Works written by Salwa Meghjee
ENDER’S GAY
OBLIGATE CARNIVORES
LOVE JIHAD <3
MAKE BELIEVERS
MAKE HAPPY
WORD PLAY
U-HAUL MESBIANS
THE MYSTERIOUS MYSTERY OF THE LOST LETTERS
99 PLAYS OF ALLAH
A PLAY FOR ME AND YOU
HEMISPHERES
THE BETTER BANANA
Synopses:
Ender’s Gay – Laiba is obsessed with proving to her Remedial English teacher Mr. Pratt that Ender from the 1985 sci-fi novel Ender’s Game is gay, despite the author Orson Scott Card’s documented homophobia. She comes to believe she is Ender and must fall in gay love with her classmate Jannat to save the world. Mr./Colonel Pratt also tells her to kill all the birds, who are the buggers, except they’re also gay, and they talk to her and want her to be their queen, but they’re also maybe in cahoots with Orson Scott Card, and by the way, the end of the world is tomorrow.
Obligate Carnivores – v1 – Maira is unsuccessfully trying to turn her cat vegan, her boyfriend Trevor is trying to go to space without her, her family’s trying to get her or her sister married to a Good Muslim Man, and in a desperate attempt to avoid devouring or being devoured by everyone she loves, Maira makes some drastic and unconventional diet changes for her and her cat. All the while, she just can’t seem to rid herself of a headless chicken that follow her everywhere she goes.
Love Jihad <3 – A Prophet Muhammad impersonator takes the right-wing Indian conspiracy theory of love jihad, in which Muslim men seduce, marry, and forcefully convert Hindu women, to. a new level in America. As he guides Zeyna, a Muslim-Indian-American woman, through converting and marrying blond American men, Zeyna must confront how her family’s history, their conversion to Islam, and their migration across the world have fundamentally shaped who she is. Love Jihad is about how both global history and personal heritage shape who we become, and what it means to connect to our roots.
Make Believers – Twin A and Twin B are identical. Twin B is depressed. Twin A is not depressed. If they do a twin study, sit back-to-back, delve into the past, reveal secrets, and crack some eggs, maybe they can figure out why.
Make Happy – It’s my birthday! I cry on my birthday, every year. It’s an integral part of the experience. Let’s celebrate!
Word Play – When the Warden of Words outlaws the creation of new words, the words refuse to print in protest. Haiku poet Paulie and his half-paper friend Ellouie must adventure to convince the words to print again and to repair Ellouie’s paper heart that is ripping apart.
U-Haul Mesbians – When Alaina and Zaamenah reveal to their traditional Muslim families that Alaina’s birthday party is actually their lesbian wedding, their families put them on trial for their crimes of lying and homosexuality. A play with music about marrying culture, religion, and the modern world.
The Mysterious Mystery of the Lost Letters – Zoe is an assistant to Detective Davis Darvis, an incompetent amateur who does not appreciate her talents. When he accepts a case regarding an old woman’s stolen letters, he rejects Zoe’s proposal to help. She teams up with her friend Isaac in a race to solve the case before Darvis does, using her wit combined with Isaac’s botanical knowledge to aid their search. Their adventure brings them across an elderly pro-wrestler, a duck-obsessed cult, a knitting gang, and more as they try to find the lost letters.
Bio:
Salwa Meghjee is a Muslim-Indian-Floridian writer. She is currently in the playwriting program at Juilliard, and holds a BA from UC Berkeley and an MFA from Northwestern. She has developed work with her production company Pizza Party Press co-founded with Sarah Marlin, as well as Soho Rep, Playwrights’ Center, The New Victory Theater, National Queer Theater, Trove, Mudlark Theater, 24 Hour Plays: Nationals, Sanguine Theatre Company, The Tank, UC Berkeley, and The Golden Theatre Company. Her plays are surreal, darkly comic, lean into the serendipity of live theater, and illuminate the big unnameable feelings we all have that we can’t explain. They have fun titles such as Love Jihad <3 (Clubbed Thumb Biennial Semi-Finalist), Obligate Carnivores, Make Happy, U-Haul Mesbians, Ender’s Gay, Never Forget That Jasper Cullen Was a Confederate Soldier, and, written with her twin sister Samah, The Mysterious Mystery of the Lost Letters and The Better Banana™ (Brooklyn Publishers). salwameghjee.com