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Set in a Midwest college town, the story follows two freshmen whose flirtation and debates about queer life escalate into serious consequences after one connects with the town’s mayor via a dating app. The work interrogates how harmful tropes circulate across political divides while advancing a new gay theatrical perspective on an old myth.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/basically-children-thesis-draft/149183/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/basically-children-thesis-draft/149183.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Asher","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-20","2026-08-27",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",13,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What real-world events inspired Basically Children?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"The preface states the play is loosely inspired by false allegations of sexual misconduct that emerged in August 2020 against former mayor Alex Morse.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"How does the play frame conservative myths about sex and sexuality?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"It explores how myths are perpetuated not only by the political right, but also by some on the political left, who reuse the same harmful tropes in progressive language.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"What role does the dating app connection to the mayor play in the plot?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"The public abstract explains that when one freshman connects with the town’s mayor on a dating app, the ensuing discourse leads to dire consequences.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},149183,1787795860,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":140,"language":141,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":142,"faqs":143,"seo_title":144,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":130,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},687197207639,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","-  \nBasically children  \nO'Leary, Charlie  \n[https://iro.uiowa.edu/esploro/outputs/graduate/Basically-children/9984271154602771/filesAndLinks?index=0](https://iro.uiowa.edu/esploro/outputs/graduate/Basically-children/9984271154602771/filesAndLinks?index=0)  \nO’Leary, C. (2022). Basically children [University of Iowa]. [https://doi.org/10.25820/etd.006502](https://doi.org/10.25820/etd.006502)  \n[https://iro.uiowa.edu](https://iro.uiowa.edu)  \nFree to read and download  \nCopyright 2022 Charlie O'Leary Downloaded on 2026/08/26 05:52:47-0500  \n-  \nBasically Children  \nby  \nCharlie O’Leary  \nA thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Arts (Playwriting) in the Graduate College of  \nThe University of Iowa  \nMay 2022  \nThesis Committee: Lisa Schlesinger, Thesis Supervisor  \nArt Borreca  \nMegan Gogerty  \nCopyright by Charlie O’Leary 2022  \nAll Rights Reserved  \nFor David, who taught me how to love.  \nFor Anne, who taught me how to write.  \nii  \nForgive the kids For they don’t know how to live Run the alleys Casually cruel  \nSt. Vincent“Cruel”  \niii  \nACKNOWLEDGMENTS  \nThank you to the amazing team that produced this play in the 2022 Iowa New Play Festival: director Natalie Villamonte Zito; actors Owen Brightman, David Díaz, Waroon Jalukar, and Arlo Schneider; stage manager Olivia Leslie and assistant stage manager Holland Larned; dramaturg Rob Silverman Ascher and assistant dramaturg Alice Doherty; intimacy director Erica Barnes; and designers Dorothy Craven, Jill Klinkefus, Victor Maldonado, and R. Eric Stone.  \nThank you to the amazing actors who presented a reading of this play in the Iowa Playwrights Workshop: Derick Edgren Otero, Jeremy Geragotelis, Emille Lacsa, Arlo Schneider, and Margo Skornia. Thank you also to everyone who provided feedback on that draft: faculty members Meredith Alexander, Art Borreca, Lisa Schlesinger, and Jen Shook; as well as MFA cohort members Rob Silverman Ascher, Ikram Basra, Olivia Clement, Derick Edgren Otero, Nate Ferguson, Sarah Gazdowicz, Jeremy Geragotelis, Amanda Keating, Ann Kreitman, Christopher Lysik, Valerie Muensterman, Jarek Pastor, Isaiah Reaves, Lorenzo Roberts, Emma Silverman, Margo Skornia, and Natalie Villamonte Zito. Additional thanks is owed to actors Demi Makeig and Sam Nie for their work on a developmental workshop reading of the play.  \nThank you to Bruce Jones, Arlo Schneider, and Wren Stone, who served as script consultants early in the play’s life cycle; to John Michael DiResta, who provided dramaturgical feedback on many, many drafts; to David Díaz, Joey Doyle, Aislinn Frantz, Ken Greller, Karl Hinze, Pierce Livingston, Eileen Lynch, Clara Ritger, Peter Ruiz, Joshua Whitaker, and David Zellnik, who offered notes at various points throughout the process; and to Megan Gogerty, in whose class I wrote the short play that became the seed of this one.  \nThank you to Daniel Boguslaw, Ryan Grim, and Eoin Higgins of The Intercept for their reporting on the sexual misconduct allegations against Alex Morse; and to Palmer Haasch of The Verge and Mark Opera of CityBeat for their reporting on amateur pedophile hunter groups.  \nPUBLIC ABSTRACT  \nIn a Midwest college town, two freshmen flirt, find themselves, and debate the intricacies of queer life. But when one of them connects with the town’s mayor on a dating app, their conceptual discourse leads to dire consequences. A new gay play about an old gay myth.  \nTABLE OF CONTENTS  \nPREFACE .................................................................................................................................... viii  \nCharacters ................................................................................................................................ ix  \nSetting ...................................................................................................................................... ix  \nText Notes ......................................................","cbCaihvMBfJ5xKy4","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaihvMBfJ5xKy4","pdf",559668,117,"English","# Preface\n## Characters\n## Setting\n## Text Notes\n## Casting Note\n## Production Note\n# Part One\n# Part Two\n# Part Three\n# Coda","[{\"question\":\"What real-world events inspired Basically Children?\",\"answer\":\"The preface states the play is loosely inspired by false allegations of sexual misconduct that emerged in August 2020 against former mayor Alex Morse.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the play frame conservative myths about sex and sexuality?\",\"answer\":\"It explores how myths are perpetuated not only by the political right, but also by some on the political left, who reuse the same harmful tropes in progressive language.\"},{\"question\":\"What role does the dating app connection to the mayor play in the plot?\",\"answer\":\"The public abstract explains that when one freshman connects with the town’s mayor on a dating app, the ensuing discourse leads to dire consequences.\"}]","Basically Children - Thesis Draft | PDF",295]