Courtesy of @pitt_stages on Instagram
PITTSBURGH, PA (PTTP) –– Kelly Trumbull’s play, “Morning Reckoning” is about a teenage
boyband fan club in Wayne, NJ, in the year 1999. They devote all their time to following
Morning Reckoning and obsessing over the band together. There is a formative event that occurs
and changes things for the characters. Cut to 20 year later, we meet the women as adults and see
how the formative experience shaped them individually.
Trumbull says “I hope everyone will leave thinking about their childhood friendships and reflect
on the meaningful experiences they had with those people… I hope they leave with a sense of
nostalgia for their childhoods.”
In her writing process, she took inspiration from a fond memory of sleepovers with her friends in
middle school. They’d be in basements, learning boyband dances, all elements you see reflected
into the play. This memory was the spark for her while an imagination path was able to fill in the
spaces and create her original play.
As a Teaching Assistant in the University of Pittsburgh’s Theatre Arts Department, she finds
there to be positive and challenging aspects to her work being produced at Pitt. Being so close to
it and knowing what is going on within, instead of it being produced somewhere else, has been
challenging for her.
She is so thankful to Pitt Stages and the Theatre Arts Department for their support of her work.
Trumbull expresses how “special it is to have my work produced in what I consider my ‘artistic
home’” with so much support from her students and colleagues.
Her advice to student playwrights is to “keep writing.” There are people that want to read your
play and resources within student clubs to help you get a taste of the experience. Trumbull
stresses the importance of staying true to your work and maintaining the confidence of each story
you create as a writer.
“Morning Reckoning” Tickets & Info: https://www.play.pitt.edu/morning-reckoning