Melissa James Gibson Selected Works

This wry, poetic, tender story of a latchkey kid is set against the actual building of the Brooklyn Bridge. Sasha's 5th grade paper is due tomorrow and she can't find a pen. When she knocks on neighbor's doors in her multi-ethnic, urban apartment building, she finds a great deal more than a pen -- she finds a community.

The boyfriends of two Ph.D. candidates are trying to talk their way into the women's apartments. Dissertations go nowhere; objects get found; boyfriends won't get lost; love figures in there somewhere.

In adjacent apartments that resemble nothing so much as broom closets with windows, the three young, ambitious neighbors of Melissa James Gibson's [sic] come together to discuss, flirt, argue, share their dreams, and plan their futures with unequal degrees of deep hopefulness and abject despair, all the while pushing the limits of their friendship to the max and demonstrating that language can be both an instrument of intimacy and a weapon of defense.

Theo is a composer trying to create a heroic theme for an amusement park ride called the Thrill-o-Rama; Babette is a writer who is trying to finish—or even start—a book theorizing that temper tantrums are the major motivating force behind historical events; and Frank is a would-be auctioneer, preparing for his future career by constantly practicing such tongue twisters as "Sally sought some seeds to sow but sadly soon it snowed." By exploring these questing lives in language that alternates between exhilarating structural inventiveness and loony comedy, poignant soul-searching and incisive analysis of the life that may actually exist beyond one's four walls, Melissa James Gibson has created a unique play that is as witty and wise as it is stylistically groundbreaking and unexpected.

Jane is not okay. She's a promising poet without a muse, a single mother without lessons to pass along. Her dating life's a shambles, and her helpful friends are only helping make things more complicated. This bright, witty, un-romantic comedy captures the uncertain steps of a circle of friends backing their way into middle age.

A father and his teenage daughter stand on either side of a closed door. Life is unraveling for him, and is entirely uncertain for her. So begins Melissa James Gibson’'s poignant, funny new play about estrangement and the partially examined life.

Riffing on Homer’'s Odyssey, playwright Melissa James Gibson flip-flops genders to create a dazzling tale about the ultimate working mom. When photo-journalist Pen heads off to cover the war in Troy, stay-at-home dad Od struggles to maintain his fidelity and raise a child in his wife’'s absence. As Pen'’s journey extends from weeks to years, Od is forced into the public eye by a relentless trio of documentary filmmakers,– while daughter Tel must grapple with the personal cost of her mother'’s epic ambition.

A minty green pill——medication or sugar? Louise is working on a placebo-controlled study of a new female arousal drug. As her work in the lab navigates the blurry lines between perception and deception, more and more these same questions pertain to her life at home. With uncanny insight and unparalleled wit, Melissa James Gibson’'s affectionate comedy examines slippery truths and the power of crossed fingers.