Leigh Marshall

Leigh Marshall

Leigh M. Marshall is a writer/actor originally from San Francisco, California. Her play MARAT’S DEAD was a finalist for the 2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and received an internationally-livestreamed reading in the International Writing Program/Prairie Lights Reading Series. In 2019, her play LATERALITY received a gallery production directed by Lila Rachel Becker and previously received a National New Play...
Leigh M. Marshall is a writer/actor originally from San Francisco, California. Her play MARAT’S DEAD was a finalist for the 2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and received an internationally-livestreamed reading in the International Writing Program/Prairie Lights Reading Series. In 2019, her play LATERALITY received a gallery production directed by Lila Rachel Becker and previously received a National New Play Network reading (dir. Amy Mueller; 2015 semi-finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival). Her one-woman play in verse set to original doom metal music, I AM PRETTY BIRD, was given a workshop production in the 2018 Iowa New Play Festival (dir. Bo Frazier; finalist for the Williamstown Theater Festival), and her dark comedy KANT IN VEGAS was also selected for a Festival reading (dir. Eric Conner Marlin). Marshall’s short play “The Antihero’s Handbook” was commissioned and presented by the Hume Center for Writing & Speaking at Stanford University in honor of their 50th anniversary. Marshall has worked in Artistic Development at Arena Stage and New Dramatists. Currently, she is the Editorial Associate at the International Writing Program and co-translator (with Aron Aji) of SEA OF FATE, the latest book by eminent Turkish poet Bejan Matur. BA: Stanford University (Mellon Mays Fellow, honors & distinction). Certificate: American Conservatory Theater. MFA: Iowa Playwrights Workshop (Iowa Arts Fellow).

Plays

  • Marat's Dead by Leigh Marshall
    Cast: 
    2
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    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.
  • Spells for Going Forth by Daylight by Leigh Marshall
    Cast: 
    11–13
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    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
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    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.