BIOLOGY PLAY
By Reid Pope
2023 Parity Development Award Winner

 

Thank you to everyone who attended our readings on August 28th and 29th, 2024!

 Synopsis

Biology Play is a theatre piece about how we all morphed from little amoebas with one big eye and no anus. It follows two trans kids, Lila and Max as they play basketball in a park from age 11 to age 30. As Lila and Max dribble and shoot, they discuss the sea creatures they've been assigned to create out of paper mache for their elementary school Great Barrier reef project. They play-act as seahorses. Give birth to shoes and sports equipment. Quiz each other on biology. Max grows interested in hermaphroditic fish. Lila grows interested in Max. They spend time exploring the fluidity of the sea (and one another). Then struggle with evolution.

What do we hold onto? What should we hold onto? What can we honor and what can we let go of?

From the Playwright

Societal conversations about transness tend to skew conceptual. People forget about proof of gender variance in nature. I wanted to look at the history of this variance and explore how we can better understand transness and fluidity by using the sea as a guide. In making this piece, I hope to re-evaluate my relationship to my body and the things I’ve tried to taxonomize. The relationships I've fossilized. I hope it will help audience members, readers, actors, directors, and designers do the same.

About the Playwright

Reid Pope (they/them) is a comedian, playwright, and Jew (despite the ironic last name). Their work has appeared in The New Yorker, PAPER, and Vulture. They are the Co-Creator, Executive Producer, and Head Writer of Going Down, a trans-led comedy news show on Brooklyn public access, and previously created and ran the writer’s room for Late Stage, featured in Them, Jezebel, and Teen Vogue.

Reid’s short film Lesbian Jesus Is Pregnant With Vibes premiered at NewFest in 2024. Their play amino amino amino amino amino amino amino amino amino was shortlisted for the 2024 Yale Drama Prize by Jeremy O. Harris, and Holocaust Lit! was selected for Fault Line Theatre’s Irons In The Fire.

Follow @rpopegram | reidpope.com
B.A. Brown | M.F.A. NYU | New Georges Affiliated Artist

Reading at the Maker’s Studio at Chelsea Market, August 28th, 2024. Pictured (left to right): T Mitsock as MAX, Ashil Lee as LILA, and Riylan Mills as Stage Directions. Photos by Allison Stock.

AUGUST 2024 READING CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM

TEAM
Playwright: Reid Pope (they/them)
Director: Jaye Hunt (they/them)
Stage Manager: Skylar Back (they/them)

CAST
Ashil Lee (they/he) – LILA
T Mitsock (she/her) – MAX
Riylan Mills (she/her) – Stage Directions

 
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