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, docudrama/historic, drama, political
    Keyword: Egyptian mythology, retrofuturism, mythology, multimedia, romance
    Civil wars rage in an alternate version of the Roman Empire – which is truly the American Now – and the Egyptian Empire is on the brink of being conquered. Cleo, the last Pharaoh of Egypt, wakes up in the Egyptian Realm of the Dead, but her grave has been robbed of the artefacts she needs to navigate her way to Paradise. Meanwhile, her greatest enemy, Octavian, has set an elaborate plan in motion to steal the...
    Civil wars rage in an alternate version of the Roman Empire – which is truly the American Now – and the Egyptian Empire is on the brink of being conquered. Cleo, the last Pharaoh of Egypt, wakes up in the Egyptian Realm of the Dead, but her grave has been robbed of the artefacts she needs to navigate her way to Paradise. Meanwhile, her greatest enemy, Octavian, has set an elaborate plan in motion to steal the Imperial throne from his father, Julius Caesar, and annex Egypt for good. The independence of Egypt is Cleo’s number-one priority, even in death, and with her newfound power she attempts to change the course of history.
  • Laterality by Leigh Marshall
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: tragedy
    ·
    Keyword: cancer, romance + 1 more
    Genre: tragedy
    Keyword: cancer, romance, brotherhood
    Blue is forced away from his party-monster life to find his twin brother, Skinny, who missed an important doctor’s appointment in the city. Skinny is up a tree. He’s sick and he won’t get better—especially if he keeps smoking on the low. As Blue tries to take care of Skinny, they both find themselves attracted to the elusive and surreal Poet next door who brings meaning back into their lives as death approaches...
    Blue is forced away from his party-monster life to find his twin brother, Skinny, who missed an important doctor’s appointment in the city. Skinny is up a tree. He’s sick and he won’t get better—especially if he keeps smoking on the low. As Blue tries to take care of Skinny, they both find themselves attracted to the elusive and surreal Poet next door who brings meaning back into their lives as death approaches. A poetic play told in a Prologue and two Losses, takes place inside the surreal, tough, and intimate world that comes into being when a life’s about to end.
  • Casanova Girls by Leigh Marshall
    Cast: 
    6–7
    ·
    Genre: adventure, docudrama/historic + 3 more
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    Keyword: Mesopotamian mythology, 16th century Venice + 1 more
    Genre: adventure, docudrama/historic, drama, fable/folktale, verse
    Keyword: Mesopotamian mythology, 16th century Venice, Aerospace Engineer
    A group of refugee deities wash up in Venice, Italy in a far future based on the 16th century. In a climate of xenophobia at the crossroads of the world, unable to return to a home destroyed by war, they are forced to engineer an escape into outer space.
  • I Am Pretty Bird by Leigh Marshall
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: experimental, immersive + 3 more
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    Keyword: epic, desire + 2 more
    Genre: experimental, immersive, movement/physical, musical, verse
    Keyword: epic, desire, danger posed to women, world creation
    A one-woman play in verse set to original doom metal music. The voice of an instrument searches for PRETTY BIRD in the light-polluted sky, in the blackout trees. Finds her underground. She doesn’t want to come out. The voice coaxes her out. Real slow, she comes...
  • Inferno of Eye Candy by Leigh Marshall
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 3 more
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    Keyword: innocence, desire + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, fable/folktale, fantasy
    Keyword: innocence, desire, tattoos, apocalypse
    After unleashing catastrophic destruction on the known world, the Tatted Pretty Boy Trinity seek absolution from the God of Innocence at her fountain. They quickly learn, however, that their destruction may have irreparably tainted its waters and that the only rule of "drink but do not touch" will test the limits of their desire, and desire itself.
  • Kant in Vegas by Leigh Marshall
    Cast: 
    6–7
    ·
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: moral philosophy, paganism + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy, farce, romantic comedy
    Keyword: moral philosophy, paganism, Las Vegas, toxic relationships
    A lawyer stalks her ex-fiancée to Las Vegas on his birthday weekend with a plan to win him back. Her plan is derailed by a Brazilian stripper with a penchant for moral experiments, a pagan priestess whose phase of the moon is changing, and the omnipotent Goddess who observes from the bar.