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Third Wheel: Peculiar Stories of Mormon Women in Love
This volume contains two AML-award-winning plays by the Mormon world’s uppingnest and comingnest playwright. And these are both plays that deal fearlessly with important issues. “Little Happy Secrets,” which won the AML award for drama in 2009, explores same-sex attraction among a pair of roommates at BYU. “The Pilot Program,” which won the same award in 2015, imagines the re-introduction of polygamy in a childless Mormon family. Utah audiences have seen these plays on stage already, and now everybody has a chance to read them.
140 pages, Paperback
Published July 24, 2017
2 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Melissa Leilani Larson
10 books28 followersMelissa Leilani Larson is a writer presently based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Produced plays include: SWEETHEART COME (premiering at PYGmalion Theatre Co. in May 2019), THE EDIBLE COMPLEX (Plan-B Theatre commission), PILOT PROGRAM, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (Brigham Young University commission), LITTLE HAPPY SECRETS, PERSUASION, MARTYRS' CROSSING, A FLICKERING, THE WEAVER OF RAVELOE, LADY IN WAITING, and the upcoming MOUNTAIN LAW. Films include FREETOWN (winner of the Ghana Movie Award for Best Screenplay and the Utah Film Award for Best Picture) and JANE AND EMMA (in theaters October 2018).
Mel is the only woman to receive more than one Association for Mormon Letters Drama award and the youngest person to win three. Other honors include: the IRAM Best New Play award; a Salt Lake City Weekly Arty Award; the Mayhew Playwriting Award; winning the Lewis National Playwriting Contest for Women; placing as a Trustus Playwrights Festival finalist; and being named an O’Neill National Playwrights Conference semi-finalist.
Mel is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild, serving as the Utah Ambassador/Proxy Regional Rep. She is also a member of The Lab, Plan-B Theatre’s incubator for new plays. She holds a BA in English from BYU and an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Mel enjoys melty cheese, hedgehogs, puzzles, nice paper, and nicer pens.
Mel is the only woman to receive more than one Association for Mormon Letters Drama award and the youngest person to win three. Other honors include: the IRAM Best New Play award; a Salt Lake City Weekly Arty Award; the Mayhew Playwriting Award; winning the Lewis National Playwriting Contest for Women; placing as a Trustus Playwrights Festival finalist; and being named an O’Neill National Playwrights Conference semi-finalist.
Mel is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild, serving as the Utah Ambassador/Proxy Regional Rep. She is also a member of The Lab, Plan-B Theatre’s incubator for new plays. She holds a BA in English from BYU and an MFA from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. Mel enjoys melty cheese, hedgehogs, puzzles, nice paper, and nicer pens.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 26, 2017
Two plays by Larson are contained in the book: Little Happy Secrets & Pilot Program. Both are a delightful mix of humor and heartache—making me vacillate between stifling laughter and holding back tears from streaming down my face as I read on the Chunnel yesterday.
LHS is grounded in reality, focusing on a woman, Claire, returned from her mission and in love with her best friend and roommate, Brennan, who starts dating a dude Claire doesn't care for. Powerful stuff.
PP is subtitled 'a supposition' and delves into the speculative. Focusing on Abigail, a married woman who has been invited with her husband to help bring polygamy back. A fascinating thought experiment that feels real emotionally.
Both plays avoid easy answers and are deeply deeply human. Pick this up ASAP and cruise through it.
LHS is grounded in reality, focusing on a woman, Claire, returned from her mission and in love with her best friend and roommate, Brennan, who starts dating a dude Claire doesn't care for. Powerful stuff.
PP is subtitled 'a supposition' and delves into the speculative. Focusing on Abigail, a married woman who has been invited with her husband to help bring polygamy back. A fascinating thought experiment that feels real emotionally.
Both plays avoid easy answers and are deeply deeply human. Pick this up ASAP and cruise through it.
January 7, 2019
I grew up doing community theater. I wouldn't say that makes me an expert on what is quality play-writing and what is not, but I've certainly seen plenty of contrived, formulaic, and inane scripting. I'm picky about what I'll qualify as a decent play, so hearing about this set of Mormon plays made me roll my eyes a little and I prepared for cliché, Jack Weyland-esque dialogue brought to the stage.
But this was incredible.
Larson's characters are beautifully human, relatable, complex, recognizable. Her writing is clean, natural, and intelligent. She has taken two groups of very real Mormon families and thrown them into (not so far-fetched) situations that create a wonderful TENSION. She strikes right at the core of the "Yes, but what if?" question that any self-aware, compassionate believer must deal with if they are to pass out of the black and white/good and evil way of thinking. The religious angle is there, yes, and quite important to the motivations of the characters, but it's the psychology that nips at your heart and mind. You could jump into the shoes of any of these characters and feel for the conflict that they must deal with and wonder where you would land.
Larson's plays are a perfectly matched set. She has pulled open the curtains on the next door neighbor... and the one up the street... and let us peer inside. Or perhaps our own blinds are raised, our own vulnerability revealed to the neighbors.
But this was incredible.
Larson's characters are beautifully human, relatable, complex, recognizable. Her writing is clean, natural, and intelligent. She has taken two groups of very real Mormon families and thrown them into (not so far-fetched) situations that create a wonderful TENSION. She strikes right at the core of the "Yes, but what if?" question that any self-aware, compassionate believer must deal with if they are to pass out of the black and white/good and evil way of thinking. The religious angle is there, yes, and quite important to the motivations of the characters, but it's the psychology that nips at your heart and mind. You could jump into the shoes of any of these characters and feel for the conflict that they must deal with and wonder where you would land.
Larson's plays are a perfectly matched set. She has pulled open the curtains on the next door neighbor... and the one up the street... and let us peer inside. Or perhaps our own blinds are raised, our own vulnerability revealed to the neighbors.
August 11, 2018
3.5 ⭐️
December 6, 2018
Mormon love stories often bring to mind the images of blushing Molly Mormons and strapping Peter Priesthoods meeting and falling for each other in innocuous hometowns (most likely Provo, Utah). Any light scratching at the shiny veneer, however, reveals more complicated plots and twists in the straightforward narrative. Melissa Leilani Larson’s Third Wheel scratches away while giving voice to some of the prevalent, yet marginalized groups rampant across LDS congregations: youth who experience same-sex attraction, couples who remain childless against their wishes.
As a collection of two plays, Third Wheel might seem inaccessible to non-theatre practitioners. Even those who enjoy attending plays may feel strange reading scripts without a visual aid. I beg you to reconsider. Larson’s work does not give easy answers, nor does it allow the reader/audience to sit back and passively absorb the stories as they unfold. She requires thought and prods at complex problems rooted in the core of Mormon culture. Eric Samuelsen’s foreword to the collection offers a concise argument for what makes Larson’s writing so compelling:
Above all, the plays lead to conversation. After seeing them, we audience members seem compelled to talk about them. The test of a great play isn’t whether audiences laugh, or cry. It’s the degree to which the play gets under your skin. After seeing either play in a good production, you can’t let it go. You talk in the car on the way home. You wake in the middle of the night, thinking about it...
to finish the rest of this stage review, please visit us at https://segullah.org/blog/book-review...
As a collection of two plays, Third Wheel might seem inaccessible to non-theatre practitioners. Even those who enjoy attending plays may feel strange reading scripts without a visual aid. I beg you to reconsider. Larson’s work does not give easy answers, nor does it allow the reader/audience to sit back and passively absorb the stories as they unfold. She requires thought and prods at complex problems rooted in the core of Mormon culture. Eric Samuelsen’s foreword to the collection offers a concise argument for what makes Larson’s writing so compelling:
Above all, the plays lead to conversation. After seeing them, we audience members seem compelled to talk about them. The test of a great play isn’t whether audiences laugh, or cry. It’s the degree to which the play gets under your skin. After seeing either play in a good production, you can’t let it go. You talk in the car on the way home. You wake in the middle of the night, thinking about it...
to finish the rest of this stage review, please visit us at https://segullah.org/blog/book-review...
July 28, 2017
I used to love reading plays. As a young teen I would regularly check out books of plays from the Noe Valley Branch of the San Francisco Public Library. When that stopped and why I have no idea but Mel Larson's beautiful plays have rekindled that love. Her plays remind us that life isn't a brown paper package wrapped up in string. I love stories that make me think and more importantly, feel, from a different view and these certainly do. As I too rapidly approach the end of my eighth decade of life I continually realize I have oh so much more to learn about people and living.
Thank you, thank you for your beautiful stories.
Thank you, thank you for your beautiful stories.
September 16, 2022
Both of these plays embrace an amount of uncertainty within the LDS faith that most members are too afraid to admit to. As a queer Mormon who attended BYU, Happy Little Secrets broke my heart and laid bare so many wounds I thought had healed. Pilot Program asks important questions about marriage, family, and compromise. What would polygamy look like today?
I highly recommend this book to any member of the church who wishes we saw ourselves and our stories represented authentically. And if you happen to run a theatre -- please consider putting these stories on stage.
I highly recommend this book to any member of the church who wishes we saw ourselves and our stories represented authentically. And if you happen to run a theatre -- please consider putting these stories on stage.
July 5, 2019
Loved both plays
I rarely read plays but just loved both plays contained in Third Wheel. There's a tightness & ache in my chest for Claire & Brennan. I trust those who recommended it so I expected to enjoy it. Did not expect my reaction & strong emotions. Thank you Ms. Larson for putting pen to paper and bringing these people and their complications to life. I am truly enjoying sitting with the discomfort that I so rarely feel when reading. It's refreshing.
I rarely read plays but just loved both plays contained in Third Wheel. There's a tightness & ache in my chest for Claire & Brennan. I trust those who recommended it so I expected to enjoy it. Did not expect my reaction & strong emotions. Thank you Ms. Larson for putting pen to paper and bringing these people and their complications to life. I am truly enjoying sitting with the discomfort that I so rarely feel when reading. It's refreshing.
July 31, 2022
I appreciated _The Pilot Program_ much more than _Little Happy Secrets_, but it may just have been the limitations of reading a play versus seeing it performed. It was easier for me to imagine the characters in _The Pilot Program_ as real people, whereas the characters in _Little Happy Secrets_ just didn't ring true for me--but I may have had a different impression of it if I'd been watching actors deliver the lines. 3.5 stars
September 2, 2017
Larson is a fantastic playwright. I love that her plays look complicated issues full in the face, but aren't even a tiny bit preachy, and she lets you draw your own conclusions. I love the empathy she treats her characters with, and how her small cast of characters let you connect so deeply with them. I love the interesting questions she explores. These plays really moved me.
January 29, 2018
Two easy to read plays centered in Mormon culture. One is centered around the hypothetical reintroduction of polygamy and how a couple deals with it. The other play is about a girl who falls in love with her roommate. The plays force you to ask some tough questions and they’re open ended so there aren’t any neat and tidy endings. I liked that.
February 25, 2018
I am going to be thinking about both of these short plays for a long time. They hit me much harder than I expected them to. Larson captures BYU and LDS culture perfectly and the little details about being a woman in those settings really resonated with me. Not an emotionally easy read, but I highly recommend it.
January 12, 2022
I LOVED THESE PLAYS. They are so beautifully created. The characters and their experiences are rich. I especially loved Pilot Program, the play about reintroducing Mormon polygamy. Terrifying and heart breaking. Really gives perspective on the issue.
- scene between Claire and Natalie
- scene between Claire and Brennan
- scene between Claire and Natalie
- scene between Claire and Brennan
December 31, 2017
I loved this one in so many ways. It left me thinking for days and I'm still thinking about it. Once I started each I was so taken by it that I could not stop until the play finished. Simply amazing.
June 11, 2018
I think that Pilot Program broke my heart. The huge range of emotions is so relatable, feels so close to myself, it scares me.
May 20, 2020
The generous response: These aren’t for me. I’m looking for different stories.
The less generous response: two plays that wanna talk about “the issues” but don’t wanna get kicked out of BYU.
The less generous response: two plays that wanna talk about “the issues” but don’t wanna get kicked out of BYU.
January 18, 2025
I really enjoyed Little Happy Secrets; I was expecting and hoping for more from Pilot Program.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews