Mak Shealy

Mak Shealy

Mak Shealy (she/they) is a writer and performer originally from a field in South Carolina and now based in New York and Los Angeles (yes, it’s cliché to be bisexual and bicoastal). Mak's plays are nerdy, muscular stories for ambitious performers and often thread the needle between life and afterlife, subjective reality and unconscious realms. Thematically, Mak writes about the convergence of unexpected...
Mak Shealy (she/they) is a writer and performer originally from a field in South Carolina and now based in New York and Los Angeles (yes, it’s cliché to be bisexual and bicoastal). Mak's plays are nerdy, muscular stories for ambitious performers and often thread the needle between life and afterlife, subjective reality and unconscious realms. Thematically, Mak writes about the convergence of unexpected identities in rural America and always, always, hope.

This spring, her play unconformity will have staged reading presentations in New York and Los Angeles and Mak’s sold-out solo show about digestive trauma, LEAKY will be performed on both coasts in preparation for festival runs in 2024. They are currently adapting many plays to screen and pitching their pilot, Carolina Kings -- a rags to riches comedy about a rural queer gas station attendant who wins a life-changing lottery sum and has to evade discovery by the corrupt local preacher who is fiending to use the money for unholy expenses.

Mak has been a member of the IAMA Emerging Writers Group, an O'Neill Semi-Finalist, a Bay Area Playwrights Festival Semi-finalist, a Samuel French OOB Top-30 finalist, an Orchard Project Finalist, RAVE Theatre festival finalist, and their two-hander if there is breakage you will find chips was the 2021 OnWomen’s Festival MainStage Selection at Irondale Ensemble Theatre. Mak’s writing has been seen / developed at IAMA, The Workshop Theater, The Road Theatre, the Entertainment Community Fund, The Tank and the 24: Hour Plays Viral Monologues.

Mak’s dreams are to see their plays performed around the world in multiple languages, to create an original series for TV and one day to own their own production company that provides early career support to queer, trans and non-binary creatives in rural areas. In their spare time, Mak teaches Poetry Workshops, dares to fail at ceramics, and hosts Cloud Club - a text thread for cloud enthusiasts.

IG: @makattackssnacks
www.makwashere.org
NYU Tisch BFA.
Ring of Keys Member; Dramatist Guild Member.

Plays

  • [working title] Graveyard Play by Mak Shealy
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 5 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, dark comedy, experimental, horror, movement/physical, mystery/thriller
    Lily's soon to be ex-husband, Paul, drops dead just as she is moving back into her childhood bedroom. She travels across the world to pay her respects, even after getting disinvited to the funeral by her ex-mother-in-law. Her younger brother, Brian, tags along for emotional support and is planning to piss on Paul's grave. When their plane gets delayed and they arrive at their destination well after...
    Lily's soon to be ex-husband, Paul, drops dead just as she is moving back into her childhood bedroom. She travels across the world to pay her respects, even after getting disinvited to the funeral by her ex-mother-in-law. Her younger brother, Brian, tags along for emotional support and is planning to piss on Paul's grave. When their plane gets delayed and they arrive at their destination well after dark, Lily decides on a midnight excursion to the cemetery, where she and Brian are forced to confront their family's consistent inability to ever achieve true closure for their deepest wounds.

    A play about breaking cycles of abuse, literally tackling your demons to the ground, and the polarity of sibling experiences.
  • Victorian Psychedelic Sleepover Play by Mak Shealy
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: biography, comedy + 9 more
    ·
    Keyword: LGBTQIA+, nonbinary lead + 2 more
    Genre: biography, comedy, dark comedy, docudrama/historic, experimental, fantasy, horror, movement/physical, period, satire, zoom
    Keyword: LGBTQIA+, nonbinary lead, ensemble cast, Victorian literature
    On the eve of a 16th birthday, four teens meet after their writing is rejected by the school lit mag to create a Literary Zine of their own. Seeking editorial guidance, they conjure the ghosts of writers past and find themselves possessed by the spirit, chaos and conflict of the Victorian Era radicals they have long admired.
  • unconformity by Mak Shealy
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    5–8
    ·
    Genre: adventure, drama
    ·
    Keyword: geology, LGBTQIA+ + 5 more
    Genre: adventure, drama
    Keyword: geology, LGBTQIA+, grief, loss, science, stem, deconstructed time
    Geology grad students, Christine, Cyril and Ari are bound by a shared love of trying to decipher the secrets of the ancient earth. After a tragic accident fractures their dynamic forever, each is forced to grapple with legacy, grief and unanswerable questions. At the center of it all, curiosity and fear battle it out. Much like the Great Unconformity itself, leaps of imagination are required to fill in the gaps.
  • exceptional by Mak Shealy
    Recommendations: 6
    ·
    Cast: 
    7–9
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 7 more
    ·
    Keyword: LGBTQIA+, beauty pageant + 3 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, movement/physical, musical, mystery/thriller, opera, pageant, political, tragedy
    Keyword: LGBTQIA+, beauty pageant, true crime, gender identity, domestic abuse
    JAY and ADDIE fell in love backstage at a beauty pageant. Now ADDIE is missing, and with college money and real escape on the line, JAY can’t afford not to compete. Flashes of nightmare and memory punctuate the sharp twists of the Miss Nebraska’s Outstanding Teen competition, which is already full of pointed stares and secrets to unbury as each contestant fights to hold onto a legacy of their own. What happens...
    JAY and ADDIE fell in love backstage at a beauty pageant. Now ADDIE is missing, and with college money and real escape on the line, JAY can’t afford not to compete. Flashes of nightmare and memory punctuate the sharp twists of the Miss Nebraska’s Outstanding Teen competition, which is already full of pointed stares and secrets to unbury as each contestant fights to hold onto a legacy of their own. What happens behind the blank white teeth that seem to shine through it all, no matter what? Do queer kids ever get to be just 17?

  • where the water takes us by Mak Shealy
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    6–7
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, docudrama/historic + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: aerospace, astronaut + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, docudrama/historic, experimental, fantasy, movement/physical, political
    Keyword: aerospace, astronaut, climate change, female scientist
    Sabine and Tansy are childhood friends on a mission. As they navigate their way back into each other’s lives, their worlds collide with that of Dr. Rachel Mattingly (quite literally) after a crash landing of the vessel that she had a hand in building happens in her backyard. They all must decide what secrets are public domain, and which ones should remain buried for someone in the future to find.
  • GEN by Mak Shealy
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    9–12
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, docudrama/historic + 10 more
    ·
    Keyword: Anthology, accepting death + 6 more
    Genre: dark comedy, docudrama/historic, drama, experimental, fable/folktale, fantasy, horror, immersive, movement/physical, mystery/thriller, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Anthology, accepting death, breaking tradition, family, intergenerational conflicts, complex trauma, psychological abuse, LGBTQ
    Synopsis:
    GEN ​is a play that follows the lineage through the women+ of a family on ​St. Helena Island in South Carolina.​ Years swirl around everyone who enters this house as they navigate embedded fears, white fragility, the performance of “southern” women+hood and the ignorance with which we often follow our ancestors into the dark. This is a play about family (chosen or blood), about the ties that...
    Synopsis:
    GEN ​is a play that follows the lineage through the women+ of a family on ​St. Helena Island in South Carolina.​ Years swirl around everyone who enters this house as they navigate embedded fears, white fragility, the performance of “southern” women+hood and the ignorance with which we often follow our ancestors into the dark. This is a play about family (chosen or blood), about the ties that bind, and what lengths we will go to in order to keep them intact -- or precisely what it takes to sever them for good.

    On the genre:
    Horror is a necessary mirror. This play should be as terrifying as real life. I loved the quote I read recently while scrolling through Dread Central: “Horror finds those deep, primal fears that fester inside us and brings them to the surface, where we can face them, examine them, and ultimately release them.”

    On the soundscape:
    Please play with altering frequencies, particularly if this is set in an immersive space. Run the gamut between the 3 generations when choosing pre & post-show music.
  • if there is breakage you will find chips by Mak Shealy
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 8 more
    ·
    Keyword: lgbtqia, lesbian couple + 2 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, fantasy, movement/physical, political, romantic comedy, zoom
    Keyword: lgbtqia, lesbian couple, bittersweet love story, happy endings for queers
    HAELEY is fresh out of a breakup and ANYA is desperate for a career break. The moment their worlds intersect, life begins to cascade and spread out into a permanent connection. As they navigate the very edges of love and understanding, they grow together and against each other, colliding with the world around them. A meditation on the way we crash into each other's lives if there is breakage you will find...
    HAELEY is fresh out of a breakup and ANYA is desperate for a career break. The moment their worlds intersect, life begins to cascade and spread out into a permanent connection. As they navigate the very edges of love and understanding, they grow together and against each other, colliding with the world around them. A meditation on the way we crash into each other's lives if there is breakage you will find chips is a play where days and weeks flip into months and years, tracing the cumulative micro and macro bits that stick in our memory, even if it's just a flash of a cross street in Brooklyn where hand-me-down furniture and a broken mirror sit after life takes the owners onto their next chapter.
  • LACES by Mak Shealy
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: ABSURD LGBTQ, figure skating + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, experimental, horror, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: ABSURD LGBTQ, figure skating, erotic, competition
    Cait Gold has a secret and once it's revealed, it becomes apparent just how deep team ties bind.
  • tit.tat.toe. by Mak Shealy
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: abortion access, family money + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, experimental, satire
    Keyword: abortion access, family money, roommates
    Charlie, Tippie, and Suz are roommates in New York. Charlie and Tippie are in a vicious cycle of jealousy and misunderstanding. Suz is a reluctant peacemaker. Everyone has something someone else wants. Access, talent, money, and trauma all collide in this fucked up roommate triad. Everyone has different limits for how far they are willing to go to get what they say they want. The question remains, is it worse out there, or in here?