(A comedy about fathers and daughters)
Winner Of The Norfolk Southern festival Of New Works
Semi-finalists at 6th Annual Neil Simon Festival New Play Contest
Jewish Sports Heroes & Texas Intellectuals (2M-1W) is a sharp comedy about a woman returning to Texas to challenge the dogma of her sexist, egotistical, cowboy-philosopher father.
Darla Cook has big news to share: she’s been artificially inseminated and is thrilled to be having a baby—entirely without male involvement. Tired of men in general and her father in particular, she’s forging a future free of outdated patriarchal expectations.
Her father, Henry, is a cowboy whose marriage ended twenty years ago after an affair with none other than Ayn Rand. Now a die-hard devotee of Rand’s philosophy, he’s elevated selfishness to an art form and treats femininity as a phase women should outgrow. Their fiery confrontation forms the heart of this play, which hilariously examines masculine and feminine perspectives on life, love, and happiness.
Complications arise when Johnny Galt, a dim-witted football player, shows up and might just be the sperm donor. Meanwhile, Darla’s day goes from bad to worse as she discovers Henry’s days are numbered. Forced to grow up quickly, Darla sheds her “women who love too much” mindset and embraces her identity as a strong feminist who (mostly) no longer needs her father’s approval.