Enid Brain

Enid Brain is a trans multi-disciplinary artist activist, and teacher based in NYC. As a theatre artist, her writing has been performed at the Tank, Walking Shadow Readers Theatre, Passaic Preparatory Academy, the New Masculinities Festival, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the Studio Theatre at Tierra Del Sol, the Art Garage, Dixon Place, Texas A&M University, and Stay True Theatre. Their play Something’s Coming (co-written with J. Andrew Norris) was a 2020 Finalist for the Jewish Playwriting Contest from the Jewish Plays Project. Ezra’s essays and articles have been published in 10 countries and 6 languages. They contributed to the “Opposing Viewpoints” series from Greenhaven Publishing and contributed a chapter (co-authored with Olivia Wood) to a forthcoming book in the...

Enid Brain is a trans multi-disciplinary artist activist, and teacher based in NYC. As a theatre artist, her writing has been performed at the Tank, Walking Shadow Readers Theatre, Passaic Preparatory Academy, the New Masculinities Festival, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the Studio Theatre at Tierra Del Sol, the Art Garage, Dixon Place, Texas A&M University, and Stay True Theatre. Their play Something’s Coming (co-written with J. Andrew Norris) was a 2020 Finalist for the Jewish Playwriting Contest from the Jewish Plays Project. Ezra’s essays and articles have been published in 10 countries and 6 languages. They contributed to the “Opposing Viewpoints” series from Greenhaven Publishing and contributed a chapter (co-authored with Olivia Wood) to a forthcoming book in the Critical Companions to Contemporary Directors series from Lexington Books. As a filmmaker, Enid's work has been accepted into multiple festivals around the world including the OutSouth Queer Film Festival and the Queer Fear Film Festival. She is also an award-winning teaching artist, a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and Left Voice, and is a founding member of Bread and Roses.

Scripts

A Faerie Tale of New York

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

The stasis at a drag bar in NYC is disrupted when a drag queen — who left the bar after getting on RuPaul’s Drag Race — returns for a residency. One night (or is it many) unfolds as an ensemble of drag queens of multiple generations and genders bitch, fight, get drunk, cry, snort coke, perform, and reflect on the state of queer community, the shifting boundaries of who is allowed into queer spaces, and the...

The stasis at a drag bar in NYC is disrupted when a drag queen — who left the bar after getting on RuPaul’s Drag Race — returns for a residency. One night (or is it many) unfolds as an ensemble of drag queens of multiple generations and genders bitch, fight, get drunk, cry, snort coke, perform, and reflect on the state of queer community, the shifting boundaries of who is allowed into queer spaces, and the intricacies of gender and sexuality. Also Queen Mab is there. Yeah, that Queen Mab.

Girl: A Gender Expression

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

"Girl: A Gender Exression" is about a trans experience --- not THE trans experience but a trans experience. More specifically it is about the playwright's trans experience at one moment in her transition. Looking inward and outward, "Girl" is a rage against transphobia, a reflection on artistic, sexual, and gender anxiety, a philosophical auto-theoretical contemplation of what life in the current moment means, a...

"Girl: A Gender Exression" is about a trans experience --- not THE trans experience but a trans experience. More specifically it is about the playwright's trans experience at one moment in her transition. Looking inward and outward, "Girl" is a rage against transphobia, a reflection on artistic, sexual, and gender anxiety, a philosophical auto-theoretical contemplation of what life in the current moment means, a political treatise, and a moment for community. Also hopefully it's funny and not depressing? Too many trans plays are depressing. Mixing dialogue, speeches, dance sequences, and everything in between, Girl is a radical demand for specificity, self-acceptance, and a deconstruction of the traditional ways that plays are created that attempts to shock, enrage, comfort, and challenge its audience.

Service Industry

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

(Co-written with J. Andrew Norris)

How do you know when to quit? "Service Industry" follows Lily, an aspiring stand up comedian, as she starts a new job at a sports bar in NYC. She must balance her personal, artistic, and professional life as she navigates the endlessly complicated world of the service industry and ponders what to make of her career.

(Co-written with J. Andrew Norris)

How do you know when to quit? "Service Industry" follows Lily, an aspiring stand up comedian, as she starts a new job at a sports bar in NYC. She must balance her personal, artistic, and professional life as she navigates the endlessly complicated world of the service industry and ponders what to make of her career.

Something's Coming

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

Co-Written with J. Andrew Norris.

In 1957, West Side Story premiered on Broadway and changed the face of the modern American musical. Its creators are lauded as titans in the modern theater, collectively winning 37 Tony Awards over the past 60 years. It was through fire, brimstone, vitriol and Jerome Robbins perceived insanity that this piece was born, and remains an institution to this day. In Something's...

Co-Written with J. Andrew Norris.

In 1957, West Side Story premiered on Broadway and changed the face of the modern American musical. Its creators are lauded as titans in the modern theater, collectively winning 37 Tony Awards over the past 60 years. It was through fire, brimstone, vitriol and Jerome Robbins perceived insanity that this piece was born, and remains an institution to this day. In Something's Coming, we meet our heroes at the beginning of the writing process, and follow them through the highs, lows, burnt cigarettes and double shots of whiskey that created the greatest American musical.

Arden

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

A radical re-appropriation of Shakespeare's "As You Like It", "Arden" follows Rosalind as they discover their gender fluidity, come to terms with the world around them, and accept that we are not all alone unhappy.

A radical re-appropriation of Shakespeare's "As You Like It", "Arden" follows Rosalind as they discover their gender fluidity, come to terms with the world around them, and accept that we are not all alone unhappy.

She's Gone

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

She’s Gone follows Sam, a genderqueer person in their 20s and 30s, as they end various relationships throughout the play. Each scene features the ending of a new relationship with new woman--all played by the same actress. Sometimes they end with a bang and sometimes with a whimper. In-between each scene, we see a fragment that exists out of time. These fragments give us insight into Sam’s past. Slowly, we begin...

She’s Gone follows Sam, a genderqueer person in their 20s and 30s, as they end various relationships throughout the play. Each scene features the ending of a new relationship with new woman--all played by the same actress. Sometimes they end with a bang and sometimes with a whimper. In-between each scene, we see a fragment that exists out of time. These fragments give us insight into Sam’s past. Slowly, we begin to understand why they continually self-sabotage and we begin to grapple with the nature of love, loss, and relationships.

Antigone

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

In a new adaptation, Sophocles' classic is refocused in on the relationship between Antigone and her sister; asking the question of how one lives in a world that is unfair and unforgiving.

In a new adaptation, Sophocles' classic is refocused in on the relationship between Antigone and her sister; asking the question of how one lives in a world that is unfair and unforgiving.

Run. Hide. Fight.

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

Co-written with J. Andrew Norris

Run. Hide. Fight. explores what happens at the site of a school shooting after the cameras leave. Utilizing a found structure based around the Department of Homeland Security's active shooter protocols, this play for teenagers is striving to engage with an often-talked about political issue from a new perspective.

Co-written with J. Andrew Norris

Run. Hide. Fight. explores what happens at the site of a school shooting after the cameras leave. Utilizing a found structure based around the Department of Homeland Security's active shooter protocols, this play for teenagers is striving to engage with an often-talked about political issue from a new perspective.

Hysterical Naked

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

Hysterical Naked" explores themes of mental illness and drug addiction through following two characters--A and B--who are using drugs to escape the world around them and their own minds. This piece uses modern dance, stage violence, and theatrical styles drawn from Sarah Kane and Antonin Artaud. "Hysterical Naked" contains text that is new as well as some lines that are drawn from Alan Ginsberg, Karl Marx...

Hysterical Naked" explores themes of mental illness and drug addiction through following two characters--A and B--who are using drugs to escape the world around them and their own minds. This piece uses modern dance, stage violence, and theatrical styles drawn from Sarah Kane and Antonin Artaud. "Hysterical Naked" contains text that is new as well as some lines that are drawn from Alan Ginsberg, Karl Marx, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Sarah Kane, and William Shakespeare.

How To Be Happy

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

How to Be Happy is a Zoom play and follows a distinguished professor of psychology whose award-winning class "How to Be Happy" has been moved online due to the coronavirus pandemic.

How to Be Happy is a Zoom play and follows a distinguished professor of psychology whose award-winning class "How to Be Happy" has been moved online due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Illyria

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

A re-imagining of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Illyria imagines how the plot would play out if it took place today. Issues of gender, sexuality, politics, and class are played out with reinterpretations of Shakespeare's' classic characters. Viola, our hero, must discover who she is and decide what she stands for while facing down Feste, a malevolent force dedicated to ensuring that the old order continues.

A re-imagining of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Illyria imagines how the plot would play out if it took place today. Issues of gender, sexuality, politics, and class are played out with reinterpretations of Shakespeare's' classic characters. Viola, our hero, must discover who she is and decide what she stands for while facing down Feste, a malevolent force dedicated to ensuring that the old order continues.

Rumblings of the Coming Storm

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

"Rumblings of the Coming Storm' is a movement piece that examines the nature of oppression under capitalism and how to resist it. Freely adapted from the timeless writings of Lucy Parsons, this play pairs her words with dance and stage violence to tell an intimate and expansive story of how capitalism works and how the workers must resist it. This play combines the two movement vocabularies of dance and stage...

"Rumblings of the Coming Storm' is a movement piece that examines the nature of oppression under capitalism and how to resist it. Freely adapted from the timeless writings of Lucy Parsons, this play pairs her words with dance and stage violence to tell an intimate and expansive story of how capitalism works and how the workers must resist it. This play combines the two movement vocabularies of dance and stage violence to show the fundamental conflict between workers and bosses under capitalism. One performer (the worker) will be a dancer and the other (the boss) will be a fighter.

Silence or Violence

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

A group of broken people live and hurt themselves in a London that exists outside of time

A group of broken people live and hurt themselves in a London that exists outside of time

Be

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

An experimental poetry and movement piece inspired by the words of Leo Tolstoy, "Be" documents two people who begin in sync and then, through the machinations of society, are forced apart and both go down their different, tragic, paths.

An experimental poetry and movement piece inspired by the words of Leo Tolstoy, "Be" documents two people who begin in sync and then, through the machinations of society, are forced apart and both go down their different, tragic, paths.

For Allison, with regret

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

Two people exist in a theatrical space, perhaps they have always been there. Perhaps they haven't.

Two people exist in a theatrical space, perhaps they have always been there. Perhaps they haven't.

Boyfriends and Friends and Boys

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

Two strangers meet on the bridge where they both planned to kill themselves.

Two strangers meet on the bridge where they both planned to kill themselves.

Don't Get Lost

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

Inspired by "Hansel and Gretel" this play explores the nature of trauma, the cycle of abuse, and victimization using the trappings of a fairy tale.

Inspired by "Hansel and Gretel" this play explores the nature of trauma, the cycle of abuse, and victimization using the trappings of a fairy tale.

A Place You Go

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

A non-linear exploration of the mind of a school shooter. "A Place You Go" tracks how trauma is passed from one person to another and is recreated across different situations.

A non-linear exploration of the mind of a school shooter. "A Place You Go" tracks how trauma is passed from one person to another and is recreated across different situations.

All Palaces Are Temporary Places

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

A malevolent force comes into the lives of three siblings and forces them to understand the darkness with which they exist.

A malevolent force comes into the lives of three siblings and forces them to understand the darkness with which they exist.

Weak Beautiful People

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

Inspired by Tennessee William's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," this play explores a one-night stand that doesn't go how either party wanted it to.

Inspired by Tennessee William's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," this play explores a one-night stand that doesn't go how either party wanted it to.

The Weight We Carry

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

An estranged brother and sister reconnect after the young sister runs away from home and shows up at her brother's house.

An estranged brother and sister reconnect after the young sister runs away from home and shows up at her brother's house.

Classical Violence

by Enid Brain

Synopsis

Classical Violence explores the boxes that young boys are put into that leads them to violence later in life. Combining dance, stage violence, classical music, and theatre, Classical Violence outlines that tragedy of learned toxic masculinity."

Classical Violence explores the boxes that young boys are put into that leads them to violence later in life. Combining dance, stage violence, classical music, and theatre, Classical Violence outlines that tragedy of learned toxic masculinity."