A.M Palson

Ames Palson's plays revolve around the exploration of complex emotions and identity through heightened, often fantastical circumstances with a particular focus on LGBTQ experiences. Works have been seen at Activate Midwest, Flint Repertory Theatre, American Stage's 21st Century Voices, Bristol Valley Theatre, Pegasus PlayLab, Women's Theatre Festival, and elsewhere. Awards include The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Gary Garrison Award for Outstanding Ten Minute Play (National Winner 2021), City Theatre's National Award for Short Playwriting (Finalist, 2019 and 2020), and The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival John Cauble Award for Outstanding Short Play (National Finalist, 2021). Works have been included in We/US: Monologues for the Gender Minority (2022)...

Ames Palson's plays revolve around the exploration of complex emotions and identity through heightened, often fantastical circumstances with a particular focus on LGBTQ experiences. Works have been seen at Activate Midwest, Flint Repertory Theatre, American Stage's 21st Century Voices, Bristol Valley Theatre, Pegasus PlayLab, Women's Theatre Festival, and elsewhere. Awards include The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival Gary Garrison Award for Outstanding Ten Minute Play (National Winner 2021), City Theatre's National Award for Short Playwriting (Finalist, 2019 and 2020), and The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival John Cauble Award for Outstanding Short Play (National Finalist, 2021). Works have been included in We/US: Monologues for the Gender Minority (2022), Best Women's Monologues of 2021, The Kilroys List (2020), and Best Men's Monologues of 2019. Ames was Artist-in-Resident at The Mitten Lab in 2019 and resident playwright at Queer Theatre Kalamazoo in the 2019-2020 season. Ames graduated with an MFA in playwriting from Western Michigan University in 2020 and is a dissertator in Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies at the University of Wisconsin Madison. As a scholar, Amber studies LGBT theater in the late 20th century, theater as an expression of historiographical and archival research, and how documentary theater allows theater practitioners and audiences to revive the past, recontextualize the present as the future’s history, and collectively envision their future.

Works have been produced and published under Palson's previous name Amber Palmer.

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Scripts

Baby Dyke Whisperer

by A.M Palson

3
Cast Size
2
Genre
comedy,
romantic comedy

10 MINUTE PLAY: Betty is on her first date with a woman, but fortunately for her, she's with Erin, The Baby Dyke Whisperer.

10 MINUTE PLAY: Betty is on her first date with a woman, but fortunately for her, she's with Erin, The Baby Dyke Whisperer.

Bev Playing Bev in "The Money Shot"

by A.M Palson

1
Cast Size
2
Genre
comedy,
drama,
political

10 MINUTE PLAY: Bev is attempting to recover from a stage fight gone wrong when her scene partner Jim enters to try and make up for the injury he inflicted on her. Jim desperately wants to apologize, but Bev would rather spend her ten minute break recovering than accepting apologies.

10 MINUTE PLAY: Bev is attempting to recover from a stage fight gone wrong when her scene partner Jim enters to try and make up for the injury he inflicted on her. Jim desperately wants to apologize, but Bev would rather spend her ten minute break recovering than accepting apologies.

Eddie Loves Debbie

by A.M Palson

Cast Size
9
Genre
comedy,
drama,
romantic comedy

FULL LENGTH AVAILABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT: After leaving Youngstown for college, Eddie never imagined he’d find himself at Cedar’s Swing Night, let alone dancing with Debbie, a Swing Night regular with deep loyalty to Youngstown. After a dance turns into a date, the night is consumed by rust belt prophecies, whirlwind romance and the unshakeable feeling that they’ve both been here before. What becomes abundantly...

FULL LENGTH AVAILABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT: After leaving Youngstown for college, Eddie never imagined he’d find himself at Cedar’s Swing Night, let alone dancing with Debbie, a Swing Night regular with deep loyalty to Youngstown. After a dance turns into a date, the night is consumed by rust belt prophecies, whirlwind romance and the unshakeable feeling that they’ve both been here before. What becomes abundantly clear is that there’s always an Eddie, there’s always a Debbie, and it always ends badly. Script Available Upon Request.

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Getting Attached

by A.M Palson

3
Cast Size
2
Genre
drama

10 MINUTE PLAY: Max has traveled for miles to see the octopuses at a small marine lab in Florida, only to find that one of the octopuses has died. Sara, a lab technician, tries to explain that it’s natural and beautiful for female octopuses to die after laying their eggs. Max isn’t buying it. Together, the duo navigates questions of motherhood, biology, and gender through their mutual love and fascination with...

10 MINUTE PLAY: Max has traveled for miles to see the octopuses at a small marine lab in Florida, only to find that one of the octopuses has died. Sara, a lab technician, tries to explain that it’s natural and beautiful for female octopuses to die after laying their eggs. Max isn’t buying it. Together, the duo navigates questions of motherhood, biology, and gender through their mutual love and fascination with octopuses. Above all, Getting Attached explores feelings of biological betrayal and the human need for care.

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In The Women's Dressing Room

by A.M Palson

Cast Size
2
Genre
comedy,
political

10 MINUTE PLAY: In the women's dressing room at the last department store in your hometown, OAK and REX are finding suits for their college's Gay Prom.

10 MINUTE PLAY: In the women's dressing room at the last department store in your hometown, OAK and REX are finding suits for their college's Gay Prom.

In Search of The Mothman

by A.M Palson

5
Cast Size
2
Genre
dark comedy,
drama

FULL LENGTH AVAILABLE FOR PRODUCTION: In Search of The Mothman follows two young sisters trapped in a life transition after an unexpected tragedy strikes their hometown. Emily is just trying to make it through her senior year and get into music school, while Jordan moves across the country to Point Pleasant, West Virginia under the joke of "searching for The Mothman". Through honesty and humor, the sisters try...

FULL LENGTH AVAILABLE FOR PRODUCTION: In Search of The Mothman follows two young sisters trapped in a life transition after an unexpected tragedy strikes their hometown. Emily is just trying to make it through her senior year and get into music school, while Jordan moves across the country to Point Pleasant, West Virginia under the joke of "searching for The Mothman". Through honesty and humor, the sisters try to work through their trauma and grapple with what lives they want to lead in the aftermath. A play about coming together and pulling away in tragedy, the confines of community expectations and whether we can truly know the people we love.

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It's a Small World (or The Robot Play)

by A.M Palson

2
Cast Size
6
Genre
adventure,
comedy,
drama,
science fiction

FULL LENGTH AVAILABLE FOR PRODUCTION: Anne (an engineer in recovery) and Cyrus (a former coffee maker, now robot poet) take the long trip from Disney World to Canandaigua to get Cyrus back home to Anne’s childhood best friend, Adam. Along the way, the duo meet other people and small kitchen appliances that are just as lost as they are while they try to discover what home truly is.

FULL LENGTH AVAILABLE FOR PRODUCTION: Anne (an engineer in recovery) and Cyrus (a former coffee maker, now robot poet) take the long trip from Disney World to Canandaigua to get Cyrus back home to Anne’s childhood best friend, Adam. Along the way, the duo meet other people and small kitchen appliances that are just as lost as they are while they try to discover what home truly is.

Lacking Experience

by A.M Palson

1
Cast Size
4
Genre
comedy,
drama,
young audiences

FULL LENGTH AVAILABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT: The talent show is quickly approaching for Lacking Experience, an all girls high school Jimi Hendrix cover band. When their drummer has to quit unexpectedly, Ella (the guitarist) and Hannah (the singer and bassist) will have to team up with high school senior Nora to pull together one last good show for Ella's mom. But with families falling apart, small town bigotry and...

FULL LENGTH AVAILABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT: The talent show is quickly approaching for Lacking Experience, an all girls high school Jimi Hendrix cover band. When their drummer has to quit unexpectedly, Ella (the guitarist) and Hannah (the singer and bassist) will have to team up with high school senior Nora to pull together one last good show for Ella's mom. But with families falling apart, small town bigotry and bouts of internalized homophobia, that's proving to be harder than expected. This coming of age story explores becoming your own person and surviving even when it feels like the world is crumbling around you.

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Miss Julie

by A.M Palson

Cast Size
2
Genre
adaptation,
comedy,
drama

ONE ACT: Secret almost girlfriends Julie and Jean stumble back from their senior prom, staring down the barrel of college. Julie's hung up on a play she had to read for advanced drama, and Jean just wants to slide under the radar. A play about being left behind and functioning in an art form that's historically hated you.

ONE ACT: Secret almost girlfriends Julie and Jean stumble back from their senior prom, staring down the barrel of college. Julie's hung up on a play she had to read for advanced drama, and Jean just wants to slide under the radar. A play about being left behind and functioning in an art form that's historically hated you.

Shots

by A.M Palson

Cast Size
2
Genre
comedy,
drama,
romantic comedy

10 MINUTE PLAY: In a tiny apartment bathroom, Reese and Lauren use tequila shots to overcome their fear of needles and to embrace a new stage of life. SHOTS is about being afraid of change but doing it anyways and doing it together.

10 MINUTE PLAY: In a tiny apartment bathroom, Reese and Lauren use tequila shots to overcome their fear of needles and to embrace a new stage of life. SHOTS is about being afraid of change but doing it anyways and doing it together.

Theresa's Breasts

by A.M Palson

4
Cast Size
2—3
Genre
adaptation,
experimental,
romantic comedy

ONE ACT: Theresa wants to live one million lifetimes and believes the only way to do so is to leave their husband, but Husband wants to belong to Theresa, even if that means living forever. It's a reimagining the story as old as time, of wars waged over assassinations and the murder of constellations. A genderqueer love story based off of "The Breasts of Tiresias" by Guillaume Apollinaire.

ONE ACT: Theresa wants to live one million lifetimes and believes the only way to do so is to leave their husband, but Husband wants to belong to Theresa, even if that means living forever. It's a reimagining the story as old as time, of wars waged over assassinations and the murder of constellations. A genderqueer love story based off of "The Breasts of Tiresias" by Guillaume Apollinaire.

The Speedy Gonzales Memorial Turtle Sanctuary

by A.M Palson

1
Cast Size
2
Genre
drama

10 MINUTE PLAY: When Diana comes home from the trial, she expects to find her partner Carmen in a heightened state. What she doesn't expect, however, is to find that she's made their backyard into a sanctuary for stray turtles. This play explores the extremes we will go to in order to cope and the understanding necessary for us to be there for the ones we love.

10 MINUTE PLAY: When Diana comes home from the trial, she expects to find her partner Carmen in a heightened state. What she doesn't expect, however, is to find that she's made their backyard into a sanctuary for stray turtles. This play explores the extremes we will go to in order to cope and the understanding necessary for us to be there for the ones we love.

The Sweater Play

by A.M Palson

1
Cast Size
2
Genre
drama

10 MINUTE PLAY: After her parents find a note between her and her best friend Ella, Kate is forced to change schools. While she is emptying her locker, Ella confronts her. Ella wants answers, and Kate needs her sweater back. This play explores how parental expectations can trap us, leaving echoing repercussions in all the lives involved.

10 MINUTE PLAY: After her parents find a note between her and her best friend Ella, Kate is forced to change schools. While she is emptying her locker, Ella confronts her. Ella wants answers, and Kate needs her sweater back. This play explores how parental expectations can trap us, leaving echoing repercussions in all the lives involved.