The critics are raving about “Escape from the Asylum!” May all playwrights receive the blessing of such an amazing cast, director, and production company. (photo of Chelsea Bearce and Danielle O’Hare by Robbie Sweeney) “This comedic play charms with quirky characters, clever dialog, feminist issues, and a plot twist leading to a surprise ending. The four actors, three of whom …
I’m back to rewriting (extensively) my AI play. From targeted phishing campaigns to new stalking methods: there are plenty of ways that artificial intelligence could be used to cause harm if it fell into the wrong hands. A team of researchers decided to rank the potential criminal applications that AI will have in the next 15 years, starting with those …
Here’s a new marketing video for “Escape from the Asylum:” enjoy!
“After my daughter’s birth, I couldn’t take care of the house right any more. My husband told me a maid would be better than me, that I was crazy. He took me to the hospital for ‘observation.’” ~Carmen, quoted in Women and Madness by P. Chester, PhD. “My husband told me to get shock therapy, that my multiple sclerosis symptoms …
… opens March 19! Get tickets. You can read about it here. In 2019, Central Works premiered the Victorian Ladies Detective Collective–three determined “lady” sleuths fight crime and prejudice in Victorian London. Now they’re back at it! A famous female explorer has been committed to Belfry, a notorious asylum for the mentally ill. Has her unscrupulous husband had her falsely …
by J. Estanislao Lopez The Garden of Eden. My ancestors’ graves. A watermelon field in Central Texas where my father once slept. Miles of rivers. The waiting room of a hospital in which a doctor, thin-looking in his coat, shared mixed results. A den of worms beneath the frozen grass. Jesus’s tomb. The stretches of highway on the long drive …
During the Victorian Age (1837-1901) most women carried a bottle of smelling salts in their handbag: they were inclined to swoon when their emotions were aroused. It was believed that, as postulated by Hipocrates, the woman’s wandering womb disliked the pungent odor, so would return to its proper place in the body, allowing the woman to recover her consciousness. In …
Here is a key concept behind my new play “Escape from the Asylum,” in a nutshell: “Even if a woman has a well-thought-out reason for being upset, a guy might say, ‘You’re just being emotional.’ It’s a way to discredit her instead of having to listen; the words ‘you’re acting crazy’ really mean ‘I don’t have to pay attention to …
The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry When despair for the world grows in meand I wake in the night at the least soundin fear of what my life and my children’s lives may beI go and lie down where the wood drakerests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.I come into the peace of …
In “Escape from the Asylum,” Victorian detectives Katie and Loveday practice self-defence skills using umbrellas. Women used hatpins to defend themselves, until the hatpins became so deadly the longer ones were banned. So it was brolleys to the rescue! Here’s a video demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYUxTHoOfok