Malena Pennycook

Malena Pennycook is a writer, performer and producer of new plays. They are obsessed with surprising integrations of text and movement.

Their plays include: HOW SHOULD A CONVERSATION BE? (Yale Drama Prize Shortlist; The Playwrights Realm Scratchpad; Playwrights Center; University of Washington; Palm Beach Drama Works; STAGES Houston; Crashbox; O'Neill Finalist; Princess Grace Finalist); CHOREOMANIA 1518 (The Playwrights Realm, The University of Texas at Austin); DIVING BOARD (Seoul International Theater Festival; O'Neill Finalist; Teatro Vivo), TWO APPRENTICES (Kennedy Center KCACTF Latinx Award), BELOW (Take Ten Theatre Masters, Sam French), 9/10 BEDS (Kennedy Center KCACTF Musical Theater 2nd Pl), and their solo show AM I BUSY YET? (Cosmic Cherry Arts Fest; Oregon Fringe).

As a...

Malena Pennycook is a writer, performer and producer of new plays. They are obsessed with surprising integrations of text and movement.

Their plays include: HOW SHOULD A CONVERSATION BE? (Yale Drama Prize Shortlist; The Playwrights Realm Scratchpad; Playwrights Center; University of Washington; Palm Beach Drama Works; STAGES Houston; Crashbox; O'Neill Finalist; Princess Grace Finalist); CHOREOMANIA 1518 (The Playwrights Realm, The University of Texas at Austin); DIVING BOARD (Seoul International Theater Festival; O'Neill Finalist; Teatro Vivo), TWO APPRENTICES (Kennedy Center KCACTF Latinx Award), BELOW (Take Ten Theatre Masters, Sam French), 9/10 BEDS (Kennedy Center KCACTF Musical Theater 2nd Pl), and their solo show AM I BUSY YET? (Cosmic Cherry Arts Fest; Oregon Fringe).

As a performer, they have developed work with The Public's Under the Radar, The Flea Theatre, ZACH Theater, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, The Brick and more.

They are a produce a DIY artist retreat, a writers group and an annual theater festival in Austin, Texas.

Residencies/Fellowships: New Harmony Project, Richie Jackson Artistic Fellowship.

BFA NYU Tisch Experimental Theatre Wing. MFA UT Austin.

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Scripts

How Should A Conversation Be?

by Malena Pennycook

5
Cast Size
3
Genre
drama,
experimental,
movement/physical

Terry and Kati live in Denver. It was love from the moment they met at Very Gay Beans Cafe. The trouble is
Five years have passed
Now ten
Now fifteen
and time just keeps moving faster and faster.
When a tragedy takes place several miles from their home, Terry and Kati are finally forced to slow down to ask each other, how should a conversation be? That is, how can we...

Terry and Kati live in Denver. It was love from the moment they met at Very Gay Beans Cafe. The trouble is
Five years have passed
Now ten
Now fifteen
and time just keeps moving faster and faster.
When a tragedy takes place several miles from their home, Terry and Kati are finally forced to slow down to ask each other, how should a conversation be? That is, how can we establish a profound connection, which feels distinctly available after an act of violence, in our day to day?

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Choreomania 1518

by Malena Pennycook

4
Cast Size
6—400
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
docudrama/historic,
experimental,
movement/physical

It's 16th century France and everything is horrible! There's bubonic plague, major agricultural collapse and the leadership is corrupt as all hell. When a dancing plague breaks out, a group of potato farmers cue the strobe lights and reach towards hope. These are the choreomaniacs. This is their (mostly) true story.

It's 16th century France and everything is horrible! There's bubonic plague, major agricultural collapse and the leadership is corrupt as all hell. When a dancing plague breaks out, a group of potato farmers cue the strobe lights and reach towards hope. These are the choreomaniacs. This is their (mostly) true story.

Below

by Malena Pennycook

Cast Size
2—3
Genre
dark comedy

After losing her home to a California wildfire, Anara joins her cousin for a shocking marine expedition. A surrealist short that interrogates the sense we'll make, if any, of the end.

After losing her home to a California wildfire, Anara joins her cousin for a shocking marine expedition. A surrealist short that interrogates the sense we'll make, if any, of the end.

WEAVER UNDER

by Malena Pennycook

Cast Size
8—20
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
experimental,
movement/physical

Four friends convene for Clytemnestra’s Bachelorette party in NOLA. When Jerzy, a local entertainer, offers a one thousand dollar reward to anyone who can beat Cassandra in a fight, the women find themselves undressing for an underground wrestling match. In the ring, Cly rages against the idea of heterosexual commitment within patriarchy. And Jerzy may be losing his marbles. With a surrealist approach to...

Four friends convene for Clytemnestra’s Bachelorette party in NOLA. When Jerzy, a local entertainer, offers a one thousand dollar reward to anyone who can beat Cassandra in a fight, the women find themselves undressing for an underground wrestling match. In the ring, Cly rages against the idea of heterosexual commitment within patriarchy. And Jerzy may be losing his marbles. With a surrealist approach to language, Weaver Under takes a high-octane, embodied look at the legacies women wrestle with in the face of marriage.

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Diving Board

by Malena Pennycook

4
Cast Size
6—10
Genre
dark comedy,
drama,
experimental,
movement/physical

At the top of the 10 meter diving board, 17 year old Annie sees the face of a man ripple across the water and, subsequently, in everything she does. Joanna thinks its God. Tiernan's too busy trying to win states to pay attention. An athletic new play about the terror of young womanhood & the ways we cope with the thing in the shadows.

At the top of the 10 meter diving board, 17 year old Annie sees the face of a man ripple across the water and, subsequently, in everything she does. Joanna thinks its God. Tiernan's too busy trying to win states to pay attention. An athletic new play about the terror of young womanhood & the ways we cope with the thing in the shadows.

Am I Busy Yet?

by Malena Pennycook

Cast Size
1
Genre
comedy,
immersive

Am I Busy Yet? is a solo immersive show that follows follows Gus, the unmoored younger sister of athleisure icon Ty Haney, as she crosses things off a gargantuan to-do list with the audience's help. Beginning with a guided meditation and ending with a full tilt birthday bash, Gus and the audience confront the pressures of modern industry head on to reconsider their sense of pleasure.

Am I Busy Yet? is a solo immersive show that follows follows Gus, the unmoored younger sister of athleisure icon Ty Haney, as she crosses things off a gargantuan to-do list with the audience's help. Beginning with a guided meditation and ending with a full tilt birthday bash, Gus and the audience confront the pressures of modern industry head on to reconsider their sense of pleasure.

Two Apprentices

by Malena Pennycook

Cast Size
6
Genre
docudrama/historic,
tragedy

Las Malvinas, Argentina 1982. Two brothers, Mac and Ike, are trapped between two wars. The island's cannon fire is making Mac explode from the inside out and Ike doesn't want them to be the next Argentino's to disappear. At least there are penguins. Loosely inspired by Oedipus Rex, Two Apprentices is a dark fairy tale about brotherhood, imperialism and the slipperiness of hope.

Las Malvinas, Argentina 1982. Two brothers, Mac and Ike, are trapped between two wars. The island's cannon fire is making Mac explode from the inside out and Ike doesn't want them to be the next Argentino's to disappear. At least there are penguins. Loosely inspired by Oedipus Rex, Two Apprentices is a dark fairy tale about brotherhood, imperialism and the slipperiness of hope.