Bess Welden

Bess Welden was a 2022 National Arts Strategy Creative Community Fellow - New England for her work at the intersection of theater and social change. Her work has been developed and performed in throughout the US with Portland Stage Company, Celebration Barn Theater, White Plains Performing Arts Center, Commonweal Theater, Mad Horse Theater, Dramatic Repertory Company, Voice & Vision Theater/ENVISION retreat at Bard College, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, several Fringe Festivals, and elsewhere.

Her play Death Wings won the 2020 Maine State Prize of the Clauder Competition for New England Writers, was a semi-finalist for the O'Neill, and has received major funding support from the New England Foundation for the Arts for the world premiere at The Theater Project and Meetinghouse Arts in Maine...

Bess Welden was a 2022 National Arts Strategy Creative Community Fellow - New England for her work at the intersection of theater and social change. Her work has been developed and performed in throughout the US with Portland Stage Company, Celebration Barn Theater, White Plains Performing Arts Center, Commonweal Theater, Mad Horse Theater, Dramatic Repertory Company, Voice & Vision Theater/ENVISION retreat at Bard College, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, several Fringe Festivals, and elsewhere.

Her play Death Wings won the 2020 Maine State Prize of the Clauder Competition for New England Writers, was a semi-finalist for the O'Neill, and has received major funding support from the New England Foundation for the Arts for the world premiere at The Theater Project and Meetinghouse Arts in Maine March-April of 2023. Madeleines won the 2022 National Jewish Playwriting Contest, was a finalist for the 2021 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and will be produced by the Jewish Theatre of Bloomington in May 2023. Her play Refuge Malja won the 2020 Tel Aviv Jewish Plays Contest, was the Finalist for the 2020 National Jewish Playwriting Contest, and premiered at Portland Stage in 2018. She was an invited artist at the 2020 National Winter Playwrights Retreat in Colorado and with Company One Theatre's 2020 PlayLab Unit. She is a five-time Maine Arts Commission grant recipient, has received two national grants from the Puffin Foundation, a new show incubation residency from Celebration Barn Theater, and a week-long writing residency at Hewnoaks Artist Colony.

Bess lives and works in Portland, Maine and teaches at Colby College.

Scripts

Madeleines

by Bess Welden

Synopsis

Winner of the 2022 National Jewish Playwriting Contest. Debra, a struggling food writer, has returned to her childhood home in Ohio’s rust belt to care for her declining mother Rose, an exacting cookie baker. When Jennifer, Debra's very successful older sister, arrives for Rose's funeral, shared memories and old sibling grievances boil to the surface. As the sisters confront their loss, a startling secret about...

Winner of the 2022 National Jewish Playwriting Contest. Debra, a struggling food writer, has returned to her childhood home in Ohio’s rust belt to care for her declining mother Rose, an exacting cookie baker. When Jennifer, Debra's very successful older sister, arrives for Rose's funeral, shared memories and old sibling grievances boil to the surface. As the sisters confront their loss, a startling secret about their mother’s most-treasured Passover recipe emerges, which changes everything they thought they knew about their family. Three years later Debra returns triumphant to New York promoting her newly published cookbook-memoir to find Jennifer in a treacherous downward spiral. Spiced with poetry and smatterings of Yiddish and Spanish, MADELEINES tells the story of a family of Jewish women grappling with how to love each other through haunted pasts, shared grief, and the solace of baking together.

Death Wings

by Bess Welden

Synopsis

Death Wings unfolds over the last 100 minutes of Grand’s life - her memories, visions, feelings, and questions that help her discover the five sentences that tell her final story. She's dedicated her life to making wings that she believes helps others die, and to raising her granddaughter Rachel, a scientist who is determined to fly. Full of poetry, songs, and a radical re-visioning of the Daedelus/Icarus myth...

Death Wings unfolds over the last 100 minutes of Grand’s life - her memories, visions, feelings, and questions that help her discover the five sentences that tell her final story. She's dedicated her life to making wings that she believes helps others die, and to raising her granddaughter Rachel, a scientist who is determined to fly. Full of poetry, songs, and a radical re-visioning of the Daedelus/Icarus myth, Death Wings asks us to marvel at the wonder of flight - real and metaphorical - and the mysteries of human love, connection, loss, and letting go.

Mergirl Saves the Waves

by Bess Welden

Synopsis

MERGIRL SAVES THE WAVES is a feminist, environmentalist, slightly futuristic, funny re-imagining of Andersen's classic The Little Mermaid. When mergirl Pisces Doris, mostly known as Pi, rescues a human boy from their shared polluted ocean, she not only makes a friend, but also learns what it means to use your voice to make a difference. With three original songs. For youth actors or a multi-generational cast...

MERGIRL SAVES THE WAVES is a feminist, environmentalist, slightly futuristic, funny re-imagining of Andersen's classic The Little Mermaid. When mergirl Pisces Doris, mostly known as Pi, rescues a human boy from their shared polluted ocean, she not only makes a friend, but also learns what it means to use your voice to make a difference. With three original songs. For youth actors or a multi-generational cast from 10-25+ performers.

Refuge Malja ملجأ

by Bess Welden

Synopsis

Winner of the 2020 Tel Aviv Jewish Plays Contest and Finalist for the 2020 National Jewish Playwriting Contest. Fiercely independent Jewish-American photojournalist Jamie Winter meets refugee kids all the time, but when Waleed, a shoeless teenager steps off the boat and in front of her lens, she is suddenly forced to confront her own cultural identity, family history, a complicated past relationship, and the...

Winner of the 2020 Tel Aviv Jewish Plays Contest and Finalist for the 2020 National Jewish Playwriting Contest. Fiercely independent Jewish-American photojournalist Jamie Winter meets refugee kids all the time, but when Waleed, a shoeless teenager steps off the boat and in front of her lens, she is suddenly forced to confront her own cultural identity, family history, a complicated past relationship, and the undeniable compulsion to become the boy’s rescuer. Written in English and Arabic, the play explores motherhood, what it means to truly communicate across cultures and inside our own families, and how each of us defines and finds a home. Full productions will feature photographs by award-winning photojournalist Jodi Hilton.

Magic in the Attic

by Bess Welden

Synopsis

Elinor and Leo, a modern American sister and brother, are exiled to clean out their grandmother’s slightly spooky attic and are none too happy about the task. But when Elinor discovers an old notebook written in a foreign language, the kids find themselves plunged into a supernatural world in which their long dead great-great grandmother and a group of elves bring Yiddish language and folktales to life. Full of...

Elinor and Leo, a modern American sister and brother, are exiled to clean out their grandmother’s slightly spooky attic and are none too happy about the task. But when Elinor discovers an old notebook written in a foreign language, the kids find themselves plunged into a supernatural world in which their long dead great-great grandmother and a group of elves bring Yiddish language and folktales to life. Full of humor and heart, Magic in the Attic is a celebration of the universality of story and the power of connecting with cultural heritage. The play is designed for a youth or intergenerational cast.

Celebrity Exit

by Bess Welden

Synopsis

Robin is literally locked in their apartment to finish their past-due manuscript. Despite a deluge and power failure, a call comes through the landline that not only convinces Robin that communication from the "great beyond" is possible but also offers the perfect ending for their book about Stephen King.

Robin is literally locked in their apartment to finish their past-due manuscript. Despite a deluge and power failure, a call comes through the landline that not only convinces Robin that communication from the "great beyond" is possible but also offers the perfect ending for their book about Stephen King.

Legbala Is A River

by Bess Welden

Synopsis

MT’s husband, an infectious disease doctor, has volunteered to treat Ebola patients in Liberia during the height of the recent outbreak. In his absence, unsettling questions rise to the surface and challenge what MT thinks she knows about herself, her marriage, her kids, and everything in the life she’s constructed for herself. Interwoven with a retelling of a West African folktale, original live music...

MT’s husband, an infectious disease doctor, has volunteered to treat Ebola patients in Liberia during the height of the recent outbreak. In his absence, unsettling questions rise to the surface and challenge what MT thinks she knows about herself, her marriage, her kids, and everything in the life she’s constructed for herself. Interwoven with a retelling of a West African folktale, original live music, projected images, and live illustration, the show is performed encircled by the audience to create an intimate and engaging storytelling environment.

Big Mouth Thunder Thighs

by Bess Welden

Synopsis

A solo vaudeville about body and food that intertwines memoir storytelling with a highly-theatrical, unpredictable, and outrageously entertaining variety show featuring: a trash-talking puppet, stand-up comedy, singing, dancing, spoken word poetry, an ancient folktale plus five "Death-Defying Acts." It's a surprisingly funny one-woman extravaganza about how we deal with our inner critics and what it takes for us...

A solo vaudeville about body and food that intertwines memoir storytelling with a highly-theatrical, unpredictable, and outrageously entertaining variety show featuring: a trash-talking puppet, stand-up comedy, singing, dancing, spoken word poetry, an ancient folktale plus five "Death-Defying Acts." It's a surprisingly funny one-woman extravaganza about how we deal with our inner critics and what it takes for us to accept ourselves.

The Passion of the Hausfrau: An Illuminated Solo Comedy

by Bess Welden

Synopsis

A one-woman show about the hilarious misadventures of a mom who discovers that the roller coaster ride of raising young kids is actually the path to creating her own masterpiece. A live-performance graphic novel with original cartoon illustrations. Co-written with Annette Jolles and Nicole Chaison.

A one-woman show about the hilarious misadventures of a mom who discovers that the roller coaster ride of raising young kids is actually the path to creating her own masterpiece. A live-performance graphic novel with original cartoon illustrations. Co-written with Annette Jolles and Nicole Chaison.