Artistic Statement
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Ryan Bernsten
Artistic Statement
Over the last five years, I’ve had fifteen mailing addresses, from a basement in Sioux City, Iowa to a dorm in the United Kingdom. From a resume perspective, this can be perplexing, but I take a journalistic approach to playwriting, trying to immerse myself in unique situations to gain a better understanding of the stories around me, whether that means moving to Iowa with the Hillary Clinton campaign or living in Glasgow working with international collaborators at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Whether illuminating the verisimilitude of campaigns or the nuances of the U.K.’s relationship with America, these experiences strengthened my scripts for both the election satire DREAM TICKET at the Players Theatre off-Broadway and ATLANTIC: AMERICA & THE GREAT WAR for the Edinburgh Fringe.
During my final year at the University of Oxford, I received a grant from Brasenose College to fund my thesis project: following in the footsteps of de Tocqueville, I traveled to all fifty states, interviewing voters and elected officials about the state of the nation in 2018-2019. This freewheeling exercise was a massive undertaking; I drove to all of the mainland states myself and arranged my own itinerary, lodging, and interviews. My task was to deliver a 25,000-word thesis about the state of affairs in America; I was studying dramatic writing, which lent itself well to speaking to voters in America during the turbulent 2018 midterm elections and the longest U.S. government shutdown in history. As I spoke to mayors across the country—from Appleton, WI to Boston, MA—and voters—from those gathered at Trump rallies to indigenous Hawaiian family rituals—I was able to escape abstract research and speak face-to-face with my subjects. My resulting work, 50 States of Mind: A Journey to Rediscover American Democracy, earned a distinction from Oxford and eventually evolved into the “50 States of Mind” podcast, which received the Kings Hall Grant and was featured in Condé Nast Traveler.
This experience gave me a broad scope of new stories and challenged my preconceived notions about the country I live in. I want to use playwriting to tell individual stories that shed light on greater social trends in America, and this is why one of my projects is “50 Plays for 50 States,” a series of plays that seeks to uncover regional issues through stories of the diverse states across America. There are so many misconceptions and mischaracterizations about different places in our country, and I think theatre can be an active tool in combatting that, and I think theatre needs to have a dialogue outside of the largest, bluest cities. I want to use plays that start conversations about the most divisive issues, from religion to politics to sex to family trauma to death. The concept of regional theatre is important to me, and I think it can function for us as it did for the Greeks, pointing out truths about our society and allowing us to laugh at ourselves. I’m a strong believer that theatre can serve as a forum for constructive conversation about the issues that face us in our municipalities, states, and democracy. I want to write plays where people recognize themselves. My writing is focused on regional experiences and issues, creating stories about people from all walks of life that aim to illuminate new understandings of the cultural moment we live in.
During my final year at the University of Oxford, I received a grant from Brasenose College to fund my thesis project: following in the footsteps of de Tocqueville, I traveled to all fifty states, interviewing voters and elected officials about the state of the nation in 2018-2019. This freewheeling exercise was a massive undertaking; I drove to all of the mainland states myself and arranged my own itinerary, lodging, and interviews. My task was to deliver a 25,000-word thesis about the state of affairs in America; I was studying dramatic writing, which lent itself well to speaking to voters in America during the turbulent 2018 midterm elections and the longest U.S. government shutdown in history. As I spoke to mayors across the country—from Appleton, WI to Boston, MA—and voters—from those gathered at Trump rallies to indigenous Hawaiian family rituals—I was able to escape abstract research and speak face-to-face with my subjects. My resulting work, 50 States of Mind: A Journey to Rediscover American Democracy, earned a distinction from Oxford and eventually evolved into the “50 States of Mind” podcast, which received the Kings Hall Grant and was featured in Condé Nast Traveler.
This experience gave me a broad scope of new stories and challenged my preconceived notions about the country I live in. I want to use playwriting to tell individual stories that shed light on greater social trends in America, and this is why one of my projects is “50 Plays for 50 States,” a series of plays that seeks to uncover regional issues through stories of the diverse states across America. There are so many misconceptions and mischaracterizations about different places in our country, and I think theatre can be an active tool in combatting that, and I think theatre needs to have a dialogue outside of the largest, bluest cities. I want to use plays that start conversations about the most divisive issues, from religion to politics to sex to family trauma to death. The concept of regional theatre is important to me, and I think it can function for us as it did for the Greeks, pointing out truths about our society and allowing us to laugh at ourselves. I’m a strong believer that theatre can serve as a forum for constructive conversation about the issues that face us in our municipalities, states, and democracy. I want to write plays where people recognize themselves. My writing is focused on regional experiences and issues, creating stories about people from all walks of life that aim to illuminate new understandings of the cultural moment we live in.