SCRIBE, or The Sisters Milton, or Elegy for the Unwritten

by L M Feldman

For a moment: let’s set aside what got erased from history,
and take a hard look at what never got written.
SCRIBE imagines the poet Milton’s relationship with his three kept-barely-literate daughters, while he was blind & outcast & composing Paradise Lost and they were transcribing & homemaking & coming of age. Poetic and playful, fantastical and unflinching, SCRIBE probes the relationship between genius...

For a moment: let’s set aside what got erased from history,
and take a hard look at what never got written.
SCRIBE imagines the poet Milton’s relationship with his three kept-barely-literate daughters, while he was blind & outcast & composing Paradise Lost and they were transcribing & homemaking & coming of age. Poetic and playful, fantastical and unflinching, SCRIBE probes the relationship between genius, privilege, and labor, and mourns the enormity of unmade art by the voices we’ll never get to hear. With humor, eloquence, and high theatricality, this new play set during 17th-century England’s social volatility—and ours, too, now—tells the story of three children growing up in the shadow of the canon, of society, and of its cultural and historical legacies.

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SCRIBE, or The Sisters Milton, or Elegy for the Unwritten

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  • Playwrights Foundation: SCRIBE, or The Sisters Milton, or Elegy for the Unwritten by L M Feldman
    “

    The community of National Committee readers for the 47th Bay Area Playwrights Festival advanced SCRIBE, or The Sisters Milton, or Elegy for the Unwritten as a Semi-Finalist at Playwrights Foundation. We leaned in to the script's exploration of the toll that “genius” takes on the people surrounding an artist. We also leaned into the character of Mary. We hope this play is considered for further development, and finds dedicated collaborators in this play’s journey towards production.

    The community of National Committee readers for the 47th Bay Area Playwrights Festival advanced SCRIBE, or The Sisters Milton, or Elegy for the Unwritten as a Semi-Finalist at Playwrights Foundation. We leaned in to the script's exploration of the toll that “genius” takes on the people surrounding an artist. We also leaned into the character of Mary. We hope this play is considered for further development, and finds dedicated collaborators in this play’s journey towards production.

    ”
  • Premiere Stages at Kean University: SCRIBE, or The Sisters Milton, or Elegy for the Unwritten by L M Feldman
    “

    Premiere Stages, the professional Equity theatre company in residence at Kean University, is pleased to recognize SCRIBE by L M Feldman as a Semi-Finalist for the 2024 Premiere Play Festival. SCRIBE rose through a competitive selection process conducted by Premiere staff and a panel of outside theatre professionals to become one of 48 Semi-Finalists out of 760 submissions. The panel was particularly impressed by the play’s insightful and dynamic dialogue, and how time and place are skillfully used to set a powerful stage for the narrative. Our congratulations and thanks to L M Feldman.

    Premiere Stages, the professional Equity theatre company in residence at Kean University, is pleased to recognize SCRIBE by L M Feldman as a Semi-Finalist for the 2024 Premiere Play Festival. SCRIBE rose through a competitive selection process conducted by Premiere staff and a panel of outside theatre professionals to become one of 48 Semi-Finalists out of 760 submissions. The panel was particularly impressed by the play’s insightful and dynamic dialogue, and how time and place are skillfully used to set a powerful stage for the narrative. Our congratulations and thanks to L M Feldman.

    ”
  • Jenny Connell Davis: SCRIBE, or The Sisters Milton, or Elegy for the Unwritten by L M Feldman
    “

    Rich language, terrific character work in the three sisters, with a lot to say about how history is written, who's written out of it, and what counts as "important" work. It truly lives up to the description of "poetic, playful and unflinching." I'm dying to see it on stage.

    Rich language, terrific character work in the three sisters, with a lot to say about how history is written, who's written out of it, and what counts as "important" work. It truly lives up to the description of "poetic, playful and unflinching." I'm dying to see it on stage.

    ”
View all 6 recommendations
A multiracial/multiethnic ensemble of 4 (or 5) actors.
The play is about contemporary America and must reflect the world we live in.
The family members need not physically resemble each other in any way.

- DEB, the torn youngest daughter – a writer of color;

- MARY, the queer middle child – a revolutionary of color;

- ANNE, the slow but loyal eldest daughter – a homemaker & artisan of any race/ethnicity;

- MILTON, the old genius poet – a blind & widowed white father (who also plays THOMAS, the new apprentice – a hardworking & gaycloseted white Quaker);

And this role is optional:

- MAMA, a deceased mother -- a spirit, a longing, a fate (a mostly-nonverbal, time-bending, space-changing presence)

Development History

  • Reading, Philadelphia Women's Theatre Festival, 2023
  • Commission, Northwoods Ramah Theatre Company, 2012

Production History

  • University, Emerson Stage, 2020
  • University, Georgetown University, 2018
  • Workshop, Northwoods Ramah Theatre Company, 2012

Awards

  • Magic in Rough Spaces
    Finalist
    2025
  • Local Lab 14
    Finalist
    2025
  • Bay Area Playwrights Festival
    Semi-Finalist
    2025
  • Premiere Stages Play Festival
    Semi-Finalist
    2024