Bekah Brunstetter

This book contains seven short plays that were produced in New York in May 2017 as a benefit for the victims of the terror attacks in Paris in November 2015. Each play deals with one or several characters having to make an important choice in their life. It contains plays by Bekah Brunstetter, Paul DeSena, Jennie Eng, Megan Lohne, Ivan Magrin-Chagnolleau, Caren Skibell, and DeLora Whitney. The benefit was possible thanks to them for writing those plays, to Ivan Magrin-Chagnolleau for producing and directing the show, to the actresses and actors playing in it and whose names are mentioned in the book, as well as Fay Simpson who volunteered her space, the Lucid Body House, for a rehearsal and for the show, and everyone else who contributed one way or another. We are now very proud to present the book containing the plays. Part of the benefits of the book will also go to the association supporting the victims of the terror attacks in Paris in November 2015, as well as other charities.

Jane's trapped in her middle school computer lab playing "The Oregon Trail" for what feels like hours. The game becomes life and rips us back to the trail, 1848, where we travel in a covered wagon with Jane's great-great-grandmother. As Game moves us, back, forward, and back again, Now-Jane and Then-Jane's sadnesses are delicately juxtaposed in this play-meets-video-game about depression, Then and Now.

Della makes cakes not judgment calls those she leaves to her husband Tim. But when the girl she helped raise comes back home to North Carolina to get married and the fiance is actually a fiancee Della's life gets turned upside down. She can't really make a cake for such a wedding can she? For the first time in her life Della has to think for herself.

Is there a heaven? Joe says no; it's all a bunch of hokum. His wife Roberta has always claimed to agree. But lately she's beginning to wonder especially when they find themselves in church a lot having reached the age when funerals are more frequent than weddings. Their granddaughter Ellie doesn't have time in her own busy life to ponder the afterlife. But when mortality confronts them her grandmother's claim to have gone to heaven and back doesn't sound s

Characters: 2 male, 2 female Interior Young wife Melody has never been to a funeral - until her husband dies in a plane crash. Expected to instantly assume proper widowhood, Melody is left to wonder, what's the right way to grieve? Fortunately, her mother-in-law is a professional. Widow, that is. Under her guidance, Melody must try her best to be a good little widow. A sad comedy about loss and longing. "Delicately satisfying...[Ms. Brunstetter] writes fresh, unfussy dialogue and characters who earn their laughs and emotional moments by honest means." -The New York Times "Bekah Brunstetter's powerful new play marries the humor and sadness of grief. Brunstetter's words pierce the soul, and she makes the depths of the human experience profoundly relatable...Her multidimensional characters' pain radiated through my veins, and at the end, I just wanted to feel it all over again. Critic's Pick." - Backstage

Dramatic Comedy / Characters: 4m, 3f / Interior Set Bekah Brunstetter makes her Off Broadway debut in September 2009 at the Atlantic Theatre Company! Ron is back from his third and final tour in Iraq, and his wife Sara is excited to restart their life together in their new home. When a young marine visits the family, life is turned upside down. Sara's sister is swept off her feet; her daughter Lacey trades her dresses for combat boots, and Ron gets hungry for real military action. In this disarmingly funny and candid drama, Bekah Brunstetter raises challenging questions about what it means when the military is woven into the fabric of a family, and service is far more than just a job. "The young scribe's talent and potential are obvious in this Southern-basted dramatic comedy about the war mystique as it plays out on the American home front..." - Variety "...Poignancy and terrific humor in both the writing and performances..." - Theatremania.com "If there's anything that stands out about Oohrah! at the Atlantic Theater Company's Stage II, it's the off-Broadway introduction of playwright Bekah Brunstetter, whose play is a fascinating, original take on something we've come to see rather often nowadays: the war play. ..Let's hope we hear her voice uptown again real soon." - nytheatre.com "The play skillfully depicts how the demands of military service affect an individual family and society as a whole. Brunstetter's people are real and funny. She never condescends to them or treats them as symbols to put a point across...A big hurrah for Oohrah! - Back Stage "There have been plenty of plays about the Iraq War on New York stages in the past several years but few that deal as directly with the viewpoints of military families as Oohrah!...Bekah Brunstetter makes an impressively smart debut (no one could argue that she doesn't have dramatic chops)" - MusicOMH

One of Manhattan's most established play festivals, the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival fosters the work of young writers, giving them the exposure of publication and representation. The festival resulting in this collection was held July 15th-20th, 2008 at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre on 42nd Street in New York City. From the initial submission pool, approximately 50 plays were chosen to be performed over a period of one week. A panel of judges comprised of New York area theater professionals, critics, and educators nominated one or more of each evening's plays as finalists. The final round was then held on the last day of the Festival. Out of these plays, six winners listed below were chosen by Samuel French, Inc. to receive publication and licensing contracts. Contents: F*cking Art Ayravana Flies or A Pretty Dish The Thread Men The Dying Breed The Grave Juniper; Jubilee

Diane Georgia and Joanne are three modern women living very different lives. Unbeknownst to them they are all pining after the same young man Trevor: sexy stoned oblivious; a surfer on a rad rad philosophical journey.