Bess Welden

​Lena, an accidental librarian, is ready to take her own writing seriously but before she can pursue her goals overseas, she must say goodbye to her father and his favorite car. Soul Suds, a very magical car wash, is the setting for this tender father-daughter comedy with a disco dance break.
Winner of the 2026 Maine Playwrights Festival Audience Choice Award.

Winner of the 2025 Maine Literary Award in Drama and the 2022 National Jewish Playwriting Contest and premiered at Portland Stage. 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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.