Tag Archives: 28 Plays Later

Marry Me a Little

TBM-2011.30 – Marry Me a Little

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Marry Me a Little

Description:

#audio. #readerstheatre #shortscenes Will and Yu’s relationship in three short scenes.

Excerpt:

YU: It’s funny isn’t it?

WILL: What do you mean?

YU: Well, in our parents’ time, marriage was the default. Now? I know so many couples who don’t marry until they’ve had children. Or even after.

WILL: Yeah. The question used to be when will you marry, or who. Not, you know… will you ever. (He takes a beat). Will you?

Links and References

Support

The Bathtub Mermaid is now on Patreon! If you like the stories and essays I share, and want to have occasional visits from Mei-Mei del Mare, please consider subscribing.

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using the Auphonic iPhone app and Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid album art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:10 — 8.5MB)

0746 - Blood and Bone

TBM-2005.19 – Blood and Bone

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0746 - Blood and Bone

Description:

#audio. #flashfiction Eliza muses while stitching a quilt.

Excerpt:

But before… before all the mass production that took the soul out of handwork we used needles made from bone. Oh, you modern stitchers will wrinkle your noses and call it disgusting, but those bone needles had a bit of a curve to them, made the sewing go smoother, and their points were sharper than what you know.

Links and References

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using the Auphonic iPhone app and Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid album art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:02 — 3.3MB)

joseph-greve-350488-unsplash

1908.25 – DDOP.25 – Parched

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joseph-greve-350488-unsplash

Description:

#Audio. #Monologue The Scaly Truth of a Suburban Mermaid This episode contains explicit language

Excerpt:

Ordinary humans are told to drink 8 glasses of water a day, but that’s assuming eight-ounce glasses. Me? There are days when eight gallons barely quench my thirst. My husband makes good money, and my patreons on my podcast keep me in spending money, but you don’t want to know what our water bill is like. Some days… some days the ice machine can’t even keep up with me when it’s set to ‘party mode.’

Links and References

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using the BossJock iPad app and Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid album art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Music used for the opening and closing is a mix of Chris Zabriskie’s “The Oceans Continue to Rise” from the Free Music Archive and Kevoy’s clip of whales off the coast of French Polynesia from Freesound.
  • Chris Zabriskie’s song is also used under some readings.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:12 — 4.2MB)

wind power farm on the coastal mud flat in sunrise

1908.16 – DDOP.16 – Water to the Sea

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wind power farm on the coastal mud flat in sunrise

Description:

#Audio. #Monologue Use an idiom or cliche as a literal impetus for a play.

Excerpt:

I look in the mirror and I see myself reflected back, and if I look more closely, look into my own eyes, I see my own reflected reflection. I search for purpose and find only algae and plankton, as if I live only to keep my section of the ocean free of tiny things.

Links and References

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using the BossJock iPad app and Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid album art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Music used for the opening and closing is a mix of Chris Zabriskie’s “The Oceans Continue to Rise” from the Free Music Archive and Kevoy’s clip of whales off the coast of French Polynesia from Freesound.
  • Chris Zabriskie’s song is also used under some readings.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:32 — 7.1MB)

Womanhood

TBM-1808.19 – DDOP-019: Wo(Man)Hood

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Womanhood

Description:

#Audio. #monologue Composite character study about anxiety and gender dysphoria.

Excerpt:

At the beginning of my last semester of my senior year of high school, I finally broke. I would go to school in a dress and something would shift in the middle of the day – I’d see my reflection in the glass window of a classroom door – and think I’m in the wrong clothes. I’m not supposed to have breasts. But then there were other days when I would go to school with no makeup, in a t-shirt that was baggy enough to hide my breasts, and in jeans I’d stolen from my brother, and I’d feel really good, until I’d catch some other guy staring at my chest.

I was confused. I felt alone, isolated, broken. I couldn’t function.

I asked for help, and it came in the form of Prozac.

I was worried, at first. I’d heard anti-depressants can stifle your creativity, but while that may be true for some people, it wasn’t true for me.

Links and References

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using the BossJock iPad app and Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid album art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Music used for the opening and closing is a mix of Chris Zabriskie’s “The Oceans Continue to Rise” from the Free Music Archive and Kevoy’s clip of whales off the coast of French Polynesia from Freesound.
  • Chris Zabriskie’s song is also used under some readings.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:19 — 11.9MB)

TBM-1808.05 – DDOP-005: Body Positive

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LoveYourBody30_sm by Nuchtchas

Description:

#Audio. A monologue about truth and art written for the 2018 28 Plays Later challenge.

Excerpt:

I mean, let’s be honest, I’m not in my twenties anymore. Hell, it’s been a while since I’ve seen thirty. Or forty. I’ve had a child – nursed her – I’ve never completely gotten over my love affair with carbs. I hate working out. I have dance training, but I’ve never been a natural dancer, and there’s a reason I play character parts.

My body shows all of that. My body is the reason.

But even without that…. Even without just one of those things, I’ve always been the girl – the woman – who was teased for being fat. Who had to wear a bra at the age of eight. Who is always too short and too loud and too hairy and too busty and too round.

(I mean, seriously, in the event of a water landing, my tits are built-in flotation devices).

Links and References

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using the BossJock iPad app and Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid album art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Music used for the opening and closing is a mix of Chris Zabriskie’s “The Oceans Continue to Rise” from the Free Music Archive and Kevoy’s clip of whales off the coast of French Polynesia from Freesound.
  • Chris Zabriskie’s song is also used under the readings.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:54 — 14.4MB)