Semi-finalist, Barrington Stage Company, MA, Burman New Play Award
Winner, Works Playwriting Competition, The Playhouse on the Square, Memphis
Sylvia, a divorced Hollywood screenwriter running on antidepressants and caffeine, is watching her career vanish into the abyss of middle-aged female invisibility. Desperate for work, she takes a soul-sucking gig writing an “inspirational” family channel movie about a child’s lung transplant.
But the more Sylvia learns about Ivanka, the child’s mother, the more she begins to suspect that Ivanka’s “true story” is more fiction than fact. What follows is a sharp dramedy inspired by Ivanka Trump’s infamous line: “Perception is more important than reality. If someone perceives something to be true, it is more important than if it is in fact true.”
As Sylvia grapples with her unraveling script, she’s also dealing with her teenage son, who’s convinced that his video game Drone Strike is causing real-life carnage in Afghanistan.
This biting comedy explores what’s real, what’s fake, and what’s somewhere in between, in a world where alternative facts have become the new normal.