Caitlin Turnage

Caitlin Turnage

Caitlin Turnage is a lecturer of Intro to Playwriting and Playwriting at Texas State University. She's a co-founder of Ignition Theatre Productions a student run group operating out of the University of Houston. She was named as a National Finalist for the Gary Garrison National Ten Minute Play Contest for her play "Jigsaw Cactus" which was read in Washington D.C. as part of the Kennedy Center...
Caitlin Turnage is a lecturer of Intro to Playwriting and Playwriting at Texas State University. She's a co-founder of Ignition Theatre Productions a student run group operating out of the University of Houston. She was named as a National Finalist for the Gary Garrison National Ten Minute Play Contest for her play "Jigsaw Cactus" which was read in Washington D.C. as part of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. The play also went to L.A. where it was performed as part of Scribe Stages "Motel Plays: Lost and Found". Caitlin's one-act play "Routine" was named a National Semi-Finalist of the John Cauble One- Act contest, her one-act "In a Darkroom, The Lord Knows" was recently named the recipient of the National John Cauble Short Play award. Caitlin was a finalist for the 42nd annual Samuel French Off Off Broadway festival, and a NPDW ATHE participant with her play “The Holes in Human Flesh”. She's a past attendee of the Dorsett Theatre Writer's retreat in partnership with Theresa Rebeck and the Lark. Caitlin was a semi-finalist for the O'Neill New Play Development Program, a semi-finalist for the Headwater's new play festival, and a semi-finalist for the Scratchpad Series with the Playwrights Realm. Her play What We Scream Underwater When No One Can Hear Us was the runner-up for the Harold and Mimi Steinberg award through the Kennedy Center in D.C.

Plays

  • Residual Dust
    A young woman desperately yearns for a confession from her teacher.
  • What We Scream Underwater When No One Can Hear Us
    Two Girls Discover faith, each other, and the never ending pull of the water.
  • My Mother's Nose
    A mother with Alzheimers, a daughter full of bitterness, and a secret between them that will explode both of their pasts, presents, and futures--who will be there to hear them?
  • Jumping Chasms
    A daughter and father figure out and navigate how to lose each other.
  • PURTTY
    High school is hard enough but throw on the judgy standards of a Private Christian school and an inability to truly be who you are and it gets much harder. An exploration of slut shaming, homophobia, and hypocritical standards in Christian schools--PURTTY is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale".
  • Up The Hill for Water
    A wife threatens to leave her husband if he loses them their house because he won't pay their water bill--but he refuses, that water is poison.
  • Straight Fragile White
    Three generations of white women bred and raised inside of a Mississippi bubble realize what it means to confront your racism.
  • Little Perfect You
    Lemon is a girl with a flair for building kick butt battle bots. She's also daddy's perfect "girly" little angel. When faced with her upcoming purity ball, Lemon is given an ultimatum. Choose between the battle bots that make her who she is or give her dad the little perfect girl that he's raised her to be. In this coming of age story a young person learns exactly what makes them the cool human that they are.
  • Slack
    Three very different friends go on a camping trip but when mistakes and ignorant remarks are made, the duty of and burden of "Educating" someone who fundamentally disagrees with who you are, tests the boundaries of a young friendship.
  • 340 Days to Foal
    A daughter with a secret returns home to her estranged mother with a shotgun and a suitcase and a will to destroy.
  • The Holes in Human Flesh
    The last day of a Mission trip in South Africa, a missionary realizes she’s leaving more behind than her faith, and has to deal with the consequences of the grief her religion and her friendship may have wrought.
  • Stone Pebble Girls
    Based on the Kokopelli Myth.

    When a stranger comes to Magic city trailer park a group of close minded people are confronted with someone who's not like them.

  • In A Darkroom, The Lord Knows
    Two girls attending a christian school deal with the aftermath of the purity culture they've been brought up in and the harmful effects it has caused in both of their lives.
  • Titan of Abandon
    Two kids abandoned in a burnt down church navigate the terms of family with an ex preacher and a lot of drugs. However, the daughter is being asked for more than she's willing to give. A show navigating toxic masculinity and the sexualization of women without their permission. It's a play about the touch we have and the touch that's taken away.
  • Routine
    National Semi-Finalist of the John Cauble One-Act Competition as part of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival

    When a politician decides to be less Politically correct, and an unemployed father decides to burn off steam--will their union destroy two households?
  • To: Charlie
    Selected as a performance in the Unviersity of Houston Ten Minute Play festival.

    When a special celebration for their son arrives, a couple decides to make a videotape for him--even if it breaks them apart.
  • Jigsaw Cactus
    Recipient of the title National Finalist for the Gary Garrison Ten Minute Play Award (KCACTF)

    Produced with Scribe Stages "Motel Plays: Lost and Found"

    Produced as part of the University of Houston Ten Minute Play Festival

    A prodigal daughter returns home to confront her jigsaw puzzle obsessed father. Both are forced to acknowledge that their happiness...
    Recipient of the title National Finalist for the Gary Garrison Ten Minute Play Award (KCACTF)

    Produced with Scribe Stages "Motel Plays: Lost and Found"

    Produced as part of the University of Houston Ten Minute Play Festival

    A prodigal daughter returns home to confront her jigsaw puzzle obsessed father. Both are forced to acknowledge that their happiness is not to be found in the things they pursue, the places they go, or the puzzles they try to fit back together. Father and daughter must make a choice to heal, or shatter.
  • Judas Kissed Kid
    A play about the ability to believe the worst...everytime. 
    When a returned war vet and his wife decide to go on a couple's therapy retreat they call in their old kid neighbor from back home, little do they know that she's been harboring a secret that could destroy them for years. The family is closer to falling apart then they think.
  • Toy Cars Down Steep Slopes
    A personal take on the Medea Myth:

    Cathy is a mother who has shoved her children out of her house with a tendency to hoard. However, when she's diagnosed with Huntington's disease she understands it's time to change--and time to move, but she can't do it without her estranged sons help. When the boys return, they have to come to terms with their mother's hereditary...
    A personal take on the Medea Myth:

    Cathy is a mother who has shoved her children out of her house with a tendency to hoard. However, when she's diagnosed with Huntington's disease she understands it's time to change--and time to move, but she can't do it without her estranged sons help. When the boys return, they have to come to terms with their mother's hereditary disease, and their own death sentence.