Ashley Lauren Rogers

Ashley Lauren Rogers

Ashley’s play Don’t Think About Elephants, was semi-finalist in the 2023 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and she was a Semi-Finalist in the Meditative Writing Playwriting Fellowship. Ashley has been a playwright for 2 separate Workshop Theatre Playwright intensives, was a co-facilitator for their TGNC2S+ Affinity Intensive, and was invited to create material for The Workshop Theatre’s annual Out of The Hat...
Ashley’s play Don’t Think About Elephants, was semi-finalist in the 2023 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and she was a Semi-Finalist in the Meditative Writing Playwriting Fellowship. Ashley has been a playwright for 2 separate Workshop Theatre Playwright intensives, was a co-facilitator for their TGNC2S+ Affinity Intensive, and was invited to create material for The Workshop Theatre’s annual Out of The Hat Event. A Eugene O’Neill Theatre National Playwrights Conference Semifinalist 2021, Literary Director for Step1 Theatre Project, Oddity received an honorable mention on The Kilroys “The List,” 2020. Her play Becky’s Xmas Wish, and a monologue from Chasing The Ghost are featured in Smith and Krauss’s 2021 Best Short Scene and 2021 Best Women’s Monologues compilations. A Trans Theatre Lab fellow 2019, artist in residence at Middlesex County Vocational-Technical School 2018-2019. Took part in the two week summer playwriting intensive at the Kennedy Center, Washington DC. Works performed at Theatre Row, Dixon Place, MITF, the Brick, Joe’s Pub, and others. “Becky’s Xmas Wish,” was a finalist for the City Theatre National Short Play Award, Miami, work has been produced in Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Maine, Iowa, New Jersey, Detroit, and Minneapolis. Featured on Fusion TV’s Peabody Award Nominated Sex.Right.Now, panels for Revry.TV. Creator The Is It Transphobic and The Right to Play Podcasts. Her play Chasing the Ghost is now available for purchase and performance rights are handled through Next Stage Press and her ten minute play Julie-Esque premiered as part of Schreiber Shorts June 2023 on Theatre Row.

Plays

  • Don't Think About Elephants
    FULL LENGTH - When Emily's pregnancy test turns out positive, she and her sister-in-law, Brittany, go on a road trip to get her checked out and basic information at a Planned Parenthood clinic, even though the two of them despise each other.

    CW - Discussions of Transphobia, abortion, kink, fetish, and age play
  • The Queen of Time
    FULL LENGTH - After spending years inside the digital afterlife of TWONELA Mace and Ronnie are prepping for the release of a new DLC (Down-Loadable Content) pack from their favorite game, Immortal Showdown. When a glitch in the system prevents them from exiting the game they come face to face with a hacker who opens up their digital minds to the world outside their world and how they can re-shape the reality...
    FULL LENGTH - After spending years inside the digital afterlife of TWONELA Mace and Ronnie are prepping for the release of a new DLC (Down-Loadable Content) pack from their favorite game, Immortal Showdown. When a glitch in the system prevents them from exiting the game they come face to face with a hacker who opens up their digital minds to the world outside their world and how they can re-shape the reality they live in... and uncover the secrets of their lives pre-upload that have been kept secret from them. A video-game-esque, fight-filled, trans-humanist, transgender AF play asking what is immutable, what is programmable, and who truly owns our identities?
  • Bark At The Moon
    FULL LENGTH - Bark At The Moon is a fictionalized story based on real events, about Ayla (an Ace, edible enthusiast at her first Furry Convention) and Ed (a Puerto Rican Goth Dj) who were outside when someone unleashed a Chlorine Bomb inside their Hotel at a Furry Convention. We follow Ed and Ayla’s decade-long journey of healing, learning to trust one another, the world around them, and loving all the varied...
    FULL LENGTH - Bark At The Moon is a fictionalized story based on real events, about Ayla (an Ace, edible enthusiast at her first Furry Convention) and Ed (a Puerto Rican Goth Dj) who were outside when someone unleashed a Chlorine Bomb inside their Hotel at a Furry Convention. We follow Ed and Ayla’s decade-long journey of healing, learning to trust one another, the world around them, and loving all the varied aspects that encompass us all….

    CW: Acts of domestic terrorism, marijuana, discussions of sexual assault, discussions of Hurricane Maria, historical and contemporary anti-Puerto Rican racism, use of the R-slur, & Furries.
  • The Question Game
    FULL LENGTH - Against her better judgment, Amber (a trans heavy metal musician) arrives at the run-down seaside New England home of her estranged father Arthur, whom she hasn't seen in about 2 decades. She gives him one last shot to tell her this secret he would only share in person when she finds him drunk in his own home. What is her father's secret? Why did she ever decide to allow him back in...
    FULL LENGTH - Against her better judgment, Amber (a trans heavy metal musician) arrives at the run-down seaside New England home of her estranged father Arthur, whom she hasn't seen in about 2 decades. She gives him one last shot to tell her this secret he would only share in person when she finds him drunk in his own home. What is her father's secret? Why did she ever decide to allow him back in her life? And what other spirits haunt Arthur's home and might continue to haunt Amber after their encounter?
  • It's Been a While
    10 MINUTE PLAY - Two women check out a theatre space after lockdown and bond over the Ghostlight.

    (This play is intended to be performed with masks or without them after a certain point that becomes obvious in the text. This is up to actors' discretion and comfortability.)
  • Chasing The Ghost
    FULL LENGTH - Kurt was a vlogger in the early days of YouTube where he screamed about video games he hated. But he's left that behind him, finding a wife and keeping his characters anger in check. Until one night where he is visited by a shadow person...who won't stop tickling his feet.

    Script will be available Via Next Stage Press
  • Appreciating Value
    10 MINUTE - A man enters a used Vinyl shop in the East Village and finds a record he's been searching for but will the owner part with it?

    ~Part 1 of the #MadeIn2023 cycle
  • Wrath
    10 MINUTE PLAY - Jean Wrathchild is a notorious wrestler on the indie scene both for his in-ring antics and his history of homophobic tweets (Well a tweet). As he gets ready to go enter from Gorilla Position he's stopped and told the news he expected but dreaded to hear... Not tonight.

    ~ Part 2 of the #MadeIn2023 cycle
  • Becky's Xmas Wish
    <10 MINUTE - Becky, a little girl, is visited by an elf who tells her that she will be given one wish but the elf couldn't expect what insidious wish little Becky could ask for.
  • In Wolfs Clothing
    <20 MINUTE - A haunted attraction will welcome all sorts of monsters: ghosts, werewolves, and vampires alike. While these are all people in masks and elaborate costumes how does one tell if someone is truly monstrous even when they remove their costume? Susan and her sibling Dawn must answer the same question as Susan fires Dawn's best friend Aaron two days before Halloween.

    CW: Discussions of unspecified assault.
  • A Safe(r) Space (Work In Progress)
    FULL LENGTH - This is a work in progress. The current draft was the draft we used as a reading for Letter of Marque's Ensemble Playwright's Lab.

    We’ve all seen a zombie story. But what happens afterward? After the world falls apart and people learn to live with the violent reality of a zombie apocalypse? And what happens if, for no explainable reason, the zombies get better? A Safe(r...
    FULL LENGTH - This is a work in progress. The current draft was the draft we used as a reading for Letter of Marque's Ensemble Playwright's Lab.

    We’ve all seen a zombie story. But what happens afterward? After the world falls apart and people learn to live with the violent reality of a zombie apocalypse? And what happens if, for no explainable reason, the zombies get better? A Safe(r) Space is a new piece by Ashley Lauren Rogers all about the lives of people after a zombie apocalypse trying to rebuild, move forward, and find some sense of normalcy… If they can.
  • To Everything
    <10 MINUTE - A CONFERENCE CALL PLAY Kristianne wants to delete her old facebook account but can't seem to bring herself to do it.

    *This play is intended to be performed over Google Hangouts, Zoom, or some other conference call technology.
  • The Illustrated Xmas Sweater
    <COLLECTION OF SHORT PLAYS> Claire got just what she wanted for Christmas, an ugly sweater! But as the sweater starts telling her "stories," she must ask did Claire get more than she bargained for? A night of accidental anti Christmas tales! A bachelor party gone wrong, love in a time of time travel, exploding elves, Satan impersonators, and so much more!

    INCLUDED:
    Lap...
    <COLLECTION OF SHORT PLAYS> Claire got just what she wanted for Christmas, an ugly sweater! But as the sweater starts telling her "stories," she must ask did Claire get more than she bargained for? A night of accidental anti Christmas tales! A bachelor party gone wrong, love in a time of time travel, exploding elves, Satan impersonators, and so much more!

    INCLUDED:
    Lap Dance for the Invisible Man
    Becky's Xmas Wish
    Black Lipstick
    Mall Satan
    Brocreation

    The Illustrated Xmas Sweater is a collection of shorter works which was first performed in New York City, December 7th 2016 at The Producer's Club and was produced by Step 1 Theatre Project under the name "Falsehoods, Fallacies, and Fairytales: Or How We'll Convince You These Plays are About Christmas"
  • The Last Ring
    FULL LENGTH - Mari, a closeted transgender woman from Japan and the number one contender for a professional wrestling title who is being blackmailed. If she doesn’t pay a ransom her trans status will be revealed to the world. We watch Mari take on her long time adversary Alexa in a ladder match for the WEW Prima Donna’s Championship. Will Mari win the title? How will Mari deal with the ransom on her head?...
    FULL LENGTH - Mari, a closeted transgender woman from Japan and the number one contender for a professional wrestling title who is being blackmailed. If she doesn’t pay a ransom her trans status will be revealed to the world. We watch Mari take on her long time adversary Alexa in a ladder match for the WEW Prima Donna’s Championship. Will Mari win the title? How will Mari deal with the ransom on her head? Will the world accept a trans woman as a Champion?
  • Julie-esque
    <10 MINUTE - A young trans college student is having trouble portraying "the role of most young women's dreams," Juliet and is being coached by her older co-star (playing Friar Laurence).
  • Oddity
    FULL LENGTH - In this Steampunk Body Horror piece, a trans man “Gender Specialist” is brought in to a secret Victorian–Era medical facility deep within the earth to unravel the mystery of a series of murders and body mutilations which have taken place. As he meets the sole survivor and begins to unravel the mystery and his claustrophobic paranoia begins to overtake him the specialist finds it hard to believe anything he's told.
  • Generation (Laz)Y
    FULL LENGTH - A satirical comedy about the economy and the “Gimme,” generation. Margaret Chatterly is a thirty-something woman living in a tent in her parents’ backyard holding down two minimum wage jobs and one internship who is convinced she is dying.
  • Let Me In
    <10 MINUTE - A CONFERENCE CALL PLAY*. Three friends have had the hardest time coming together to record their paranormal podcast. Now that they're digitally together there should be nothing stopping them from recording... except when they are joined by an unknown account who might actually be perfect for their show...

    *This play is intended to be performed over Google Hangouts, Zoom, or...
    <10 MINUTE - A CONFERENCE CALL PLAY*. Three friends have had the hardest time coming together to record their paranormal podcast. Now that they're digitally together there should be nothing stopping them from recording... except when they are joined by an unknown account who might actually be perfect for their show...

    *This play is intended to be performed over Google Hangouts, Zoom, or some other conference call technology.
  • Half Pule
    10-15 MINUTE PLAY A man (MICHA) catches a woman (BRIGID) breaking into his home early in the morning of Thanksgiving 2021, and she takes the one thing he needed to make his lonely Thanksgiving happy.
  • Pass/Fail
    SOLO SHOW - Through stand up comedy and video segments, Ashley Lauren Rogers tackles the pervasive nature of passing privilege within transgender circles by analyzing her own failures… or instances of "not passing," in life.
  • Tag You're Dead
    <10 MINUTE - A woman is told that in order to get her skin tags removed she'll have to go through ridiculous and rigorous testing that devalues her as a human.
  • Open To The Unbelieveable
    <20 MINUTE - Two friends go on a trip into the woods. One of them shows the other a clearing they found. Everything goes awry when a vortex to another dimension opens up, bringing in mythical visitors!
    ---------------------
    In March 2020 a bunch of theaters* were producing plays, business as usual, when a global pandemic had other plans. Prioritizing the safety of their communities, they made...
    <20 MINUTE - Two friends go on a trip into the woods. One of them shows the other a clearing they found. Everything goes awry when a vortex to another dimension opens up, bringing in mythical visitors!
    ---------------------
    In March 2020 a bunch of theaters* were producing plays, business as usual, when a global pandemic had other plans. Prioritizing the safety of their communities, they made difficult decisions to cease or postpone programming for the remainder their seasons. But the story doesn’t end there. With a spirit of resilience, adaptation, and invitation, they came together to create the Play At Home project, a series of short plays commissioned specifically for this moment of unprecedented isolation to inspire joy and connection for all.

    In other words, COVID-19 may have closed the theater buildings, but you can still #PlayAtHome.

    art of the irreplaceable magic of live theater lives in the unmediated space between artists and the audience's imagination. We make worlds together! Play At Home is an invitation to unplug the tech, and plug into your creativity. You can binge watch The Office later. You’ve got a brand-new library of short plays at your fingertips!
  • A Lap Dance for the Invisible Man
    <10 MINUTE - Two men, one hotel room bachelor party in Vegas. The only problem is that the bachelor is nowhere to be seen and when one party-goer orders a stripper and tries to overstep his bounds no one is in for a good night.
  • The Sounds of Madness
    FULL LENGTH - An adaptation of The Tell Tale Heart, The Black Cat, and The Casque of Amontillado where all three main characters are in the same cell of a turn of the century asylum. Each character portrays multiple roles to help tell each story in an overlapping, sound heavy, cacophony. Two separate public readings have been conducted by the New York Nineteenth Century Society in 2014.
  • Black Lipstick
    <10 MINUTE - A daughter gets in a fight over her mother’s choice of lipstick.
  • Toaster Problem
    ONE MINUTE PLAY - An artificial Intelligence fed up with how AI are treated.
  • I Only Have Eyes For you
    <10 MINUTE - A CONFERENCE CALL PLAY*. Thea, Jeremy, and Callum have to meet online for a school project but have a hard time getting started. It might be technical difficulties, or maybe personal difficulties, that keep them from focusing on the project.

    This play is intended to be performed over Google Hangouts, Zoom, or some other conference call technology.
  • Bite-Curious
    <10 MINUTE - It's a zombie apocalypse. Two survivors allow a third into their space only to discover she has been bitten but she claims to have bitten herself when she was tripping on acid.
  • How To Get Away With The Mystery of Edwin Drood
    <10 MINUTE - A holiday play is in danger when an actor goes missing and the semi-prominent actor who has been brought in to portray Charles Dickens goes deep into "The Method," and believes they ARE Charles Dickens and cannot be reasoned with any other way. As the play's director attempts to get their production back on the rails they find there might be something sinister at play.
  • A Kiss In The Dream House
    FULL LENGTH - Is the story of young love, intersectional transgender issues, and Death Metal. Zoe, a 20 something Vietnamese-American woman’s engagement ceremony is in crisis when her partner reveals they are considering Gender Confirmation Surgery. A one act, two character version of the play was produced as part of the 2014 Left Out Festival through Stage Left Studios in New York City.