Shelby Solla

Shelby Solla

(she/her/hers) is a playwright, librettist and screenwriter based in Brooklyn, NY. Shelby’s writing spans the divide between comedy and drama, fantasy and reality, and past and present. Her work explores themes of fat liberation, feminism, and mental illness from small villages in Medieval England to public school classrooms in the present-day. Her dramatic writing has been performed at New York Live Arts,...
(she/her/hers) is a playwright, librettist and screenwriter based in Brooklyn, NY. Shelby’s writing spans the divide between comedy and drama, fantasy and reality, and past and present. Her work explores themes of fat liberation, feminism, and mental illness from small villages in Medieval England to public school classrooms in the present-day. Her dramatic writing has been performed at New York Live Arts, Primary Stages, Pittsburgh New Works Festival (Runner-Up: Best LabWorks Production), and Dixon Place.

1385, the pilot she co-wrote, was selected as a second rounder for Austin Film Festival in 2021.

Currently, Shelby is co-writing the book of the musical Salem, which is in development with Blair Russell Productions.

She holds a B.A. in Writing for the Stage from Marymount Manhattan College.

Plays

  • Salem: A New Musical by Shelby Solla
    Cast: 
    12–40
    ·
    Genre: comedy, musical + 1 more
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    Keyword: Salem Witch Trials, Teen girls + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, musical, period
    Keyword: Salem Witch Trials, Teen girls, Musical comedy, comedy, Pop musical, pop music, Puritans, early American history, new england, Salem
    Misinformation spreading like wildfire, outlandish conspiracy theories, and a controversial trial in the early 90’s. Yep, this is 17th century New England. SALEM follows Abby and Betty, two Puritan teenagers, as they decide to utilize witch accusations in an attempt to con their way out of the oppressive theocratic patriarchy holding them down.

    SALEM is a 2-act musical comedy that asks: Who gets...
    Misinformation spreading like wildfire, outlandish conspiracy theories, and a controversial trial in the early 90’s. Yep, this is 17th century New England. SALEM follows Abby and Betty, two Puritan teenagers, as they decide to utilize witch accusations in an attempt to con their way out of the oppressive theocratic patriarchy holding them down.

    SALEM is a 2-act musical comedy that asks: Who gets to dictate what "truth" is? And how does one find truth for themself in a world where information is a privilege and not a right? In this fictional re-telling of infamous historical events, SALEM explores Puritan "witch hunts" through a modern lens.

    Book co-written by Shelby Solla & T.J. Pieffer
    Music & Lyrics by Jennifer Cook
  • Custodians by Shelby Solla
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: Adolescence, pedophilia + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: Adolescence, pedophilia, dark comedy, small cast, great roles for teens or young adults
    In a rundown middle school in Western Pennsylvania, four summer cleaners scrub walls, scrape gum from cafeteria tables, and paint curbs while confronting the divide between childhood and adulthood. Under the guidance of the offbeat and predatory head custodian, the four young employees navigate their relationships as friends and coworkers, and contemplate their futures in the world outside of the school’s four walls.
  • B.B.W., a fat revenge play by Shelby Solla
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    4–8
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: fat positivity, body positivity + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, fantasy
    Keyword: fat positivity, body positivity, sex work, pornography, fetish, weight loss surgery, Sisters, eating disorders, demons
    When Megan enlists the help of her childhood nutritionist to lose the last 20 pounds before gastric bypass surgery, she is re-submerged in the world of diet culture that she desperately hoped to leave behind. As she spirals deeper into the depths of obsession and restriction, her younger sister, Lauren, a fat fetish cam girl, is forced to save her sister from their shared demon's grotesque tactics of control, once and for all.
  • The Ladies Room by Shelby Solla
    Cast: 
    8
    ·
    Genre: comedy, docudrama/historic + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: historical figures, women + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, docudrama/historic, political
    Keyword: historical figures, women, feminism, devised theater
    Co-written with playwright and comedian Keira McGill and based on the research of performers in Project: Human Better, The Ladies Room takes hard-hitting women from history and forces them into a women's bathroom to duke it out over the true meanings of feminism and intersectionality in today's world. Featured figures: Carol Burnett, Frida Kahlo, Sojourner Truth, Coretta Scott King, Sarah Grimke,...
    Co-written with playwright and comedian Keira McGill and based on the research of performers in Project: Human Better, The Ladies Room takes hard-hitting women from history and forces them into a women's bathroom to duke it out over the true meanings of feminism and intersectionality in today's world. Featured figures: Carol Burnett, Frida Kahlo, Sojourner Truth, Coretta Scott King, Sarah Grimke, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Mae West, and Joan Baez.
  • Astronaut (or Frantic Action) by Shelby Solla
    Cast: 
    5–10
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: mental illness, love triangle + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, docudrama/historic, drama
    Keyword: mental illness, love triangle, pop culture, History
    It's February, 2007 and NASA astronaut, Lisa Nowak, is driving in adult diapers from Houston to Orlando to kidnap and potentially murder her ex-boyfriend's new lover. Over the course of her drive, she revisits the relationships that brought her to this infamous moment and made her a news sensation.
  • A Play About Nothing by Shelby Solla
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 1 more
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    Keyword: abortion, Seinfeld + 1 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, political
    Keyword: abortion, Seinfeld, millennials
    In this gender-bent millennial Seinfeld adaptation, Julia, a 20-something stand-up comedian spends her morning filling out paperwork for an abortion in the waiting room of a Planned Parenthood, surrounded by her neurotic friends and their all-consuming personal lives.