Patricia Henritze

Patricia Henritze

Patricia Henritze is a writer, teacher and theater artist.

Patricia’s play THE BITCH OF BALACLAVA (2016 O'Neill Finalist), was developed through Theater Emory’s Brave New Works program and Working Title Playwrights Ethel Woolson Labs. In collaboration with Derreck Kayongo, CNN Hero and former CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, they created his autobiographical solo show...
Patricia Henritze is a writer, teacher and theater artist.

Patricia’s play THE BITCH OF BALACLAVA (2016 O'Neill Finalist), was developed through Theater Emory’s Brave New Works program and Working Title Playwrights Ethel Woolson Labs. In collaboration with Derreck Kayongo, CNN Hero and former CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, they created his autobiographical solo show IDI AMIN, AMERICA AND A BAR OF SOAP which charted his journey from Ugandan refugee to American entrepreneur

Favorite past playwriting projects: WHO'S THERE? - Budapest Fringe Festival, ANTONY and CLEOPATRA: UNDONE, an extreme Shakespeare adaptation - Skyline Stageworks (CHI), LIFE SENTENCE, a music performance benefitting the Georgia Innocence Project,
WHERE YOU STILL LIVED - Plays in Motion series at the 29th Street Rep (NYC.)

Grants and Awards include O'Neill National Playwriting Conference Finalist, Alliance Theater Reiser Award, Theater Communications Group Travel Grant, Orlando Prize/A Room of Her Own Foundation, Idea Capital Grant, Poets&Writers, Inc. and Working Title Playwrights Playwrights & Grant and the Lipkin Playwriting Prize. Patricia has taught at Atlanta area universities, including Emory, Agnes Scott and Kennesaw State. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and Working Title Playwrights, has a MA of Professional Writing/Kennesaw State and an MFA Theater/Sarah Lawrence College.

Plays

  • Idi Amin, America and a Bar of Soap by Patricia Henritze
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 2 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama, political
    Idi Amin, America and a Bar of Soap is a two-man show inspired by the life of Derreck Kayongo, the CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.  Written by Patricia Henritze (with Derreck Kayongo), the play follows Derreck from his childhood in Uganda under Idi Amin’s brutal regime, through his experiences in Kenya as a refugee, and finally into the U.S. as an immigrant and ultimately a citizen.  The...
    Idi Amin, America and a Bar of Soap is a two-man show inspired by the life of Derreck Kayongo, the CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.  Written by Patricia Henritze (with Derreck Kayongo), the play follows Derreck from his childhood in Uganda under Idi Amin’s brutal regime, through his experiences in Kenya as a refugee, and finally into the U.S. as an immigrant and ultimately a citizen.  The show is performed by two actors, one as the young Derreck, and another as Derreck today. Both performers also inhabit other roles in the course of telling Derreck’s story.

    In 2011 Derreck was chosen as a CNN Hero for founding the Global Soap project. This non-profit international aid organization recycles discarded soap from hotels and distributes newly processed soap to fight hygiene-related diseases, which is the #1 killer of children in vulnerable populations around the world.  

    While Derreck has an amazing story to tell, this is not a documentary or motivational speech.  Derreck’s journey is filled with humor and the play has something for everyone: dangerous escapes, spies, firing squads, betrayal, hope and redemption. From refugee to CEO, Derreck has learned how to survive, turning challenges into triumphs, and his story reminds us we all live in a world where one person can still make a difference.
  • The Bitch of Balaclava by Patricia Henritze
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    5–6
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    Genre: biography, comedy + 7 more
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    Keyword: women's roles, war + 3 more
    Genre: biography, comedy, dark comedy, docudrama/historic, drama, movement/physical, period, political, satire
    Keyword: women's roles, war, History, modern take on history, PTSD
    This is a modern play about science and gender, privilege and the bureaucracy of war. It should be inhabited by a culturally diverse cast. Not strictly “historical,” the play should have an ensemble feel to it - inspired by performance art.

    SYNOPSIS: This play follows an imagined Florence as she struggles with life, death and authority in the Crimean War (1850s) and through her return to England...
    This is a modern play about science and gender, privilege and the bureaucracy of war. It should be inhabited by a culturally diverse cast. Not strictly “historical,” the play should have an ensemble feel to it - inspired by performance art.

    SYNOPSIS: This play follows an imagined Florence as she struggles with life, death and authority in the Crimean War (1850s) and through her return to England. Along the way she changes the course of medical history.

    On the eve of discoveries that will revolutionize medicine, Florence Nightingale fights a battle against disease, ignorance, and prejudice during one of the first ‘modern’ wars where more die in the hospital than the battlefield. A saint, a tyrant, an adversary, a friend: this icon restlessly inhabits this play about the casualties of war and the high price of high tea.
    Doubling characters creates a cast of just 5 while retaining the epic quality of the play.
  • Antony and Cleopatra UNDONE by Patricia Henritze
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, docudrama/historic + 5 more
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    Keyword: Shakespeare, Classic + 1 more
    Genre: adaptation, docudrama/historic, drama, experimental, movement/physical, period, tragedy
    Keyword: Shakespeare, Classic, modern
    This is an extreme Shakespeare adaptation with only four characters - modern, brisk and filled with humor and irony. Every word is Shakespeare's, but remixed and rebuilt into a dialogue-based story of love, power and destiny. UNDONE is as much Sid and Nancy as Romeo and Juliet. The short scenes begin in the middle - the whole play in medias res - and the action rushes to its tragic conclusion in a...
    This is an extreme Shakespeare adaptation with only four characters - modern, brisk and filled with humor and irony. Every word is Shakespeare's, but remixed and rebuilt into a dialogue-based story of love, power and destiny. UNDONE is as much Sid and Nancy as Romeo and Juliet. The short scenes begin in the middle - the whole play in medias res - and the action rushes to its tragic conclusion in a world dominated by physicality and hearts bursting with passion.

    Opening with a vision of the play's end, the Prologue illuminates the fate of the characters before transporting us back to the very beginning of their tumultuous love affair. In UNDONE, any question of Cleopatra's designs on Antony are put to rest as we see them madly in love, their ambitions mingled with their passion for one another. Led through the tale by the duplicitous hand of Player, our troubadour, soothsayer and narrator, we watch events unfold from bed to battlefield and back to bed again. With Octavius Caesar in hot pursuit, the lovers tumble across the landscape of their destiny. The play ends with the kind of calm that settles in after a great storm as Player, once again, leads us gently out of Antony and Cleopatra: UNDONE. With Cleopatra's lifeless body lying peacefully at his feet, Player whispers to us: She looks like sleep, as she would catch another Antony.

    *Fully annotated to the Arden Shakespeare - more info upon request

    DIVERSITY: The characters of CLEOPATRA and PLAYER are associated with the African aspect of the story, while ANTONY and OCTAVIUS are associated with the Greeks or European aspect. This is a cross-cultural love story.
  • WHERE YOU STILL LIVED by Patricia Henritze
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: Sex, violence + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, tragedy
    Keyword: Sex, violence, modern
    WHERE YOU STILL LIVED takes place over one rainy twelve-hour period and has the pace of those long drunken nights where anything can, and does, happen. Frankie, a teenage stripper, lives with her much older boyfriend, Walter. As the play unfolds, we meet their neighbor, Ernie, a gentle giant heartbroken over the recent loss of his mother, as well as Frankie’s drug dealer and his young girlfriend. Frankie’s...
    WHERE YOU STILL LIVED takes place over one rainy twelve-hour period and has the pace of those long drunken nights where anything can, and does, happen. Frankie, a teenage stripper, lives with her much older boyfriend, Walter. As the play unfolds, we meet their neighbor, Ernie, a gentle giant heartbroken over the recent loss of his mother, as well as Frankie’s drug dealer and his young girlfriend. Frankie’s unhappy sister joins the charming crowd and this cast of outsiders spends the day drinking, before family tensions explode into the ultimate showdown.

    Will everyone survive? As infidelities play out, alliances shift: the quiche is in the oven, the cheap wine in the fridge, and the knife is on the counter…What could go wrong?
  • SNAPSHOTS by Patricia Henritze
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    3–12
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    Genre: movement/physical, musical + 1 more
    Genre: movement/physical, musical, political
    Funny, poignant, informative and inspiring, SNAPSHOTS tells the story of women’s lives through monologues, scenes and montages. Three lively women, ‘The Muses’, become narrators and symbols of hope as their story of survival and triumph is woven through all the monologues for continuity. The play can be performed with or without music and with as few as 3 actors or a larger ensemble. The show runs about an...
    Funny, poignant, informative and inspiring, SNAPSHOTS tells the story of women’s lives through monologues, scenes and montages. Three lively women, ‘The Muses’, become narrators and symbols of hope as their story of survival and triumph is woven through all the monologues for continuity. The play can be performed with or without music and with as few as 3 actors or a larger ensemble. The show runs about an hour, or longer with added singing elements.

    Commissioned by The Women's Resource Center to End Domestic Violence in Georgia, the piece was inspired by stories from Kim Frndak, the Center's Director of Community Outreach.