Sarah Jae Leiber

Sarah Jae Leiber

Sarah Jae Leiber is a New York-based playwright, screenwriter, and critic writing about and through the lens of pop culture, Jewishness, and being a weird girl. She is, crucially, from Philadelphia. Playwriting credits include Grand Theft Tea Leaves (Off-Broadway, Theatre Row), the old jew who begat scrooge, on his deathbed (McCarter Theatre Center), The Repair Man (Muhlenberg College Mainstage), PLEASE LAUGH (...
Sarah Jae Leiber is a New York-based playwright, screenwriter, and critic writing about and through the lens of pop culture, Jewishness, and being a weird girl. She is, crucially, from Philadelphia. Playwriting credits include Grand Theft Tea Leaves (Off-Broadway, Theatre Row), the old jew who begat scrooge, on his deathbed (McCarter Theatre Center), The Repair Man (Muhlenberg College Mainstage), PLEASE LAUGH (Play Date at Pete's Candy Store), and Freudian Oops (an ill-fated, COVID-cancelled production at Jewish Theatre of Bloomington). Her 30-minute dramedy pilot, Hearts and Bones, was a semifinalist in ScreenCraft's 2021 TV Pilot competition. B.A. in theatre and history from Muhlenberg College.

Plays

  • PLEASE LAUGH by Sarah Jae Leiber
    Recommendations: 5
    ·
    Cast: 
    5–15
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: Late Night, late night comedy + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, satire
    Keyword: Late Night, late night comedy, late night satire, james corden, power, dramedy, talk show, television talk show, TV, late night TV
    Welcome to SOMEONE'S UP LATE!, this universe's answer to THE TONIGHT SHOW or THE LATE LATE SHOW! Anything can happen here — celebrity interviews! Games! Ego trips! Murder! Stand-up comedy!

    Taking the form of a taping of an actual late night TV show, PLEASE LAUGH is about failing upwards, power (and who can wield it), and what becomes of the soul of the underdog when they become the top...
    Welcome to SOMEONE'S UP LATE!, this universe's answer to THE TONIGHT SHOW or THE LATE LATE SHOW! Anything can happen here — celebrity interviews! Games! Ego trips! Murder! Stand-up comedy!

    Taking the form of a taping of an actual late night TV show, PLEASE LAUGH is about failing upwards, power (and who can wield it), and what becomes of the soul of the underdog when they become the top dog. It's also about the power an audience has to shape a narrative.
  • i can fix him by Sarah Jae Leiber
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: fan fiction, fic + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: fan fiction, fic, teenage girls, friendship, high school, teenagers, crushes, Harry Potter, identity, fandom
    Enter the seedy underbelly of an early-2010s Jewish day school and meet Freddie, Donna, Sylvia, and Jane — members of an exclusive after school fan club that serves as a front for a successful fan fiction laundering ring. They'll write anything for you, for a price.

    i can fix him is about being a fan, being an uncool girl, and navigating befriending your fellow uncool girls.
  • speaking strictly for me by Sarah Jae Leiber
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama, musical + 1 more
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    Keyword: a play with music, folk music + 6 more
    Genre: drama, musical, romantic comedy
    Keyword: a play with music, folk music, Bob Dylan, joan baez, heartbreak, one-act, guitar, communication/miscommunication
    a one-act songfic about folk singers who resemble joan baez and bob dylan

    also, a play with music about heartbreak, history, and two people who don't know how to talk about what they did to each other.
  • the old jew who begat scrooge, on his deathbed by Sarah Jae Leiber
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: comedy, fable/folktale + 1 more
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    Keyword: A Christmas Carol, christmas + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, fable/folktale, holiday
    Keyword: A Christmas Carol, christmas, holiday, Jewish, being Jewish at Christmas, Bake-Off
    As Jewish banker Ephraim Stein prepares to meet his maker, he's visited by three ghosts — Shylock, Scrooge, and Mrs. Maisel — who've come to warn him about how he'll be remembered to history, immortalized by Dickens.

    Written as part of the 2021 McCarter Theatre Center's Paula Vogel Christmas Carol Bake-Off.
  • The Repair Man by Sarah Jae Leiber
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
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    Keyword: Jewish, Mental Health + 7 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, fable/folktale, holiday
    Keyword: Jewish, Mental Health, Depression, yom kippur, female playwright, comedy, dramedy, jewish legend, Golem
    The Repair Man centers around a young, depressed, Jewish woman named Nick who is visited on Yom Kippur by a Golem masquerading as a dishwasher repairman. Hilarity and a hard conversation ensues.

  • tom weiner is a sociopath by Sarah Jae Leiber
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, satire
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    Keyword: comedy, teenagers + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, satire
    Keyword: comedy, teenagers, Facebook
    Three Philadelphian teenage girls try to find evidence of the boy who wronged them - he moved away, and he doesn't exist on Facebook. In Boston, the boy who wronged them sits. Prepares. Plans. This play is about connection, growing up online, and how we make friends.
  • Freudian Oops by Sarah Jae Leiber
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    7
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: Jewish Family, Jewish + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: Jewish Family, Jewish, family, comedy
    Freudian Oops is a Jewish family dramedy about grief, French onion soup, and cold sores. Kara recently lost her dad, and it turns out her mom has been accidentally dating her psychiatrist. Family therapy gets more personal than ever.
  • Tingle (or, The Cold Sore Play) by Sarah Jae Leiber
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: comedy
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    Keyword: cold sores
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: cold sores
    Teddy and Olivia just finished a really good first date. Will they kiss or not? Depends on whether or not Teddy is ready to commit to the Herpes Simplex Virus.
  • Grand Theft Tea Leaves by Sarah Jae Leiber
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy
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    Keyword: cars, ten minutes + 7 more
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: cars, ten minutes, exes, love, it's complicated, platonic love, car play, 10-minute, 10-minute comedy
    While reviewing a symphony for work, Sal gets a call from the police—their ex-girlfriend, Kerry, has been arrested for the attempted theft of Revolutionary-era tea leaves from the local university museum.
  • The Dogfather by Sarah Jae Leiber
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, parody/spoof
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    Keyword: dog, dog play + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, parody/spoof
    Keyword: dog, dog play, one minute play, one minute sketch, The Godfather, mafia
    A dog makes his owners an offer they can't refuse.
  • just jelly beans by Sarah Jae Leiber
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: 1 minute monologue, monologue + 4 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental
    Keyword: 1 minute monologue, monologue, giving birth, reconnecting, dreams, miscarriage
    a monologue.

    a woman shares a dream about 9 stillborn jelly beans.