GREAT WHITE

by Deborah Yarchun

Fourteen-year-old Brooke is in trouble. Her sixteen-year-old sister, Ivy, is manic and increasingly violent, and their mother, Gail, refuses to acknowledge the danger. As Brooke struggles to hold her family together, she copes by tracking a great white shark. This leads her to Luis, a troubled fifteen-year-old boy intent on swimming out to meet the shark in the ocean. As their friendship deepens, Brooke becomes increasingly aware of the shark drawing closer in her own life: that her sister, in a manic fit, might kill her. Set in southern Florida, between coastal floods, Great White is a coming-of-age drama that explores unremitting love for family, and the consequences of inaction.

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GREAT WHITE

Recommended by

Asher Wyndham: GREAT WHITE by Deborah Yarchun

“

With gorgeous and haunting dialog with a lyrical quality, ebbing and flowing, this coming-of-age play is like no other play. There's a sense of doom and fear on and off shore that will have your audience on the edge. Every page, every single page, there is a beautiful moment, something new and surprising. Check this out.

With gorgeous and haunting dialog with a lyrical quality, ebbing and flowing, this coming-of-age play is like no other play. There's a sense of doom and fear on and off shore that will have your audience on the edge. Every page, every single page, there is a beautiful moment, something new and surprising. Check this out.

”
Beckett Flynn: GREAT WHITE by Deborah Yarchun

“

A great complicated play about real shit. No pulled punched. No easy answers. Not happy endings. Recommend.

A great complicated play about real shit. No pulled punched. No easy answers. Not happy endings. Recommend.

”
David Templeton: GREAT WHITE by Deborah Yarchun

“

I read this play a couple of years ago, and continue to think about it. Especially when I see anything about sharks. Of course, it's not really about sharks so much as it's about the way one broken family functions, and its ideas have a true power to stick with you and linger long afterwards. But then ... sharks. This is a great play.

I read this play a couple of years ago, and continue to think about it. Especially when I see anything about sharks. Of course, it's not really about sharks so much as it's about the way one broken family functions, and its ideas have a true power to stick with you and linger long afterwards. But then ... sharks. This is a great play.

”

View all 11 recommendations

Character Information

Brooke

Gifted, mildly obsessive.

Character Age

14

Character Gender Identity

Female
Can be played by:
- Actor Age
  
  Teens,
  
  20s
- Actor Gender Identity
  
  Woman
Ivy

Character Age

16

Character Gender Identity

Female
Can be played by:
- Actor Age
  
  Teens,
  
  20s
- Actor Gender Identity
  
  Woman
Gail

Brooke and Ivy’s mother. Somewhere stuck on the edge of confronting reality and being in denial.

Character Age

38

Character Gender Identity

Female
Can be played by:
- Actor Age
  
  30s,
  
  40s
- Actor Gender Identity
  
  Woman
Luis

A kind of strange, but brilliant boy.

Character Age

15

Character Race/Ethnic Identity

Latino

Character Gender Identity

Male
Can be played by:
- Actor Age
  
  Teens,
  
  20s
- Actor Race/Ethnic Identity
  
  Latinx/o/a or Hispanic
- Actor Gender Identity
  
  Man

Development History

Type Reading, Organization The Blank Theatre, Year 2021
Type Reading, Organization Nora's Playhouse, Year 2019
Type Reading, Organization Capital Stage Company, Year 2018
Type Reading, Organization Great Plains Theatre Conference, Year 2016
Type Reading, Organization Workhouse Theatre Company, Year 2015
Type Reading, Organization Strange Sun Theater, Year 2015
Type Reading, Organization The Playwrights' Center, Year 2014

Awards

Henley Rose Playwriting Competition, Second Place

Yellow Rose Productions

Runner Up

2018
Relentless Award

American Playwriting Foundation

Honorable Mention

2016