Riley Elton McCarthy

Riley Elton McCarthy

Riley Elton McCarthy (they/he) is an internationally produced shitpost, published scripts available at The Drama Book Shop.

Plays

  • Ivories by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Recommendations: 13
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 3 more
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    Keyword: horror, psychological horror + 7 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, horror, science fiction, tragedy
    Keyword: horror, psychological horror, LGBTQ, bisexuality, PTSD, haunting, panic attacks, trans identity, nonbinary lead
    Brought back to their childhood home to care for grandmother who is riddled with severe dementia, young prodigal playwright Sloane and their botanist husband Gwyn are struggling to settle in to a new routine after having their lives uprooted by tragedy. The longer Sloane stays in their grandmother's home, the more secrets and childhood trauma begins to resurface, and the couple soon suspects something...
    Brought back to their childhood home to care for grandmother who is riddled with severe dementia, young prodigal playwright Sloane and their botanist husband Gwyn are struggling to settle in to a new routine after having their lives uprooted by tragedy. The longer Sloane stays in their grandmother's home, the more secrets and childhood trauma begins to resurface, and the couple soon suspects something deeply sinister is afoot in this small, suburban New England estate. Good thing their best friend Beckham's there to help sort out the estate... right?

    PART ONE OF THE TEETH TRILOGY.

    If the basement is the stomach, then what's the basement door?

    LENGTH: 100 minutes, one intermission.

    Ivories is published with NextStage Press.
  • i'm going to eat you alive by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, horror
    Roach, a road trip vlogger suffering from pica documents his obsession with eating rocks from different natural landmarks across the American continent, and August, a run-of-the-mill (or maybe out of it) pathological arsonist who loves the smell of burning trees, reappears from Roach's past to hijack the trip in order to rekindle their past romance. A wrong turn down a highway brings them to their...
    Roach, a road trip vlogger suffering from pica documents his obsession with eating rocks from different natural landmarks across the American continent, and August, a run-of-the-mill (or maybe out of it) pathological arsonist who loves the smell of burning trees, reappears from Roach's past to hijack the trip in order to rekindle their past romance. A wrong turn down a highway brings them to their childhood Midwestern town, where in the ashes of a burned down home a new spark threatens to derail their journey. "I'M GOING TO EAT YOU ALIVE" is a play about the ethics of incentivizing profiting off of nature, male mental illness, and toxicity in queer spaces.

    CONTACT FOR SCRIPT.
  • The Lesbian Play by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Recommendations: 10
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    Cast: 
    8
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    Genre: dark comedy, immersive + 2 more
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    Keyword: LGBTQ, Lesbian + 8 more
    Genre: dark comedy, immersive, political, satire
    Keyword: LGBTQ, Lesbian, bisexuality, Transgender, Non-Binary, Donald Trump, 2016 presidential election, college, college students, college age characters
    On the night of the 2016 presidential election, Boston University's Women Loving Women Club gathers at their president's Back Bay apartment to celebrate the birthday of one of their own. With tensions already bubbling and cracking under the surface and their inner relationships with one another on the brink of extinction, the Women Loving Women Club is thrust into political turmoil as they wage war on...
    On the night of the 2016 presidential election, Boston University's Women Loving Women Club gathers at their president's Back Bay apartment to celebrate the birthday of one of their own. With tensions already bubbling and cracking under the surface and their inner relationships with one another on the brink of extinction, the Women Loving Women Club is thrust into political turmoil as they wage war on each other over their political identities, the definition of lesbianism, and who can even consider themselves "LGBTQ".

    LENGTH: 100 mins, no intermission.

    CONTACT FOR UPDATED SCRIPT.
  • SHARON AND MELINA by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: biography, comedy + 4 more
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    Keyword: Freddie Mercury, elton john + 8 more
    Genre: biography, comedy, farce, period, satire, tragedy
    Keyword: Freddie Mercury, elton john, David Bowie, glam rock, 1980s, Non-binary characters, Discussions of HIV/AIDS, Bingo, alcoholism, drug use
    SEMIFINALIST FOR THE 2023 EUGENE O'NEILL NATIONAL PLAYWRITING CONFERENCE

    The night after Live Aid, Freddie Mercury and Elton John ("Sharon and Melina"), meet for a coke fueled, raunchy game of bingo. Their night of epic debauchery and camaraderie is suddenly interrupted with the arrival of an equally coked out David Bowie, and tensions and conflicts in their relationships will put...
    SEMIFINALIST FOR THE 2023 EUGENE O'NEILL NATIONAL PLAYWRITING CONFERENCE

    The night after Live Aid, Freddie Mercury and Elton John ("Sharon and Melina"), meet for a coke fueled, raunchy game of bingo. Their night of epic debauchery and camaraderie is suddenly interrupted with the arrival of an equally coked out David Bowie, and tensions and conflicts in their relationships will put all of their friendships to the test. But first of all and hopefully last, "THE HUMAN CONDITION IS ONE THAT REQUIRES A LITTLE ANESTHESIA!"

    A farce, somewhat based on truth, but mostly fictionalized.

    LENGTH: 2 hours, one intermission.

    DRAFT 8: 06/14/2022
  • take me down to the levee by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    8
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 4 more
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    Keyword: vampire, discussions of suicide + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, faith-based, horror, science fiction, tragedy
    Keyword: vampire, discussions of suicide, implied past self harm, bible belt, homophobia
    Southern twins Wynona and Waylon have always had it rough. Against the backdrop of the North Carolinian bible belt, Wynona’s inherited their late father’s gun shop after a tragic accident took his life, and Waylon, the town pariah, can’t seem to shake the trauma of a year without their father. Then there’s the levee, which has also inexplicably gone dry. When the preacher’s son takes a fancy to Waylon, the town...
    Southern twins Wynona and Waylon have always had it rough. Against the backdrop of the North Carolinian bible belt, Wynona’s inherited their late father’s gun shop after a tragic accident took his life, and Waylon, the town pariah, can’t seem to shake the trauma of a year without their father. Then there’s the levee, which has also inexplicably gone dry. When the preacher’s son takes a fancy to Waylon, the town is stricken with more than just a religious reckoning… not when there are multiple inexplicable disappearances and deaths all tracing back to that levee. The fate of their small town rests in the hands of Wynona… or does it?

    DRAFT 1: 07/22/22

    Runtime: 90 minutes, no intermission.
  • rabbit by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    8
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    Genre: drama, fable/folktale + 6 more
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    Keyword: wolves, cult + 6 more
    Genre: drama, fable/folktale, fantasy, horror, immersive, movement/physical, science fiction, tragedy
    Keyword: wolves, cult, Lord of the Flies, children, murder, make believe, rabbit, cannibalism
    **work in progress

    henri is a runaway. but the rabbit pack collects runaways. not like the lost boys. everyone ends up
    in these woods eventually, and the wolves of the rabbit pack are hungry. what happens when a home is no longer a home, and the lion devours the lamb? what civilization is left when their god abandons them? and what happens when god comes back?

    rabbit...
    **work in progress

    henri is a runaway. but the rabbit pack collects runaways. not like the lost boys. everyone ends up
    in these woods eventually, and the wolves of the rabbit pack are hungry. what happens when a home is no longer a home, and the lion devours the lamb? what civilization is left when their god abandons them? and what happens when god comes back?

    rabbit explores queer identity, family, and loss through the lens of hyper violence in media, the deconstruction of utopian fiction tropes, and the desensitization of children in america.

    runtime: 90 mins.
  • Southern Bedfellows by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Recommendations: 5
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama, experimental + 2 more
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    Keyword: Toxic Masculinity, sexuality + 7 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, immersive, movement/physical
    Keyword: Toxic Masculinity, sexuality, LGBTQ, Non-Binary, gender fluid, religion, Transgender, coming out, drag
    Crickets chirp in the sweltering evening heat of the deep American south. The soil is tilled, church is in session, and JoEllen and Haywood are a pair matched by God Himself. Or so Haywood thinks. In a blistering journey following the two from ages 5-21, their genders, sexuality, and the deconstruction of their marriage is out of the frying pan and into the flames under the boiling, unforgiving sun.

    LENGTH: 70-90 mins.
  • Daxton on the Night Shift at 7/11 by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, parody/spoof, satire
    It's midnight at the last 7/11 open 24 hours in The United States of America. The world has descended into chaos due to the impending doom of the discontinuation of the much-cherished red slurpee. 7/11 has put all of its slurpee machines on lockdown, bracing itself as a new organization known as the RS Brigade threatens the corporation and possibly the entire world in the pursuit of their beloved red...
    It's midnight at the last 7/11 open 24 hours in The United States of America. The world has descended into chaos due to the impending doom of the discontinuation of the much-cherished red slurpee. 7/11 has put all of its slurpee machines on lockdown, bracing itself as a new organization known as the RS Brigade threatens the corporation and possibly the entire world in the pursuit of their beloved red slurpee. As for the last 24 hour 7/11? Well... new hire and criminally inept cashier Daxton's on the night shift and retired Manic Pixie Dream Girl, now part-time Letterbox'd critic Baby in a Corner is looking for her slurpee fix.

    Think Scott Pilgrim if it were a play but also deconstructing literally everything that film/franchise/book series stands for.

    RUNTIME: 60 minutes.
  • EDGAR ALLAN SHIT-POE-ST, or, 19th Century Poets are ALL FUCKBOYS! by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: adaptation, adventure + 8 more
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    Keyword: Edgar Allan Poe, company + 6 more
    Genre: adaptation, adventure, comedy, dark comedy, farce, horror, movement/physical, parody/spoof, satire, science fiction
    Keyword: Edgar Allan Poe, company, fleabag, bisexuality, 19th century America, poetry, Classic Literature, 19th century women
    Who dares knock, knock, knock on the Raven's chamber door? He'll have you know he's a poet, and he's very busy avoiding his romantic life and sobering up for Prospero's party. When his life as a writer and life as a forever-bachelor collide in a time jumping vignette adventure through the bibliography of one Edgar Allan Poe, fate propels the Raven to further dissect the intentions in...
    Who dares knock, knock, knock on the Raven's chamber door? He'll have you know he's a poet, and he's very busy avoiding his romantic life and sobering up for Prospero's party. When his life as a writer and life as a forever-bachelor collide in a time jumping vignette adventure through the bibliography of one Edgar Allan Poe, fate propels the Raven to further dissect the intentions in his own avoidance of romance. A 90 minute SNL sketch that never ends, truly like Company and Fleabag had a very demented Hot Topic loving, Paramore stanning Baby.

    draft 5: march 1, 2024
  • Apertures by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: drama, horror + 1 more
    Genre: drama, horror, science fiction
    Danny has a bit of a problem. His best friend dropped out of college and ghosted him-- bummer. His two dads are on the brink of divorce, and he can’t keep a steady relationship himself, so love most certainly does not win in his book. In a whirlwind of an unexpected arrival, Colin, his missing bestie, invites Danny to have one last hurrah before he moves away forever... to film a mockumentary in a charred up,...
    Danny has a bit of a problem. His best friend dropped out of college and ghosted him-- bummer. His two dads are on the brink of divorce, and he can’t keep a steady relationship himself, so love most certainly does not win in his book. In a whirlwind of an unexpected arrival, Colin, his missing bestie, invites Danny to have one last hurrah before he moves away forever... to film a mockumentary in a charred up, abandoned house hours away from home. One thing about the odd old house is that the basement door is locked… and opening it may unearth some family secrets.

    PART THREE OF THE TEETH TRILOGY.

    LENGTH: 100 minutes, 2 acts.
  • Cavities by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: drama, horror + 1 more
    Genre: drama, horror, science fiction
    Against the backdrop of 1954's Communist Control Act, community conservative activist and Christian neighbor Sylvia has one goal in mind: get her meek husband Bancroft in control, and have the best looking lawn in the development. In order to keep her household in order, Sylvia hires a gardener groundskeeper in young and handsome Gilbert, who soon discovers that the friendly neighborhood matriarch may have...
    Against the backdrop of 1954's Communist Control Act, community conservative activist and Christian neighbor Sylvia has one goal in mind: get her meek husband Bancroft in control, and have the best looking lawn in the development. In order to keep her household in order, Sylvia hires a gardener groundskeeper in young and handsome Gilbert, who soon discovers that the friendly neighborhood matriarch may have more to her than meets the eye... as does the mysterious pianist she married.​

    PART TWO OF THE TEETH TRILOGY.

    LENGTH: 100 minutes, 2 acts.
  • a peach grows in brooklyn by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: melodrama
    ·
    Keyword: LGBTQ, Non-Binary + 2 more
    Genre: melodrama
    Keyword: LGBTQ, Non-Binary, Lesbian, short
    Janine and Phoenix have moved into a new apartment. It has a garden in the back. There is a very ugly tree in the backyard. A maybe cursed tree. Phoenix wants to keep it. Janine wants to cut it down. A short play in ten scenes.

    PUBLISHED: 30 Minutes to Curtain anthology by Red Penguin Books.

    LENGTH: 20-25 minutes.
  • the death of a supernova by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: drama, melodrama + 2 more
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    Keyword: rock star, rock concert + 5 more
    Genre: drama, melodrama, movement/physical, tragedy
    Keyword: rock star, rock concert, nonbinary, genderfluid, astronomy, existentialism, identity
    Echo, a rock star of epic proportions but of a broken heart, takes a trip around the sun and back to discover who they are. Chronicling the life and death of a superstar in reverse, THE DEATH OF A SUPERNOVA asks what we sacrifice when we betray who we really are, and how we find ourselves again after the fire's burned out.

    a story in ten moments.


    LENGTH: 20 minutes.
  • rosemary for remembrance by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Cast: 
    4–6
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, drama + 3 more
    Genre: adaptation, drama, experimental, immersive, melodrama
    odyssey is on an odyssey to find their beloved hamlet across the world and back again, but once hamlet returns from wittenberg, things may never be the same.

    LENGTH: 10 minutes.
  • An Untitled Play About Scarlett Johansson by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: biography, dark comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: scarlett johannson, LGBTQ
    Genre: biography, dark comedy, immersive, satire
    Keyword: scarlett johannson, LGBTQ
    **work in progress

    To save face after a major casting scandal, Scarlett Johansson hosts her very own TEDtalk on her interpretation of feminism and what it means to be a woman. However, not all ghosts in the shell stay dead, and the phantoms of roles she has appropriated have a bone to pick with her.

    CONTACT FOR SCRIPT.

    LENGTH: 90 minutes.
  • Ghoulfriends by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, mystery/thriller, romantic comedy
    **new draft in progress

    It's a gloomy, foggy October in Salem, Massachusetts, and Sabine just became a first-time homeowner. The thing is... she didn't tell her girlfriend Annie until their anniversary. And the house is haunted, maybe?

    LENGTH: 90 minutes.
  • strike that by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental
    ·
    Keyword: LGBTQ, Lesbian + 3 more
    Genre: drama, experimental
    Keyword: LGBTQ, Lesbian, closeted, experimental, absurdism
    Milo and Jean meet in their childhood playhouse. Flora is running late.

    LENGTH: 10 minutes.
  • I wrote this play to submit to The Seventh Annual Conservative Theatre Festival by Riley Elton McCarthy
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: political, satire
    Genre: political, satire
    The title says all. I wrote this play to submit to The Seventh Annual Conservative Theatre Festival by Stage Rights Theatrics. This exists just for ya'll, congrats champs. Sidenote: consider this the canon sequel to The Lesbian Play, because I said so.