Natalie Ann Valentine

Natalie Ann Valentine

Natalie Ann Valentine is a playwright, actor, burlesque performer, fiber artist, poet, and theatre-maker.

Natalie has worked as a playwright in capacities large and small with Caps Lock Theatre, the Orchard Project's Liveness Lab (NYC), Inkubator New Works Laboratory, Fractal Theatre Collective, Longacre Lea, Pinky Swear Productions, Keegan Theater, Theater Alliance, Convergence Theatre,...
Natalie Ann Valentine is a playwright, actor, burlesque performer, fiber artist, poet, and theatre-maker.

Natalie has worked as a playwright in capacities large and small with Caps Lock Theatre, the Orchard Project's Liveness Lab (NYC), Inkubator New Works Laboratory, Fractal Theatre Collective, Longacre Lea, Pinky Swear Productions, Keegan Theater, Theater Alliance, Convergence Theatre, One Minute Play Festival, Rorschach Theatre, Pointless Theater Company, Young Playwrights' Theater, NuSass, Spitball Theatre, The University of Maryland, the Kennedy Center's Page2Stage Festival and Playwright Intensive (DC), Interrobang, Mobtown Players (Baltimore), Actor's Theatre of Charlotte (NC), high schools, universities, summer camps, and more. Natalie is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, and returns each year to participate in their playwriting mentorship program.

If you are looking for hopeful queer magic with a touch of melancholy, you are in the right place.

Natalie is also a member of DC-based burlesque troupe the Manic Pixie Nightmares as manic pixie show ghoul Sylvia Trash.

She has three cats and writes about them often. Follow her on Instagram @half.blind.cat or on Twitter @NAVplaywright.

Plays

  • Greetings from the Red Planet by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    4–6
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    ·
    Keyword: trans, space + 8 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: trans, space, Mars, queer, global warming, unreliable narrator, time, grief, Non-Binary, coping with trauma
    Arin wins the lottery to be the first person on a one-way trip to live on Mars when our planet is on fire in the not-as-distant-as-we'd-like future. Unfortunately for Arin, no matter how far we run, we can't escape our past - or ourselves. In space, no one can hear you scream.
  • Joe_Gamezz and the Forest of Frost by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Cast: 
    7–10
    ·
    Genre: adventure, comedy + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: streaming, games + 6 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, fantasy, science fiction, young audiences, zoom
    Keyword: streaming, games, tya, technology, video games, becoming a hero, Fantasy, magical realism
    Joe, a young gamer with a tiny-to-small following for the games he streams, has been re-playing his favorite game – The Forest of Frost: Into the Woods – for years. So it’s a little odd when, during his annual re-play, he begins to notice things he’s never seen or heard before. Things like the characters speaking to him by name. Before long, Joe, his obnoxious little brother, and two of the game’s creators get...
    Joe, a young gamer with a tiny-to-small following for the games he streams, has been re-playing his favorite game – The Forest of Frost: Into the Woods – for years. So it’s a little odd when, during his annual re-play, he begins to notice things he’s never seen or heard before. Things like the characters speaking to him by name. Before long, Joe, his obnoxious little brother, and two of the game’s creators get swept into the digital world of Forest of Frost, where they have to rely on their wits, courage, and gamer knowledge to beat the final boss. Along the way, they discover power they didn’t know they had – and that the bad guy is not always who you think it is.
  • What To Do When You're Suicidal But You Can't Fight Fascists When You're Dead by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    1–3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 5 more
    ·
    Keyword: poetry, mental illness + 6 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, fable/folktale, movement/physical, political, radio drama
    Keyword: poetry, mental illness, suicide, radio, anarchy, Rebellion, feminism, fuck the patriarchy
    Slam poetry play on the super fun battle of mental illness and living in a present day dystopia.
  • Pillowtalk & Other Parts of Speech by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    2–8
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: ensemble, gender non-conforming + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, experimental, immersive, movement/physical
    Keyword: ensemble, gender non-conforming, Non-Binary, queer, LGBTQ, magical realism, Sex
    The intertwining of lives as they talk place in bed: a dorm room, a hotel, a master bedroom, a blanket under the stars.
  • The Funeral of Casey B. Collins by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    ·
    Keyword: suicide, death + 6 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: suicide, death, queer, sorrow, funeral, grief, LGBTQ, bisexuality
    Adora and Lise are holding down the fort in a shitty motel room in a middle of nowhere hometown. Adora is tasked with the questionable duty of ghost-writing her ex-boyfriend's eulogy by her old friend Miranda. The play ends with a Viking funeral.
  • Safe as Houses by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: family, magical realism + 5 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, mystery/thriller, science fiction
    Keyword: family, magical realism, feminism, sexuality, LGBTQ, Lesbian, teenagers
    A storm is more than the harbinger of bad weather for a little coastal family.
  • The Wednesday Train by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: afterlife, heaven + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, zoom
    Keyword: afterlife, heaven, hell, death, accepting death
    The train to the hereafter only travels on Wednesdays. You'll get used to it.
  • Gentle Sin by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama, zoom
    ·
    Keyword: queer, Romeo and Juliet + 8 more
    Genre: drama, zoom
    Keyword: queer, Romeo and Juliet, LGBTQ, coronavirus, Quarantine, zoom, Covid-19, 2020, queer femmes, femme
    Queer co-workers quarantined in adjacent hotel rooms on a business trip. There's something just a little Shakespearian about it.
  • Magic for Beginners by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: high school, magic + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, romantic comedy, young audiences
    Keyword: high school, magic, witch, bats, sweet, queer, love, LGBTQ
    You know how sometimes you accidentally summon the soul of a middle aged bat and it replaces that of your 16 year old (human) best friend? Yeah, Harper and Darling don't, either.
  • Trash by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: mental illness, Depression + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, movement/physical
    Keyword: mental illness, Depression, love, LGBTQ
    A physical exploration of mental illness.
  • Turn Off All Lights by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    5–15
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: high school, gun violence + 5 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, melodrama, movement/physical, young audiences
    Keyword: high school, gun violence, fear, Hope, school shooting, LGBTQ, high school shooting
    A handful of high schoolers get stuck in a classroom during a lockdown with no teacher. What do they do/ Who is in charge? And more -- what is normal? What isn't? Co-written with Anna Lathrop.
  • Yule Be Merry, Or Else by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, holiday
    ·
    Keyword: christmas, Santa Claus + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, holiday
    Keyword: christmas, Santa Claus, queer, love, LGBTQ
    It's the holiday party at Misery Loves Co. Which goes just about as well as you might expect.
  • Left / RIght by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, radio drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: abuse, queer + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy, radio drama, tragedy
    Keyword: abuse, queer, runaway
    Why go? Well, why stay? A series of monologues exploring the reasons we leave.
  • Sunday at St. Jude's by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    ·
    Keyword: religion, atheism + 7 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: religion, atheism, christianity, death, queer, sexuality, Sex, adultery, murder
    The rain brings an eccentric little crowd to shelter in a church confessional.
  • Chemistry 101 by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, political
    ·
    Keyword: queer, LGBTQ + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, political
    Keyword: queer, LGBTQ, chosen family, teenagers, happy endings for queers
    A short, sweet play about coming out in high school.
  • A Tale of Two Polar Bears by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: climate change, environment + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, fable/folktale, political, science fiction
    Keyword: climate change, environment, animals, activism, Politics
    The world is definitely going to end, but not til an entrepreneurial penguin deals with these two idiot polar bears.
  • Three by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, holiday + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: death, family + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, holiday, tragedy
    Keyword: death, family, Thanksgiving, magical realism
    It is the first family Thanksgiving since the daughter of the family died in a car accident. What to do when there are three when there have always been four?
  • Unbound by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 7 more
    ·
    Keyword: spooky, LGBTQ + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, fable/folktale, holiday, immersive, melodrama, movement/physical, mystery/thriller, tragedy
    Keyword: spooky, LGBTQ, library, site-specific, halloween, death
    What happens after heartbreak? Two librarians and someone from the past ask too many questions and it doesn't end well. A spooky play.
  • Jellyfish Summer by Natalie Ann Valentine
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: happy endings for queer kids, twins
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, young audiences
    Keyword: happy endings for queer kids, twins
    Charley is visiting Blue on her fall break from college. A lot of sorrow comes up while drinking redneck margaritas and getting stick and poke tattoos.