Diana Grisanti
Playwright | Educator
Selected Full-Length Plays
Mandatory
7w, 4m, plus a choir
Something bad went down between Matt and Fabi. Rumors swirl, and then the dominoes start to fall. Fabi tells a lie, a beloved guidance counselor loses her job, and more and more people get involved—students, parents, the boys' school. Local celebrity Joy Kimball decides to settle this issue. Justice is demanded. But is it for Fabi, or the counselor, or something else entirely?
Commissioned by Weber State University.
Produced under the title The Class of '94 at Weber State University. Directed by Jennifer A. Kokai.
Photos courtesy of Weber State University, 2018.
Photos courtesy of Actor's Theatre of Charlotte, 2015.
The Patron Saint of Losing Sleep
4w, 2m
Ada is a customer service specialist with a thirst for justice and a bout of insomnia. When she receives a call from a woman in need, she takes a trip and tries to help. But things go wrong. With the aid of pop psychiatry and divine intervention, Ada must confront her regrets, past and present, if she's ever going to sleep again.
Premiere: Actor's Theatre of Charlotte. Directed by Elissa Goetschius.
Subsequent productions:
Actors Bridge Ensemble (Nashville). Directed by Leah
Lowe.
Looking for Lilith (Louisville). Directed by Shannon
Wooley Allison.
Developed with Playwrights' Week at the Lark
Winner: nuVoices Festival, Actor's Theatre of Charlotte
Winner: InterAct Development Award
Finalist: Princess Grace Award
Runner-Up: Leah Ryan Award
Photos courtesy of Actor's Theatre of Charlotte, 2014.
Published by Dramatic Publishing Company.
River City
2w, 4m
Just weeks after her father’s death, Mary discovers a childhood photograph of him from a past he never talked about. Determined to excavate her heritage, Mary goes on a quest to uncover a half-century of secrets buried in the West End of Louisville, Kentucky.
National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere:
Actor's Theatre of Charlotte, dir. Ann Marie Costa
Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis), dir. Dale McFadden
Borderlands Theater (Tucson), dir. Esther Almazán
Subsequent productions:
Voices of the South (Memphis). Directed by Alice
Berry.
Theatre [502] (Louisville). Directed by Amy Attaway.
Winner: nuVoices Festival, Actor's Theatre of Charlotte
Winner: Austin Critics' Table David Mark Cohen New Play Award
Finalist: Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate
Playwriting Competition
Photo credit: Phillip Franck, 2019.
Bowling for Beginners
flexible; at least 8, majority w & nb
They train. They bowl. They attend class. They climb Jacob’s Ladder. And then they do it all again the next day. Bowling for Beginners is a theatrical exploration of a world inhabited by championship female athletes in a sport with few spectators. But once you understand the game, you'll learn what it takes to win.
Recipient of a Vanderbilt University Sports and
Society Micro-Grant
Developed at Vanderbilt University with Dr. Christin
Essin.
Productions:
Commonwealth Theatre Center, dir. Mitchell Martin
Vanderbilt University, dir. David Ian Lee
Indiana University, dir. Jenny McKnight
Photo credit: Bill Brymer, 2015.
The Two Lobbyists of Verona
(co-written with Steve Moulds)
flexible, but probably 6w, 4m
Welcome to fair Verona, where we lay our scene—Verona, Kentucky, that is. This small Rust Belt town has just been wrecked by a massive storm (a tempest, actually). The storm’s silver lining? Undiscovered oil and gas deposits buried deep within the shale. While lobbyists promise unprecedented prosperity in exchange for some “light fracking,” County Council President Katie Connelly fights to spare her town further destruction with her own plan to jumpstart the local economy: The World of Will, a one-stop shop for all things Shakespeare. Will Verona become the next Stratford-upon-Avon? Or will theatrical invention fall before the mighty power of big oil? The Two Lobbyists of Verona is a comedy about loyalty and betrayal, ambition and defeat. There’s also some iambic pentameter in there, with respect to the Bard.
Commissioned by Theatre [502]
Co-Produced by Theatre [502] and Kentucky
Shakespeare. Directed by Amy Attaway.
Subsequent production: Santa Fe Playhouse. Directed
by Vaughn Irving.
Abilene, a play with songs
3w, 2m
A week before her 18th birthday, Louise and her stepbrother Justin run away from Texas to start a new life in Nashville. But when their parents follow them, Justin’s country music dreams get sidetracked, and Louise's birthday party implodes.
Developed with Cohen New Works Festival, UT Austin
Finalist: Jerome Fellowship
Semantics
2w, 2m
Fifteen years after founding a social justice organization in Central Mexico, Joyce returns to the US to be with her ex-husband Héctor, a linguist, and their daughter Sara, a grad school dropout. The reasons for Joyce’s leaving Mexico are unclear, and Sara grows suspicious. Semantics is a play about language, wealth, US paternalism, and the limits of good intentions.
Finalist: Playwrights' Week at the Lark
Finalist: New Harmony Project