Tyler Joseph Rossi...|
The History Plays
Below you'll find a list of my history plays. If you'd like to peruse a script, head on over to my New Play Exchange (linked at the bottom of the page) or email me via my contact page!
Verboten
(5m/4f)
Hamburg, Germany, 1936. The Nazis have banned swing music. A group called the Swing Youth danced to swing and jazz as a form of resistance. VERBOTEN follows a group of friends, their struggle to survive, and their choice to resist in the heart of pre-war Germany.
Legions of Venus or Tis Pity His Majesty's a Whore
(2m/4f)
It's 1788 and it's said King George III might be losing his mind. But we're not concerned with that. His son, the Prince of Wales, is far more concerned with tavern life - and on this particular night, all the harlots he's invited to entertain him. Ale flows and tempers rise, each harlot vying for the prince's attention while he toys with them. This dark comedy tackles everything from power and privilege to sex and sexuality. Enjoy a drink and stay for the brawl.
End of the Line: a Bonnie and Clyde Play
(4m/4f)
The Great Depression held an America whose "Land of Opportunity" felt barren. It was an America of broken promises. It was here where our would-be bank robbers grew up -- where Bonnie met Clyde. It was a hard scrabble life, one that they desperately wished to out-drive. By exploring the humans amidst their legend, End of the Line: a Bonnie and Clyde Play seeks to tell, in a new light, the gritty story of the notorious outlaws.
Drowners
(5m/6f)
Shipwrecking. Curses. Family feuds.
DROWNERS is a family drama of Cornish shipwreckers in the 1860s.
These are rough waters. Rougher still are the people in them.
THE BORGIAS: it dwells in the blood
(6m/4f)
Their father is Pope of Rome in Renaissance Europe.
Cesare claws for something more than a Cardinal's hat. Ambition drives him onward.
Lucrezia strives to be something more than a bargaining chip for her father. She longs to be free.
trojan car bomb
(8m/4f)
TROJAN CAR BOMB focuses on the intimacies of war and family in the lens of violence, religion, and nationality as seen in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida – a work that resonated with me; it showed war as something that lives in perpetuity and as something no one truly can or will win. My hope is that the spirit of that work is in the foundation of TROJAN CAR BOMB and may further that conversation of how we approach and live in times of conflict.
Dead Men Don't Sing
(5m/4f) with optional
doubling
A swashbuckling, sapphic love story, Dead Men Don't Sing follows a pirate's life for notorious Anne Bonny as she takes to the high seas on a new adventure. But will matters of the heart distract her from keeping the crew afloat? Blackbeard may be dead, but there's still shanties to be sung.
Queen Of
(4m/6f)
Follow Queen Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, and Grace O'Malley as they struggle with and against one another to maintain power within their own courts.
A Beautiful Chaos: a Georgiana Cavendish play
(3m/3f) with doubling
Follow the Duchess of Devonshire as she navigates life amongst the aristocracy in Georgian England.
Life is a gamble and none know it better than her.
The Devil Pours It Steady
(2m/2f)
Bootlegging. Legacy. Secrets. Spend a day with the Price family and watch it all unravel.
Laurel and Hardy and Chaplin
(3m/1f)
A "what if" play. What if Laurel, Hardy, and Chaplin met in a recently busted speakeasy? What if we were able to see the men behind their movies? What if we learned they weren't as happy as their on-screen personas?
Bridget Cleary is away with the fairies.
(4m/2f) with doubling
Bridget Cleary has gone with the fairies. is a play which examines the last
weeks in the life of Bridget Cleary, the "last witch burned in Ireland."
Accused of being a changeling by her husband, Bridget's only crime is
being an independent woman in a rural, all too superstitious community.
And for that she is murdered, buried by strangers, and is left to keen for
herself. It is my hope that the play's banshee's wail echoes to the present
moment so that we might hear what she has to say.