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The term parley derives from the French verb parler: to speak. Historically, a parley was a meeting between adversaries in order to negotiate an end to battle. To signal a willingness to talk peaceably, armies would run up a white flag.
Writing is a solitary act, and isolated creatives can become defensive. By committing to an ongoing process of creation, feedback, and production, we surrender the lone struggle and move forward together. |
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Storytelling is a performance. Parley's brand-new literary magazine, Parley Lit, is available online NOW and features poetry, drama, and performance from a curated selection of writers we dig. Visit www.parleylit.com and check it out! |
Issue One is up! 
(click me)
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Is your family in crisis? Do you feel like your roof is caving in? Is your relationship to living in this country too painful to parse? Is your family history obscured, yet strangely present? Do you feel like you’re breaking? |
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Proofs: Episode 5 Our popular YouTube webseries will be back! |
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Issue #2 of Parley's literary magazine will be released in time for Valentine's Day ... ... No hearts in sight. (We promise.) |
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Art courtesy of Asha Dore
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Asha Dore's animated feature film of her play is already in rehearsal. Still Human written by Asha Dore directed by Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth featuring the voices of Katherine Jett Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth Brandon Tourino Collinsworth drew david combs & Cynthia Geary |
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DANIEL
I’ve yet to be at a party in this town where some random dude doesn’t walk up to me and offer moonshine at some point. And they’re usually wearing overalls. It’s like they’re trying really hard to embody a stereotype. CLAIRE Well, maybe you should just try some next time. It might help you forget that you’re in Kentucky. DANIEL I’m sure if I drank enough, I wouldn’t know where the fuck I am. CLAIRE (looking around the room) This place is nice—for a sad bachelor pad. DANIEL Thanks. It’s no Gatsby estate, but yeah. It’s not bad. (pause) It’s hard to believe this is the first time you’ve been here. CLAIRE You have a lot of space. DANIEL Yeah, too much. |
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Three excellent one-acts to make you interested in people again.
Dear Ahab,
I thought I wanted you to come home... Cetology (n.): The study of whales. In this solo show, Nelia Miller warps the destructive story of Moby Dick and the selfless story of Jonah’s whale into a blistering confrontation of unequal relationships. As Ahab’s wife and Jonah’s mother, she harnesses the power of women’s anger and the delicacy of exercising that rage in this powerful story of love, loss, and...whales. |
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Women & Femmes, or Females
written by Nelle Tankus Why are women? Are women? Women? Not that it matters. A transfeminist play borne from rage about being perceived by cisheteropatriarchy, faux inclusion in mainstream feminists spaces, cis white feminism's obsession with essentialism, and (something else). |
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Solo Performance for Chicken Suit and Two-Stringed Guitar by Carol Y Lee |
"I’ll bare my soul to you but you won’t get to know who I am. Vulnerability in art is good, I agree with it on principle, but I’m too much of a chicken to pluck myself raw for the audience. This is my attempt to come home to roost, to lay an egg and feed it to you. This will taste of chicken, what you see is what you’ll get, or at least that’s my hope." |
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A new series.
The 17th century. A super-heroine. Menstruation. What more info do you need? Freebleed conceived & created by Katherine Jett & Asha Dore |
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House Fireby Carol Y Lee
GRANDMA: I know this is hard–
(LAURIE wails harder.) GRANDMA: LISTEN TO ME LAURIE! I need you to calm down and I’ll explain everything, ok? LAURIE: GRANDMA HOW CAN I CALM DOWN WHEN I’M 29 YEARS OLD AND DEAD FROM A HOUSE FIRE OF ALL THINGS? I’M TOO YOUNG, I NEVER ACHIEVED ANYTHING. I DIED A JANITOR AT A MORGUE. I NEVER TURNED MYSELF AROUND. MOM, DAD, WHAT ABOUT PAUL? GRANDMA: Wait, who’s Paul again? LAURIE: MY FIANCE! (GRANDMA re-checks LAURIE’s file.) GRANDMA: Oh goodness. There he is. |
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Proofs episode 7
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Issue #3 of Parley Lit
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STICKS: Cards?
BANDY:Cards. STICKS: New Blood, you in? NEW BLOOD: Depends on the stakes. I don't think I can afford to gamble anything else after losing my thick socks to Bandy. STICKS: No stakes tonight. NEW BLOOD: No stakes? BANDY: Never any stakes the night before a mission. It's in the code. STICKS: People are shit gamblers when they think they're about to bite the big one. And given we know that-- BANDY: Sticks. STICKS: Yeah. Point is, no stakes. NEW BLOOD; Alright, deal me in. |
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"a note on the emotional capacity of robots: "Have you ever, in the course of requesting something, said a swear word at Siri? When you reset the app to ask your question again, it's as if you hadn't sworn at all. Shenandoah is similarly programmed––the audience is likely to feel sympathy or pity for Red and Green, but the robots are not actually absorbing the abuse. There should be no differentiation in how cheerful Shenandoah is for each user, although their comportment and predictive suggestions will vary based on what they learn from their user. Care should be taken to protect the actor playing the robots, but the robots themselves do not have feelings. " |
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Parley's artistic director was interviewed by the Seattle Times. Read the article here.
Parley's production of Dirty Beasts was reviewed by Drama in the Hood. Read that review here. Our production of Maiden Voyage was reviewed by the Seattle Times. Read that review here. Parley's artistic director was interviewed for The Mumble, an international theatre journal. Read that interview here. Our production of The Oysterman's House was reviewed by Drama in the Hood. Read that review here. Our co-production of Gills! Gills! Gills! was reviewed by Drama in the Hood. Read that review here. |
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Go Inside the Play / Dramaturgy
Dramaturg Julieta Vitullo discusses the inspiration and main elements of the play in this engaging video study. This dramaturgical presentation introduces the historical events that served as inspiration for the fictional country of Kantuta Rica in Crumbs/Migas, and provides a quick refresher on the Brothers Grimm’s Hansel and Gretel, which the play rewrites as a modern tale. |
Crumbs/Migas playwright Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth and director Kelly Kitchens (A Christmas Carol) come together to discuss their collaboration on this new work and much more in this ACTLocal Playwright Series panel. The hour includes one of the play’s scenes as performed during a cast reading and audience Q&A. Crumbs/Migas Synopsis In a fictional Latin American country, two hungry children are orphaned by a U.S.-backed coup. Fifteen years later they return, a modern-day Hansel and Gretel, to follow what migas they can in search of their father. Revisiting the scene of the violence they survived, they discover a landscape of secrets and sacrifice they are only beginning to understand. Delivered through compact and electric dialogue, and leavened with compassion and even humor, Crumbs/Migas is a play about the grief and grace we encounter on the way home. |
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Produced by ACT Theatre and eSe Teatro, we're proud to temporarily feature this panel discussion that includes Parley Associate Playwright Julieta Vitullo, Visiting Resident Playwright Rose Cano, and Artistic Director Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth. |
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