Emily Dendinger

Emily Dendinger

Emily Dendinger is a New York-based writer by way of Virginia. Her plays include No Home for Bees (2017 Source Festival Finalist), Little House in the Big City (2017 NNPN Showcase Finalist), and Pocketful of Sand (winner of the 2016 Activate Midwest New Play Award and 2015 Alliance/Kendeda finalist). She is a two-time winner of Theater Masters and has been a finalist for the City Theatre National Award, Ingram...
Emily Dendinger is a New York-based writer by way of Virginia. Her plays include No Home for Bees (2017 Source Festival Finalist), Little House in the Big City (2017 NNPN Showcase Finalist), and Pocketful of Sand (winner of the 2016 Activate Midwest New Play Award and 2015 Alliance/Kendeda finalist). She is a two-time winner of Theater Masters and has been a finalist for the City Theatre National Award, Ingram New Works Lab at Nashville Rep, 2017 Emerald Prize, Playwrights Center Core Apprenticeship, and Heideman Award. Emily has worked around the country with companies including The Acting Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Route 66, The Lark, Sideshow Theatre, The Alliance, NNPN, Curious Theatre Company, NJ Rep, Orlando Shakes, Ashland New Play Festival, and TimeLine Theatre. Her work has been developed at The Perry Mansfield Festival of New Work, Durango New Play Festival, and Tofte Lake Residency. Emily was a 2015-2016 NNPN Playwright-in-Resident, and is an alumni member of TimeLine’s Writers Collective and an NNPN affiliate artist. She currently has a pilot in development with Glickmania. MFA: University of Iowa

Plays

  • A Doll's House (new adaptation)
    Originally commissioned by The Acting Company, this adaptation reimagines the Helmers as Norwegian immigrants in 19th century Nebraska. Ibsen's classic tale has been given a new location and updated language, but the story of Nora Helmer coming to terms with her own personhood and identity remains the same.
  • The Grand Illusion Show
    In 1896 New York, Adelaide is a recent widow. Her husband was the famous magician, Alexander Herrmann, and now she – his long-time assistant – wants the rights to perform his illusions herself. The trouble is no woman has ever performed this kind of magic before. To prove she’s qualified to carry on her husband’s legacy, Adelaide will perform the most dangerous trick of all: the infamous Bullet Catch. Based on...
    In 1896 New York, Adelaide is a recent widow. Her husband was the famous magician, Alexander Herrmann, and now she – his long-time assistant – wants the rights to perform his illusions herself. The trouble is no woman has ever performed this kind of magic before. To prove she’s qualified to carry on her husband’s legacy, Adelaide will perform the most dangerous trick of all: the infamous Bullet Catch. Based on a true story, The Grand Illusion Show blends Adelaide’s story with real illusions as it examines the limitations of the glass-ceilings we’ve broken, and those we must still work to shatter.
  • #GodHatesYou
    Laurel has always been the apple of the church’s eye. She’s the first person to volunteer to picket funerals of dead soldiers, knows what to say to strike a nerve in a crowd, and can debate the Bible with the best of them. Despite the constant hate mail and death threats, she knows she’s saving the sinners of the world before the end of days arrives. However, when Laurel joins social media she’s faced for the...
    Laurel has always been the apple of the church’s eye. She’s the first person to volunteer to picket funerals of dead soldiers, knows what to say to strike a nerve in a crowd, and can debate the Bible with the best of them. Despite the constant hate mail and death threats, she knows she’s saving the sinners of the world before the end of days arrives. However, when Laurel joins social media she’s faced for the first time with the outside world, and soon everything she believes is called into question. God Hates You asks what it means to grow up in a church dedicated to spreading hate and intolerance, and what happens when the faith you’ve rigorously adhered to your whole life came shattering down around you.

  • Little House in the Big City
    Margo has everything: a great marriage, flourishing career, adoring husband. Everything is going according to plan until she is given the devastating news - her unborn baby has a hole in its head. Suddenly she is faced with the difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy. As a means of trying to make sense of her grief, Margo enters a pageant where women compete to be crowned Little House on the Prairie'...
    Margo has everything: a great marriage, flourishing career, adoring husband. Everything is going according to plan until she is given the devastating news - her unborn baby has a hole in its head. Suddenly she is faced with the difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy. As a means of trying to make sense of her grief, Margo enters a pageant where women compete to be crowned Little House on the Prairie's Laura Ingalls Wilder for a year. Margo’s interest quickly turns into an obsession as she becomes determined to prove she’s the ultimate pioneer woman.
  • No Home for Bees
    Sixteen-year-old Suz is trying to get reacquainted with her father after he is released from a five-year prison stint. However, when she discovers why he was incarcerated, she is forced to ask herself what constitutes an unforgivable act. In an exploration of sex and deviance, No Home For Bees investigates the repercussions of the desires we struggle to control.
  • Pocketful of Sand
    Coco travels the oceans and sells the souls from bodies he pulls out of the sea until one day he rescues Sunny, a young orphan girl who is determined to be his apprentice. However as the more sinister aspects of Coco’s work begin to emerge, Sunny must decide for herself whether the work they are doing outweighs the costs. A fairytale about death, Pocketful of Sand is a play about love, family and belonging.
  • Hideous Progeny
    It was a dark and stormy night when Lord Byron challenges Mary Godwin (not yet Shelley) to write a ghost story that will make her immortal. Witty, salacious, and often melodramatic—we are talking about the Romantics, after all—Hideous Progeny takes these larger than life figures and depicts them as the teenagers they were; overeducated, egotistical and convinced they will change the world despite how little they know about it.
  • Fog Island
    When the fog refuses to lift from their sleepy Irish fishing village, siblings Cara and Finn must take matters into their own hands. The children take to the sea, only to find themselves washed ashore on the mysterious and dangerous Fog Island. A spooky adventure story adapted from Tomi Ungerer’s award winning picture book, FOG ISLAND asks what is means to grow up and face your fears. Please contact directly for music.
  • For the Falls
    It's 1962, and a group of friends have come together at a house built on a waterfall to say goodbye to their friend who has suddenly died under mysterious circumstances. As the night progresses, however, questions of life and death, love and marriage and who owns the right to mourn begin to emerge as long buried hopes, dreams and secrets start to come to light.
  • Still Quiet
    Amy and Michael are ex-lovers who shared an experience together years ago at summer camp that shaped the course of their lives. Brought together by a looming tornado, they are forced to confront the more sinister aspects of their past asking if what they experienced as children was divine, coincidence or something far more more sinister.
  • Pride and Prejudice
    Jane loves Mr. Bingley. Lizzy hates Mr. Darcy. Mr. Collins wants to marry Lizzy, but Lizzy wants to marry Mr. Wickham, but then maybe she also has some feelings for Mr. Darcy? You know the story. Wit, banter, love, ballgowns, tea and parties (regency style).
  • Swimming After Dark
    One-hit wonder author Claudia Stevens-Keller committed suicide when her daughter Bronte was only nine-years-old. Now Bronte’s ex-boyfriend and literary scholar James has shown up with a startling discovery about her mother’s literary career. Alternating between the past and the present, Bronte and James attempt to piece together what might have happened in the past while Claudia plays out what actually happened...
    One-hit wonder author Claudia Stevens-Keller committed suicide when her daughter Bronte was only nine-years-old. Now Bronte’s ex-boyfriend and literary scholar James has shown up with a startling discovery about her mother’s literary career. Alternating between the past and the present, Bronte and James attempt to piece together what might have happened in the past while Claudia plays out what actually happened on that final evening. The result is a haunting, bittersweet story of love, literature and ownership.
  • Bobbins and Thread
    Set in 1834, Joan Porter must save her family's farm by traveling to Lowell to work in the cotton mills. At first, this new life is everything Joan dreamed of, but when the mill owners dock workers' wages, Joan is forced to decide what really matters.