Margot Connolly

Margot Connolly is a playwright and librettist originally from Pleasantville, NY. Her plays include Belfast Kind (Winner, JPP's Jewish Playwriting Contest, Patty Abramson Prize Finalist), Quiz Out (Princess Grace Finalist, 2019 Kilroy’s Honorable Mention), The Twitch (Princess Grace Finalist), and Tough (Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival.) Her work has been produced and developed through The Jungle, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Repertory St. Louis, Primary Stages, Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Playwrights Center, the Jewish Plays Project, and The Juilliard School, among others. She's the recipient of an EST/Sloan commission, a former Core Apprentice at the Playwrights Center, and has been a finalist for the Jerome Fellowship, the Emerald Prize, and the Princess Grace Award. She...

Margot Connolly is a playwright and librettist originally from Pleasantville, NY. Her plays include Belfast Kind (Winner, JPP's Jewish Playwriting Contest, Patty Abramson Prize Finalist), Quiz Out (Princess Grace Finalist, 2019 Kilroy’s Honorable Mention), The Twitch (Princess Grace Finalist), and Tough (Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival.) Her work has been produced and developed through The Jungle, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Repertory St. Louis, Primary Stages, Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Playwrights Center, the Jewish Plays Project, and The Juilliard School, among others. She's the recipient of an EST/Sloan commission, a former Core Apprentice at the Playwrights Center, and has been a finalist for the Jerome Fellowship, the Emerald Prize, and the Princess Grace Award. She received her BA from Bennington College, her MFA from the University of Iowa’s Playwrights Workshop, and is a recent graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights’ Program at Juilliard.

Scripts

Hello World

by Margot Connolly

Synopsis

In a coding competition, two teams of teenage girls need to create an app that changes the world for the better - but who decides which app and cause is most worthy?

In a coding competition, two teams of teenage girls need to create an app that changes the world for the better - but who decides which app and cause is most worthy?

Quiz Out

by Margot Connolly

Synopsis

Harper's moved back to her aunts house for her junior year of high school and her aunt thinks she should pick everything up where she left off - school, youth ministry, her best friend Hannah. But her relationship with Hannah has changed, and Hannah seems to feel it too. As they join their church Bible Quiz team and spend more and more time together, they learn more about themselves and the Bible than they ever...

Harper's moved back to her aunts house for her junior year of high school and her aunt thinks she should pick everything up where she left off - school, youth ministry, her best friend Hannah. But her relationship with Hannah has changed, and Hannah seems to feel it too. As they join their church Bible Quiz team and spend more and more time together, they learn more about themselves and the Bible than they ever thought they would.

Tough

by Margot Connolly

Synopsis

The troubled teen boot camp, Crosswinds, sells itself to parents as a behavior modification program that will help their daughters straighten out. The girls who have been sent here, however, learn it is a place of ever changing rules, harsh punishments, and ever-increasing desperation. When they hear a rumor that the program will be shut down if a camper dies, the girls plan their escape - by whatever means...

The troubled teen boot camp, Crosswinds, sells itself to parents as a behavior modification program that will help their daughters straighten out. The girls who have been sent here, however, learn it is a place of ever changing rules, harsh punishments, and ever-increasing desperation. When they hear a rumor that the program will be shut down if a camper dies, the girls plan their escape - by whatever means necessary.

Linger

by Margot Connolly

Synopsis

A year after the mysterious death of Petra, her twin sister Dash convinces the scattered and estranged members of her Scout troop to re-form in order to return to Exploration Expedition, the site of her sisters passing. Though the troop have all been dealing with the loss of their defacto leader in different ways, their arrival at Expedition forces them to gather to find closure, and confront the fallout of...

A year after the mysterious death of Petra, her twin sister Dash convinces the scattered and estranged members of her Scout troop to re-form in order to return to Exploration Expedition, the site of her sisters passing. Though the troop have all been dealing with the loss of their defacto leader in different ways, their arrival at Expedition forces them to gather to find closure, and confront the fallout of Petra's death on their friendships.

The Twitch

by Margot Connolly

Synopsis

At an elite gymnastics gym, a group of teenage girls on their path to the Olympics come down with a mysterious ailment. All of a sudden, they're twitching - shoulders spasming, jerking heads, flailing arms. It starts to spread - first one girl, then another, then another. The girls are suffering from conversion disorder - a psychological phenomenon in which bodies convert stress into physicalized symptoms. As...

At an elite gymnastics gym, a group of teenage girls on their path to the Olympics come down with a mysterious ailment. All of a sudden, they're twitching - shoulders spasming, jerking heads, flailing arms. It starts to spread - first one girl, then another, then another. The girls are suffering from conversion disorder - a psychological phenomenon in which bodies convert stress into physicalized symptoms. As the pressure from parents, coaches, team doctors, and themselves continues to rise, they have to figure out how to handle the stress they are under - or see the lives they want evaporate before they even begin.

What Happens Next

by Margot Connolly

Synopsis

After a shooting at their high school, the members of the student newspaper have to figure out what happens next.

After a shooting at their high school, the members of the student newspaper have to figure out what happens next.

Found

by Margot Connolly

Synopsis

Tensions rise between sisters Tabitha and Diana when Diana, a young true crime podcaster, decides to take on the unsolved case of their middle sister, who disappeared during a childhood game fifteen years ago. Tabitha, a cadaver dog handler, is unmoored by Diana's search from the start. As uncovering the past digs up hard truths and emotional traumas, the two sisters must work together to find closure.

Tensions rise between sisters Tabitha and Diana when Diana, a young true crime podcaster, decides to take on the unsolved case of their middle sister, who disappeared during a childhood game fifteen years ago. Tabitha, a cadaver dog handler, is unmoored by Diana's search from the start. As uncovering the past digs up hard truths and emotional traumas, the two sisters must work together to find closure.

Belfast Kind

by Margot Connolly

Synopsis

Being thirteen is tough. Being thirteen in Belfast during the Troubles is tougher. Being thirteen in Belfast during the Troubles and preparing for your bat mitzvah? Practically impossible. Struggling with her friends, her parents, and her Hebrew, Zippy tries to find her place to belong as the Troubles loom ever larger in the background. Can she find a way to fit in with her friends without denying her family and...

Being thirteen is tough. Being thirteen in Belfast during the Troubles is tougher. Being thirteen in Belfast during the Troubles and preparing for your bat mitzvah? Practically impossible. Struggling with her friends, her parents, and her Hebrew, Zippy tries to find her place to belong as the Troubles loom ever larger in the background. Can she find a way to fit in with her friends without denying her family and her heritage?

1 John 4:20

by Margot Connolly

Synopsis

'If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?'

William is dying so his sons come home - but they all want different things. Can they come to terms with the past and make peace in the present before it's too late?

'If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?'

William is dying so his sons come home - but they all want different things. Can they come to terms with the past and make peace in the present before it's too late?

Keys

by Margot Connolly

Synopsis

Struggling with her father's death and her mother's re-entry into the dating scene, Thea seeks comfort in her hero, Harry Houdini. When unexpected events trap Thea in Houdini's world, she must focus all of her energy and escape - with history's greatest escapist on her side, why is that so difficult?

Struggling with her father's death and her mother's re-entry into the dating scene, Thea seeks comfort in her hero, Harry Houdini. When unexpected events trap Thea in Houdini's world, she must focus all of her energy and escape - with history's greatest escapist on her side, why is that so difficult?

Shabbat Shalom, Singles

by Margot Connolly

Synopsis

Rach just wants Temple Beth Israel's first Singles Shabbat to be a success, even though Congregation Sons of Israel always has better themes. Her sister Ruthie just to get through the evening in one piece. Is that too much to ask?

Rach just wants Temple Beth Israel's first Singles Shabbat to be a success, even though Congregation Sons of Israel always has better themes. Her sister Ruthie just to get through the evening in one piece. Is that too much to ask?

Cross Examined

by Margot Connolly

Synopsis

"Cross-Examined" is a play about the successful effort by African American mothers to fight school segregation in Keokuk, Iowa. The play is based on research by University of Iowa Professor Leslie Schwalm and commissioned by Iowa Arts Share.

"Cross-Examined" is a play about the successful effort by African American mothers to fight school segregation in Keokuk, Iowa. The play is based on research by University of Iowa Professor Leslie Schwalm and commissioned by Iowa Arts Share.