Audrey Cefaly
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Audrey Cefaly
@audreycefaly.bsky.social
200 followers 84 following 65 posts
AUTHOR: How To Playwright https://audreycefaly.substack.com/
I tell "ache" stories. Maytag Virgin, The Gulf, Alabaster, The Last Wide Open, The Garment www.audreycefaly.com
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This week I’m thrilled to share a guest essay from award-winning playwright, librettist, and poet Jacqueline Goldfinger. BONUS: Check out her new TikTok channel www.tiktok.com/@all.things....
audreycefaly.substack.com/p/art-and-th...
Art and the Apocalypse (Again) by Jacqueline Goldfinger
Moving through Dangerous Times with Heart and Hope
audreycefaly.substack.com
October 28, 2025 at 5:50 PM
audreycefaly.bsky.social
Here's a craft article on taking risks and talking goats. #AlabamaGoatPlay #Alabaster #writingtips #thursdayinspiration #craft #newplay #amwriting audreycefaly.substack.com/p/if-these-g...
If These Goats Could Talk
The Scene That Changed Everything
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June 26, 2025 at 10:05 PM
audreycefaly.bsky.social
The real estate traveled between the moment a loop is opened and the moment it’s closed is where the listener’s attention sharpens. Memory imprints more clearly. Investment deepens.
Not Just Dialogue
The Secret Sound Structure of Great Plays
audreycefaly.substack.com
June 20, 2025 at 2:42 PM
audreycefaly.bsky.social
Everyone: “Chekhov is subtle.”
Also Chekhov: “I shot a seagull and gave it to you. Here it is.”
Sir???
June 13, 2025 at 12:31 PM
audreycefaly.bsky.social
Most plays aren’t about what happens.
They’re about what can’t.
What can’t be said.
What can’t be undone.
What can’t be forgiven.
Start there.
audreycefaly.substack.com/p/your-plot-...
Your Plot Is Not the Point
Why Silence Moves the Play
audreycefaly.substack.com
June 12, 2025 at 2:02 PM
audreycefaly.bsky.social
“No stone unturned. No maggot lonely.” Harold Pinter on Beckett
June 8, 2025 at 12:21 AM
audreycefaly.bsky.social
Art is how we mark the walls of time. A gesture. A sound. A story told by firelight or spotlight or the flicker of a screen. It doesn’t preserve us so much as prove we were here—that we saw, that we felt, that we tried to name the shape of being alive.
June 7, 2025 at 11:27 PM
audreycefaly.bsky.social
Sometimes we are so busy writing the lines that we forget the biggest thing of all: What the room is doing to the people in it. audreycefaly.substack.com/p/playwritin... #playwriting #craft #amwriting #writingtips #writinghacks #subtext
Playwriting the Pressure: How Atmosphere Shapes Dramatic Action
On barometric shifts, emotional weather, and the truth between the lines
audreycefaly.substack.com
June 5, 2025 at 2:49 AM
audreycefaly.bsky.social
Just made a one-sheet for artistic directors and literary managers and… wow. This play has been places! Hard to believe it’s been 10 years since I directed the world premiere for the Inaugural Women’s Voices Festival. Grateful. Gobsmacked. Still going. #maytagvirgin
Why My Rom-Com Maytag Virgin Is a Safe Bet for Theaters in Troubling Times
Sweet Home Alabama meets Taming of the Shrew!
audreycefaly.substack.com
June 4, 2025 at 12:13 AM
audreycefaly.bsky.social
I don’t trust plays that beg you to cry. I don’t trust characters who “grieve” in tidy monologues about how much they miss someone. I don’t trust weepy music or lighting cues that whisper, now feel this. But reader: I used to.
How to Layer Grief Without Sentimentality
a note for playwrights who hate cheap tears
audreycefaly.substack.com
May 27, 2025 at 6:01 AM
audreycefaly.bsky.social
If you’ve ever written your way into a truth you didn’t know was waiting… this one’s for you. audreycefaly.substack.com/p/writing-fr... #playwriting #memoir #twins #amwriting #mondaymotivation
Writing From the Middle of the Wreckage
on memoir, dissociation, and dresses that cut
audreycefaly.substack.com
May 12, 2025 at 3:58 PM
audreycefaly.bsky.social
“How Is Live Theater Still Alive?It has become fiendishly expensive to produce, and has more competition than ever. And yet the believers still believe. Why? And does the world really want a new musical about … Abraham Lincoln?! (Part one of a three-part series.)” freakonomics.com/podcast/how-...
How Is Live Theater Still Alive? - Freakonomics
How Is Live Theater Still Alive? - Freakonomics
freakonomics.com
April 28, 2025 at 7:18 PM
audreycefaly.bsky.social
My top 10 playwriting hacks. Happy writing! open.substack.com/pub/audreyce...
My Top 10 Playwriting Hacks
Or how to get things done, like actually done.
open.substack.com
April 25, 2025 at 2:02 PM
audreycefaly.bsky.social
Theater makers give their "beyond the textbook" take on what makes a stage play theatrical. #playwriting #newplay #amwriting #writingtips audreycefaly.substack.com/p/what-makes...
What Makes a Stage Play Theatrical?
The real secret to leveling up your playwriting game.
audreycefaly.substack.com
April 18, 2025 at 1:05 AM
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"Now we face our greatest test. Running theatre companies is harder than ever, but not only because we have at least 30% less funding than two decades ago. Not only because arts subjects in schools and universities were systematically depopulated..." www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/fea...
Theatre at a crossroads - Arts Professional
This month marks the 20th episode of Devoted & Disgruntled, an annual convention bringing together those who care about the future of theatre. Erica Whyman reflects on how much has changed over the tw...
www.artsprofessional.co.uk
April 17, 2025 at 11:15 AM
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Subscribe to my free Substack for more updates like these.
Submit: Keegan Theatre Boiler Room Series, Deadline 4/15/25
2025 Boiler Room Series Playwright Submissions
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April 2, 2025 at 3:02 PM
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April 1, 2025 at 5:41 PM
audreycefaly.bsky.social
March 31, 2025 at 12:11 PM
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ht Michelle LaCroix for posting this over on Substack.
March 23, 2025 at 7:27 PM
audreycefaly.bsky.social
Had a blast recording this podcast with @dennishensley.bsky.social Hensley and my writing partner, #CarolynMessina. TOPICS: #AlabamaGoatPlay (aka #Alabaster), writing trauma, comedy, and what it was like getting published by #SamuelFrench. Have a listen! #playwriting #amwriting #dramaturgy
Playwright Audrey Cefaly & Actor Carolyn Messina (Alabaster):
Podcast Episode · DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley · 03/20/2025 · 1h 21m
podcasts.apple.com
March 20, 2025 at 8:30 PM
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March 15, 2025 at 11:54 PM
audreycefaly.bsky.social
www.pridesquatch.org
March 14, 2025 at 11:09 PM
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My husband and I started a thing. Join us! #pridesquatch
pridesquatch.bsky.social PrideSquatch @pridesquatch.bsky.social · Mar 14
🎉 Exciting News! 🎉 We're thrilled to announce PrideSquatch.org, where inclusion meets adventure! 🌈 Your journey starts now—let's make a difference! 🏳️‍🌈✨ #PrideSquatch #Pride #LGBTQ #LoveIsLove #Equality #Visibility
PrideSquatch: It's a Movement!
Join the movement. Show your support! Be a Squatch!
PrideSquatch.org
March 14, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Reposted by Audrey Cefaly
eveettinger.com
The final mission is the total subjugation of children to parental control with no recourse for their right to information or an open future
marisakabas.bsky.social Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · Mar 4
NEW—Dept of Ed staff received an email from Sec. McMahon tonight with the subject, “Our Department’s Final Mission.”

McMahon writes that plan is, “to send education back to the states.” Notably doesn’t mention executive order like earlier draft, but some think it’s still coming.

Full text:
From: Linda McMahon Subject: Our Department's Final Mission When I took the oath of office as Secretary of Education, I accepted responsibility for overseeing the U.S. Department of Education and those who work here. But more importantly, I took responsibility for supporting over 100 million American children and college students who are counting on their education to create opportunity and prepare them for a rewarding career. I want to do right by both. As you are all aware, President Trump nominated me to take the lead on one of his most momentous campaign promises to families. My vision is aligned with the President's: to send education back to the states and empower all parents to choose an excellent education for their children. As a mother and grandmother, I know there is nobody more qualified than a parent to make educational decisions for their children. I also started my career studying to be a teacher, and as a Connecticut Board of Education member and college trustee, I have long held that teaching is the most noble of professions. As a businesswoman, I know the power of education to prepare workers for fulfilling careers. American education can be the greatest in the world. It ought not to be corrupted by political ideologies, special interests, and unjust discrimination. Parents, teachers, and students alike deserve better. After President Trump's inauguration last month, he steadily signed a slate of executive orders to keep his promises: combatting critical race theory, DEl, gender ideology, discrimination in admissions, promoting school choice for every child, and restoring patriotic education and civics. He has also been focused on eliminating waste, red tape, and harmful programs in the federal government. The Department of Education's role in this new era of accountability is to restore the rightful role of state oversight in education and to end the overreach from Washington. This restoration will profoundly impact staff, budgets, and agency As l've learned many times throughout my career, disruption leads to innovation and gets results. We must start thinking about our final mission at the department as an overhaul-a last chance to restore the culture of liberty and excellence that made American education great. Changing the status quo can be daunting. But every staff member of this Department should be enthusiastic about any change that will benefit students. True change does not happen overnight—especially the historic overhaul of a federal agency. Over the coming months, as we work hard to carry out the President's directives, we will focus on a positive vision for what American education can be. These are our convictions: 1. Parents are the primary decision makers in their children's education. 2. Taxpayer-funded education should refocus on meaningful learning in math, reading, science, and history—not divisive DEl programs and gender ideology. 3. Postsecondary education should be a path to a well-paying career aligned with workforce needs. Removing red tape and bureaucratic barriers will empower parents to make the best educational choices for their children. An effective transfer of educational oversight to the states will mean more autonomy for local communities. Teachers, too, will benefit from less micromanagement in the classroom-enabling them to get back to basics. I hope each of you will embrace this vision going forward and use these convictions as a guide for conscientious and pragmatic action. The elimination of bureaucracy should free us, not limit us, in our pursuit of these goals. I want to invite all employees to join us in this historic final mission on behalf of all students, with the same dedication and excellence that you have brought to your careers as public servants. This is our opportunity to perform one final, unforgettable public service to future generations of students. I hope you will join me in ensuring that when our final mission is complete, we will all be able to say
March 4, 2025 at 4:51 AM
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March 4, 2025 at 11:32 AM