Serena Berman

Serena Berman

Serena Berman is a playwright, performer, and producer based in NY. She is a member of Ars Nova Play Group and a semi-finalist for the 2020 Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship. Her plays include The Experiment (Ars Nova Out Loud, semi-finalist O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Westport Country Playhouse NWI), Études (semi-finalist Princess Grace Award, Renegade Theatre Festival), The Difference Between Big Girls...
Serena Berman is a playwright, performer, and producer based in NY. She is a member of Ars Nova Play Group and a semi-finalist for the 2020 Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship. Her plays include The Experiment (Ars Nova Out Loud, semi-finalist O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Westport Country Playhouse NWI), Études (semi-finalist Princess Grace Award, Renegade Theatre Festival), The Difference Between Big Girls and Little Girls (The Bechdel Group), sea/sick (devised in collaboration with Artilliers Theatre Company), and Wisdom (The Davenport Theater). 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. She is Director of Performance at LES gallery Chinatown Soup, where she produces theatre and organizes political activism events. As an actor, favorite credits include Set it Up (Netflix), Diaspora (NY Premiere), Murder at the Gates (Steven Sater), and Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales (Voice of Lucy – ABC). 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?
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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?
  • Sex Friends by Serena Berman
    Recommendations: 2
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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: 5
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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.