Gina Stevensen

Gina Stevensen

Gina Stevense (she/they) is a playwright, dramaturg, performer, and writing instructor. Her process is research-driven and highly collaborative, focusing on character-based explorations of socially responsive subjects. They received a 2023 Vermont Arts Council/NEA Creation Grant to develop their new play Breakfalls, which will premiere at Vermont Stage in 2024. Gina was the 2021 winner of the Kernodle New Play...
Gina Stevense (she/they) is a playwright, dramaturg, performer, and writing instructor. Her process is research-driven and highly collaborative, focusing on character-based explorations of socially responsive subjects. They received a 2023 Vermont Arts Council/NEA Creation Grant to develop their new play Breakfalls, which will premiere at Vermont Stage in 2024. Gina was the 2021 winner of the Kernodle New Play Award, the 2020 winner of the New Works Initiative at Good Luck Macbeth, a 2019 winner of the Columbia@Roundabout New Play Reading Series, and a 2022 artist-in-residence at Ragdale. Their plays have been developed in NYC, London, and across the country with Roundabout Theatre Company, American Stage, Urban Stages, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Hartford Stage, Barter Theatre, and more. She has been a finalist for Theatre503’s International Playwriting Award, the Jewish Playwriting Contest, and the Austin Film Festival Pitch Competition, and a semifinalist for the Princess Grace Award (twice), the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference (three times), the Bay Area Playwrights Festival (three times), The Blue Ink Playwriting Award, the Ashland New Plays Festival, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, Premiere Stages Play Festival, and more. As a dramaturg she has supported both classics and new works with LaMama E.T.C, Vermont Shakespeare Festival, and Middlebury Acting Company, among others. She has been a guest lecturer at Hunter College, NYU, the University of Arkansas, and the University of Vermont. MFA Playwriting: Columbia University. www.ginastevensen.com

Plays

  • Breakfalls by Gina Stevensen
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: martial arts, Self-Defense + 5 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, movement/physical, political
    Keyword: martial arts, Self-Defense, queer romance, comedy, physical theatre, femme non-binary, gun violence
    At a struggling karate dojo in a small U.S. city, five adults meet each week to learn not only how to punch and kick but how to navigate the world. In charge is the stoic and powerful Martha, who struggles to keep the dojo, and her pupils, afloat. Romance blooms between Summer, a prickly but sensitive brown belt, and Charlie, a timid new student searching for her strength. Ideologies clash at the arrival of the...
    At a struggling karate dojo in a small U.S. city, five adults meet each week to learn not only how to punch and kick but how to navigate the world. In charge is the stoic and powerful Martha, who struggles to keep the dojo, and her pupils, afloat. Romance blooms between Summer, a prickly but sensitive brown belt, and Charlie, a timid new student searching for her strength. Ideologies clash at the arrival of the blundering and accidentally toxic Joe, who pulls Sean – a dude reckoning with his capacity for violence – into a perpetual masculinity contest. As each character grapples with the hopes and fears that bring them to the mat, BREAKFALLS asks: how do we stay safe in an unsafe world?
  • Book of Esther by Gina Stevensen
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: drama, faith-based + 1 more
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    Keyword: Orthodox Judaism, Brooklyn + 2 more
    Genre: drama, faith-based, romantic comedy
    Keyword: Orthodox Judaism, Brooklyn, magical realism, female coming of age
    Within the confines of an Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, a new generation of women is pushing the boundaries. Esther grew up in a loving and religious household, but she is seventeen now and can feel a larger world outside her own. Will her questioning take her too far to come home?
  • Tell Me What I Want by Gina Stevensen
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy
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    Keyword: sex education, menopause + 2 more
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: sex education, menopause, masturbation, LGBTQ characters
    When Gloria, a middle school health teacher, gets fired after teaching her students about masturbation, she doesn’t know what to do. Until she realizes that the adults around her are nearly as clueless as the kids: there’s Karen, the head of the PTA, newly recruited into the mysterious hulking throes of menopause; Maxine, a math teacher whose partner can’t keep up with her Hummer limo sex drive; and Sharon, a...
    When Gloria, a middle school health teacher, gets fired after teaching her students about masturbation, she doesn’t know what to do. Until she realizes that the adults around her are nearly as clueless as the kids: there’s Karen, the head of the PTA, newly recruited into the mysterious hulking throes of menopause; Maxine, a math teacher whose partner can’t keep up with her Hummer limo sex drive; and Sharon, a mom with a yoga obsession whose Down-There Parts are lately as dry as her favorite white wine. Understandably, they have questions. And honestly...don’t you?
  • The Colony by Gina Stevensen
    Recommendations: 6
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 4 more
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    Keyword: social justice, History + 3 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama, mystery/thriller, period, political
    Keyword: social justice, History, science, Eugenics, reproductive justice
    In 1924 Virginia, a dirt-poor young woman named Carrie Buck is brought to a mysterious medical facility. No one will tell her why she’s here, or where her two-month-old daughter is. The Doctor in charge is a charming progressive, a student of the new science of heredity and genes. In Carrie, he finds the missing link his entire movement has been searching for, placing her at the center of a chain of events that...
    In 1924 Virginia, a dirt-poor young woman named Carrie Buck is brought to a mysterious medical facility. No one will tell her why she’s here, or where her two-month-old daughter is. The Doctor in charge is a charming progressive, a student of the new science of heredity and genes. In Carrie, he finds the missing link his entire movement has been searching for, placing her at the center of a chain of events that will lead all the way to the Supreme Court. Based on a true story, THE COLONY asks: how does our society, past and present, regulate the bodies of women deemed "undesirable"?
  • The Sand Castle by Gina Stevensen
    Cast: 
    8
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    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: 2008 financial crisis, overseas domestic worker + 4 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, docudrama/historic, drama, political
    Keyword: 2008 financial crisis, overseas domestic worker, children of immigrants, wealth disparity, occupy wall street, The Cherry Orchard
    A trophy wife, an ambitious real estate broker, an overseas domestic worker, a college student with Disney theme park aspirations, a wealthy young revolutionary. THE SAND CASTLE utilizes the framework of Chekhov’s THE CHERRY ORCHARD to explore the 2008 housing and financial crisis, interrogating the deficits of the American Dream.
  • Cruel Sister by Gina Stevensen
    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: drama, fable/folktale + 4 more
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    Keyword: magical realism, Body image + 3 more
    Genre: drama, fable/folktale, movement/physical, mystery/thriller, romantic comedy, tragedy
    Keyword: magical realism, Body image, self-harm, single parent, teenage girls
    Dawn and Shelby are twins struggling with popularity and body image. They long to connect with their lonely father, but lately he is only interested in communicating through his food. When a mysterious new teacher comes into their lives, introducing them to a folktale about jealous sisters ending in bloody violence, reality and myth start to blur.