Student Blog: 28 Plays in 28 Days by Queer Playwrights

Last December, I made a 31 plays by BIPOC playwrights in 31 days reading list.

Now, I give you a 28 plays by queer playwrights in 28 days reading list.

We have some of my all time favorites like Jen Silverman and Jan Rosenberg. I reread their plays as if the meaning of life is hidden in the text.

I could only choose so many Rachel Lynett and Gina Femia plays... I could make a whole calendar of just their plays... better yet an advent calendar, but it counts down to pride month instead of the holidays!

Contact me on social media (@macymcowart) or through my website www.macymaecowart.com/contact. Let me know that you would like to be added to the February play reading list and I will get you set up!

Hope you can join!

1. Collective Rage by Jen Silverman: Five different women named Betty collide at the intersection of anger, sex, and the "Thea-Tah."

2. Allond(R)a by Gina Femia: A coming of age story about friendship and heartache, ALLOND(R)A asks how much is too much to fight for?

3. The Place That Made You by Darcy Parker Bruce: A modern day re-imagining of Jonah and the Whale, a tale of love, loss, and glory in small town America. The second Piedmont play.

4. Frozen Fluid by Fly Jamerson: An Antarctic Gender Non-Conforming Creation Myth

5. Epiphany by Amy Berryman: This queer, time bending romantic comedy explores questions of identity, sexuality, and progress.

6. Teach by Donna Hoke: Five actors, three characters, one story. While most plays question the audience, TEACH exposes the biases that make audiences question themselves.

7. Ballast by Georgette Kelly: What does it mean to love someone in a moment of great transition? Ballast tells the story of two relationships between transgender and cisgender partners, exploring not only the way gender influences our relationships, but also how gender seeps into our spirituality, our dreams, and even our ability to take flight.

8. As I Was, Not as I Am by Alice Hakvaag: As I Was, Not As I Am is mainly about queer roommates, headaches, clubbing, upstairs neighbors, arson, and washing machines; but it's also about love: the kind that would make you do anything for each other.

9. All the Sex I Want by Ben M Jones: All The Sex I Want is an ensemble exploration of what the word love can mean to a variety of people, focusing on the myriad relationships we all have with sex.

10. An Abstinent Orgy; or Two Pigeons Fighting Over a Hotdog by Bailey Jordan Garcia and Taylor Monet Welch: Set in an almost completely contactless world, a few years in the future, five high-school seniors take on one of their toughest tasks -- completing a powerpoint presentation on abstinence.

11. Transgressions by A.A. Brenner: After being diagnosed with breast cancer and abandoned by their (now ex-)fiancée, nonbinary poet Jess struggles to fend for themselves amongst the wreckage of their formerly-idyllic home. Jess must wrestle for control over their illness, their identity, and their life before it's too late.

12. The Lesbian Play by Riley McCarthy: With tensions already bubbling and cracking under the surface and their inner relationships with one another on the brink of extinction, the Women Loving Women Club is thrust into political turmoil as they wage war on each other over their political identities, the definition of lesbianism, and who can even consider themselves "LGBTQ."

13. The Beasts of Warren by Azure D Osborne Lee: Committed to keeping what's left of their family together, cousins Holl, Dawn, and Kitt choose to stay put with their ailing grandmother. Will they find a way to hide from the menacing forces closing in on their home? Or will they disappear into the night like so many before them?

14. GUSHER! By Jan Rosenberg: Women start bleeding and they don't stop bleeding and they keep on bleeding and they just keep bleeding.

15. Opus: The Totally Real, Not Made Up Story of a Boy and His Skeleton by River Timms: When a mysterious villain called The Fox sends his player character to Hell, Dakota meets a skeleton named Ronald Opus. As Dakota becomes more attached to Opus and his own Animal Town experience, the barriers between the real world and the world of Animal Town begin to fade, and the story becomes much too real for Dakota's own good.

16. Slack Water by Nelle Tankus: Semmie, an elder trans woman, is pregnant, and she wasn't yesterday. Demanding a natural birth or nothing, her two children are forced to care for her for fear of her life.

17. Brunch by Maya Macdonald: In this biting examination of female tropes and the search for "Mr. Right," the love of your life might terrify you, might even kill you, but hey -at least he's got great dental.

18. An Oddity Obsessive (Or) The Oddities of Onyx's Obsessions by Reinette LeJeune: Onyx seems to be running from something - or someone - namely Dani, her best friend from high school and a major source of trauma; but also a major source of Onyx's need to survive past the voices she hears when she attempts to read the pages of her past.

19. Choosing You by Rachel Lynett: As Aurora moves through her day, she considers the two very different lives she might have lived

20. Wink by Jen Silverman: A dark comedy about the thin, thin line between savagery and civilization.

21. For Leonora, or, Companions by Hayley St. James: A gentle, heartfelt and imaginative play with puppetry elements in two shortish acts about life and love on the autism and LBGTQ+ spectrum.

22. You Got That Same Kind of Lonely (A Fictionally Non-Accurate Historical KiKi) by Andrew Rincon: You got that Same Kind of Lonely is a fictionally historial kiki that challenges us to examine the beautiful and the ugly of Queer community.

23. And Certain Women by Shualee Cook: In the background of all his teachings and miracles, YoYoh and Shosh are there with their more famous compatriot Mags - running crowd control, scouting for good sermon locations, picking up after a particularly messy Passover dinner, and all the while 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.

24. Can I Hold You? A New Play on Asexuality by Kari Barclay: What happens when the asexual Alma meets Phoebe, the sexual, saxophone-playing woman of her dreams?

25. Annie and the Fat Man by Gina Femia: Annie is anorexic and Tiny is obese. They're best friends, Brooklynites through and through. When they each embark on new romantic relationships, will their relationship break or strengthen?

26. Emily Driver's Great Race Through Time and Space by A.A. Brenner: Emily Drivers Great Race Through Time and Space follows a young woman's journey as she learns the power of speaking up, and how one voice can inspire others to fight the forces of ableism and create a more equitable world.

27. Sensitive Guys by MJ Kaufman: Could it be that even sensitive guys, guys working on their privilege sometimes turn violent or aggressive? In this play women and gender non-conforming people play men trying to understand the intricacies of masculinity and violence

28. How to Destroy an American Girl Doll by Jan Rosenberg: Gen teaches Vee how to do it when they're 12. And through drunken sleepovers, graduation parties, and lonely college dorm rooms, they're both still doing it. A dark comedy about addiction, asexuality, and monsters.