Beth Hyland

Beth Hyland

Beth Hyland is a playwright and screenwriter based in Southern California.
Her plays and musicals include SYLVIA SYLVIA SYLVIA, Fires, Ohio, Seagulls, Clearing, Killed a Man (Joking), All-One! The Dr. Bronner’s Play, Red Bowl at the Jeffs, For Annie, and grippy sock vacation.

She is the 2024 recipient of Williamstown Theatre Festival’s L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award and Jay Harris...
Beth Hyland is a playwright and screenwriter based in Southern California.
Her plays and musicals include SYLVIA SYLVIA SYLVIA, Fires, Ohio, Seagulls, Clearing, Killed a Man (Joking), All-One! The Dr. Bronner’s Play, Red Bowl at the Jeffs, For Annie, and grippy sock vacation.

She is the 2024 recipient of Williamstown Theatre Festival’s L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award and Jay Harris Commission for her play SYLVIA SYLVIA SYLVIA. Her play Fires, Ohio was the 2023 recipient of the Kennedy Center’s Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and the Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting.

Her work has been developed regionally in the US and the UK at Goodman Theatre’s New Stages Festival, Steppenwolf LookOut, Know Theatre, Octagon Theatre Bolton, Stephen Joseph Theatre, B Street Theatre, Provincetown Theater, and Actors Theatre of Louisville; in New York at Manhattan Theatre Club and The Hearth; and around Chicago with Jackalope Theatre, First Floor Theater, The Story Theatre, Bramble Theatre, Broken Nose Theatre, The Sound in Association with Joe Swanberg, and others. She is currently under commission by Manhattan Theatre Club and Williamstown Theatre Festival.

She co-founded The Sound, an itinerant Chicago storefront theatre, with artistic director Rebeca Willingham. Her short film Clambake, directed by Sammy Zeisel, was an official selection of the Art of Brooklyn Film Festival and the Santa Monica Film Festival.

She is currently pursuing an MFA in Playwriting at UC San Diego under the mentorship of Naomi Iizuka and Deborah Stein. She is represented by Jamie Kaye-Phillips.

Plays

  • SYLVIA SYLVIA SYLVIA by Beth Hyland
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, horror
    Sally, a once-celebrated novelist grappling with writer's block and overshadowed by her husband Theo's rising literary fame, seeks solace and inspiration in the iconic Boston apartment once inhabited by Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Intent on completing her novel about Plath's life and salvaging her faltering marriage, Sally's plans take a haunting turn when she begins experiencing spectral...
    Sally, a once-celebrated novelist grappling with writer's block and overshadowed by her husband Theo's rising literary fame, seeks solace and inspiration in the iconic Boston apartment once inhabited by Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Intent on completing her novel about Plath's life and salvaging her faltering marriage, Sally's plans take a haunting turn when she begins experiencing spectral encounters that challenge her perception of reality. As the boundaries between truth and fiction blur, Sally confronts the ghosts of her past, threatening to unravel both her sanity and her artistic vision. In SYLVIA SYLVIA SYLVIA, a tragicomic exploration of women's creativity and women's madness, love and art collide with supernatural consequences.
  • Fires, Ohio by Beth Hyland
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: climate, climate change + 3 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: climate, climate change, Chekhov, The Internet, yearning
    As a climate crisis threatens a small Ohio college town, the mopey grown children and second wife of a sort-of-mediocre professor must choose: stay and smolder, or leave and burn. When a visiting scholar comes to stay for a few days, love and hatred flare and jeopardize the family’s fragile equilibrium. Chekhovian and totally modern, Fires, Ohio brings an old story into our painfully funny present.
  • Seagulls by Beth Hyland
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: alternative musical theater, rock and roll + 1 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, dark comedy, drama, musical, romantic comedy
    Keyword: alternative musical theater, rock and roll, indie rock
    Seagulls is an indie-rock musical loosely based on Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. This contemporary retelling of the classic tragicomedy follows four friends and bandmates at a small college as they struggle to achieve artistic greatness without losing themselves – or each other.
  • Killed a Man (Joking) by Beth Hyland
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    ·
    Keyword: domestic violence, women's friendships + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    Keyword: domestic violence, women's friendships, Criminal Justice, feminism
    Okay so Megan may have killed Trevor, but it was an accident! Or it was self-defense. Or both! But now Liv, Amanda, and Katie have to decide exactly how far they’re willing to go to help their co-worker in need. Killed a Man (Joking) is a pitch-black comedy about violence, justice, and what it really means to be a ride-or-die friend.
  • All-One! The Dr. Bronner's Play by Beth Hyland
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    6–10
    ·
    Genre: biography, comedy + 1 more
    Genre: biography, comedy, docudrama/historic
    Good/Evil! Clean/Dirty! Madness/Genius! Apart/Together! Can all of these major dualities be contained in a soap you may have in your shower right now? And can that soap really have eighteen different uses? ALL-ONE! THE DR. BRONNER'S PLAY is an irreverent look at life's deepest darkness and brightest light through the too-wild-to-be-believed life of the world's most famous soap maker, Emanuel Bronner.
  • Clearing by Beth Hyland
    Recommendations: 3
    ·
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: contemporary satire, yoga + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, satire
    Keyword: contemporary satire, yoga, Body image
    When Jess gets a job at LaLaLea, the upscale yoga pants store and lifestyle brand, she feels like she's finally found her way. But when sudden violence strikes a nearby store, Jess and her co-workers learn that even positive energy has a dark side. Clearing is a dark coming-of-age comedy about friendship, yoga pants, and the pressure women are under—and what happens when that pressure makes them snap.
  • Red Bowl at the Jeffs by Beth Hyland
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    9
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    ·
    Keyword: Chicago Theatre, three sisters + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    Keyword: Chicago Theatre, three sisters, the Jeffs
    The cast of Red Bowl Ensemble's production of Three Sisters have finally made it: to the Non-Equity Joseph Jefferson Awards, that is. Loosely inspired by Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, Red Bowl at the Jeffs follows a group of young artists dealing with ambition, failure, friendship, and making it to Moscow.
  • For Annie by Beth Hyland
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    11
    ·
    Genre: pageant, tragedy
    ·
    Keyword: college, domestic violence + 1 more
    Genre: pageant, tragedy
    Keyword: college, domestic violence, female friendship
    Annie Lambert was murdered in the middle of her senior year. So the sisters of the Beta Tau Alpha sorority at SUNY Onondaga are memorializing her in the best way they know how: they're putting on a play. For Annie uses Greek chorus, pop music, dance, and a lot of glitter to explore grief, guilt, sisterhood, and what it means to remember.
  • always nothing else by Beth Hyland
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: zoom, Social distancing + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, romantic comedy
    Keyword: zoom, Social distancing, romantic comedy
    Marco Polo is an app that lets you record videos of yourself for your friends, and Meg and Tom are two friends sending each other videos on Marco Polo during These Difficult Times. always nothing else follows Meg and Tom as they bake/don't bake, cope/don't cope, drink/definitely drink, and maybe/maybe don't realize what they actually really need from each other.
  • JOYCE by Beth Hyland
    Cast: 
    1
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama
    ·
    Keyword: grief, COVID + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: grief, COVID, grocery store, essential worker, Virtual Monologue
    Joyce had a tough day at work.
  • so when you go solo, you hold your own hand by Beth Hyland
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: halloween, halloween party + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, romantic comedy
    Keyword: halloween, halloween party, COVID, fiona apple
    Gaby and H have a moment at a Halloween party.
  • Now More Than Ever by Beth Hyland
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, political
    Will, Haley, and Sasha are Making A Difference.
  • Neil and Shelly Try Something by Beth Hyland
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, romantic comedy
    Genre: comedy, romantic comedy
    Neil and Shelly are engaged, and they're ready to spice things up.
  • Cloud Gate by Beth Hyland
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama, romantic comedy
    Genre: drama, romantic comedy
    Jas remembers what happened with Gaby at Cloud Gate.
  • You Haven't Tried Everything Yet by Beth Hyland
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    ·
    Keyword: improv
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    Keyword: improv
    Vivian and Ellie are waiting for the show to start.
  • Lunar Colony 1A117+, 1500 Earth Time by Beth Hyland
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: climate change, siblings
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, science fiction
    Keyword: climate change, siblings
    Westport and Darien are (literally) watching the world burn.