Lena Barnard

Lena Barnard

Lena Barnard is a queer playwright, dramaturg and theater maker. Currently based in Chicago, she has also made work in Austin and Philadelphia. Her work has been presented in the SoLow Festival, Frontera Fest, Azuka Theatre, the Cohen New Works Festival, and PlayPenn. She was a member of the second class of the Philadelphia playwright's lab, the Foundry @ PlayPenn. Her work explores the past and the...
Lena Barnard is a queer playwright, dramaturg and theater maker. Currently based in Chicago, she has also made work in Austin and Philadelphia. Her work has been presented in the SoLow Festival, Frontera Fest, Azuka Theatre, the Cohen New Works Festival, and PlayPenn. She was a member of the second class of the Philadelphia playwright's lab, the Foundry @ PlayPenn. Her work explores the past and the ever present threat of failure. She has a BA from Bryn Mawr College and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Plays

  • Cassini by Lena Barnard
    Cast: 
    10–13
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 3 more
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    Keyword: outer-space, astronomy + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, experimental, period, science fiction
    Keyword: outer-space, astronomy, based on a true story, genderqueer, nonhuman character(s), multiple time periods
    In 1997, NASA launched the Cassini mission to Saturn. In 1675, Giovanni Domenico Cassini identified the divisions in the rings of Saturn. In the summer, Saturn and Titan host a fête. Spanning 330 years and 975 million miles, Cassini is about saying goodbye.
  • The Wings by Lena Barnard
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, comedy
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    Keyword: about theater
    Genre: adaptation, comedy
    Keyword: about theater
    A moment backstage at Oedipus Rex
  • light: A Lyric Noir by Lena Barnard
    Cast: 
    4–5
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental + 1 more
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    Keyword: queer, LGBT Mental Health + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, experimental, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: queer, LGBT Mental Health, lyrical, film noir
    Beverly Jaw can’t get out of bed. She lives in her best friend’s basement and pines for his sister, Alice. But her best friend is dead and things with Alice are complicated. On a Monday, a strange man named Fred arrives looking for a private detective. He needs to find Sabrina, his childhood babysitter. Even though she isn’t a private detective, Beverly takes the case. Across town, Alice attempts to sell...
    Beverly Jaw can’t get out of bed. She lives in her best friend’s basement and pines for his sister, Alice. But her best friend is dead and things with Alice are complicated. On a Monday, a strange man named Fred arrives looking for a private detective. He needs to find Sabrina, his childhood babysitter. Even though she isn’t a private detective, Beverly takes the case. Across town, Alice attempts to sell Sabrina a house. light is a queer noir about depression, loss, and facebook.
  • Wyeth Airlines Flight Thirteen by Lena Barnard
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: queer, middle school + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, movement/physical, young audiences
    Keyword: queer, middle school, birds, Adolescence
    This coming-of-age story follows a group of middle-schoolers who lose the ability to play.
    At the start of seventh grade, Harlequin, Shoebill, Cygnet and Finch are as close as can be. United by a shared fantasy life and bird nicknames, they’re positive they know everything about their world. None of them are prepared for the moment when their games stop being real, overshadowed by the new monsters of...
    This coming-of-age story follows a group of middle-schoolers who lose the ability to play.
    At the start of seventh grade, Harlequin, Shoebill, Cygnet and Finch are as close as can be. United by a shared fantasy life and bird nicknames, they’re positive they know everything about their world. None of them are prepared for the moment when their games stop being real, overshadowed by the new monsters of illness, grades, and crushes. As one by one, they lose the safety of their imagined space, their tight-knit group fractures under the pressure to fit in, find love, and group up.
  • BONES (+ Ethan) by Lena Barnard
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: boat, climate change + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, tragedy
    Keyword: boat, climate change, Dystopia, absurd comedy
    Four old friends and one fresh cabin boy set sail on a new journey. As these women get underway, we discover that the crew’s destination is as much an emotional place as a physical one – due to decades of secrets, romantic entanglements, and bitterness, they might never get there. The further upstream they voyage, the dirtier the water becomes. Featuring climate change, parts of a skeleton, night cows, and...
    Four old friends and one fresh cabin boy set sail on a new journey. As these women get underway, we discover that the crew’s destination is as much an emotional place as a physical one – due to decades of secrets, romantic entanglements, and bitterness, they might never get there. The further upstream they voyage, the dirtier the water becomes. Featuring climate change, parts of a skeleton, night cows, and an increasingly resentful cabin boy, this dark comedy asks whether it is possible to outrun the present and find a way back to the past.
  • A Room at the Flamingo Hotel by Lena Barnard
    Cast: 
    5
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 3 more
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    Keyword: noir, social commentary + 1 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, mystery/thriller, political
    Keyword: noir, social commentary, art
    An absurd take on the noir thriller, the play is set in a country where art is king – he’s literally a statue. During a period of political rebellion, four intertwined groups of visitors to a single hotel room lie, cheat, fall out of love, and play high stakes games of Go Fish. Through these haunting and secretive characters, the show explores what it means to make art or be art, and who gets to decide the difference.
  • The Suicide Jockey by Lena Barnard
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 2 more
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    Keyword: Truckers, Aging lesbians + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental, mystery/thriller
    Keyword: Truckers, Aging lesbians, memory, sexual politics, sexual assault
    Somewhere in middle America, a long-haul trucker's insomnia is getting worse. Her sense of unreality stretches and grows, punctuated by patchy radio updates in her cab. After getting home from a long trip, she discovers that her partner has been unfaithful, and retaliates by bringing home the first young woman she meets in a bar. When that young woman reveals she knows more about the couple than she should...
    Somewhere in middle America, a long-haul trucker's insomnia is getting worse. Her sense of unreality stretches and grows, punctuated by patchy radio updates in her cab. After getting home from a long trip, she discovers that her partner has been unfaithful, and retaliates by bringing home the first young woman she meets in a bar. When that young woman reveals she knows more about the couple than she should, long-buried secrets are brought to light.