.png)
.png)
.png){kind=small}
.png)
.png)
.png)
Playwriting was never something I thought I would find myself doing when it came to theater, but I have found myself enjoying it as I do it, giving me an outlet for my thoughts and experiences in life. So far my personal style of writing has lent itself to a mix of quick-witted comedy mixed with magical realism, and a casualization of heavy topics. My belief of laughter being the best medication and that the only way to get through something is through accepting it is in every piece that I write. All my plays also have personal parts of my life in them; there isn't one that isn't a representation of my feelings or thoughts of mine. As I said, it is all an outlet for my thoughts after all.
Isolationism gives a look into the late night of two roommates: Sammy who likes to stay at home and enjoy her own company and Sammie who likes to go out at night and enjoy the energy of nightlife. Of course, Sammie is always suggesting they both go out and Sammy is always insisting that other people like her roommate more. Only when Sammy hangs up Sammie in the closet like a favorite coat does their true relationship become clear.
This show was a reflection on my experiences as a Drag artist in the nightlife scene, specifically how it is a persona that is put on. When doing drag you feel invincible and powerful, the life of the party, the person everyone loves to love. But when you go back home, take off the makeup and dress? No one knows who you really are. It can feel hollow, cold, and lonely. It feels as if you literally take a dress out of the closet to become someone else and feel confident.
In the script there is a large focus on the dynamic between the two, the power play, the reality that they are the same person deep down; Insecurities and fear are what holds Sammy back from going out, worried that others wont like her for her...... maybe on day.
.png)
People go to a drag show to laugh, but when the audience doesn't laugh at Toni A. Ward's jokes about her physically abusive ex, she finds herself facing the reality that maybe her jokes are trying to cover up something deeper. Spend an intimate evening with your hostess with the mostest, Toni A. Ward, the broadest broad who never played Broadway, in this poignant one-person tour-de-force performance.
Punchline was the first piece I had ever written, my ever one-woman show, and my first ever time openly speaking about my experience with being a victim of Domestic Abuse. The show was inspired by a TED Talk about using humor as a coping mechanism for very serious trauma and how by joking about it, it allows survivors to normalize talking about it to help others and themselves. Something in my mind just clicked: A drag show where the queen is making the audience uncomfortable because her jokes hit a little too close to home. My idea was to lure the audience in and make them fall for the character right off the bat, have them laughing and enjoying the show, only slowly it turns to Toni facing the reality that she has survived abuse, and despite it all she has made it through.
Including real moments of my own story into this play was something that felt empowering and freeing- finally, I was able to share what I went through in a way that took it and made me the star, gave me control, and let me make an audience laugh.
After the dance is over go backstage with Lynn where she gets ready for her next number. Only there is someone else in her dressing room: Olivia, a 12-year-old girl who is here to do a report on Lynn. What type of questions could she have for a stripper? Who knows. But there is something oddly familiar between the two; similar childhoods, their moms are alike, even sharing a first and middle name. To an audience looking in it might even look like they are the same person, but that would just be silly.
It's Good For Business was a piece that came to me as I was falling asleep one night. It's a love letter to my mother, who heavily inspires the character of Lynn. I had this fading dream one night of my mother, back when she was a dancer, in her dressing room being interviewed by her younger self. For days I thought about what type of advice my mother would give her younger self, what she would see as important enough, and would she even realize who it was?
I wanted to take the quick wit of a beautiful and strong southern woman and pit her against an equally quick-witted and curious version of herself in a fluke of the universe, a momentary mistake of fate that allows for a special conversation. I also wanted to keep it light while still addressing the very real topics of the worth of sex workers. My mother has never been ashamed and has always said that knowing her beauty had worth gave her power in this world; A message that I wanted to share with an audience so that the can see the worth in themselves.
Have you ever been so frustrated with life that you can't help but pace, stand, lay, scream and just rant to no one, to yourself, to the universe about how confusing it is? Well in Padded Blue Walls Jay does just that. As they explore and rant about the struggles of being Non-Binary in a world that is filled with Blues and Pinks but they want to be every other color that exists in life.
This show is a One-Person show that I wrote for a queer playwright festival, focusing on writing about my experience of being Trans and Non-Binary while also creating the representation I want to see by writing a Non-Binary character.
It is an expression through the metaphor of color of the limits that are put on me and others just based around their assigned or perceived gender, starting at birth and continuing on through life.
Tonight is the first night Jules is the first time that they are going out of the house with makeup on, and it would all be perfect but their mom who is helping with the makeup takes matters into her own hands. Slowly the pair begin to argue as Jules talks about how hard it is for them to be Non-Binary and their mom talks about how hard it is to constantly be worried about the world not accepting them. Jules secret? It hurts more when it's your own mom who won't accept you.
This play was written for a short play festival with the topic of "Trust" given as a prompt. When it comes to Trust I can only think of those I trust enough to share my truth with. It also hurts so much more when that trust is broken by those closest; Anyone queer is used to random strangers not accepting them, they don't matter. What does is the people you love and hold close to you and that they accept you.
