Shualee Cook

Shualee Cook

Shualee Cook writes plays and musicals as a way of asking questions and figuring out possible answers within a community. She is the recipient of a 2023 Nancy Dean Lesbian Playwriting Award, the 2021 Chesly/Bumbalo Award, The 2020 RAC Artist Fellowship, and the 2019 Parity Commission. She has been a resident playwright in the Confluence Regional Writers Project, Stage Left Theatre, and Tesseract Theatre. She...
Shualee Cook writes plays and musicals as a way of asking questions and figuring out possible answers within a community. She is the recipient of a 2023 Nancy Dean Lesbian Playwriting Award, the 2021 Chesly/Bumbalo Award, The 2020 RAC Artist Fellowship, and the 2019 Parity Commission. She has been a resident playwright in the Confluence Regional Writers Project, Stage Left Theatre, and Tesseract Theatre. She has also been a finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Her work has been developed by About Face Theatre, Breaking the Binary Festival, The New Coordinates, Mustard Seed Theatre, Quantum Dragon Theatre, The Road Theatre, The Idle Muse Athena Festival, Campfire Theatre Festival, National Queer Theatre, and the St.Louis Shakespeare Festival, among others. Plays receiving public readings or productions include Tempest in a Teapot, And Certain Women, Cercle Hermaphroditos, Choleramusik, Earworm, and An Invitation Out.

Plays

  • Your Romeo by Shualee Cook
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: biography, drama + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: Charlotte Cushman, Matilda Hays + 4 more
    Genre: biography, drama, period, tragedy
    Keyword: Charlotte Cushman, Matilda Hays, Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, lesbian love, queer history
    In 1847, superstar actress Charlotte Cushman and proto-feminist writer Matilda "Max" Hays are a sensation playing the title roles of Romeo and Juliet while secretly carrying on their own romance offstage. In 1857, their relationship has met an explosive end. And when Max takes the unheard-of step of suing Charlotte for alimony, it leads to one final confrontation where they must come to terms with who...
    In 1847, superstar actress Charlotte Cushman and proto-feminist writer Matilda "Max" Hays are a sensation playing the title roles of Romeo and Juliet while secretly carrying on their own romance offstage. In 1857, their relationship has met an explosive end. And when Max takes the unheard-of step of suing Charlotte for alimony, it leads to one final confrontation where they must come to terms with who they have really been to each other in the past, and what moving on to a better future might cost them.
  • And Certain Women by Shualee Cook
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama
    ·
    Keyword: religion, women + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: religion, women, LGBTQ, Bible, feminist revision
    Yohanna. Shoshanna. Blink, and you’ll miss their names in Luke's Gospel. But through all Yeshua’s teachings and miracles, YoYoh and Shosh are there with their more famous compatriot Mags – running crowd control, scouting for good sermon locations, cleaning up after a particularly messy Passover dinner, and crossing paths with a pair of Law- transgressing outcasts who follow the same teachings in a very...
    Yohanna. Shoshanna. Blink, and you’ll miss their names in Luke's Gospel. But through all Yeshua’s teachings and miracles, YoYoh and Shosh are there with their more famous compatriot Mags – running crowd control, scouting for good sermon locations, cleaning up after a particularly messy Passover dinner, and crossing paths with a pair of Law- transgressing outcasts who follow the same teachings in a very different direction. Through it all, they can’t help wondering where the meteoric rise of this prophet they’ve grown to love is going, and what say, if any, they get to have in where it ends up.
  • Cercle Hermaphroditos by Shualee Cook
    Recommendations: 10
    ·
    Cast: 
    8
    ·
    Genre: comedy, docudrama/historic + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: Transgender, Victorian drawing room comedy + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, docudrama/historic, period
    Keyword: Transgender, Victorian drawing room comedy, queer history, LGBTQ
    In 1895 New York, trans man Ambrose Carlton finds a rare opportunity to beat the restrictively gendered system around him when he meets Laureline Reeves, founder of an underground social club for trans femmes known as the Cercle Hermaphroditos. Ambrose hopes to find a lady at the club he can legally marry, then play the roles expected of them in public while pursuing the life they want in private. But finding...
    In 1895 New York, trans man Ambrose Carlton finds a rare opportunity to beat the restrictively gendered system around him when he meets Laureline Reeves, founder of an underground social club for trans femmes known as the Cercle Hermaphroditos. Ambrose hopes to find a lady at the club he can legally marry, then play the roles expected of them in public while pursuing the life they want in private. But finding the proper match becomes more difficult than he expected, especially after the club is raided by police and the fragile safe place Laureline has created threatens to break apart for good. Based on true historical events.
  • Earworm by Shualee Cook
    Recommendations: 9
    ·
    Cast: 
    6–7
    ·
    Genre: drama
    ·
    Keyword: music, memory + 2 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: music, memory, punk rock, magical realism
    Candles Out is a decade-old punk rock break up song seeking closure with five people whose lives they're entwined with in very different ways – Sasha and Jory, the two band members that wrote them; Trevor, the guy they wrote the song about; Elise, Trevor’s sister; and Kess, Trevor’s new music journalist girlfriend … who also happens to be the song’s biggest fan.
  • Osgood Rex: A Geek Tragedy by Shualee Cook
    Cast: 
    12–14
    ·
    Genre: comedy, experimental + 5 more
    ·
    Keyword: musical, Greek tragedy
    Genre: comedy, experimental, fantasy, musical, period, tragedy, verse
    Keyword: musical, Greek tragedy
    In 1927 Eckhart Unger, creator of the popular "Osgood The Scrappy Squirrel" cartoons, finds he must leave behind his prize creation and start from scratch when an unscrupulous producer steals the rights to the character out from under him. Meanwhile, in the cartoon world, Osgood discovers that his Creator has abandoned him into the hands of lesser gods, and struggles to figure out what he did to...
    In 1927 Eckhart Unger, creator of the popular "Osgood The Scrappy Squirrel" cartoons, finds he must leave behind his prize creation and start from scratch when an unscrupulous producer steals the rights to the character out from under him. Meanwhile, in the cartoon world, Osgood discovers that his Creator has abandoned him into the hands of lesser gods, and struggles to figure out what he did to deserve such a fate, and how he might reverse it. A musical Greek Tragedy from a cartoon's eye view, Inspired by real events from the early days of American animation
  • Choleramusik by Shualee Cook
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    9
    ·
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: pandemic, complex female lead + 7 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama, period
    Keyword: pandemic, complex female lead, 19th century women, female genius, Covid-19, operatic elements, choir and orchestra, classical musicians, full length
    On December 10th, 1831, Fanny Mendelssohn (Felix's equally brilliant, overlooked older sister) conducts the only performance of her most ambitious work, a cantata marking the end of the cholera pandemic that has ravaged her home city of Berlin for months. The private concert in her parents' garden house attracts friends, family, and rivals - both living and dead. As the music plays, it carries the...
    On December 10th, 1831, Fanny Mendelssohn (Felix's equally brilliant, overlooked older sister) conducts the only performance of her most ambitious work, a cantata marking the end of the cholera pandemic that has ravaged her home city of Berlin for months. The private concert in her parents' garden house attracts friends, family, and rivals - both living and dead. As the music plays, it carries the minds of its audience and performers to strange places both past and present, as they grapple with what sort of world they want to build in the wake of catastrophe.
  • Tempest in a Teapot by Shualee Cook
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: comedy, docudrama/historic + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: Alice in Wonderland, Alice Liddell + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, docudrama/historic, fantasy, period
    Keyword: Alice in Wonderland, Alice Liddell, Lewis Carroll, Shakespeare, The Tempest
    At age 10, Alice Liddell inspired Lewis Carroll to write Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. But at age 21, she finds herself trapped between the fantasy world created for her, and the restrictive Victorian world of Oxford, England – each with a very specific role she is expected to play. Then a chance meeting with Carroll after years of silence leads her down the rabbit hole again to the Mad Tea Party, where a...
    At age 10, Alice Liddell inspired Lewis Carroll to write Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. But at age 21, she finds herself trapped between the fantasy world created for her, and the restrictive Victorian world of Oxford, England – each with a very specific role she is expected to play. Then a chance meeting with Carroll after years of silence leads her down the rabbit hole again to the Mad Tea Party, where a seemingly casual suggestion by Carroll that she read Shakespeare’s The Tempest turns into a philosophical treasure hunt. With help from the Mad Hatter, March Hare, Dormouse and Cheshire Cat, Alice proceeds to act out the classic play in hope that it holds the key to her crisis of identity, and offers a way of dealing with her magical but complicated past.


  • An Invitation Out by Shualee Cook
    Cast: 
    9
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: drawing room comedy, internet + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, science fiction
    Keyword: drawing room comedy, internet, cyberpunk, virtual reality
    Like most successful young men in the somewhat distant future, Wridget has lived his entire life completely online, designing high-end custom avatars and throwing lavish parties in a Neo-Victorian world of his own devising. But when a mysterious Outdweller logs on to one of his virtual soirees, Wridget finds himself pulled between two realities, each with their own unique perils and promises.
  • The Music Of the Goddess by Shualee Cook
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: biography, fantasy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: historical women, mythology + 4 more
    Genre: biography, fantasy, period, verse
    Keyword: historical women, mythology, new gods, music history, theremin, women musicians
    A mythic account of gods, demi-gods and the invention of the theremin, inspired by the life and music of Clara Rockmore.