Sarah Bierstock

Sarah Bierstock

Sarah has been nominated for the Blackburn Prize and Primus Prize and is a proud member of both the Playwrights Collective at Florida Studio Theater (FST) the Dorset Theatre Festival’s Women Artists Writing group (DTFWAW). She has received commissions from Center Stage (Baltimore), the Neo-Political Cowgirls, and FST for her play, Pandora and her Top Secret and Exceptionally Important Scientific Mission, which...
Sarah has been nominated for the Blackburn Prize and Primus Prize and is a proud member of both the Playwrights Collective at Florida Studio Theater (FST) the Dorset Theatre Festival’s Women Artists Writing group (DTFWAW). She has received commissions from Center Stage (Baltimore), the Neo-Political Cowgirls, and FST for her play, Pandora and her Top Secret and Exceptionally Important Scientific Mission, which will have its world premiere at Florida Studio Theater in the fall 2022. Pandora will be read as the featured play at the Children’s Reading Series at The Boise Contemporary Theater March 6th, 2022, (Boise, Idaho) and have a workshop production this summer at the Theater at Monmouth (Monmouth, ME.)

Her first play, Honor Killing, received initial development through the John Drew Theater Lab at Guild Hall (East Hampton). It went on to a world premiere that ran for eight weeks at Florida Studio Theatre (FST) to full capacity audiences. It received its second production at Athena Project in Denver, CO. Honor Killing was read at WAM Theater in West Stockbridge, CT, as part of the Fresh Takes Series. In 2017, it was one of three plays featured in the New Works Reading Series at the Athena Theater, FST’s Sarasota Festival of New Plays, and the PROJECT W Festival at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City (InProximity Theater). Sarah received the award for Runner up for The Woodward International Playwriting Prize at the University of New Hampshire earlier in 2017, where two readings of Honor Killing were conducted both at the University of New Hampshire and the 3S Artspace in Portsmouth, NH. Other accolades for Honor Killing include: Honorable Mention for the Bridge Initiative Playwriting Contest: Playwright of the Year Award, Finalist for the 2017 Ashland New Play Festival, Semi-Finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival (2017), Semi- Finalist for the Premier Stages 2017 Play Festival, Semi-Finalist for the Id Theaters 2017 Playwriting Conference, Finalist for the Hudson River Artists Playwriting Award (2017), final consideration for the PlayPenn New Play Development Conference (2017), Semi-Finalist for 2016 Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, and Semi-Finalist for Stage Left Theatre’s Playwriting Residency (Chicago, 2017).

Her play, MAD, was workshopped at FST as part of the 2018 Playwrights Collective and the Spring of 2019 as part of the NNPN's Women in Playwriting Festival. Monologues from MAD, performed by actress Ellen Dolan, were featured in Neo-Political Cowgirl’s Andromeda Sisters. It has had developmental readings by the 50/50 Arts Production Company in October 2020, the Rising Sun Performance Company in March 2021, in April 2021 with actors: Ellen Dolan, Lauren Galliart, Heather Michele Lawler, Kate Mueth, and Janet Sarno. Sarah’s play, Graceland 2.0, was workshopped at the Hewitt School in New York City and is a semi-finalist for the New Work Presentation at Columbia College Chicago. Sarah is currently working with spoken word collaborator, Aiyi’nah Ford, on its further development.

On stage, as an actor, Sarah has toured nationally on the productions of Lewis & Clark and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Off-Broadway, Ms. Bierstock has been seen in the musical Chess (Lincoln Center), Jacques Brel Returns (The Triad), Committed: The Musical (West End Theater), and Gift of the Magi (The Schoolhouse Theater). Other stage highlights include Mary Hatch in It’s a Wonderful Life (The Chain Theater), Wendy in the world premiere of Leonard Bernstein’s Peter Pan (the Lobero Theater, Santa Barbara, CA) and Virtue in Anything Goes (the Tri-Arts Theater, now called the Sharon Playhouse, CT).

Sarah resides in New York City with her husband and two red headed little girls and is currently writing and rewriting new plays, and has launched a multi-media production company, Pass The Salt, LLC.



Plays

  • HONOR KILLING
    Allisyn Davis, an American reporter for the NY Times, heads to Pakistan to cover the honour killing of a young woman. Denied entrance -but armed with the most current technology- she conducts her investigation remotely from Dubai. Through a series of cultural collisions, candid interviews, and dangerous encounters she learns the horrifying details of this murder. These circumstances cause Allisyn to re-...
    Allisyn Davis, an American reporter for the NY Times, heads to Pakistan to cover the honour killing of a young woman. Denied entrance -but armed with the most current technology- she conducts her investigation remotely from Dubai. Through a series of cultural collisions, candid interviews, and dangerous encounters she learns the horrifying details of this murder. These circumstances cause Allisyn to re-examine troubling details of her own past. One culture mirrors the other, asking questions about forgiveness, self worth and justice.
  • Grace's Land 2.0 (FOR AGES 14-18)
    Grace is a teenage Spoken Word champion, but can't seem to complete a simple poetry homework assignment. Accompanied by her piano playing, hip hop dancing and visual artist girlfriends, she designs a virtual land of her own, Grace's Land 2.0, where they're free of fixed identities, of the pandemic, of micromanaging parents, and the need to fit into the boxes assigned by others.
  • Pandora's Suitcase
    Pandora is Seriously Curious about all things Global Warming. When the kids at school call her Teacher's Pet one too many times, she decides to try out the gifted and talented school, Smarty Pants Elementary, down the street from her dad's house. She just has this one, Exceptionally Important Scientific Experiment she must complete before she starts. It involves a large suitcase she lugs around with...
    Pandora is Seriously Curious about all things Global Warming. When the kids at school call her Teacher's Pet one too many times, she decides to try out the gifted and talented school, Smarty Pants Elementary, down the street from her dad's house. She just has this one, Exceptionally Important Scientific Experiment she must complete before she starts. It involves a large suitcase she lugs around with her. What could be inside there?? Why is she dragging it to the river? And why does everything look different through that magnifying lens?
  • Pandora's Hope (10 minute play)
    Pandora needs to know why. Of all the attributes Zeus bestowed upon her, her curiosity is most prevalent, and she uses her beat boxing skills to seek the answers to lifes larger questions: how did we get here, and where are we going? When she and Epimetheus are married, Zeus gives her a bejeweled box- never to be opened. Her curiosity gets the best of her, and in opening the box she releases not only all the...
    Pandora needs to know why. Of all the attributes Zeus bestowed upon her, her curiosity is most prevalent, and she uses her beat boxing skills to seek the answers to lifes larger questions: how did we get here, and where are we going? When she and Epimetheus are married, Zeus gives her a bejeweled box- never to be opened. Her curiosity gets the best of her, and in opening the box she releases not only all the evils of the world, but also hope. Pandora does not regret her decision.
  • The Glue People
    Carolyn Erich is off her rocker. Her dead mother, Grandma, says so herself. Carolyn's very pregnant youngest daughter returns home at Christmas to keep an eye on her, and her siblings join with trepidation. Which version of their mother they will discover is entirely unclear, as one never knows where her mental illness will lead them. One thing is clear: Mom's off her meds and Grandma's ghost isn...
    Carolyn Erich is off her rocker. Her dead mother, Grandma, says so herself. Carolyn's very pregnant youngest daughter returns home at Christmas to keep an eye on her, and her siblings join with trepidation. Which version of their mother they will discover is entirely unclear, as one never knows where her mental illness will lead them. One thing is clear: Mom's off her meds and Grandma's ghost isn't leaving anytime soon. The three daughters navigate mom’s idiosyncrasies and outlandish behavior with humor and wit, while attempting to handle their own issues of infidelity, birth and illness.