David Valdes Greenwood

David Valdes Greenwood

David Valdes Greenwood is writer outside Boston. He has been a Company One PlayLab Fellow, Huntington Theatre Company Playwriting Fellow, Cimientos Fellow, and Brother Thomas Artist Fellow. His plays have been fully staged and presented in public readings across the US and UK, most recently with Actor's Theatre of Charlotte, Mixed Blood, Borderlands, Milagros, and Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company. He has...
David Valdes Greenwood is writer outside Boston. He has been a Company One PlayLab Fellow, Huntington Theatre Company Playwriting Fellow, Cimientos Fellow, and Brother Thomas Artist Fellow. His plays have been fully staged and presented in public readings across the US and UK, most recently with Actor's Theatre of Charlotte, Mixed Blood, Borderlands, Milagros, and Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company. He has worked with Company One, Argos Productions, Stage Left, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The Theater Offensive, and his plays have appeared at the Humana Festival, New York International Fringe Festival, Portland Stage Little Festival of the Unexpected, and New York Theatre Workshop Thursday Studio. His plays have published and anthologized by Samuel French. In 2018, The Mermaid Hour received four productions as a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere and a Latinx Theatre Project staging at University of California Riverside. He is currently collaborating with Company One on Our American Story: Boston (un)Documented.

Plays

  • Up the Ladder, Down the Slide by David Valdes Greenwood
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    8–10
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: Alzheimer's Disease, multi-generational + 5 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: Alzheimer's Disease, multi-generational, people of color, asian, African American, Latinx, LGBTQ
    Old friends Laurel, Karen, and Oscar meet for cocktails each week as a safe harbor when they find themselves all at once in the crux of the "sandwich generation," parenting their own declining parents. Laurel's live-in dad has had Alzheimer's for years, while Karen's mom is newly diagnosed with dementia, and Oscar's mom is in hospice. Their bonds are tested by the unpredictable...
    Old friends Laurel, Karen, and Oscar meet for cocktails each week as a safe harbor when they find themselves all at once in the crux of the "sandwich generation," parenting their own declining parents. Laurel's live-in dad has had Alzheimer's for years, while Karen's mom is newly diagnosed with dementia, and Oscar's mom is in hospice. Their bonds are tested by the unpredictable roller coaster of grief, hope, anger, humor, shame, and an endless quest for "one last good day." The play mixes raw portraits of their lives with magical elements and features a POC and LGBT cast.
  • The Mermaid Hour by David Valdes Greenwood
    Recommendations: 5
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: LGBTQ, multi-cultural + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: LGBTQ, multi-cultural, gay and trans theatre, internet, social media, parenting
    For Pilar and Bird, parenting a trans tween is all about guessing how to get it right when they’re not even sure what that means—and it doesn’t help that they’re not on the same page. Vi just wishes they would keep up: she’s busy navigating her first crush on super-cool Jacob, obsessing over her favorite YouTube vlogger, and just about ready to make herself an internet sensation. Fast-paced, funny, and...
    For Pilar and Bird, parenting a trans tween is all about guessing how to get it right when they’re not even sure what that means—and it doesn’t help that they’re not on the same page. Vi just wishes they would keep up: she’s busy navigating her first crush on super-cool Jacob, obsessing over her favorite YouTube vlogger, and just about ready to make herself an internet sensation. Fast-paced, funny, and heartfelt, The Mermaid Hour finds all three confronting the gaps between who they are and who they wish to be.

    Mermaid Hour: ReMixed, a musical adaptation by Eric Mayson and David Valdes Greenwood, is available upon request.
  • Last Catastrophist by David Valdes Greenwood
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: adventure, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: climate science, spy + 1 more
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy, mystery/thriller, political
    Keyword: climate science, spy, suspense
    Marina, one of the last two climatologists on earth, has hidden herself on the coast of Iceland to escape increasing threats from Eternal Sunshine, a dark ops force dedicated to harassing climate scientists into silence. But when Lucia, her one remaining peer, shows up unannounced, a cat-and-mouse game ensues. Are they allies? Enemies? Who works for who? A suspenseful two-woman show, Last Catastrophist draws on...
    Marina, one of the last two climatologists on earth, has hidden herself on the coast of Iceland to escape increasing threats from Eternal Sunshine, a dark ops force dedicated to harassing climate scientists into silence. But when Lucia, her one remaining peer, shows up unannounced, a cat-and-mouse game ensues. Are they allies? Enemies? Who works for who? A suspenseful two-woman show, Last Catastrophist draws on climate science and real life events to imagine life on the brink of extinction.

    Semi-Finalist, ATHE Excellence in Playwriting Award 2018
  • Vow Keepers by David Valdes Greenwood
    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, science fiction
    When a young gay couple wake up on their wedding morning, a couple in their sixties appear in their hotel room, having time-traveled to talk the younger pair out of it, in a comedy about marriage in our time. Think of it as Dr. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

    It is written for a cast of 4 men (which is how the staged readings have been presented) but it would be fun for an adventurous theatre to...
    When a young gay couple wake up on their wedding morning, a couple in their sixties appear in their hotel room, having time-traveled to talk the younger pair out of it, in a comedy about marriage in our time. Think of it as Dr. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

    It is written for a cast of 4 men (which is how the staged readings have been presented) but it would be fun for an adventurous theatre to cast 6 or 8 for rotating line-ups (alternating between all-male, all-female, or male-female casts).
  • Raggedy And by David Valdes Greenwood
    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: LGBTQ, trans inclusive + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, political
    Keyword: LGBTQ, trans inclusive, American politics
    When poet Ondi Rivers is asked to read at inauguration, she balks because they want her as a transwoman, not just as a poet or even as a lesbian, which is how she identifies. Her wife thinks it’s too dangerous, but her son thinks she owes it to the trans community. His boyfriend, who works for the President-elect, thinks Ondi owes more to history than to herself, but she’s stubborn: if she doesn’t get to claim...
    When poet Ondi Rivers is asked to read at inauguration, she balks because they want her as a transwoman, not just as a poet or even as a lesbian, which is how she identifies. Her wife thinks it’s too dangerous, but her son thinks she owes it to the trans community. His boyfriend, who works for the President-elect, thinks Ondi owes more to history than to herself, but she’s stubborn: if she doesn’t get to claim her own identity, how is that progress? It’s a quick-moving, ultramodern comedy of manners across a generational divide.
  • Full Code by David Valdes Greenwood
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    6–8
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama
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    Keyword: injury, Fantasy + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: injury, Fantasy, medical, marriage
    When a terrifying accident sends Sander into a coma, his estranged wife and his "work wife" both show up at his bedside thinking they know what is best for his end of life--or life-extending--care. At the same time, we witness the internal experience of his coma, where the real and imagined all seem happily intertwined, even as ominous signs suggest that time is running out. Full Code asks how we know...
    When a terrifying accident sends Sander into a coma, his estranged wife and his "work wife" both show up at his bedside thinking they know what is best for his end of life--or life-extending--care. At the same time, we witness the internal experience of his coma, where the real and imagined all seem happily intertwined, even as ominous signs suggest that time is running out. Full Code asks how we know when it's time to hold on tight or just let go.
  • Bully Dance by David Valdes Greenwood
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    6–10
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    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: violence, guns + 2 more
    Genre: docudrama/historic, drama, experimental
    Keyword: violence, guns, ritual, grief
    In the aftermath of a shooting spree that targeted sex offenders, the survivors, the shooter, and his mother are drawn together in memory and reality, their competing--and opposing--stories painting a portrait of loss and rebirth. The evening-length play is ritual based, structured as part ceremony, part Rashomon-like puzzle, as it asks how we go on after a sudden confrontation with horror.
  • Mambo Beans by David Valdes Greenwood
    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: Latino, multiethnic + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: Latino, multiethnic, gay, family
    When mixed race Cuban-American brothers raised in the north head south bearing their mother's ashes to their estranged Papi in Little Havana, the car is loaded with a surprise guest, a ghost, and 30 years of history that isn't what they imagined. As the miles pass and the story unfolds, they have to ask who they are and what family means when the answer changes. 2018 San Diego REP Latinx New Play Festival Finalist.
  • Wandaleria by David Valdes Greenwood
    Cast: 
    5–7
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    Genre: comedy, fantasy
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    Keyword: fantasy elements
    Genre: comedy, fantasy
    Keyword: fantasy elements
    In a working-class female-focused riff on the Secret Life of Walter Mitty, housebound Wanda's active fantasy life catches up with her when her prison pen pal shows up on her doorstep with tall tales of his own, much to the dismay of Wanda's prickly roommate Betsy and restless niece Ivy. It's a comedy about the fine art of dreaming--and living.
  • Brave Navigator by David Valdes Greenwood
    Cast: 
    6–10
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    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller
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    Keyword: American history, true crime
    Genre: drama, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: American history, true crime
    Inspired by the original "Crime of the Century”: the Lindbergh baby kidnapping case of 1932.

    On the night she can never sleep, the anniversary of the kidnapper's execution, the widow of America's early aviator hero is compelled to reveal the true story of the kidnapping to her granddaughter. Too ashamed of the truth to reveal it to anyone, the title character divulges that the...
    Inspired by the original "Crime of the Century”: the Lindbergh baby kidnapping case of 1932.

    On the night she can never sleep, the anniversary of the kidnapper's execution, the widow of America's early aviator hero is compelled to reveal the true story of the kidnapping to her granddaughter. Too ashamed of the truth to reveal it to anyone, the title character divulges that the man who was put to death for the crime ... was an innocent man. Now in her eighties and swarmed by memories and guilt, the Brave Navigator flashes back to the trial and her marriage to the famous world traveler, saying, "People do surprising things for love."

    "Brave Navigator proves absorbing." - Post Bulletin
  • Wonderland by David Valdes Greenwood
    Cast: 
    6–10
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    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: abuse of power, coming out + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: abuse of power, coming out, Hollywood, sex scandal
    A closeted celebrity is up for an Oscar as a reporter circles closer to stories that reveal his double life. Interlocking and opposing monologues--a hyper teen fan, a jaded actress, a disgruntled crew member, a razor sharp agent, and more--reveal what his life in the closet means to others, even as the reporter discovers an ever bigger secret.