Plays by Jennifer Rumberger:
THE LOCUSTS
NIGHT IN ALACHUA COUNTY
THE NIGHT SWIMMERS
OPEN BLUE SKY
LAURA’S PARTY
VULPECULA
WE GO WHEN WE’RE READY TO GO
A LITTLE GHOST STORY
Synopses:
The Locusts – When a serial killer goes on a gruesome rampage in Ella’s small hometown of Vero Beach, Florida, she’s called up from her busy career in the FBI to help apprehend him. At home, she’s confronted with the life she left behind: her pregnant and struggling sister, her scared young niece, who like Ella, is desperate to find a life somewhere else, and the dark events of her childhood that she’s tried to forget. As the murders grow more horrific and the small community is frozen by fear, Ella realizes she has to confront the events of her dark past in order to stop him.
Night in Alachua County – Violet always knew she’d return to save her sister Lily from the clutches of their unrelenting and controlling mother Crystal one day. But when Lily calls her claiming to have seen a strange man in her bedroom, Violet knows that time is now. Crystal has other plans for Lily, however, and she’s not about to let anyone — not even her own daughter — stand in her way.
The Night Swimmers – On a dreary evening in early spring, Kate and Mamie find themselves stranded at a Radisson Hotel off a highway in Illinois after Kate’s car breaks down on the way to Mamie’s bachelorette weekend in Chicago. At the same time, Melissa, a traveling nurse, arrives at the hotel for a job interview with her reluctant niece, Neyla, in tow. The four women spend the weekend stranded at the hotel pool, along with the hotel maid, Willie, as they search for their paths as women in America today and confront the deep sense of loneliness that permeates each of their lives.
Open Blue Sky – It’s early morning the day before Bailey Lawrence’s wedding in her faded family home. Natalie, Ansley, and Caroline are all there, helping with the preparations, when their estranged sister Abby arrives from New York. Family tensions flare as the wedding gets closer, and Bailey tries to find out why Abby is truly there. As the weekend moves on and family secrets arise, the sisters hinge on breaking apart for good.
Laura’s Party – On a summer night in Chicago, a party rages for Laura, who just got cast in SNL. On her apartment’s back porch, her friends contemplate what this means for them as they try and figure out their paths towards the future.
Vulpecula – One morning in 1875, Harper wakes in her Montana cabin to find her husband murdered and her baby daughter gone, her crib covered in blood. After thirteen years of mourning, her sister Charlotte crosses the country to pull her out of her grief. Vulpecula is a play about the struggle of terrible loneliness, the moral cost of violence, and the importance of our human connections in the great and empty space of a country being born.
We Go When We’re Ready to Go – An adult woman is caring for her dying father in the last days of his life. Her sisters and her mother are there, trying to help but mostly making a mess of things. All the women are attempting to make sense of their life choices in the face of their millennial despair while the world falls apart around them. This is a surreal black comedy about dealing with sickness and death in an era of climate change and uncertainty.
A Little Ghost Story – Lettie doesn’t believe in ghosts, but when her father Jake reports that strange things are happening in the middle of the night she drops everything and heads home; to the house in Florida she grew up in, the house her dad is renovating, the house where – ten months ago – her sister Mara died of an opioid overdose. Convinced her father is in denial, but unable to shake the haunted feeling at home, Lettie calls in her skeptic sister Claire to strengthen her resolve. With the holidays approaching, one family struggles to move forward in a home that, even gutted, holds tight to memories of the past.
Bio:
Jennifer Rumberger is a playwright and essayist. Her play The Locusts premiered in October 2022 with The Gift Theatre Company in Chicago. Other recent productions include Night in Alachua County with Wildclaw Theatre and Open Blue Sky at Stella Adler/ Tisch School of the Arts. Jennifer’s work has been developed or presented by The Lark Playwrights Center, id Theatre Company, The Gift Theatre Company, Black Box Acting Studio, The Living Room Playmakers, Commission Theatre Company, Wordsmyth Theatre Company, White Rose Miami, Northwestern University, The Seven Devils Playwrights Conference and Chicago Dramatists. She was a nominee for the PoNY Fellowship and a semifinalist for the P73 Playwriting Fellowship, as well as a recipient of the 2021 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship Award and a 2022 Tennessee Williams Scholar at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She is an adjunct professor at Northwestern University and performs her essays and nonfiction at live storytelling events. MFA: Northwestern.
Website: www.jenniferrumbergerplays.com