Kate Brennan

Sol is trying to clean up the house. Again. But when her new neighbor breaks into her living room with a broadsword announcing that her family has been taken, she may just have to quest with a viking queen to recover what she has lost.

Tully meets Don Quixote in this tale of postpartum peri-menopausal survival in which two women go to extremes to get back what they didn’t even know that they were searching for.

FULL-LENGTH: Discouraged by her recent futile apartment search and the equally futile state of the world, Jaycee finds solace in the clean lines and pre-fab layouts at DUKTIG, her local Swedish furniture store. So she moves in. When others follow her lead, will she be discovered or start a revolution? A heart-warming and unconventional take on where we live, and the parts of ourselves we donate to make it home.

Emma James is a mother of two young children who is trying to survive the day and reenter the workforce. But to land the new opportunity she seeks, she may have to make a deal with the devil, or herself, or possibly both. But what could go wrong when she finally gets everything she ever wanted?

Groundhogs Day meets Faust in this new play about the lengths we go to protect our children and the risks we take to preserve ourselves, the devil we know and the devil we haven’t met yet, and the unending ever-illusive search for work/life balance.

Daisy Jones & the Six meets Waiting for Guffman in this kaleidoscopic retrospective of an out-of-work mother of two who accidentally starts a cult. Jillian spends her days doing laundry, keeping her wily children from injuring each other, and cleaning a perpetually messy kitchen.

Once a respected and eloquent poetry professor, she is now at home full-time raising two children under 5 and her poetry collections are employed as booster seats. When Jillian’s toddler captures a video of her rage-screaming mantras during an at-home workout video and her media-savvy cousin, Neko, makes it into a mock promo video for a wellness retreat and posts to Insta as a joke, it takes off. Apparently everyone is a little angry.

Soon, other stay-at-home moms with careers-on-hold start moving onto Jillian’s property. Surprised by the strangers, but desperate for community, Jillian and Neko study up on running a cult, -er, - commune while pretending to be the gurus everyone thinks that they are. When an outsider threatens to expose Jillian for who she really is, will the grand experiment collapse, or will Jillian become the person she was always meant to be?

Woven from interviews of various commune members as well as Jillian and Neko, this entirely female tale unfolds in comedic snippets, multi-perspective shared memories, and recounts of the disconcertingly smart shenanigans of the commune’s precocious children. #notacult is an unexpectedly poignant portrait of a woman in crisis on a comedic journey to reinvent herself as well as a heartwarming tale of the bizarre lengths women will go to in order to save each other.

Seeking Development.

In a world of superhuman strength, flying and time travel, it’s hard not to feel inadequate when all you can do is make grass grow 5% faster. The School for the Marginally Magical helps the…less amazing students reach their potential, whatever it may be. When a new student immigrates to school bringing more art than practical magic, the world turns inside out. Will the students’ marginal abilities be enough to save their classmates from a horticultural nightmare, or has this stranger exposed them to a deeper shade of magic that is part of their very nature?

SAVED BY THE BELL meets THE OWL HOUSE in this offbeat genderless take on how growing up in the margins doesn’t mean you can’t become something extraordinary.

It's hard to be a woman in the 1600s; It's hard to be a woman in the 1950s.
​
They didn't mean to conjure the dark arts, tamper with the space-time continuum, and bury their cardboard cutout husbands in the front yard. It just kinda....happened.
​
Nightb*tch meets The Crucible in an absurd tale about finding your people, at any age.

Cause, man, hormones are a witch.

In development.

A TYA musical developed in collaboration with young artists on the things we lose and how to find them — where the lost boys are actually girls.

What do A Christmas Carol, The Wizard of Oz and Dracula have in common? Jennifer Bender is about to find out.

In a last ditch effort to save the financially-strapped Bleeding Heart Academy from bleeding out, the school commissions one-time novelist (and D-list BHA alum) Jennifer Bender to write its check to salvation in the form of a Christmas fundraiser - an unholy mash-up of the three most popular, high-school plays. But saddled with a drama club that has never performed in public, high school ghosts, donor decrees, and an abundance of Madisons, the yellow brick road to creation is looking more like a crypt. Can Jennifer slap together a brand new play while still satisfying the powers that be?

This all-female farce with dynamic roles for artists ages 13 to 70 reminds us that when the world drains you of lifeblood, it’s never too late to change— and perhaps who you were meant to be was right there all along.

Lenora's only friend is her virtual personal assistant device Alyssa. But when Lenora gets locked inside her Chelsea apartment on Christmas Eve and technology glitches, Lenora realizes she is not alone. Alternating between her one-bedroom apartment and a TED Talk, LENORA puts a technological spin on the devices we use to connect and the real loneliness that comes from being disconnected. A modern Christmas Carol that can be performed by one actress or 10. Bah Humbug. Or Merry Christmas.

Currently seeking development.

A stream of consciousness wonderland blurring the lines between thought and reality. Touching on memory, childbirth, technology, death and Atlantic City, this poetic menagerie unleashes the thoughts that keep us spinning and the rage that keeps us going.

In a small Midwestern town, a tornado touches down on prom night, leaving devastation in its wake. The prom-goers emerge from the school to discover a third of their town gone. Amidst the rubble, a stranger appears - an otherworldly character who identifies only as "8." 8 communicates through a unique gestural language and begins to acquire English by reading YA classics like "Catcher in the Rye," "Lord of the Flies" and "Grapes of Wrath." But when the students start to learn 8's unconventional language, they threaten to unearth the town's past, including a shameful secret that most of the town would rather keep buried. ALiEN8 is a new musical about past sins and future reconciliations - about the parts of ourselves that we alienate to get by and the other parts we risk for a chance to connect.

ALiEN8 is available for licensing through YouthPLAYS.

On the cusp of adoption, Andi's foster mothers are left with no alternative but to send her to Clean Slate, a nature rehabilitation program for troubled youth. Her days are spent laboring in heat, journaling and ignoring strange noises at night. When Andi hears the voice of a girl named Cassie emanating from the rocks, the sky begins to turn inside out. When time, space and the very laws of nature threaten to trap the campers forever, will finding Cassie bring them to a safer future or only lead them to a more tangled past?

A musical about second chances, nature, nurture, slowing down, and the time-space continuum in which the constellations in the night sky are our only guide home.

Three middle-aged friends contemplate meaning and meaninglessness in this teenage daydream. A complete reimagining of the Chekhov classic.

IN DEVELOPMENT.

10 MINUTE: It's about 3AM and five professionals are on the 86th take for the Enabler commercial. Enabler is a drug that treats envy-induced depression. It's side effects include "the inability to determine right from wrong," "mania," and "spontaneous combustion." Oh yeah, and everyone is on it. A short dark comedy on the side effects of the quick fix prescription.

10-Minute Holiday Play: Bargain-priced inflatables always adorn the front yard of 46 Winsome Way at Christmastime to spread holiday cheer, but something is different this year. The house across the street is suspiciously dark and there seems to be a new-fangled addition to their group. With the cost of living going up and an eco-friendly alternative, will the inflatables have to do the unthinkable to save their family - even if their family doesn’t realize they need saving?

In a small Midwestern town, a tornado touches down on prom night, leaving devastation in its wake—and a third of the town gone. Appearing amidst the rubble is a stranger—who identifies only as "8." 8 communicates through a unique gestural language and begins to acquire English by reading novels like The Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies and The Grapes of Wrath. But when the students start to learn 8's language, they threaten to unearth a dark secret that the town’s adults would rather keep buried. Past sins and future hopes collide in this musical about the parts of ourselves we alienate to get by—and the parts we risk for a chance to connect.

10-MINUTE: Girl meets boy. At a gym. As their thoughts manifest in IM conversations over their shoulders, their wavelengths scramble, and they accidentally say what they mean. A comedic and touching piece about risking vulnerability and the terror of making new friends after 30.

10-MINUTE YA: A reluctant student, Libby is last to present her school report on Colonial Times. Her procrastination is so effective, in fact, that she actually accidentally travels back to Colonial Times. An informative and quirky romp through history inspired by Betsy Ross.

She used to be the storm and the wolves. Now they are coming for her. A one-page play about the person she used to be and the Sturm and Drang of (re)birth.