The Playwrights Database
MIA MCCULLOUGH
Nationality: USA
email: n/a Website: n/a
Literary Agent: n/a
Mia McCullough's plays have been produced in Chicago at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Stage Left Theatre, and Chicago Dramatists; and around the country at Theatres that include Actors' Express in Atlanta, InterAct in Philadelphia, Mo'olelo Performing Arts Company in San Diego, the Victory Theatre in Los Angeles, and Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival. Her break-through play CHAGRIN FALLS garnered many awards including the American Theatre Critics Association Osborn Award, first prize in the Julie Harris Playwriting Competition, and a Joseph Jefferson Citation for New Work. Her play SINCE AFRICA was commissioned by the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and a nominee for a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Play. Ms. McCullough's plays ECHOES OF ANOtheR MAN and TAKING CARE are published by Broadway Play Publishing and CHAGRIN FALLS was published in the anthology "New Playwrights: Best Plays of 2001." TAKING CARE was also included in the Chicago Dramatists anthology "New Plays from Chicago." In 2004 Steppenwolf Theatre Company commissioned her play SPARE CHANGE which they then produced in their 2nd annual First Look Repertory of New Plays. SPARE CHANGE was subsequently premiered by Stage Left Theatre in the fall of '07 and nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Citation for Best New Work. Ms. McCullough is currently adjunct faculty at Northwestern University where she teaches playwriting and screenwriting to students in the Creative Writing for the Media program. She has also taught in the Northwestern Theatre department and at Chicago Dramatists. She is a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists and a member of the Dramatists Guild.
Research: Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)
Buy Plays with Doollee
Each page of doollee.com has links to play/book outlets, either directly to the Publisher, through Stageplays.com and Amazon to the second hand and 1st editions of AbeBooks. These links will automatically take you to the relevant area obviating the need for further search.AbeBooks.co.uk AbeBooks.com Stageplays.com amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.ca
whether you are a Playwright who wishes to make their entry definitive, an unlisted Playwright or a User with a tale to tell - we want to hear from you.
download WORD submission template
below is a list of Mia McCullough's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Chagrin Falls Echoes Of Another Man Household Spirits Lucinda's Bed Since Africa Spare Change Taking CareChagrin Falls
To live in Chagrin Falls, Oklahoma is to be in the killing business. the town's major employers are the slaughterhouse and the penitentiary where lethal injection is administered. Whether they work at the slaughterhouse, or play preacher or guard to death row inmates, or merely offer a bed and a hot meal to those visiting the prison, each resident makes their living off of death and captivity. A week prior to a particular execution, an Asian-American graduate student comes to town - purportedly to do a story on the man who is scheduled to die. As this would-be journalist interviews a cross-section of the population she finds her subjects revealing far more than their opinions on capital punishment. She is repelled by the recently-retired slaughterhouse employee's morbid humor and his strangely intense interest in her background. She is seduced by one prison guard's painful tale of sacrifice, and is comforted by the naivete and kindness of another. Though she never gets what she came for, when she witnesses the execution she becomes one of them: a participant in the killing, an honorary resident of Chagrin Falls.
Notes:
CHAGRIN FALLS was developed in part through Chicago Dramatists And Famous Door theatre.
1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Contained in: "New Playwrights the Best Plays Of 2001" published by Smith and Kraus 2003 978-1575252971
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageEchoes Of Another Man
Echoes of Another Man tells the story of Claude, a multi-talented artist who is dying of diabetes after many years of self-abuse. When a professional golfer named Steve drowns saving a little girl, his widow donates his body to become the host for Claude's brain. During a long, laborious recovery, Claude must relearn how to eat, speak and walk - and come to grips with his new life. His recuperation is complicated by the small circle of people who surround him. Dr Park, who seems as interested in his newfound celebrity as he is in the well-being of his patient. Raina, his agent and one-time lover. Iris, the nurse who harbors doubts about the ethicality of the whole procedure. And Katie, who finds it impossible to let go of her husband's memory while his body still lives. Claude finds that his new hands do not respond to his artistic urges as expected, while his brain, as if subconsciously determined to make a clean break, stubbornly refuses to remember everything about his pre-operative existence. He responds with odd familiarity to the touch of Steve's golf clubs - and to the sight of Katie. Is it some primitive form of "residual memory" in his muscles and sense organs? Or something more? Who is he now? He certainly can't be Steve - but is he still merely Claude? McCullough leaves the audience with no easy answers.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Actor's Express Theatre, Atlanta, Ga.
2005
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Broadway Play Publishing, 2008 -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageHousehold Spirits
Synopsis:
Sulky teenager Erik is reluctantly on holiday with the family. He hates his new step-mother. His recovering alchoholic father has no time for him. His step-sister is always angry
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Goodman Theatre, Chicago
12 Sep 2008
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Black Comedy
Parts:
Male: 4 Female: 3 Other: 1 female voice
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageLucinda's Bed
Synopsis:
LUCINDA's BED chronicles the life of Lucinda, a girl-then-woman, through the significant moments that happen in and around her bed. It begins with a bed piled high with frilly, girlie sheets, but as each new stage of her life comes, a layer of bedding is pulled away to reveal something new. the two men who populate the piece are the Monster-under-her-bed, who portrays the various men that compromise Lucinda's self-worth and tempt her darker side, and Adam who represents all the kind-hearted men who promise to protect her but hurt her anyway. Constantly confused by her sexual power (or lack-thereof), and repeatedly betrayed, Lucinda's desire vacillates between Adam and the Monster. With each new challenge and each new betrayal Lucinda struggles for the upper hand, yet it repeatedly eludes her. Finally, with death at her heels and all her sexuality stripped away by age and disease, Lucinda finds herself the manipulator, releasing Adam from a hero role he cannot possibly fulfill and seducing the Monster into granting her final wish. A full-length play in one act, with three actors and three beds.
Notes:
-
1st Produced:
Chicago Dramatists, Chicago
01 Oct 2009
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Dark comedy
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageSince Africa
Synopsis:
Since Africa chronicles the relationship between a Dinka refugee from Southern Sudan and three Americans - a North Shore socialite, her daughter, and an African American Deacon - who help him acclimate to Chicago's unfamiliar urban surroundings. A look at American culture through the eyes of an African, this play explores the tensions between blacks and whites, Africans and African-Americans, the devout and the non-religious. As Ater tries to navigate this new world, the Dinka refugee is confounded by American's self-centered nature and our ideas of art and ritual. Just when he thinks he is finding his place here, a letter arrives with news of his family in Africa and it sends him into an emotional tailspin. Meanwhile the Deacon's inability to connect with this refugee forces him to question his own identity as an African and as an American. the socialite's misconceptions and romantic notions about Africa are turned on end. Both she and her daughter, still reeling from the recent loss of their husband/father, have a difficult time processing their own private tragedy when faced with the truly epic tragedy of the Lost Boys of Sudan.
Notes:
SINCE AFRICA was commissioned by Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival. It was developed in part through CSF And Chicago Dramatists.
1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageSpare Change
Synopsis:
When Brad, an unhappy investment banker, runs into a multi-racial young mother on the train who is fleeing an abusive past and grappling with mental illness that is probably much more than anxiety disorder, Brad is forced to face his own inability to aid her. Spare Change is an exploration of what it means to help one another, and how race and class complicate matters further. Can we connect with one another, or are we all hopelessly isolated in our urban landscape?
Notes:
Originally commissioned by Steppenwolf theatre Company And presented in their 2nd Annual First Look Repertory of New Work, SPARE CHANGE was Also developed through Stage Left theatre's DownStage Left program.
1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
- -
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of PageTaking Care
Taking Care chronicles the last years of an elderly woman and the mentally ill adult son who has lived with her for almost three decades. Stuck in a cramped, one-bedroom apartment, Ma and Benny have spent much of the past thirty years pretending the other wasn't there. Now that the old woman is more or less house-bound, she foists conversation upon her unwilling son and threatens to institutionalize him if he doesn't clean up his act and start behaving more responsibly. When she breaks her hip, Ma convinces her alienated daughters that their brother is well enough to look after her in her "recovery." Realizing that failure to do so could result in institutionalization for both them, Benny tries to rise to the occasion and care for his mother, even as she begins a quick decent into dementia. His new responsibilities test his limited capabilities and force mother and son to forge new bonds in the waning days of her life.
Notes:
TAKING CARE was developed in part by the Women's theatre Alliance And Chicago Dramatists.
1st Produced:
Organisations:
-
1st Published:
Contained in: "New Plays From Chicago" published by Chicago Dramatists Press 2005 978-0976948209
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
-
Top of Page