Plays
My plays tell stories that grapple with what it means to be a human being
living on this planet at this time.
These works have been produced by major regional theatres such as Berkeley Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks, A Contemporary Theatre, and San Diego Repertory Theatre, and have toured to more than forty cities in the U.S. and Canada. The Fourth Messenger was also produced in New York and Taiwan.
Click on the images below for press clips, music samples, script information, and more.
NEW WORK!
Manatee on Mars
A Dramedy
Cody and Sonia become best friends in preschool.
In kindergarten, when Cody receives an autism spectrum diagnosis, it does nothing to weaken their bond.
As the kids grow older, Sonia’s mother Catherine becomes increasingly uncomfortable with their friendship. Finally, Catherine and her husband try to get Cody removed from their public school
Cody’s mom Margo fights back, hard.
By turns painful, tender, and comic, Manatee on Mars tells a story of children caught in a quagmire of adult prejudices, miscommunications and maddening bureacracy. Through it all, Cody finds his balance by viewing the world through the lens of his favorite cartoon series, The Adventures of Floaty Potato, the exploits of a young manatee adrift in a bewildering ocean.
Manatee on Mars is my latest play in development. It has received a public reading from Remote Theatre.
The Fourth Messenger
A Musical
Book by Tanya Shaffer
Music by Vienna Teng
Lyrics by Tanya Shaffer and Vienna Teng
“This show helped heal a piece of me … We need more shows like this to heal our world." - Times Square Chronicles
What if the Buddha were a woman, living in our times? In this captivating new musical, Mama Sid is a modern-day “awakened one” with a worldwide following. But a determined young woman seeks to unearth Mama Sid’s mysterious past, exposing long-held secrets that could change everything. Epic and intimate, comic and profound, The Fourth Messenger investigates what it means to be both enlightened and human. Addictive melodies and subtle, intricate harmonies bring the story vividly to life, adding depth and resonance that linger long after the lights come up.
"Exciting and ambitious ... An absolute delight!"
- San Francisco Chronicle
"Masterful and compelling ... both timeless and contemporary."
- Stage and Cinema
“Takes on spiritual life with wit and resonance … Funny and touching in all the right places.” - KQED FM
Interested in producing The Fourth Messenger? Reach out!
Baby Taj
A Romantic Comedy
“A captivating inquiry into love and freedom.” - San Francisco Chronicle
The romantic Taj Mahal is the next assignment for Rachel, an American travel writer whose failed romances have led her to ask: Why not have the baby she craves - on her own? She finds unexpected answers amidst the glittering legacies of India's past and the noisy complexity of its present, discovering new truths about love, family, and commitment. Alive with the vivid sounds and vibrant colors of a remarkable country, this comic tale of mischievous matchmaking raises provocative questions about love, friendship, family, and what makes a person ready to be a parent.
“A bundle of cross-cultural joy!”
- San Jose Mercury News
“Full of delicate reflections on caring and family.”
- Silicon Valley Metro
“Provocative and true, laced with snappy dialogue.”
- Palo Alto Weekly
Selected as one of the Top 10 Shows of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, and Oakland Tribune.
Baby Taj is available from Samuel French, Inc.
Let My Enemy Live Long!
A Solo Performance with Live Musical Accompaniment
“Riveting, funny, and life affirming.” - American Theatre Magazine
Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Solo Performance
Let My Enemy Live Long! tells the true story of Tanya’s journey up West Africa's Niger River to the legendary city of Timbuktu. When a tragic boat accident leaves passengers stranded in a marshy, mosquito-ridden no-man's-land, they travel by canoe, relying on the generosity of nomadic fisher tribes for food and shelter. An unlikely friendship triangle springs up between Tanya (the lone foreigner on the boat), an aspiring minister named Yaya, and a recent ex-convict named Touré.
Let My Enemy Live Long! is a complex, moving, often funny exploration of friendship across race, class, and cultural lines. Initially a solo performance accompanied by a soundscape of African instruments, this piece could also be adapted into a multi-actor play.
"A tour-de-force of observation and evocation."
- San Francisco Chronicle
"Storytelling at its best!"
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"...Bright, lively, moving...as captivating as it is gently but insistently thought-provoking."
- San Francisco Examiner
"Smooth, seductive, and thoroughly entertaining ."
- San Diego Union- Tribune
Brigadista
A Political Satire
“Refreshing, comic, and a commendably self-critical look at the attitudes and postures American leftists strike as they struggle to help.” - Dan Chumley, San Francisco Mime Troupe
This satirical coming-of-age tale follows Debbie Sanders, an enthusiastic young North American activist, on a darkly comic journey to Nicaragua in 1990 to pick coffee, observe the national elections, and “give something back.” Dreams and reality intertwine as Debbie is repeatedly forced to confront the sharp contradictions inherent in her role as a political tourist in war-weary Nicaragua. Coming face to face with her limits and preconceptions, Debbie wrestles cynicism and disillusionment, finally learning, as a phantom Sandino advises her, to “fill yourself from your own well.”
“Instigates laughter and a shiver of embarrassment.”
- Michigan Daily
“As Debbie’s assumptions about life in Nicaragua disappear, ours do as well.”
- Williams Record
Miss America’s Daughters
A Solo Performance with Live Musical Accompaniment
"Explosive…both hilarious and disturbing." - SF Weekly (Critic's Choice)
What would Miss America be like as a mother? As she began to age, how would she feel about having a youthful doppelgänger walking around, reminding her of who she’d once been? And what would it feel like to be Miss America’s daughter? Would she admire her mother? Envy her? Rebel? Miss America’s Daughers is a cabaret-style pastiche of music and monologue which tells the story of an aging Miss America coaching her recalcitrant daughter on how to follow in her footsteps.
Inspired by the poem “Miss America Comes Across her Daughter,” by Pamela White Hadas, Miss America’s Daughters switches perspectives from mother to daughter and back again, showing the daughter at various stages of life, from infancy to old age.
"Conceptually ambitious...A kind of parable of a feminist awakening in the womb of sexism…"
- The San Francisco Examiner
"Provocative, humorous, and thoroughly entertaining."
- The Daily Californian
"Touching and hilarious."
- Feminist Voices
