Carolyn Gage
E-mail: carolyn@carolyngage.com
Website: www.carolyngage.com
Carolyn Gage is author of “Take Stage! How to Direct and Produce a Lesbian Play,”
a complete manual, and “Scenes and Monologues for Lesbian Actors.”
- The Second Coming of Joan of Arc
Award-winning one-woman show. A lesbian Joan returns with an impassioned message for
contemporary audiences. An electrifying evening of theatre. Show has toured internationally,
been featured on NPR, and received first-class production in Brazil, where it grossed top box
office in Rio and Sao Paolo. - La Seconde Venue de Jeanne d’Arc
A brand-new, contemporary French translation by Céline Pomes of The Second Coming of Joan
of Arc. - Giovanna d’Arco – la rivolta
New Italian translation by Edy Quaggio of The Second Coming of Joan of Arc. - The Last Reading of Charlotte Cushman
Captivating evening with one of the greatest actresses of the nineteenth century. Charlotte
Cushman, a large butch woman, made a name for herself in “breeches parts,” and treats the
audience to excerpts from her Hamlet, Romeo, and Cardinal Wolsey—as well as scenes and
other monologues from her repertoire. National award for “best play about a lesbian historical
figure.” - Crossing the Rapelands
This is personal memoir along the lines of a Spaulding Gray monologue.. about the
playwright’s experiences of hitchhiking through America—specifically about hitchhiking from
Boulder to Los Angeles, to San Francisco and back with another woman in the summer of 1973. - ВТОРОТО ПРИШЕСТВИЕ НА ЖАНА Д’АРК
Bulgarian translation by Victoria Koleva of The Second Coming of Joan of Arc. - 贞德再临_中文
Chinese (Mandarin) translation by Chen San of The Second Coming of Joan of Arc. - The Amazon All-Stars
A box office home run! Musical comedy about a lesbian softball team with a player who is really
out in left field. Fantasy numbers include the Miss Butch Universe Pageant, a lesbian Star Trek,
and the lesbian World Series. Show has broken box office records in three theatres! Lead sheet
available. Song samples on Bandcamp. - Babe! An Olympian Musical
Big, brassy, full-cast mainstage musical about the greatest woman athlete in history,
Babe Didrikson! Babe’s struggle for acceptance pits her against the standards of compulsory
heterosexuality. Numbers include a high school dance, a choreographed women’s basketball
game, and a pajama party on the Olympic train. Vocal score available. Score on Bandcamp. - How to Write a Country-Western Song
A five-woman “concert with a plot.” Two sets of lovers, both former bandmates, struggle with
recovery on the eve of a concert. Show combines country-western, punk rock, hip hop, gospel,
and blues… using a concert stage for the set. Score on Bandcamp. - Leading Ladies
Sparkling gem of a cabaret musical! Six leading ladies take stage with musical numbers
celebrating the turning points in their respective careers. Cast includes Sarah Bernhardt, Eleanora
Duse, and Laurette Taylor. A special treat for theatre lovers! Lead sheets and song samples on
Bandcamp. - Women on the Land
Small-cast lesbian musical about the culture clash between the urban leather scene and the
country dykes on a land collective in Oregon. “Vampire Lesbians From Hell” meet the goddess
worshiper in a showdown of values on the night of Beltane. Score currently not available. - The Abolition Plays: Head in the Game and The Intimacy Coordinator
Two plays on prostitution that, together, run for 50 minutes… allowing for a panel discussion or
talk-back. Powerful social change plays advocating for the Nordic model approach. - The Anastasia Trials in the Court of Women
A play with intense audience participation! Engrossing, controversial courtroom drama, where
the audience must serve as judge and jury, deciding motions and verdict, in a case against the
five women who betrayed the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov, the last surviving daughter of
the Tsar of Russia. Complex ethical questions on a set of folding chairs. - AXED!
An evening of theatre about alleged ax-murderess Lizzie Borden. - Black Star
In Black Star, the greatest African American classical actress of the 19th Century, Henrietta
Vinton Davis, wrestles with a ghost who is calling into question her entire lifework. - Coming About
Gage’s first full-length play. A play that examines the changes in marriage in a middle-class,
white family. - Esther and Vashti
A romantic drama set against a backdrop of war in ancient Persia. A young Hebrew woman and
her former lover, the Queen of Persia, struggle against their personal and political differences to
form an alliance against a common enemy. - The Goddess Tour
It’s a dark and stormy night at a remote inn on the Burren of Western Ireland, as six American
women — strangers to each other (or are they?) — gather for a tour of ancient goddess sites. A
murder mystery exploring potentially deadly mother-daughter dyads, played out amid ghostly
sightings of lost children and pre-Celtic rituals involving various aspects of the goddess. - In McClintock’s Corn
The entire play is set in a cornfield. The play is about gender-non-conforming geneticist Barbara
McClintock and her companion/partner Harriet Creighton, and McClintock’s revolutionary quest
to understand diversity in nature and to reframe “deviance” as an expression of natural variance. - Sappho in Love
A Lesbian midsummer night’s dream with the goddesses of celibacy, love, and marriage
competing for Sappho’s attention amid poetry contests, meteor showers, lessons on lesbian love-
making, romantic trysting, mix-ups and disguises. Wet and wild romantic comedy! - The Spindle
A children’s theatre play for adults! As thirteen-year old Doko struggles to rescue her best friend
the Princess Beauty from the curse that says she will be pricked by a spindle before her sixteenth
birthday, the adults in the play grapple with the denial and superstition that hold the kingdom in a
tyrant’s thrall. - Stigmata
Stigmata dramatizes the rise and fall of 17th-century, Italian nun Benedetta Carlini, who
becomes elected abbess on the strength of her miraculous manifestation of the stigmata, and
who is eventually tried by the Inquisition for perpetrating a hoax, as well as committing
“peccatum mutum”–the so-called “silent sin” of homosexuality. - Thanatron
This is a rollicking farce about the world’s most dysfunctional family, a doctor with a penchant
for assisted suicide, and a lesbian housekeeper with a crush on her employer. An over-the-top
comedy about leaving, being left, and what it takes to stay. - Ugly Ducklings
Two counselors at a summer camp struggle with their love against a backdrop of homophobia.
Scenes with the campers depict with chilling accuracy the cruelty of girls towards those they
perceive as outsiders. Powerful lesbian drama! Nominated by American Theatre Critics
Association for “best new play of the year” award! - Ain’t Got No-I Got Life
A one-woman show about an older African American mother whose
lesbian daughter has been unjustly imprisoned for defending herself against an assailant on the
street. - The A-Mazing Yamashita and the Millennial Goldiggers
“The transnational, postmodern magic show of the millennium!” The A-Mazing Yamashita
promises to levitate a woman, cut a woman in two, and disappear a hundred thousand
women—all through the wizardry of modern pharmaceuticals, the presto-chango of sexual com-
modification, and the wonders of the Great Cabinet of GATT. - Artemisia and Hildegard
Two of the most powerful women artists in history discuss their work on an explosive arts panel
about survival strategies for women artists. - Battered on Broadway
Farcical romp that takes a backwards look at the misogyny of Broadway’s musicals through the
eyes of the characters themselves… decades later! - Bite My Thumb
A “skirmish in one-act.” Two “gangs” from contemporary rival productions of Romeo and Juliet
meet in an Off-Off Broadway alley to rumble, sixteenth-century style. Lots of cross-dressed
knee-flexing and gender-bending! - Black Eye
Subtitled “a knockout in nine minutes,” this short play packs a punch. The year is 1953, and
Amanda is a 13-year-old tomboy who has been sent to the principal’s office for fighting the boys
who have been lesbian-baiting her. When the principal, who is in the closet, moves to expel her,
Amanda’s lesbian P.E. teacher shows that she is just as willing to fight as her student. A taut
play, filled with surprises. - The Boundary Trial of John Proctor
A oneact featuring the notorious antihero of Arthur Miller’s Crucible, and the women he
exploited. John Proctor, finding himself in the boundary lands of patriarchy after his execution,
encounters a second trial—this time by the women. Proctor, who does not believe in witches,
scrambles desperately for context as he is tested by his ex-wife, his mistress, a formerly enslaved
Caribbean woman, the town baglady, the town bluestocking, and the town matriarch. - Cookin’ With Typhoid Mary
Half-hour dramatic monologue by the notorious typhoid carrier who refused to admit the
existence of germs. Her side of the story. - The Countess and the Lesbians
Three lesbian actors are rehearsing an historical play about Countess Markiewicz and the
aftermath of her participation in the Easter Week Rising in Dublin. The play is about her political
differences with her sister, who was a pacifist. As the women take up the issues of the play, the
power dynamics of their own lesbian relationships are called into question. - The Drum Lesson
A one-act for five women drummers, in which much of the dialogue is conveyed via the
drumming. - Easter Sunday
The year is 1960. The park is Morningside. The day is Easter. A play about love and drinking,
and class differences between lesbians. It’s a story about Marty Mann, the founder of the
National Council of Alcoholism, and her secret relaspse. A story of redemption. - Entr’acte or The Night Eva Le Gallienne Was Raped
Eva Le Gallienne has checked herself into a private hospital the night she was raped backstage
during her Broadway run of Liliom. She has sent for her former girlfriend Mimsey, whom she
has not seen since Mimsey’s marriage ten months earlier. A tour-de-force for a young actor,
running a gamut of dissociative states of a survivor of sexual abuse. - The Evil That Men Do: The Story of Thalidomide
Fast-paced radio drama, suitable for stage production. The conspiracy of the German drug
manufacturers and the FDA unfolds like a murder mystery, as Dr. Frances Kelsey, suspecting
birth defects, stalls for time against mounting pressures to license sale of “the sleeping pill of the
century.” - Female Nude Seated
Two Irish art students meet in a student rooming house in London, late one night in 1917. Both
of them are at dramatic turning points in their lives and on the brink of making disastrous
choices. Will they rescue each other in time? - The Gage and Mr. Comstock
A monologue by feminist foremother and Suffragist, Matilda Joslyn Gage, in which she sets the
bait for Anthony Comstock to ban her book, Woman, Church and State, a comprehensive exposé
of the historical misogyny of the christian church. - The Great Fire
Two sisters and their brother wait for rescue by boat on the beach of Bar Harbor, as the Great
Fire of 1947 destroys the entire town. The former chambermaid provides a key to escape from
the apocalyptic scenario. A ten-minute play. - The Greatest Actress Who Ever Lived
A closeted reporter arrives in the dressing room of veteran, bisexual stage and film star Nance
O’Neil, and as Nance shares the details of her affair with alleged ax murderess Lizzie Borden, the
two women share a moment of intimacy. - Harriet Tubman Visits A Therapist
Harriet Tubman, suspected of planning an escape, has been sent to the therapist, another African-
American woman, for an evaluation. Radical activism meets one-day-at-a-time therapism.
Published by Samuel French, presented at Louisville Juneteenth Festival, winner of Off-Off
Broadway Festival. - Head in the Game
A persuasive case for abolishing prostitution. In the Boxing Girl Gym, the clients pay by the
hour to "work out" with "sparring partners." The "sparring partners" paid to let the client win,
which means they don't punch back. Perfectly legal variation of a popular recreation… no? - Hermeneutic Circlejerk
A farcical satire on the founding of postmodernism by two philosophers with a public history of
pro-pedophilia activism… a deconstruction of the deconstructionists! - Heterosexuals Anonymous
A playful send-up of the 12-step movement. Five women in recovery from their addictions to
men, convene at their weekly meeting. The format includes personal testimonies and the reading
of the 12 Steps of HA. - Jane Addams and the Devil Baby
Hull House, rumored to be sheltering a “devil baby,” is besieged by emigrants clamoring to see
the child with horns and hooves. Jane Addams locks horns with an elderly Irish woman, in an
attempt to understand the strange obsession that has gripped Chicago. - A Labor Play
Kafka-esque one-act about a multi-national corporation in the business of selling babies.
“Business as usual” comes to a halt when one of the workers strikes for control of the
distribution of manufactured goods. In other words, she wants to keep the baby. - Lace Curtain Irish
Thirty-five years after the infamous Fall River ax murders, an Irish woman, working in her
kitchen in Anaconda, Montana, opens a newspaper to read about the death of the alleged
murderer, Lizzie Borden. The woman is Bridget Sullivan, the Borden's former maid. A gripping
solo one-act that turns history on its head! - The Ladies’ Room
A five-minute play about two lesbian teenagers in a ladies' room at a shopping mall. The butch
has just been mistaken for a man, and mall security is on the way. Her girlfriend, because of her
own history,is conflicted about offering support. - Lighting Martha
A one-act about the lesbian relationship between legendary lighting designer Jean Rosenthal and
her assistant Miki (Marion) Kinsella. The play opens in April 1969, after the final dress rehearsal
for Martha Graham’s 35th season opener at the City Center. Legendary lighting designer Jean
Rosenthal, dying of cancer, arrived in an ambulance and on a gurney for the final lighting check.
The play is a reflection on denial and dying, intimacy and artists, seeing and being seen, and—of
course—on light. - Little Sister
A tribal police officer struggles with her lesbian partner over issues of loyalty and definitions of
"family." - Louisa May Incest
The writing of Little Women is interrupted when the character Jo March and her famous creator
cannot agree on the ending. The struggle for control of the book becomes deadly when Jo
accuses Louisa of repressed lesbian desires and incest memories. - Mason-Dixon
Separated for thirty years, a white woman attempts to recruit her former slave to return to the
South to work as a Union spy in the Confederate White House. Issues of race, class, and gender
explode as the women confront their lesbian girlhood and shared history of sexual abuse. - The Obligatory Scene
Ostensibly arguing about The Taming of the Shrew, a lesbian couple come to grips with their
own marital struggles around the issue of sex. - The P.E. Teacher
A one-act about misogyny, racism, and homophobia in the schools. A new teacher is hired to
replace a lesbian teacher who resigned under suspicious circumstances. When a former lover
turns up on staff, it becomes evident that the scapegoating is a cover for the school’s
institutionalized violence against women and girls. - The Parmachene Belle
“Fly Rod” Crosby, a lesbian Maine hunting guide from the late 19th century, shares secrets about
fly-fishing as she indulges in her romantic fantasies about her friend Annie Oakley. - Patricide: A Play in One Minute
A oneminute monologue by a woman of any age, ethnicity, race, orientation, physical ability,
class background—in which she telephones and confronts her father on incest. - The Pele Chant
A ninety-two-year-old Native Hawaiian woman struggles with the last request of her adoptive
mother, Queen Liliuokalani, the last queen of Hawai’i. Succeeding in her quest, she overturns the
paradigm of Western history, exposing its inherently colonial agenda. - Planchette
During a nor'easter on the New Hampshire coast, in 1879, two fourteen-year-olds share their
secrets about trauma they have survived and the deeper secrets about their sexual orientations
and gender identities. - The Poorly-Written Play Festival
Just possibly the worst one-act play ever written! A committee of play readers meet in the Green
Room to select the plays for a Festival of Poorly-Written Plays. In the course of the meeting,
they violate every tenet of good playwriting in a kind of “Actor’s Nightmare” for playwrights.
Riotously funny. - Radicals
A one-act about the women in the anti-war movement of the Sixties.
Sexual tensions fuse with political agendas, as the women cross minefields of repressed emotion,
and the action builds to a violent climax, as the war comes home. - The Rules of the Playground
Six mothers of middle-school children come together for a special training on playground
violence. Focusing on perfecting the rules of the playground to eliminate inequality, the women,
literally, turn a blind eye to the real cause of violence. A chilling interrogation into the ways
women teach each other to enable male violence. - St. Frances and the Fallen Angels
The ghosts of two survivors of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire come to haunt Frances Perkins, who is
on the verge of resigning her position as Secretary of Labor in the Roosevelt Cabinet. - Souvenirs from Eden
The ghost of lesbian poet Renée Vivien returns to a pivotal memory from the summer of 1900,
when she was in Bar Harbor (“Eden”), Maine, with her lover Natalie Barney. She wrestles with
scenarios of traumatic memories in an attempt to find closure. - Starpattern
A play about two extraordinarily courageous young women who survived the 1966 mass
shooting on the University of Texas at Austin. Claire Wilson, one of the first victims, lay
wounded on the South Mall, unable to be rescued while the sniper was still active. Rita
Starpattern ran out, at tremendous risk, lay down next to her, and engaged her in a conversation
that kept her conscious and alive for over an hour. - ‘Til the Fat Lady Sings
A play with music for two women in one-act. A fat woman in her 20’s is in the hospital awaiting
surgery for a gastric bypass operation she believes necessary for her dream of singing opera
professionally. Her partner is against the surgery, and as the patient goes under sedation, she
finds herself and her partner in a series of bizarre dreams where her situation incorporates
elements of operas by Wagner, Gluck, Verdi, Mozart, and Puccini. - Valerie Solanas At Matteawan
Two activists visit the notorious lesbian who shot Andy Warhol during her incarceration at the
Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. They want to recruit her as a spokeswoman,
but Valerie has other ideas. - 52 PIckup
Janiya, a young woman is in the hospital on a mandatory suicide watch after her third attempt.
She is visited by her ex-girlfriend Cil. As they both struggle with the aftermath of the attempt,
the two women arrive at a dynamic that might be a game-changer. - At Sea
Two lesbian buddies in their 80’s have escaped from a nursing home at night, stolen a sailboat,
and are planning a double suicide out on the ocean. At Sea is a fleeting (no pun intended)
celebration of lesbian friendship, sailing, marijuana, and resistance. - Black Eye
Subtitled “a knockout in nine minutes,” this short play packs a punch. The year is 1953, and
Amanda is a 13-year-old tomboy who has been sent to the principal’s office for fighting the boys
who have been lesbian-baiting her. When the principal, who is in the closet, moves to expel her,
Amanda’s lesbian P.E. teacher shows that she is just as willing to fight as her student. A taut
play, filled with surprises. - Calamity Jane Sends A Message to Her Daughter
This rowdy, fifteen-minute monologue is a tribute to masculine women living in times when
lesbian or transgendered identities were not understood. Accustomed to ridicule and contempt,
Calamity survives through a combination of self-deprecating humor, myth-making, and
alcohol—shrewdly propagating the myths about herself that will ensure her a place in history. - The Clarity of Pizza
A lesbian and her heterosexual best friend get into a fight over a guy while eating pizza. - The Great Fire
Two sisters and their brother wait for rescue by boat on the beach of Bar Harbor, as the Great
Fire of 1947 destroys the entire town. The former chambermaid provides a key to escape from
the apocalyptic scenario. A ten-minute play. - Hrotsvitha's Vision
A 10th century, German nun who is a playwright realizes that a 20th century lesbian who is
translating her work is abandoning it in the face of war. The nun exorts her translator to
remember the great secret for liberation that is embedded in her plays. A two-minute monologue. - The Intimacy Coordinator
A short play about what happens when an intimacy coordinator interrupts an appointment
between a prostituted woman and her client. - The Ladies' Room
A five-minute play about two lesbian teenagers in a ladies' room at a shopping mall. The butch
has just been mistaken for a man, and mall security is on the way. Her girlfriend, because of her
own history,is conflicted about offering support. - Miss Le Gallienne Announces the New Season
A monologue. Actress Eva Le Gallienne faces her first press conference after the fire that almost
killed her and the scandal of her girlfriend's divorce. - On the Other Hand
A meta puppet play, where two hand puppets, Lorna and Judy become gradually aware of the
external forces that are controlling and manipulating them. - Patricide
A oneminute monologue by a woman of any age, ethnicity, race, orientation, physical ability,
class background—in which she telephones and confronts her father on incest. - The Pickle Play
A whimsical ten-minute play where customers whose lives have become too easy find challenges
go to the "pickle store" to purchase complications… and find themselves getting more than they
bargained for! - Amy Lowell: In Her Own Words
A platform reading by the famous Imagist herself, including the erotic love poems written
for her beloved partner Ada Dwyer. Also includes diary entries, observations on writing
poetry, rebuttals to critics, and her passionate tribute to the actress Eleanora Duse. - Brett Remembers: Taos in the 1920's
A dramatic adaptation of the autobiographical writings of Taos painter Dorothy Brett. In
the play, 70-year-old Brett attempts to gain closure with her Younger Self about her
passionate attachment to D.H. Lawrence during his New Mexico years. A play for two
women. - Deep Haven
A dramatic adaptation of the lesbian writings of beloved 19th-century New
England writer Sarah Orne Jewett. Including excerpts form her novels, diaries,
letters, and poems. - El Bobo
A screenplay adaptation of Anton Chekhov's short story "The Ninny." A
contemporary encounter between a wealthy employer and his Latina
housekeeper. - Emily and Sue: A Love Story in Five Scenes and Four Seizures
A multi-media interpretation of the letters and poems of Emily Dickinson, restoring the wild frustration
of her lesbian passion, as well as her volcanic rage about living with a disability that was
considered unspeakable. - I Have Come To Show You Death
Dramatic adaptations of the writings of four 19th century, New England women writers,
dealing with lesbian life partners and death. - Speak Fully the One Awful Word…
Dramatic adaptation of Lady Byron Vindicated, Harriet Beecher Stowe's courageous
expose of Lord Byron's incestuous relationship with his half-sister and his domestic
abuse of Lady Byron.
