SYNOPSIS - THE CHAIR LADY takes place in 1984. Behind every political candidate that runs for office there is a core group of women that run their campaign and get the candidate elected.
Cookie Donato is not just the leader of the group, but is also The Chair Lady of the political party in power.
One week before Election Day, the campaign goes into a tailspin when Cookie realizes her files have been stolen and the press finds out that her candidate for Mayor has a “secret love child” with special needs that the candidate has been hiding for years!
The same day, Cookie’s daughter, a freshman in college, returns home, after only a few months away, and never wants to go back to school while revealing her own secret!
Cookie has to figure out who leaked the secrets, wrangle and spin an election from a negative to a positive and do what she can to get her daughter back on track in life and school, but can Cookie do it?
HISTORY - THE CHAIR LADY was worked on at The Actors Gym in L.A. The play was one of eight plays chosen by The Bechdel Group for their 2020 Winter/Spring Reading Festival. The Bechdel Group is a New York City based group that hosts a series of readings and discussions of new work and works in progress.
The Group looks for plays and screenplays that include the feminine experience beyond a woman’s romantic relationships. They acknowledge that love, sex, and romance are all primal parts of being women, The Bechdel Group insists that no real, three-dimensional woman lives in a romantic bubble. The group looks for stories of women with diverse, layered, complex lives.