Deb Pierce McCabe
Playwright, Director
Deb is a playwright and director, a retired drama therapist and women’s advocate. Her previously produced works include The Elopement, Rule of Thumb, and adaptations of Huck Finn and A Christmas Carol. She writes a column for Substack at This Little Light, and is currently working on a novel, The Wild Men of Josephine County. Deb is a frequent writer for the 14/48 theatre festival, and most recently had a staged reading of her play A Place Like This, produced by Vashon Repertory Theatre as part of an incubator series for women playwrights.
Those of you familiar with my work know that I love stories that interweave humor, poetry, social justice, and nature. My stories often explore dark themes, with a light of grace shining through them. Bringing light and humor into darkness has been a consistent thread in my stories, workshops, and work with clients.
Background
As a Registered Drama Therapist and a Board Certified Trainer in Drama Therapy.
As a drama therapist I worked in schools, hospitals, prisons, treatment programs and in private practice, but the main focus of my work was with survivors of domestic violence. My play, Rule of Thumb, is based on the true stories of survivors. It toured for three years as an outreach project for women at risk, and a training piece for therapists, attorneys, and police officers in order to help them to understand the power and control tactics of abusers. Rule of Thumb is available as a reading with discussion. A contract is required for use of the script for performance.
I wrote a chapter describing this project for an arts therapy textbook: Drama Therapy as Treatment for Survivors of Domestic Violence, in The use of the creative therapies with survivors of domestic violence, Stephanie Brooke, editor, Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, Publisher, 2008
From 2011 -2013 I served on the board of directors for the North American Drama Therapy Association, and as a Board Certified Trainer I mentored students who were working to become Registered Drama Therapists.
Drama Therapy
Drama therapy is the intentional use of drama and theatre processes to develop social skills or achieve therapeutic goals. Drama therapy is active, engaging, innovative, and can be a lot of fun. Scene work, dialogue, movement, improvisation, and role reversals are some of the techniques we may employ, as well as identifying status and power dynamics in our relationships. Dramatic ritual or theatre games help symbolize change and significant moments in a person’s life story. The rehearsal process can help them to prepare for real life events, or replay or slow down past events to illuminate different aspects of an event for clarity. These techniques can be powerful catalysts for change and resolution.
Interactive drama unlocks the creativity of the mind, the felicity of the spirit, and the language of the body.
Recent and Current Projects
A Place Like This
Written in December, 2024, A Place Like This is a one-act play about ordinary people living in an extraordinary time. Set in the not-so-distant dystopian future, a group of family and friends share laughter, music, courage, and safety as the government begins to round up certain people.
Produced by Vashon Repertory Theatre as a staged reading in March, 2025 as part of an incubator series for Women Playwrights.
In December of 2020 I co-directed an international online audience-participation reading of my adaptation of A Christmas Carol, with actors from Romania, Germany, France, England, Texas, Washington state, and California, and with audience members participating from all over the world!
I’ve had the pleasure of writing scripts for the 14/48 Play Festival. I wrote a total of nine short plays for the Festival between 2018 and January of 2024. The poster photo is from my show, On the Way to the Wedding.
Staged readings of my adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in 2016, 2017, and 2019. In June of 2019 I also co-directed a local musical review based on the music from Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?
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Back by popular demand:
Improvisational Writing from the Heart
An online writing group