writing
Selected Plays:
-
In the final days of her reign and haunted by the ghost of her murdered cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England is forced to confront the regrets of her fabled and terrible reign when a revolutionary pamphlet (supposedly) written by Shakespeare contemporary Christopher Marlowe shakes her kingdom and her self-image to the core.
Mary, Sweet Mary was the recipient of the 2023 Betsy Carpenter Memorial Award and 2023 Rod Parker Fellowship Award for Playwriting, the latter of which resulted in a collegiate production at Emerson Stage’s NewFest.
Full text at: New Play Exchange
Production photos (from Emerson Stage’s NewFest): Flickr
-
Two estranged brothers, JP and Iain, are stranded by a roadside on their way to a funeral. They take the time together to examine the ghosts of their past: their lives, their loss, and the things that have eternally kept them apart.
Full text at: New Play Exchange
Selected Essays:
-
Described as a “A moving meditation on intimacy in a fresh new context”, The Five Pillars of Intimacy Direction was selected as an honorable mention in the 2023 Tom Howard/John H. Reid Essay Contest for winningwriters.com
Read the full essay here (TW: General sexual content and discussion of sexual assault)
-
Writing for HowlRound, Munroe discusses the problem of white queer men’s positionality excusing them from anti-racist and anti-misogynist practice in theatre leadership.
-
In May 2025, the International Presenting Commons (IPC) convened to discuss the state of international cultural exchange. Munroe Forbes Shearer reports on the convening, which pursued questions, resources, and actions to continue international work amid Trump administration policy shifts that threaten to disrupt it.
Artistic Statement:
I came into writing non-traditionally, through a confluence of theatre studies, historical obsessions, and passions for gender, racial, and queer theory. I care deeply about genuine analysis of the ways in which people speak to each other and the panoply offered therein.
through fiction and critique alike, I want to use my voice as a creative and professional to dismantle hegemonies, build robust and diverse theatrical communities, and grow theatre-going audiences to include those traditionally excluded by reason of education, class, and other marginalized identities.