Sharyn Rothstein

Sharyn Rothstein

Sharyn Rothstein is an award-winning playwright and television writer. She is currently a writer and Co-Executive Producer on Orphan Black: Echoes, the spin-off of the sci-fi hit Orphan Black, soon to be on AMC. She was a writer/producer for the legal drama SUITS for five seasons, and has developed shows for Apple TV+, AMC and Bravo.

Sharyn’s plays and musicals have been called “a force of nature...
Sharyn Rothstein is an award-winning playwright and television writer. She is currently a writer and Co-Executive Producer on Orphan Black: Echoes, the spin-off of the sci-fi hit Orphan Black, soon to be on AMC. She was a writer/producer for the legal drama SUITS for five seasons, and has developed shows for Apple TV+, AMC and Bravo.

Sharyn’s plays and musicals have been called “a force of nature” by Time Out and “gutsy, incisive and sharp-toothed” by The Chicago Tribune. Her shows have been produced around the country. Her adaptation of the beloved film Hester Street will premiere at Washington D.C.’s Theater J this Spring of 2024, featuring music by Joel Waggoner and directed by Oliver Butler, followed by the premiere of her book-banning drama Bad Books at Round House Theatre in 2025. Her play By the Water, about a Staten Island family dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, was first produced by Manhattan Theater Club and Ars Nova, and was the recipient of the American Theater Critics Association Francesca Primus Prize. Her family comedy All the Days, was produced at the McCarter Theater Center. Her technology drama, Right to Be Forgotten, premiered at Arena Stage, and was produced in Chicago at the Raven Theater in 2023, and has been heralded by New York Magazine technology columnist Kara Swisher as "the best dramatic depiction about tech and its power over our world." Her drama The Invested was published in New Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2013 by Smith & Kraus. Her audio drama, Deep Fake, a modern update of the My Fair Lady story and an unsparing (and hilarious) look at America’s capitalist tech culture is available on Audible.

Sharyn has been a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood, Ars Nova’s Playgroup, the WP Theatre Lab and the New American Writer’s Group at Primary Stages. She is a Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellow, a four-time winner of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award and a recipient of the Vrandenburg Jewish Play Prize. She has received new play commissions from Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theater Club, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and the Chautauqua Institution among others. Her plays have been published by DPS, Samuel French, Playscripts and others.

Sharyn holds an MFA in dramatic writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and a Master’s in Public Health from Hunter College. She teaches television writing at NYU.

Plays

  • Bad Books
    A worried mother comes to the library for what she thinks will be a reasonable, polite discussion about which books are appropriate for her teenage son. But her confrontation with the town librarian, a woman who cares deeply about her job and her community, sparks a chain reaction of consequences no one expected. Equal parts heartbreakingly poignant and absurdly funny, Bad Books leaves audiences wondering what...
    A worried mother comes to the library for what she thinks will be a reasonable, polite discussion about which books are appropriate for her teenage son. But her confrontation with the town librarian, a woman who cares deeply about her job and her community, sparks a chain reaction of consequences no one expected. Equal parts heartbreakingly poignant and absurdly funny, Bad Books leaves audiences wondering what it truly means to care for our children. A raucous and brash debate in the quietest place in America... the library.
  • Hester Street
    The theatrical adaptation of the beloved 1975 film by Joan Micklin Silver, Hester Street depicts the uplifting journey of Gitl, a young Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe, who arrives with her son to meet her husband Jake in the tumult of the late-19th century Lower East Side. Separated from his wife and the provincial limitations of his upbringing, Jake has fully embraced his new American life—one that has...
    The theatrical adaptation of the beloved 1975 film by Joan Micklin Silver, Hester Street depicts the uplifting journey of Gitl, a young Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe, who arrives with her son to meet her husband Jake in the tumult of the late-19th century Lower East Side. Separated from his wife and the provincial limitations of his upbringing, Jake has fully embraced his new American life—one that has little in common with Gitl’s old-time ways.

    Faced with the disintegration of her marriage in a world she can barely comprehend, Gitl must find her voice, protect her son, and redefine her identity. A deeply moving new stage adaptation by Sharyn Rothstein (Arena Stage’s Right to Be Forgotten), featuring songs by Broadway’s Joel Waggoner, and directed by Oliver Butler (Broadway’s What the Constitution Means to Me), assembling a nationally-renowned team of artists and produced in association with New York-based producers Michael Rabinowitz and Ira Deutchman, Hester Street is an unforgettable show, awash in the humor, heartbreak and hope essential to the Jewish immigrant experience.
  • Right To Be Forgotten
    “Gutsy, incisive and sharp-toothed... A tense, engrossing legal thriller. The big question of the play, of course, is right there in the title. It’s hard to think of a question more salient at the present moment, or more worth your time when it comes to listening to what these artists have to say.” - The Chicago Tribune

    The internet never forgets, and Derril Lark’s mistake at 17 haunts him online...
    “Gutsy, incisive and sharp-toothed... A tense, engrossing legal thriller. The big question of the play, of course, is right there in the title. It’s hard to think of a question more salient at the present moment, or more worth your time when it comes to listening to what these artists have to say.” - The Chicago Tribune

    The internet never forgets, and Derril Lark’s mistake at 17 haunts him online a decade later. Desperate for a normal life, he goes to extraordinary lengths to erase his indiscretion. But freedom of information is a big business, and the tech companies aren’t going down without a fight. Secrets, lies, and political backstabbing abound in this riveting new drama about one man’s fierce battle to reclaim his privacy by Primus Prize winning playwright Sharyn Rothstein.
  • By The Water
    Hurricane Sandy has just ravaged the lifelong home of Marty and Mary Murphy. But the storm has ripped apart more than just the walls: with their neighbors too devastated to stay, the couple’s beloved Staten Island community is in danger of disappearing forever. Determined to rebuild, Marty wages a campaign to save his neighborhood and his home, but when the Murphys’ sons arrive to help their parents dig out,...
    Hurricane Sandy has just ravaged the lifelong home of Marty and Mary Murphy. But the storm has ripped apart more than just the walls: with their neighbors too devastated to stay, the couple’s beloved Staten Island community is in danger of disappearing forever. Determined to rebuild, Marty wages a campaign to save his neighborhood and his home, but when the Murphys’ sons arrive to help their parents dig out, past betrayals come rushing to the surface.

    With fierce compassion and poignant humor, BY THE WATER reminds us that the very powers that tear us apart can also bring us together.

    “A force of nature… a solid play about a dissolving world.” - Time Out NY
  • Neglect
    A funny and heartbreaking two-person drama about human connection and isolation, NEGLECT tells the story of an elderly woman shut-off from the world and her neighbor, a young man down on his luck, who come together on the last day of Chicago's 1995 heat wave.
  • The Invested
    Catherine Murdoch is the head of wealth management at MetroBank – one of the largest and most powerful banks in the world – where she was just passed over for CEO. When the corruption of the new CEO threatens her world and her values, Murdoch must decide where her alliances will lie – does she follow her ambitions or does she follow her conscience. Drawn from the financial crisis of 2008, THE INVESTED shows the...
    Catherine Murdoch is the head of wealth management at MetroBank – one of the largest and most powerful banks in the world – where she was just passed over for CEO. When the corruption of the new CEO threatens her world and her values, Murdoch must decide where her alliances will lie – does she follow her ambitions or does she follow her conscience. Drawn from the financial crisis of 2008, THE INVESTED shows the rivalries, betrayals and alliances that could bring the world to the brink of economic disaster.
  • Queen Bee
    When her yacht is highjacked by Somali pirates, Belinda Bischoff, a witty, well-kept American woman in her late 50s, develops an unlikely friendship with the young Somali translator responsible for holding her captive. But as Belinda’s isolation forces her to re-live the bad choices that led her to sail around the world with a man she barely knew, she realizes the only way to help her new friend is to face the...
    When her yacht is highjacked by Somali pirates, Belinda Bischoff, a witty, well-kept American woman in her late 50s, develops an unlikely friendship with the young Somali translator responsible for holding her captive. But as Belinda’s isolation forces her to re-live the bad choices that led her to sail around the world with a man she barely knew, she realizes the only way to help her new friend is to face the life she left behind. Funny and heart-breaking, Queen Bee is a play all about human communication and miscommunication in a rapidly shrinking world.
  • Tell Me I'm Not Crazy
    Forced into retirement and unsettled by the changing world around him, Sol Koening buys himself a gun—and his family is up in arms. His wife Diana thought they’d spend more time together and with the grandkids, but Sol’s new hobby puts a bullet in that plan. Meanwhile, their son Nate is trying to be a good stay-at-home dad while his jet-setting wife Alisa (climbs the corporate ladder, and school is calling with...
    Forced into retirement and unsettled by the changing world around him, Sol Koening buys himself a gun—and his family is up in arms. His wife Diana thought they’d spend more time together and with the grandkids, but Sol’s new hobby puts a bullet in that plan. Meanwhile, their son Nate is trying to be a good stay-at-home dad while his jet-setting wife Alisa (climbs the corporate ladder, and school is calling with concerns about their kid. This comedy asks how one small firearm redefines a family and how two generations confront what it means to succeed and to sacrifice in America today.

    “A comedy (with) laughs aplenty, but it takes on the serious subject of gun abuse… this play will be a welcome addition to the regional theater world in future years, for it deals with an issue that isn’t going away any time soon.” - Berkshire Edge