Michelle Deines is the author of several plays, including Sense & Sensibility, and A Dog at a Feast.
Produced by Capilano University Theatre in 2022. Directed by William Dow. Photo by Brian Ball, featuring Jasmine Eadie as the Cheshire Cat and Jaymie Gunn as Lorina.
About: 11-year old Alice and her 13-year old sister Lorina have been sent to stay with their grandfather. But when a storm makes the roads impassible, they seek shelter in an isolated house full of mirrors and strange occupants, including a White Rabbit and a creature hiding inside a mirror who looks a like a giant cat.
Set in our modern era, Lost in Wonderland is free adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classics Alice in Wonderland andThrough the Looking-Glass. It follows the stories of both sisters, who are each drawn into a magical world—Alice into Wonderland, and Lorina into the Looking-Glass Realm. Separated and alone, they must each call upon the courage they never knew they had to make their way past bloodthirsty queens, through backwardsy-worlds, and back home to one another.
Length: 2 Acts.
Cast: Minimum 12 (up to 22). Gender requirements flexible. 2 f for Alice and Lorina but all other parts can be cross-cast.
Produced by Yellow Point Drama Club, Nanaimo BC in 2022. Directed by Michael Armstrong. Featuring Moira Fox as Suzanne, Ken Hiebert as Joe, Chrissy Kemppi as Vicki and Michael Robinson as Roger.
About: Vicki made her dad Joe a promise—that after he died, she’d take his ashes to his hometown of Medicine Hat, Alberta, and scatter them in the river. What she didn’t count on, though, was how hard the trip would be—it’s a long way from Vancouver Island to Alberta, after all, especially when you’re really not supposed to be to driving alone. Or at all. So she convinces her pal Suzanne to go with her—and conveniently forgets to tell her brother Roger that she’s taken the ashes from their father’s grave herself.
(Needless to say, he finds out.)
Told through scenes on the road and flashbacks that tell the story of the last years of Joe’s life, The Nighthawks is a heartfelt but unsentimental comedy about family, friendship, the struggle to accept responsibility for our mistakes—and to find a way to forgive the ones we love the most.
Length: 2 Acts.
Cast: 2 m, 2 f.
Produced by Capilano University Theatre in 2018. Directed by Bob Frazer.
About: Two very different sisters—Marianne, free-spirited and romantic, and Elinor, sensible and reserved—find themselves thrown into an unkind world when their father dies.
Suddenly made poor and homeless by the rules of inheritance, Marianne and Elinor must leave their family estate with their mother and younger sister. They are not in their new home long, however, before Marianne falls in love with a man who appears to be a kindred spirit, but may be harboring secrets of his own. Meanwhile, Elinor suffers her own heartbreak but conceals her true feelings, even from Marianne.
In a world where rigid social conventions clash with impulses of the heart, Marianne and Elinor must navigate gossip and heartbreak before they can reconcile with each other, and find happiness. Adapted from the novel by Jane Austen.
Length: 2 Acts.
Cast: 17 (minimum, with doubling). 10 f; 7 m.
Produced by Bleeding Heart Theatre at the Vancouver Fringe 2016. Directed by Evan Frayne. Featuring Alison Kelly, Barbara Tomasic, and Lisa Goebel.
”Dog at a Feast is a real meal...The dialogue is sharp, funny and right on the money…a fast-paced, tell-it-like-it-is gem.” - Jo Ledingham, Vancouver Courier
“Michelle Deines’s script is smart and witty…I simply adored this play.” - Helen Martin, CiTR
About: Diane is an arts critic who glories in writing bloodthirsty reviews for the shows she thinks are sub-standard—which are most of them. Maya is an up-and-coming starlet who has been on a string of luck. Janet is a theatre veteran who sees things exactly as they are, and is therefore thoroughly depressed. One day, Janet approaches Diane about a new project, which unwittingly forces Diane to face her biggest fear. A dark comedy, A Dog at a Feast examines the power of the fear of judgement, and how we are all our own worst critics.
Length: One Act.
Cast: 3 f.
Co-writer (and director) with performer Kathryn Kirkpatrick (pictured). Produced by Working Spark Theatre in 2015 at the Shadbolt Centre, and in 2013 at the Firehall Arts Centre.
“I laughed! I cried!” – Plank Magazine | “A lot of fun, and with an underlying poignancy that is well-earned. Humperdinck should be proud!” – Vancouver Sun
About: 10-year-old Kathy must help out at meetings of the Engelbert Humperdinck Fan Club, Montreal Chapter, because her mother is Secretary. Secretly, Kathy begins to nurse an obsession with “Enge,” who seems to be the best candidate to help save her family from imminent collapse…
Nominated for the 2015 Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Outstanding New Script; Nominated for the 2013 Cultchivating the Fringe Award.
Length: One Act.
Cast: 1 f (who plays 8+ parts). Photo by Emily Cooper. *English with some French.
Produced by Lunchbox Theatre, Calgary, 2010. Directed by Pamela Halstead. Featuring Esther Purves-Smith and Trevor Leigh. Commissioned as part of the Lunchbox Theatre Petro-Canada Stage One Play Series.
About: Cordelia has lost something: her submarine. She travels all the way to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, and her only help comes in the form of Murdoch, a drunk funeral-goer who wants nothing to do with her.
Length: One Act.
Cast: 1 f; 1 m.
Script available through the Canadian Play Outlet.
Ghosts in Baghdad (Produced by Working Spark Theatre in 2014.) Nominated for the Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding New Script & Winner of the Special Merit Prize of Theatre BC’s Playwriting Competition of 2013.
The Toilet Paper Caper (Public reading at the Firehall Arts Centre BC Buds Festival, 2012). Nominated for the Stage West Family comedy Award 2013.
A Thousand Miles To Go (MFA Thesis Project, UBC 2011)
The Universal Knitting Revival Club (Site-specific short play performed at the Firehall Centre BC Buds Festival, 2011). Co-written with Kathryn Kirkpatrick
To the Moon (Produced by Working Spark Theatre, Vancouver Fringe 2007).
Please contact me to request the rights, or for any information on these scripts.