Sarah Bowden

Sarah Bowden

Sarah Bowden is a hard of hearing playwright and teaching artist, whose plays have been produced in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Stockholm. Her work has been developed and presented by the Greenhouse Theatre Center, MPAACT, The Arc Theatre, the Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, the Nylon Fusion Theatre, Monkeyman Productions, Southern Illinois University, and Ohio University. Her solo...
Sarah Bowden is a hard of hearing playwright and teaching artist, whose plays have been produced in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Stockholm. Her work has been developed and presented by the Greenhouse Theatre Center, MPAACT, The Arc Theatre, the Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, the Nylon Fusion Theatre, Monkeyman Productions, Southern Illinois University, and Ohio University. Her solo show Helen Keller and Me was produced as part of Chicago’s 2020 Rhinofest and the 2018 Chicago Theatre Marathon. Her full-length Lively Stones was produced as part of 20% Theatre Chicago's ReFocus 20/20 season. Her full-length The Magnificent Masked Hearing Aid has been listed as a semi-finalist in several theatre festivals, including the Capital Repertory Next Act! New Play Summit, the Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte’s nuVoices Festival, the Activate Midwest New Play Festival and the Elgin Cultural Commission Page to Stage Program. The script received Honorable Mention in the American Blues Theater Blue Ink Playwriting Award. Her full-length Tin Noses was a finalist in the Route 66 Theatre Test Drive Workshop, a semi-finalist for the Stage Left Theatre Playwright Residency, and was featured in the 2017 Chicago Theatre Marathon. Sarah has won the White-Howells English Prize for Drama and the Margaret W. Baker Prize for Fiction.

Plays

  • Give No Quarter
    Infamous female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read terrorized the Bahamas in 1720, disguised as men and serving their foppish captain, "Calico Jack" Rackham. When the governor the Bahamas targets them for court and punishment, the two must battle not only judgments on their identities and choices, but they must carve the future of their own reputations in a world that would like all too much to forget...
    Infamous female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read terrorized the Bahamas in 1720, disguised as men and serving their foppish captain, "Calico Jack" Rackham. When the governor the Bahamas targets them for court and punishment, the two must battle not only judgments on their identities and choices, but they must carve the future of their own reputations in a world that would like all too much to forget their disruptions. A play with seas shanties, sword fighting, and genderplay!
  • My Beautiful Game
    Sarah is playing her first soccer game in sixteen years. She's a little nervous. She might throw up. What better way to take her mind off how much she will fall down than sharing how she learned her love of the game from the United States women's national team, and how the game shaped her identity as much as hard knocks taught her to stand back up.
  • Helen Keller and Me
    Helen Keller performed on vaudeville for five years after surviving a plagiarism scandal, grinding through a flopped biopic, and losing cash on the lecture circuit. While her cheery attitude and clever mind charmed audiences, how real was her invitation into a deaf and blind woman's world? Why do we think of her as an inspiration, instead of a flesh and blood woman? Join struggling academic Sarah Bowden as...
    Helen Keller performed on vaudeville for five years after surviving a plagiarism scandal, grinding through a flopped biopic, and losing cash on the lecture circuit. While her cheery attitude and clever mind charmed audiences, how real was her invitation into a deaf and blind woman's world? Why do we think of her as an inspiration, instead of a flesh and blood woman? Join struggling academic Sarah Bowden as she unpack how we all understand Helen Keller.
  • Batmen
    Bob Kane is the biggest liar in comics, and Bill Finger is out to prove it. Watch the two tussle over who created Batman, and who screwed who out of a junk culture legacy, all during an imaginary battle inside Bill Finger's mind!
  • Tin Noses
    Max is an actor who wants to expand his range. As the star of the superhero film franchise, “The Dart,” he worries the public will never take him seriously as an artist. After being cast as a wounded World War I vet, he must learn how to perform disability for the camera. Who better than to teach him how to shape his physicality than Austin, another actor who was also up for the role of the vet, and who lives with cerebral palsy?
  • Lively Stones
    Tired of delivering babies and doling out witch hazel in her living room, midwife Anne Hutchinson pines for Planned Parenthood: circa 1636. When Massachusetts founder John Winthrop announces his plans to run for governor, Anne agrees to support his election -- if he’ll grant her the land to build a women’s clinic in Boston. Amid mounting campaign promises, she becomes one pebble in a full bucket, and Anne...
    Tired of delivering babies and doling out witch hazel in her living room, midwife Anne Hutchinson pines for Planned Parenthood: circa 1636. When Massachusetts founder John Winthrop announces his plans to run for governor, Anne agrees to support his election -- if he’ll grant her the land to build a women’s clinic in Boston. Amid mounting campaign promises, she becomes one pebble in a full bucket, and Anne must figure out how to lay her clinic’s cornerstone while stemming the suspicions of the colony’s most important citizen.
  • The Magnificent Masked Hearing Aid
    Ask Tess if the real guy is Superman or Clark Kent; she’ll say glasses make the man. But when she learns she’ll go deaf by age thirty, her confidence falls. How she feels about the Man of Steel, which art school to go to, whether to get a risky surgical implant to restore her hearing -- everything’s up in the air, unless Tess decides what defines her identity: her abilities, or how she masks them.
  • Dungeons & Dragons -- A Tragedy
    Lisa is sure she can act the dutiful minister's daughter by day, and be an ass-kicking D&D master by night. This belief is tested, however, when dear old Dad finds her character sheet and starts asking all the wrong questions about her double life.
  • Captain Incredible Vs. The Girlfriend
    Joe has a surprise for his lady love. He takes off his glasses, puffs out his chest and admits, "I'm Captain Incredible." Now all he has to do is pretend he never revealed his secret, so the couple can go back to their lasagna dinner and weekly cuddle on the couch.
  • The Amazing Adventures of Not Batman
    Karen has to finish her Amish romance novel. She needs that sweet paperback cash to pay her rent. But a superhero named Not-Batman keeps crashing her love scenes. Will Karen ever unite lovers Leah and Mordecai, or will she start a new romance with a new genre?
  • Ye Olde Tech Support
    In a World of War Craft-style sensation called Knights of the Realm, the bold and ballsy Knight plans to raid the virtual castle. But a pesky Dwarf keeps bugging him about his account information. Can our hero snag a fine princess along with a bitching fiefdom with a thirteen year-old phisher by his side?
  • Echo: An Email Plot
    Sarah is trying to write a submission letter for her new play, but she keeps getting interrupted by emails from an Executive Director. Turns out her resume and name have been stolen to apply for a grant. Will this identity thief emerge, or will Sarah forever be fighting her shadow self? A new spin on the Narcissus and Echo myth.
  • Pie in the Sky: A Haunting
    It all started in ... uh ... 1941, that's it! When Elizabeth's grandmother ... um ... where was she interviewing? Gosh, I hate forgetting things. But this is an old family story, trust me, and there's no way you'll forget once you hear it a hundred times. ... Right?
  • Barnum Brown & His Tyrant King
    Gotta get a grand opening staged for a permanent dinosaur exhibit? Then ply your drunken, disorderly paleontologist with money, booze, and anything else he wants. Whatever it takes, as long as he doesn't pull the monster's bones only hours before the dedication ceremony!