Melissa Leilani Larson
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mleilani.bsky.social
Melissa Leilani Larson
@mleilani.bsky.social
Playwright and screenwriter. Mixed-race Filipino. Femme stories, awkward dialogue, puzzles, melty cheese, nice paper, and nicer pens. she/her 💙🌺
bio.site/mel_leilani
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My play A FORM OF FLATTERY has been selected to receive a staged reading as part of InHouse Theatre Co.'s Celebration of New Plays happening later this month in Los Angeles. www.inhousetheatre.org #playwrightlife
InHouse Theatre
www.inhousetheatre.org
Happy Jane Austen Day! My 6-part audio adaptation of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE is available on dramafy.com for anyone who is interested.
dramafy.com/shows/pride-...
Pride & Prejudice | Dramafy
Dramafy in partnership with Little Pixie Productions presents Jane Austen's beloved novel. Fall in love all over again with Austen's classic characters and her "insider" wit and wisdom on the manners ...
dramafy.com
December 16, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Melissa Leilani Larson
I was SUPER pleased with this! I saw a performance of @mleilani.bsky.social's Persuasion script as an undergrad and it's informed my criteria for a Good Adaptation ever since
Stoked to see what @mleilani.bsky.social does with this classic!
December 9, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Some days the best way to get yourself to work is to have a really nice pen. #amwriting
December 9, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Is adaptation my gig now? Two potential commissions are for adaptations — one of a living author’s work (this is new) and one is a classic. Yay! But also — my original stuff does not suck. Much. FWIW, I’m not complaining. Just musing.
November 24, 2025 at 5:29 AM
Introverts aspiring to be social. Nothing more real than that.
November 19, 2025 at 8:30 PM
30th anniversary #SenseAndSensibility cinema tickets acquired for the evening of December 16, Jane Austen’s 250th birthday.

I can’t go to my adaptation of #PrideAndPrejudice that night because it sold out before opening. This is a good problem to have.
November 19, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Apologies — Burns co-directed alongside Sarah Botstein and David P. Schmidt. My bad!
Identifying the voice actors in a Ken Burns documentary is one of my favorite games, and #AmericanRevolution has a fantastic cast. Fun fun fun!
November 18, 2025 at 4:35 AM
Identifying the voice actors in a Ken Burns documentary is one of my favorite games, and #AmericanRevolution has a fantastic cast. Fun fun fun!
November 18, 2025 at 3:09 AM
I'm spending Saturday night scouring the interwebs for vintage stained glass Christmas cards as one does when one should be writing... #playwrightlife
November 9, 2025 at 2:37 AM
What a stunning fall morning. Let’s all use it to vote.
November 4, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Sometimes all you can do is eat pizza.
October 31, 2025 at 1:25 AM
It's the kind of day when it takes all afternoon to draft an email. Probably insignificant to everyone else, I know. But it feels like my career is hanging in the balance. You know. Small potatoes. Woohoo! #playwrightlife
October 14, 2025 at 10:28 PM
There are too many things in my brain. It’s easy to lose track. Get off track? Squirrel. #amwriting #newplay
October 11, 2025 at 4:07 PM
A book club in another state, to which I have no connection, reached out to let me know they will be reading my little book of plays for an upcoming meeting. Is there a word for being simultaneously thrilled and terrified all at once? #playwrightlife
October 10, 2025 at 2:38 AM
I hope whichever of my neighbors is playing that music is enjoying it, because all I can hear is the pulse of the bass and it's making me a little anxious.
October 7, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Turning the fireplace on for the first time this season. Brr.
October 5, 2025 at 3:58 PM
My play A FORM OF FLATTERY has been selected to receive a staged reading as part of InHouse Theatre Co.'s Celebration of New Plays happening later this month in Los Angeles. www.inhousetheatre.org #playwrightlife
InHouse Theatre
www.inhousetheatre.org
October 3, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Good news in the mails.
October 3, 2025 at 7:04 PM
PSA: If you’re campaigning to get a Nobel Prize, you’re doing it wrong.
September 24, 2025 at 2:12 AM
I would like to have more irony on stage than in real life, please and thank you.
September 18, 2025 at 2:45 AM
I just visited a high school English class to talk about adaptation, and discussing art with those young people gave me the most hope I've felt in this broken world in a long while. Probably since the last time I got to sit in a room full of young people! Imagine that. #playwrightlife
September 16, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Tonight I was able to lose myself for a few hours in revising a play and I'm so thankful. Bonus points: the play does not suck. #SnailMail #newplay #playwrightlife
September 12, 2025 at 6:25 AM
I did not fall into a steaming volcano caldera just now, so I’m counting that as a win.
September 7, 2025 at 4:26 AM
The OED definition of “vacation”: watching the newest episode of the Great British Baking Show from one’s hotel room in Kona.
September 6, 2025 at 7:36 AM
Dear Iowa friends: Grinnell College is doing a staged reading of GIN MUMMY to kick off their theatre season! The reading is free and open to the public, and it's happening TONIGHT at 7 p.m. CT. #playwrightlife events.grinnell.edu/event/32592-...
Season Kickoff and Gin Mummy
Fall welcome event and staged reading of a comedy. Come play with us this semester!
events.grinnell.edu
August 30, 2025 at 2:02 PM