Rex McGregor
Site search
  • Rex McGregor
  • Archive
  • Awards
  • Short Plays
    • Threatened Panda Fights Back
    • The Birds Are Feeding Me
    • Grow Up, Juliet
    • Grace Finds Kel
    • Ebook Meets Treebook
    • Prepper's Nightmare
    • Tickle That Dragon
    • Flight of the Cows
    • Stage Fights Screen
    • Don't Flip Your Snood
    • The Tarantula's Pet Frog
    • Val's Remedy
    • Monstrous Villainy
    • Fruitful
    • The Mama and the Papa
    • One Wish Each
    • Henry the Seventh (If Shakespeare Was Honest)
    • Garage Invasion
    • Proud Mary and Prejudiced Lydia
    • Grounding Santa
    • Restoring Romeo
    • Surfing in Munich
    • Unromantic Bouquet
    • This Particular Crevasse
    • Played for a Sap
    • A Supportive Wife Supports Her Wife
    • Feline High-Rise Syndrome
    • Shelter in Comfort
    • President Charles Evans Hughes
    • Helga Goes Bats
    • Welcome to Belarus
    • Table in the Air
    • Phony on a Twig
    • Rabbit Warns Gannet
    • Librarians Embrace Fiction
    • The Top Seed and the Poor Seedlings
    • The Name of Action
    • Money Talks Too Loud
    • Fingers and Toeses
    • Miriam's Mother
    • She's Got His Number
    • Thin End
    • Lullaby for a Librarian
    • Triple Helping
    • Mother of Chemistry
    • Horror at Sea
    • Retha's First March
    • Subversive Action Chick
    • Rivals-Slash-Friends
    • Pseudo-Human Resources
    • Help Found
    • Rasha and Abd
    • Aleema the Boy Girl
    • Who Remembers Éponine’s Sister?
    • Fire Up
    • Love Those Cockroaches
    • Trumpettes Anonymous
    • Amazons of Tomorrow
    • Dueling Judges
    • Murder Runs in Our Family
    • Cheerleaders and Cheeseburgers
    • Ambitious Cutlery
    • Public Deaths
    • The Girl Who Would Rather Not Grow Up Just Yet
    • Gab Irish-Like
    • Two Divided by One
    • Rival Pseudonyms
    • Orpheus Floats
    • Smile on a Mask
    • Wayward Seniors
    • Almost Immortal
    • Your Server Tonight Is Cassandra
    • Sugar Horror
    • Taking the Plunge
    • Becky and Tom
    • Zany Planets
    • Battle for the Front Seat
    • Kindness Pays
    • Save the Sasquatch
    • Her Daughter's Doll
    • We Aren't Aliens
    • Cushion
    • Phenomenals Anonymous
    • Cobra v Tiger
    • Marked for Deletion
    • Party Crasher on a Mission
    • Next Door Nativity
    • Estella Expects a Lot
    • Canary Now
    • Enemies on a Date
    • Absconding Patient
    • The Flames of Patience
    • Family Tries
    • Marietta's Ultimatum
    • Vegan Vigilantes
    • Tina, Queen of Scots
    • Higgledy-Trilogy
    • Speechless
    • Geordie Heroine
    • Handling Temptation
    • The Fruits of Lust
    • Horrifying Mary
    • Possible Fathers
    • Refloat Our Whale
    • Swinging Campers
    • Jane Errant
    • Cathy Haunts Catherine
    • Skull Against the Sky
    • The Ghostly Christmas Pest
    • The Ecstasy of Carmel
    • All's Fair in Tug of War
    • Unsuspecting Donor
    • Toothlessness Bites
    • Lost Judgment
    • Help Full
    • Help Less
    • Natasha Toughs It Out
    • Eleventh Night
    • Kurt and Orla
    • Turn of the Tidier
    • The Fifth Street Women's Building Takeover
    • Best Chance Café
    • Roasting Death
    • Tempting Sabah
    • Fountain of Youth
    • The Power of Enchantment
    • Clash of the Lorde Fans
    • The First Christmas Presents
    • Grandis, Juliette
    • Herding Catastrophes
    • Penelope's Feast
    • Extreme Decluttering
    • Courtesy
    • Twilight of the Grizzly
    • Love and Acoustics
    • Boot's Trip
    • Fern and Her Father
    • Thirteenth Night
    • Abigail Wades In
    • Unfurl
    • Eradicting Apathy
    • Revitalized
    • Who Loves More
    • Chest-Beating for Gentlemen
    • That's No Mannequin (That's His Wife)
    • Put Down the Gun
    • Shredded
    • It Could Be Anyone
    • Skull
  • Plays
    • I Love an Earthling
    • Tricky Intervention
    • Sunshine in Every Window
    • Margaret Thatcher Changes the World
    • Girls Rock the Classics
    • Izzy Sticks With It
    • Birds and Money
    • Lady Godiva Womans Up
    • Three Weird Mornings at the Library
    • Manipulative
    • Honest Shakespeare
    • Queen Takes Emperor
    • Miss Imposter
    • Female Scientists to the Rescue
    • It's Ours! The Fifth Street Women's Building Takeover, 1971
    • Girls on the Brink
    • Grow Up, Girls
    • Brink Time
    • The Sword and the Gown
    • Safe Trip
    • Pacific Caper
    • Thena and Taz
    • Stale Obsession
    • A Hard Fifty Years' Night
    • Nine Plays Wonder
    • Clash of the Delusions
    • Lady Godiva Doesn't Ride Again
    • Who's Manipulative?
    • Margaret Thatcher Hits New Zealand
    • Wind Above the Water
    • Plights
    • Unpardonable Virtues
    • Nude with Tuba and Skull
    • Triple Fandango
    • Snatched
    • Hour of Misjudgement
  • Audio plays
    • Contains Nudity
    • This Particular Crevasse
    • Suspect Sleuths
    • Wind Above the Water
    • Lament of the Failed Alcoholic
    • Above the Stave
    • Finesse
    • A Flying Visit
  • Monologues
    • None of Your Blarney
    • Tabby's Plague Diary
    • Boot's Vacation
    • Nourishing Marion
    • Sweet Fright
    • Missing Applause
    • Olive Struts and Frets
    • Will Kemp's Turn
    • Frida Kahlo Must Be Jewish
    • Farsighted
    • An Educated Palate
    • Fern's Plan
    • Sweetness and Light
    • The One Waving
    • The Reluctant Barker
    • Shakespeare's Protestation
    • The Frog-Footman's Statement
    • A Bride for the Pope
    • Beaver Loves Otter
    • Derrick's Tactic
    • Post-Baby Body
    • Innocent Glutton
    • Officially Recovered
    • Carriage Horse Chat
    • Kia Orāna, Joe
    • Elizabeth's Revenge
    • Phoenix on Ice
    • The Movement You Need
    • The Roses or the Bat
    • Lady Godiva's Daughter
    • Friar Oswald's Confession
    • Let's Just Chill
    • Erica, Oswald and Shakespeare
    • Speechless
    • The Clueless Bishop
    • Your Attention, Please
    • Paddy's Spiel
  • Links
  • Contact
  • Published Scripts
  • Musicals
    • BonanzaLear
    • Possible Fathers
    • Space Dancers
  • Books
    • Laugh with Jesus
    • Cuisine for Angels
  • Stories
  • Collaboration
    • Dinah Might

A Bride for the Pope

monologue
A woman presents a list of candidates in her campaign to find a wife for His Holiness Pope Francis.
Picture
Cory Johnson on her mission to find A Bride for the Pope, Riverside Theatre, Iowa City, Iowa
Picture
Walking the Wire: Classified
Riverside Theatre
Iowa City, Iowa
March 6-15, 2015

Directed by Jody Hovland

Performed by Cory Johnson

Even the pope needs someone to love, according to one of the more vivacious members of his flock. 
A loyal parishioner, played by actress Cory Johnson, is ready to make the case for an all-out match-making campaign. The search for the Holy Father’s earthly love is the focus of Rex McGregor’s “A Bride for the Pope."

McGregor’s script, straight from New Zealand, is one of 13 monologues performed by nine actors in the 16th iteration of Riverside Theater’s “Walking the Wire” series.  - Michael Kadrie in The Daily Iowan, March 5, 2015

[Cory Johnson] said she particularly enjoyed preparing for this year’s performance. 

“I love the ardent passion that my character has. There is no sense of blasphemy, but there most certainly is questioning of man-made rules as they pertain to religion. And, if I do it right, it is particularly funny,” Johnson said.

Her role plays with the physical and emotional needs traditionally associated with the Pope, a celibate religious figure. Johnson, who works at a Catholic university, said she enjoyed sharing her preparations with coworkers.

“It is fun to let some of the priests on campus read this and respond to it. I have received nothing but laughs and well wishes,” she said.

Sample:

A woman with a smart corporate look supervises stagehands as they set up an easel and place a large framed picture on it. The painting or photograph is a romanticised portrait of Pope Francis. When the stagehands leave, the woman adjusts the placement of the picture to her satisfaction. Then she beams at the audience

                                                                                                                      WOMAN
We are truly blessed. Beyond our wildest dreams.
    When something this glorious happens, it’s hard to resist calling it a miracle. Oh, I know the Church doesn’t like to bandy that word about unless there’s clear evidence of divine intervention. Fair enough. Strictly speaking, a democratic election, carried out in accordance with due process and subject to thorough scrutiny, may not qualify as “miraculous”. But to us it’s been a godsend.
    By the way, I hope you all handed in your suggestions earlier. Results are being tallied now. 
    Last year the future of the Catholic women’s ordination movement looked irredeemably bleak. Let’s face it. We were toast. 
    The old boys’ club delivered the message loud and clear. Admit women to the priesthood? Over their dead bodies!