Joanna Castle Miller

Joanna Castle Miller

Joanna Castle Miller is a playwright, producer, and satirist whose work has appeared on NBC and PBS as well as in Time, The Hill, and Funny or Die. Plays include Sh@med (Kilroys List, Jewish Plays Project), My Child Blank, around and around and around the static sun (McNerney Prize finalist), The Storehouse, and Fox News the Musical. Short plays include The World’s Next Tooth Fairy Is Marci Peterson, The Being...
Joanna Castle Miller is a playwright, producer, and satirist whose work has appeared on NBC and PBS as well as in Time, The Hill, and Funny or Die. Plays include Sh@med (Kilroys List, Jewish Plays Project), My Child Blank, around and around and around the static sun (McNerney Prize finalist), The Storehouse, and Fox News the Musical. Short plays include The World’s Next Tooth Fairy Is Marci Peterson, The Being Heard Academy, and Parasite. Joanna's work has been developed and produced by We the Women Collective, The Jewish Plays Project, New York University, and The Valdez Theatre Conference, and her monologues have been published by Applause Books, McSweeney's, and The Belladonna. She is currently under commission by We the Women Collective. Film/TV: Keep This Far Apart, Ash (Oscar qualifier 2019), Sorta My Thing (Funny or Die-selected), Christmas in Zoom Village, and Red, White, and Dad. Joanna is the founder and executive producer of Wait Don’t Leave Productions, which develops film and theatre projects related to historical memory. She is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and SAG-AFTRA.

Plays

  • INFERNA by Joanna Castle Miller
    Recommendations: 10
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: hell, evangelicalism + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: hell, evangelicalism, theatre, Canon, sexual assault, Childhood, feminism, faith, abuse
    As a young playwright (Joanna Castle Miller) balances the childhood expectations of religion and theatre, she comes to realize the mentors she adores aren't who they appear to be, and neither are the scripts they've passed down to her.
  • CONVERSA by Joanna Castle Miller
    Cast: 
    1
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    Genre: biography, comedy + 6 more
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    Keyword: judaism, christianity + 5 more
    Genre: biography, comedy, dark comedy, docudrama/historic, drama, faith-based, political, satire
    Keyword: judaism, christianity, migration, conversion, colonization, Sephardic, evangelicalism
    Abandoning fundamental evangelicalism for Judaism prompts a playwright to question her cultural identity and the role of religion in this autobiographical exploration of how conversion and migration interact across history.

    Through her personal journey, Castle Miller shows how religion can be a source of hope for people in migration or the basis on which people colonize and what it could look...
    Abandoning fundamental evangelicalism for Judaism prompts a playwright to question her cultural identity and the role of religion in this autobiographical exploration of how conversion and migration interact across history.

    Through her personal journey, Castle Miller shows how religion can be a source of hope for people in migration or the basis on which people colonize and what it could look like to reclaim the most ancient parts of our faith.
  • SH@MED by Joanna Castle Miller
    Cast: 
    6–13
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: social media, shame + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, satire
    Keyword: social media, shame, guilt, internet, media, technology, Jewish, forgiveness, harassment, women
    When aspiring writer Tabatha Meier tweets a racially-charged joke, she faces fallout both personal and professional. Her boyfriend dumps her, she loses her job, and her devoutly religious mother feels embarrassed and betrayed. Little does Tabatha know that's only the beginning, as her public shaming reveals a dark secret and forces her whole family to face the past in a new way. SH@MED is a multimedia...
    When aspiring writer Tabatha Meier tweets a racially-charged joke, she faces fallout both personal and professional. Her boyfriend dumps her, she loses her job, and her devoutly religious mother feels embarrassed and betrayed. Little does Tabatha know that's only the beginning, as her public shaming reveals a dark secret and forces her whole family to face the past in a new way. SH@MED is a multimedia dramedy exploring online activism, the dimensions of shame, and how the digital world affects our personal narratives.
  • The Storehouse by Joanna Castle Miller
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: adaptation, biography + 4 more
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    Keyword: writing, privilege + 8 more
    Genre: adaptation, biography, docudrama/historic, drama, period, political
    Keyword: writing, privilege, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Jacobs, 18th century, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Civil War, slavery, White Feminism, intersectionality
    Attempting to become the first fugitive enslaved woman to publish her story by her own hand, Harriet Jacobs approaches the world-famous Uncle Tom's Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe for her help, and the result alters both of their lives and legacies forever. This play explores the structural forces that prevent people from telling their own stories and what is required of writers who create from a place of privilege.
  • around and around and around the static sun by Joanna Castle Miller
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    4–6
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 6 more
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    Keyword: magical realism, women + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, fable/folktale, satire, science fiction, tragedy
    Keyword: magical realism, women, feminism, technology, gender, power, business, domestic violence, memory, History
    Kimberly creates a fake man to save her business and, for better or worse, sparks a movement that could overturn the world order. A full-length dark satire that explores gender, historical memory, and the way people use the power of time to keep oppressive hierarchies in place.
  • The World's Next Tooth Fairy Is Marci Peterson by Joanna Castle Miller
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    3–4
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: fairy tale, tooth fairy + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, fable/folktale, fantasy
    Keyword: fairy tale, tooth fairy, mythology, retirement, ageism, youth
    Nancy has served faithfully as the world's tooth fairy since before the Black Plague. Now it's time to hand over her title. A modern fairy tale about retirement and youth.
  • Being Heard Academy by Joanna Castle Miller
    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: satire, magical realism + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, fable/folktale, fantasy, satire
    Keyword: satire, magical realism, racism, White Supremacy, Segregation
    The prestigious Being Heard Academy has taught a select few to speak up for thousands of years; but when new students arrive, their voices threaten the school's most celebrated professor and the views he has perpetuated for a millennia.
  • Parasite by Joanna Castle Miller
    Recommendations: 7
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    Cast: 
    3–4
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: bed bugs, insects + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, horror, melodrama
    Keyword: bed bugs, insects, Brooklyn, hipsters, prison, fire, animals
    Lazy, worthless hipster Frank lives in a run-down Brooklyn apartment, where he wakes up one morning to find a crass bedbug named #742 - or Jim - has moved in with the entire bedbug clan.

    With his blood on the line and seemingly no escape, Frank must decide between the dwindling comfort of his passive existence and the terrifying unknown of *doing something.*