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.
finalist Princess Grace, 2021
semi-finalist Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship, 2020
semi-finalist O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, 2020
• "Out Loud" at Ars Nova (29-Hour Reading), dir. Jake Beckhard - January 2020
• Reading at Westport Country Playhouse, New Works Initiative, dir. Jake Beckhard - July 2019
• Reading at Playwrights Studios (invited), dir. Jake Beckhard - August 2018
• Developed at Creeky Joint Arts Retreat, dir. Jake Beckhard - August 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.
• Reading at 59E59, produced by Less Than Rent Theatre - September 2023
• Production at The Corkscrew Festival - August 2020 [canceled]
• Developed with Ars Nova Play Group - November 2019
• Developed at Creeky Joint Arts Retreat, dir. Jake Beckhard - August 2019
All Remaining Assets
[5f, 1m]
A fractured family wrestles with their conflicting relationships to money, sex, power, and family at an impromptu funeral afterparty.
• Reading at Westport Country Playhouse, dir. Liam Lonegan - December 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.
• Workshop with The Hearth, dir. Seonjae Kim - January 2023
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
• Workshop at Williamstown Theatre Festival - July 2019, dir. Esther Cohen
• Staged workshop w/ Less Than Rent (closed) - October 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 - August 2017
• Reading at Playwrights Rehearsal Studios (invited), dir. Ivey Lowe - March 2017
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?
semi-finalist Princess Grace Award, 2022
semi-finalist O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, 2022
semi-finalist Premiere Stages, 2022
• Reading (excerpt) with The Bechdel Group, The Tank - September 2019
• Developed with Ars Nova Play Group - May 2019
• Reading with "The Frauds" (invited), Juilliard Rehearsal Studios - April 2019
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) - April 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 - October 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 30 min 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."
• 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