Wray as a Writer: My Inspiration
As a teen I learned history classes didn't always tell the full story. As a playwright my focus has been on history - on giving new and truer portrayals. As a Virginian I knew much of our nation's history - the laws, customs, biases and ideas, started here. Much was unjust and harmful - much has persisted and affects our lives today. As a country we must gain a clearer view of where things started and why - if we want change. I do.
My Community
It takes a community to get a new play "stage-ready." My community has become statewide through the efforts of Virginia Playwrights Forum and my work as an Ambassador for the Dramatists Guild of America. This community includes fellow playwrights, actors, directors, organizations, venues, and audiences all across Virgina - all who support
new works for the stage.
I am grateful for all.
My Work / My Journey
My call to write about Southampton has been an interesting journey. It focused my work on history. In July 2021, the call became intense when I learned of my genealogy, that I'm a descendent of Catherine Whitehead, whose farm was attacked during the slave rebellion. She, and six other relatives, were slain. I had written my play on Nat Turner 13 years ago. It has played across the country getting rave reviews since. I began to wonder if I would've written the play the same had I known about Catherine. Months later after finding out more about my family, especially the one who survived and what happened to her - I'm glad I wrote about Nat the way I did, and I would do it again. There is an evilness about slavery and oppression, we have a right, and perhaps a duty - to rebel against it.
My River of Struggle Play Series
Historical-Based, Relevant to Struggles in America Today
Based on Virginia history, this series of plays begins in colonial times when Elizabeth Key, a mixed-raced woman, fought and won her freedom from chattel slavery in the courts. This set off a chain of laws, customs and attitudes that continue to cause harm today. The Nat Turner Last Struggle plays explore the motives and show the humanity of a man who sought freedom through a bloody revolt against white slaveholders in Southampton County, Virginia.
Two other plays feature a white Virginian who was considered a traitor to Virginia because of their stands against slavery, and for preserving the Union. General George Henry Thomas broke from his native state to go fight for the North, and he won decisive battles that helped end the war. Elizabeth Van Lew, daughter of rich slaveholders in Richmond, risked it all while running a spy-ring in the Capital of the Confederacy to help Grant free the city from the real traitors, and - break the chains from the enslaved waiting in slave jails near her home. Places that had haunted her for years.
Two more plays will be in the series: one inspired by Wray's experiences as a student at Virginia Commonwealth University in the early 1970's during student uprisings against the Vietnam War and racial inequality. The last will take Wray back to Southampton County to explore the stories surrounding her past relatives,
WRAYS ANTI-ISM PLAYS
EXCITE THE HEART WITH JUSTICE
End the plague of Mass Incarceration
Stop the School to Prison Pipeline
Take Profit out of Our Justice System
FIGHT LIKE A GIRL
Equal Rights for Women Around the World
will Change the World!!
Let's do it! Let's fight like a Girl
for the Girls!!!
ANTI-ISM Plays - AGANIST THE THINGS THAT HARM US & OTHERS
WRAYS CURRENT PLAYS AGAINST:
RACISM, SOCIAL INJUSTICE, PARTRIARCHY, ABLEISM, PATERNALISM, AGEISM, SEXISM, LGBTQ BIAS
Full Length
- Love Songs for the road - when an older widow falls and becomes incapacitated, her son throws her lover out and takes over her assets and life with a forged power of attorney, showing the vulnerableness of the aged, and need for all to get wills, power of attorney, and medical directives
Produced, needs revising
One Acts:
- Damn Occupancy Rate! - shows the corrupting influence of for-profit prisons in a small, ambitious town in Florida during the Trump administration (shorter version - titled,
Marco and Neil)
Produced as a short, needs workshop
- Kim's Rage - set in an Asian country, an acid attack reveals the objectification and abuse of poor women by men of power, and by poor men who abandon their women - in a twist it shows there are plenty of women who abuse other women
Written, produced, open to revising
- What If Everything You Knew About Santa Was A Lie? a comedic feminist's take on who really makes Christmas happen - it's Mrs. Clause, and she's fed up with Santa getting all the credit, and with - the anti-gay bias shown to one elf by the Chief Elf, so she enlists both to help carry out her plan to take over the flying sleigh ride and deliver the toys
Written, multiple productions, open to revison
EQUAL RIGHTS - MEAN EQUAL!!
LOVE IS LOVE
MARRIAGE IS MARRIAGE
RIGHT TO WORK IS RIGHT
RIGHT TO PURCHASE IS RIGHT
RIGHT TO BE IS RIGHT
SCIENCE IS SCIENCE
HERE'S THE TRUTH - IT'S ON US TO HELP OTHERS BE
BELIEVE ALL CAN ACHIEVE AND GROW - IN GARDENS FILLED WITH LOVE AND OPPORTUNITY
WRAY'S AGAINST-ISM PLAYS CONT'D
Long Shorts
- A Slipery Slope - set in a religious middle school, a student gets thrown into the culture wars when he gives a report on same-sex, shore bird couples raising chicks together
Final Draft, Multiple Productions
Published: Blue Moon Plays
- She’s Gotta Go - sexism, otherism, captivity, slavery and “hurt causes hurt” are on display in this comedic story of an eccentric woman and her pets, who turn on her after a freedom-seeking Macaw Parrot arrives
Written, needs
workshop production
- Shylock: The Jew Shakespeare Drew - reveals the harm and pain of anti-semitism, and the oft hidden meaning in art, when Shylock takes Shakespeare to court
Written, needs
workshop production
Short Monologue
- The Last Goodbye - a mourner gives an eulogy on the loss of a childhood friend who had Down's Syndrome, it exposes the harm and pain of abelism, and not just on the disabled
Written, needs development
Where Wray's Plays Have Played
The American Theatre, Hampton, Virginia
The Wayne Theatre, Waynesboro, Virginia
Conejo Players Theatre, Thousand Oaks, California
The Wells, Norfolk, Virgina
2nd Row - All Norfolk Theatres
Generic Theatre Down-under Chrysler Hall,
Little Theatre of Norfolk
The Venue on 35th
Bottom Row - Live Arts, Charlottesville, Festivals
Live Arts (Celebration Arts, Sacramento, Ca. not shown)
looking for playS to: producE OR workshop and deveLOP
PLAYS PUBLISHED & READY TO GO!!
OBTAIN RIGHTS FROM BLUE MOON PLAYS (see production history in bio info)
Nat's Last Struggle - solo full length, run time - 1 hour
Nat Turner's Last Struggle: Finding His Way Home - two-character full length, run time - 80
minutes
A Slippery Slope - three-character short play, run - 15 minutes
PRODUCED PLAYS / OPEN TO REVISING
LEAVE A MESSAGE IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THESE PLAYS (see production history in bio info)
Kim's Rage - three-character, all female, one act, run time about 30 minutes
What If Everything You Knew About Santa Was A Lie? - four-character one act, run time 50-60
minutes
Damn Occupancy Rate!! - four-character one act, run time - 30-45 minutes
Shylock: The Jew Shakespeare Drew - four character 10-15 minutes
PLAYS IN DEVELOPMENT
THESE PLAYS ARE IN DEVELOPMENT / WILL NEED WORKSHOP SOON - LEAVE A MESSAGE IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BRINGING THEM IN FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT AND WORKSHOP
Full-length:
In the Presence of Fire Eaters - four major characters, multiple others can be played by 2 or 3
more actors - full-length - around 90 minutes
The Truth Be Told: The Passing of General George Henry Thomas - five-character full length,
run time around 90 minutes
No One Knows Her Song - five-character full length, run time around 90 minutes
Shorts:
She's Gotta Go - four-character short play, run time 20 minutes
The Last Goodbye - short monologue, run time - 5-7 minutes
PLAYS UNDERGOING MAJOR REVISIONS
THESE TWO FULL-LENGHTS ARE ON THE BACK BURNER - WILL UPGRADE ON THIS SITE WHEN THEY ARE IN BETTER SHAPE
Bording House Requiem
Love Songs for the Road
Reviews and Comments on Wray's Plays (coming)
Stay tuned.
THIS PLACE, WHAT HAPPENED HERE - MATTERS
THIS PLACE, WHAT HAPPENED HERE - MATTERS
THIS PLACE, WHAT HAPPENED HERE - MATTERS
It really matters to me since finding out Catherine Whitehead is my 4th Great Grandmother
It matters that rebelling enslaved men killed 7 of my relatives
It matters that one survived the attack - Harriet, and she suffered PTSD afterwards
It matters that a neighboring farmer in an effort to grob land and enrich himself played Harriet and stol
It really matters to me since finding out Catherine Whitehead is my 4th Great Grandmother
It matters that rebelling enslaved men killed 7 of my relatives
It matters that one survived the attack - Harriet, and she suffered PTSD afterwards
It matters that a neighboring farmer in an effort to grob land and enrich himself played Harriet and stole her land
It matters that she got it back
There are Stories here, that need to be told
There are Remembrances and Honoring that needs to happen
There is Healing that needs to take place on both sides
There are Bridges that need to be built
I purchased almost 5 acres of land as near to the Whitehead farm as I could
There I hope, with the help of many, to start filling those needs in Southampton and beyond
I envision a Remembrance and Unity Garden
a Place of Peace in the woods
I see an outdoor performance area in the clearing
I intend to use the Arts - Storytelling, Theater, Music, Dance, Visual Arts
anything and everything good-minded people and artists can bring to the table.
I already have some people and organizations on board
If you have something to offer, ideas, comments about The SH Project, info or stories about the Whitehead family or others lost or involved, if you want to help or play a part - please leave a message.
Where's This
THIS PLACE, WHAT HAPPENED HERE - MATTERS
THIS PLACE, WHAT HAPPENED HERE - MATTERS
"Some seventy miles below Richmond, in the southeastern part of Virginia along the North Carolina border, lay a little-known backwater called Southampton County. It was a rolling, densely forested area, with farms, plantations, and crossroad villages carved out of the woods.
In 1831 most of the farms were hardly distinguishable from one
"Some seventy miles below Richmond, in the southeastern part of Virginia along the North Carolina border, lay a little-known backwater called Southampton County. It was a rolling, densely forested area, with farms, plantations, and crossroad villages carved out of the woods.
In 1831 most of the farms were hardly distinguishable from one another - the houses were charmless, two-story rectangles, surrounded by haystacks and corn and cotton patches."
- Stephen Oates, The Fires of Jubilee:
Why Is This House Important
THIS PLACE, WHAT HAPPENED HERE - MATTERS
Why Is This House Important
- "What matters about this landscape still is its emotional power. I have seen people’s reactions and they are something. There is something amazing about standing by the ruins of the Whitehead House.
- [the farmer] "showed me the site where the former owner disposed of the old Whitehead family grave stones to gain more plowing space
- I hav
- "What matters about this landscape still is its emotional power. I have seen people’s reactions and they are something. There is something amazing about standing by the ruins of the Whitehead House.
- [the farmer] "showed me the site where the former owner disposed of the old Whitehead family grave stones to gain more plowing space
- I have made my way to the spot where Turner’s ally Hark cut off Katherine Whitehead’s head at her doorstep. We have seen what is said to be the chimney corner where Margaret Whitehead hid before Turner caught her and killed her a short ways away
- There is a rise just before the old house and it was on this hump that locals laid out the bloody remains of the Whitehead family after the revolt so that arriving militia men from other counties could get fired up before going off to exact revenge on what survived of the enslaved and free black population.
- Philip Levy, Phd. Univ of Fla,