Writing Through the Fear
Claire’s Sullivan’s original play “Don’t Get Buried” makes its world premiere in a staged reading at Muhlenberg CollegeBy: Emma McKinley ’25 Wednesday, March 5, 2025 05:33 PM
The story of “Don’t Get Buried” is one of fear, apprehension, and mannequins coming to life to voice these anxieties in a Halloween store. It is also the story of love, self-acceptance, and getting a re-do of your high school prom wearing a princess costume.
Claire Sullivan’s ’25 original play, “Don’t Get Buried,” makes its world premiere in staged reading at Muhlenberg College, March 21-22. The play will be presented as part of the ’Berg New Works initiative, created by faculty member Gabriel Jason Dean. Last spring’s inaugural ’Berg New Works festival featured two fully produced plays and two staged readings written by Muhlenberg alumni and students.
“It’s very meaningful for students to see plays written by their peers,” Dean says. “And for the students working on the new works, there’s a different kind of investment that comes with being part of the process of working on a new play from the ground up.”
All plays submitted to ’Berg New Works are vetted with three specific criteria in mind. “It’s a trifecta; we’re looking for craft, theatricality, and risk,” Dean says. “We want things that are bold and full of voice.” “Don’t Get Buried” met all these requirements for selection, he says.
“Don’t Get Buried” tells the story of Aura, a young woman who is trans, trapped inside a Halloween store with her best friend and crush, Zander, where they are terrorized by menacing mannequins that voice Aura’s inner fears.
“I wrote this piece to acknowledge that I am scared,” playwright Sullivan says. “I knew that I wanted to make a play that addressed my trans-ness and focused on my fears relating to that: relationships with guys, the potential of getting hurt, and just being trans in itself.”
Though Sullivan started “Don’t Get Buried” as a creative nonfiction essay about her own fear of the Spirit Halloween store, it has evolved into something beyond her own personal experiences.
“It would have been easy for her to walk away from this after she finished that essay, but she kept being curious and coming back to it,” Dean says. “There was a moment when it became not Claire’s story anymore; it became Aura’s.”
Dean thinks that Sullivan’s play, while it centers a trans narrative, is for everybody. “Odds are at some point, you’ve been afraid to be yourself, struggled to love your truest self, or to admit you love who you love,” he says. “If so, then you will find yourself in this play.”
Sullivan says she wrote this play, in part, to tell audience members who are trans that they are not alone. “I realized that I don’t want to be brave,” Sullivan says. “But if I and other trans people have to be, I hope that I’m able to help them feel a bit less alone, and a bit more brave.”
About the Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance Department
Muhlenberg offers Bachelor of Arts degrees in theatre and dance. The Princeton Review ranked Muhlenberg’s theatre program in the top twelve in the nation for eight years in a row, and Fiske Guide to Colleges lists both the theatre and dance programs among the top small college programs in the United States. Muhlenberg is one of only eight colleges to be listed in Fiske for both theatre and dance.
About Muhlenberg College
Founded in 1848, Muhlenberg is a highly selective, private liberal arts college offering baccalaureate and graduate programs. With an enrollment of nearly 2,000 students, Muhlenberg College is dedicated to shaping creative, compassionate, collaborative leaders through rigorous academic programs in the arts, humanities, natural sciences and social sciences; selected preprofessional programs, including accounting, business, education and public health; and progressive workforce-focused post-baccalaureate certificates and master’s degrees. Located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, approximately 90 miles west of New York City, Muhlenberg is a member of the Centennial Conference, competing in 23 varsity sports. Muhlenberg is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
