Patrick Shaw

Patrick Shaw

Patrick Shaw is an Austin-based playwright, director, and performer.

He teaches Playwriting and Directing at the University of Texas at Austin.

Plays

  • Watchers
    A dark, magical play about Texas at night and guns.   After a long day of bussing at Chili's, Eric meets Jacob at the range.  Something's weird about Jacob - He's got a dark power to him, a kind of magical authority that may be related to God or maybe his job as a cop, but who could tell the difference around here anyway?  This Jacob guy, he takes it upon himself to help Eric set things right...
    A dark, magical play about Texas at night and guns.   After a long day of bussing at Chili's, Eric meets Jacob at the range.  Something's weird about Jacob - He's got a dark power to him, a kind of magical authority that may be related to God or maybe his job as a cop, but who could tell the difference around here anyway?  This Jacob guy, he takes it upon himself to help Eric set things right with his life and loved ones, but Eric soon learns that every problem's a nail when you've got Bible in your heart and a gun in your hand.
  • The Repentance of Saint Joan
    The Hundred Years War was ages ago, and the two surviving people who knew Joan of Arc best, her high school boyfriend/page and her sibling/ historical expert, can’t agree on how it all went down before her death. Was Joan really a devout, religious servant to King Charles, or was she just a keen young woman who understood the power of violence?  This semi-autobiographical story considers how the intimate...
    The Hundred Years War was ages ago, and the two surviving people who knew Joan of Arc best, her high school boyfriend/page and her sibling/ historical expert, can’t agree on how it all went down before her death. Was Joan really a devout, religious servant to King Charles, or was she just a keen young woman who understood the power of violence?  This semi-autobiographical story considers how the intimate details of human life that go overlooked when a tidy recorded history betrays personal memory.
  • Karlstad
    A comedy about three young women and their improbably vast existential dread.  Sally and Pam’s roommate, Jules, leaves them in the lurch when she takes off for Europe to uncover her roots. Now, in the mysterious company of their new middle-aged German sublet, the young women begin to question if they’re living the lives they feel they deserve. But when Jules returns with a second German stranger, they uncover...
    A comedy about three young women and their improbably vast existential dread.  Sally and Pam’s roommate, Jules, leaves them in the lurch when she takes off for Europe to uncover her roots. Now, in the mysterious company of their new middle-aged German sublet, the young women begin to question if they’re living the lives they feel they deserve. But when Jules returns with a second German stranger, they uncover an improbable link between Occupy Wall Street, East German political prisoners, and the IKEA furniture filling their lower Manhattan apartment: The Karlstad.
  • Lushly
    Deb no longer teaches band because she's going to jail for seducing Aaron, her 17-year-old, first-chair trombone student. But Deb's life is many other things - the rust belt, old echoed language, gesture, and popcorn.  And this room becomes many other places as well, these people become other people – some quite dangerous – forcing Deb to struggle for moments of comfort and stability in a fluidly hostile world.
  • Operation Istanbul
    An intercontinental, decade-long, star-crossed tale of Scott (CIA) and Asan (Kurdish nationalist).  After a steamy seduction in Istanbul, the pair evades their respective organizations and undertake the “happily ever after” portion of their lives.  Will they build a comfortable home in Carlisle, PA, or will the CIA track them down?   Will Asan risk returning to Turkey to save his mother’s life during the Gezi...
    An intercontinental, decade-long, star-crossed tale of Scott (CIA) and Asan (Kurdish nationalist).  After a steamy seduction in Istanbul, the pair evades their respective organizations and undertake the “happily ever after” portion of their lives.  Will they build a comfortable home in Carlisle, PA, or will the CIA track them down?   Will Asan risk returning to Turkey to save his mother’s life during the Gezi Park protests, or should he pick up their son from his soccer game?  Love, action, and fantasy in the global War on Terror.
  • Hamlettes
    A dark comedy of three 12-year-old girls who decide to put on a production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and ruin their lives. When, as an exercise, they decide to never drop character, the dramas of their middle school quibbles magnify with the guidance of Denmark’s tale, resulting in a very real tween tragedy.​

    HAMLETTES is available on Playscripts, Inc.
  • Autobiography of a Sparrow
    Sparrow is painfully self-conscious, creatively paralyzed, and, much like a real sparrow, ordinary, delicate, and undervalued.  Today will be different, though.  Having never tested her wings, she ventures out: making her first friend in the city, Jessie, and quitting her demeaning publishing job.  This foray out of the nest, however, does not go as planned and leads to an adrenaline-fueled night on the town, unearthing a painful past.