Lisa Wagner Erickson

Lisa Wagner Erickson is a Colorado-based playwright, theatre artist, and educator whose plays include THE MRS. WHEATLAND PAGEANT, A SHINY QUEST, THE CHICKEN FLIES AT NIGHT, and Step On Me. Her work has been developed and presented at Manhattan Theatre Source, Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Stickball Productions, No Strings Theatre, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, And Toto too, Edge Theatre, Theater 29, and Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company, among others.

A True West Award winner, she has also been a finalist for the Gary Garrison Award for Ten-Minute Plays, a regional finalist for the KCACTF 10-Minute Play Award, a PlayPenn semi-finalist, and a semi-finalist for Landing Theatre’s New American Voices. Her work is published in Literature Today and Mini Plays...

Lisa Wagner Erickson is a Colorado-based playwright, theatre artist, and educator whose plays include THE MRS. WHEATLAND PAGEANT, A SHINY QUEST, THE CHICKEN FLIES AT NIGHT, and Step On Me. Her work has been developed and presented at Manhattan Theatre Source, Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Stickball Productions, No Strings Theatre, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, And Toto too, Edge Theatre, Theater 29, and Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company, among others.

A True West Award winner, she has also been a finalist for the Gary Garrison Award for Ten-Minute Plays, a regional finalist for the KCACTF 10-Minute Play Award, a PlayPenn semi-finalist, and a semi-finalist for Landing Theatre’s New American Voices. Her work is published in Literature Today and Mini Plays Review.

She is the founder of Cypherbird Projects (formerly the Lulubird Project), the former owner and creative director of Theater 29, and a member of the Dramatists Guild. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing for Stage and Screen from Lesley University.

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Scripts

The Mrs. Wheatland Pageant

by Lisa Wagner Erickson

2
Cast Size
4—5
Genre
comedy,
farce,
parody/spoof,
romantic comedy,
satire

Semi-Finalist, PlayPennPlayPenn
Semi-Finalist, New American Voices, Landing Theatre

June Cleveland thinks creating sitcom scenes from different decades with her husband Jim is a fun way to pass the time in the small town of Wheatland, Colorado. But when Millie, the very fertile school secretary, proclaims that women in Wheatland are only fertile in their twenties, June becomes desperate to become pregnant...

Semi-Finalist, PlayPennPlayPenn
Semi-Finalist, New American Voices, Landing Theatre

June Cleveland thinks creating sitcom scenes from different decades with her husband Jim is a fun way to pass the time in the small town of Wheatland, Colorado. But when Millie, the very fertile school secretary, proclaims that women in Wheatland are only fertile in their twenties, June becomes desperate to become pregnant before her impending thirtieth birthday. Meanwhile, Jim grows wary of June’s new obsession with a 1950’s TV reality and the increasingly bizarre fertility treatments prescribed by Millie’s herbalist. To regain Jim’s affections and prove her ability to be an ideal wife and mother, June decides to win a local beauty pageant. But problems arise when the friends June has enlisted for help, Barb and Vivian, each have their own agenda for the pageant. Vivian is on a quest to regain her preacher husband’s affections by looking hot for Jesus, and Barb wants to use the pageant as a feminist protest. Then June discovers that Jim likes to bake wearing heels. 1950’s sitcom fantasies, small town reality and gender norms collide in an absurd comedy about one woman’s quest for certainty in an ever-changing world.

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Stealing Starlight

by Lisa Wagner Erickson

Cast Size
7—15
Genre
comedy,
experimental,
fable/folktale,
fantasy,
young audiences

Stealing Starlight is an absurd fairytale/ fever dream about a gnome named Burd, who is cast out of the gnome kingdom for snatching plastic jewels from King Gob (pronounced like "Bob" with a G). Desperate and lonely, Burd enlists a reluctant librarian and two interns to join her on perilous quest to steal all of the king's bedazzled sword and throne.

*Developed with the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company (BETC)...

Stealing Starlight is an absurd fairytale/ fever dream about a gnome named Burd, who is cast out of the gnome kingdom for snatching plastic jewels from King Gob (pronounced like "Bob" with a G). Desperate and lonely, Burd enlists a reluctant librarian and two interns to join her on perilous quest to steal all of the king's bedazzled sword and throne.

*Developed with the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company (BETC), 2023-2024

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Step On Me

by Lisa Wagner Erickson

2
Cast Size
2
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
farce,
satire

A woman decides to end an S&M-type relationship with her scale. The scale has other plans.
-Finalist, Gary Garrison Playwriting Award for 10-Minute Plays, 2023
-Boston Globe: “… a hilarious short play by Lisa Wagner Erickson that toys with one woman’s obsession with her bathroom scale.”
-Semi-Finalist, 10-Minute Play Award, Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, 2013

A woman decides to end an S&M-type relationship with her scale. The scale has other plans.
-Finalist, Gary Garrison Playwriting Award for 10-Minute Plays, 2023
-Boston Globe: “… a hilarious short play by Lisa Wagner Erickson that toys with one woman’s obsession with her bathroom scale.”
-Semi-Finalist, 10-Minute Play Award, Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, 2013

Emergency Garden

by Lisa Wagner Erickson

Cast Size
1
Genre
comedy

Julia presents plans for a community garden while trying to suppress a rocky relationship just beneath the surface of her words.

Semi-Finalist, PlayGround Experiment Faces of America Monologue Festival
Published in Literature Today, July 2023 Issue

Julia presents plans for a community garden while trying to suppress a rocky relationship just beneath the surface of her words.

Semi-Finalist, PlayGround Experiment Faces of America Monologue Festival
Published in Literature Today, July 2023 Issue

The Chicken Flies at Night

by Lisa Wagner Erickson

Cast Size
5—6
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
drama,
fable/folktale,
fantasy

Two sisters arrive in a horse tunnel following a harrowing journey from Over There to Around Here. They struggle to remember what has happened along the way, what got lost in the unrelenting wind —and wonder if they’ll ever make it to Yonder.

*Play in process

Two sisters arrive in a horse tunnel following a harrowing journey from Over There to Around Here. They struggle to remember what has happened along the way, what got lost in the unrelenting wind —and wonder if they’ll ever make it to Yonder.

*Play in process

There's No Place Like Gnome

by Lisa Wagner Erickson

Cast Size
3
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
fable/folktale,
fantasy,
satire

Two hipsters suffering from affluenza enter into strange negotiations with a recalcitrant gnome.

Two hipsters suffering from affluenza enter into strange negotiations with a recalcitrant gnome.

Do It For Francine

by Lisa Wagner Erickson

Cast Size
2
Genre
comedy,
dark comedy,
political,
satire

Ben offers the seemingly naive Willow the feature role in his independent film. But when the sacrifices Ben asks willow to make for the part cross the line from bizarre to abusive, Willow turns the tables and gives Ben a dose of his own medicine.

Ben offers the seemingly naive Willow the feature role in his independent film. But when the sacrifices Ben asks willow to make for the part cross the line from bizarre to abusive, Willow turns the tables and gives Ben a dose of his own medicine.