Rita Kniess Barkey

Rita Kniess Barkey

The author of more than two dozen plays, Rita feels honored that her work has been produced around the country. Popping, a Montana Premiere Project selection, will take the stage in 2023. Her one-act, Feather and Bone, presented at the Valdez Theater Conference in 2018, went on to be a prize winner at Riot Act’s New Play festival in Jackson Hole. Her work has been developed at Seven Devils, Chicago Dramatists,...
The author of more than two dozen plays, Rita feels honored that her work has been produced around the country. Popping, a Montana Premiere Project selection, will take the stage in 2023. Her one-act, Feather and Bone, presented at the Valdez Theater Conference in 2018, went on to be a prize winner at Riot Act’s New Play festival in Jackson Hole. Her work has been developed at Seven Devils, Chicago Dramatists, the Montana Rep Play Slams and the Missoula Colony. Her artist residencies include the Djerassi Resident Artists Program and the Mary Anderson Center. She has been awarded fellowships from the Indiana Arts Commission and the Midwest Writers and won a Basile Emerging Playwright award. She’s a member of the Dramatists Guild, Honor Roll and has been an active board member for the International Centre for Women Playwrights. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Ohio State.

Plays

  • FOR THEIR SPORT by Rita Kniess Barkey
    Cast: 
    8
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    Genre: drama, tragedy
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    Keyword: A Family drama, wildlife protection + 3 more
    Genre: drama, tragedy
    Keyword: A Family drama, wildlife protection, alcoholism, King Lear, land use issues
    When Leigh, the matriarch of a resort ranch, steps down, one son wants no part of his inheritance, and the other two have far different plans for their land. When Leigh's assistant, Jess, discovers these plans include a lion and a zebra, a dangerous game begins.
  • The Trigger Gene by Rita Kniess Barkey
    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: gun culture, family + 1 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: gun culture, family, suicide
    Home. For Sarah, it’s a place where the ties that bind are guns. She thought she’d escaped this world of tragedy and violence, but when the demands of a crumbling homestead force her return, she finds a new crisis brewing: her ailing father Roj plans to kill himself. When Sarah discovers that Roj’s weapon of choice is her husband’s Winchester, the past she thought she’d be burying is resurrected, and she...
    Home. For Sarah, it’s a place where the ties that bind are guns. She thought she’d escaped this world of tragedy and violence, but when the demands of a crumbling homestead force her return, she finds a new crisis brewing: her ailing father Roj plans to kill himself. When Sarah discovers that Roj’s weapon of choice is her husband’s Winchester, the past she thought she’d be burying is resurrected, and she finds herself face-to-face with the loss she’d been so determined to survive.
  • If Scars Could Talk by Rita Kniess Barkey
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    1
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: tumor, surgery + 1 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: tumor, surgery, Scars
    A monologue. One scar supports another after surgery.

Recommended by Rita Kniess Barkey

  • FRONTIER (full length) by Robin Rice
    19 Jan. 2022
    “ The beauty of Rice's cautionary "tale" is in the telling: both the animal kingdom and mankind share the stage to speak to civilization's excesses that are destroying the natural world. It's a highly imaginative experience, filled with wit, beauty and terror, as the characters seek, through love, a way to survive. ”