Barbara Hume is an emerging playwright with an extensive career in the performing arts. She began as a dancer/singer in equity summer stock and community theater in St. Louis. As a high school teacher for twenty-five years in the Seattle area, she taught Language Arts and Theater, coordinating a student led One Act playwriting festival. Barbara is currently focused on her vocal recording and playwriting interests. Anticipating the reversal of Roe v. Wade, Barbara wrote her first full-length play titled Light through the Cellar Door in 2021 focused on women's reproductive rights. Her most recent work-in-progress features two young men, one White and one Black, growing up together in a segregated neighborhood in St. Louis during the World War II era. Her passion for playwriting is to explore difficult topics and the struggles and resolutions that arise when confronting disparate viewpoints.
Plays
Synopsis: This one act family drama, both historic and topical, is set in 1989 in St. Louis as a state supreme court ruling titled “William Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services” jeopardizes female reproductive health by ending state funding for women’s clinics in St. Louis. Three generations of women struggle with their past choices and current challenges surrounding their own reproductive history. In this family, a passionate crisis of disparate viewpoints reveals the strength it takes to be vulnerable with those we love.
Synopsis: This two act drama, both historic and topical, takes place from 1938 to 1948 in St. Louis depicting the impact of segregation on two young men, one white and one black, who share backyards in a segregated neighborhood. Their friendship crosses many boundaries testing their friendship and the status quo of racism in their community.
On The House features two older characters, a female widow in her late 60's and a male widower in his mid 70s, both struggling with companionship. The play explores the difficulty in showing one's true feelings, even as we age.