Laura Pittenger

Laura Pittenger

**Note: I am happy to work with amateur + professional companies and students who wish to have permission to perform my work. Please email me at lapittenger@gmail.com to discuss rates.**

Laura Pittenger is a playwright, director, and a proud resident of NYC's Astoria. Her original plays have been produced at the internationally-acclaimed FringeNYC (The HVAC Plays); The Sheen Center Theater...
**Note: I am happy to work with amateur + professional companies and students who wish to have permission to perform my work. Please email me at lapittenger@gmail.com to discuss rates.**

Laura Pittenger is a playwright, director, and a proud resident of NYC's Astoria. Her original plays have been produced at the internationally-acclaimed FringeNYC (The HVAC Plays); The Sheen Center Theater Festival (The Drill); The Gallery Players (Brooklyn, NY; Thou Shalt Not), GI60's International One-Minute Theatre Festival (Sandwiches and Nibon​, co-written with Meron Langsner), and Ball State University (Daughters of Trinity: Women of the Manhattan Project, led by Jennifer Blackmer).

Laura is an inaugural Playwriting Fellow at the Sheen Center working on her play The Honor of Your Presence. She was commissioned by Project Y to write An Unexpected Resurrection, a free adaptation of the work of Hroswitha of Gandershaim, for the Fourth Annual Women in Theater Festival. Laura also spent the last year working with New Sanctuary Coalition and Robert Choiniere to create interview-based theater with immigrants living in New York City.

Laura's plays have received workshops with 3V Theatre, One Bird Productions, Alaska's Last Frontier Theatre Conference, the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, The Playwrights' Center, and Ball State University. Laura has directed at The Tank (NYC premiere of Jason Hall's thriller Third Floor), Project Y (Parity Plays), The Producers Club (Turn to Flesh Productions) and several productions at Ball State University.

Laura hails from Fort Wayne, Indiana and graduated from Ball State University with a B.A. in theatre production for directing, summa cum laude.

Plays

  • 1 Bed 1 Bath by Laura Pittenger
    Recommendations: 17
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: Apartment, ex-lovers + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, romantic comedy
    Keyword: Apartment, ex-lovers, exes, real estate, city, city life, home, reality check
    A real estate broker, a client, and a delayed super. What happens when one of us stops fighting for the other? Old wounds resurface and what looks like the future is cast in doubt in this ten minute play.
  • 49 Years and a Glass of Chardonnay by Laura Pittenger
    Recommendations: 9
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: biography, comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: New York City, Times Square
    Genre: biography, comedy, drama, faith-based
    Keyword: New York City, Times Square
    Katie works in Times Square. Cassandra is on her first solo vacation in New York City. Their narratives - told in monologue form - intertwine in a moment of clarity which unites the two women across generations.
  • The Honor of Your Presence by Laura Pittenger
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    4
    ·
    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: jealousy, exes + 7 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, romantic comedy
    Keyword: jealousy, exes, dinner party, hedge fund, meet cute, business, romance, suicide, May-December
    Ever wonder what happens to the jilted exes as the credits roll over your favorite romantic comedy? Two such characters meet at the wedding of their respective exes. Suddenly, the present seems far less attractive, and the neglected past, a welcome respite. A dark comedy of loss, jealousy, and unforgettable memory. Full-length.
  • Christmas Eve Eve by Laura Pittenger
    Recommendations: 7
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: christmas, grief + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, holiday
    Keyword: christmas, grief, widow, Chicago Cubs, Chicago, 2016, loss, real estate
    In 2016, the year the Chicago Cubs won the World Series, Grace buys a house. Her little sister Carly plots a Christmas Eve Eve surprise - which backfires.
  • An Unexpected Resurrection by Laura Pittenger
    Recommendations: 1
    ·
    Cast: 
    3
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, experimental + 4 more
    ·
    Keyword: Hrosvitha, medieval + 5 more
    Genre: adaptation, experimental, fable/folktale, faith-based, pageant, romantic comedy
    Keyword: Hrosvitha, medieval, Nuns, cloister, playwright, metatheatrical, adaptation
    Inspired by “Drusiana and Calimachus” by Hrosvitha of Gandershaim

    Hrosvitha is a playwright. She wants to be holy, so she lives in isolation. She's stuck on a scene. Her characters refuse to say what she wants them to say. One of them is in love with her. A play about writer's block, catharsis, heartbreak, and redemption.
  • The Drill (Or, Civil Defense Is No Defense): A Play Concerning the Life of Dorothy Day by Laura Pittenger
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic + 6 more
    ·
    Keyword: Dorothy Day, social justice + 7 more
    Genre: biography, docudrama/historic, drama, faith-based, mystery/thriller, period, political, science fiction
    Keyword: Dorothy Day, social justice, nuclear war, abortion, Catholic, protest, nonviolent protest, civil defense, 1950s
    City Hall Park in NYC on June 15, 1955, the day of the state’s annual Operation Alert civil defense drill, conducted in case of a nuclear attack. Dorothy Day, noted Catholic anarchist, leads a protest against the drills and in the process, meets a young stranger.
  • Thou Shalt Not by Laura Pittenger
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    7–12
    ·
    Genre: drama, fable/folktale + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: woods, cabin + 7 more
    Genre: drama, fable/folktale, melodrama, movement/physical, tragedy
    Keyword: woods, cabin, original sin, forest, violence, Old Testament, Cain and Abel, death, mother
    A sudden death in an old manufacturing town gives an ambitious son the opportunity to reshape a bleak future into something grand. His family has other ideas. Full length.

    Note: a early ten-minute version of this play was previously staged at the Gallery Players; this version is no longer available for production.
  • The Fort by Laura Pittenger
    Recommendations: 4
    ·
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy + 1 more
    ·
    Keyword: brothers, rivalry + 6 more
    Genre: adventure, dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: brothers, rivalry, home, winter, woods, Solitude, Cain and Abel, violence
    Two brothers home for the holidays journey to their childhood sanctuary. What awaits them in the fort? Ten-minute.
  • The HVAC Plays (Or, Adventures in Living Without Basic Necessities, Like Heat and Air Conditioning) by Laura Pittenger
    Recommendations: 2
    ·
    Cast: 
    6
    ·
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy + 2 more
    ·
    Keyword: New York, Apartment + 8 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy, drama, romantic comedy
    Keyword: New York, Apartment, city, urban, multi-ethnic, extreme weather, summer, winter, seasons, vignettes
    6 exasperated city-dwellers, 3 crappy apartments & 1 absentee landlord. When central air fails, hot and cold collide and culminate in acts of desperation.

    This play was previously available for purchase on Indie Theatre Now.
  • The Flesh from their Bones by Laura Pittenger
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, dark comedy + 6 more
    ·
    Keyword: Micah, Bible + 3 more
    Genre: adaptation, dark comedy, drama, fable/folktale, faith-based, mystery/thriller, political, tragedy
    Keyword: Micah, Bible, apocalypse, The Man, thriller
    Reminiscent of Ecclesiastes, this surreal play written by Laura Pittenger dabbles in the absurd as it spins a new parable in response to Micah 3:1-12.
  • Pride and Prejudice Abridged by Laura Pittenger
    Cast: 
    10–12
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, comedy + 3 more
    ·
    Keyword: Pride and Prejudice, Darcy + 6 more
    Genre: adaptation, comedy, farce, parody/spoof, romantic comedy
    Keyword: Pride and Prejudice, Darcy, Elizabeth, Bingley, comedy, Austen, Jane Austen, slapstick
    Witty and carefree Elizabeth Bennet despises the haughty Mr. Darcy—a wealthy, proud newcomer to her small English village. Her sister Jane Bennet, so shy she becomes mute around men, falls for Darcy’s best friend, the wildly outgoing Mr. Bingley. Will the Bennet sisters’ scheming mother be spurned in her efforts to ensnare rich husbands for her daughters? Who will Elizabeth fall for: her weaselly preacher...
    Witty and carefree Elizabeth Bennet despises the haughty Mr. Darcy—a wealthy, proud newcomer to her small English village. Her sister Jane Bennet, so shy she becomes mute around men, falls for Darcy’s best friend, the wildly outgoing Mr. Bingley. Will the Bennet sisters’ scheming mother be spurned in her efforts to ensnare rich husbands for her daughters? Who will Elizabeth fall for: her weaselly preacher cousin, the smooth and seductive Mr. Wickham, or maybe even her worst enemy—Mr. Darcy? We don’t have all day to find out! Bonnets fly and cravats are loosened in this farcical adaptation of Jane Austen's classic.

    Comedy. 10-15 minutes. 5-7+ females, 5-7+ males (10-12+ performers possible). Suitable for middle school and older.