Leigh Flayton
New York, NY
Former magazine editor, journalist and playwright
Biography

Leigh served as Editor-In-Chief of Arrive magazine for over a decade.

In 2015, Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City hosted her first play, The Generator, as part of its TONGUES reading series.

In 2018, Too Close to Home was a semifinalist in the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference and presented in an industry reading starring Judith Light. The play is directed by Andy Sandberg and is currently in development. In August 2022, it was part of the Page to Stage Play Festival in Brea, CA. 

On March 27, 2021, Classic Six premiered as a zoom film at the Powerstories Voices of Truth Theatre Festival and won the Founder's Choice Award. It was an O'Neill National Playwrights Conference finalist that year, too, as well as a semifinalist in the Austin Film Festival Playwriting Competition and a finalist in the 2022 Premiere Stages Play Festival. In January 2023, a new draft was presented in a reading by the Rose Theatre Co. at the National Arts Club in Washington, D.C. The Rose also produced Leigh's short play, Waiting for The Suzuki-Goulds, as a monologue. 

In June 2022, Leigh's new one-act, All the Lonely Women, debuted at Rattlestick Theater's Global Forms Theater Festival in New York City. It was co-written with director Ines Braun. 

Leigh's newest play, It's a Free Country, was a finalist for the 2022 Jane Chambers Award and debuted in the SheNYC Arts Summer Theater Festival in New York City on July 27, 2023.

Plays

by Leigh Flayton

In 1993, Frances Nolan, 22, works as a live-in nanny/researcher in Frank and Patricia McGuire’s Classic Six Manhattan apartment. Twenty-five years later, she returns and, as the evening unfolds, Frank and Patricia question her motives: Is she merely curious to revisit the place where she learned hard truths about marriage, power, accountability, and how ethics can shift during the course of a lifetime? Or does she plan to expose what she found out about Frank and Patricia all those years ago?

Cast:
FRANCES “FRANKIE” NOLAN (22 & 47): A young woman from a working-class background who wants to be a journalist. FRANK MCGUIRE (50 & 75): A writer from Brooklyn, married to Patricia, now living in New York City. PATRICIA “OFFIE” LOWELL (47 & 72): A PR maven married to Frank. CHUCKIE (22): Frances’s boyfriend in 1993. MARTIN (50): Frances’s boyfriend twenty-five years later. He can be played by the same actor who plays Chuckie.
by Leigh Flayton

In January 1959, Isak Dinesen, the legendary, turban-clad Danish author of Out of Africa, traveled for the first time to the United States, where she asked to meet Carson McCullers and Marilyn Monroe. On February 5, McCullers obliged and hosted a luncheon at her home in Nyack, NY, not far from New York City. Also in attendance were Monroe’s husband at the time, the playwright Arthur Miller, and McCullers’s live-in nurse and dear friend, Ida “Sister” Reeder. In this, McCullers’s memory of the auspicious occasion, artists from throughout history join her as she and the group discuss life, love and the timeless pursuits of creativity and friendship.

Cast:
CARSON McCULLERS (42): The stroke-stooped, alcoholic, erstwhile-wunderkind Southern writer is thrilled to host a luncheon at her home in honor of the author Isak Dinesen. Her other guests are Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller. ISAK “TANIA” DINESEN (74): The imperious and legendary, turban-clad baroness and Danish author of Out of Africa is enjoying her first trip to the United States and being lionized — as she expects to be — everywhere she goes. MARILYN MONROE (32): Bombshell icon married to Arthur Miller, although the marriage is failing. Her alcohol and drug addiction — and fragile emotional state — will contribute to her death just three years later, a month before Dinesen’s. ARTHUR MILLER (44): In addition to his marriage to Monroe, his writing is in a slump, and he recently, barely survived the ringer that is the House Un-American Activities Committee. Although a renowned playwright, he is still tinkering with his screenplay, The Misfits, which will be Monroe’s last film. On this day, however, he is the man who chauffeurs Marilyn and the baroness to Nyack. IDA “SISTER” REEDER (55): McCullers’s Black, Southern maid, cook, attendant and friend. She worked at a psychiatric hospital before moving in to nurse the ailing author a few years earlier. Since McCullers’s mother’s death in 1955, Sister has been the frail writer’s primary caretaker and companion. She calls Carson her “foster child.”
by Leigh Flayton

Louisa “Lou” Clay is the author of a cult classic feminist novel that recently premiered as a TV series. It’s a massive hit, causing a slew of unintended consequences — and death threats — thanks to the current political climate and rage against the patriarchy that is the hallmark of the show.

Cast:
LOUISA “LOU” CLAY (late 50s): Lou is an androgynous dandy from the South. She is normally quite polished in a suit and tie, with a perfect bobbed haircut and unlit cigar, which she wears in her suit’s breast pocket and habitually rolls between her fingers and pretends to puff. But when we meet her, she’s all that—and a bit disheveled. A few decades ago, Lou wrote a cult classic, feminist novel that recently debuted as a TV series—and it’s a massive hit. When the show premiered a few weeks earlier, Lou, who has always been publicity shy and is a loner to boot, decamped—alone—to her house in the country. RAMONA FRY (early 20s): Lou’s queer niece lives in Lou’s apartment in the city. Ramona, who also grew up in the South and sounds like it, is trying to make her own way in the world, although she worships her aunt and wants to be a famous writer—and consequential—like her. NELL RICHARDS (late 60s): Lou’s agent, friend and port in the storm. Lou has been with Nell, an old school and venerable force in the publishing world, since she published “the book” some 30 years ago. Nell and Ramona, however, clash, generationally and jealously as they vie for Lou’s loyalty and affection.
by Leigh Flayton

Too Close to Home is about the Hill family, which for years has revolved around the oldest daughter, Shelley, a mentally ill woman now in her late 30s. Shelley has been diagnosed with cancer, and her parents have enlisted her brother and sister to keep this information from Shelley in the fear that it might cause another suicide attempt. With an empathetic doctor who hasn’t asked the question — who has the right to make Shelley’s treatment decisions? — the family has some difficult choices to make, as well as secrets to keep.

Cast:
CONSTANCE HILL: 60. Former teacher living with her husband in the same house in which they raised their three children. GENE HILL: 60. Retired businessman. SHELLEY HILL: 37. The eldest child of Constance and Gene. Long history of mental illness. Lives near her parents in an assisted-living facility. BOBBY HILL: 34. Lives with his wife and daughter in a nearby town. ABBY HILL: 32. The youngest daughter. Single. Lives in Los Angeles, a plane ride far away from her immediate family.
by Leigh Flayton

Two friends meet in the park during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and — masked and socially distant — find themselves transfixed by an unusual family that may or may not be real.

Cast:
PERSON 1 (any race, age, etc.): A friend of PERSON 2. PERSON 2 (any race, age, etc.): A friend of PERSON 1.
by Leigh Flayton

"What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open." — Muriel Rukeyser

American Woman tells the story of four women — Hannah, Ellie, Moon and Claire; two white women and two women of color — coming of age in the latter 20th and early 21st centuries. In the spirit of The Heidi Chronicles and spanning three decades, the play depicts the women's relationships and what it's like to grow up female in the years leading up to the Me Too and Times Up era. American Woman speaks to the hidden realities and secret languages girls learn and women ultimately speak and live with in every aspect of their lives.

Cast:
HANNAH (17-47): A college-educated, middle-class, white woman living in and around New York City. GORDON (19-47): Hannah’s friend and occasional love interest whom she meets in college. MOON (17-47): Hannah’s friend from childhood. A provocateur. Mixed-race. ELLIE (17-47): Hannah’s friend from childhood. Marries her high school sweetheart and never leaves their hometown. CLAIRE (20-47): A middle-class black woman who befriends Hannah in college. ROBBY/ROBERT: (18/46): A guy at a party/The CEO of Hannah’s company. TAMMI (45): Moon’s girlfriend.
by Leigh Flayton

Based on true events during 2011's Hurricane Irene, The Generator tackles the recent "neighbor wars" phenomenon—unexpectedly violent conflicts sparked by minor sources like noisy power generators. The play addresses America's polarized social and political climate and asks the question: are we in this together, or is it every man for himself?

Cast:
JACK WILSON: Late 50s, former newspaperman originally from Minnesota. Married to Lisa. LISA WILSON: 40 years old, pregnant with her first child. A food writer married to Jack. JESS: Early 40s. Lisa and Jack’s friend. A single, female book editor who lives in New York City. TINA: An Australian in her early 30s. Lives next door to Lisa and Jack, married to Shannon. SHANNON: Originally from the south. A pastry chef in her late 20s, married to Tina. IRENE: 50 and single, lives in the neighborhood. She runs an award-winning restaurant nearby.
by Leigh Flayton

The Merger tells the harrowing (and increasingly familiar) story of a family-owned business, newly acquired by a private equity firm, and the mayhem—and suspense—that ensues. Gone are the days when entrepreneurs started businesses to grow and hand down to their children or sell before retirement. Today, the trend is to flip businesses as soon as possible, for maximum profit and to the advantage of a handful of investors, often at the expense of the workers.

Cast:
There are 11 individual characters —creatives and (vs.) business side, including editors, art directors, marketing, HR, etc. — and a series of three CEOs/saviors who must be played by the same actor.
by Leigh Flayton

Travels With Mohamed dramatizes a once-in-a-lifetime road trip through Morocco, from Marrakesh to the Sahara Desert to Fez and Casablanca. Can American women and Muslim men from these very different—and mutually suspicious—cultures find common ground and friendship, let alone fall in love?

Cast:
NATALIE STEIN: Mid 30s. Successful small business owner; would-be musician. Single. Lives in New York City. HEATHER STEIN: Late 30s. Single mother from Amarillo, Texas. Natalie’s older sister. MOHAMED NAZIR: Mid 30s. Native Moroccan tour driver whose uncle owns his SUV. Fancies himself “modern.” NOURI AKHTER: Early 20s. Educated, married tour guide with a newborn daughter. “GIGI” BROCHET: 50s. Odd Frenchman who manages the riad in Marrakesh. OSAMA & GIGI 2: Moroccan men who can be played by same actor who plays Gigi.

Successes

ALL THE LONELY WOMEN

June 2 - 4, 2022

Co-written with director Ines Braun, the play premiered at Rattlestick Theater's Global Forms Theater Festival in New York City. "All the Lonely Women" is a queer fairytale about the strangeness of looking for love during the pandemic. Infused with magical realism, the play explores the poignancy — and inevitable humor— of love and longing during a time of isolation and separation.

ALL THE LONELY WOMEN

June 2 - 4, 2022

Co-written with director Ines Braun, the play premiered at Rattlestick Theater's Global Forms Theater Festival in New York City

 

CLASSIC SIX

2022

Finalist: Premiere Stages Playwriting Festival

 

2021

Finalist: Eugene O'Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference

Semifinalist: Austin Film Festival Playwriting Competition

Winner: Founder's Choice Award at the Powerstories Voices of Truth Festival

Watch Zoom video

 

TOO CLOSE TO HOME

Aug. 26 - 28, 2022 (upcoming)

Page to Stage at Curtis Theatre Play Festival in Brea, CA  

 

2018

Semifinalist: Eugene O'Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference