Michele Miller

Michele Miller

Michele is a writer of plays, fiction, and occasional poems who also makes a living writing grants and other documents for her non-profit clients. Many of her plays have centered on simultaneously strong and vulnerable women from our mythological or historical past that reflect Michele’s previous career as an archaeologist. Michele’s first full-length play, Real Estate, was a semi-finalist in the 2002...
Michele is a writer of plays, fiction, and occasional poems who also makes a living writing grants and other documents for her non-profit clients. Many of her plays have centered on simultaneously strong and vulnerable women from our mythological or historical past that reflect Michele’s previous career as an archaeologist. Michele’s first full-length play, Real Estate, was a semi-finalist in the 2002 American Theatre Coop Playwriting Contest and received readings at Women's Project Theatre, Word of Mouth and Vital Theatre. Her one-act, Products of Conception, was produced as part of the Estrogenius Festival at Manhattan Theatre Source in 2003, the Strawberry Festival in 2004, and was a 2012 semifinalist for Eden Prairie Players Collection of One-Acts. Her full-length comedy Bedtime Stories, was produced at Manhattan Theatre Source in 2004. Her short play Power Girls Support Group was produced by the New Perspectives Theatre Company in 2008 and in 2011 at the Pied Piper Theatre Company in 2019. New Perspectives also presented her full-length comedy, Mother of God! at the Richard Shepard Theatre in 2011 and in 2017. With that play, Michele was also a finalist in the 2010 Princess Grace Awards. Her one-act comedy, Crazy for you, Baby was a finalist in the 2012 Estrogenius Festival and has since been read by numerous other theatre companies. Other short plays of Michele’s have been seen at Boston Playwrights' Theatre, Women’s Project Theatre, and Blueberry Pond Theatre and more recently on various virtual play festivals. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, the League of Professional Women Theatre Artists and Honor Roll!, an advocacy group of women+ playwrights over 40

Plays

  • A Final Toast
    A play about the fragility of memory and coming to terms with the past.

    Focusing on four women, A FINAL TOAST explores the influence of our past—personal, familial, and our heritage—on our identity. The plot follows two women in their eighties who are helped by their adult daughters to clear out their homes before moving to a Senior Living Center. Along the way they must distinguish what is...
    A play about the fragility of memory and coming to terms with the past.

    Focusing on four women, A FINAL TOAST explores the influence of our past—personal, familial, and our heritage—on our identity. The plot follows two women in their eighties who are helped by their adult daughters to clear out their homes before moving to a Senior Living Center. Along the way they must distinguish what is really of value, separate true memories from beliefs, and come to terms with their mother-daughter relationships. Once at the Senior Living the two older women are shut in together due to the pandemic and uncover a brief encounter they had years before—one with longstanding consequences for their future lives, their relationships with their families and ultimately each other.
  • Mother of God!
    Every mother thinks her child Divine—what if it were true?

    Miriam has a problem. She’s engaged to an older, rich man but she’s with child despite the fact that she has “known not a man.” Her parents are no help and her betrothed, Joseph, for all his prayers, doesn’t believe in miracles. Everyone insists he accept this child as ‘King of the Jews’ but is this the King those three ‘Magi’ are...
    Every mother thinks her child Divine—what if it were true?

    Miriam has a problem. She’s engaged to an older, rich man but she’s with child despite the fact that she has “known not a man.” Her parents are no help and her betrothed, Joseph, for all his prayers, doesn’t believe in miracles. Everyone insists he accept this child as ‘King of the Jews’ but is this the King those three ‘Magi’ are looking for or are they just out for a buck? As Miriam’s womb grows Joseph must make a decision -- let wife and child die or believe the impossible and discover Love? A comedy written by a Jewish mother about the ultimate Jewish Mother, this play investigates the politics of sex and the politics of religion within the story of the coming of the new messiah.
  • Jane Doe
    When visited by seven strong and iconic women—ranging from the mythological Leda to Christine Blasey Ford— who share their stories of sexual violence, Jane Doe must confront a similar event in her own past. Then, her own eyes opened, Jane encourages her real-life friends to reveal their own stories, opening the way for audience members to engage and see their own stories read onstage.
    TRIGGER WARNING:...
    When visited by seven strong and iconic women—ranging from the mythological Leda to Christine Blasey Ford— who share their stories of sexual violence, Jane Doe must confront a similar event in her own past. Then, her own eyes opened, Jane encourages her real-life friends to reveal their own stories, opening the way for audience members to engage and see their own stories read onstage.
    TRIGGER WARNING: This play includes stories of sexual violence.
  • The Worst Roommate in the World (And Other Stories)
    In seven short scenes this satire explores different scenarios of human interaction with our planet, centered on two roommates, Ter, the original inhabitant, and Blane, the colonist. This central story explores not only human exploitation of the Earth but also of each other. The remaining scenes round out this story from the point of view of the natural world and Earth herself.
  • Change of Plans
    A very fortunate woman shows off her spacious Manhattan apartment where she is isolating with her husband during the pandemic. Although she is aware how lucky she is to have two bedrooms and even a balcony, it soon becomes clear that there are darker things afoot now that Covid has them trapped at home.
  • Gone Fishing Gone
    It’s been a Father’s Day tradition for Jack and his Dad to go fishing. Now that Dad’s gone, can Mom take over, even though she’s never fished before?

    (Please note there is also a radio-drama version of this play.)
  • Q is for Queen
    Why would a Harvard-educated, independent, older white woman suddenly switch from posting about animal abuse and climate change to posting about Pizzagate, Q-Anon and other conspiracies? Lionel, a black reporter with the New York Times is meeting in the park with the self-described “Queen of Q” to find out.
  • Invisible Foe
    Jaime doesn't understand why Mom is crazed to get rid of the moths in Dad's closet. It's not as if he needs those clothes now, and doesn't Mom have more important things to deal with, like the house deed and the will? But it soon becomes apparent that moths are not the only foe that Mom is fighting. Available in a zoom and a 'socially distant' live format.
  • The Goddess of Love Speaks Out
    Aphrodite is having difficulty doing her job--getting people to 'get it on'--during the Covid pandemic. But how can we exist without Love?
  • The Conversation
    Just two sisters having an everyday conversation. But one of them is trying to prevent the other from making the same grave mistake she made years ago. And she is willing to do just about anything to prevent that from happening. Please note this play is also available in a zoom-formatted version.
  • Power Girls Support Group
    As a group of powerful women--famous, mythical, and iconic--confront their formative childhoods and painful steps to womanhood, one of them must confront decisions she made in her past and choose to take the challenging steps that could change her life forever. Power Girls Support Group is a play about the trials girls face, from the traumatic to the seemingly inconsequential, as they become women.
  • The Breakfast Scene
    Woman and Man are having breakfast in the kitchen discussing their relationship. Or they rehearsing having breakfast in the kitchen again while discussing 'their' relationship. And just what relationship are they discussing? And when will the dog stop barking?
  • Under the Hills
    A short play based on true historical events. Two women ride their horses on the trail through Indian Hill Preserve in Bedford, NY and evoke both past atrocities and lesser ones to come.
    Note: This play was written for and included in compilation 'Walking Plays.'
  • Mall Santa and All
    Dad just wants to take his son Charlie to see Santa at the mall. But the lines are long and there are so many holiday celebrations to choose from, not including all the intersections of Santa. What to do with Charlie getting hungrier and only Judah the Maccabee available
  • Mall Santa and All
    Dad just wants to take his son Charlie to see Santa at the mall. But the lines are long and there are so many holiday celebrations to choose from, not including all the intersections of Santa. What to do with Charlie getting hungrier and only Judah the Maccabee available
  • Modern Monsters
    Six-year old Timmy is too sophisticated to worry about the scary monsters under the bed or even those in fairy tales and movies. Until he confronts real monsters like Covid-19, gun-toting schoolmates and Vladimir Putin and understands what it really means to be scared.
  • Crazy for You, Baby
    CRAZY FOR YOU, BABY follows the crazy, comic journey of a new mother dealing with post-partum depression while defending her baby from the most famous child-killing mother of all time. Maryann, is exhausted, anxious, constantly fighting with her oblivious husband, Michael, and unable to bond with her baby—in fact, she lives in fear of killing him. She is visited by Medea, who has taken refuge in their home...
    CRAZY FOR YOU, BABY follows the crazy, comic journey of a new mother dealing with post-partum depression while defending her baby from the most famous child-killing mother of all time. Maryann, is exhausted, anxious, constantly fighting with her oblivious husband, Michael, and unable to bond with her baby—in fact, she lives in fear of killing him. She is visited by Medea, who has taken refuge in their home while being pursued by The Furies. Medea adopts the roles of Maryann’s pediatrician, mother and baby nurse while goading her on to further confusion and depression—and possibly worse.
  • Sarah Laughed
    When the Angel tells 90 year old Sarah she's about to have a baby by her husband Abraham she thinks he must be joking. Then she thinks a lot of other things...
  • The Play by ChatGPT in the style of Michele A Miller about ChatGPT writing a play about the writer Michele A Miller
    What happens when a playwright tries to write a play about Artificial Intelligence using Artificial Intelligence? And what does this play within a play about a writer writing about the writer within a play tell us about AI and humanity?