Ali Viterbi

Ali Viterbi

Ali Viterbi is a playwright, television writer, and educator from San Diego. Her play In Every Generation received its world premiere at Victory Gardens Theater in 2022 and its west coast premiere at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in 2023. Ali’s work has been developed and/or commissioned by Geffen Playhouse, The Kennedy Center/NNPN, La Jolla Playhouse, Round House Theatre, San Diego REP, Carthage College, HERE...
Ali Viterbi is a playwright, television writer, and educator from San Diego. Her play In Every Generation received its world premiere at Victory Gardens Theater in 2022 and its west coast premiere at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in 2023. Ali’s work has been developed and/or commissioned by Geffen Playhouse, The Kennedy Center/NNPN, La Jolla Playhouse, Round House Theatre, San Diego REP, Carthage College, HERE Arts Center, The Barrow Group, and North Coast Repertory Theatre, among others. Ali won the 2019 National Jewish Playwriting Contest and has developed projects in TV. She was a member of the Geffen Playhouse Writers' Room and was the associate artistic director of the annual Lipinsky San Diego Jewish Arts Festival. Ali received her B.A. from Yale University and her M.F.A. in Playwriting from UC San Diego.

Plays

  • In Every Generation by Ali Viterbi
    Recommendations: 12
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    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: drama, experimental + 4 more
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    Keyword: Passover, Jewish + 8 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, faith-based, holiday, political, translation
    Keyword: Passover, Jewish, family, judaism, adoption, language, ALS, aging, immigration, Holocaust
    One family. One holiday. Four millennia. The Levi-Katz family celebrates Passover again and again (and again and again) and while times, location, and languages change, traditions stay the same. Over matzah ball soup and (vegan) brisket, the close-knit clan contends with questions of race, religion, and inter-generational trauma. The present echoes the past—and the past the present—as the family repeatedly...
    One family. One holiday. Four millennia. The Levi-Katz family celebrates Passover again and again (and again and again) and while times, location, and languages change, traditions stay the same. Over matzah ball soup and (vegan) brisket, the close-knit clan contends with questions of race, religion, and inter-generational trauma. The present echoes the past—and the past the present—as the family repeatedly reenacts the exodus from Egypt, each time asking themselves: must we define ourselves through trauma? Will we ever be free? And why is this night different from all other nights?
  • Period Sisters by Ali Viterbi
    Recommendations: 6
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    Cast: 
    10
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    Genre: drama, experimental + 2 more
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    Keyword: sorority, Campus sexual assault + 6 more
    Genre: drama, experimental, movement/physical, satire
    Keyword: sorority, Campus sexual assault, female friendship, Greek chorus, heightened language, eating disorders, Mental Health, rape
    After freshman Joni joins sorority Theta Beta, she learns that sisterhood means more than the colors you wear. Accompanied by her troubled best friend Kate, Joni spirals down a rabbit hole of bulimia dream ballets, Bachelor restoration comedies, and Dirty Disney ragers. Confronted with a world that confounds her expectations, Joni forces all the members of Theta Beta to ask: what do women owe other women? And...
    After freshman Joni joins sorority Theta Beta, she learns that sisterhood means more than the colors you wear. Accompanied by her troubled best friend Kate, Joni spirals down a rabbit hole of bulimia dream ballets, Bachelor restoration comedies, and Dirty Disney ragers. Confronted with a world that confounds her expectations, Joni forces all the members of Theta Beta to ask: what do women owe other women? And in our post-#metoo era, what’s next? Mixing comedy and catharsis, superficial and sacred, Period Sisters tells a tale of synced-up cycles, consent, and culpability, creating a searing portrait of life as a young, 21st century woman.
  • The World to Come by Ali Viterbi
    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: adventure, comedy + 3 more
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    Keyword: nursing home, Jewish + 6 more
    Genre: adventure, comedy, dark comedy, drama, faith-based
    Keyword: nursing home, Jewish, judaism, aging, afterlife, apocalypse, Biblical, dementia
    Every night at the SeaBreeze Hebrew Home for the Aging, Fanny, Barbara, Ruth, and Hal gather for their nightly “Supper Club” meeting.  Over scrabble and charades, the Supper Club gang compete, fight, fall in love, and break each others hearts. But as the world crumbles around them, they are forced to contend with questions of aging, legacy, and survival. A coming-of-age story set in a nursing home, THE WORLD TO...
    Every night at the SeaBreeze Hebrew Home for the Aging, Fanny, Barbara, Ruth, and Hal gather for their nightly “Supper Club” meeting.  Over scrabble and charades, the Supper Club gang compete, fight, fall in love, and break each others hearts. But as the world crumbles around them, they are forced to contend with questions of aging, legacy, and survival. A coming-of-age story set in a nursing home, THE WORLD TO COME asks how do we as a society care for our elders? And can you still come-of-age at the end of your life?
  • Shame Spiral by Ali Viterbi
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    8
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    Genre: comedy, drama + 3 more
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    Keyword: The Bachelor, reality tv + 6 more
    Genre: comedy, drama, movement/physical, political, romantic comedy
    Keyword: The Bachelor, reality tv, social media, gender, shame, virginity, women's bodies, gender politics
    When contestant Lauren S joins The Bachelor in its 23rd season, she’s prepared for all the drama if it means finding her one true love. What she’s not prepared for is the internet’s response to the revelation of her virginity and the subsequent fallout. SHAME SPIRAL engulfs us in the alternate reality of reality TV complete with false eyelashes, red roses, antiquated gender roles, and this persistent sense of...
    When contestant Lauren S joins The Bachelor in its 23rd season, she’s prepared for all the drama if it means finding her one true love. What she’s not prepared for is the internet’s response to the revelation of her virginity and the subsequent fallout. SHAME SPIRAL engulfs us in the alternate reality of reality TV complete with false eyelashes, red roses, antiquated gender roles, and this persistent sense of shame that seems to lurk beneath every single moment. What’s the price we’re willing to pay to find true love? And why do the things that give us pleasure make us feel so guilty?
  • Blue by Ali Viterbi
    Recommendations: 1
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: queer, suicide + 4 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: queer, suicide, lesbian love, Depression, Mental Health, queer love
    Mia wants Jay. Jay wants to die. A fragmented fable about the nature of love, BLUE explores our hunger for connection and the explosive collision of desire with the demons that haunt us. What happens when you find your other half, and that other half consumes you? BLUE depicts the arc of a single relationship as two people come together... and tear each other apart.
  • Joshua by Ali Viterbi
    Recommendations: 4
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama, romantic comedy
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    Keyword: coming of age, ghosts + 4 more
    Genre: drama, romantic comedy
    Keyword: coming of age, ghosts, high school, Joshua Tree, national park, love
    Anya’s boyfriend was Caleb’s best friend. To commemorate the one-year anniversary of his death, Anya and Caleb ditch school to go to the desert. And maybe fall in love. And maybe conjure a ghost. JOSHUA looks at that moment in time where life moves us from a place of youth and innocence into the place that will shape our adult selves. As we look back, how do we reconcile the missed opportunities, the things we...
    Anya’s boyfriend was Caleb’s best friend. To commemorate the one-year anniversary of his death, Anya and Caleb ditch school to go to the desert. And maybe fall in love. And maybe conjure a ghost. JOSHUA looks at that moment in time where life moves us from a place of youth and innocence into the place that will shape our adult selves. As we look back, how do we reconcile the missed opportunities, the things we didn’t say, the paths we didn’t take? And will they even matter to our older selves?
  • Deadheads by Ali Viterbi
    Recommendations: 3
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    Cast: 
    2
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    Genre: drama, period
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    Keyword: The Grateful Dead, hippies + 6 more
    Genre: drama, period
    Keyword: The Grateful Dead, hippies, non-linear, Relationships, marriage, aging, spirituality, Mental Health
    This full-length, non-linear, two-actor play chronicles Sadie and Ethan’s twenty-year relationship as they follow the Grateful Dead across the country. As Sadie and Ethan travel from concert to concert, from crappy motel room to crappy motel room, the audience follows the triumphs and travails of their relationship. While they navigate issues from collegiate concerns to marital challenges, Sadie and Ethan fall...
    This full-length, non-linear, two-actor play chronicles Sadie and Ethan’s twenty-year relationship as they follow the Grateful Dead across the country. As Sadie and Ethan travel from concert to concert, from crappy motel room to crappy motel room, the audience follows the triumphs and travails of their relationship. While they navigate issues from collegiate concerns to marital challenges, Sadie and Ethan fall in and out of love with the Dead, as well as with each other. The play investigates how healthy relationships become abusive, and why people remain committed to each other over time. Played to the music of the Grateful Dead, Deadheads asks “Where does the time go” when you think you’re in love.
  • Baddest Bitch of Camp Shalom by Ali Viterbi
    Cast: 
    5
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    Genre: comedy, drama
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    Keyword: camp, judaism + 4 more
    Genre: comedy, drama
    Keyword: camp, judaism, internalized misogyny, sex education, sexuality, coming of age
    Lips, Tiny, J, and Schwartz (aka the Core Four) are best friends forever, DUH. At Camp Shalom, a Jewish sleepaway summer camp, they make lanyards, train to become Rockstar kissers, play ‘Never Have I Ever,’ fake suicides, fight, and make-up. But when the Core Four retaliates in a massive prank war against their rival tent, secrets are exposed, and friendships are threatened. BADDEST BITCH OF CAMP SHALOM...
    Lips, Tiny, J, and Schwartz (aka the Core Four) are best friends forever, DUH. At Camp Shalom, a Jewish sleepaway summer camp, they make lanyards, train to become Rockstar kissers, play ‘Never Have I Ever,’ fake suicides, fight, and make-up. But when the Core Four retaliates in a massive prank war against their rival tent, secrets are exposed, and friendships are threatened. BADDEST BITCH OF CAMP SHALOM examines the way internalized misogyny is engrained in young women. How does the way we teach young girls about sex echo throughout their adult lives? And is female friendship the virus or the cure?
  • Quick, Change by Ali Viterbi
    Recommendations: 2
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    Cast: 
    5–6
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    Genre: drama
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    Keyword: aging, affair + 4 more
    Genre: drama
    Keyword: aging, affair, metatheatrical, Shakespeare, show business, Richard III
    Gabriel Fox, a famous actor nearly past his prime, makes a comeback as Richard III at a prominent, Tony-Award winning summer-stock theater. As Fox pursues a secret and questionable relationship with his twenty-one-year-old dresser Annie, he grows increasingly connected to the power-hungry Richard, only to find that his behavior will no longer go unchallenged. Drawing from Shakespeare's play, yet firmly...
    Gabriel Fox, a famous actor nearly past his prime, makes a comeback as Richard III at a prominent, Tony-Award winning summer-stock theater. As Fox pursues a secret and questionable relationship with his twenty-one-year-old dresser Annie, he grows increasingly connected to the power-hungry Richard, only to find that his behavior will no longer go unchallenged. Drawing from Shakespeare's play, yet firmly grounded in the present, QUICK, CHANGE explores power imbalance in the American theater, the repercussions of ‘networking,’ and the way people use and dispose of others. QUICK, CHANGE is a biting, urgent look at our culture at a tipping point.