"THINGS I LEARNED IN ISOLATION is a complete and truthful account of my experiences when I (along with the rest of the world) was put in into isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic. During that time none of us knew how long it would last. How many people would get sick. Or how our lives would be affected. So, I decided to document what happened to me as a way to make sense of my feelings and connect with others by sharing it all on Facebook. The result is a very funny but always honest account of the things I learned in isolation." - Mary Miller
"I am writing to thank Mary Miller for her play Things I Learned in Isolation. We certainly could relate to all the COVID references. However, for out-of-towners like myself the ending was forever memorable. Kudos to your theatre group and Mary Miller for so forthrightly addressing this contentious happening at this moment in history." - Hubbard, TX (Brunswick Actors Theatre Production)
The play, written and performed by award-winning playwright Mary Miller, is a 45-minute, one-woman show, staged as a lecture, where the audience will serve as guests to a very enthusiastic narrator!
Available for booking now!
Using the backdrop of the Rodney King beating in 1991 to mirror events happening today WITNESS has a ripped from the headlines intensity as it explores the divisions within a white American family living in Detroit, MI, and an African-American family living in Harlem, NY.
By combining these two stories through two different families, one white and one black; WITNESS cuts to the core of the humanity of both as the overlapping dialogue exposes the pervasive nature of poverty and the desperation that comes with it.
The genius of the play is the melding of the two stories into one, creating a uniquely theatrical experience, expanding the way we have a conversation about race, class, and social justice today.
Dedicated to Gordon Parks
WITNESS: YouTube Video Trailer (1:29)
ARTS MINISTRY MARBLE COLLEGIATE CHURCH, NEW YORK CITY, NY - Congratulations on a brilliant play!
"On Thursday, October 28, 2021 at the Historic Marble Collegiate Church in New York City there was a staged reading of this powerful and timely play WITNESS written by Mary Miller. It was directed by Pat Golden and sponsored by The Theatre Upstairs - Downstairs at Marble. WITNESS is an important and necessary play in this era of divisiveness. Mary Miller's narrative technique is genius and something I will never forget."
Arts Ministry at Marble Collegiate Church
Picture Credit: Douglas Powers
EUGENE O'NEILL NATIONAL PLAYWRIGHTS CONFERENCE -
Semifinalist
In April 2020 Mary Miller's play WITNESS was honored as a semifinalist in the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, where her voice as a writer was given a "full-throated endorsement" by the O'Neill committee and her ideas recognized as "vital to the continual evolution of American Theater."
Wendy C. Goldberg - Artistic Director
Lexy Leuszler - Literary Manager
THE ARMONK PLAYERS in Armonk, NY, presented a One-Night Only Special Pre-Production Preview of The SISTERS a new play by Mary Miller & Michael LaPolla Monday, May 22, 2023 @ 7:30 pm
The story takes place in New York City from spring to early autumn 1947.
Prior to the outbreak of World War II, the D’Alessandro family: Andrea D’Alessandro and his three beautiful sisters: Ornella, Marta, and Arena, leave the fascist and anti-Semitic climate in Italy for the safety of America. Settling in a tenement apartment in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, they must find a way to let go of their past, as they struggle to navigate an uncertain future.
The play delves into a topic not many people are familiar with when over 150,000 Italian Jews were sent to Auschwitz after Mussolini joined forces with Hitler.
The Sisters is the first of three multi-generational plays. The Grove, the second play, follows the life of Marta D’Alessandro (the middle sister), her marriage to Vito, their children, and life in 1983, in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Our third play, The Flock, concludes the story of D’Alessandro family through Marta’s and Vito’s grandchild in 2005. The plays were written to stand alone as well as to be done in rep. .
In a world where modern medicine and improved lifestyle has raised our life expectancy, the question of what to do with an aging population is one of the fastest most pervasive problem facing the world today.
IN THE KITCHEN: Thoughts on Love, Sex, and Aging is an insightful comedy that revolves around the lives of a mother and her three daughters who suddenly find themselves forced to navigate the pitfalls of old age when the girls discover their mother has left the gas stove burning all night.
Mixing current events with childhood memories plus a healthy fear of the future puts the women at odds with one another. Often sending them on a collision course that is as heartbreaking as it is hysterical as they grapple with the nature of aging and what to do if you are lucky enough to get old!
"Why the kitchen? Because that's where life unfolds...in the kitchen!"
Ferris Wheel