the yellow wallpaper

In the spring semester of 1993, I was listless. I had just landed back in the midwest after spending my first semester in coastal North Carolina, on an ill-begotten whim to study marine biology. Maybe it wasn't a whim and a viable plan, but there were many obstacles. One, that it was hard to find a place to study marine science in landlocked Illinois. Another was that my terribleness in math would rather quickly mean I was always going to be at a disadvantage in science courses, even the more biological and zoological ones, many of which had chemistry prereqs that depended on math knowledge.  I already knew I was good at writing, reading, and English, so in a sudden switch I came back to my hometown and enrolled in a community college that spring, just to keep myself in school until I had reassessed and applied elsewhere.  I took a couple classes in current events/news and intro to psych, but it was the lit classes that charmed me most obviously, one called Intro to Fiction that mostly focused on short stories (though this was also the semester I was introduced to Toni Morrison novels.) and another devoted to dramatic lit. That semester, I read Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper for class and immediately fell in love and was horrified at the same time.  It formed a part of brain perhaps that has persisted all the intervening decades, so when I started writing play scripts last fall, this seemed like a great place to start.

What resulted was a short play, around 40 minutes, that melds my own words and Gilman's writing, most as letters to the heroine's absent sister. Which allowed me to incorporate the language of Gilman's short story along with a slightly shifted retelling that focuses on the horrors of confinement and abuse. There are things I removed, like the actual infant in the story in lieu of an unfortunate miscarriage. Characters like a doting brother who ultimately betrays her and a literary agent who broadens her world with promises of a fruitful career, dashed of course by an over controlling husband. Since most the plays I am writing have strong horror and gothic elements, I really leaned into these aspects in the staging. 

I am so delighted to show it to you, so there are many different ways to read it. If you have a subscription to the New Play Exchange or join any tier of my Patreon, you can find a electronic version free of cost. Or, you can purchase a script through the DGP shop or other booksellers.    

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