By Tanvi Sabharwal

As a young girl, Emy McGuire recalls sitting in front of her television, entranced by the utterly fascinating world of “Pirates of the Caribbean.” The bright colors, daring adventure scenes and swells of music pulled McGuire in. And there, right in the center of it all, was the enigmatic Jack Sparrow. The charmer. The mystery. The criminal. Despite his flaws, McGuire couldn’t help but root for him. 

Yet she also couldn’t help but wonder; where were the complex female characters? 

The question stayed with her, resurging when, at 17, she first heard the song “Anne Bonny” by folk singer Karliene Reynolds about an ambitious 18th-century housewife who entered the realm of piracy at the beginning of its very violent end.  

Bonny’s story spurred what McGuire describes as “a lightning bolt idea.” She could fuse her adolescent passion for pirates and interest in female historical figures to write a musical. Next thing she knew, she was composing the first few songs with help from her partner and her brother. 

“Pirates are the outcasts of society who get to be cool and charismatic,” McGuire said. “Who better to do that than a young woman?”  

Now, McGuire has just released her debut, “The Legend of Anne Bonny,” available Nov. 15 and 16 as an online recording for those who preorder her upcoming book, “No One Aboard.” The process of developing the show has been a whirlwind, from a college project to a full stage production in The People’s Building in Aurora in August, put on by production companies Shifted Lens and Two Cent Lion. 

McGuire, now 23, initially took on the challenge of creating her own, original work centered around flawed female pirates in college. She was pursuing her bachelor’s degree in theater, dance and performance studies/creative writing from the New College of Florida at the time. 

Using her idea of a musical rooted in rich history, swashbuckling spectacle and queer women’s stories, McGuire wrote the script and songs in one month. Her first version was finished in 2023, but was more of a rough draft, undergoing major revisions later on. 

“The first time I did it, I played Anne Bonny, I was the producer, I was the playwright, I was the fight director, and it was also my thesis,” McGuire said. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”  

With a $2,000 grant from her college’s student government, McGuire put on the first iteration of the show with a crew and cast of 16 students. After cutting things and adding new songs and scenes, McGuire submitted her work to several theater festivals.

One was the Fresh Works festival by Shifted Lens. McGuire’s piece was accepted, leading to a staged reading in September 2024. The reading attracted a crowd of local theater enthusiasts, and ticketssold out. Once Shifted Lens realized the show’s popularity, they formally requested the rights to do a full production in August. In collaboration with Two Cent Lion, the two companies pooled their money together to put on a show. Specializing in underproduced works and queer stories, they fully supported the project by providing a costume designer, set designer, sound designer, live band, tech crew, stage managers, directors and casting 14 actors. 

“This time, I played Mar Read, and then we had more community theater people who auditioned. We had almost, I think, over 100 people who auditioned,” McGuire said.  “It was a crazy process. I auditioned, and I didn’t make any of the casting decisions because I was auditioning. So it was up to the director, Lexi Lazear.”  

Based on the historical figures Mary Read and Anne Bonny, McGuire wrote the characters to be foils of each other. Bonny’s goal is to be remembered after being a nobody housewife; her actions in the show revolve around her need for attention. Read, on the other hand, doesn’t think she’s anybody and enjoys the flexibility it gives her, lacking the obligation to be someone.  

“It’s really hard to play Mar because she’s so much cooler than me. She’s the best sword fighter in a generation, Anne thinks she’s super attractive, and she’s a character that’s so natural and nonchalant. I had to manage that and a lot of sword work,” McGuire said. 

Born a woman and brought up as a man by her mother, Read is also uniquely gender-neutral. Their opposing motivations drive tension and ultimately love between them, weaving an LGBTQ subplot into the musical.  

“We need more stories that are queer that don’t exist with preconceived notions of what love is, what desire is, and what that feels like for people,” said Eli-Leon Harvey, the actor playing the villainJonathan Barnett. 

Historically, no one knows what became of Anne Bonny. There’s no documentation to prove she was executed or freed. McGuire gave Anne Bonny a definitive ending and wrote the rest of the show around it. She looks forward to seeing how wider audiences react to her twist conclusion.  

As a playwright and author for DramaLlama, Emy McGuire promises more books and plays and hopes to see “The Legend of Anne Bonny” produced in bigger theaters.  

“I needed there to be a story where this character makes a lot of mistakes, she does stupid things, she does selfish things, she’s not a good person a lot of the time, and yet she’s legendary,” McGuire said. 

Edited by Nick Merl