Megan Tabaque

MEGAN TABAQUE (she/her) is a playwright, director, and educator who grew up in the suburbs of Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Megan writes to create new mythologies using pop cultural tropes as accessible entry points. Her play Britney Approximately (an adaptation of Medea remixed with the Britney Spears conservatorship) played to sold-out audiences in Atlanta as part of Theater Emory’s 2023 season. Only Reason (co-written with Tony nominated playwright Kimberly Belflower) was nominated Best New Play by Austin’s Critic Circle and follows six obsessed teen girl fans of fictional boyband Only Reason.

Among her other plays are Cycle Play (a two woman thriller that takes place in a Soul Cycle), The Rink at the End of the World (following a synchronized skating team during a global nuclear crisis) and...

MEGAN TABAQUE (she/her) is a playwright, director, and educator who grew up in the suburbs of Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Megan writes to create new mythologies using pop cultural tropes as accessible entry points. Her play Britney Approximately (an adaptation of Medea remixed with the Britney Spears conservatorship) played to sold-out audiences in Atlanta as part of Theater Emory’s 2023 season. Only Reason (co-written with Tony nominated playwright Kimberly Belflower) was nominated Best New Play by Austin’s Critic Circle and follows six obsessed teen girl fans of fictional boyband Only Reason.

Among her other plays are Cycle Play (a two woman thriller that takes place in a Soul Cycle), The Rink at the End of the World (following a synchronized skating team during a global nuclear crisis) and Batman Returns Returns, Edward Normal Hands, and The Summer Sauron Turned Pretty—a series of queer-indie-holiday-musical parodies which she created with installation artist Terror Pigeon and composer Zac Traeger for Austin’s Museum of Human Achievement (MOHA). Her plays The Melvin Invention, Antigone’s Last Birthday, Phaeton’s Driving Test, and Brain Freeze (co-written with Drew Paryzer) have been staged for youth and family audiences in Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Megan’s plays have been developed, commissioned, and/or produced by the Alliance Theater, Great Plains Theater Commons, Seven Devils New Play Conference, Tofte Lake Center, Theatrical Outfit, Salvage Vanguard Theater, Paper Chairs, The Road Theater, Rogue Machine Theater, UCSB’s Launchpad Program and The Workshop Theater.

Awards include the Michener Fellowship, Kundiman Fiction Fellowship, Emory Playwriting Fellowship, 4 Seasons Residency, Sewanee Writers’ Conference Scholar. She has been a finalist for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference and Seattle Public Theater Emerald Prize. She’s been a Semifinalist for the New Dramatist Residency, Princess Grace Award, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and Playwrights’ Realm Scratchpad Series.

She’s taught creative writing at Bennington College, Emory University, UT Austin and at non-profit programs for youth across the U.S. including Inner City Arts, Rude Mech’s Off Center Teens, the New South Young Playwrights Conference, and the Austin Bat Cave. She has also assisted award-winning TV writer Sheila Callaghan, and developed projects for the immersive weirdo-giants at Meow Wolf.

Megan has an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers in Austin, TX. She currently resides in Los Angeles, where she works as an Assistant Professor of Playwriting , Screenwriting, and Acting at UC Riverside. | megantabaque.com

Scripts

The Deliverer

by Megan Tabaque

Synopsis

IN DEVELOPMENT - FULL LENGTH - A vacationing family that takes forever to agree on their dinner order is forced to face new truths when their Uber Eats driver alters their sense of reality. The Deliverer is a comedy using karaoke and take-out as meditations on marriage and eternity.

IN DEVELOPMENT - FULL LENGTH - A vacationing family that takes forever to agree on their dinner order is forced to face new truths when their Uber Eats driver alters their sense of reality. The Deliverer is a comedy using karaoke and take-out as meditations on marriage and eternity.

The Rink at the End of the World

by Megan Tabaque

Synopsis

FULL LENGTH - IN DEVELOPMENT: When an entire country club of athletes get taken out by a rogue bout of measles, a motley crew of mall-rink figure skaters find themselves on a flight to Croatia to compete in the World Synchronized Figure Skating Championships as first-alternates. As they train, complain, destroy, and rebuild each other on their quest to achieve the impossible, something even darker looms on the...

FULL LENGTH - IN DEVELOPMENT: When an entire country club of athletes get taken out by a rogue bout of measles, a motley crew of mall-rink figure skaters find themselves on a flight to Croatia to compete in the World Synchronized Figure Skating Championships as first-alternates. As they train, complain, destroy, and rebuild each other on their quest to achieve the impossible, something even darker looms on the edges of the global stage: a nuclear arms race. This play asks the hard questions, like: Where is Croatia again? // What the hell is Putin’s problem? // Why is Tall Heather Co-Captain and not me? // Where can we find relief and the strength to go on when it feels like the world is only out to destroy us?

The Rink at the End of the World is a comic experiment in synchronization, surreality, and apocalyptic survival that uses the high octane, high stakes, high learning curve emotional drivers of teenage girls to capture a contemporary sense of doom that younger generations might feel living in a world uninvested in its own future and instead invested in its own demise.

Marry Me, Bruno Mars

by Megan Tabaque

Synopsis

FULL LENGTH: A massage parlor worker slash Bruno Mars fan becomes an unwitting damsel in distress when a vigilante conspiracy theorist and his son set out on a Pizza Gate-esque rescue mission.

FULL LENGTH: A massage parlor worker slash Bruno Mars fan becomes an unwitting damsel in distress when a vigilante conspiracy theorist and his son set out on a Pizza Gate-esque rescue mission.

Britney Approximately: A Pop Greek Tragedy

by Megan Tabaque

Synopsis

FULL LENGTH: Britney Approximately is a new play with original pop music about motherhood, isolation, and power. Pushed through a glitter-pink meat grinder, it mixes Eurpides’ Medea with a loose retelling of the Britney Spears conservatorship court battle. One part bombastic and violent Greek Tragedy and one hundred parts tragic-pop-diva-revenge-song, this plays asks: What does our treatment of celebrity say...

FULL LENGTH: Britney Approximately is a new play with original pop music about motherhood, isolation, and power. Pushed through a glitter-pink meat grinder, it mixes Eurpides’ Medea with a loose retelling of the Britney Spears conservatorship court battle. One part bombastic and violent Greek Tragedy and one hundred parts tragic-pop-diva-revenge-song, this plays asks: What does our treatment of celebrity say about us?

Cycle Play

by Megan Tabaque

Synopsis

FULL LENGTH: When two strangers meet in an urban boutique cycling studio their budding friendship ramps up into a smoothie-ridden rampage of revenge. The cult like language of the club and their intense connection reverberates beyond the studio walls. Cycle Play asks us “Is toxic femininity like, a thing?" and "How combustible are those fast-female-friendships we’ve all been swept up in?" A comedic thriller for...

FULL LENGTH: When two strangers meet in an urban boutique cycling studio their budding friendship ramps up into a smoothie-ridden rampage of revenge. The cult like language of the club and their intense connection reverberates beyond the studio walls. Cycle Play asks us “Is toxic femininity like, a thing?" and "How combustible are those fast-female-friendships we’ve all been swept up in?" A comedic thriller for two actors and one wig.

Phaeton's Driving Test

by Megan Tabaque

Synopsis

ONE ACT - TYA: Two adopted siblings, Phy and Casey, argue over the rules of the road as Phy prepares to take their driving test for the third time! After another crushing failure, impetuous Phy steals the keys to mom's car to go find his biological father, who happens to be the god of the Sun.

An amalgam of the Ovidian myths of Phaeton and Baucis & Philomon, this play explores how sometimes being in a hurry to...

ONE ACT - TYA: Two adopted siblings, Phy and Casey, argue over the rules of the road as Phy prepares to take their driving test for the third time! After another crushing failure, impetuous Phy steals the keys to mom's car to go find his biological father, who happens to be the god of the Sun.

An amalgam of the Ovidian myths of Phaeton and Baucis & Philomon, this play explores how sometimes being in a hurry to grow up is the fuel that causes the crash.

The Melvin Invention

by Megan Tabaque

Synopsis

ONE ACT - TYA - In a desperate effort to build their science club membership, Maximillian and Abilene created Melvin using the new 3-D printer that their club acquired. Like every good invention, Melvin has a purpose: to help his inventors “cross-over” into the territory of the cool crowd. They love science but they also want to be loved by their peers! They want it impossibly bad! Does Melvin help them make the...

ONE ACT - TYA - In a desperate effort to build their science club membership, Maximillian and Abilene created Melvin using the new 3-D printer that their club acquired. Like every good invention, Melvin has a purpose: to help his inventors “cross-over” into the territory of the cool crowd. They love science but they also want to be loved by their peers! They want it impossibly bad! Does Melvin help them make the jump? Or is Melvin’s path something his inventors never could have imagined?

Antigone's Last Birthday

by Megan Tabaque

Synopsis

ONE ACT - TYA: It's Antigone's Quinceañera, and her brothers Paolo and Elias are late. When Chief Connie stops the party to inform Antigone of the death of her enemy brothers, she also makes a decree: No one is allowed over the wall to bury Paolo's body. Antigone's Last Birthday refocuses Sophocles’ ancient Greek tragedy into the tensions of a fictional border town.

ONE ACT - TYA: It's Antigone's Quinceañera, and her brothers Paolo and Elias are late. When Chief Connie stops the party to inform Antigone of the death of her enemy brothers, she also makes a decree: No one is allowed over the wall to bury Paolo's body. Antigone's Last Birthday refocuses Sophocles’ ancient Greek tragedy into the tensions of a fictional border town.

Decapitations

by Megan Tabaque

Synopsis

FULL LENGTH: When a local dog goes missing the week of Halloween, the Santos family become the targets of a homeowners association dispute while also having to mourn the death of their matriarch an ocean away. Surreal, funny, and haunting, Decapitations is a story about a multi-racial Filipino-American family in the form of a ghost story.

FULL LENGTH: When a local dog goes missing the week of Halloween, the Santos family become the targets of a homeowners association dispute while also having to mourn the death of their matriarch an ocean away. Surreal, funny, and haunting, Decapitations is a story about a multi-racial Filipino-American family in the form of a ghost story.

Galactic Orphans

by Megan Tabaque

Synopsis

FULL LENGTH: With no parents, not enough Doritos, and a little too much vodka in their Sprite, Ri and Ted reunite a year after graduating high school for an all night gaming marathon. But, Ted's little sister, Cory, won't let guys' night happen without a fight. In twenty-four hours, Ri, Cory, and Ted work together to save the war torn gamer galaxy but will they save each other?

FULL LENGTH: With no parents, not enough Doritos, and a little too much vodka in their Sprite, Ri and Ted reunite a year after graduating high school for an all night gaming marathon. But, Ted's little sister, Cory, won't let guys' night happen without a fight. In twenty-four hours, Ri, Cory, and Ted work together to save the war torn gamer galaxy but will they save each other?

Only Reason (co-written with Kimberly Belflower; formerly titled Teen Girl FANtasies)

by Megan Tabaque and Kimberly Belflower

Synopsis

FULL LENGTH: Co-written with Kimberly Belflower. // A group of online best friends resolve to meet in person and prove their limitless love to their favorite band: Only Reason. This play is a love letter to fandom. This play celebrates the community that social media provides, and centers the formidable strength of teenagers. This play is what Kimberly and I needed when we were teenagers.

FULL LENGTH: Co-written with Kimberly Belflower. // A group of online best friends resolve to meet in person and prove their limitless love to their favorite band: Only Reason. This play is a love letter to fandom. This play celebrates the community that social media provides, and centers the formidable strength of teenagers. This play is what Kimberly and I needed when we were teenagers.

The Well Wishers

by Megan Tabaque

Synopsis

10 MINUTE - When Clem encounters a suspicious wishing well, she wishes her older sister Sam was never born and sends the universe's time space continuum all out of whack. Can Clem reverse her wish and set the world right again?

10 MINUTE - When Clem encounters a suspicious wishing well, she wishes her older sister Sam was never born and sends the universe's time space continuum all out of whack. Can Clem reverse her wish and set the world right again?

The Vegetarian and Her Dead Daddy

by Megan Tabaque

Synopsis

10 MINUTE: Annie has roped her younger brother Denny into helping perform a dramatic poem at the local Burger King, but nobody shows up. Annie throws herself into the scummy dumpster and Denny has to literally talk her out of it.

10 MINUTE: Annie has roped her younger brother Denny into helping perform a dramatic poem at the local Burger King, but nobody shows up. Annie throws herself into the scummy dumpster and Denny has to literally talk her out of it.

And Then I Was In the Shark's Mouth

by Megan Tabaque

Synopsis

10 MINUTE: A woman contemplates her own mortality at the bottom of the ocean after being bitten in two by a shark.

10 MINUTE: A woman contemplates her own mortality at the bottom of the ocean after being bitten in two by a shark.

Little Blue Boxes

by Megan Tabaque

Synopsis

Siblings Lex and Shea host a zoom memorial for their late mother, just after the death of her favorite game show celebrity, Alex Trebek.

Siblings Lex and Shea host a zoom memorial for their late mother, just after the death of her favorite game show celebrity, Alex Trebek.

Save Me, Sonja Henie

by Megan Tabaque

Synopsis

10 MINUTE: An olympic hopeful bleeds out on the ice after a deadly collision with her mortal enemy, Stacey. As her soul leaves her body, early skating legends Ulrich Salchow and Sonja Henie glide through her reality.

10 MINUTE: An olympic hopeful bleeds out on the ice after a deadly collision with her mortal enemy, Stacey. As her soul leaves her body, early skating legends Ulrich Salchow and Sonja Henie glide through her reality.

The Francophiles

by Megan Tabaque

Synopsis

ONE ACT - TYA: Camille is the most inept server at Red Lobster in Celebration, Florida until she decides to leave the cheddar biscuits behind her to pursue her dream job at Disney World. A mysterious French stranger steals Camille's heart away, and also, subsequently her kidney. The Francophiles is a global adventure about a lost kidney and a lost girl. ​​

ONE ACT - TYA: Camille is the most inept server at Red Lobster in Celebration, Florida until she decides to leave the cheddar biscuits behind her to pursue her dream job at Disney World. A mysterious French stranger steals Camille's heart away, and also, subsequently her kidney. The Francophiles is a global adventure about a lost kidney and a lost girl. ​​

Lightning Bulb Eggs

by Megan Tabaque

Synopsis

10 MINUTE: Chale relives the moment she was dead for six seconds before being brought back to life over and over and over. A short play that spans Chale's entire life (and death) using experimental rhythm and sounds from a quirky ensemble.

10 MINUTE: Chale relives the moment she was dead for six seconds before being brought back to life over and over and over. A short play that spans Chale's entire life (and death) using experimental rhythm and sounds from a quirky ensemble.