Episode 82: Playwright Dara Murphy

Dara Murphy wrote her first play in high school for a class project and her teacher submitted it to us. At the time Dara was the youngest playwright in our catalogue but now she’s got three plays with Theatrefolk and is gearing up to embark on a teaching career. Dara gets the distinction of penning the “weirdest” plays in our catalogue, listen in to learn why.

Show Notes

The Plucky Pie Murder Camel Dung and Cloves Magic Fairy in the Microwave Ashland Falls She Wrote, Died, Then Wrote Some More The Bottom of the Lake

Episode Transcript

Welcome to TFP, The Theatrefolk Podcast. I am Lindsay Price, resident playwright for Theatrefolk. Hello, I hope you're well. Thanks for listening. This week, I’m talking to playwright Dara Murphy. So, Dara wrote her first play in high school for a class project and her teacher submitted it to us. That was The Plucky Pie Murder for anyone who keeps close tabs on what’s in our catalogue. And, at the time, Dara was the youngest playwright in our catalogue, but now she’s got three plays with Theatrefolk and she is gearing up to embark on a teaching career. So, I think Dara gets the distinction of penning the weirdest plays in our catalogue. There’s death, blood, voodoo rituals – she covers it all. So, let’s go find out more about her! Lindsay: Hello everybody! Welcome to TFP – The Theatrefolk Podcast. I am very happy to talk to another one of our playwrights, a playwright who has been with us for a very, very long time but, Dara, we have never had a conversation, have we? Dara: No. Lindsay: No, I don’t think so. We have Dara Murphy. Hello, Dara! Dara: Email conversations. Lindsay: Many email conversations. And I think that you are our only playwright because you submitted The Plucky Pie Murder when you were in high school. So, you are – I do believe – the only playwright – we do plays for schools and student performers and you were a student. You started with us as a student. Dara: Yeah. It was really exciting. Lindsay: Yeah. Just so everyone knows, you have three plays with us – The Plucky Pie Murder, Camel Dung and Cloves, and Magic Fairy in the Microwave – and we will get to the wheres of all of these. But let’s go back to Plucky Pie. So, you wrote that in school, for what? Dara: Yeah, I think it was in grade twelve. It was actually an assignment so we all had to write a one-act play for our teacher and I like writing so I was excited about the assignment and went all out, and our teacher really liked it so she sent it to you guys and then I got the call that you were interested in publishing it so that was pretty exciting. Lindsay: Was it unexpected? Dara: No, I didn’t even realize she had sent it. Lindsay: Right. Dara: So, yeah, it was quite unexpected. Lindsay: So unexpected you didn’t even know what was happening. Dara: No, exactly. So, you wanted a few changes. I can’t remember what they were now but I made a few changes and then, yeah, you put it on. And it was exciting also when you would send us the emails about who was buying it and who was performing it. And I remember when the first email that somebody had bought it to perform it, we went and we went to the show and it was in Freedom, California. So, we flew there. It was, like, last-minute. My mom was like, “Let’s go!” so we all flew to California and saw it and that was really neat. Lindsay: What did you think of you just showing up? Dara: They were very nervous. But I was nervous, too! And it was very strange to hear the things that you hear in your head to hear it actually said out loud, so that was very weird. Lindsay: I find it to be the most fantastical part of the whole experience. Sometimes, it’s exactly like you picture in your head, and then, sometimes it’s like, “Wow! Oh, that’s really different.” Dara: Exactly. Or sometimes it’s better. You’re like, “Oh, I didn’t even think that line was funny and they made it work.” Sometimes,