PLAYWRIGHT
Check out my chat with TDF (Theatre Development Fund) about actors turned playwrights and women creating their own work!
-- plays --
WITCH PLAY (working title)
CURRENTLY IN DEVELOPMENT
SYNOPSIS
1563(-ish) Scotland(-ish). Anny Chapman and her husband arrive in a town ridden with salacious rumors and religious shame. Anny’s family has died from the plague, and if she doesn’t provide a child for her husband soon, she fears he’ll abandon the marriage. But her body isn’t cooperating. When word is whispered that the local alewife, Besse, has healing skills, Anny turns to her to get the help she needs. One clandestine fertility treatment after another, Anny is still not with child, and John Chapman’s growing fear of dying a bit with each sexual release pushes Anny to reveal to Besse the secret she so shamefully kept for so long — she has never had an orgasm, and every woman of the time knows she must orgasm to conceive. With a little help from the Virgin Mary, Besse surrenders and this ritual soon grows into a sacred bond between the women as they share their bodies and discover themselves. When one misstep leads to exposure and Besse is tried for witchcraft, Anny abandons the will to be good and prays that the town’s accusations are right, that there truly is a witch in every woman, for perhaps this would mean she had the power to save them both.
LET'S PRETEND
CURRENTLY IN DEVELOPMENT
SYNOPSIS
Natalie and Ash are best friends. And live in an abandoned fairground, under a decrepit rollercoaster. Natalie and Ash are confused. Are they really best friends, or maybe something more? When Natalie starts having flashbacks about a time before 'the grounds,' she starts to piece together the tattered truth of her buried trauma. The rules of their relationship go out the window as they navigate through puberty and triggering and sex stuff and love. In the tradition of Peter Pan, LET'S PRETEND asks one question: does growing up really mean forgetting?
RUSALKA
“Magical... An irresistible dance of seduction and threat.” Theatre is Easy
PRESENTED IN DEVELOPMENT AS PART OF THE
2018 PLANET CONNECTIONS THEATRE FESTIVAL
Directed by Isaac Byrne
Featuring:
Nessa ....................................... Erika Phoebus
Aletta ................................. Elizabeth Kensek*
Paul .............................................. Ben Quinn*
Daniel ..................................... Chris Cornwell
Officer ....................................... Harlan Short
Jeannette/Trumpet .................. Alana Rader*
Clara/Piano ............................ Anna Stefanic*
Teddy/Drums ............. Travis Emery Hackett
Henrik/Upright Bass ................ Grant Parker
Costume Design: Ben Philipp
Lighting Design: Isaac Byrne
Music Curated and Directed by: Chris Cornwell
*Winner of 5 Planet Connections Awards including: Best Script
(Erika Phoebus), Best Production, Best Director (Isaac Byrne), Best Lead Actress (Erika Phoebus), Best Supporting Actress (Elizabeth Kensek)
Photograph by: Travis Emery Hackett
“I squealed with delight... Phoebus' play doesn't shy away.” Lisa Huberman, New York Theatre Review
“Phoebus masterfully captures the strength and anxiety of women who get this close to the enemy.” Asya Danilova, Theatre is Easy
*A Theatre is Easy Best Bet*
SYNOPSIS
1943. Amsterdam. The resistance. Two young girls return to their old stomping grounds, a neighborhood jazz bar now catering to the secretly jazz loving Nazi SS. The younger of the sisters, Nessa, is the lookout, the older there to seduce a Nazi officer to the woods to meet his maker. When Nessa finds herself the object of the officer’s affection, she must quickly learn how to turn herself from prey to predator in a body she is just starting to understand.
KISS IT, MAKE IT BETTER
“Raw and poetic, the play falls upon you as a tsunami of engrossing pain, untamed passion, and tenderness.” On Stage Blog
PRESENTED IN DEVELOPMENT AT
THE NEW OHIO THEATRE, NYC
Directed by Isaac Byrne
Featuring:
Nadia ........................................ Erika Phoebus
Ty .............................................. Brian Miskell*
Mother ............................................. Amy Higgs
Bradley ..................................... Chris Cornwell
Hooded Boys ......... Will Van Moss, Tom Walsh
Set & Lighting Design: Joshua Rose
Costume Design: Katja Andreiev
Sound Design: Andy Evan Cohen
Projection & Video Design: Maxwell Bowen
Photograph by: Yvonne Allaway
“It’s hard not to be moved by the tragedy of these drowning teens clinging to each other like deflating life preservers.”
Lisa Huberman, New York Theatre Review
“Delightful and authentic.” Tania Fisher, StageBuddy
“Raw and poetic, the play falls upon you as a tsunami of engrossing pain, untamed passion, and tenderness.” Asya Danilova, On Stage Blog
“Impressive…clever.” Marti Sichel, Woman Around Town
DEVELOPMENTAL READING directed by Isaac Byrne with Theatre 4the People, December 2015
Featuring: Erika Phoebus, Brian Miskell*, Amy Higgs, Vaden Thurgood*, Charles Engelsgjerd
SYNOPSIS
In a small, repressed town in the rural Midwest, two childhood friends play on the outskirts of town. Life back in town finds them crippled by trauma and shackled by cycles of silence and shame, forcing them to run away. Suddenly they are left to fend for each other amidst their crumbling fantasies, and their crumbling innocence, begging the question - when does the love they have stop healing and start reopening their wounds.