My next full length, which began as a ten minute play in a playwriting course with Charles L. Mee and then was expanded in a different course with Rogelio Martinez—

George Bernard’s Beard
a Lucas Hnath style “famous-person-play” about Irish dramatist and provocateur George Bernard Shaw (and his asexuality).

Contemporary language for gender, sexuality and queer identities is rapidly evolving - but the experiences they describe are not new... I am interested in contemporary investigations of historical aces (especially asexual artists)

G. Bernard Shaw and Charlotte Payne-Townshend famously shared a loving, celibate marriage. Shaw had many fleeting romantic affairs but viewed “sex as a primitive impulse worthy of only lesser minds”… most significantly he engaged in a romatic affair over letter writing with his muse, actress Stella Campbell - for whom he wrote the famous role of Eliza Doolittle. Stella broke it off when she realized the relationship would not escalate beyond a “platonic love affair” (but Shaw still adored her and secretly paid her funeral bill).

This history suggests that Shaw was likely heteroromantic asexual, or demisexual - and for this play I am exploring myself through him, colliding our realities. I’m experimenting in playwriting style after my Annie Baker-eque Hurricane.

I am currently seeking a writing retreat or to join a playwriting group, to focus on completing a full draft of this play — writing sample available upon request.