Serena Berman

Serena Berman

Serena Berman is a writer, actress, and producer based in NYC. Her writing has been developed with Ars Nova, Westport Country Playhouse, Williamstown Theater Festival, The Corkscrew Festival, Fuller Road Artist Residency, The Hearth, Fault Line Theatre, Less Than Rent, and more. She was a member of Ars Nova’s Play Group (2019-2021), a finalist for the Princess Grace Award (2021), and a semifinalist for the Page...
Serena Berman is a writer, actress, and producer based in NYC. Her writing has been developed with Ars Nova, Westport Country Playhouse, Williamstown Theater Festival, The Corkscrew Festival, Fuller Road Artist Residency, The Hearth, Fault Line Theatre, Less Than Rent, and more. She was a member of Ars Nova’s Play Group (2019-2021), a finalist for the Princess Grace Award (2021), and a semifinalist for the Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship (2020). She has written audio dramas for Refracted Theater Company (“The Swell”), Flying V (“Paperless Pulp”), and independent horror-comedy podcast “Roommate From Hell.” Serena’s short plays have been performed at The Samuel French OOB Festival (two time finalist), Williamstown Theatre Festival, Absolu Théâtre, The Players Theatre, The Brick, and more. As an actor, favorite credits include Set it Up (Netflix), What Else Is True (ART/NY), Diaspora (dir. Saheem Ali), Murder at the Gates (Steven Sater), and Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales (Voice of Lucy – ABC). She is currently an Associate Producer at The 24 Hour Plays and was Co-Director of Performance at LES gallery Chinatown Soup from 2016-2020, where she produced theatre and organized artist-led political activism. BFA NYU Tisch. www.serenaberman.com

Plays

  • The Experiment by Serena Berman
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: rape, identity + 2 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: rape, identity, friendship, first generation
    Sadie and Will are thrilled and relieved that after a summer away, their experiment with an open relationship has been a success. But soon, a stranger comes to Sadie with a disturbing alternate version of events, forcing her to choose between her identity as a woman and her desire to trust her partner. The play asks painful but urgent questions about sexual assault in a contemporary climate: What do we do with...
    Sadie and Will are thrilled and relieved that after a summer away, their experiment with an open relationship has been a success. But soon, a stranger comes to Sadie with a disturbing alternate version of events, forcing her to choose between her identity as a woman and her desire to trust her partner. The play asks painful but urgent questions about sexual assault in a contemporary climate: What do we do with men who rape when they’re the people closest to us? What is our responsibility to them? To their victims? And what does it look like to reshape our definition of “rapist” in the face of seismically shifting ideas about assault and consent?
  • All Remaining Assets by Serena Berman
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    6
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    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: family, wealth + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: family, wealth, sexuality, death
    A fractured family wrestles with their conflicting relationships to money, sex, power, and family at an impromptu funeral afterparty.
  • Yankees by Serena Berman
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    5–7
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    Genre: comedy, commedia dell'arte + 3 more
    Genre: comedy, commedia dell'arte, dark comedy, horror, political
    Five American students on a study abroad program find themselves at the mercy of a series of unexplainable and increasingly absurd disasters, forcing them to deal with a world of suffering outside their cultural bubble. “Yankees” is a dark comedy slash horror, with elements of Commedia dell’Arte and a game of 10 fingers that gets really weird.
  • PRICK by Serena Berman
    Cast: 
    4
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama
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    Keyword: erotica, Fantasy + 3 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama
    Keyword: erotica, Fantasy, sexual assault, internet culture, sexuality
    When Vicky joins an online community dedicated to rape fantasy, she learns terms like CNC (“consensual non-consent”) and PRICK (“personal risk informed consensual kink”). But unresolved issues from her past make the line between fantasy and reality harder to keep straight.
  • The Difference Between Big Girls and Little Girls by Serena Berman
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: Childhood, friendship + 6 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: Childhood, friendship, trauma, drug addiction, sexual abuse, liberalism, feminism, small town America
    Miriam is living in New York City and writing feminist essays online when she finally comes to terms with a dark childhood memory. Returning to her small East Texas town, she realizes her own trauma may be nothing compared to the experiences of the childhood best friend she left behind. Can she help? Should she help? Or does the isolation of trauma and the loves we sacrifice to heal create a barrier too thick to cross?
  • Group Date by Serena Berman
    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
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    Keyword: dating, loneliness + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, dark comedy
    Keyword: dating, loneliness, queerness, virtual reality
    There’s a new dating app on the market. A blind ‘group date’ experience, where three men and three women meet at a secret location to form new friendships and find romance. Enter Natalie, a queer woman in her 30’s just out of a nine year relationship, wondering why the f she signed up for this. As her evening at a Virtual Reality center gets stranger and stranger, one thing becomes clear: there’s a looming...
    There’s a new dating app on the market. A blind ‘group date’ experience, where three men and three women meet at a secret location to form new friendships and find romance. Enter Natalie, a queer woman in her 30’s just out of a nine year relationship, wondering why the f she signed up for this. As her evening at a Virtual Reality center gets stranger and stranger, one thing becomes clear: there’s a looming abyss of loneliness threatening to swallow them all, and Natalie will do anything to avoid it.
  • Études by Serena Berman
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    9–12
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    Genre: dark comedy, drama + 1 more
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    Keyword: coming of age, feminism + 2 more
    Genre: dark comedy, drama, experimental
    Keyword: coming of age, feminism, sexuality, rape culture
    A 13-year-old girl has an encounter with a 13-year-old boy that changes the entire trajectory of her identity, as a patchwork quilt of girls piece together the intimate moments that make up a female coming of age. Études is a play about the practice, repetition, and indoctrination of young womanhood.
  • Sex Friends by Serena Berman
    Recommendations: 5
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    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: comedy
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    Keyword: comedy, sex party
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: comedy, sex party
    A group of friends tries to take their relationship(s) to the next level.
  • The Dark by Serena Berman
    Recommendations: 6
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    Cast: 
    3
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    Genre: comedy, horror
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    Keyword: horror, horror comedy + 2 more
    Genre: comedy, horror
    Keyword: horror, horror comedy, teenagers, basement
    "Well it's like, super haunted down here so, you know. Watch out."
  • Wisdom by Serena Berman
    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: comedy
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    Keyword: high school, prom + 1 more
    Genre: comedy
    Keyword: high school, prom, growing up
    It’s prom night at Sacred Heart, and Danielle is shocked to find her boyfriend Sam with a mouth full of novocaine and short a few wisdom teeth. Sabotaged by his overbearing mother? Maybe. Can Danielle survive limos, pre-games, home school kids, and missing shoes without her partner in crime? And is she ready to face what comes after?
  • sea/sick by Serena Berman
    Cast: 
    7
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    Genre: experimental, fable/folktale + 2 more
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    Keyword: devised theater, Strindberg + 4 more
    Genre: experimental, fable/folktale, fantasy, movement/physical
    Keyword: devised theater, Strindberg, movement, sock puppets, shadow puppetry, allegory
    Truth, Art, God, and a stomach ache that doesn't go away. What happens on the other side of Agnes’ cave? A semi-devised companion piece to Matt Minnicino’s adaptation of A Dream Play by August Strindberg. Created with director Jake Beckhard and the Artilliers' Gym Group.