NOISE/QUIET: A Cycle of Short Plays

From rejection to resurrection: how two plays became a cycle of sound and silence

The Festival That Said No

In 2021, I took an artistic risk. A one-minute play festival put out a call for submissions, and I decided to try my hand at playwriting. I’m mainly a director, but I thought I had nothing to lose—and if the festival accepted the play, maybe I could direct it.

I took the plunge. Writing the first play was so much fun that I wrote a second. My two short plays were experiments in form and brevity, and I was proud to submit them.

Alas, neither was accepted.

But here’s what I’ve learned about rejection: while it may feel frustrating at first, sometimes it’s not an ending—it’s a detour.

I believed in those plays. They felt like fragments of something larger, so I held onto them, turning them over in my mind like two lost puzzle pieces.

When I published one of the plays last fall, something unexpected happened—it sparked an idea. What if I wrote a third piece as an experiment in pushing the short form in a different direction? I did. And then I started asking: Could these three pieces live together in a larger work? If so, what could that work be?

The answer became NOISE/QUIET—a cycle of plays that bloomed from a rejection into a collection, a work I’m eager to continue developing.

From Three Plays to Nine Movements

The process of assembling the cycle was equal parts puzzle and obsession. I knew the three existing plays needed companions—pieces that would contrast, complement, and engage in thematic dialogue with what I’d already written. They needed to vary in form and content to keep an audience engaged, but they also needed cohesion.

So I started sketching. I wrote plays about bonding in waiting rooms, conspiracy theories involving lizard people, and a therapy session gone awry. I pushed myself to write in different styles: realistic dialogues, absurdist humor, moments of heartbreak, and flashes of horror. In a few months, I had a nine-movement cycle—each play a distinct world, but interconnected by a shared exploration of sound, silence, and the struggle for human connection.

How to Read These Plays

These plays were written for the stage—they live in sound, movement, and the tension between actors and audience. But I’m publishing them because I believe they have something urgent to say about this moment: about information overload, institutional collapse, and the small spaces where human connection still survives.

As you read, imagine the sounds. The hum of fluorescent lights. The tick of an analog clock. Phones pinging. A heart monitor’s steady beep. Let the stage directions create a world in your mind’s ear.

I’m not going to explain what these plays mean—interpretation is yours. But I will say this: the styles range wildly. Realistic to absurd. Heartfelt to cynical. Hilarious to horrifying. They’re meant to provoke, unsettle, and resonate.

I’ve published the Overture below. Here’s what’s in store over the coming weeks:

If you’d like to follow along, I recommend reading the plays in order. Each builds on the last.

Here’s the opening—Sound Collage Collapse.

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Overture: Sound Collage Collapse

Lights dim to total blackout. The experience of the sound collage is mostly in darkness, ideally the sound system can make the audio feel like it is happening all around the audience.

There could be light moments of abstract projection design expressing the mood or feeling of sounds. The projections should be impressions—enhancing or deepening the sound’s impact—but not concrete images or photos illustrating the sounds.

The sounds fade in and out—they also overlap as they transition from one to another.

In this order we hear:

Crickets

The ticking of an analog clock

Morning alarm of a digital clock

Coffee percolating

Bathroom shower running

One text message ping

Weather Report: “Sunny and clear for the morning commute. Possible storms late in the afternoon with a high of seventy-five and a low of sixty-eight… ”

Keys jingling

Door closes

An elevator dings

Beeping of a garbage truck backing up

Dog barks

Kids running to school

Baby cries in a stroller

Subway Announcement: “Stand clear of the closing doors please” and the sound of the “bing, bong” before the doors close.

Subway train leaves the station

Crowds walking to work

The clicking or typing of texts and emails, bubbling with phone pings and posts

Voices from media that overlap:

“The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened slightly higher today, as investors weighed new inflation numbers… ”

“ …following last night’s unexpected win, the team moves on to the championship, but first they’ll meet for a photo-op with aspiring hopefuls from a local high-school team… ”

“ …in other news, tensions escalate as both countries issue statements condemning the other’s actions. The UN quickly intervened to assure continued support for… ”

“ …Mr. Pickles, the adorable kitten rescued from a five-story fire who’s looking for a forever home…”

“ …the award-winning film and television star is now caught up in an explosive scandal involving money laundering and fake teeth… ”

“Hey guys, make sure to hit that button to like and subscribe so you never miss my reporting about the craziest stories on social media… ”

“This is a test of the emergency broadcast system” followed by emergency tone

School bell rings

Kids getting out of school… then playing in the park

The sound of jump-rope hitting pavement and joyful rhymes

Basketball bouncing, hitting the backboard and swooshing through the net

Thunder

Light rain

Sound of the kids in the park running home

Horns honking in a traffic jam

A loud bang or crash

Car doors opening and slamming shut

Arguments escalate into a riot

Police sirens

Gunfire

Helicopter flies overhead

Explosion

Car alarms

Debris falling

Ambulance sirens

People running, screaming, crying that fades away into…

Silence… then

The sound of fluorescent lights and a clock ticking continues into the first play: While We Wait 1

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Continue the Cycle

Next: While We Wait 1—A play about silence and continuity

KEVIN RAY | WORKS is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of KEVIN RAY | WORKS must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.