Ashley Rose Wellman

Ashley Rose Wellman

Ashley Rose Wellman is a Los Angeles playwright who's plays have received staged readings and productions at Pasadena Playhouse, Ensemble Studio Theatre/Los Angeles, The Blank Theatre, Rogue Machine Theatre, TossPot Productions, Midnight Summit Ensemble, Red Cup Theatre Company, and the Last Frontier Theatre Conference PlayLab and Mainstage. She won the 2018-2019 Humanitas PLAY LA Award, and she is a two-...
Ashley Rose Wellman is a Los Angeles playwright who's plays have received staged readings and productions at Pasadena Playhouse, Ensemble Studio Theatre/Los Angeles, The Blank Theatre, Rogue Machine Theatre, TossPot Productions, Midnight Summit Ensemble, Red Cup Theatre Company, and the Last Frontier Theatre Conference PlayLab and Mainstage. She won the 2018-2019 Humanitas PLAY LA Award, and she is a two-time Finalist and two-time Semi-Finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. She has also been a Finalist for the Blue Ink Playwriting Award, and a Semi-Finalist for the Princess Grace/New Dramatists Award. She is a founding member of the Barelight Writers Project, a member of the New West Writers Group at EST/LA, and a member of the Antaeus Theatre Company Playwrights Lab. She received an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the University of Southern California. You can contact Ashley at ashleyrosewellman@gmail.com, and find out more about her work at www.ashleyrosewellman.com.

Plays

  • Kill Shelter by Ashley Rose Wellman
    Recommendations: 19
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama
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    Keyword: animal shelter, cages + 7 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: animal shelter, cages, mother daughter relationship, euthanasia, abortion, animals, monologues, parenthood, death
    Colleen, a disillusioned single mom, struggles to defend her work in an overfull and understaffed "kill shelter" to her teenage daughter, who has recently become entangled with a zealous pastor's son. As Colleen trains the animal shelter's bright-eyed new intern, while constantly haunted by the voices of the animals she euthanizes, Colleen and those around her face mounting and...
    Colleen, a disillusioned single mom, struggles to defend her work in an overfull and understaffed "kill shelter" to her teenage daughter, who has recently become entangled with a zealous pastor's son. As Colleen trains the animal shelter's bright-eyed new intern, while constantly haunted by the voices of the animals she euthanizes, Colleen and those around her face mounting and claustrophobic pressures, and struggle to break free from the cages they're trapped in.
  • You Are The Blood by Ashley Rose Wellman
    Recommendations: 11
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: family, violence + 6 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: family, violence, performance art, crime, dysfunction, siblings, parenthood, letters
    Shelby Boden is a cynical stand-up comedian trying to survive in the shadow of her father, a man who's done bad, bad things. When she discovers that her father is marrying Sylvia, an eccentric young performance artist that writes to criminals, morbid curiosity leads these two women to develop a strange, charged friendship. With the looming and dangerous presence of the bloodshed in their bloodline, the...
    Shelby Boden is a cynical stand-up comedian trying to survive in the shadow of her father, a man who's done bad, bad things. When she discovers that her father is marrying Sylvia, an eccentric young performance artist that writes to criminals, morbid curiosity leads these two women to develop a strange, charged friendship. With the looming and dangerous presence of the bloodshed in their bloodline, the entire Boden family is left contending with damages that could be irreparable.
  • Hot Tragic Dead Thing by Ashley Rose Wellman
    Recommendations: 9
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: violence, women + 8 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, tragedy
    Keyword: violence, women, girls, teenagers, teen sexuality, suicide, attempted suicide, revenge, bullying, school shooting
    Bekah, a teenage social outcast recovering from a failed suicide attempt, and Miles, a golden boy with a hidden thirst for violence, are thrust into the same house when their parents try to blend their families after disastrous marriages. Bekah and Miles’ budding attraction and increasing obsession with leaving a mark on the world take them to a dark, dangerous place.
  • SHRINES by Ashley Rose Wellman
    Recommendations: 13
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: grief, birthday party + 7 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, tragedy
    Keyword: grief, birthday party, cancer, Mourning, family, death, Facebook, social media, Shrine
    A family stuck in a horrifying cycle of perpetual mourning throws a party for a dead teenage girl, on what would have been her 30th birthday. When the girl’s former high school sweetheart arrives and drops a major bombshell, the night descends into chaos and forces them to contend with deeply held trauma and disturbing secrets. SHRINES is a play about blurred boundaries, Facebook, and the way we grieve now.
  • Willed Bodies by Ashley Rose Wellman
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama
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    Keyword: medical school, cadaver + 8 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: medical school, cadaver, students, grief, love, intimacy, death, Relationships, Arizona, Southwest
    At a Willed Body ceremony—an event where medical students meet the families of medical cadavers, Lydia, an ambitious first-year med student, encounters Harrison, an anxious and tender young man who is the son of the cadaver she is about to dissect. As Lydia and her lab group cut deeper and deeper into his father’s body, Harrison and Lydia enter into an unconventional relationship that straddles the line between...
    At a Willed Body ceremony—an event where medical students meet the families of medical cadavers, Lydia, an ambitious first-year med student, encounters Harrison, an anxious and tender young man who is the son of the cadaver she is about to dissect. As Lydia and her lab group cut deeper and deeper into his father’s body, Harrison and Lydia enter into an unconventional relationship that straddles the line between sweet and horrifying. Willed Bodies is a play about strange forms of intimacy and what’s under our skin.
  • That Long Damn Dark by Ashley Rose Wellman
    Recommendations: 6
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: murder, teenagers + 8 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: murder, teenagers, ghosts, death, abuse, rape, southern gothic, thriller, violence, dysfunctional family
    Purgatory is a storage unit in rural Alabama for Ed and Lorraine, the gunshot-ridden corpses of a murdered married couple. Leah and Todd, their teenaged murderers, flee the state to Arkansas, haunted by memories and the unearthly talking dead. When Mara and Ethan, two recent transplants from New York City, take the young adults into their new home, the disturbing unfolding reality of the situation threatens to...
    Purgatory is a storage unit in rural Alabama for Ed and Lorraine, the gunshot-ridden corpses of a murdered married couple. Leah and Todd, their teenaged murderers, flee the state to Arkansas, haunted by memories and the unearthly talking dead. When Mara and Ethan, two recent transplants from New York City, take the young adults into their new home, the disturbing unfolding reality of the situation threatens to destroy the lives (and afterlives) of all involved.
  • Living Creatures by Ashley Rose Wellman
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama, fantasy + 2 more
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    Keyword: afterlife, death + 5 more
    Genre: drama, fantasy, mystery/thriller, tragedy
    Keyword: afterlife, death, grief, parenthood, children, Surreal, orpheus and eurydice
    Two parents’ lives are ripped apart when their 10-year-old son Luke unexpectedly dies from an allergic reaction to shellfish, leaving them alone and overwhelmed by grief. As they try to navigate through the surreal world of their grief, Luke’s mother Julia accidentally stumbles into her son’s afterlife—a strange world called “The Other Place” that looks exactly like their home, only a little different and…...
    Two parents’ lives are ripped apart when their 10-year-old son Luke unexpectedly dies from an allergic reaction to shellfish, leaving them alone and overwhelmed by grief. As they try to navigate through the surreal world of their grief, Luke’s mother Julia accidentally stumbles into her son’s afterlife—a strange world called “The Other Place” that looks exactly like their home, only a little different and… stranger. She wants nothing more than to bridge the gap between the world of the living and the strange world of the dead, and will do anything to bring her young son back with her.