Boogie Cousins in 1.8 Seconds
WEBSITE
cargocollective.com/tuton/PLAYWRITING
SYNOPSIS
Legendary NBA Center Boogie Cousins has always been his team’s best player and his own worst enemy. And after 12 mercurial years in the league, his self-destructive antics on-court have finally outpaced his skills. Marked a “distressed asset,” he’s given one last chance to prove he can get back on defense… but is he willing to change how he moves this late in the game?
PLAYWRIGHT’S BIO
Michael Tuton is a playwright, actor, basketball podcast target market and co-founder of the Network Effects Theater Company. A recipient of multiple Cannes Lions and Clios in advertising, his full-length play The Return of Honor To American Life is a semi-finalist at the 2026 Playwright’s Foundation 47th Bay Area Playwrights Festival. It’s a slow walk through a fragrant spice market of themes. Take a whiff @ miketuton.com. Thanks to Jim and Playground. Love to Debbie and Rigby.
A BIT ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
When did you start writing plays? If you had a moment where you realized you wanted to write, what was it?
A developmental reading at Crowded Fire Theater Company sparked my playwriting. I’ve been writing to get back in that room ever since.
How did you come to write your OOB play? Was there a particular inspiration behind its creation? How has it developed?
I saw Boogie Cousins arguing with a ref on TV, a couple years past washed-up and still raging with all his heart. He couldn’t help it—he was hurting himself, his team, even his own value as a player. Instantly, I wondered how many people had tried to talk him out of being himself. What tactics they used. If they ever tried the one thing that’s ever worked: human connection.
What are five words that describe who you are as a playwright?
What really makes people change?
What/who are some of the major influences on your writing?
Gary Graves’ drive to simplify. Sam Shepard. Paula Vogel’s honesty. Suzan Lori-Parks’ YouTube videos. Mark Fenske’s ability to sniff originality. But mostly, low dosage gummies and a dog walk up a hill.
What’s one fact someone would never guess about you?
That I played competitive golf against Tiger Woods. You wouldn’t guess if if you saw me golf.
What are some of your favorite plays?
Topdog/Underdog by Suzan Lori-Parks. Downstate by Bruce Norris. How I Learned To Drive by Paula Vogel. The Homecoming by Harold Pinter. True West by Sam Shepard.
Any new projects you’re working on or shameless plugs?
If you live in the SF Bay in the fall, I’ll be having developmental readings for my full length play The Return of Honor to American Life. It asks questions like “do we ever really escape our hometown?” “Should we stay connected to our high school friends?” And “why is the modern American right so horny for dueling?”
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