Tyler Rivenbark

Tyler Rivenbark

Born and raised in North Carolina, Tyler Rivenbark received his MFA in Playwriting from the MFA program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation at Queens College. Select theatrical works include Soldier/Woman (New Ohio, NYC), hands (The Bushwick Starr, Brooklyn), Silence (Dixon Place, NYC; Artists’ Bloc, Washington, DC). His TV series ROUGHSTOCK is in development with Hodge Brothers Production. He adapted...
Born and raised in North Carolina, Tyler Rivenbark received his MFA in Playwriting from the MFA program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation at Queens College. Select theatrical works include Soldier/Woman (New Ohio, NYC), hands (The Bushwick Starr, Brooklyn), Silence (Dixon Place, NYC; Artists’ Bloc, Washington, DC). His TV series ROUGHSTOCK is in development with Hodge Brothers Production. He adapted the award-winning Tobias Wolff novel, The Barracks Thief, now in development with MindRiot Entertainment. He has received a Poetry Society of America commission to adapt Rita Dove’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book of poems, Thomas and Beulah. He has held residences at the Orchard Project Episodic Lab, the Louis Armstrong House Museum and Mission to (dit)Mars. He has been named a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, DVRF’s Playwright Program; and a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Playwrights Realm Fellowship, and American Shakespeare Center's New Contemporaries; and Quarterfinalist for Final Draft's Big Break and the Academy Nicholl Fellowship.

Plays

  • Son of an Ostrich by Tyler Rivenbark
    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama, movement/physical
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    Keyword: prison, home + 5 more
    Genre: drama, movement/physical
    Keyword: prison, home, features characters of color, war, family, legacy, suicide
    Nearing the end of his prison sentence, Owen reckons with what it means to return to a hometown he wants to escape and a legacy he can’t outrun. (7th play of 7-play cycle)
  • And I Saw His Hands Open to Reveal the Flaming Fires of Heaven by Tyler Rivenbark
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: church, LGBTQ + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: church, LGBTQ, features characters of color, pastor, Hope, southern
    Years removed from a fundamentalist Christian group, LuElla still searches for belonging. When strange robocalls from an Apocalyptic pastor coincide with a recurring dream of Jesus, her daughter worries she's falling back into her old ways.
  • sound of a bird song by Tyler Rivenbark
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: love, grief + 6 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: love, grief, suicide, bird-watching, LGBTQ, puppets, movement, people of color
    A woman mourns her wife’s death through bird watching while her brother helps hold things together.
  • Pursued by a Bull by Tyler Rivenbark
    Cast: 
    8–13
    ·
    Genre: drama, movement/physical + 1 more
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    Keyword: bull riding, cowboys + 8 more
    Genre: drama, movement/physical, tragedy
    Keyword: bull riding, cowboys, Texas, family, Rodeo, jealousy, friendship, traumatic brain injury, bull, black cowboys
    In El Campo, Texas, Leon – a former bull riding star who saw his career ended early due to a traumatic brain injury – struggles with his legacy in the face of his son’s burgeoning bull riding career and the return of his childhood friend who became a world champion.
  • Everything is Burning and so Fucking Beautiful! by Tyler Rivenbark
    Cast: 
    9–14
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 5 more
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    Keyword: war, Iraq + 5 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, dark comedy, drama, movement/physical, political, tragedy
    Keyword: war, Iraq, family, music, America, love, Gay and LGBTQ
    At the start of the Iraq War, an Iraqi family who spends their days watching “Star Academy”, debating Shakespeare, and falling in love sees their world turned upside down when the eldest son is killed by a US Marine. (6th play of cycle.)
  • whatever we were by Tyler Rivenbark
    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama, horror
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    Keyword: abortion, drama + 2 more
    Genre: drama, horror
    Keyword: abortion, drama, women, pro-choice
    Decades after a tragic event divides four high school friends, they are mysteriously summoned to the childhood home of Norma Jean. During a strange weekend of reconnection, confrontation, and drugs, the four old friends reckon with the guilt of their adolescent actions and the residual effects on their lives.
  • Earl: A Suicide by Tyler Rivenbark
    Cast: 
    1
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    Genre: biography, drama
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    Keyword: suicide, biography + 4 more
    Genre: biography, drama
    Keyword: suicide, biography, family, mystery, Depression, Recovery
    In the summer of 1985 Tyler is born. Less than a year later in the Spring of 1986, his grandfather commits suicide while Tyler waits in the kitchen. In the Spring of 2016 Tyler starts a meta-exploration into the thirty silent years in between.
  • All the Places between Moonrise and Moonset by Tyler Rivenbark
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: biography, drama
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    Keyword: youth, southern + 3 more
    Genre: biography, drama
    Keyword: youth, southern, friendship, poetry, coming of age
    An allegorical coming-of-age story about a poor teenager named Witness who tries to break out of the generational trauma left behind for him and his misfit group of friends in a rural southern town. Struggling with sex, drugs, and the inevitable truth that they may never make it out, the friends are pushed to the brink over the course of a year.
  • By the Grace of Fireflies by Tyler Rivenbark
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: drama, movement/physical + 1 more
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    Keyword: suicide, Depression + 5 more
    Genre: drama, movement/physical, political
    Keyword: suicide, Depression, working class, love, loss, grief, family
    After the suicide of her ex, Michelle notices the arrival of fireflies at her home. As she reconciles her ex's death, and the raising of their child, Michelle becomes consumed by the fireflies and the potential warning they may bring. (5th play of cycle.)
  • Jesus Plays Basketball on a Hot Night in Iraq by Tyler Rivenbark
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama, political + 1 more
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    Keyword: Iraq war, war + 8 more
    Genre: drama, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Iraq war, war, marines, family, suicide, PTSD, grief, theme parks, southern, trauma survivors
    Navigating broken lawnmowers, a trip to Dollywood and How-to-Grieve pamphlets, Mom and Dad struggle to move forward after their Veteran son’s suicide. A story about coming together, coming apart and finding your way home again. (4th play of cycle.)
  • The Hydra: a play with puppets by Tyler Rivenbark
    Cast: 
    8–10
    ·
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 4 more
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    Keyword: Iraq war, military + 5 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, experimental, fable/folktale, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Iraq war, military, marines, PTSD, Greek chorus, Greek mythology, puppets
    Stephen Ajax has awakened in a netherworld inhabited by Gods, Goddesses, puppets, and American Folk music, after committing suicide in his childhood home. Confronted by the Hydra, Ajax is forced to face the consequences of his suicide and determine whether he will do what it takes to return to his former life or embrace who he has now become. (3rd play of cycle.)
  • The Ostrich by Tyler Rivenbark
    Cast: 
    8–10
    ·
    Genre: drama, experimental + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: Iraq war, war + 2 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Iraq war, war, Ajax, Greek mythology
    Private First-Class Stephen Ajax has recently returned home from Iraq a hero, though he doesn't see it that way. Isolated in the comfort of his childhood home, and growing increasingly more detached from reality, he struggles with the consequences of war. (2nd play of cycle.)
  • The Suck by Tyler Rivenbark
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    7–8
    ·
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: Iraq war, war + 4 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, experimental, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Iraq war, war, marines, sexual abuse, masculinity, identity
    Stephen Ajax has newly enlisted in the Marines on the eve of finding out that his girlfriend, Michelle, is pregnant. After having freshly arrived in Iraq, Ajax receives news that his son has been born. He celebrates the news with his new brothers – all fears momentarily vanquished. But after a harrowing encounter sends him into a fugue state he is forced to redefine who he is. (1st play of cycle.)
  • Caged by Tyler Rivenbark
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: immigration, detention + 7 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, experimental, movement/physical, political, tragedy
    Keyword: immigration, detention, detention center, New York, Africa, drama, dance, Congo, Mexico
    Fleeing political persecution, Lamumba arrives at JFK International Airport and is immediately detained. While held at the Wackenhut Detention Center in Queens, Lamumba is thrust into a world of violence he thought he had escaped.
  • Horn by Tyler Rivenbark
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: History, music + 7 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama, political
    Keyword: History, music, jazz, family, Queens, New York, New Orleans, Musicians, black history
    In the 1950s, Louis Armstrong is one of the most famous musicians in the world. But at home in Corona, Queens, he struggles with his legacy and civil rights as a secret threatens his marriage. Horn is a complicated and human portrayal of a beloved, but tumultuous man.
  • The Sins by Tyler Rivenbark
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: thriller, suspense + 2 more
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller, tragedy
    Keyword: thriller, suspense, southern, southern gothic
    A drifter haunted by his religious upbringing searches for redemption throughout impoverished towns. When he meets a mother moonlighting as a prostitute, they both believe there’s a chance they might be saved. But darkness lurks beneath the Magnolia trees and Spanish moss in this Southern Gothic.