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plays
my new best friend
hunting and gathering
a perfect couple
sam and lucy
smashing
the triple happiness
until we find each other
 out of the water
casual encounters
the jesus year
the liddy plays
playing house
wonderland
short plays
  • my new best friend
    Claire and Sevrin, newly minted best friends,take a thrilling walk in each other's shoes when they swap apartments for the summer. But all turns sour when Claire begins to suspect that her captivating new friend may be taking over not only her apartment but her entire New York life.

    Unproduced. Developed: Bay Area Playwrights Foundation's Rough Reading Series, Primary Stages, Playwrights Rep at Brown University and MCC Theater.



  • hunting and gathering
    Four New Yorkers seek shelter, both physical and spiritual, in a variety of temporary abodes and in one another in this dark comedy. Named one of the Ten Best Plays of 2008 by New York Magazine.

    "As every young, single New Yorker quickly learns, real estate is destiny in this town, a fact of urban life that Brooke Berman addresses with bracing wit and intelligence ...
    ...Berman wastes no time exercising the satirical verbal wit that has already opened doors for her with savvy institutional theaters like Second Stage and Steppenwolf...
    in re-casting the old relationship questions as real-estate issues–who will move in with whom and what will be the price of this commitment? –Berman finds a fresh and funny way of looking at the mortal terrors of being young and on your own in a bewildering existential landscape.
    —Marilyn Stasio, Variety

    Youth Without Youth New York Magazine review – Feb. 10, 2008
    The Top Ten Plays New York Magazine Culture Awards – Dec. 7, 2008
    Keira Naughton on 'Hunting and Gathering... New York Magazine - Feb. 15, 2008

    Published by Broadway Play Publishing. Purchase Now

    Produced: Primary Stages, NYC
    Developed: MCC, Underwood Theater, New Dramatists.



  • a perfect couple
    Amy and Isaac are the perfect couple. Amy and Emma are the perfect friends. If everyone is so perfect, why are they so unhappy? A dark comedy about love, growing up and letting go.

    "Enjoyable comedy-drama...Ms. Berman has a breezy, accessible voice."
    —Charles Isherwood, The New York Times

    Relationships and the City, and a Little Band of Gold New York Times – June 20, 2008

    Published by Broadway Play Publishing Purchase Now

    Produced: WET
    Developed: The Royal National Theatre, London; Naked Angels, MCC, New Dramatists and New River Dramatists, North Carolina. Commissioned by Arielle Tepper Productions.



  • sam and lucy
    Lucy, clad in vintage Gucci, struggles with Saturn Return, ghosts, and family legends while lunching with her mother's lover.

    "Brooke Berman's script is one of the most promising ever at the Next Stage Series of readings... At times elegiac and at times hilarious, it uses a sextet of actors to tell, in musical, contrapuntal interplay, the story of a young woman who begins to find her adult identity with the return of her long-missing father, meetings with her mother's long-ago lover and (spoiler alert!) the death of her mother. "
    —Tony Brown, The Cleveland Plain Dealer

    Unproduced. Developed: SPF, Cleveland Playhouse, Rattlestick, MCC.



  • smashing
    Twenty-one-year-old It-Girl Abby and her plucky best friend Clea, embark on a spur-of-the-moment revenge trip to London -- Abby, in pursuit of the young novelist who has cannibalized her in his literary debut and Clea desperately seeking Madonna.

    Heartbreak Houses Village Voice – Oct. 14, 2003

    Produced: The Play Company
    Developed: The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, MCC, Rising Phoenix Rep and The Play Company.



  • the triple happiness

    On the verge of the millennium, a strange teenaged prophetess obsessed with New Wave music invites a suburban family and the raunchy movie star who has crashed in on their holiday to join her as she welcomes The New World.

    Produced: Second Stage Theater
    Developed: MCC, The Hourglass Group, The Playwrights Center, The Royal Cout Theatre (London), ASK Theater Projects (LA).



  • until we find each other
    Sophy thinks she's the holy whore, Miriam runs from the family, and Justin tries to keep them all together. These three cousins with uncanny psychic abilities embark on a strange road trip in order to say goodbye. Family, mysticism, sex, and Judaism.

    "Until We Find Each Other" is a play in which everybody is wrestling with angels. And their battles are worth observing.
    —Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun Times

    Produced: Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago
    Developed: The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, MCC, NFJC/Makor Theater Projects and Rising Phoenix Rep.



  • out of the water
    A contemporary Calypso on the island of Manhattan learns what family is all about.

    Unproduced. Developed: Primary Stages, Naked Angels, ARS Nova, New Dramatists, Pioneer Theater (UT).



  • casual encounters
    A contemporary look at a group of Angelenos linked by both real world interactions and their participation in digital "no strings attached" sex websites. Can any encounter ever really be "casual"?

    Unproduced. Developed through the Creativity Fund at New Dramatists.



  • the jesus year
    33 year-old Max, a New York Jew in the throes of his "Jesus Year" is melting down. After losing every last bit of stability, he heads to LA seeking a fresh start in the city where his father died 25 years earlier.

    Unproduced. Developed: MCC, ARS Nova, New Dramatists, SPF, Naked Angels.



  • the liddy plays
    A collection of interwoven plays following Liddy and Emerson, an enigmatic brother and sister pair, as they confront the death of their mother, fall in love with dangerous people, learn to meditate, and remember the past.

    Unproduced. Developed: Williamstown Theater Festival, Walker Space/Rising Phoenix Rep, The Hangar Lab, Clubbed Thumb, Theater J, Rattlestick Theater, MCC Theater.



  • playing house
    A dark comedy about depression, healing, and alternative family structures in DUMBO, "down under" the Brooklyn Bridge.

    Productions: HERE (2004). PatchFilms, Brooklyn. NY (2002). Developed: Denver Center Theater, New Georges, The Juilliard School. Winner of the Francesca Primus Award (2000).



  • wonderland
    A collage-like comic spiritual awakening in Los Angeles. Performance artist Mia goes to LA to develop a sit-com and meets Jesus Christ, who is also in LA looking to spread the gospel through TV.

    Unproduced. Developed: The Denver Center Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, New Georges Winner of the Francesca Primus Award (1998).



  • short plays
    Short plays include: DANCING WITH A DEVIL (Humana Festival, 1999), DEFUSION (HERE, Playwrights Horizons, The Theater For One, The Roundtable Ensemble), A FREE MAN IN PARIS (The Roundtable Ensemble, Juilliard), BLISS and others.

    "[Dancing with a Devil] makes you fiercely angry and crumpled and despairing, at the same time. It's fine writing, powerful theater. It's also something you don't get on the tube. Not that graphic. Not that intense. Not on TV."
    —Bill Gale, the Providence Journal

    "In the most chilling of the short plays... Brooke Berman's 'Dancing with a Devil' a young woman moves to the city so she can pretend to live life on the edge... She finds out she is not as safe as she had believed."
    —Martin Kohn, The Detroit Free Press

    All plays are available through New Dramatists, NYC, or The Gersh Agency. In addition, some titles are available through Broadway Play Publishing.

    PLAYING HOUSE, WONDERLAND, and assorted short plays are available through Playscripts.com

    SMASHING is available through Smith and Kraus

    DANCING WITH A DEVIL is available through Actors Theatre of Louisville and Smith and Kraus.







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