serena berman
actor · singer · playwright · producer
full length
(selected)
The Experiment
(fka The Splitting)
[2f, 1m]
Sadie and Will are thrilled and relieved that their brief experiment with an open relationship has been a success - until a stranger comes to Sadie with a disturbing alternate history, forcing her to choose between her identity as a woman and her desire to trust her partner.The Experiment explores our culture’s seismically shifting ideas about assault and consent.
Princess Grace 2021, finalist
Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship 2020, semi-finalist
O'Neill National Playwrights Conference 2020, semi-finalist
• "Out Loud" at Ars Nova (29-Hour Reading), dir. Jake Beckhard - Jan. 2020
• Reading at Westport Country Playhouse, New Works Initiative, dir. Jake Beckhard - Jul. 2019
• Reading at Playwrights Studios (invited), dir. Jake Beckhard - Aug. 2018
• Developed at Creeky Joint Arts Retreat, dir. Jake Beckhard - Aug. 2017
Yankees
[3f, 4m]
Five American students on a study abroad program find themselves at the mercy of a series of unexplainable and increasingly absurd disasters, forcing them to deal with a world of suffering outside their cultural bubble. “Yankees” is a dark comedy slash horror, with elements of Commedia dell’Arte and a game of 10 fingers that gets really weird.
DGF Fellowship 2022, finalist
• Reading at 59E59, produced by Less Than Rent Theatre - Sept. 2023
• Production at The Corkscrew Festival - Aug. 2020 [canceled]
• Developed with Ars Nova Play Group - Nov. 2019
• Developed at Creeky Joint Arts Retreat, dir. Jake Beckhard - Aug. 2019
All Remaining Assets
[5f, 1m]
When Linda’s wealthy brother dies unexpectedly, his family is left conspicuously out of the will. Now Linda, her emotionally estranged sister, and her angsty adult daughter find themselves navigating the mourning process with the 26-year-old former stripper who inherited the estate at a funeral afterparty in a luxury hotel room in Marin County, CA. "All Remaining Assets" is a play about money, family, sex, and the forces that tether us to one another.
O'Neill National Playwrights Conference 2024, semi-finalist
• Reading at Houghton Hall produced by Spiral Stairs Entertainment, dir. Sarna Lapine - Nov. 2024
• Reading at Westport Country Playhouse, dir. Liam Lonegan - Dec. 2022
PRICK
[3f, 1m]
When Vicky joins an online community dedicated to rape fantasy, she learns terms like CNC (“consensual non-consent”) and PRICK (“personal risk informed consensual kink”). But unresolved issues from her past make the line between fantasy and reality harder to keep straight.
The Relentless Award 2024, honorable mention
• Workshop with The Hearth, dir. Seonjae Kim - Jan. 2023
The Difference Between Big Girls and Little Girls
[3f]
Miriam is living in New York City and writing feminist essays online when she finally comes to terms with a dark childhood memory. Returning to her small East Texas town, she realizes her own trauma may be nothing compared to the experiences of the childhood best friend she left behind. Can she help? Should she help? Or does the isolation of trauma and the loves we sacrifice to heal create a barrier too thick to cross?
Princess Grace Award 2022, semi-finalist
O'Neill National Playwrights Conference 2022, semi-finalist
Premiere Stages 2022, semi-finalist
• Reading at The Women in Theater Festival, Theater 154, dir. Rachel Dart - Jul. 2024
• Virtual reading with Fuller Road, dir. Jackson Gay - May 2020
• Reading (excerpt) with The Bechdel Group, The Tank - Sept. 2019
• Developed with Ars Nova Play Group - May 2019
• Reading with "The Frauds" (closed), Juilliard Rehearsal Studios - Apr. 2019
Études
[5f, 4m - flex cast size]
A 13-year-old girl has an encounter with a 13-year-old boy that changes the entire trajectory of her identity, as a patchwork quilt of girls piece together the intimate moments that make up a female coming of age. Études is a play about the practice, repetition, and indoctrination of young womanhood.
semi-finalist Princess Grace Award, 2019
Princess Grace Award 2019, semi-finalist
• Workshop at Williamstown Theatre Festival - Jul. 2019, dir. Esther Cohen
• Staged workshop w/ Less Than Rent (closed) - Oct. 2018, dir. Jake Beckhard
• Reading w/ Less Than Rent (closed) - June 2018
• Reading at Renegade Theater Festival NOW in Lansing, MI (public), dir. Gabe Francisco - Aug. 2017
• Reading at Playwrights Rehearsal Studios (invited), dir. Ivey Lowe - Mar. 2017
sea/sick
[6m/f - flex casting]
Truth. Art. God. And a stomach ache that doesn't go away. What happens on the other side of Agnes’ cave? A semi-devised companion piece to Matt Minnicino’s adaptation of A Dream Play by August Strindberg.
Workshop production with Artilliers Theater Company at Chinatown Soup, dir. Jake Beckhard (devised with Artilliers' Gym Group) - Apr. 2016
Wisdom*
[4f, 3m]
It’s prom night at Sacred Heart, and Danielle is shocked to find her boyfriend Sam with a mouth full of novocaine and short a few wisdom teeth (sabotage by his overbearing mother? maybe). Can she survive limos, pre-games, home school kids, and missing shoes without her partner in crime? And is she ready to face what comes after?
short plays
(Selections - full list available upon request)
Produced at the Davenport Theater, dir. Nick Lieberman - Oct. 2014
*60 min run time
Sex Friends
[3f, 4m - 15 mins]
A group of friends tries to take their relationship(s) to the next level.
Adapted into half-hour pilot
• Staged reading at "festival tout' tout court" (Absolu Théâtre) - dir. Stephanie Breton, translated by Frédéric Paquet and Delphine Bienvenu - October 2018
• Production at Sam French OOB Festival (selected finalist), dir. Jake Beckhard - August 2018
• Production at Williamstown Theatre Festival, dir. Jake Beckhard - July 2017
The Dark
[2f, 1m - 10-15 mins]
"Well it's like, super haunted down here so, you know. Watch out."
• Staged reading/production at Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival - May 2024
• Production at Sam French OOB Festival (selected finalist), dir. Graham Miller - August 2019
• Production at Williamstown Theatre Festival, dir. Esther Cohen - July 2019
• Production at Nightmare Before Insomnium, dir. Aaron Simon Gross - October 2017
Invisible Ink
[2f - 10 mins]
Two women in a sweaty hotel room in New Orleans with all their deepest secrets written on their skin. Are they ready let their lover read?
Production with Undiscovered Countries, dir. Benita de Wit, body art by Ran Xia - January 2017
Dog Play
[1f, 2m - 10 mins]
A doghouse at 2am. A litter of sleeping puppies. A knock on the door.
• Production at The Brick for "Boscoe Barles Bestival" (w/ real dog Boscoe Barles) dir. Anne Ciarlone - August 2019
• Production at The Yard, dir. Jake Beckhard - October 2016
Look At Me
[1f, 1m - 7-9 mins]
A short play about sex, fantasy, and female desire.
Production at The Player’s Theater, dir. Sofya Levitsky-Weitz - February 2017
The Box
[1f, 1m - 5-7 minutes]
“Do not open under any circumstances.”
Staged reading at Soup Out Loud, dir. Jake Beckhard - January 2017