Aline Lathrop

Queen of Ithaca is a reimagining of The Odyssey from Penelope’s point of view, set in Ancient Greece, but told in modern English. It fills in gaps of the original epic by imagining Penelope as a woman with agency. The play takes place over the course of a single night, from Odysseus’ return home to his departure again the following morning.

After twenty years apart, Penelope doesn’t recognize Odysseus. Or does she? But she grants him an audience because after all he slew the suitors who were plotting to murder her son, Telemachus. When finally he reveals a secret about their bed that only Odysseus could know, their reunion is joyful and passionate. But the initial joy is brief as she insists that he account for his whereabout during his long absence. Eventually he tells her everything, from his misadventures with giants, to his affairs with goddesses, to the unfounded fear that kept him away: that she may have taken a lover. Yet none of his foibles dampen the longing she has carried for him, or her their love, and with everything on the table, she takes him to bed.
In the morning they luxuriate in each other, talk about their son, and imagine their family life together. Penelope reveals that the suitors had planned to kill Telemachus, and so they celebrate their demise. But as the sun rises, Penelope tells Odysseus he must leave again to escape the families of the suitors who will surely kill him once they discover the corpses of their loves ones. He tries to imagine another option until Penelope admits that the timing of his return just when she needed him was designed and carried out by her through a series of manipulations. Except she hoped he would find a peaceful way to send the suitors away. She’s nevertheless devastated when he leaves, but at least she will see her son live to take the crown, which was her priority all along.

Queen of Ithaca is the story of love and desire, cunning and power, and of a mother who will protect her son at any cost. The full-length, two-act play for two actors (1 female; 1 male) has no special costuming or technical requirements.

Early on a Monday morning, in the cafeteria of an elite private school, seven places are set for six women to fold one thousand origami butterflies, and to plan how they will meet their $250,000 goal for an organic kitchen garden and butterfly conservatory. Driven by fierce maternal love, the competition is as cut-throat as in the board rooms most of them have left behind. The absence of their seventh member, and her tale of despair, hangs heavily in this story of love, loss, and the dark side of the culture of achievement.

Cameron doesn’t remember what he does at night, and Karyssa doesn’t tell him. He's just retired from the Navy SEALs, and most of his life has been classified. What's left, he mostly doesn't want to talk about. His young bride thinks his night terrors may be her way in. During the day, they negotiate dinner plans, career ambitions, and video games. At night, he is both more available and more dangerous.

The story moves forward in time, flipping back and forth between short daytime and shorter nighttime scenes, as Karyssa tries to connect with Cameron through nostalgic skype sex and secretly learned Arabic sleep talk. In the end, she will risk both of their lives to reach him.

The Hero’s Wife is a single-set, full-length, ensemble-based drama for one woman (20’s) and one man ( 40’s).

Like many eight-year old girls, Adam has a rich fantasy life. She dreams of being a mermaid and marrying a prince. She longs for a starring role in her dance school’s story ballet. Unlike most girls her age, she’s also waiting for her penis to fall off.

Adam’s liberal-minded parents resist pressure to encourage him to conform. But when he’s attacked and nearly drowned by older boys for dancing on the beach dressed as a mermaid, they reconsider. And when he attempts self-surgery with an exacto knife, they determine they must assure his safety by any means necessary.

Promised a cure by a gender identity specialist, Adam’s parents enroll him in a rigorous “reparative therapy” course of treatment. They throw away his “girl” toys and clothes, and adopt strict traditional gender roles. After a painful transition for all, the sacrifice seems to have paid off and Adam appears much like any other eight-year-old boy.

But a merchild will drown out of water, while mermaids live forever in the sea. So, in the end, Adam must find her way home again.

Merchild is a full-length, six- actor (3 female: 8, 14, 40’s/50’s; 2 male: 16, 40’s/50’s, 1 male or female adult of any age), single-set, drama, with no special costuming or technical requirements. The play has been deveoped at Chicago Dramatists and Theatre Seven in Chicago. Running time is approximately one hour and thirty minutes.

The play has been developed at Chicago Dramatists and Theatre Seven, and was a semifinalist for the O’Neill, and a finalist for the Global Age Project.

Isabel is newly returned to work as a trade show rep for a scientific software company. Ed is a slick advertising salesman for a leading journal. They meet at a show and begin a relationship that exists only there, and at similar events around the country. It barely feels like adultery, because the real world seems to recede into the background of purgatorial hotel rooms, and anonymous convention centers. But familiarity blurs the boundary between both worlds they inhabit, and eventually they find themselves back where they started.

Trade Show is a single-set, full-length, drama in one act for one woman and one man.
The play takes place mainly in hotel rooms, but also in exhibition halls, both of which can be suggested by minor changes in décor, and a booth backdrop. The play has been developed at Chicago Dramatists.

Sixty miles outside Las Vegas today, sex is for sale in state licensed bordellos, where almost any fantasy can be accommodated for the right price. Set on Customer Appreciation Night, Bordello tells a back-stage story of the working girls, their dreams and ambitions, and everything that gets in the way.

Over breakfast, the ladies prepare for the evening shift, chatting over religion, blowjobs, and family, at times forced to fight for love, livelihood, and even life itself. Pride comes with the Courtesan of the Year award. Sabotage lurks in a hidden razor blade that works just as well for suicide. Hope is born from love, God, and promises of porn star profits.

The main storyline is interrupted by a series of flash-forward direct address negotiations, in which the audience is cast as customer. In these segments, the ladies shine in roles they’ve calculated to bring the highest profits. A college educated Japanese-American plays a just-off-the-boat geisha as convincingly as a seasoned streetwalker turns on a novice charm.

Bordello is a single-set, full-length, ensemble-based drama for a multi-ethnic cast of seven women from the ages of eighteen to forty-three. The play was developed and produced at Chicago Dramatists, and was nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

Sheila and Naomi are two young HIV research scientists who make opposite professional
choices when they become mothers. But each must face new challenges to her marriage
and to her sense of worth, as she tries to find her own way in this world of antiquated
maternal expectations and modern opportunities that come with a price. The play asks
how a mother, or anyone else today, may define important, meaningful work.

The play traces the journeys of both couples during the first year of parenthood, with an
overlapping structure that gives equal weight to both, while also exploring the evolution
of the women’s relationship to each other, as well as the men’s. There are several
secondary locations, but the main action occurs in each couple’s living room (the same
set serves for both, often simultaneously).

...And Eat It Too is a full-length, four- actor (2w: late twenties/early thirties; 2m: the same),
single-set, ensemble-based drama, with no special costuming or technical requirements.
The play has been developed at Chicago Dramatists, Stage Left Theatre Company, and
American Theater Company. It was a finalist for the the Ashland Plays Festival , the
Lark Theatre Company’s Playwrights’ Week, and the Finding Voice Award, and was a
semi- finalist for the Playwrights First Award and the Princess Grace Award.

When Christine fell in love with a soldier, a lie was born that became a wall between her and her twin children, now twenty-four years old. When the family reunites for Thanksgiving weekend in their small, Midwestern town, each comes armed with a unique coping strategy. But as the festivities unfold, holiday visitors illuminate some of the family’s absurdities, and it becomes clear that the feast this group craves has little to do with turkey.

The action occurs mainly in the family’s thinly walled home. Chaos is pervasive as multiple conversations overlap. Offstage scenes interrupt onstage action, effectively transforming characters as they react to the events occurring within their earshot.

Feast is a full-length, five actor (3w: 40’s, 30, 23; 2m: 23, 40), unit-set, ensemble based comic drama, with no special costuming or technical requirements. The play has been developed at the Abingdon Theatre Company, The Playwrights Collective, Centre Stage-South Carolina!, where it won First Prize in their New Playwrights’ Festival, and Chicago Dramatists, where it was produced in 2007. Running time is approximately ninety minutes.