Parallel Play

Maria Gets A New Life (Too Good to be True)

Have you ever found the perfect part? Or read a scene that speaks to you? Or seen a play where the actor on stage matched the writing as if made-to-measure? Don’t you wish it happened more often?

Parallel Play is a tool to help smooth the search for material that really fits. Fits actors, directors, teachers, students, writers, readers and theatre enthusiasts in their quest to find parallels between cast and character.

Parallel Play draws from an extensive database of culturally diverse plays and playwrights. Its foundation is a collection curated by theatre people and designed for all. With new plays added regularly, we think you’ll find our collection unparalleled!

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In our database, there are more than 1000+ plays. Search by title or playwright. Click on a playwright's name to see more of their works.

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Discover plays with Jewish Characters
Discover plays with Middle Eastern + Diasp Characters
Discover plays with European & European Descent Characters
Discover plays with African + Diasp Characters (including Egyptian)

Discover Styles, like 'Stylized'

Stylized

Pretty Goblins

From holding hands in the womb to holding each other’s hair back when they puked, twins Laura and Lizzie grew up only having each other. They couldn’t count on their practically feral mom, absent dad, or even the boys they liked. They’re polar opposites—Laura’s reserved while Lizzie’s reckless—but their shared mischievous giggles and dreams for the future kept them going. One day, Laura finds a familiar book of poems in Lizzie’s apartment and is dragged through their turbulent past. Together, the sisters relive their complicated history in an effort to make sense of the present. Framed by the beauty of a well-loved poem, this story of ferocious sisterhood, addiction, and the aftermath of trauma will leave howls echoing in your ears.

Stylized

Do This In Memory of Me

Twelve-year-old Genevieve has been having a hard time at home, and all she really wants is to be an altar server at her church. Except it’s 1963 and Father Paul tells her that’s not allowed. After having her dreams crushed and being made fun of by her classmate and star altar boy Martin, Genevieve prays to God hoping for an exception. Instead, a fourteen-year-old martyr from the fourth century, St. Pancras, appears and promises to get her an answer from God. But with her mom missing for weeks and Martin disappearing on his way home from school the next day, she fears her prayers have been answered in dire ways. This dark comedy dives into the expansive time between childhood and adolescence, exploring questions about the realities of home life to the possibilities of unknown worlds. Do This In Memory of Me is for anyone who has ever questioned the relationship between faith and trust or wondered where they fit in the bigger picture.

Stylized

How It Ends

Most of us, when faced with death, wish we could just have a little more time. But what if this is the little more time that we wished for? What are you going to do with it? Grieving siblings Natalie and Bart have differing views on how we die. Natalie, a palliative care nurse, knows how drugs can help ease someone’s pain, and do so on their own terms; Bart, a minister, believes that surrendering to what may come can bring peace and wisdom. Through this immersive show about end-of-life choices, Natalie and Bart are guided by a disabled angel who helps them address their mother’s final decision and understand their own hopes and fears about death. Packed with relatable existential questions, this joyously engaging and reflective play offers a welcoming space to think about what comes next.

by Debbie Patterson, 2023

Characters: 4

Cultural Issues

Death

Stylized

The Breathing Hole

Stories of the Canadian Arctic intersect in this epic five-hundred-year journey led by a one-eared polar bear. In 1535, Hummiktuq, an Inuk widow, has a strange dream about the future. The next day, she discovers a bear cub floating on ice near a breathing hole. Despite the concerns of her community, she adopts him and names him Angu’řuaq. In 1845, Angu’řuaq and his mate Ukuannuaq wander into a chance meeting between explorers from the Franklin Expedition and Inuit hunters. Later, when the explorers are starving, the bears meet them again. By 2035, entrepreneurs are assessing degrees of melting ice for future opportunities. Angu’řuaq encounters the passengers and crew of a luxury cruise ship as it slinks through the oily waters of the Northwest Passage. Humorous and dramatic, The Breathing Hole is a profound saga that traces the paths of colonialism and climate change to a deeply moving conclusion.

by Colleen Murphy, Siobhan Arnatsiaq-Murphy, 2020

Characters: 46

Colonialism

Empathy

Stylized

Six Essential Questions/”6 Essential Questions”

6 Essential Questions tells the story of Renata as she travels to Brazil to reunite with the mother who abandoned her when she was just five years old. In Rio, Renata discovers more than she bargained for in her quest to uncover the truth of who abandoned whom. She is continually tossed about by her undead grandmother and a semi-invisible uncle as they choreograph the ultimate dance of mother and daughter, both of whom must confront their dreams before they can ever attempt to confront each other. Imaginations run wild in this strangely beautiful and funny story loosely based on Uppal’s critically acclaimed memoir, Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother, a finalist for both the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

by Priscila Uppal, 2015

Characters: 4

Family

Grief

Stylized

Sultans of the Street

When young orphans Mala and Chun Chun encounter brothers Prakash and Ojha on the busy streets of Kolkata, they are immediately at odds. The brothers come from a lower-middle-class family and spend their time flying kites instead of attending class, while Mala and Chun Chun can only dream of going to school, a goal Aunty promises will be fulfilled if they beg for money from passersby. After a petty fruit-stall heist lands Ojha in Aunty’s cunning hands, the brothers are blackmailed into begging alongside Mala and Chun Chun, forcing the children to interact. Though they find each other nuisances at first, the kids soon realize their strength in numbers as Aunty’s scheming is slowly revealed.

Stylized

The Goodnight Bird

Lilly and Morgan Beaumont are comfortable in their routine until Parker, a homeless man, lands on the balcony of their new condo. After scaring the older couple half to death, he pours himself into the holes of their relationship, agitating them with talk of sex—talk that drives Lilly out into the night and sends Morgan on the road to another heart attack.

by Colleen Murphy, 2013

Characters: 3

Empathy

Marriage

Solo show

Watching Glory Die

Glory is a troubled teenage inmate who, in her solitary prison cell, is tormented by hallucinations. While she battles the creature in her mind, her adoptive mother Rosellen struggles to remain connected to her daughter, believing that she can sense Glory’s feelings no matter the distance. In the prison halls, Gail, a working-class guard, glides between her conscience and her professional duties, knowing her actions could ultimately lead to a tragic end.

by Judith Thompson, 2016

Characters: 1

Death

Family

Realistic

The Doorman of Windsor Station

Francisco will forever be haunted by the sight of his best friend Juan lying on the floor of a train station, pierced by five bullets. He’ll remember that sight as he flees the political uprising in Uruguay that night. He’ll remember when he’s holding a dying homeless man in Windsor Station in Montreal eight months later. He’ll remember when he’s a successful architect. He’ll remember when he’s having an affair with a Québécoise pianist named Claire. He’ll remember when he’s much older, a vagrant sleeping in a café that was once part of Windsor Station, where he meets his son, an activist in the student strikes in Quebec. As he tries for a better life, Francisco’s past keeps finding him, until it blurs with the present in a series of hallucinations, challenging him to reclaim his identity and his rights.

by Julie Vincent, 2017

Characters: 8

Ageing

Class

Stylized

The Shoe

In The Shoe, a weary mother, her perplexing son, their shy dentist, and his cocktail-sipping receptionist find themselves drawn together to face problems too daunting to deal with alone. From meltdowns to moments of tenderness, each of them are called on to find reserves of strength and empathy they never knew they had.

by David Paquet, 2022

Characters: 4

Empathy

Family

Stylized

Wildfire

In Wildfire, three odd triplets, two misfits, and one misunderstood woman are all burning with solitude and desire. Through an exploration of heredity and fate, these seemingly ordinary characters choose to struggle against their isolation in extraordinary yet relatable ways.

by David Paquet, 2022

Characters: 6

Empathy

Family

Stylized

Under Wraps

The moment Mark meets David his world is thrown off balance. Who could have predicted finding love in a furniture store, or finding it with an unemployed lifeguard? But despite their immediate connection, Mark isn’t sure if David is gay. Mark isn’t even sure if Mark is gay. As he falls deeper in love, Mark works desperately to make David nothing more than a friend and to make that enough. Filled with hopeful exhilaration and devastating missed opportunities, Under Wraps nimbly tracks one man’s tumultuous quest to finally love himself and let it all out.

by Robert Chafe, 2014

Characters: 2

2SLGBTQI+

Identity

Solo show

The Magic Hour

The Magic Hour is a solo multidisciplinary performance spell that uses magic to investigate sexual violence, trauma and transformation. Working with traditions and practices of magic ranging from ancestral sacred charms to top-hat-and-rabbit illusions, the work presses the boundaries of public and private, hidden and revealed, to make visible what is not seen. The Magic Hour proposes a radical healing through the ritual of theatre by creating expansive acts that alter the meaning of materials and memories, and enacting power through invocation, repetition, witnessing and participation.

Solo shown

Dirty Plötz: Witness the Hidden Vagenda

"Tricksters, witches, whores, hags and the Holy Bitch all feature prominently in Dirty Plötz. “Anasyrma” is a word you will hear in this work. The definition of this word is to lift one skirt’s to curse the viewer. There is no similar word for men – men cannot curse people with their genitals. Syrma herself is the star at the hem of the constellation Virgo’s skirt. You will meet her and she will tell you her own story. You will also meet a live embodiment of the Sheela na gig, a small sculpture found on churches in Ireland and an expression of a pre-puritanical female empowerment. And of course, The Designated Hand Wringer will be available to be outraged on behalf of your oppression." - buddies in bad times theatre

by Alex Tigchelaar, 2017

Characters: 1

Cultural Issues

Discrimination

Solo show

Broken Brain One-O-One/”Broken Brain 101″

Broken Brain 101 is a burlesque exposé on clinical madness throughout women’s history, where the heroine reveals her splendour in a free but alarming way. Trapped in a lemon-yellow straightjacket, she takes back her own dignity by totally giving herself in front of the audience, revealing her whole body and soul through shamanic and ecstatic transformations.

by Nathalie Claude, 2017

Characters: 1

2SLGBTQI+

Mental Health

Discover Tags, like 'Death'

Realistic

Andy’s Gone

What stories do we tell ourselves to keep our walls up and our privilege intact? What is the cost of revolution? In this contemporary retelling of Antigone, denial of what rages outside of a city’s perimeter comes to a head when a young princess named Alison tries to expose the truth of her beloved cousin Henry’s death. By night, Henry went as Andy, as together he and Alison scaled the walls of their kingdom to help the migrants who are kept out of sight. Burdened by the weight of the inequality that his future reign represented, he killed himself. But his mother, Queen Regina, hails his death as a valiant knight and will do anything she can to keep Alison silent. The two women become locked in a poetic battle of power and prejudice, until a push turning into a shove might mean it’s too late to find peace.

by Marie-Claude Verdier, 2021

Characters: 2

Death

High School

Stylized