WRITING
Current Project:
Frankenstein
by Triston P. Pullen and Rachel C. Finney
Frankenstein tells the story of a woman deciding to bypass the patriarchy in order to create life. The classic tale would become a kind of rebirth through feminist and queer theory lens to show just how powerful the woman is in society and how she can create life and end it in an instant. There is power in the perspective in the narrative and in the creation.
Past Projects:
It Ends With Us
Adapted by Colleen Hoover and Triston P. Pullen
It Ends With Us, the play is an adaptation of the standalone contemporary romance novel.
The Description of the Novel/Play:
Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.
Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up—she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.
Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.
As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan—her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.
With this bold and deeply personal novel, Colleen Hoover delivers a heart-wrenching story that breaks exciting new ground for her as a writer. Combining a captivating romance with a cast of all-too-human characters, It Ends With Us is an unforgettable tale of love that comes at the ultimate price.
Songs of Memories
by Triston P. Pullen
Songs of Memories is a memory play that covers cradle to grave of Walt Whitman’s life. I focus on Whitman’s most significant successes and the most challenging failures within his relationships, life, and career. The play uses Whitman’s poetry and prose to examine why Walt Whitman died alone and to ask the question: If you could change your path in life, would you?
The Down Home East Texas magazine interviewed Pullen, and Karen Karbiener, the president of the Walt Whitman Initiative, gave the following quote for Triston’s work on Songs of Memories:
“Triston’s play-in-progress Songs of Memories is a journey through a remarkable gay life, from cradle to grave. Carefully researched and organized, it is the product of a lifetime of deeply studying Whitman’s life and work. As a gay man living before the word ‘homosexual’ was in common parlance in America, Whitman wrestled with questions of identity and explored the theme of same-sex love in his poetry. In Songs of Memories, Triston explores key moments in the poet’s life that enable the viewer to better understand and appreciate Whitman’s complex struggle as our first great, gay American of letters. We see Whitman as a child, negotiating an abusive relationship with his father; Whitman’s testing the water with his first lovers and first terrible break-ups; and finally, the Good Gray Poet, attracted to the youthful charms of his admirer Oscar Wilde. Triston’s work will help those new to Whitman see a side of the poet rarely offered in high school or even college courses and will also highlight Whitman’s significance as America’s first LGBT activist and spokesperson.”
I Am A Human Too
by Triston P. Pullen
Loosely based on the life of Abdellah Taïa, I Am Human Too tells the story of a gay man from Morocco trying to save his life, from his oppressive captors, by telling the story of Sinbad. During the contemporary retelling of The Arabian Nights story Sinbad, while on the mythic quest to find the hidden truth of life, must come to terms with his identity and sexuality. Sinbad encounters evil genies, mighty warriors, and harsh terrains. At the end of the play, Abdellah begs for justice and equality and declares that he bleeds red blood, too, that they are all the same. The play asks Middle Eastern countries to reevaluate their views on homosexuality. The play is written in the traditional forms of performance of pre-Islamic Arabia and current Islamic societies.