Selected Plays
For all inquiries and script requests, please contact me directly at kirarockwell@gmail.com
oh, to be pure again
During one hot Texas summer at church camp, an idealistic counselor tries to shepherd the senior girls’ cabin along their journey to make an authentic connection with something larger than themselves, only to face disillusionment with her own faith. A guttural ode to female desire, submission, rebellion, about growing up in a religious culture that's obsessed with your sexual purity.
Production History
world premiere: Actor’s Express, March 2023
university premiere: Oklahoma University, October 2023
Development
workshop: Great Plains Theatre Commons, 2022
workshop: Actor’s Express Threshold Festival, 2021
workshop: NNPN MFA Playwrights’ Workshop, 2019
reading: On the Verge Summer Repertory Theatre, 2020
reading: Third Culture Theatre, 2020
reading: Boston Center for The Arts, 2019
Honors & Awards
winner: Gene Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award, 2023
finalist: O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, 20/21
semi-finalist: The Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm, 2020
the tragic ecstasy of girlhood
After the sudden death of a housemate, four teenage girls living in a group home try to combat their grief. A poetic, heartfelt drama that explores the chrysalis of female adolescence and demands our attention be on the youth of America who are living in the shadows of a broken system.
Development
west coast workshop premiere: Third Culture Theatre (LA) 2018
workshop premiere: Boston Playwrights' Theatre (Boston) 2018
Honors & Awards
semi-finalist: Blue Ink Playwriting Award, 2021
runner-up: Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship, 2019
second place recipient: Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, 2019
recipient: Judith Royer Excellence in Playwriting Award, 2019
semi-finalist: O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, 2019
national winner: The Bridge Initiative’s Bechdel Test Fest, 2019
runner-up: University of Tulsa's WomenWorks, Runner-up, 2018
holy chicken sandwich
a new comedy about fast food empires
On the eve of a highly anticipated grand opening of a beloved yet politically controversial fast-food empire, one hundred fervent devotees gather in the parking lot for an overnight campout to earn a year of free large combos. As the night unfolds, it’s clear there’s a fox in the chicken coop. Jade, the newly appointed, quietly queer, store manager, must find the source of anarchy before the flock devolves into utter chaos. A play that invites audiences to examine indoctrination and uncover what’s really in the secret sauce of devotion.
Development
workshop premiere production: Boston New Works Festival, 2024
wicked bitter beast(s)
an unruly parable about being a bad daughter
Estranged from her pastoral family, Zoey is on the run from her Evangelical past and the literal Hellmouth she must fight her way through. An unruly parable that reverberates through time, realms, and genre, beckoning you to face the wicked bitter beast(s) in your own life, especially the one looking back in the mirror.
Development
Southern Writers Festival, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, 2024
workshop: Carnegie Mellon University School of Theatre, 23
workshop: Ethel Woolson Lab, Working Title Playwrights, 2023
workshop: The Theatre School at DePaul University, 2020
nomad americana
For years the Echo family has been avoiding painful memories by traveling America in an old RV selling soap. When they stop in a small Texas town believed to harness great magic, Bridgette strikes up a romance with a young dreamer who causes her to question her responsibilities to her family and to herself. A new coming of age tale about love, sacrifice, and letting go even when it hurts.
Production History
world premiere: Fresh Ink Theatre (Boston) 2018
Development
workshop premiere: Out of the Loop Fringe Festival, 2015
reading: Nouveau 47 Theatre, 2014
reading: Baylor University, 2014
with my eyes shut
In this neurodivergent love story, Naomi and Cole push the boundaries of compliance to find connection in an isolating world and shatter the complacency of the disembodied voices running the show.
Production History
west coast premiere: Hollywood Fringe Festival, 2018
world premiere: Out of the Loop Fringe Festival, 2016
Development
staged reading: Last Frontier Theatre Conference, 2016
workshop: Baylor University, 2016
Honors & Awards
Best in Dance & Physical Theatre, Hollywood Fringe Festival, 2018
Encore Producers' Award, Hollywood Fringe Festival, 2018
Publishing
purchase/license: Original Works Publishing
In The Press
Oh, to be Pure Again
ArtsATL Perhaps what is most remarkable about Oh, To Be Pure Again is the way it creates equal space for both rage and hope. The characters are increasingly frustrated with the shame that is constantly being weaponized against them, and that rage starts to boil over by the end, but Rockwell insists that there is still room to be optimistic. Perhaps by redefining their relationships to their own bodies, these women may redefine their relationships with religion as well.
Broadway World It’s clear that there was one thing top of mind as Kira Rockwell wrote this play - sex. The power, the intimacy, the consequences of it, and how specific circumstances of the Evangelical Christian Church’s purity culture can affect one’s relationship with it. For the women and girls in this show, sex, and sexual desire as a whole, is an evil that must be exorcised - until they decide it’s not. Until they finally stand up and say “I am allowed to feel this, my body is my own.” And what an orgasmic relief it is once they do.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution It’s likely Atlanta audiences haven’t heard the last from the transplanted Rockwell.
The Tragic Ecstasy of Girlhood
Boston Globe When The Tragic Ecstasy of Girlhood was over, several people were still rooted in their chairs, struggling to collect themselves. It was clear that something in the play spoke powerfully to them.
Elliot Norton Nomination for Outstanding New Script
New England Theatre Geek Tackles the many layers of girlhood with both humor and truthful histrionics. Emotions start high and remain high for the 80-minute performance. This rollercoaster of joy and pain is accurate to the girlhood experience.
Broadway World Girls like this are not often seen or heard… attention must be paid.
Joyce’sChoices This is how girls talk and interact, by turns raw and raucous, needy and hostile, sweet and funny, and brutally honest. There are real tears and real rage.
The Daily Free Press a conversation about violence against women.
Boston Globe (Critics’ Pick)
Nomad Americana
Broadway World Fresh Ink Theatre offers a breath of fresh air with Nomad Americana.
The Dallas Morning News Rockwell succeeds in the toughest goal for any playwright — generating a world of real people that satisfies while making you want to know more.
WBUR solid, salt of the earth stuff.
The Theater Mirror The play is a loving look at a family as one woman begins to wonder what’s next for her. It is clear from the outset that Rockwell has a deep-seated love for her characters.
Theater Jones A dramatist who shows promise. Rockwell’s dialogue is economical and natural, her characters are well drawn.
With My Eyes Shut
Art and Seek Autism In The Spotlight
Gia on The Move A wonderful analogy between theatre and the Autism Spectrum.
For all inquiries and script requests,
please contact me directly at:
kirarockwell@gmail.com