{"id":4,"date":"2022-11-02T18:09:55","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T18:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/brighde-mullins\/?page_id=4"},"modified":"2023-11-26T22:32:04","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T06:32:04","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/brighde-mullins\/","title":{"rendered":"Brighde Mullins"},"content":{"rendered":" \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n\n \n \n \n
\n\n \n

Brighde Mullins is a playwright whose work explores the possibilities of language onstage and ways to tell stories that have never been told. She has written of the demi-monde of the outsider; has a fascination with landscape and ecology and with the dictates of biology and historical circumstance; and has often written about the Mojave Desert and other arid landscapes. Her work has been inflected by an admixture of the theories of Artaud (\u201cwe are not free and the sky can still fall on our heads\u201d) and Yeats (\u201ceverything personal soon rots, unless it is packed in ice or salt\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n \n
\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n\n \n \n
\n\n \n

\n Sitzfleisch\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
\n\n \n

sitting, staying in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n\n \n \n
\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n
\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n <\/a>\n \n\n<\/div>\n \n
\n \n

\n \n \n Undergraduate\n\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n \n \n
\n\n \n

USC offers a broad range of courses in English, American and Anglophone literature, and related areas such as creative and expository writing, literature and visual arts, ethnic literature and cultural studies, and literary and cultural theory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n \n

\n\n \n \n \n
\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n <\/a>\n \n\n<\/div>\n \n
\n \n

\n \n \n Graduate\n\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n \n \n
\n\n \n

Progressive M.A. in Literary Editing and Publishing
\nLiterary Editing and Publishing
\nExplore the roles of editor and publisher, with an emphasis on literary nonfiction, by applying to our innovative progressive master\u2019s degree program in Literary Editing and Publishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n \n

\n\n \n \n \n
\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n <\/a>\n \n\n<\/div>\n \n
\n \n

\n \n \n Profile\n\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n \n \n
\n\n \n

Brighde Mullins is a playwright, poet and teacher. Her plays have been seen in London, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Awards include a Guggenheim, the Whiting Foundation Award, and the United States Artists Award in Literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n \n
\n\n \n
\n\n \n

\n Quote\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n
\n\n \n

Brighde Mullins<\/p>\n

“Writing for the Stage”<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n

\n\n
\n \n
\n\n \n

Writing for the stage implies that you are writing words that will be spoken by actors and heard by an audience. If you are writing for actors, then actors are your vehicles, your instruments. This is the most important distinction between writing for the stage and writing for another genre… The play fully exists only in production, and therefore the single most vital element that a playwright has to shaping her craft is access to a theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n

\n Brighde Mullins\n\n <\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n\n \n
\n \n
\n\n \n

\n Plays\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
\n\n \n

Brighde Mullins\u2019s plays include The Bourgeois Pig<\/em>; Rare Bird<\/em>; Monkey in the Middle<\/em>; Those Who Can, Do<\/em>; Fire Eater<\/em>; Topographical Eden<\/em>; and Pathological Venus.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n

\n \n
\n\n \n \n

King John<\/h3>\n \n In this modern take on Shakespeare\u2019s King John, Brighde Mullins navigates the political twists and turns of early English monarchy. Mullins\u2019s translation parses Shakespeare\u2019s language carefully, with a focus on its sonic qualities. Her version focuses on the listener, developing the play for the immense pleasure of it\u2014the fortuitous juxtapositions of the fates of these characters.<\/span>\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n\n \n \n

Fire Eater<\/h3>\n \n Fire Eater is the story of a Yankee temperance preacher\u2019s travels to famine Ireland. This errant philanthropist, armed with Emersonian idealism and the conviction that the Irish were drinking up their food source of hops and grains, encounters a beautiful scullery maid, pagan crones, an oversexed heiress and would-be martyrs that populate the bogs, bedrooms and confessionals of this irreverent look at history and hysteria.<\/span>\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n\n \n \n

Monkey in the Middle<\/h3>\n \n It’s the mid-1980s, just when the Human Genome Project is getting underway. After being dumped in the desert by her military-minded dad, Tara goes on the lam to escape her dysfunctional family, and bumps into a brilliant symmetry-obsessed geneticist who also happens to be a deadbeat dad and former heroin addict. <\/span>\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n\n \n \n

Those Who Can, Do<\/h3>\n \n Anne Marie has an epiphany on the subway when she reads this poster: “No One Ever Remembered a Great Accountant: TEACH.” She quickly decides to ditch her lucrative advertising career, and dreams of pursuing a more meaningful life of teaching inner-city high school students.<\/span>\n \n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n\n \n
\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
\n\n \n
\n\n \n SPOTLIGHT<\/span>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
\n\n \n

\n Dramaticule\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
\n\n \n

I first learned the word from Samuel Beckett. He uses it to describe his short, his EXTREMELY short play \u201cCome and Go.\u201d Beckett\u2019s plays became shorter and shorter as he got older. My friend Rick Cluchey, who worked with Beckett, says that Beckett didn\u2019t want to \u201cwaste people\u2019s time\u201d and that\u2019s why his texts became shorter and shorter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n

\n \n
\n\n \n \n \n\n Personal blog \n <\/svg>\n<\/a>\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n\n \n
\n\n \n
\n\n \n

\n Brighde Mullins Curriculum Vitae\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n \n