Busted Open

Busted Open, a play by Ryan Stevens, explores the dynamics of a women’s wrestling organization in the late 20th century. With a richly developed cast of characters, Stevens throws traditional gender roles and social expectations to the wind, using the interaction between women wrestlers as a tool to mine the cultural depths of any workplace. Busted Open demonstrates that a women’s wrestling organization is no different from a law firm, a ballet company, or the average office environment on Main Street USA when it comes to how people cope with the constant pressure to achieve and stand out while doing so. Busted Open by Ryan Stevens is the fifth winning play in the Jasper Project’s Play Right Series. It was developed over the summer of 2025 and performed as a staged reading on September 14, 2025 at the Columbia Music Festival Association in Columbia, South Carolina.