Hostage

Finalist, Woodward/Newman Drama Award
Finalist, Fratti-Newman Political Play Contest Showcase
Finalist, National New Play Network
Best World Premiere Plays, Stage Scene LA

Based on true events. In 1979 students in Tehran took over the American Embassy and held hostages for 444 days. The youngest hostage, a nineteen-year-old Marine was in captivity for about six months when his mother flew from Wisconsin to Tehran in the hope of being allowed to see her son. Incredibly, the students allowed her a short visit. Hostage imagines what happened in that room when mother and son were reunited, and the consequences the mother faced when she returned to the U.S. and was suddenly suspect in her own country. Hostage is a play about patriotism, the political vs. the personal and the ferocity of a mother’s love.

PRODUCTIONS

WORLD PREMIERE: May 19-24, 2018 *EXTENDED to June 22nd
Skylight Theatre Company, Los Angeles, CA
directed by Elina de Santos

June 1-18, 2017
Pacific Resident Theater, Venice, CA
directed by Elina de Santos

January 18 -27, 2019
iTheater Collaborative at the Herberger Theater Center
directed by Christopher Haines

October 10-27, 2019
Adobe Rose Theatre, Santa Fe, NM
directed by Jessica Hanna

STAGED READINGS

August 6, 2016
The Road Theatre Company Summer Playwright’s Festival

May 3-6, 2018
Florida Repertory Theatre PlayLab Reading Series

Michelle sits down with Barbara Timm, Kevin Hermening, and moderator Bruce McKenna, following a performance at the Adobe Rose Theater, October 2019.

Michelle and the cast meet the real life Barbara Timm (the inspiration for Hostage) and one of her sons, Christopher, following a performance at Skylight Theatre Company in Los Angeles, May 2018.