Alli Hartley-Kong

Alli Hartley-Kong

Alli Hartley-Kong is a playwright, poet and historian currently based out of Washington DC, but born and bred in northern NJ. Her plays have been performed by Carlow Little Theatre, Reno Little Theatre, Theatre Off-Kilter, Fusion Theatre, and more. Recently, she was a runner-up in the A is For Playwriting competition. She has been commissioned by Central Square Theatre in Boston and Single Carrot Theatre in...
Alli Hartley-Kong is a playwright, poet and historian currently based out of Washington DC, but born and bred in northern NJ. Her plays have been performed by Carlow Little Theatre, Reno Little Theatre, Theatre Off-Kilter, Fusion Theatre, and more. Recently, she was a runner-up in the A is For Playwriting competition. She has been commissioned by Central Square Theatre in Boston and Single Carrot Theatre in Baltimore. Other honors include being a finalist for the Henley Rose, James Madison University's New Works Lab, and the Blank/Future of Playwriting Prize. Alli is interested in exploring women's history through theatre. Her non-theatre publications include Smithsonian Magazine, Hyperallergic, Feels Blind Literary Journal, Stylus magazine and the Human Touch Journal.

Plays

  • People Should Talk About What's Real by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Recommendations: 7
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
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    Keyword: abortion history, abortion + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: abortion history, abortion, adoption, fertility, infertility
    FULL LENGTH DRAMEDY- Irreverent livestream comedian Natalie and her husband Josh struggle to conceive, while across the City historian Katherine and her husband Rathanak “Ryan” debate whether or not to adopt, all against the background of the isolating global pandemic. They don't realize that they are connected by a history deeper than it appears on the surface through the figure of Patty, an aged...
    FULL LENGTH DRAMEDY- Irreverent livestream comedian Natalie and her husband Josh struggle to conceive, while across the City historian Katherine and her husband Rathanak “Ryan” debate whether or not to adopt, all against the background of the isolating global pandemic. They don't realize that they are connected by a history deeper than it appears on the surface through the figure of Patty, an aged abortion activist living on a Wisconsin ranch, until their fates come together in a fertility clinic waiting room.

    FINALIST: The Henley Rose Playwriting Competition
    SEMI-FINALIST: James Madison University's New Works Lab
    STAGED READING: Chester Theatre Group, Chester NJ
    SEMI-FINALIST: Bay Area Playwrights Festival
  • The Grape Nerds Reunion- Full Length by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    ·
    Keyword: high school reunion, Female Mental Health + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    Keyword: high school reunion, Female Mental Health, contemplating suicide, teen depression
    FULL LENGTH: How can we ever know what anyone else is going through?" Ten years after high school, six former classmates remember–or don’t– the impact they’ve had on each other’s lives. Like any bad high school reunion, there’s moonshine, an acoustic guitar solo, and–of course—crying in the bathroom (“Was our high school secretly a soap opera?”). After all, when it comes to high school, why look back?...
    FULL LENGTH: How can we ever know what anyone else is going through?" Ten years after high school, six former classmates remember–or don’t– the impact they’ve had on each other’s lives. Like any bad high school reunion, there’s moonshine, an acoustic guitar solo, and–of course—crying in the bathroom (“Was our high school secretly a soap opera?”). After all, when it comes to high school, why look back?

    Content warning: this play contains menions of a past character's suicidal ideation.
  • The Wives- a Post-2022 American Abortion Odyssey by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Cast: 
    5–10
    ·
    Genre: tragedy
    ·
    Keyword: abortion, abortion access + 1 more
    Genre: tragedy
    Keyword: abortion, abortion access, pregnancy loss
    Two couples face the same harrowing choice over their wanted, medically-unviable pregnancies. But given the different worlds each couple operates in, they really facing the same choices?
  • Body Positivity by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Recommendations: 5
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    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy
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    Keyword: Fatphobia, fat acceptance + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy
    Keyword: Fatphobia, fat acceptance, Age and Body Diversity, body acceptance, body positivity
    Alyssa is fat. She's okay with it though. Her mother is decidedly not. This is a short play about body positivity.

    If you're a theatre who balks at this play because the actor playing Alyssa will be "so hard to costume", you have missed the point of this play entirely.
  • Elsie- MONOLOGUE by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Cast: 
    1–2
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: infertility, reunion + 1 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: infertility, reunion, first love
    After Kayla learns that her first love Jesse has named his child after the cat she used to have, she returns to ask him a question that's been nagging at her.

    This play was written as part of a masterclass at Folger Theatre Library. It was loosely inspired by Shakespeare's Sonnet #140.
  • The Memory Palace by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy
    ·
    Keyword: dementia, caregiver + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy
    Keyword: dementia, caregiver, caregiving
    Budding real estate agent Amelia bites off more she can chew with her first sale, evicting depressed Todd from the house he cared for his mother in while she suffered from Alzheimer's. This is a play for caregivers
  • The Senator And His Wife Go on Retreat by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama, political
    ·
    Keyword: abortion politics, abortion + 2 more
    Genre: drama, political
    Keyword: abortion politics, abortion, American politics, religious right
    After a traumatic experience, a prolife Republican Senator and his wife go on retreat. How has the experience shaped their beliefs?
  • Ghost Light by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy
    ·
    Keyword: ghost, community theatre + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy
    Keyword: ghost, community theatre, comedy
    "What do we need the ghost lights for? We're the ghosts."

    This touching short play is about lives--and afterlives--spent with your chosen family, doing what you love.
  • The Grape Nerds Reunion (10 Minute Play) by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Recommendations: 10
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: abuse/attempted suicide (none depicted) recovery, discussions of suicide + 2 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: abuse/attempted suicide (none depicted) recovery, discussions of suicide, childhood friendship, high school reunion
    TEN-MINUTE. Mike and Alyssa are connected by a past he can’t remember. When they meet at a high school
    reunion, Alyssa confides in Mike her mental health history—and he realizes the impact an
    encounter from a decade ago could have.

    Content Warning: This play contains brief mentions of a character’s past suicidal tendencies.
  • Pandemic Birthday Card by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: Covid-19, zoom
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: Covid-19, zoom
    In this five-minute monologue written for Zoom performance, a grandfather wishes his grandson a happy birthday from the isolation of a nursing home with a covid-19 outbreak.
  • Stuck at the Top With You by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    ·
    Keyword: divorce, co-parenting + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    Keyword: divorce, co-parenting, dark comedy
    A divorced couple find themselves stuck together on the top of a roller coaster for ten minutes. What do they learn about their shared history and co-parenting relationship?
  • Bacon With Dad by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy
    Genre: dark comedy
    What is the perfect day, one you relive in dreams? If your father’s dying, it’s a perfect, normal morning with
    him. In this ten-minute play about our subconscious desires, Jessie’s father returns to prompt her
    to ask an overwhelming question
  • The Waiting Room by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    2–3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy
    ·
    Keyword: fertility treatments, infertility + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy
    Keyword: fertility treatments, infertility, miscarriage, dark comedy
    When loud-mouth comedian Natalie violates the fight club etiquette of the waiting room of a fertility clinic, an
    unexpected and hilarious friendship forms between her and Katherine, another women who is
    waiting…not just to see the doctor, but to have a chance to start her family.
  • I Hate Living in the Caldwells by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    ·
    Keyword: zoom, Covid-19
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    Keyword: zoom, Covid-19
    When a nice white PTA mom accidentally creates chaos on the town's Facebook page by creating a fundraiser to sell covid facemasks branded with the town's racist mascot, what's an unemployed ombudsman to do but call a Zoom meeting of all the offended parties? This twenty-minute one act spoofs a phenomena well-known to suburbanites: the political argument on the town's Facebook page.
  • Fragile Deliveries by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama
    ·
    Keyword: abortion, adoption + 3 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama
    Keyword: abortion, adoption, reproductive freedom, women's reproductive rights, Reproductive Rights
    Could you go back to delivering babies, after having an abortion? In this thought-provoking take on abortion and adoption, two maternity ward nurses of different generations confront the history of choice through a conversation. A twenty-minute one-act.
  • Lessons in Feeling Human by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: Quarantine, Covid-19 + 3 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: Quarantine, Covid-19, coronavirus, Social distancing, social distancing play
    What is "the real world"? What risks do we take to feel normal and loved in the most abnormal of circumstances? Lessons in Feeling Human tells the story of Amy and Ricky, two millenials who live in the same apartment, at three points during the spring 2020 lockdown. They connect deeply on the fire escape, a place separate from their "real world" lives in a time when the "real world...
    What is "the real world"? What risks do we take to feel normal and loved in the most abnormal of circumstances? Lessons in Feeling Human tells the story of Amy and Ricky, two millenials who live in the same apartment, at three points during the spring 2020 lockdown. They connect deeply on the fire escape, a place separate from their "real world" lives in a time when the "real world" no longer exists. However, what happens on the fire escape doesn't always stay on the fire escape, and in "the real world", Amy is in a lackluster marriage. Her time with Ricky helps her determine what she wants her life to look like, once lockdown is over. This is a forty-minute one act that is meant to be performed by actors practicing social distancing.
  • The Lighthouse Keepers by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    ·
    Keyword: ferry, lighthouse + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: ferry, lighthouse, lighthouse keepers, COVID 19
    Catie has been an up-and-coming actress for the past twenty years; had the pandemic not happened, she would have finally gotten her big break this year. Paulie is a quiet morgue worker. When they meet on
    the Staten Island ferry, Catie contemplates a big decision with Paulie’s reluctant help.
  • Is it Enough by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: drama, period
    ·
    Keyword: adoption, interracial adoption + 2 more
    Genre: drama, period
    Keyword: adoption, interracial adoption, 1960s America, infertility
    Paul and his wife Mary clash with Paul’s father James as it becomes clear that James disapproves of Paul and Mary’s adopted children. As Paul and Mary discuss what it takes to be a family, they stumble upon a discussion over what is enough to make them happy.
  • All in Good Time by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: Relationships, jersey city + 3 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: Relationships, jersey city, New Jersey, meeting again, 1960s
    When Frankie and Pina run into each other on a Jersey City street nineteen years after their teenage engagement ends, they are confronted by roads not taken.
  • Yet to Come by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    7–11
    ·
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama
    ·
    Keyword: abortion, 20th century history of women
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama
    Keyword: abortion, 20th century history of women
    What is the legacy of choice? In this play about Jean and her daughter Barbara, two generations of women in small-town America before Roe v. Wade, family power dynamics control their destiny. In Act I, Jean mulls her reproductive options in 1949, a journey mirrored in Act II when her daughter Barbara also contemplates choice in an era marked by control. The play is ultimately about the legacy of reproductive rights, choice and power.
  • Apocalypse... Now? by Alli Hartley-Kong
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy
    ·
    Keyword: end of the world
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: end of the world
    It’s the end of the world as we know it... and while Kevin feels fine, his wife Amy does not. As they drive towards the center of a nuclear blast radius, they talk about things they have never talked about before—including their failing marriage.

    Previous title: Into the Blast Radius