Carolyn Gage
  • Home
    • Butch Visibility Project
    • Bio and Vitae
    • Endorsements
    • Production History
    • Catalog of Books and Plays
    • Online Essays >
      • Lesbian Culture and History Essays
      • Theatre Essays
      • Feminist Essays
      • Reviews
    • Interviews >
      • Audio/Video Interviews
      • Print Interviews
  • Books and CD's
    • Gage Play Anthologies
    • Feminist Thought And Spirituality
    • Lesbian Theatre
    • CD's and DVD's
    • Anthologies with Other Authors
    • Journal Anthologies
  • Plays
    • One-Woman Shows >
      • The Second Coming of Joan of Arc
      • La Seconde Venue de Jeanne d'Arc
      • La segunda llegada de Juana de Arco
      • Joana Dark - a re-volta
      • Die Wiederkehr von Jeanne d'Arc
      • Giovanna d'Arco - la rivolta
      • ВТОРОТО ПРИШЕСТВИЕ НА ЖАНА Д’АРК (Bulgarian tranlsation of The Second Coming of Joan
      • 贞德再临_中文 (Mandarin translation of The Second Coming of Joan of Arc)
      • The Last Reading of Charlotte Cushman
      • Crossing the Rapelands
    • Musicals >
      • The Amazon All-Stars
      • Babe! An Olympian Musical
      • How to Write a Country-Western Song
      • Leading Ladies
      • Women on the Land
    • Full-Length Plays >
      • The Abolition Plays
      • The Anastasia Trials in the Court of Women
      • AXED!
      • Black Star
      • Coming About
      • Esther and Vashti
      • The Goddess Tour
      • In McClintock's Corn
      • Restell
      • Sappho in Love
      • The Spindle
      • Stigmata
      • Thanatron
      • Ugly Ducklings
    • One-Acts >
      • Ain't Got No - I Got Life
      • The A-Mazing Yamashita and the Millennial Gold-Diggers
      • Artemisia and Hildegard
      • Battered on Broadway
      • Bite My Thumb
      • The Boundary Trial of John Proctor
      • Cookin' with Typhoid Mary
      • The Countess and the Lesbians
      • The Drum Lesson
      • Easter Sunday
      • Entr'acte or The Night Eva Le Gallienne Was Raped
      • The Evil That Men Do: The Story of Thalidomide
      • Female Nude Seated
      • The Gage and Mr. Comstock
      • The Greatest Actress Who Ever Lived
      • Harriet Tubman Visits A Therapist
      • Head in the Game
      • Hermeneutic Circlejerk
      • Heterosexuals Anonymous
      • Jane Addams and the Devil Baby
      • A Labor Play
      • Lace Curtain Irish
      • Lighting Martha
      • Little Sister
      • Louisa May Incest
      • Mason-Dixon
      • The Obligatory Scene
      • The P.E. Teacher
      • The Parmachene Belle
      • The Pele Chant
      • Planchette
      • The Poorly-Written Play Festival
      • Radicals
      • Reef Point
      • The Rules of the Playground
      • St. Frances and the Fallen Angels
      • Souvenirs from Eden
      • Starpattern
      • 'Til the Fat Lady Sings
      • Valerie Solanas At Matteawan
    • Short Short Plays >
      • 52 Pickup
      • At Sea
      • Black Eye
      • El Bobo
      • Brett Hears the Mountain Gods
      • Calamity Jane Sends a Message to Her Daughter
      • The Clarity of Pizza
      • The Great Fire
      • Hrotsvitha's Vision
      • The Intimacy Coordinator
      • The Ladies' Room
      • Miss Le Gallienne Announces the New Season
      • On the Other Hand
      • Patricide
      • The Pickle Play
    • Dramatic Adaptations >
      • Amy Lowell: In Her Own Words
      • Brett Remembers
      • Deep Haven
      • El Bobo (one-act play)
      • El Bobo (short screenplay)
      • Emily & Sue >
        • Touring Production of Emily & Sue >
          • The Creative Team
          • Director's Vision
          • Adaptor's notes
          • Open Me Carefully
      • Georgia and the Butch
      • I Have Come to Show You Death
      • Speak Fully The One Awful Word
      • We Too Are Drifting (Screenplay)
    • Special Index: Plays That Deal with Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls
    • Special Index: Plays Featuring Old and Middle-Aged Actresses
    • Special Index: Women's History Plays
    • Special Index: Romantic Plays with Happy Endings
  • Touring Work
    • Performances >
      • Lace Curtain Irish
      • Crossing the Rapelands
      • The Parmachene Belle (performance)
      • Calamity Jane Sends a Message to Her Daughter (performance)
      • Gage on Stage
    • Lectures >
      • Lizzie Borden and Lesbian Theatre
      • The Secret Life of Lesbians
      • Paradigms and Paradigm-Shifting
      • When Sex Is Not the Metaphor For Intimacy
      • Meeting the Ghost of Hamlet's Father
      • A Theatrical Journey Through Maine's Lesbian History
      • Tara and Other Lies
      • Teena Brandon's Inconvenient Truth
    • Workshops >
      • The Art of the Dramatic Monologue
      • Acting Lesbian
      • Interrupting Racism: A Workshop
      • Playwriting Techniques for Poets and Fiction Writers
      • Ugly Ducklings Workshop
    • Residencies
    • The Lesbian Tent Revival >
      • Testimonials
      • The Lesbian Tent Revival Radio Hour Podcasts
      • The Lesbian Tent Revival Sermon on Dying Well
      • Sermons for a Lesbian Tent Revival
      • Supplemental Sermons
      • Hotter Than Hell
      • The Synapse Pendant
    • Cauldron & Labrys >
      • A Brief History
      • Upcoming Productions
  • Calendar
  • Contact/Storefront
    • Privacy Policy
  • Blog

Planchette
Paperback
eBook (PDF)
eBook (EPUB)

Kindle

PictureFrom the Maine Playwrights Festival production



VIEW VIDEO CLIPS:

Clip 1: Mollie and Jude communicate by using planchette, an early version of the Ouija board.

Clip 2: Jude explains her plan for an independent life on the frontier.

Clip 3: Mollie's father confronts Jude on her wearing of men's clothes.




  • 2024, Thirty Scenes for Young Women, Ages 15 - 30, ed. by Irene Ziegler, Smith &Kraus.
  • 2023, Capital Q Festival, Stage Q, Madison, WI.
  • 2018, Point Park University, Pittsburgh, PA
  • 2017, included in Queerly Loving Anthology.
  • 2017 Fresh Fruit Spirit Award, Fresh Fruit Festival, NYC.
  • Included in Smith & Kraus’ anthology, The Best Women's Stage Monologues of 2017.
  • 2016 Fresh Fruit Festival, NYC.
  • 2016 Maine Playwrights Festival (winner "People's Choice Award."
  • 2015 Snowlion Playlabs (reading), Portland, ME.
  • 2015 published in Be Wilder: A Word Portland Anthology.
  • 2015 Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (reading)
  • 2015 Hewnoaks Art Colony (excerpt), Center Lovell, ME.

 "If I had read a plot synopsis, I am not sure I would have been game.  But as it unfolds, it was quite wonderful... touching without being sentimental.  Compassionate writing that lets the audience come up with the empathy and concern, while the girls are just being who they are.  Lately I feel like I see one show after another to the point where they blur and nothing stays with me.  But scenes and snippets from the Planchette appear before my mind's eye again and again, clear as a bell.  That's a beautiful creation." --John K, Portland, Maine.


It is the first nor’easter of the season in October 1879, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Mollie Clifford is fourteen and her parents have arranged for another young person to stay over for the night.

The visitor is a classmate named Judith who goes by "Jude," also fourteen. Jude has just arrived from Denver, which, in 1879 is still very much the frontier. Jude wears boys clothing and does not have much use for the “steady habits” of the East.

Mollie has been traumatized by the infamous murder of two women on the Isles of Shoals, and Jude has survived a fire that was set by her mentally ill mother. In addition to their experiences with trauma, both are also carrying adult secrets. Mollie is attracted to women, and Jude identifies as male.


Their evening is interrupted by Mollie’s father, a minister, who humiliates Jude with a lecture on the sinfulness of wearing the clothing of the opposite sex.

The young people use “planchette,” an early prototype of the Ouija board, to communicate the truths that are taboo.

Two young people, both 14, one born female with traditional gender presentation and the other born female with masculine gender presentation.
Single set
30 minutes



Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.