Anyone who has spent time in Boston is familiar with the concept of political theater, but maybe not the precise variety that Dorchester’s Catherine O’Neill describes in “Murph,” a new play-in-the-making based on the sometimes-seedy world of Beacon Hill.

Set in 1991, the play follows the experiences of Boston-based State Rep. Kevin Murphy, a consultant, and two staff members. O’Neill insists the story is fictional, but said she drew on some of the events of the era. “These characters are composites of people I’ve been in political foxholes with,” she said. But she isn’t into naming names. “Nobody’s safe,” she added.

O’Neill’s road from political veteran to playwright has been an unlikely one. “I have been politically active in Dorchester my whole life. I’ve always been a writer, too,” O’Neill said this week. The Lower Mills native and current Savin Hill resident began by submitting letters to the Reporter and soon found herself writing a regular column. O’Neill called the column a “source of great fulfillment for me.” When people complimented her writing, “it was like they gave me a million dollars,” she said.

O’Neill hosted “Dorchester Connection” and, later, “Boston Connection” on Boston Neighborhood News from 1999 until last year when she took a leave of absence to concentrate on her master’s thesis in creative writing studies at Leslie University.

In 2009, less than a week before beginning her studies at Leslie, O’Neill was laid off from her job as community and government relations director for the Corcoran Jennison companies. “So here I am,” she said, “this mid-life, full time graduate student with no job. It was like somebody had put me in a blender.”

O’Neill emerged from Leslie this past January with a masters in fine art, two full-length plays, and a screenplay under her belt. Last month, her first play, a tale of self-acceptance titled “Soulfight,” ran for 14 days at the Boston Playwright’s Theater.

“Murph” is currently in development with the local theater production company Argos Productions. Argos Artistic Director Brett Marks says he is impressed by O’Neill’s straightforwardness and grasp of language and structure. “She has such a unique voice in that she is so talented yet so new in this sort of work,” he said.

Marks met O’Neill about a year ago when he was working with the Leslie program to help produce plays written by students. plays. He praises O’Neill’s “great ear for storytelling,” and called her work “very Bostonian,” in the unique way it captures its subject.

“Catherine certainly knows politics," said state Rep. Martin Walsh, who has known her for more than a decade from when she worked as neighborhood liaison for City Hall. O’Neill “knows politics from all different angles,” said Walsh, adding that he expects her play to be well put-together. He joked that O’Neill’s second career as a playwright is “probably what politics does to you.”

Despite thinking that she had changed her lifestyle from the political to the theatrical arts, O’Neill found herself thrust back into the civic world this spring when Dorchester City Councillor Maureen Feeney announced she would not seek reelection. Soon, the phone was ringing with calls from with friends and supporters urging O’Neill to run for the open seat, an experience O’Neill describes as “like the Mafia, pulling me back in.”

After struggling with the decision, she said “no” to a run, though, she said, “I was going in to get papers until the very last day.”
Walsh said he is happy that O’Neill is putting her knowledge of local politics to good use in her play. “It’s something that she loves, I’m sure. Sometimes you just got to do what you love.”

Marks expects “Murph” to remain in development for at least another year before being introduced at a local theater.