Girl Knocking
A robotics engineer discovers that a robot they purchased for their lab has started knocking on wood, a sign she’s turning human. The engineer conspires with the seller of the robot to keep their discovery secret, but the robot has plans of her own, including saving the planet.
Ellen Davis Sullivan is thrilled to once again have a play in the Road Theatre’s Summer Playwrights Festival. Her one-act, Dusk At 9 Joy Street, was in SPF 11. An award-winning writer of fiction, nonfiction and plays, Ellen’s stories have appeared in journals including Big Muddy, Moment Magazine and Cherry Tree. Her essay The Perfect Height for Kissing won the 2014 Columbia University Non-Fiction Prize and was published in Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art. Ellen’s one-act plays have been produced across North America and published in Ponder Review and anthologies including Best Ten-Minute Plays 2016. Ellen is a member of the Dramatists’ Guild.
Jen is a director, teacher, and licensed psychotherapist. Directing credits include The Grapes of Wrath, Metamorphoses, A Christmas Carol, The Memorandum, How I Learned to Drive, Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, and several play festivals and readings. Jen’s site-specific theatrical installation work includes The Tempest! at the Annenberg Beach House, Brecht-cerpts at the historic Brecht home, Untethered in the Mountain View Mausoleum, and Dinosaur Encounters and Ice Age Encounters in the Los Angeles Natural History Museum and LaBrea Tarpits in collaboration with the Jim Henson Creature Shop. Jen was the Resident Director of Santa Monica Rep for ten years. She has collaborated on directing and new play development projects with Trinity Rep, Brown University, The Road Theatre, City of Angels, Chalk Rep, Two Cents Theatre, the Gamm Theatre, Perishable Theatre, Rogue Machine, Theatricum Botanicum, and L.A. Playwrights Union. Jen has served on the faculties of AMDA, Rhode Island College, and Providence College, and has a broad teaching and directing background in a wide array of settings at the community, academic, and professional level.