Trista Baldwin

Christmas 2020. Carol is a hard-working single mother who makes award-winning "Holly" fudge, named after her daughter. She serves it every holiday. She gifts it to her friends and co-workers. She's determined that this year won't be any different, even if she has to wear a mask while whipping up her famous dessert. But with her daughter Holly's girlfriend crashing Christmas, her neighbor's new-found love of confectionery, and the protests erupting on her front lawn, Carol is finding it tough to make this the most wonderful time of year.

Commissioned by Merrimack Repertory Theatre; World Premiere November 2021

An executive for a hedge fund is asked to vet a surrogate for his powerful employer’s barren wife, just as his own wife struggles to hold on to her high-risk pregnancy. Angela, a precocious and destitute young woman, is selected to carry the child, and turns the tables of power as her body swells with the would-be heir of billions. Angel Fat asks the question of just how much can be bought when money is illimitable—and at what human cost.

Peter, Piper and Claire are close siblings; peas in a pod. Piper’s just gotten engaged and Claire’s just graduated from college; as they celebrate their lives beginning, their younger brother’s life suddenly ends. Peter’s death sends Claire home searching for answers, while Piper escapes to a city of decadence, cutting all ties. The distance and grief threaten what remains of their family - until Piper reaches the limits of escape.

1920's Baghdad is brought to life as we hear the story of Gertrude Bell's improbable transformation from Victorian aristocrat to "queen" of Iraq. A death-defying, globe trotting adventurer, Gertrude tells us how she gained "Personhood" in the Arabian Peninsula and drew the borders of modern day Iraq. EYE OF THE LAMB takes a frank look at British Imperialism in the Middle East and the contradictory woman who played a pivotal role in colonization, while simultaneously fighting against it.

Deconstructing the romanticism of the Orientalist movement of the 20's through multiple languages, music, and the lens of Gertrude Bell, we see a land on the verge of independence without the power to fully fight for it, faced with being ripped apart from within or being taken over from European powers on all sides. And in the middle of it all, the fiercely independent Gertrude, straddling sides, fighting for her own independence as she fights for the future of Iraq.

It’s just a regular Saturday in the pandemic, with the smoke of distant wildfires thinning, and Amy and Morgan are just fine…until one of them wants to know what to cook for dinner. A dark rom-com about very long term relationships. And eating each other. Or just eating dinner.

Jan wakes up in an anonymous hotel room next to a naked woman she’s never met. Or has she? In this surreal psycho-sexual thriller, Jan (or is it Jane?) struggles to leave, love, fuck, this lover, this stranger… Or is it just herself that she cannot hold on to?

In a Middle Eastern desert, three American soldiers guard a seemingly abandoned gas station. Trapped in a confusing, monotonous and sometimes terrifying occupation, they confront powers foreign and domestic, secular and divine, real and imagined. As past blurs with present and reality dissolves, boundaries between friends and enemies break down with horrific results. A complex, semi-expressionistic take on the consequences of modern war.

A burlesque of porn-drenched pop culture, American Sexy follows four co-eds en route to a carefree fling in Sin City, when an unexpected stop at the Grand Canyon reveals emotional depths that none of them are prepared for.

A chance encounter between girlhood friends raises unsettling questions about their youth, a time when desire bloomed in the shadow of a murder of their peer. Suspended in a web of memories, this coming-of-age tale weaves between reality and dream as Patty Red Pants chases the truth of her own past.