Poet and playwright Shaun Gant teaches and writes in Missoula, Montana.
Shaun Gant, Reykjavík
the visitors
ZDK Arts 2024
August 2-4 and 9-11
Audition date TBD
Produced by MissCast Productions
Directed by Jasmine Sherman and Maisie Gospadarek
Road construction. Forest fire. Existential crisis. Visitors from Hell.
Typical family vacation at the lake. One-Act, 90 min.
The Sheriff of Rattlesnake County
Zootown Arts Community Center (ZACC) Showroom
It’s classic wild west of politics
in Rattlesnake County this year with
Corruption vs. Honesty at stake.
Check your guns at the bar!
Full-length Comedy with Music.
Maternal Immersion
March 15, 16 2024
Produced by Room 131 Productions
Zootown Arts Community Center
Floods in Italy, skidding on the ice, drowning in the lake. There’s nothing Mom can’t handle.
Sports of Nature
Zootown Arts Community Center (ZACC) Showroom 2023
Directed by Alex Kowalchik
Produced by Third Ear Productions and ZDK Arts
Poster graphic AI generated by Alex Kowalchik
Set/Lighting Design by Markus Paminger
Costume Design by Melissa Moss-Larson
With: Annika Charlson, Jackie Vetter, Nathan Adkins, Emily Branch, Sam Orr
A humorous look at the serious subjects of AI, human obsolescence, and the pending hybridization of humans and computers. You know, “the chip” we’re all about to have implanted in our brains! The characters, two cellphones, an iPod, a flip phone, and a human being set up some silly fun, but the play raises ethical questions about how we deal with technology in our lives.
Panel discussions follow matinee performances exploring the ethics of how we use rapidly evolving technology in our everyday lives. Full length comedy, 90 mins.
Wife
Forge Hotel 2023
Directed by Jackie Vetter
Produced by Anaconda Ensemble Theatre
With: Dave Coleman II, Caleb Hill, John Emeigh, Heather Lynne Meeks Kathryn Manz, Rachel Boothe, Nikki Johnson, Nathan Landrum, Kai Jackman, Dez Brown, Levi Dessing, Izzy Bernhardt, David Coleman, Sr.
Jerry and Lou are tying the knot for the fourth time. This time, it’s gonna work. A wedding play where the audience attends as guests. Music, dancing, and cake after the show.
One Act, 60 mins.
Words Out West Launch Party
West Side Theatre 2022
Poetry Reading
Poems from The Ones I Haven’t Married Yet
With: Kevin Canty (guitar) Dave Roberts (guitar)
Dark Matter Soft Spur Press 2021
With Linda Leslie and John Witham
The concept of this collaboration with Shaun Gant and Linda Leslie was to have Shaun’s handwritten poems on clear acetate to overlay Linda’s paintings and drawings, creating abstract images. The result is a sketchbook with blank pages for readers to use in a similar process. While the poems and paintings do not caption each other, they are paired purposefully to invite readers to create their own “dark matter” between poems and art.
Available at Shakespeare & Co. Bookstore, Lindaleslieart.com,
Fact and Fiction Bookstore.
Let’s Get a Little Something Done
ZACC Showroom 2021
Shorts program Produced by Third Ear Productions
Directed by Nathan Adkins
With: Maisie Gospadarek, Jasmine Sherman
Maya’s home improvement guru, Tonsil, helps her build a dream house and pare down her cluttered life. Simplicity and happiness were never so easily achieved! 30 mins.
A performance artist gets his groove back in the sensory deprivation tank. 20 min.
Trust
ZACC 2020
Shorts Program Produced by Third Ear Productions
Directed by Nathan Adkins
With: Zack French
Trust
Helena Avenue Theatre 2020
Staged Reading Produced by
Montana Playwrights Network
Oulipo Murders
The Masquer Theatre 2018
Staged Reading Directed by Margaret Johnson
Produced by The Montana Repertory Theatre Colony
With: Kushtan, Paul Ronaldo, Ann Peacock
Two Americans turn online scam baiting into live love bait in
this full-length drama set in Nigeria. Sequel to Keepers. 90 mins.
The Second Appointment
Roxy Theater 2017
Shorts program produced by Third Ear Productions
Directed by Nathan Adkins
With: Ann Peacock, Zach French, Howard Kingston, Jasmine Sherman
It has come to our attention that immigration might be more efficiently handled in the dentist office. Have you made your follow-up appointment? 20 mins.
“Penelope” from Joyce’s Ulysses
Cassiopeia Books 2017
With: John Hunt, Marc Beaudin
Molly’s soliloquy at midnight, Dublin, June 16, 1904
–yearly at Cassiopeia.
20 min.
Mercy!
Masquer Theatre 2016
5 X 5 Staged Readings Produced by Montana Repertory Theatre
Take a leap of faith. A couple’s office affair turns into free-fall love. 20 min.
Poems Across the Big Sky II Anthology
Many Voices Press 2016
Ed. by Lowell Jaeger and Hannah Bissell
Reading at Shakespeare & Co.
With: Saif Alsaegh, David E. Thomas, Mary Jane Nealon, Shaun Gant, Jason Theroux and Lowell Jaeger
“Waxwings’ Party” and other poems.
The Sample
Masquer Theatre 2016
Directed by Rosie Ayers
5 X 5 Staged Readings Produced by Montana Repertory Theatre
With: Morgan Solonar, Curen Feliciani, Mark Metcalf, Jenna Lockman, Rosie Ayers
Stand in line for your favorite flavor. Choose a party to go with it. 15 min.
Train Music
The Crystal Theatre 2014
Director and Technical Director: David Mills-Lowe
Produced by Third Ear Productions
With: Tabitha Bettin, Nathan Adkins, Adam
Ward, Alyssa Bosch, Leah Joki and Kyle McAfee
Graphic Poster Design by Neal Weigert
Vignettes set on a train varying from humorous to serious explorations of relationships: a couple traveling home to meet the family for the first time; a musician’s instrument case on the last seat. 20 min.
Iterations
The Crystal Theatre 2013
Directed by Diane Johnson and Craig Menteer
Produced by First Night Missoula
With: Ann Peacock, Sequoia Raymond,
Ryan Nicodemus, Jani Albans
Choreography by Ann Peacock
Set Design and Build by Craig Menteer
Graphic Poster Design and Set Paintings by Laura Blaker
The line between art and reality is thin. Very thin. One Act, 60 min.
Drive It In
Crystal Theatre 2012
Shorts program produced by Third Ear Productions
Directed by David Mills-Lowe
Tech Effects by David Mills-Lowe
With: Ann Peacock, Tabitha Bettin, Nathan Adkins,
Adam Ward, Alyssa Bosch, Leah Joki and Kyle McAfee
Graphic Poster Design by Neal Wiegert
Those kids in the back seat better behave
or mom’s gonna make ’em RUN. 15 min.
In Position
The Loft 2011
Shorts program produced by Third Ear Productions
Directed by Rebecca Schaeffer
With: Diane Johnson, Ann Peacock
Graphic Poster Design by Neal Wiegert
ZACH picks up his device and lays it on hers. They swing their chairs
together, facing the audience so they can read their dessert books
together. We see their expressions of delight. It’s the end of the world. 15 min.
Penelope
Missoula Art Museum 2011
Molly Bloom’s alternative solilquy. 15 min.
Keepers
Crystal Theater 2010
Directed by Kaet Morris
Produced by Third Ear Productions
With: Salina Chatlain, Paul Chirico, Sarina Hart, Jenn Hogan, Paul Chirico, Jim Sontag, Jake Floyd, Adryan Kransky, Rebecca Sporman
Sound design by Dale Sherrard
Trailer by David Mills-Lowe
Original guitar accompaniment by Ron Meissner
Graphic Poster Design by Lindy Coon
Photography by Kevin Hyde
Full-length drama, 90 min. Director’s note: Keepers is not your typical noir. It has all the elements: a good detective story, the romantic subplot, and a good dose of love and hope almost to spite the crime it depicts. But what really saves a noir play from being presented as a farce or a comedic commentary on the 1940’s-50’s is the depth of characters involved and what the writer puts those characters through.
For this play, Shaun bravely chose human trafficking as the means to her dramatic end. The slave trade that is happening in our country is an unspeakable market. It is the very darkness that noir is named for, even darker. The sex slave trade is at half a million children every year in the US and abroad. Keepers is more real than noir has any right to be. It takes us to the source of human evil and invites us to have a conversation with it, to make the choice to accept it, or to give voice to the voiceless women and men who are victimized by it.
I invite you to go to this source with us in this play, to put yourselves in Marlow’s position. Now that you are about to know, what will you do?
Wife Staged Readings: Crystal Theatre 2009
Missoula Winery 2008
Directed by Shaun Gant
With: Ann Peacock, Maribeth Rothwell
Bolton Rothwell, Jake Lasham and Zach French
Graphic Design by Shaun Gant
With cake and wedding band. One-Act, 50 min.
A Season Swirling (Unfurling)
Missoula Art Museum 2008
With: Katy Stone
Sound Poem with Art Installation
Schnee! A gallery walk through a Mylar landscape with poetry unfurling around you.
Aboard the Doppler
Masquer Theatre 2007
Directed by Margaret Johnson
Produced by The Montana Repertory Theatre
Graphic Design by Shaun Gant
Join Inertia, Vector, Cosmotea, and Dante on a 60 minute boat ride through a black hole. If you don’t have anything else to do. One-Act, 45 min.
Scrubbing the Wolf
Crystal Theatre 2006
Union Club 2006
Directed by Craig Menteer and Lindy Coon
Produced by First Night Missoula
With: Rachel Winick, Paul Ronaldo, Daniel Johnson, Ann Peacock, Chris Torma, Pepper Wilson, Carla Abrams,
Kathi Nickle (SM), Ruth Anderson, Pepper Wilson, Maribeth Rothwell, Paul Ronaldo, Ashleen Henderson,
Bolton Rothwell and Curt Shirling
That guy’s home was invaded by urban guerillas that used his wife as a human shield. She escaped, got the drop on the kidnappers and loaded them into the back of a panel van, drove them to the cop shop. She was awarded the keys to the city by the anti-terrorism unit. They planted a tree in her honor. –Scrubbing the Wolf.
Making up stories about the local foot traffic is normal for the Duffys. But when Kate retires to franchise the Spin Cycle Laundromat across Montana, her daughters use their story-telling skills to compete for the business. One-Act, 60 min.
Emily and Adrienne
Union Club 2005
Choreographed by Ann Peacock
Produced by First Night Missoula
With: Ann Peacock and Trish Opstad on silks
Graphic Poster Design by Josh Quick
A conversation in verse between Emily Dickinson and Adrienne Rich, contemplating love, death, faith, and art. One-Act, 45 min.
Girls’ Eye View
Missoula Art Museum 2004
Directed by Curt Shirling
With: Tim Huffman, Ashley Hendrickson
Graphic Poster Design by Shaun Gant
What was your dad’s baseball team?
A girls’-eye view of male friendship. One-Act, 60 min.
Cosmic Surgery
Missoula Art Museum 2004
Elks Lodge 2003
Choreography by Ann Johnson-Peacock
With: Ann Johnson-Peacock, Tim Huffman
Music by Velcro Sheep
Graphic Poster Design by Shaun Gant
An internet date gone wild. Trigger Warning: Contains lovers doing the Polka, Tango, Fencing, playing Chess, and succumbing to the charm of a perfect stranger. One-Act, 45 min.
Shiver
Crystal Theatre 2002
Directed by Craig Menteer
Original Music by Chris Lane
Produced by First Night Missoula
With: Evan Youngblood-Petersen, Ann Peacock
Todd Mobray, Deb Halliday, and McCarthy Coyle
Whether ’tis nobler to rope and ride and run for sheriff, or to stand by your man in his own pursuit of the badge – this and other issues are pressing Trixi Wicket, the barrel racing English teacher in a comic cowgirl “Hamlet.” One-Act, 45 Min.
Vibrating Systems
Crystal Theatre 2000
Directed by Shaun Gant
Produced by First Night Missoula
With: Sheryl Noethe, Simone Ellis, Shaun Gant
Three poets take on healing, art, and beauty.
Spoken word. One-Act, 60 min.
Y2K.Comedy
Crystal Theatre 1999
Directed by Craig Menteer
Produced by First Night Missoula
With: Deb Halliday
A community organizer faces the certainty of Y2K computer melt down. Coming soon to a theatre near you: the end of the world.
One-Act, 45 min.
Girls’ Eye View
Crystal Theatre, Raven Cafe 1998
Directed by Sarah DeGrandpre
Produced by Third Ear Productions
With: John Ledyard, Jim Parker and Ruth Anderson
Two friends have been meeting at the same cafe for years, even when it changes hands, talking about their dad’s deaths, teams, and loves. A girls-eye view of men’s friendships. One-Act, 60 min.
Women, I Believe
Crystal Theatre 1998
Directed by Shaun Gant
Produced by First Night Missoula
With: Erin Lindbergh, Renee Taffee, Simone Ellis, Ruth Anderson, Jim Parker
Set design: Shaun Gant
All-time great characters from great novelists challenge each other on the subjects of love and death. Shakespeare (Rosalind), Tennessee Williams (Blanche), Hemingway (Bret), and Joyce (Molly). One-Act, 60 min.
Letter to a Young Poet
Crystal Theatre 1997
Directed by Shaun Gant
Produced by First Night Missoula
With: Andrea Olsen, Laura Millin, Shaun Gant
A play in the words of Djuna Barnes
Adrienne Monnier, and Gertrude Stein.
One-Act, 60 min.
Emily and Adrienne
Crystal Theatre 1996
Directed by Craig Menteer
Produced by First Night Missoula
With: Laura Millin, Shaun Gant
A poetry dialogue between Emily Dickinson and Adrienne Rich.
One-Act, 60 min.